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When Changes in the Data Base Take Effect
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Each application program must read the terminal description from the
data base, so a change in the data base is effective for all jobs
started after the change is made.
The change will usually have no effect on a job that have been in
existence since before the change. The program probably read the
terminal description once, when it was started, and is continuing to
use what it read then. If the program does not have a feature for
reexamining the data base, then you will need to run it again (probably
killing the old job).
If the description in use is coming from the `TERMCAP' environment
variable, then the data base file is effectively overridden, and
changes in it will have no effect until you change the `TERMCAP'
variable as well. For example, some users' `.login' files
automatically copy the terminal description into `TERMCAP' to speed
startup of applications. If you have done this, you will need to
change the `TERMCAP' variable to make the changed data base take effect.