How to show nchat theme colors inside a tmux session?

[HawkingRadiation42]

as the title describes, i have kept tokyo nights as mytheme but when using tmux and then using nchat withing the session then nchat themes doesnt work, any idea for it?

[d99kris]

Hi @HawkingRadiation42 - this question came up in the telegram group as well recently.

What output do you get in your terminal (not running tmux) from the following command?
echo $TERM

Assuming it's xterm-256color, can you try a workaround to run nchat in tmux with that TERM set and see if it works? Example:
TERM=xterm-256color nchat

Also, can I check what terminal emulator/app you're using?

The root cause is probably a bug in nchat (assuming other terminal apps works well in tmux), but I'll need to do some research to see how it can be fixed.

[HawkingRadiation42]

hello, yeah its xterm-256color and im using iterm2.
edit: yeah by setting the TERM variable to xterm-256color does work thankyou

[HawkingRadiation42]

for users facing this error, you can using this command "TERM=xterm-256color nchat"
and for simplicity can add alias of this for nchat so by default opens in this. hope it helps someone

[d99kris]

For reference - there's an issue #141 reported, to see if it can be handled by nchat.

[Disonantemus]

For reference, I've got no colors with st (virtual terminal emulator), I think is the same problem, because my TERM is different:

$ echo $TERM
screen-256color

If I do:

TERM=xterm-256color nchat

Works as expected, with colors, in st, tmux, TTY. Then is not only a tmux problem, is for:

• every terminal emulator.
• every multiplexer.
• TTY.

that has a different TERM.

---

In README only says tmux, maybe you can change that, 4 people with same problem and not using tmux.

[d99kris]

Thanks for sharing another data point 👍

Admittedly I don't know the exact scope of the issue, but I don't think it's affecting everything "that has a different TERM", but rather using a TERM which is not present in the system's terminfo database (or the TERM profile being present in the terminfo db but it's wrongly set up without the custom colors capability ccc).

In any case, given that you see the issue in st without tmux I agree a README update would be useful. Perhaps the FAQ entry can be broadened to something like:

Q: Custom colors are not shown when running nchat?

A: Try run nchat with a TERM supporting custom colors, e.g. `TERM=xterm-256color nchat`.

I'll try make a change next time I update the readme.

[d99kris]

Btw, just for my curiosity - when you say I've got no colors with st - do you mean a plain st terminal?

And the TERM value screen-256color you shared is for st (not with screen or tmux running)?

[Disonantemus]

• Yes both.
• I did some checks, and I my .bashrc has export TERM=screen-256color that can explain is not your expected value, that only depends on bash and because of that, is going to affect every terminal emulator (not only st).
• I don't remember why is there, but maybe was looking 4 ways to show colors in TTY.

[d99kris]

Thanks for sharing!