The scrollback size of your terminal refers to how many lines are "saved" that you can scroll up and see in your terminal. Some people set this to large
numbers so that if you need to you can go back and find output data. This page provides important insight into how various groups of people setup and use their scrollback and who
is affected by the recent flaw published about the libvte library, that many popular terminal emulators use.
What is your scrollback size in lines?
| Size |
Responses |
0f Total |
| Whatever the default value is | 337 | 32.6% |
| Unlimited | 274 | 26.5% |
| 5000 | 113 | 10.9% |
| 1000 | 109 | 10.5% |
| "NO ANSWER" | 51 | 4.9% |
| 10000 | 32 | 3.1% |
| 500 | 22 | 2.1% |
| 512 | 19 | 1.8% |
| 0 (no scrollback) | 16 | 1.5% |
| 2000 | 13 | 1.3% |
| 9999 | 6 | 0.6% |
| 3000 | 5 | 0.5% |
| 20000 | 5 | 0.5% |
| 50000 | 4 | 0.4% |
| 1024 | 4 | 0.4% |
| 2048 | 3 | 0.3% |
| I don't know | 2 | 0.2% |
| 8000 | 2 | 0.2% |
| 4096 | 2 | 0.2% |
| 200 | 2 | 0.2% |
| 100000 | 2 | 0.2% |
| 9001 | 1 | 0.1% |
| 7000 | 1 | 0.1% |
| 65535 | 1 | 0.1% |
| 42000 | 1 | 0.1% |
| 40000 | 1 | 0.1% |
| 35000 | 1 | 0.1% |
| 2500 | 1 | 0.1% |
| 200000 | 1 | 0.1% |
| 16000 | 1 | 0.1% |
| 12000 | 1 | 0.1% |
| 100 | 1 | 0.1% |
What is your default scrollback? (with ranges)
| Lines |
Responses |
0f Total |
| Whatever the default value is | 337 | 32.6% |
| Unlimited | 274 | 26.5% |
| 1000 - 5000 | 137 | 13.2% |
| 5000 - 10000 | 123 | 11.9% |
| "NO ANSWER" | 51 | 4.9% |
| 10000+ | 50 | 4.8% |
| 500 | 22 | 2.1% |
| 512 | 19 | 1.8% |
| 0 (no scrollback) | 16 | 1.5% |
| I don't know | 2 | 0.2% |
| 200 | 2 | 0.2% |
| 100 | 1 | 0.1% |
Scrollback value for users using libvte based terminals
| Lines |
Responses |
Of Total |
| Default value (probably 500) | 124 | 35.4% |
| Unlimited | 90 | 25.7% |
| 1000 | 45 | 12.9% |
| 5000 | 34 | 9.7% |
| "NO ANSWER" | 15 | 4.3% |
| 512 | 8 | 2.3% |
| 500 | 8 | 2.3% |
| 10000 | 5 | 1.4% |
| 9999 | 3 | 0.9% |
| 1024 | 3 | 0.9% |
| 0 (no scrollback) | 3 | 0.9% |
| 50000 | 2 | 0.6% |
| 3000 | 2 | 0.6% |
| 2000 | 2 | 0.6% |
| 4096 | 1 | 0.3% |
| 40000 | 1 | 0.3% |
| 2500 | 1 | 0.3% |
| 2048 | 1 | 0.3% |
| 20000 | 1 | 0.3% |
| 100000 | 1 | 0.3% |
The results below are probably the most surprising. I expected that most of
those who are using unlimited scrollback would be newer/younger users. But the
results show quite the opposite. Unlimited is more trendy among the ones using
Unix more than 10 years.
Scrollback "unlimited" (all terms) vs. years using Unix (grouped by 5 years)
| Years |
Responses |
Of Total |
Total in year group |
% of year group total |
| 0-5 | 34 | 12.4% | 196 | 17.3% |
| 5-10 | 84 | 30.7% | 325 | 25.8% |
| 10-15 | 85 | 31.0% | 256 | 33.2% |
| 15-20 | 45 | 16.4% | 159 | 28.3% |
| 20-25 | 19 | 6.9% | 71 | 26.8% |
| 25-30 | 5 | 1.8% | 22 | 22.7% |
| 30+ | 2 | 0.7% | 6 | 33.3% |
Not any significant outstanding opinion here other than "I don't care". Its sad that the majority of people don't care about their data security. Just remember that next time your credit card #, social security # or medical
information is compromised. Most of the people who answered "It should never be on the disk" did not give their job title, which makes sense if they care
about security..
What statement best describes how you feel about the safety/security of the data that gets displayed in the terminal and its scrollback buffer?
| Answer |
Responses |
Of Total |
Average Unix experience |
| I don't really care | 383 | 37.0% | 9.85 years |
| Its ok if its on the disk if its encrypted | 246 | 23.8% | 10.08 years |
| It should never be on the disk | 202 | 19.5% | 11.43 years |
| "NO ANSWER" | 126 | 12.2% | 8.96 years |
| Its ok if its on the disk and not encrypted (cleartext) | 77 | 7.4% | 10.51 years |