change TERM=rxvt-unicode in Gentoo to use 256 colors instead of 88

gistfile1.txt

It comes up as only supporting 88 colors as rxvt-unicode's terminfo database entry has it at 88 colors. If you work on external machines a lot via ssh then what you are already doing is about the best way. If you work primarily on one or a few machines then a custom/local .terminfo database can be simpler.

$ infocmp -L rxvt-unicode > rxvt-unicode.terminfo
$ [editor] rxvt-unicode.terminfo

Find max_colors and max_pairs and change them from...
max_colors#88, max_pairs#256,
to...
max_colors#256, max_pairs#32767,
Those are the values from xterm-256color. Those fields should be near
the top of the file. Save it.

$ mkdir .terminfo/
$ tic -o .terminfo/ rxvt-unicode.terminfo