3 RXVT REFERENCE - FAQ, command sequences and other background information
8 printf '\33]50;%s\007' 9x15,xft:Kochi" Mincho"
10 # change the locale and tell rxvt-unicode about it
11 export LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.EUC-JP; printf "\33]701;$LC_CTYPE\007"
14 printf '\33]2;%s\007' "new window title"
18 This document contains the FAQ, the RXVT TECHNICAL REFERENCE documenting
19 all escape sequences, and other background information.
21 The newest version of this document is also available on the World Wide Web at
22 L<http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.html>.
24 =head1 RXVT-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
27 =head2 Meta, Features & Commandline Issues
29 =head3 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
31 Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: C<irc.freenode.net>,
32 channel C<#rxvt-unicode> has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
33 interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
35 =head3 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
37 Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a
38 simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these should
41 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -pe tabbed
43 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
45 It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window managers
46 or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be
47 embedded into other programs, as witnessed by F<doc/rxvt-tabbed> or
48 the upcoming C<Gtk2::URxvt> perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
49 (murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
51 =head3 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
53 The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
54 sequence C<ESC [ 8 n> sets the window title to the version number. When
55 using the @@URXVT_NAME@@c client, the version displayed is that of the
58 =head3 Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
60 Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something you
61 don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings that
62 you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by design,
63 when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be loaded
64 accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your characters.
66 Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
67 scrollback buffers: Without C<--enable-unicode3>, rxvt-unicode will use
68 6 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
69 kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if full)
70 use 10 Megabytes of memory. With C<--enable-unicode3> it gets worse, as
71 rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
73 =head3 How can I start @@URXVT_NAME@@d in a race-free way?
75 Try C<@@URXVT_NAME@@d -f -o>, which tells @@URXVT_NAME@@d to open the
76 display, create the listening socket and then fork.
78 =head3 How can I start @@URXVT_NAME@@d automatically when I run @@URXVT_NAME@@c?
80 If you want to start @@URXVT_NAME@@d automatically whenever you run
81 @@URXVT_NAME@@c and the daemon isn't running yet, use this script:
86 @@URXVT_NAME@@d -q -o -f
90 This tries to create a new terminal, and if fails with exit status 2,
91 meaning it couldn't connect to the daemon, it will start the daemon and
92 re-run the command. Subsequent invocations of the script will re-use the
95 =head3 How do I distinguish whether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
97 The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM",
98 so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED,
99 slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide
100 whether or not to use color.
102 =head3 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
104 If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
105 insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
106 snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
107 wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets) then
108 the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from a
111 Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
114 # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
115 [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
116 if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
117 stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
121 if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
122 echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
123 read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
127 =head3 How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
129 You need to have a recent version of perl installed as F</usr/bin/perl>,
130 one that comes with F<pod2man>, F<pod2text> and F<pod2xhtml> (from
131 F<Pod::Xhtml>). Then go to the doc subdirectory and enter C<make alldoc>.
133 =head3 Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
135 I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra
136 bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see
137 that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always being
138 compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after startup. Even
139 with C<--disable-everything>, this comparison is a bit unfair, as many
140 features unique to urxvt (locale, encoding conversion, iso14755 etc.) are
141 already in use in this mode.
143 text data bss drs rss filename
144 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything
145 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything
147 When you C<--enable-everything> (which I<is> unfair, as this involves xft
148 and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my
149 libc), the two diverge, but not unreasonably so.
151 text data bss drs rss filename
152 163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything
153 1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything
155 The very large size of the text section is explained by the east-asian
156 encoding tables, which, if unused, take up disk space but nothing else
157 and can be compiled out unless you rely on X11 core fonts that use those
158 encodings. The BSS size comes from the 64k emergency buffer that my c++
159 compiler allocates (but of course doesn't use unless you are out of
160 memory). Also, using an xft font instead of a core font immediately adds a
161 few megabytes of RSS. Xft indeed is responsible for a lot of RSS even when
164 Of course, due to every character using two or four bytes instead of one,
165 a large scrollback buffer will ultimately make rxvt-unicode use more
168 Compared to e.g. Eterm (5112k), aterm (3132k) and xterm (4680k), this
169 still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like gnome-terminal
170 (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole (22200k + extra
171 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half a minute of
172 startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits out), it fares
175 =head3 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
177 Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I had
178 to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a fraction
179 of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put even
180 shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
182 My personal stance on this is that C++ is less portable than C, but in
183 the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability limits
184 are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale support and unix
185 domain sockets, which are all less portable than C++ itself.
187 Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write programs
188 in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to write programs in
189 C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large libraries, but this is
190 not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is what rxvt links against on my
191 system with a minimal config:
193 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
194 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000)
195 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000)
196 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
198 And here is rxvt-unicode:
200 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
201 libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)
202 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
203 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
204 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
206 No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
207 except maybe libX11 :)
210 =head2 Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues
212 =head3 I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
214 First of all, please address all transparency related issues to Sasha Vasko at
215 sasha@aftercode.net and do not bug the author about it. Also, if you can't
216 get it working consider it a rite of passage: ... and you failed.
218 Here are four ways to get transparency. B<Do> read the manpage and option
219 descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
221 1. Use transparent mode:
223 Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
224 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -tr -tint red -sh 40
226 That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
227 support, or you are unable to read.
229 2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
230 to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
231 your picture with gimp or any other tool:
233 convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.jpg
234 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -pixmap background.jpg -pe automove-background
236 That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack AfterImage and Perl support, or you
239 3. Use an ARGB visual:
241 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
243 This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
244 doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
245 there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the necessary
246 bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but that
247 doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
249 4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
251 xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
252 -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
254 Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace C<0xc0000000>
255 by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
256 your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
258 =head3 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
260 Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that character
261 size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal use might
262 contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode will avoid
263 these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too wide a special
264 "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent characters.
266 All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
267 however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed bounding
268 box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct way is to
269 ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is wrong in these
272 It's not clear (to me at least), whether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
273 or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try using
274 the C<-lsp> option to give the font more height. If that doesn't work, you
275 might be forced to use a different font.
277 All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their bounding
280 =head3 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
282 First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
283 (C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
284 make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
285 rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
290 =head3 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
292 For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
293 colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the standard
294 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of course, to fix
295 these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very good reasons.
297 In the meantime, you can either edit your C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
298 definition to only claim 8 colour support or use C<TERM=rxvt>, which will
299 fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
301 =head3 Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
303 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the same
304 effect as using the C<-fn> switch, and takes effect immediately:
306 printf '\33]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
308 This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
309 japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
310 japanese fonts would only be in your way.
312 You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
314 =head3 Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
316 Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
317 example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font C<xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
318 Mono> completely fails in its italic face. A workaround might be to
319 enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
321 URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
322 URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
324 =head3 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
326 Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as
327 it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
328 antialiasing (by appending C<:antialias=false>), which saves lots of
329 memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
331 =head3 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
333 Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
334 fall back to its default font search list it will prefer X11 core
335 fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
336 antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
339 If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
341 =head3 What's with this bold/blink stuff?
343 If no bold colour is set via C<colorBD:>, bold will invert text using the
344 standard foreground colour.
346 For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the
347 text blink when compiled with C<--enable-blinking>. with standard
348 colours. Without C<--enable-blinking>, the blink attribute will be
351 On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
352 foreground/background colors.
354 color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
356 color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
358 =head3 I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
360 You can change the screen colors at run-time using F<~/.Xdefaults>
361 resources (or as long-options).
363 Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen,
364 including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
366 URxvt.color0: #000000
367 URxvt.color1: #A80000
368 URxvt.color2: #00A800
369 URxvt.color3: #A8A800
370 URxvt.color4: #0000A8
371 URxvt.color5: #A800A8
372 URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
373 URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
375 URxvt.color8: #000054
376 URxvt.color9: #FF0054
377 URxvt.color10: #00FF54
378 URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
379 URxvt.color12: #0000FF
380 URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
381 URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
382 URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
384 And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors.
386 URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
387 URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
388 URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
389 URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
390 URxvt.color0: #000000
391 URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
392 URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
393 URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
394 URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
395 URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
396 URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
397 URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
398 URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
399 URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
400 URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
401 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
402 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
403 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
405 They have been described (not by me) as "pretty girly".
407 =head3 Why do some characters look so much different than others?
411 =head3 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
413 Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is
414 fine. Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
415 your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want
418 B<rxvt-unicode> makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement
419 font. Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
420 bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
421 resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
422 intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
423 the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
425 In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
428 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -fn basefont,font2,font3...
430 When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
431 font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the
432 next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
433 search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
435 The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the base
436 font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size, which
437 must be the same due to the way terminals work.
439 =head3 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
441 This is because there is a difference between script and language --
442 rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is,
443 as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first
444 sees a japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for
445 display. Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many
446 chinese characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
447 non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese font
448 -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font for
449 chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
451 The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
452 list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as
453 a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
454 first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
456 In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
457 runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
458 fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
459 has been designed yet).
461 Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see L<Can
462 I switch the fonts at runtime?> later in this document).
464 =head3 How can I make mplayer display video correctly?
466 We are working on it, in the meantime, as a workaround, use something like:
468 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -b 600 -geometry 20x1 -e sh -c 'mplayer -wid $WINDOWID file...'
471 =head2 Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
473 =head3 The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
475 If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
478 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
480 If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended
483 To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this pattern:
485 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
487 Please also note that the I<LeftClick Shift-LeftClik> combination also
488 selects words like the old code.
490 =head3 I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
492 You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
493 B<perl-ext-common> resource to the empty string, which also keeps
494 rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
496 If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
497 identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
498 B<PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS> in the @@URXVT_NAME@@perl(3) manpage. For
499 example, to disable the B<selection-popup> and B<option-popup>, specify
500 this B<perl-ext-common> resource:
502 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
504 This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
505 extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
506 scrollback search mode is triggered by B<M-s>. You can move it to any
507 other combination either by setting the B<searchable-scrollback> resource:
509 URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
511 =head3 The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
515 =head3 During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
517 These are caused by the C<readline> perl extension. Under normal
518 circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
519 line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
520 but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in some
521 cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
523 You can permanently switch this feature off by disabling the C<readline>
526 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
528 =head3 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
530 Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
531 specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is caused
532 by the wrong C<TERM> setting, although the details of whether and how
533 this can happen are unknown, as C<TERM=rxvt> should offer a compatible
534 keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please report if that
537 =head3 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
539 The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
540 correctly, or you specified a B<preeditStyle> that is not supported by
541 your input method. For example, if you specified B<OverTheSpot> and
542 your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys)
543 does not support this (for instance because it is not visual), then
544 rxvt-unicode will continue without an input method.
546 In this case either do not specify a B<preeditStyle> or specify more than
547 one pre-edit style, such as B<OverTheSpot,Root,None>.
549 =head3 I cannot type C<Ctrl-Shift-2> to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
551 Either try C<Ctrl-2> alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
552 international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
553 advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for other
554 codes, too, such as C<Ctrl-Shift-1-d> to type the default telnet escape
557 =head3 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
559 Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
560 some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've
561 heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A
562 quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
565 =head3 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
567 Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
568 Backspace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
569 question) there are two standard values that can be used for
570 Backspace: C<^H> and C<^?>.
572 Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the debian
573 policy of using C<^?> when unsure, because it's the one and only correct
576 Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the value
577 of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode wasn't
578 started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), then the
579 system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in <termios.h>, will
580 be used (which may not be the same as your stty setting).
582 For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
592 Toggle with C<ESC [ 36 h> / C<ESC [ 36 l>.
594 For an existing rxvt-unicode:
604 This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
605 if you use Backspace = C<^H>, make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
606 properly reflects that.
608 The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace problem.
609 To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the Delete
610 key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for Execute
611 (C<ESC [ 3 ~>) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
613 Some other Backspace problems:
615 some editors use termcap/terminfo,
616 some editors (vim I'm told) expect Backspace = ^H,
617 GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
619 Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
621 =head3 I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
623 There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
624 you have run "configure" with the C<--disable-resources> option you can
625 use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with keysyms.
627 Here's an example for a URxvt session started using C<@@URXVT_NAME@@ -name URxvt>
629 URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
630 URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
631 URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
632 URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
633 URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
634 URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
635 URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
636 URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
637 URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
638 URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
639 URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
640 URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
641 URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
642 URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
643 URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
644 URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
645 URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
646 URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
647 URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
648 URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
650 See some more examples in the documentation for the B<keysym> resource.
652 =head3 I'm using keyboard model XXX that has extra Prior/Next/Insert keys. How do I make use of them? For example, the Sun Keyboard type 4 has the following map
661 Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various possible
662 keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the keys as
663 required for your particular machine.
666 =head2 Terminal Configuration
668 =head3 Can I see a typical configuration?
670 The default configuration tries to be xterm-like, which I don't like that
671 much, but it's least surprise to regular users.
673 As a rxvt or rxvt-unicode user, you are practically supposed to invest
674 time into customising your terminal. To get you started, here is the
675 author's .Xdefaults entries, with comments on what they do. It's certainly
676 not I<typical>, but what's typical...
678 URxvt.cutchars: "()*,<>[]{}|'
679 URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/tmp/xxx
681 These are just for testing stuff.
683 URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8
684 URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None
686 This tells rxvt-unicode to use a special locale when communicating with
687 the X Input Method, and also tells it to only use the OnTheSpot pre-edit
688 type, which requires the C<xim-onthespot> perl extension but rewards me
689 with correct-looking fonts.
691 URxvt.perl-lib: /root/lib/urxvt
692 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,selection-autotransform,selection-pastebin,xim-onthespot,remote-clipboard
693 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ( at .*? line \\d+)
694 URxvt.selection.pattern-1: ^(/[^:]+):\
695 URxvt.selection-autotransform.0: s/^([^:[:space:]]+):(\\d+):?$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
696 URxvt.selection-autotransform.1: s/^ at (.*?) line (\\d+)$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
698 This is my perl configuration. The first two set the perl library
699 directory and also tells urxvt to use a large number of extensions. I
700 develop for myself mostly, so I actually use most of the extensions I
703 The selection stuff mainly makes the selection perl-error-message aware
704 and tells it to convert perl error messages into vi-commands to load the
705 relevant file and go tot he error line number.
707 URxvt.scrollstyle: plain
708 URxvt.secondaryScroll: true
710 As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the
711 author. The C<secondaryScroll> configures urxvt to scroll in full-screen
712 apps, like screen, so lines scrolled out of screen end up in urxvt's
715 URxvt.background: #000000
716 URxvt.foreground: gray90
718 URxvt.colorBD: #ffffff
719 URxvt.cursorColor: #e0e080
720 URxvt.throughColor: #8080f0
721 URxvt.highlightColor: #f0f0f0
723 Some colours. Not sure which ones are being used or even non-defaults, but
724 these are in my .Xdefaults. Most notably, they set foreground/background
725 to light gray/black, and also make sure that the colour 7 matches the
726 default foreground colour.
728 URxvt.underlineColor: yellow
730 Another colour, makes underline lines look different. Sometimes hurts, but
731 is mostly a nice effect.
733 URxvt.geometry: 154x36
734 URxvt.loginShell: false
736 URxvt.utmpInhibit: true
738 Uh, well, should be mostly self-explanatory. By specifying some defaults
739 manually, I can quickly switch them for testing.
741 URxvt.saveLines: 8192
743 A large scrollback buffer is essential. Really.
747 The only case I use it is for my IRC window, which I like to keep
748 iconified till people msg me (which beeps).
750 URxvt.visualBell: true
752 The audible bell is often annoying, especially when in a crowd.
756 Please don't hack my mutt! Ooops...
758 URxvt.pastableTabs: false
760 I once thought this is a great idea.
762 urxvt.font: 9x15bold,\
763 -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
764 -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
765 [codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic, \
766 xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:autohint=true, \
767 xft:Code2000:antialias=false
768 urxvt.boldFont: -xos4-terminus-bold-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-15
769 urxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
770 urxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
772 I wrote rxvt-unicode to be able to specify fonts exactly. So don't be
773 overwhelmed. A special note: the C<9x15bold> mentioned above is actually
774 the version from XFree-3.3, as XFree-4 replaced it by a totally different
775 font (different glyphs for C<;> and many other harmless characters),
776 while the second font is actually the C<9x15bold> from XFree4/XOrg. The
777 bold version has less chars than the medium version, so I use it for rare
778 characters, too. When editing sources with vim, I use italic for comments
779 and other stuff, which looks quite good with Bitstream Vera anti-aliased.
781 Terminus is a quite bad font (many very wrong glyphs), but for most of my
782 purposes, it works, and gives a different look, as my normal (Non-bold)
783 font is already bold, and I want to see a difference between bold and
786 Please note that I used the C<urxvt> instance name and not the C<URxvt>
787 class name. Thats because I use different configs for different purposes,
788 for example, my IRC window is started with C<-name IRC>, and uses these
792 IRC*geometry: 87x12+535+542
796 IRC*boldFont: suxuseuro
798 IRC*keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]710;suxuseuro\007\033]711;suxuseuro\007
799 IRC*keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]710;9x15bold\007\033]711;9x15bold\007
801 C<Alt-Shift-1> and C<Alt-Shift-2> switch between two different font
802 sizes. C<suxuseuro> allows me to keep an eye (and actually read)
803 stuff while keeping a very small window. If somebody pastes something
804 complicated (e.g. japanese), I temporarily switch to a larger font.
806 The above is all in my C<.Xdefaults> (I don't use C<.Xresources> nor
807 C<xrdb>). I also have some resources in a separate C<.Xdefaults-hostname>
808 file for different hosts, for example, on ym main desktop, I use:
810 URxvt.keysym.C-M-q: command:\033[3;5;5t
811 URxvt.keysym.C-M-y: command:\033[3;5;606t
812 URxvt.keysym.C-M-e: command:\033[3;1605;5t
813 URxvt.keysym.C-M-c: command:\033[3;1605;606t
814 URxvt.keysym.C-M-p: perl:test
816 The first for keysym definitions allow me to quickly bring some windows
817 in the layout I like most. Ion users might start laughing but will stop
818 immediately when I tell them that I use my own Fvwm2 module for much the
819 same effect as Ion provides, and I only very rarely use the above key
822 =head3 Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
824 Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
825 applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
826 resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
827 ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
828 F<$HOME/.Xdefaults> when no resources are attached to the display.
830 If you have or use an F<$HOME/.Xresources> file, chances are that
831 resources are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to
832 re-login after every change (or run F<xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources>).
834 Also consider the form resources have to use:
836 URxvt.resource: value
838 If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
839 specifying resources), make sure you understand whether and why it
840 works. If unsure, use the form above.
842 =head3 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
844 The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
845 as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often arises).
847 The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this can
848 be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp and works as user and admin):
850 REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
851 infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "mkdir -p .terminfo && cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
853 ... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system,
855 One some systems you might need to set C<$TERMINFO> to the full path of
856 F<$HOME/.terminfo> for this to work.
858 If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set
859 C<TERM=rxvt> or even C<TERM=xterm>, and live with the small number of
860 problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different
861 colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice
862 quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, though.
864 If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) you
865 can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or use a
870 If you don't plan to use B<rxvt> (quite common...) you could also replace
871 the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use C<TERM=rxvt>.
873 =head3 C<tic> outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
875 Most likely it's the empty definition for C<enacs=>. Just replace it by
876 C<enacs=\E[0@> and try again.
878 =head3 C<bash>'s readline does not work correctly under @@URXVT_NAME@@.
882 =head3 I need a termcap file entry.
884 One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
885 systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
886 library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
889 You could use rxvt's termcap entry with reasonable results in many cases.
890 You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp program
893 infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
895 Or you could use this termcap entry, generated by the command above:
897 rxvt-unicode|rxvt-unicode terminal (X Window System):\
898 :am:bw:eo:km:mi:ms:xn:xo:\
899 :co#80:it#8:li#24:lm#0:\
900 :AL=\E[%dL:DC=\E[%dP:DL=\E[%dM:DO=\E[%dB:IC=\E[%d@:\
901 :K1=\EOw:K2=\EOu:K3=\EOy:K4=\EOq:K5=\EOs:LE=\E[%dD:\
902 :RI=\E[%dC:SF=\E[%dS:SR=\E[%dT:UP=\E[%dA:ae=\E(B:al=\E[L:\
903 :as=\E(0:bl=^G:cd=\E[J:ce=\E[K:cl=\E[H\E[2J:\
904 :cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:cr=^M:cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:ct=\E[3g:dc=\E[P:\
905 :dl=\E[M:do=^J:ec=\E[%dX:ei=\E[4l:ho=\E[H:\
906 :i1=\E[?47l\E=\E[?1l:ic=\E[@:im=\E[4h:\
907 :is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;3;4;6l\E[4l:\
908 :k1=\E[11~:k2=\E[12~:k3=\E[13~:k4=\E[14~:k5=\E[15~:\
909 :k6=\E[17~:k7=\E[18~:k8=\E[19~:k9=\E[20~:kD=\E[3~:\
910 :kI=\E[2~:kN=\E[6~:kP=\E[5~:kb=\177:kd=\EOB:ke=\E[?1l\E>:\
911 :kh=\E[7~:kl=\EOD:kr=\EOC:ks=\E[?1h\E=:ku=\EOA:le=^H:\
912 :mb=\E[5m:md=\E[1m:me=\E[m\017:mr=\E[7m:nd=\E[C:rc=\E8:\
913 :sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\
914 :te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\
915 :us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
918 =head3 Why does C<ls> no longer have coloured output?
920 The C<ls> in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
921 decide whether a terminal has colour, but uses its own configuration
922 file. Needless to say, C<rxvt-unicode> is not in its default file (among
923 with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
927 to C</etc/DIR_COLORS> or simply add:
929 alias ls='ls --color=auto'
931 to your C<.profile> or C<.bashrc>.
933 =head3 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
937 =head3 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
941 =head3 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
943 Make sure you are using C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>. Some pre-packaged
944 distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode
945 by setting C<TERM> to C<rxvt>, which doesn't have these extra
946 features. Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian
947 GNU/Linux) furthermore fail to even install the C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
948 file, so you will need to install it on your own (See the question B<When
949 I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?> on
953 =head2 Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues
955 =head3 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
959 =head3 Unicode does not seem to work?
961 If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
962 getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output is
963 subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
965 Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same C<LC_CTYPE> setting as the
966 programs running in it. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the C<C> locale,
967 while the login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the
968 locale to something else, e.g. C<en_GB.UTF-8>. Needless to say, this is
969 not going to work, and is the most common cause for problems.
971 The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely run
972 into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your .profile.
974 printf '\33]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE" # $LANG or $LC_ALL are worth a try, too
976 If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a C<LC_CTYPE> specification not
977 supported on your systems. Some systems have a C<locale> command which
978 displays this (also, C<perl -e0> can be used to check locale settings, as
979 it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays something
982 locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ...
984 Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.
986 If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
987 you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
990 =head3 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
994 =head3 Is there an option to switch encodings?
996 Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
997 specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know about
998 UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
1000 The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for selecting
1001 the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating this to all
1002 applications so everybody agrees on character properties such as width
1003 and code number. This mechanism is the I<locale>. Applications not using
1004 that info will have problems (for example, C<xterm> gets the width of
1005 characters wrong as it uses its own, locale-independent table under all
1008 Rxvt-unicode uses the C<LC_CTYPE> locale category to select encoding. All
1009 programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
1010 interpretation of characters.
1012 Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
1013 is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
1015 On most systems, the content of the C<LC_CTYPE> environment variable
1016 contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
1017 locale. Common names for locales are C<en_US.UTF-8>, C<de_DE.ISO-8859-15>,
1018 C<ja_JP.EUC-JP>, i.e. C<language_country.encoding>, but other forms
1019 (i.e. C<de> or C<german>) are also common.
1021 Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for
1022 the encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings,
1023 i.e. C<de_DE.UTF-8> and C<ja_JP.UTF-8> are the normally same to
1026 If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
1027 rxvt-unicode with the correct C<LC_CTYPE> category.
1029 =head3 Can I switch locales at runtime?
1031 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
1032 rxvt-unicode's idea of C<LC_CTYPE>.
1034 printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
1036 See also the previous answer.
1038 Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in
1039 one locale (e.g. C<de_DE.UTF-8>) but some programs don't support it
1040 (e.g. UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start C<xjdic>, which
1041 first switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
1043 printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
1045 printf '\33]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
1047 You can also use xterm's C<luit> program, which usually works fine, except
1048 for some locales where character width differs between program- and
1049 rxvt-unicode-locales.
1051 =head3 I have problems getting my input method working.
1053 Try a search engine, as this is slightly different for every input method server.
1055 Here is a checklist:
1059 =item - Make sure your locale I<and> the imLocale are supported on your OS.
1061 Try C<locale -a> or check the documentation for your OS.
1063 =item - Make sure your locale or imLocale matches a locale supported by your XIM.
1065 For example, B<kinput2> does not support UTF-8 locales, you should use
1066 C<ja_JP.EUC-JP> or equivalent.
1068 =item - Make sure your XIM server is actually running.
1070 =item - Make sure the C<XMODIFIERS> environment variable is set correctly when I<starting> rxvt-unicode.
1072 When you want to use e.g. B<kinput2>, it must be set to
1073 C<@im=kinput2>. For B<scim>, use C<@im=SCIM>. You can see what input
1074 method servers are running with this command:
1076 xprop -root XIM_SERVERS
1082 =head3 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
1084 You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of the
1085 terminal, using the resource C<imlocale>:
1087 URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
1089 Now you can start your terminal with C<LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8> and still
1090 use your input method. Please note, however, that, depending on your Xlib
1091 version, you may not be able to input characters outside C<EUC-JP> in a
1092 normal way then, as your input method limits you.
1094 =head3 Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
1096 Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
1097 design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
1098 leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
1099 exit time. B<kinput2> (and derived input methods) generally succeeds,
1100 while B<SCIM> (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however,
1101 crashes cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
1103 So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
1106 =head2 Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
1108 =head3 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
1110 The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
1111 patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
1112 unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
1113 the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
1114 version (L<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
1115 the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific to
1116 Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian Bug
1117 Tracking System (use C<reportbug> to report the bug).
1119 For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
1120 probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
1121 bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users that
1122 might encounter the same issue.
1124 =head3 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
1126 You should build one binary with the default options. F<configure>
1127 now enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
1128 runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enabling them,
1129 except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter should
1130 be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely more in
1131 the future) depends on it.
1133 You should not overwrite the C<perl-ext-common> snd C<perl-ext> resources
1134 system-wide (except maybe with C<defaults>). This will result in useful
1135 behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
1136 C<perl-ext-common> resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
1137 perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
1139 If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal
1140 one with C<--disable-everything> (very useful) and a maximal one with
1141 C<--enable-everything> (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
1142 encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
1144 =head3 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
1146 It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
1147 install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
1149 When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
1150 into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
1151 systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
1152 immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
1153 privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
1154 things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
1156 This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very early
1157 and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before main(), or
1158 things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should result in very
1161 =head3 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
1163 Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> to be defined
1164 in your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
1165 whether it defines the symbol or not. C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> requires that
1166 B<wchar_t> is represented as unicode.
1168 As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symbol nor
1169 does it support it. Instead, it uses its own internal representation of
1170 B<wchar_t>. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.
1172 However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in C<POSIX>, C<ISO-8859-1> and
1173 C<UTF-8> locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as B<wchar_t>.
1175 C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> is the only sane way to support multi-language
1176 apps in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized)
1177 representation of B<wchar_t> makes it impossible to convert between
1178 B<wchar_t> (as used by X11 and your applications) and any other encoding
1179 without implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and every locale. There
1180 simply are no APIs to convert B<wchar_t> into anything except the current
1183 Some applications (such as the formidable B<mlterm>) work around this
1184 by carrying their own replacement functions for character set handling
1185 with them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or doing multiple
1186 conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the OS implements
1187 encodings slightly different than the terminal emulator).
1189 The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
1190 system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
1191 complete replacements for them :)
1193 =head3 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
1195 rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using
1196 the X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no
1197 longer supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a
1198 single font). I recommend starting the X-server in C<-multiwindow> or
1199 C<-rootless> mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
1200 old libW11 emulation.
1202 At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any multi-byte
1203 encodings (you might try C<LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8>), so you are likely limited
1206 =head3 Character widths are not correct.
1208 urxvt uses the system wcwidth function to know the information about
1209 the width of characters, so on systems with incorrect locale data you
1210 will likely get bad results. Two notorious examples are Solaris 9,
1211 where single-width characters like U+2514 are reported as double-width,
1212 and Darwin 8, where combining chars are reported having width 1.
1214 The solution is to upgrade your system or switch to a better one. A
1215 possibly working workaround is to use a wcwidth implementation like
1217 http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/wcwidth.c
1219 =head1 RXVT-UNICODE TECHNICAL REFERENCE
1221 The rest of this document describes various technical aspects of
1222 B<rxvt-unicode>. First the description of supported command sequences,
1223 followed by pixmap support and last by a description of all features
1224 selectable at C<configure> time.
1232 The literal character c.
1236 A single (required) character.
1240 A single (usually optional) numeric parameter, composed of one or more
1245 A multiple numeric parameter composed of any number of single numeric
1246 parameters, separated by C<;> character(s).
1250 A text parameter composed of printable characters.
1260 Enquiry (Ctrl-E) = Send Device Attributes (DA)
1261 request attributes from terminal. See B<< C<ESC [ Ps c> >>.
1273 Horizontal Tab (HT) (Ctrl-I)
1277 Line Feed or New Line (NL) (Ctrl-J)
1281 Vertical Tab (Ctrl-K) same as B<< C<LF> >>
1285 Form Feed or New Page (NP) (Ctrl-L) same as B<< C<LF> >>
1289 Carriage Return (Ctrl-M)
1293 Shift Out (Ctrl-N), invokes the G1 character set.
1294 Switch to Alternate Character Set
1298 Shift In (Ctrl-O), invokes the G0 character set (the default).
1299 Switch to Standard Character Set
1307 =head2 Escape Sequences
1311 =item B<< C<ESC # 8> >>
1313 DEC Screen Alignment Test (DECALN)
1315 =item B<< C<ESC 7> >>
1319 =item B<< C<ESC 8> >>
1323 =item B<< C<ESC => >>
1325 Application Keypad (SMKX). See also next sequence.
1327 =item B<<< C<< ESC >> >>>
1329 Normal Keypad (RMKX)
1331 B<Note:> If the numeric keypad is activated, eg, B<Num_Lock> has been
1332 pressed, numbers or control functions are generated by the numeric keypad
1335 =item B<< C<ESC D> >>
1339 =item B<< C<ESC E> >>
1343 =item B<< C<ESC H> >>
1347 =item B<< C<ESC M> >>
1351 =item B<< C<ESC N> >>
1353 Single Shift Select of G2 Character Set (SS2): affects next character
1354 only I<unimplemented>
1356 =item B<< C<ESC O> >>
1358 Single Shift Select of G3 Character Set (SS3): affects next character
1359 only I<unimplemented>
1361 =item B<< C<ESC Z> >>
1363 Obsolete form of returns: B<< C<ESC [ ? 1 ; 2 C> >> I<rxvt-unicode compile-time option>
1365 =item B<< C<ESC c> >>
1369 =item B<< C<ESC n> >>
1371 Invoke the G2 Character Set (LS2)
1373 =item B<< C<ESC o> >>
1375 Invoke the G3 Character Set (LS3)
1377 =item B<< C<ESC ( C> >>
1379 Designate G0 Character Set (ISO 2022), see below for values of C<C>.
1381 =item B<< C<ESC ) C> >>
1383 Designate G1 Character Set (ISO 2022), see below for values of C<C>.
1385 =item B<< C<ESC * C> >>
1387 Designate G2 Character Set (ISO 2022), see below for values of C<C>.
1389 =item B<< C<ESC + C> >>
1391 Designate G3 Character Set (ISO 2022), see below for values of C<C>.
1393 =item B<< C<ESC $ C> >>
1395 Designate Kanji Character Set
1397 Where B<< C<C> >> is one of:
1401 C = C<0> DEC Special Character and Line Drawing Set
1402 C = C<A> United Kingdom (UK)
1403 C = C<B> United States (USASCII)
1404 C = C<< < >> Multinational character set I<unimplemented>
1405 C = C<5> Finnish character set I<unimplemented>
1406 C = C<C> Finnish character set I<unimplemented>
1407 C = C<K> German character set I<unimplemented>
1415 =head2 CSI (Command Sequence Introducer) Sequences
1419 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps @> >>
1421 Insert B<< C<Ps> >> (Blank) Character(s) [default: 1] (ICH)X<ESCOBPsA>
1423 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps A> >>
1425 Cursor Up B<< C<Ps> >> Times [default: 1] (CUU)
1427 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps B> >>
1429 Cursor Down B<< C<Ps> >> Times [default: 1] (CUD)X<ESCOBPsC>
1431 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps C> >>
1433 Cursor Forward B<< C<Ps> >> Times [default: 1] (CUF)
1435 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps D> >>
1437 Cursor Backward B<< C<Ps> >> Times [default: 1] (CUB)
1439 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps E> >>
1441 Cursor Down B<< C<Ps> >> Times [default: 1] and to first column
1443 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps F> >>
1445 Cursor Up B<< C<Ps> >> Times [default: 1] and to first columnX<ESCOBPsG>
1447 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps G> >>
1449 Cursor to Column B<< C<Ps> >> (HPA)
1451 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps;Ps H> >>
1453 Cursor Position [row;column] [default: 1;1] (CUP)
1455 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps I> >>
1457 Move forward B<< C<Ps> >> tab stops [default: 1]
1459 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps J> >>
1461 Erase in Display (ED)
1465 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> Clear Below (default)
1466 B<< C<Ps = 1> >> Clear Above
1467 B<< C<Ps = 2> >> Clear All
1471 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps K> >>
1477 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> Clear to Right (default)
1478 B<< C<Ps = 1> >> Clear to Left
1479 B<< C<Ps = 2> >> Clear All
1483 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps L> >>
1485 Insert B<< C<Ps> >> Line(s) [default: 1] (IL)
1487 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps M> >>
1489 Delete B<< C<Ps> >> Line(s) [default: 1] (DL)
1491 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps P> >>
1493 Delete B<< C<Ps> >> Character(s) [default: 1] (DCH)
1495 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps;Ps;Ps;Ps;Ps T> >>
1497 Initiate . I<unimplemented> Parameters are
1498 [func;startx;starty;firstrow;lastrow].
1500 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps W> >>
1506 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> Tab Set (HTS)
1507 B<< C<Ps = 2> >> Tab Clear (TBC), Clear Current Column (default)
1508 B<< C<Ps = 5> >> Tab Clear (TBC), Clear All
1512 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps X> >>
1514 Erase B<< C<Ps> >> Character(s) [default: 1] (ECH)
1516 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps Z> >>
1518 Move backward B<< C<Ps> >> [default: 1] tab stops
1520 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps '> >>
1522 See B<< C<ESC [ Ps G> >>
1524 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps a> >>
1526 See B<< C<ESC [ Ps C> >>
1528 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps c> >>
1530 Send Device Attributes (DA)
1531 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> (or omitted): request attributes from terminal
1532 returns: B<< C<ESC [ ? 1 ; 2 c> >> (``I am a VT100 with Advanced Video
1535 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps d> >>
1537 Cursor to Line B<< C<Ps> >> (VPA)
1539 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps e> >>
1541 See B<< C<ESC [ Ps A> >>
1543 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps;Ps f> >>
1545 Horizontal and Vertical Position [row;column] (HVP) [default: 1;1]
1547 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps g> >>
1553 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> Clear Current Column (default)
1554 B<< C<Ps = 3> >> Clear All (TBC)
1558 =item B<< C<ESC [ Pm h> >>
1560 Set Mode (SM). See B<< C<ESC [ Pm l> >> sequence for description of C<Pm>.
1562 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps i> >>
1564 Printing. See also the C<print-pipe> resource.
1568 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> print screen (MC0)
1569 B<< C<Ps = 4> >> disable transparent print mode (MC4)
1570 B<< C<Ps = 5> >> enable transparent print mode (MC5)
1574 =item B<< C<ESC [ Pm l> >>
1580 =item B<< C<Ps = 4> >>
1584 B<< C<h> >> Insert Mode (SMIR)
1585 B<< C<l> >> Replace Mode (RMIR)
1589 =item B<< C<Ps = 20> >> (partially implemented)
1593 B<< C<h> >> Automatic Newline (LNM)
1594 B<< C<l> >> Normal Linefeed (LNM)
1600 =item B<< C<ESC [ Pm m> >>
1602 Character Attributes (SGR)
1606 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> Normal (default)
1607 B<< C<Ps = 1 / 21> >> On / Off Bold (bright fg)
1608 B<< C<Ps = 3 / 23> >> On / Off Italic
1609 B<< C<Ps = 4 / 24> >> On / Off Underline
1610 B<< C<Ps = 5 / 25> >> On / Off Slow Blink (bright bg)
1611 B<< C<Ps = 6 / 26> >> On / Off Rapid Blink (bright bg)
1612 B<< C<Ps = 7 / 27> >> On / Off Inverse
1613 B<< C<Ps = 8 / 27> >> On / Off Invisible (NYI)
1614 B<< C<Ps = 30 / 40> >> fg/bg Black
1615 B<< C<Ps = 31 / 41> >> fg/bg Red
1616 B<< C<Ps = 32 / 42> >> fg/bg Green
1617 B<< C<Ps = 33 / 43> >> fg/bg Yellow
1618 B<< C<Ps = 34 / 44> >> fg/bg Blue
1619 B<< C<Ps = 35 / 45> >> fg/bg Magenta
1620 B<< C<Ps = 36 / 46> >> fg/bg Cyan
1621 B<< C<Ps = 38;5 / 48;5> >> set fg/bg to color #m (ISO 8613-6)
1622 B<< C<Ps = 37 / 47> >> fg/bg White
1623 B<< C<Ps = 39 / 49> >> fg/bg Default
1624 B<< C<Ps = 90 / 100> >> fg/bg Bright Black
1625 B<< C<Ps = 91 / 101> >> fg/bg Bright Red
1626 B<< C<Ps = 92 / 102> >> fg/bg Bright Green
1627 B<< C<Ps = 93 / 103> >> fg/bg Bright Yellow
1628 B<< C<Ps = 94 / 104> >> fg/bg Bright Blue
1629 B<< C<Ps = 95 / 105> >> fg/bg Bright Magenta
1630 B<< C<Ps = 96 / 106> >> fg/bg Bright Cyan
1631 B<< C<Ps = 97 / 107> >> fg/bg Bright White
1632 B<< C<Ps = 99 / 109> >> fg/bg Bright Default
1636 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps n> >>
1638 Device Status Report (DSR)
1642 B<< C<Ps = 5> >> Status Report B<< C<ESC [ 0 n> >> (``OK'')
1643 B<< C<Ps = 6> >> Report Cursor Position (CPR) [row;column] as B<< C<ESC [ r ; c R> >>
1644 B<< C<Ps = 7> >> Request Display Name
1645 B<< C<Ps = 8> >> Request Version Number (place in window title)
1649 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps;Ps r> >>
1651 Set Scrolling Region [top;bottom]
1652 [default: full size of window] (CSR)
1654 =item B<< C<ESC [ s> >>
1658 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps;Pt t> >>
1664 B<< C<Ps = 1> >> Deiconify (map) window
1665 B<< C<Ps = 2> >> Iconify window
1666 B<< C<Ps = 3> >> B<< C<ESC [ 3 ; X ; Y t> >> Move window to (X|Y)
1667 B<< C<Ps = 4> >> B<< C<ESC [ 4 ; H ; W t> >> Resize to WxH pixels
1668 B<< C<Ps = 5> >> Raise window
1669 B<< C<Ps = 6> >> Lower window
1670 B<< C<Ps = 7> >> Refresh screen once
1671 B<< C<Ps = 8> >> B<< C<ESC [ 8 ; R ; C t> >> Resize to R rows and C columns
1672 B<< C<Ps = 11> >> Report window state (responds with C<Ps = 1> or C<Ps = 2>)
1673 B<< C<Ps = 13> >> Report window position (responds with C<Ps = 3>)
1674 B<< C<Ps = 14> >> Report window pixel size (responds with C<Ps = 4>)
1675 B<< C<Ps = 18> >> Report window text size (responds with C<Ps = 7>)
1676 B<< C<Ps = 19> >> Currently the same as C<Ps = 18>, but responds with C<Ps = 9>
1677 B<< C<Ps = 20> >> Reports icon label (B<< C<ESC ] L NAME \234> >>)
1678 B<< C<Ps = 21> >> Reports window title (B<< C<ESC ] l NAME \234> >>)
1679 B<< C<Ps = 24..> >> Set window height to C<Ps> rows
1683 =item B<< C<ESC [ u> >>
1687 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps x> >>
1689 Request Terminal Parameters (DECREQTPARM)
1695 =head2 DEC Private Modes
1699 =item B<< C<ESC [ ? Pm h> >>
1701 DEC Private Mode Set (DECSET)
1703 =item B<< C<ESC [ ? Pm l> >>
1705 DEC Private Mode Reset (DECRST)
1707 =item B<< C<ESC [ ? Pm r> >>
1709 Restore previously saved DEC Private Mode Values.
1711 =item B<< C<ESC [ ? Pm s> >>
1713 Save DEC Private Mode Values.
1715 =item B<< C<ESC [ ? Pm t> >>
1717 Toggle DEC Private Mode Values (rxvt extension). I<where>
1721 =item B<< C<Pm = 1> >> (DECCKM)
1725 B<< C<h> >> Application Cursor Keys
1726 B<< C<l> >> Normal Cursor Keys
1730 =item B<< C<Pm = 2> >> (ANSI/VT52 mode)
1734 B<< C<h> >> Enter VT52 mode
1735 B<< C<l> >> Enter VT52 mode
1739 =item B<< C<Pm = 3> >>
1743 B<< C<h> >> 132 Column Mode (DECCOLM)
1744 B<< C<l> >> 80 Column Mode (DECCOLM)
1748 =item B<< C<Pm = 4> >>
1752 B<< C<h> >> Smooth (Slow) Scroll (DECSCLM)
1753 B<< C<l> >> Jump (Fast) Scroll (DECSCLM)
1757 =item B<< C<Pm = 5> >>
1761 B<< C<h> >> Reverse Video (DECSCNM)
1762 B<< C<l> >> Normal Video (DECSCNM)
1766 =item B<< C<Pm = 6> >>
1770 B<< C<h> >> Origin Mode (DECOM)
1771 B<< C<l> >> Normal Cursor Mode (DECOM)
1775 =item B<< C<Pm = 7> >>
1779 B<< C<h> >> Wraparound Mode (DECAWM)
1780 B<< C<l> >> No Wraparound Mode (DECAWM)
1784 =item B<< C<Pm = 8> >> I<unimplemented>
1788 B<< C<h> >> Auto-repeat Keys (DECARM)
1789 B<< C<l> >> No Auto-repeat Keys (DECARM)
1793 =item B<< C<Pm = 9> >> X10 XTerm
1797 B<< C<h> >> Send Mouse X & Y on button press.
1798 B<< C<l> >> No mouse reporting.
1802 =item B<< C<Pm = 25> >>
1806 B<< C<h> >> Visible cursor {cnorm/cvvis}
1807 B<< C<l> >> Invisible cursor {civis}
1811 =item B<< C<Pm = 30> >>
1815 B<< C<h> >> scrollBar visisble
1816 B<< C<l> >> scrollBar invisisble
1820 =item B<< C<Pm = 35> >> (B<rxvt>)
1824 B<< C<h> >> Allow XTerm Shift+key sequences
1825 B<< C<l> >> Disallow XTerm Shift+key sequences
1829 =item B<< C<Pm = 38> >> I<unimplemented>
1831 Enter Tektronix Mode (DECTEK)
1833 =item B<< C<Pm = 40> >>
1837 B<< C<h> >> Allow 80/132 Mode
1838 B<< C<l> >> Disallow 80/132 Mode
1842 =item B<< C<Pm = 44> >> I<unimplemented>
1846 B<< C<h> >> Turn On Margin Bell
1847 B<< C<l> >> Turn Off Margin Bell
1851 =item B<< C<Pm = 45> >> I<unimplemented>
1855 B<< C<h> >> Reverse-wraparound Mode
1856 B<< C<l> >> No Reverse-wraparound Mode
1860 =item B<< C<Pm = 46> >> I<unimplemented>
1862 =item B<< C<Pm = 47> >>
1866 B<< C<h> >> Use Alternate Screen Buffer
1867 B<< C<l> >> Use Normal Screen Buffer
1873 =item B<< C<Pm = 66> >>
1877 B<< C<h> >> Application Keypad (DECPAM) == C<ESC =>
1878 B<< C<l> >> Normal Keypad (DECPNM) == C<< ESC > >>
1882 =item B<< C<Pm = 67> >>
1886 B<< C<h> >> Backspace key sends B<< C<BS> (DECBKM) >>
1887 B<< C<l> >> Backspace key sends B<< C<DEL> >>
1891 =item B<< C<Pm = 1000> >> (X11 XTerm)
1895 B<< C<h> >> Send Mouse X & Y on button press and release.
1896 B<< C<l> >> No mouse reporting.
1900 =item B<< C<Pm = 1001> >> (X11 XTerm) I<unimplemented>
1904 B<< C<h> >> Use Hilite Mouse Tracking.
1905 B<< C<l> >> No mouse reporting.
1909 =item B<< C<Pm = 1002> >> (X11 XTerm)
1913 B<< C<h> >> Send Mouse X & Y on button press and release, and motion with a button pressed.
1914 B<< C<l> >> No mouse reporting.
1918 =item B<< C<Pm = 1003> >> (X11 XTerm)
1922 B<< C<h> >> Send Mouse X & Y on button press and release, and motion.
1923 B<< C<l> >> No mouse reporting.
1927 =item B<< C<Pm = 1010> >> (B<rxvt>)
1931 B<< C<h> >> Don't scroll to bottom on TTY output
1932 B<< C<l> >> Scroll to bottom on TTY output
1936 =item B<< C<Pm = 1011> >> (B<rxvt>)
1940 B<< C<h> >> Scroll to bottom when a key is pressed
1941 B<< C<l> >> Don't scroll to bottom when a key is pressed
1945 =item B<< C<Pm = 1021> >> (B<rxvt>)
1949 B<< C<h> >> Bold/italic implies high intensity (see option B<-is>)
1950 B<< C<l> >> Font styles have no effect on intensity (Compile styles)
1954 =item B<< C<Pm = 1047> >>
1958 B<< C<h> >> Use Alternate Screen Buffer
1959 B<< C<l> >> Use Normal Screen Buffer - clear Alternate Screen Buffer if returning from it
1963 =item B<< C<Pm = 1048> >>
1967 B<< C<h> >> Save cursor position
1968 B<< C<l> >> Restore cursor position
1972 =item B<< C<Pm = 1049> >>
1976 B<< C<h> >> Use Alternate Screen Buffer - clear Alternate Screen Buffer if switching to it
1977 B<< C<l> >> Use Normal Screen Buffer
1987 =head2 XTerm Operating System Commands
1991 =item B<< C<ESC ] Ps;Pt ST> >>
1993 Set XTerm Parameters. 8-bit ST: 0x9c, 7-bit ST sequence: ESC \ (0x1b,
1994 0x5c), backwards compatible terminator BEL (0x07) is also accepted. any
1995 B<octet> can be escaped by prefixing it with SYN (0x16, ^V).
1999 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> Change Icon Name and Window Title to B<< C<Pt> >>
2000 B<< C<Ps = 1> >> Change Icon Name to B<< C<Pt> >>
2001 B<< C<Ps = 2> >> Change Window Title to B<< C<Pt> >>
2002 B<< C<Ps = 3> >> If B<< C<Pt> >> starts with a B<< C<?> >>, query the (STRING) property of the window and return it. If B<< C<Pt> >> contains a B<< C<=> >>, set the named property to the given value, else delete the specified property.
2003 B<< C<Ps = 4> >> B<< C<Pt> >> is a semi-colon separated sequence of one or more semi-colon separated B<number>/B<name> pairs, where B<number> is an index to a colour and B<name> is the name of a colour. Each pair causes the B<number>ed colour to be changed to B<name>. Numbers 0-7 corresponds to low-intensity (normal) colours and 8-15 corresponds to high-intensity colours. 0=black, 1=red, 2=green, 3=yellow, 4=blue, 5=magenta, 6=cyan, 7=white
2004 B<< C<Ps = 10> >> Change colour of text foreground to B<< C<Pt> >> B<(NB: may change in future)>
2005 B<< C<Ps = 11> >> Change colour of text background to B<< C<Pt> >> B<(NB: may change in future)>
2006 B<< C<Ps = 12> >> Change colour of text cursor foreground to B<< C<Pt> >>
2007 B<< C<Ps = 13> >> Change colour of mouse foreground to B<< C<Pt> >>
2008 B<< C<Ps = 17> >> Change colour of highlight characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
2009 B<< C<Ps = 18> >> Change colour of bold characters to B<< C<Pt> >> [deprecated, see 706]
2010 B<< C<Ps = 19> >> Change colour of underlined characters to B<< C<Pt> >> [deprecated, see 707]
2011 B<< C<Ps = 20> >> Change background pixmap parameters (see section BACKGROUND IMAGE) (Compile AfterImage).
2012 B<< C<Ps = 39> >> Change default foreground colour to B<< C<Pt> >>.
2013 B<< C<Ps = 46> >> Change Log File to B<< C<Pt> >> I<unimplemented>
2014 B<< C<Ps = 49> >> Change default background colour to B<< C<Pt> >>.
2015 B<< C<Ps = 50> >> Set fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>, with the following special values of B<< C<Pt> >> (B<rxvt>) B<< C<#+n> >> change up B<< C<n> >> B<< C<#-n> >> change down B<< C<n> >> if B<< C<n> >> is missing of 0, a value of 1 is used I<empty> change to font0 B<< C<n> >> change to font B<< C<n> >>
2016 B<< C<Ps = 55> >> Log all scrollback buffer and all of screen to B<< C<Pt> >>
2017 B<< C<Ps = 701> >> Change current locale to B<< C<Pt> >>, or, if B<< C<Pt> >> is B<< C<?> >>, return the current locale (Compile frills).
2018 B<< C<Ps = 702> >> Request version if B<< C<Pt> >> is B<< C<?> >>, returning C<rxvt-unicode>, the resource name, the major and minor version numbers, e.g. C<ESC ] 702 ; rxvt-unicode ; urxvt ; 7 ; 4 ST>.
2019 B<< C<Ps = 704> >> Change colour of italic characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
2020 B<< C<Ps = 705> >> Change background pixmap tint colour to B<< C<Pt> >> (Compile transparency).
2021 B<< C<Ps = 706> >> Change colour of bold characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
2022 B<< C<Ps = 707> >> Change colour of underlined characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
2023 B<< C<Ps = 710> >> Set normal fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>. Same as C<Ps = 50>.
2024 B<< C<Ps = 711> >> Set bold fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>. Similar to C<Ps = 50> (Compile styles).
2025 B<< C<Ps = 712> >> Set italic fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>. Similar to C<Ps = 50> (Compile styles).
2026 B<< C<Ps = 713> >> Set bold-italic fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>. Similar to C<Ps = 50> (Compile styles).
2027 B<< C<Ps = 720> >> Move viewing window up by B<< C<Pt> >> lines, or clear scrollback buffer if C<Pt = 0> (Compile frills).
2028 B<< C<Ps = 721> >> Move viewing window down by B<< C<Pt> >> lines, or clear scrollback buffer if C<Pt = 0> (Compile frills).
2029 B<< C<Ps = 777> >> Call the perl extension with the given string, which should be of the form C<extension:parameters> (Compile perl).
2035 =head1 BACKGROUND IMAGE
2037 For the BACGROUND IMAGE XTerm escape sequence B<< C<ESC ] 20 ; Pt ST> >> then value
2038 of B<< C<Pt> >> can be the name of the background image file followed by a
2039 sequence of scaling/positioning commands separated by semi-colons. The
2040 scaling/positioning commands are as follows:
2044 =item query scale/position
2048 =item change scale and position
2052 B<WxH+X> (== B<WxH+X+X>)
2054 B<WxH> (same as B<WxH+50+50>)
2056 B<W+X+Y> (same as B<WxW+X+Y>)
2058 B<W+X> (same as B<WxW+X+X>)
2060 B<W> (same as B<WxW+50+50>)
2062 =item change position (absolute)
2066 B<=+X> (same as B<=+X+Y>)
2068 =item change position (relative)
2072 B<+X> (same as B<+X+Y>)
2074 =item rescale (relative)
2076 B<Wx0> -> B<W *= (W/100)>
2078 B<0xH> -> B<H *= (H/100)>
2086 =item B<\E]20;funky.jpg\a>
2088 load B<funky.jpg> as a tiled image
2090 =item B<\E]20;mona.jpg;100\a>
2092 load B<mona.jpg> with a scaling of 100%
2094 =item B<\E]20;;200;?\a>
2096 rescale the current pixmap to 200% and display the image geometry in
2102 =head1 Mouse Reporting
2106 =item B<< C<< ESC [ M <b> <x> <y> >> >>
2108 report mouse position
2112 The lower 2 bits of B<< C<< <b> >> >> indicate the button:
2116 =item Button = B<< C<< (<b> - SPACE) & 3 >> >>
2123 3 button released (X11 mouse report)
2129 The upper bits of B<< C<< <b> >> >> indicate the modifiers when the
2130 button was pressed and are added together (X11 mouse report only):
2134 =item State = B<< C<< (<b> - SPACE) & 60 >> >>
2141 32 Double Click I<(rxvt extension)>
2145 Col = B<< C<< <x> - SPACE >> >>
2147 Row = B<< C<< <y> - SPACE >> >>
2154 Note: B<Shift> + B<F1>-B<F10> generates B<F11>-B<F20>
2156 For the keypad, use B<Shift> to temporarily override Application-Keypad
2157 setting use B<Num_Lock> to toggle Application-Keypad setting if
2158 B<Num_Lock> is off, toggle Application-Keypad setting. Also note that
2159 values of B<Home>, B<End>, B<Delete> may have been compiled differently on
2164 B<Normal> B<Shift> B<Control> B<Ctrl+Shift>
2165 Tab ^I ESC [ Z ^I ESC [ Z
2166 BackSpace ^H ^? ^? ^?
2167 Find ESC [ 1 ~ ESC [ 1 $ ESC [ 1 ^ ESC [ 1 @
2168 Insert ESC [ 2 ~ I<paste> ESC [ 2 ^ ESC [ 2 @
2169 Execute ESC [ 3 ~ ESC [ 3 $ ESC [ 3 ^ ESC [ 3 @
2170 Select ESC [ 4 ~ ESC [ 4 $ ESC [ 4 ^ ESC [ 4 @
2171 Prior ESC [ 5 ~ I<scroll-up> ESC [ 5 ^ ESC [ 5 @
2172 Next ESC [ 6 ~ I<scroll-down> ESC [ 6 ^ ESC [ 6 @
2173 Home ESC [ 7 ~ ESC [ 7 $ ESC [ 7 ^ ESC [ 7 @
2174 End ESC [ 8 ~ ESC [ 8 $ ESC [ 8 ^ ESC [ 8 @
2175 Delete ESC [ 3 ~ ESC [ 3 $ ESC [ 3 ^ ESC [ 3 @
2176 F1 ESC [ 11 ~ ESC [ 23 ~ ESC [ 11 ^ ESC [ 23 ^
2177 F2 ESC [ 12 ~ ESC [ 24 ~ ESC [ 12 ^ ESC [ 24 ^
2178 F3 ESC [ 13 ~ ESC [ 25 ~ ESC [ 13 ^ ESC [ 25 ^
2179 F4 ESC [ 14 ~ ESC [ 26 ~ ESC [ 14 ^ ESC [ 26 ^
2180 F5 ESC [ 15 ~ ESC [ 28 ~ ESC [ 15 ^ ESC [ 28 ^
2181 F6 ESC [ 17 ~ ESC [ 29 ~ ESC [ 17 ^ ESC [ 29 ^
2182 F7 ESC [ 18 ~ ESC [ 31 ~ ESC [ 18 ^ ESC [ 31 ^
2183 F8 ESC [ 19 ~ ESC [ 32 ~ ESC [ 19 ^ ESC [ 32 ^
2184 F9 ESC [ 20 ~ ESC [ 33 ~ ESC [ 20 ^ ESC [ 33 ^
2185 F10 ESC [ 21 ~ ESC [ 34 ~ ESC [ 21 ^ ESC [ 34 ^
2186 F11 ESC [ 23 ~ ESC [ 23 $ ESC [ 23 ^ ESC [ 23 @
2187 F12 ESC [ 24 ~ ESC [ 24 $ ESC [ 24 ^ ESC [ 24 @
2188 F13 ESC [ 25 ~ ESC [ 25 $ ESC [ 25 ^ ESC [ 25 @
2189 F14 ESC [ 26 ~ ESC [ 26 $ ESC [ 26 ^ ESC [ 26 @
2190 F15 (Help) ESC [ 28 ~ ESC [ 28 $ ESC [ 28 ^ ESC [ 28 @
2191 F16 (Menu) ESC [ 29 ~ ESC [ 29 $ ESC [ 29 ^ ESC [ 29 @
2192 F17 ESC [ 31 ~ ESC [ 31 $ ESC [ 31 ^ ESC [ 31 @
2193 F18 ESC [ 32 ~ ESC [ 32 $ ESC [ 32 ^ ESC [ 32 @
2194 F19 ESC [ 33 ~ ESC [ 33 $ ESC [ 33 ^ ESC [ 33 @
2195 F20 ESC [ 34 ~ ESC [ 34 $ ESC [ 34 ^ ESC [ 34 @
2197 Up ESC [ A ESC [ a ESC O a ESC O A
2198 Down ESC [ B ESC [ b ESC O b ESC O B
2199 Right ESC [ C ESC [ c ESC O c ESC O C
2200 Left ESC [ D ESC [ d ESC O d ESC O D
2202 KP_F1 ESC O P ESC O P
2203 KP_F2 ESC O Q ESC O Q
2204 KP_F3 ESC O R ESC O R
2205 KP_F4 ESC O S ESC O S
2206 XK_KP_Multiply * ESC O j
2208 XK_KP_Separator , ESC O l
2209 XK_KP_Subtract - ESC O m
2210 XK_KP_Decimal . ESC O n
2211 XK_KP_Divide / ESC O o
2225 =head1 CONFIGURE OPTIONS
2227 General hint: if you get compile errors, then likely your configuration
2228 hasn't been tested well. Either try with C<--enable-everything> or use
2229 the default configuration (i.e. no C<--enable-xxx> or C<--disable-xxx>
2230 switches). Of course, you should always report when a combination doesn't
2231 work, so it can be fixed. Marc Lehmann <rxvt@schmorp.de>.
2237 =item --enable-everything
2239 Add (or remove) support for all non-multichoice options listed in "./configure
2242 You can specify this and then disable options you do not like by
2243 I<following> this with the appropriate C<--disable-...> arguments,
2244 or you can start with a minimal configuration by specifying
2245 C<--disable-everything> and than adding just the C<--enable-...> arguments
2248 =item --enable-xft (default: enabled)
2250 Add support for Xft (anti-aliases, among others) fonts. Xft fonts are
2251 slower and require lots of memory, but as long as you don't use them, you
2254 =item --enable-font-styles (default: on)
2256 Add support for B<bold>, I<italic> and B<< I<bold italic> >> font
2257 styles. The fonts can be set manually or automatically.
2259 =item --with-codesets=NAME,... (default: all)
2261 Compile in support for additional codeset (encoding) groups (C<eu>, C<vn>
2262 are always compiled in, which includes most 8-bit character sets). These
2263 codeset tables are used for driving X11 core fonts, they are not required
2264 for Xft fonts, although having them compiled in lets rxvt-unicode choose
2265 replacement fonts more intelligently. Compiling them in will make your
2266 binary bigger (all of together cost about 700kB), but it doesn't increase
2267 memory usage unless you use a font requiring one of these encodings.
2271 all all available codeset groups
2272 zh common chinese encodings
2273 zh_ext rarely used but very big chinese encodings
2274 jp common japanese encodings
2275 jp_ext rarely used but big japanese encodings
2280 =item --enable-xim (default: on)
2282 Add support for XIM (X Input Method) protocol. This allows using
2283 alternative input methods (e.g. kinput2) and will also correctly
2284 set up the input for people using dead keys or compose keys.
2286 =item --enable-unicode3 (default: off)
2288 Recommended to stay off unless you really need non-BMP characters.
2290 Enable direct support for displaying unicode codepoints above
2291 65535 (the basic multilingual page). This increases storage
2292 requirements per character from 2 to 4 bytes. X11 fonts do not yet
2293 support these extra characters, but Xft does.
2295 Please note that rxvt-unicode can store unicode code points >65535
2296 even without this flag, but the number of such characters is
2297 limited to a few thousand (shared with combining characters,
2298 see next switch), and right now rxvt-unicode cannot display them
2299 (input/output and cut&paste still work, though).
2301 =item --enable-combining (default: on)
2303 Enable automatic composition of combining characters into
2304 composite characters. This is required for proper viewing of text
2305 where accents are encoded as seperate unicode characters. This is
2306 done by using precomposited characters when available or creating
2307 new pseudo-characters when no precomposed form exists.
2309 Without --enable-unicode3, the number of additional precomposed
2310 characters is somewhat limited (the 6400 private use characters will be
2311 (ab-)used). With --enable-unicode3, no practical limit exists.
2313 This option will also enable storage (but not display) of characters
2314 beyond plane 0 (>65535) when --enable-unicode3 was not specified.
2316 The combining table also contains entries for arabic presentation forms,
2317 but these are not currently used. Bug me if you want these to be used (and
2318 tell me how these are to be used...).
2320 =item --enable-fallback(=CLASS) (default: Rxvt)
2322 When reading resource settings, also read settings for class CLASS. To
2323 disable resource fallback use --disable-fallback.
2325 =item --with-res-name=NAME (default: urxvt)
2327 Use the given name as default application name when
2328 reading resources. Specify --with-res-name=rxvt to replace rxvt.
2330 =item --with-res-class=CLASS /default: URxvt)
2332 Use the given class as default application class
2333 when reading resources. Specify --with-res-class=Rxvt to replace
2336 =item --enable-utmp (default: on)
2338 Write user and tty to utmp file (used by programs like F<w>) at
2339 start of rxvt execution and delete information when rxvt exits.
2341 =item --enable-wtmp (default: on)
2343 Write user and tty to wtmp file (used by programs like F<last>) at
2344 start of rxvt execution and write logout when rxvt exits. This
2345 option requires --enable-utmp to also be specified.
2347 =item --enable-lastlog (default: on)
2349 Write user and tty to lastlog file (used by programs like
2350 F<lastlogin>) at start of rxvt execution. This option requires
2351 --enable-utmp to also be specified.
2353 =item --enable-afterimage (default: on)
2355 Add support for libAfterImage to be used for transparency and background
2356 images. It adds support for many file formats including JPG, PNG,
2357 SVG, TIFF, GIF, XPM, BMP, ICO, XCF, TGA and AfterStep image XML
2358 (L<http://www.afterstep.org/visualdoc.php?show=asimagexml>).
2360 This option also adds such eye candy as blending an image over the root
2361 background, as well as dynamic scaling and bluring of background images.
2363 Note that with this option enabled, @@RXVT_NAME@@'s memory footprint might
2364 increase by a few megabytes even if no extra features are used (mostly due
2365 to third-party libraries used by libAI). Memory footprint may somewhat be
2366 lowered if libAfterImage is configured without support for SVG.
2368 =item --enable-transparency (default: on)
2370 Add support for backgrounds, creating illusion of transparency in the term.
2372 =item --enable-fading (default: on)
2374 Add support for fading the text when focus is lost.
2376 =item --enable-rxvt-scroll (default: on)
2378 Add support for the original rxvt scrollbar.
2380 =item --enable-next-scroll (default: on)
2382 Add support for a NeXT-like scrollbar.
2384 =item --enable-xterm-scroll (default: on)
2386 Add support for an Xterm-like scrollbar.
2388 =item --enable-plain-scroll (default: on)
2390 Add support for a very unobtrusive, plain-looking scrollbar that
2391 is the favourite of the rxvt-unicode author, having used it for
2394 =item --enable-ttygid (default: off)
2396 Change tty device setting to group "tty" - only use this if
2397 your system uses this type of security.
2399 =item --disable-backspace-key
2401 Removes any handling of the backspace key by us - let the X server do it.
2403 =item --disable-delete-key
2405 Removes any handling of the delete key by us - let the X server
2408 =item --disable-resources
2410 Removes any support for resource checking.
2412 =item --disable-swapscreen
2414 Remove support for secondary/swap screen.
2416 =item --enable-frills (default: on)
2418 Add support for many small features that are not essential but nice to
2419 have. Normally you want this, but for very small binaries you may want to
2422 A non-exhaustive list of features enabled by C<--enable-frills> (possibly
2423 in combination with other switches) is:
2426 EWMH-hints (pid, utf8 names) and protocols (ping)
2428 seperate underline colour (-underlineColor)
2429 settable border widths and borderless switch (-w, -b, -bl)
2430 visual depth selection (-depth)
2431 settable extra linespacing /-lsp)
2432 iso-14755 5.1 (basic) support
2433 tripleclickwords (-tcw)
2434 settable insecure mode (-insecure)
2435 keysym remapping support
2436 cursor blinking and underline cursor (-cb, -uc)
2437 XEmbed support (-embed)
2439 hold on exit (-hold)
2440 skip builtin block graphics (-sbg)
2441 separate highlightcolor support (-hc)
2443 It also enables some non-essential features otherwise disabled, such as:
2445 some round-trip time optimisations
2446 nearest color allocation on pseudocolor screens
2447 UTF8_STRING support for selection
2448 sgr modes 90..97 and 100..107
2449 backindex and forwardindex escape sequences
2450 view change/zero scrollback escape sequences
2451 locale switching escape sequence
2452 window op and some xterm/OSC escape sequences
2453 rectangular selections
2454 trailing space removal for selections
2455 verbose X error handling
2457 =item --enable-iso14755 (default: on)
2459 Enable extended ISO 14755 support (see @@RXVT_NAME@@(1), or
2460 F<doc/rxvt.1.txt>). Basic support (section 5.1) is enabled by
2461 C<--enable-frills>, while support for 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 is enabled with
2464 =item --enable-keepscrolling (default: on)
2466 Add support for continual scrolling of the display when you hold
2467 the mouse button down on a scrollbar arrow.
2469 =item --enable-selectionscrolling (default: on)
2471 Add support for scrolling when the selection moves to the top or
2472 bottom of the screen.
2474 =item --enable-mousewheel (default: on)
2476 Add support for scrolling via mouse wheel or buttons 4 & 5.
2478 =item --enable-slipwheeling (default: on)
2480 Add support for continual scrolling (using the mouse wheel as an
2481 accelerator) while the control key is held down. This option
2482 requires --enable-mousewheel to also be specified.
2484 =item --enable-smart-resize (default: off)
2486 Add smart growth/shrink behaviour when resizing.
2487 This should keep the window corner which is closest to a corner of
2488 the screen in a fixed position.
2490 =item --enable-pointer-blank (default: on)
2492 Add support to have the pointer disappear when typing or inactive.
2494 =item --enable-perl (default: on)
2496 Enable an embedded perl interpreter. See the B<@@RXVT_NAME@@perl(3)>
2497 manpage (F<doc/rxvtperl.txt>) for more info on this feature, or the
2498 files in F<src/perl-ext/> for the extensions that are installed by
2499 default. The perl interpreter that is used can be specified via the
2500 C<PERL> environment variable when running configure. Even when compiled
2501 in, perl will I<not> be initialised when all extensions have been disabled
2502 C<-pe "" --perl-ext-common "">, so it should be safe to enable from a
2503 resource standpoint.
2505 =item --with-afterimage-config=DIR
2507 Look for the libAfterImage config script in DIR.
2509 =item --with-name=NAME (default: urxvt)
2511 Set the basename for the installed binaries, resulting
2512 in C<urxvt>, C<urxvtd> etc.). Specify C<--with-name=rxvt> to replace with
2515 =item --with-term=NAME (default: rxvt-unicode)
2517 Change the environmental variable for the terminal to NAME.
2519 =item --with-terminfo=PATH
2521 Change the environmental variable for the path to the terminfo tree to
2526 Use the X Window System (pretty much default, eh?).
2532 Marc Lehmann <rxvt@schmorp.de> converted this document to pod and
2533 reworked it from the original Rxvt documentation, which was done by Geoff
2534 Wing <gcw@pobox.com>, who in turn used the XTerm documentation and other