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://pod.tst.eu/http://cvs.schmorp.de/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.pod>.
24 The main manual page for @@RXVT_NAME@@ itself is available at
25 L<http://pod.tst.eu/http://cvs.schmorp.de/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.1.pod>.
27 =head1 RXVT-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
30 =head2 Meta, Features & Commandline Issues
32 =head3 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
34 Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: C<irc.freenode.net>,
35 channel C<#rxvt-unicode> has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
36 interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
38 =head3 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
40 Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a
41 simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these should
44 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -pe tabbed
46 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
48 It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window managers
49 or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be
50 embedded into other programs, as witnessed by F<doc/rxvt-tabbed> or
51 the upcoming C<Gtk2::URxvt> perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
52 (murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
54 =head3 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
56 The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
57 sequence C<ESC [ 8 n> sets the window title to the version number. When
58 using the @@URXVT_NAME@@c client, the version displayed is that of the
61 =head3 Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
63 Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something you
64 don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings that
65 you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by design,
66 when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be loaded
67 accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your characters.
69 Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
70 scrollback buffers: Without C<--enable-unicode3>, rxvt-unicode will use
71 6 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
72 kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if full)
73 use 10 Megabytes of memory. With C<--enable-unicode3> it gets worse, as
74 rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
76 =head3 How can I start @@URXVT_NAME@@d in a race-free way?
78 Try C<@@URXVT_NAME@@d -f -o>, which tells @@URXVT_NAME@@d to open the
79 display, create the listening socket and then fork.
81 =head3 How can I start @@URXVT_NAME@@d automatically when I run @@URXVT_NAME@@c?
83 If you want to start @@URXVT_NAME@@d automatically whenever you run
84 @@URXVT_NAME@@c and the daemon isn't running yet, use this script:
89 @@URXVT_NAME@@d -q -o -f
93 This tries to create a new terminal, and if fails with exit status 2,
94 meaning it couldn't connect to the daemon, it will start the daemon and
95 re-run the command. Subsequent invocations of the script will re-use the
98 =head3 How do I distinguish whether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
100 The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM",
101 so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED,
102 slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide
103 whether or not to use color.
105 =head3 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
107 If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
108 insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
109 snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
110 wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets) then
111 the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from a
114 Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
117 # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
118 [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
119 if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
120 stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
124 if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
125 echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
126 read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
130 =head3 How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
132 You need to have a recent version of perl installed as F</usr/bin/perl>,
133 one that comes with F<pod2man>, F<pod2text> and F<pod2xhtml> (from
134 F<Pod::Xhtml>). Then go to the doc subdirectory and enter C<make alldoc>.
136 =head3 Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
138 I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra
139 bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see
140 that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always being
141 compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after startup. Even
142 with C<--disable-everything>, this comparison is a bit unfair, as many
143 features unique to urxvt (locale, encoding conversion, iso14755 etc.) are
144 already in use in this mode.
146 text data bss drs rss filename
147 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything
148 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything
150 When you C<--enable-everything> (which I<is> unfair, as this involves xft
151 and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my
152 libc), the two diverge, but not unreasonably so.
154 text data bss drs rss filename
155 163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything
156 1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything
158 The very large size of the text section is explained by the east-asian
159 encoding tables, which, if unused, take up disk space but nothing else
160 and can be compiled out unless you rely on X11 core fonts that use those
161 encodings. The BSS size comes from the 64k emergency buffer that my c++
162 compiler allocates (but of course doesn't use unless you are out of
163 memory). Also, using an xft font instead of a core font immediately adds a
164 few megabytes of RSS. Xft indeed is responsible for a lot of RSS even when
167 Of course, due to every character using two or four bytes instead of one,
168 a large scrollback buffer will ultimately make rxvt-unicode use more
171 Compared to e.g. Eterm (5112k), aterm (3132k) and xterm (4680k), this
172 still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like gnome-terminal
173 (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole (22200k + extra
174 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half a minute of
175 startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits out), it fares
178 =head3 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
180 Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I had
181 to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a fraction
182 of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put even
183 shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
185 My personal stance on this is that C++ is less portable than C, but in
186 the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability limits
187 are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale support and unix
188 domain sockets, which are all less portable than C++ itself.
190 Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write programs
191 in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to write programs in
192 C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large libraries, but this is
193 not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is what rxvt links against on my
194 system with a minimal config:
196 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
197 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000)
198 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000)
199 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
201 And here is rxvt-unicode:
203 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
204 libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)
205 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
206 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
207 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
209 No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
210 except maybe libX11 :)
213 =head2 Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues
215 =head3 I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
217 First of all, please address all transparency related issues to Sasha Vasko at
218 sasha@aftercode.net and do not bug the author about it. Also, if you can't
219 get it working consider it a rite of passage: ... and you failed.
221 Here are four ways to get transparency. B<Do> read the manpage and option
222 descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
224 1. Use transparent mode:
226 Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
227 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -tr -tint red -sh 40
229 That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
230 support, or you are unable to read.
232 2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
233 to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
234 your picture with gimp or any other tool:
236 convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.jpg
237 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -pixmap "background.jpg;:root"
239 That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack AfterImage support, or you
242 3. Use an ARGB visual:
244 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
246 This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
247 doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
248 there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the necessary
249 bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but that
250 doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
252 4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
254 xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
255 -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
257 Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace C<0xc0000000>
258 by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
259 your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
261 =head3 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
263 Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that character
264 size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal use might
265 contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode will avoid
266 these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too wide a special
267 "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent characters.
269 All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
270 however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed bounding
271 box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct way is to
272 ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is wrong in these
275 It's not clear (to me at least), whether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
276 or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try using
277 the C<-lsp> option to give the font more height. If that doesn't work, you
278 might be forced to use a different font.
280 All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their bounding
283 =head3 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
285 First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
286 (C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
287 make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
288 rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
293 =head3 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
295 For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
296 colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the standard
297 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of course, to fix
298 these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very good reasons.
300 In the meantime, you can either edit your C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
301 definition to only claim 8 colour support or use C<TERM=rxvt>, which will
302 fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
304 =head3 Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
306 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the same
307 effect as using the C<-fn> switch, and takes effect immediately:
309 printf '\33]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
311 This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
312 japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
313 japanese fonts would only be in your way.
315 You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
317 =head3 Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
319 Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
320 example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font C<xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
321 Mono> completely fails in its italic face. A workaround might be to
322 enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
324 URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
325 URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
327 =head3 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
329 Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as
330 it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
331 antialiasing (by appending C<:antialias=false>), which saves lots of
332 memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
334 =head3 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
336 Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
337 fall back to its default font search list it will prefer X11 core
338 fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
339 antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
342 If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
344 =head3 What's with this bold/blink stuff?
346 If no bold colour is set via C<colorBD:>, bold will invert text using the
347 standard foreground colour.
349 For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make
350 the text blink when compiled with C<--enable-text-blink>. Without
351 C<--enable-text-blink>, the blink attribute will be ignored.
353 On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
354 foreground/background colors.
356 color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
358 color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
360 =head3 I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
362 You can change the screen colors at run-time using F<~/.Xdefaults>
363 resources (or as long-options).
365 Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen,
366 including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
368 URxvt.color0: #000000
369 URxvt.color1: #A80000
370 URxvt.color2: #00A800
371 URxvt.color3: #A8A800
372 URxvt.color4: #0000A8
373 URxvt.color5: #A800A8
374 URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
375 URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
377 URxvt.color8: #000054
378 URxvt.color9: #FF0054
379 URxvt.color10: #00FF54
380 URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
381 URxvt.color12: #0000FF
382 URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
383 URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
384 URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
386 And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors.
388 URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
389 URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
390 URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
391 URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
392 URxvt.color0: #000000
393 URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
394 URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
395 URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
396 URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
397 URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
398 URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
399 URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
400 URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
401 URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
402 URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
403 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
404 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
405 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
407 They have been described (not by me) as "pretty girly".
409 =head3 Why do some characters look so much different than others?
413 =head3 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
415 Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is
416 fine. Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
417 your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want
420 B<rxvt-unicode> makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement
421 font. Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
422 bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
423 resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
424 intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
425 the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
427 In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
430 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -fn basefont,font2,font3...
432 When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
433 font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the
434 next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
435 search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
437 The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the base
438 font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size, which
439 must be the same due to the way terminals work.
441 =head3 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
443 This is because there is a difference between script and language --
444 rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is,
445 as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first
446 sees a japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for
447 display. Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many
448 chinese characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
449 non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese font
450 -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font for
451 chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
453 The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
454 list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as
455 a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
456 first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
458 In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
459 runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
460 fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
461 has been designed yet).
463 Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see L<Can
464 I switch the fonts at runtime?> later in this document).
466 =head3 How can I make mplayer display video correctly?
468 We are working on it, in the meantime, as a workaround, use something like:
470 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -b 600 -geometry 20x1 -e sh -c 'mplayer -wid $WINDOWID file...'
473 =head2 Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
475 =head3 The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
477 If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
480 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
482 If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended
485 To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this pattern:
487 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
489 Please also note that the I<LeftClick Shift-LeftClick> combination also
490 selects words like the old code.
492 =head3 I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
494 You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
495 B<perl-ext-common> resource to the empty string, which also keeps
496 rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
498 If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
499 identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
500 B<PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS> in the @@URXVT_NAME@@perl(3) manpage. For
501 example, to disable the B<selection-popup> and B<option-popup>, specify
502 this B<perl-ext-common> resource:
504 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
506 This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
507 extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
508 scrollback search mode is triggered by B<M-s>. You can move it to any
509 other combination either by setting the B<searchable-scrollback> resource:
511 URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
513 =head3 The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
517 =head3 During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
519 These are caused by the C<readline> perl extension. Under normal
520 circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
521 line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
522 but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in some
523 cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
525 You can permanently switch this feature off by disabling the C<readline>
528 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
530 =head3 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
532 Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
533 specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is caused
534 by the wrong C<TERM> setting, although the details of whether and how
535 this can happen are unknown, as C<TERM=rxvt> should offer a compatible
536 keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please report if that
539 =head3 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
541 The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
542 correctly, or you specified a B<preeditStyle> that is not supported by
543 your input method. For example, if you specified B<OverTheSpot> and
544 your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys)
545 does not support this (for instance because it is not visual), then
546 rxvt-unicode will continue without an input method.
548 In this case either do not specify a B<preeditStyle> or specify more than
549 one pre-edit style, such as B<OverTheSpot,Root,None>.
551 =head3 I cannot type C<Ctrl-Shift-2> to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
553 Either try C<Ctrl-2> alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
554 international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
555 advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for other
556 codes, too, such as C<Ctrl-Shift-1-d> to type the default telnet escape
559 =head3 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
561 Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
562 some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've
563 heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A
564 quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
567 =head3 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
569 Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
570 Backspace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
571 question) there are two standard values that can be used for
572 Backspace: C<^H> and C<^?>.
574 Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the debian
575 policy of using C<^?> when unsure, because it's the one and only correct
578 Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the value
579 of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode wasn't
580 started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), then the
581 system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in <termios.h>, will
582 be used (which may not be the same as your stty setting).
584 For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
594 Toggle with C<ESC [ 36 h> / C<ESC [ 36 l>.
596 For an existing rxvt-unicode:
606 This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
607 if you use Backspace = C<^H>, make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
608 properly reflects that.
610 The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace problem.
611 To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the Delete
612 key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for Execute
613 (C<ESC [ 3 ~>) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
615 Some other Backspace problems:
617 some editors use termcap/terminfo,
618 some editors (vim I'm told) expect Backspace = ^H,
619 GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
621 Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
623 =head3 I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
625 There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
626 you have run "configure" with the C<--disable-resources> option you can
627 use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with keysyms.
629 Here's an example for a URxvt session started using C<@@URXVT_NAME@@ -name URxvt>
631 URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
632 URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
633 URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
634 URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
635 URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
636 URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
637 URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
638 URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
639 URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
640 URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
641 URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
642 URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
643 URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
644 URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
645 URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
646 URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
647 URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
648 URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
649 URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
650 URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
652 See some more examples in the documentation for the B<keysym> resource.
654 =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
663 Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various possible
664 keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the keys as
665 required for your particular machine.
668 =head2 Terminal Configuration
670 =head3 Can I see a typical configuration?
672 The default configuration tries to be xterm-like, which I don't like that
673 much, but it's least surprise to regular users.
675 As a rxvt or rxvt-unicode user, you are practically supposed to invest
676 time into customising your terminal. To get you started, here is the
677 author's .Xdefaults entries, with comments on what they do. It's certainly
678 not I<typical>, but what's typical...
680 URxvt.cutchars: "()*,<>[]{}|'
681 URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/tmp/xxx
683 These are just for testing stuff.
685 URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8
686 URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None
688 This tells rxvt-unicode to use a special locale when communicating with
689 the X Input Method, and also tells it to only use the OnTheSpot pre-edit
690 type, which requires the C<xim-onthespot> perl extension but rewards me
691 with correct-looking fonts.
693 URxvt.perl-lib: /root/lib/urxvt
694 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,selection-autotransform,selection-pastebin,xim-onthespot,remote-clipboard
695 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ( at .*? line \\d+)
696 URxvt.selection.pattern-1: ^(/[^:]+):\
697 URxvt.selection-autotransform.0: s/^([^:[:space:]]+):(\\d+):?$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
698 URxvt.selection-autotransform.1: s/^ at (.*?) line (\\d+)$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
700 This is my perl configuration. The first two set the perl library
701 directory and also tells urxvt to use a large number of extensions. I
702 develop for myself mostly, so I actually use most of the extensions I
705 The selection stuff mainly makes the selection perl-error-message aware
706 and tells it to convert perl error messages into vi-commands to load the
707 relevant file and go tot he error line number.
709 URxvt.scrollstyle: plain
710 URxvt.secondaryScroll: true
712 As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the
713 author. The C<secondaryScroll> configures urxvt to scroll in full-screen
714 apps, like screen, so lines scrolled out of screen end up in urxvt's
717 URxvt.background: #000000
718 URxvt.foreground: gray90
720 URxvt.colorBD: #ffffff
721 URxvt.cursorColor: #e0e080
722 URxvt.throughColor: #8080f0
723 URxvt.highlightColor: #f0f0f0
725 Some colours. Not sure which ones are being used or even non-defaults, but
726 these are in my .Xdefaults. Most notably, they set foreground/background
727 to light gray/black, and also make sure that the colour 7 matches the
728 default foreground colour.
730 URxvt.underlineColor: yellow
732 Another colour, makes underline lines look different. Sometimes hurts, but
733 is mostly a nice effect.
735 URxvt.geometry: 154x36
736 URxvt.loginShell: false
738 URxvt.utmpInhibit: true
740 Uh, well, should be mostly self-explanatory. By specifying some defaults
741 manually, I can quickly switch them for testing.
743 URxvt.saveLines: 8192
745 A large scrollback buffer is essential. Really.
749 The only case I use it is for my IRC window, which I like to keep
750 iconified till people msg me (which beeps).
752 URxvt.visualBell: true
754 The audible bell is often annoying, especially when in a crowd.
758 Please don't hack my mutt! Ooops...
760 URxvt.pastableTabs: false
762 I once thought this is a great idea.
764 urxvt.font: 9x15bold,\
765 -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
766 -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
767 [codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic, \
768 xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:autohint=true, \
769 xft:Code2000:antialias=false
770 urxvt.boldFont: -xos4-terminus-bold-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-15
771 urxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
772 urxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
774 I wrote rxvt-unicode to be able to specify fonts exactly. So don't be
775 overwhelmed. A special note: the C<9x15bold> mentioned above is actually
776 the version from XFree-3.3, as XFree-4 replaced it by a totally different
777 font (different glyphs for C<;> and many other harmless characters),
778 while the second font is actually the C<9x15bold> from XFree4/XOrg. The
779 bold version has less chars than the medium version, so I use it for rare
780 characters, too. When editing sources with vim, I use italic for comments
781 and other stuff, which looks quite good with Bitstream Vera anti-aliased.
783 Terminus is a quite bad font (many very wrong glyphs), but for most of my
784 purposes, it works, and gives a different look, as my normal (Non-bold)
785 font is already bold, and I want to see a difference between bold and
788 Please note that I used the C<urxvt> instance name and not the C<URxvt>
789 class name. Thats because I use different configs for different purposes,
790 for example, my IRC window is started with C<-name IRC>, and uses these
794 IRC*geometry: 87x12+535+542
798 IRC*boldFont: suxuseuro
800 IRC*keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]710;suxuseuro\007\033]711;suxuseuro\007
801 IRC*keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]710;9x15bold\007\033]711;9x15bold\007
803 C<Alt-Shift-1> and C<Alt-Shift-2> switch between two different font
804 sizes. C<suxuseuro> allows me to keep an eye (and actually read)
805 stuff while keeping a very small window. If somebody pastes something
806 complicated (e.g. japanese), I temporarily switch to a larger font.
808 The above is all in my C<.Xdefaults> (I don't use C<.Xresources> nor
809 C<xrdb>). I also have some resources in a separate C<.Xdefaults-hostname>
810 file for different hosts, for example, on ym main desktop, I use:
812 URxvt.keysym.C-M-q: command:\033[3;5;5t
813 URxvt.keysym.C-M-y: command:\033[3;5;606t
814 URxvt.keysym.C-M-e: command:\033[3;1605;5t
815 URxvt.keysym.C-M-c: command:\033[3;1605;606t
816 URxvt.keysym.C-M-p: perl:test
818 The first for keysym definitions allow me to quickly bring some windows
819 in the layout I like most. Ion users might start laughing but will stop
820 immediately when I tell them that I use my own Fvwm2 module for much the
821 same effect as Ion provides, and I only very rarely use the above key
824 =head3 Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
826 Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
827 applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
828 resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
829 ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
830 F<$HOME/.Xdefaults> when no resources are attached to the display.
832 If you have or use an F<$HOME/.Xresources> file, chances are that
833 resources are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to
834 re-login after every change (or run F<xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources>).
836 Also consider the form resources have to use:
838 URxvt.resource: value
840 If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
841 specifying resources), make sure you understand whether and why it
842 works. If unsure, use the form above.
844 =head3 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
846 The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
847 as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often arises).
849 The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this can
850 be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp and works as user and admin):
852 REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
853 infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "mkdir -p .terminfo && cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
855 ... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system,
857 One some systems you might need to set C<$TERMINFO> to the full path of
858 F<$HOME/.terminfo> for this to work.
860 If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set
861 C<TERM=rxvt> or even C<TERM=xterm>, and live with the small number of
862 problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different
863 colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice
864 quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, though.
866 If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) you
867 can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or use a
872 If you don't plan to use B<rxvt> (quite common...) you could also replace
873 the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use C<TERM=rxvt>.
875 =head3 C<tic> outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
877 Most likely it's the empty definition for C<enacs=>. Just replace it by
878 C<enacs=\E[0@> and try again.
880 =head3 C<bash>'s readline does not work correctly under @@URXVT_NAME@@.
884 =head3 I need a termcap file entry.
886 One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
887 systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
888 library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
891 You could use rxvt's termcap entry with reasonable results in many cases.
892 You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp program
895 infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
897 Or you could use this termcap entry, generated by the command above:
899 rxvt-unicode|rxvt-unicode terminal (X Window System):\
900 :am:bw:eo:km:mi:ms:xn:xo:\
901 :co#80:it#8:li#24:lm#0:\
902 :AL=\E[%dL:DC=\E[%dP:DL=\E[%dM:DO=\E[%dB:IC=\E[%d@:\
903 :K1=\EOw:K2=\EOu:K3=\EOy:K4=\EOq:K5=\EOs:LE=\E[%dD:\
904 :RI=\E[%dC:SF=\E[%dS:SR=\E[%dT:UP=\E[%dA:ae=\E(B:al=\E[L:\
905 :as=\E(0:bl=^G:cd=\E[J:ce=\E[K:cl=\E[H\E[2J:\
906 :cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:cr=^M:cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:ct=\E[3g:dc=\E[P:\
907 :dl=\E[M:do=^J:ec=\E[%dX:ei=\E[4l:ho=\E[H:\
908 :i1=\E[?47l\E=\E[?1l:ic=\E[@:im=\E[4h:\
909 :is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;3;4;6l\E[4l:\
910 :k1=\E[11~:k2=\E[12~:k3=\E[13~:k4=\E[14~:k5=\E[15~:\
911 :k6=\E[17~:k7=\E[18~:k8=\E[19~:k9=\E[20~:kD=\E[3~:\
912 :kI=\E[2~:kN=\E[6~:kP=\E[5~:kb=\177:kd=\EOB:ke=\E[?1l\E>:\
913 :kh=\E[7~:kl=\EOD:kr=\EOC:ks=\E[?1h\E=:ku=\EOA:le=^H:\
914 :mb=\E[5m:md=\E[1m:me=\E[m\017:mr=\E[7m:nd=\E[C:rc=\E8:\
915 :sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\
916 :te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\
917 :us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
920 =head3 Why does C<ls> no longer have coloured output?
922 The C<ls> in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
923 decide whether a terminal has colour, but uses its own configuration
924 file. Needless to say, C<rxvt-unicode> is not in its default file (among
925 with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
929 to C</etc/DIR_COLORS> or simply add:
931 alias ls='ls --color=auto'
933 to your C<.profile> or C<.bashrc>.
935 =head3 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
939 =head3 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
943 =head3 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
945 Make sure you are using C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>. Some pre-packaged
946 distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode
947 by setting C<TERM> to C<rxvt>, which doesn't have these extra
948 features. Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian
949 GNU/Linux) furthermore fail to even install the C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
950 file, so you will need to install it on your own (See the question B<When
951 I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?> on
955 =head2 Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues
957 =head3 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
961 =head3 Unicode does not seem to work?
963 If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
964 getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output is
965 subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
967 Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same C<LC_CTYPE> setting as the
968 programs running in it. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the C<C> locale,
969 while the login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the
970 locale to something else, e.g. C<en_GB.UTF-8>. Needless to say, this is
971 not going to work, and is the most common cause for problems.
973 The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely run
974 into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your .profile.
976 printf '\33]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE" # $LANG or $LC_ALL are worth a try, too
978 If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a C<LC_CTYPE> specification not
979 supported on your systems. Some systems have a C<locale> command which
980 displays this (also, C<perl -e0> can be used to check locale settings, as
981 it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays something
984 locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ...
986 Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.
988 If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
989 you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
992 =head3 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
996 =head3 Is there an option to switch encodings?
998 Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
999 specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know about
1000 UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
1002 The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for selecting
1003 the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating this to all
1004 applications so everybody agrees on character properties such as width
1005 and code number. This mechanism is the I<locale>. Applications not using
1006 that info will have problems (for example, C<xterm> gets the width of
1007 characters wrong as it uses its own, locale-independent table under all
1010 Rxvt-unicode uses the C<LC_CTYPE> locale category to select encoding. All
1011 programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
1012 interpretation of characters.
1014 Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
1015 is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
1017 On most systems, the content of the C<LC_CTYPE> environment variable
1018 contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
1019 locale. Common names for locales are C<en_US.UTF-8>, C<de_DE.ISO-8859-15>,
1020 C<ja_JP.EUC-JP>, i.e. C<language_country.encoding>, but other forms
1021 (i.e. C<de> or C<german>) are also common.
1023 Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for
1024 the encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings,
1025 i.e. C<de_DE.UTF-8> and C<ja_JP.UTF-8> are the normally same to
1028 If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
1029 rxvt-unicode with the correct C<LC_CTYPE> category.
1031 =head3 Can I switch locales at runtime?
1033 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
1034 rxvt-unicode's idea of C<LC_CTYPE>.
1036 printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
1038 See also the previous answer.
1040 Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in
1041 one locale (e.g. C<de_DE.UTF-8>) but some programs don't support it
1042 (e.g. UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start C<xjdic>, which
1043 first switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
1045 printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
1047 printf '\33]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
1049 You can also use xterm's C<luit> program, which usually works fine, except
1050 for some locales where character width differs between program- and
1051 rxvt-unicode-locales.
1053 =head3 I have problems getting my input method working.
1055 Try a search engine, as this is slightly different for every input method server.
1057 Here is a checklist:
1061 =item - Make sure your locale I<and> the imLocale are supported on your OS.
1063 Try C<locale -a> or check the documentation for your OS.
1065 =item - Make sure your locale or imLocale matches a locale supported by your XIM.
1067 For example, B<kinput2> does not support UTF-8 locales, you should use
1068 C<ja_JP.EUC-JP> or equivalent.
1070 =item - Make sure your XIM server is actually running.
1072 =item - Make sure the C<XMODIFIERS> environment variable is set correctly when I<starting> rxvt-unicode.
1074 When you want to use e.g. B<kinput2>, it must be set to
1075 C<@im=kinput2>. For B<scim>, use C<@im=SCIM>. You can see what input
1076 method servers are running with this command:
1078 xprop -root XIM_SERVERS
1084 =head3 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
1086 You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of the
1087 terminal, using the resource C<imlocale>:
1089 URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
1091 Now you can start your terminal with C<LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8> and still
1092 use your input method. Please note, however, that, depending on your Xlib
1093 version, you may not be able to input characters outside C<EUC-JP> in a
1094 normal way then, as your input method limits you.
1096 =head3 Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
1098 Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
1099 design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
1100 leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
1101 exit time. B<kinput2> (and derived input methods) generally succeeds,
1102 while B<SCIM> (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however,
1103 crashes cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
1105 So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
1108 =head2 Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
1110 =head3 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
1112 The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
1113 patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
1114 unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
1115 the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
1116 version (L<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
1117 the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific to
1118 Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian Bug
1119 Tracking System (use C<reportbug> to report the bug).
1121 For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
1122 probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
1123 bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users that
1124 might encounter the same issue.
1126 =head3 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
1128 You should build one binary with the default options. F<configure>
1129 now enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
1130 runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enabling them,
1131 except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter should
1132 be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely more in
1133 the future) depends on it.
1135 You should not overwrite the C<perl-ext-common> snd C<perl-ext> resources
1136 system-wide (except maybe with C<defaults>). This will result in useful
1137 behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
1138 C<perl-ext-common> resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
1139 perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
1141 If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal
1142 one with C<--disable-everything> (very useful) and a maximal one with
1143 C<--enable-everything> (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
1144 encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
1146 =head3 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
1148 It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
1149 install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
1151 When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
1152 into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
1153 systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
1154 immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
1155 privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
1156 things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
1158 This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very early
1159 and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before main(), or
1160 things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should result in very
1163 =head3 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
1165 Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> to be defined
1166 in your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
1167 whether it defines the symbol or not. C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> requires that
1168 B<wchar_t> is represented as unicode.
1170 As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symbol nor
1171 does it support it. Instead, it uses its own internal representation of
1172 B<wchar_t>. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.
1174 However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in C<POSIX>, C<ISO-8859-1> and
1175 C<UTF-8> locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as B<wchar_t>.
1177 C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> is the only sane way to support multi-language
1178 apps in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized)
1179 representation of B<wchar_t> makes it impossible to convert between
1180 B<wchar_t> (as used by X11 and your applications) and any other encoding
1181 without implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and every locale. There
1182 simply are no APIs to convert B<wchar_t> into anything except the current
1185 Some applications (such as the formidable B<mlterm>) work around this
1186 by carrying their own replacement functions for character set handling
1187 with them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or doing multiple
1188 conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the OS implements
1189 encodings slightly different than the terminal emulator).
1191 The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
1192 system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
1193 complete replacements for them :)
1195 =head3 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
1197 rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using
1198 the X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no
1199 longer supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a
1200 single font). I recommend starting the X-server in C<-multiwindow> or
1201 C<-rootless> mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
1202 old libW11 emulation.
1204 At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any multi-byte
1205 encodings (you might try C<LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8>), so you are likely limited
1208 =head3 Character widths are not correct.
1210 urxvt uses the system wcwidth function to know the information about
1211 the width of characters, so on systems with incorrect locale data you
1212 will likely get bad results. Two notorious examples are Solaris 9,
1213 where single-width characters like U+2514 are reported as double-width,
1214 and Darwin 8, where combining chars are reported having width 1.
1216 The solution is to upgrade your system or switch to a better one. A
1217 possibly working workaround is to use a wcwidth implementation like
1219 http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/wcwidth.c
1221 =head1 RXVT-UNICODE TECHNICAL REFERENCE
1223 The rest of this document describes various technical aspects of
1224 B<rxvt-unicode>. First the description of supported command sequences,
1225 followed by pixmap support and last by a description of all features
1226 selectable at C<configure> time.
1234 The literal character c.
1238 A single (required) character.
1242 A single (usually optional) numeric parameter, composed of one or more
1247 A multiple numeric parameter composed of any number of single numeric
1248 parameters, separated by C<;> character(s).
1252 A text parameter composed of printable characters.
1262 Enquiry (Ctrl-E) = Send Device Attributes (DA)
1263 request attributes from terminal. See B<< C<ESC [ Ps c> >>.
1275 Horizontal Tab (HT) (Ctrl-I)
1279 Line Feed or New Line (NL) (Ctrl-J)
1283 Vertical Tab (Ctrl-K) same as B<< C<LF> >>
1287 Form Feed or New Page (NP) (Ctrl-L) same as B<< C<LF> >>
1291 Carriage Return (Ctrl-M)
1295 Shift Out (Ctrl-N), invokes the G1 character set.
1296 Switch to Alternate Character Set
1300 Shift In (Ctrl-O), invokes the G0 character set (the default).
1301 Switch to Standard Character Set
1309 =head2 Escape Sequences
1313 =item B<< C<ESC # 8> >>
1315 DEC Screen Alignment Test (DECALN)
1317 =item B<< C<ESC 7> >>
1321 =item B<< C<ESC 8> >>
1325 =item B<< C<ESC => >>
1327 Application Keypad (SMKX). See also next sequence.
1329 =item B<<< C<< ESC >> >>>
1331 Normal Keypad (RMKX)
1333 B<Note:> If the numeric keypad is activated, eg, B<Num_Lock> has been
1334 pressed, numbers or control functions are generated by the numeric keypad
1337 =item B<< C<ESC D> >>
1341 =item B<< C<ESC E> >>
1345 =item B<< C<ESC H> >>
1349 =item B<< C<ESC M> >>
1353 =item B<< C<ESC N> >>
1355 Single Shift Select of G2 Character Set (SS2): affects next character
1356 only I<unimplemented>
1358 =item B<< C<ESC O> >>
1360 Single Shift Select of G3 Character Set (SS3): affects next character
1361 only I<unimplemented>
1363 =item B<< C<ESC Z> >>
1365 Obsolete form of returns: B<< C<ESC [ ? 1 ; 2 C> >> I<rxvt-unicode compile-time option>
1367 =item B<< C<ESC c> >>
1371 =item B<< C<ESC n> >>
1373 Invoke the G2 Character Set (LS2)
1375 =item B<< C<ESC o> >>
1377 Invoke the G3 Character Set (LS3)
1379 =item B<< C<ESC ( C> >>
1381 Designate G0 Character Set (ISO 2022), see below for values of C<C>.
1383 =item B<< C<ESC ) C> >>
1385 Designate G1 Character Set (ISO 2022), see below for values of C<C>.
1387 =item B<< C<ESC * C> >>
1389 Designate G2 Character Set (ISO 2022), see below for values of C<C>.
1391 =item B<< C<ESC + C> >>
1393 Designate G3 Character Set (ISO 2022), see below for values of C<C>.
1395 =item B<< C<ESC $ C> >>
1397 Designate Kanji Character Set
1399 Where B<< C<C> >> is one of:
1403 C = C<0> DEC Special Character and Line Drawing Set
1404 C = C<A> United Kingdom (UK)
1405 C = C<B> United States (USASCII)
1406 C = C<< < >> Multinational character set I<unimplemented>
1407 C = C<5> Finnish character set I<unimplemented>
1408 C = C<C> Finnish character set I<unimplemented>
1409 C = C<K> German character set I<unimplemented>
1417 =head2 CSI (Command Sequence Introducer) Sequences
1421 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps @> >>
1423 Insert B<< C<Ps> >> (Blank) Character(s) [default: 1] (ICH)X<ESCOBPsA>
1425 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps A> >>
1427 Cursor Up B<< C<Ps> >> Times [default: 1] (CUU)
1429 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps B> >>
1431 Cursor Down B<< C<Ps> >> Times [default: 1] (CUD)X<ESCOBPsC>
1433 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps C> >>
1435 Cursor Forward B<< C<Ps> >> Times [default: 1] (CUF)
1437 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps D> >>
1439 Cursor Backward B<< C<Ps> >> Times [default: 1] (CUB)
1441 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps E> >>
1443 Cursor Down B<< C<Ps> >> Times [default: 1] and to first column
1445 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps F> >>
1447 Cursor Up B<< C<Ps> >> Times [default: 1] and to first columnX<ESCOBPsG>
1449 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps G> >>
1451 Cursor to Column B<< C<Ps> >> (HPA)
1453 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps;Ps H> >>
1455 Cursor Position [row;column] [default: 1;1] (CUP)
1457 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps I> >>
1459 Move forward B<< C<Ps> >> tab stops [default: 1]
1461 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps J> >>
1463 Erase in Display (ED)
1467 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> Clear Below (default)
1468 B<< C<Ps = 1> >> Clear Above
1469 B<< C<Ps = 2> >> Clear All
1473 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps K> >>
1479 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> Clear to Right (default)
1480 B<< C<Ps = 1> >> Clear to Left
1481 B<< C<Ps = 2> >> Clear All
1485 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps L> >>
1487 Insert B<< C<Ps> >> Line(s) [default: 1] (IL)
1489 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps M> >>
1491 Delete B<< C<Ps> >> Line(s) [default: 1] (DL)
1493 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps P> >>
1495 Delete B<< C<Ps> >> Character(s) [default: 1] (DCH)
1497 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps;Ps;Ps;Ps;Ps T> >>
1499 Initiate . I<unimplemented> Parameters are
1500 [func;startx;starty;firstrow;lastrow].
1502 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps W> >>
1508 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> Tab Set (HTS)
1509 B<< C<Ps = 2> >> Tab Clear (TBC), Clear Current Column (default)
1510 B<< C<Ps = 5> >> Tab Clear (TBC), Clear All
1514 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps X> >>
1516 Erase B<< C<Ps> >> Character(s) [default: 1] (ECH)
1518 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps Z> >>
1520 Move backward B<< C<Ps> >> [default: 1] tab stops
1522 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps '> >>
1524 See B<< C<ESC [ Ps G> >>
1526 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps a> >>
1528 See B<< C<ESC [ Ps C> >>
1530 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps c> >>
1532 Send Device Attributes (DA)
1533 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> (or omitted): request attributes from terminal
1534 returns: B<< C<ESC [ ? 1 ; 2 c> >> (``I am a VT100 with Advanced Video
1537 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps d> >>
1539 Cursor to Line B<< C<Ps> >> (VPA)
1541 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps e> >>
1543 See B<< C<ESC [ Ps A> >>
1545 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps;Ps f> >>
1547 Horizontal and Vertical Position [row;column] (HVP) [default: 1;1]
1549 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps g> >>
1555 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> Clear Current Column (default)
1556 B<< C<Ps = 3> >> Clear All (TBC)
1560 =item B<< C<ESC [ Pm h> >>
1562 Set Mode (SM). See B<< C<ESC [ Pm l> >> sequence for description of C<Pm>.
1564 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps i> >>
1566 Printing. See also the C<print-pipe> resource.
1570 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> print screen (MC0)
1571 B<< C<Ps = 4> >> disable transparent print mode (MC4)
1572 B<< C<Ps = 5> >> enable transparent print mode (MC5)
1576 =item B<< C<ESC [ Pm l> >>
1582 =item B<< C<Ps = 4> >>
1586 B<< C<h> >> Insert Mode (SMIR)
1587 B<< C<l> >> Replace Mode (RMIR)
1591 =item B<< C<Ps = 20> >> (partially implemented)
1595 B<< C<h> >> Automatic Newline (LNM)
1596 B<< C<l> >> Normal Linefeed (LNM)
1602 =item B<< C<ESC [ Pm m> >>
1604 Character Attributes (SGR)
1608 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> Normal (default)
1609 B<< C<Ps = 1 / 21> >> On / Off Bold (bright fg)
1610 B<< C<Ps = 3 / 23> >> On / Off Italic
1611 B<< C<Ps = 4 / 24> >> On / Off Underline
1612 B<< C<Ps = 5 / 25> >> On / Off Slow Blink (bright bg)
1613 B<< C<Ps = 6 / 26> >> On / Off Rapid Blink (bright bg)
1614 B<< C<Ps = 7 / 27> >> On / Off Inverse
1615 B<< C<Ps = 8 / 27> >> On / Off Invisible (NYI)
1616 B<< C<Ps = 30 / 40> >> fg/bg Black
1617 B<< C<Ps = 31 / 41> >> fg/bg Red
1618 B<< C<Ps = 32 / 42> >> fg/bg Green
1619 B<< C<Ps = 33 / 43> >> fg/bg Yellow
1620 B<< C<Ps = 34 / 44> >> fg/bg Blue
1621 B<< C<Ps = 35 / 45> >> fg/bg Magenta
1622 B<< C<Ps = 36 / 46> >> fg/bg Cyan
1623 B<< C<Ps = 38;5 / 48;5> >> set fg/bg to color #m (ISO 8613-6)
1624 B<< C<Ps = 37 / 47> >> fg/bg White
1625 B<< C<Ps = 39 / 49> >> fg/bg Default
1626 B<< C<Ps = 90 / 100> >> fg/bg Bright Black
1627 B<< C<Ps = 91 / 101> >> fg/bg Bright Red
1628 B<< C<Ps = 92 / 102> >> fg/bg Bright Green
1629 B<< C<Ps = 93 / 103> >> fg/bg Bright Yellow
1630 B<< C<Ps = 94 / 104> >> fg/bg Bright Blue
1631 B<< C<Ps = 95 / 105> >> fg/bg Bright Magenta
1632 B<< C<Ps = 96 / 106> >> fg/bg Bright Cyan
1633 B<< C<Ps = 97 / 107> >> fg/bg Bright White
1634 B<< C<Ps = 99 / 109> >> fg/bg Bright Default
1638 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps n> >>
1640 Device Status Report (DSR)
1644 B<< C<Ps = 5> >> Status Report B<< C<ESC [ 0 n> >> (``OK'')
1645 B<< C<Ps = 6> >> Report Cursor Position (CPR) [row;column] as B<< C<ESC [ r ; c R> >>
1646 B<< C<Ps = 7> >> Request Display Name
1647 B<< C<Ps = 8> >> Request Version Number (place in window title)
1651 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps;Ps r> >>
1653 Set Scrolling Region [top;bottom]
1654 [default: full size of window] (CSR)
1656 =item B<< C<ESC [ s> >>
1660 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps;Pt t> >>
1666 B<< C<Ps = 1> >> Deiconify (map) window
1667 B<< C<Ps = 2> >> Iconify window
1668 B<< C<Ps = 3> >> B<< C<ESC [ 3 ; X ; Y t> >> Move window to (X|Y)
1669 B<< C<Ps = 4> >> B<< C<ESC [ 4 ; H ; W t> >> Resize to WxH pixels
1670 B<< C<Ps = 5> >> Raise window
1671 B<< C<Ps = 6> >> Lower window
1672 B<< C<Ps = 7> >> Refresh screen once
1673 B<< C<Ps = 8> >> B<< C<ESC [ 8 ; R ; C t> >> Resize to R rows and C columns
1674 B<< C<Ps = 11> >> Report window state (responds with C<Ps = 1> or C<Ps = 2>)
1675 B<< C<Ps = 13> >> Report window position (responds with C<Ps = 3>)
1676 B<< C<Ps = 14> >> Report window pixel size (responds with C<Ps = 4>)
1677 B<< C<Ps = 18> >> Report window text size (responds with C<Ps = 7>)
1678 B<< C<Ps = 19> >> Currently the same as C<Ps = 18>, but responds with C<Ps = 9>
1679 B<< C<Ps = 20> >> Reports icon label (B<< C<ESC ] L NAME \234> >>)
1680 B<< C<Ps = 21> >> Reports window title (B<< C<ESC ] l NAME \234> >>)
1681 B<< C<Ps = 24..> >> Set window height to C<Ps> rows
1685 =item B<< C<ESC [ u> >>
1689 =item B<< C<ESC [ Ps x> >>
1691 Request Terminal Parameters (DECREQTPARM)
1697 =head2 DEC Private Modes
1701 =item B<< C<ESC [ ? Pm h> >>
1703 DEC Private Mode Set (DECSET)
1705 =item B<< C<ESC [ ? Pm l> >>
1707 DEC Private Mode Reset (DECRST)
1709 =item B<< C<ESC [ ? Pm r> >>
1711 Restore previously saved DEC Private Mode Values.
1713 =item B<< C<ESC [ ? Pm s> >>
1715 Save DEC Private Mode Values.
1717 =item B<< C<ESC [ ? Pm t> >>
1719 Toggle DEC Private Mode Values (rxvt extension). I<where>
1723 =item B<< C<Pm = 1> >> (DECCKM)
1727 B<< C<h> >> Application Cursor Keys
1728 B<< C<l> >> Normal Cursor Keys
1732 =item B<< C<Pm = 2> >> (ANSI/VT52 mode)
1736 B<< C<h> >> Enter VT52 mode
1737 B<< C<l> >> Enter VT52 mode
1741 =item B<< C<Pm = 3> >>
1745 B<< C<h> >> 132 Column Mode (DECCOLM)
1746 B<< C<l> >> 80 Column Mode (DECCOLM)
1750 =item B<< C<Pm = 4> >>
1754 B<< C<h> >> Smooth (Slow) Scroll (DECSCLM)
1755 B<< C<l> >> Jump (Fast) Scroll (DECSCLM)
1759 =item B<< C<Pm = 5> >>
1763 B<< C<h> >> Reverse Video (DECSCNM)
1764 B<< C<l> >> Normal Video (DECSCNM)
1768 =item B<< C<Pm = 6> >>
1772 B<< C<h> >> Origin Mode (DECOM)
1773 B<< C<l> >> Normal Cursor Mode (DECOM)
1777 =item B<< C<Pm = 7> >>
1781 B<< C<h> >> Wraparound Mode (DECAWM)
1782 B<< C<l> >> No Wraparound Mode (DECAWM)
1786 =item B<< C<Pm = 8> >> I<unimplemented>
1790 B<< C<h> >> Auto-repeat Keys (DECARM)
1791 B<< C<l> >> No Auto-repeat Keys (DECARM)
1795 =item B<< C<Pm = 9> >> X10 XTerm
1799 B<< C<h> >> Send Mouse X & Y on button press.
1800 B<< C<l> >> No mouse reporting.
1804 =item B<< C<Pm = 25> >>
1808 B<< C<h> >> Visible cursor {cnorm/cvvis}
1809 B<< C<l> >> Invisible cursor {civis}
1813 =item B<< C<Pm = 30> >>
1817 B<< C<h> >> scrollBar visisble
1818 B<< C<l> >> scrollBar invisisble
1822 =item B<< C<Pm = 35> >> (B<rxvt>)
1826 B<< C<h> >> Allow XTerm Shift+key sequences
1827 B<< C<l> >> Disallow XTerm Shift+key sequences
1831 =item B<< C<Pm = 38> >> I<unimplemented>
1833 Enter Tektronix Mode (DECTEK)
1835 =item B<< C<Pm = 40> >>
1839 B<< C<h> >> Allow 80/132 Mode
1840 B<< C<l> >> Disallow 80/132 Mode
1844 =item B<< C<Pm = 44> >> I<unimplemented>
1848 B<< C<h> >> Turn On Margin Bell
1849 B<< C<l> >> Turn Off Margin Bell
1853 =item B<< C<Pm = 45> >> I<unimplemented>
1857 B<< C<h> >> Reverse-wraparound Mode
1858 B<< C<l> >> No Reverse-wraparound Mode
1862 =item B<< C<Pm = 46> >> I<unimplemented>
1864 =item B<< C<Pm = 47> >>
1868 B<< C<h> >> Use Alternate Screen Buffer
1869 B<< C<l> >> Use Normal Screen Buffer
1875 =item B<< C<Pm = 66> >>
1879 B<< C<h> >> Application Keypad (DECPAM) == C<ESC =>
1880 B<< C<l> >> Normal Keypad (DECPNM) == C<< ESC > >>
1884 =item B<< C<Pm = 67> >>
1888 B<< C<h> >> Backspace key sends B<< C<BS> (DECBKM) >>
1889 B<< C<l> >> Backspace key sends B<< C<DEL> >>
1893 =item B<< C<Pm = 1000> >> (X11 XTerm)
1897 B<< C<h> >> Send Mouse X & Y on button press and release.
1898 B<< C<l> >> No mouse reporting.
1902 =item B<< C<Pm = 1001> >> (X11 XTerm) I<unimplemented>
1906 B<< C<h> >> Use Hilite Mouse Tracking.
1907 B<< C<l> >> No mouse reporting.
1911 =item B<< C<Pm = 1002> >> (X11 XTerm)
1915 B<< C<h> >> Send Mouse X & Y on button press and release, and motion with a button pressed.
1916 B<< C<l> >> No mouse reporting.
1920 =item B<< C<Pm = 1003> >> (X11 XTerm)
1924 B<< C<h> >> Send Mouse X & Y on button press and release, and motion.
1925 B<< C<l> >> No mouse reporting.
1929 =item B<< C<Pm = 1010> >> (B<rxvt>)
1933 B<< C<h> >> Don't scroll to bottom on TTY output
1934 B<< C<l> >> Scroll to bottom on TTY output
1938 =item B<< C<Pm = 1011> >> (B<rxvt>)
1942 B<< C<h> >> Scroll to bottom when a key is pressed
1943 B<< C<l> >> Don't scroll to bottom when a key is pressed
1947 =item B<< C<Pm = 1021> >> (B<rxvt>)
1951 B<< C<h> >> Bold/italic implies high intensity (see option B<-is>)
1952 B<< C<l> >> Font styles have no effect on intensity (Compile styles)
1956 =item B<< C<Pm = 1047> >>
1960 B<< C<h> >> Use Alternate Screen Buffer
1961 B<< C<l> >> Use Normal Screen Buffer - clear Alternate Screen Buffer if returning from it
1965 =item B<< C<Pm = 1048> >>
1969 B<< C<h> >> Save cursor position
1970 B<< C<l> >> Restore cursor position
1974 =item B<< C<Pm = 1049> >>
1978 B<< C<h> >> Use Alternate Screen Buffer - clear Alternate Screen Buffer if switching to it
1979 B<< C<l> >> Use Normal Screen Buffer
1989 =head2 XTerm Operating System Commands
1993 =item B<< C<ESC ] Ps;Pt ST> >>
1995 Set XTerm Parameters. 8-bit ST: 0x9c, 7-bit ST sequence: ESC \ (0x1b,
1996 0x5c), backwards compatible terminator BEL (0x07) is also accepted. any
1997 B<octet> can be escaped by prefixing it with SYN (0x16, ^V).
2001 B<< C<Ps = 0> >> Change Icon Name and Window Title to B<< C<Pt> >>
2002 B<< C<Ps = 1> >> Change Icon Name to B<< C<Pt> >>
2003 B<< C<Ps = 2> >> Change Window Title to B<< C<Pt> >>
2004 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.
2005 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
2006 B<< C<Ps = 10> >> Change colour of text foreground to B<< C<Pt> >> B<(NB: may change in future)>
2007 B<< C<Ps = 11> >> Change colour of text background to B<< C<Pt> >> B<(NB: may change in future)>
2008 B<< C<Ps = 12> >> Change colour of text cursor foreground to B<< C<Pt> >>
2009 B<< C<Ps = 13> >> Change colour of mouse foreground to B<< C<Pt> >>
2010 B<< C<Ps = 17> >> Change colour of highlight characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
2011 B<< C<Ps = 18> >> Change colour of bold characters to B<< C<Pt> >> [deprecated, see 706]
2012 B<< C<Ps = 19> >> Change colour of underlined characters to B<< C<Pt> >> [deprecated, see 707]
2013 B<< C<Ps = 20> >> Change background pixmap parameters (see section BACKGROUND IMAGE) (Compile AfterImage).
2014 B<< C<Ps = 39> >> Change default foreground colour to B<< C<Pt> >>.
2015 B<< C<Ps = 46> >> Change Log File to B<< C<Pt> >> I<unimplemented>
2016 B<< C<Ps = 49> >> Change default background colour to B<< C<Pt> >>.
2017 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> >>
2018 B<< C<Ps = 55> >> Log all scrollback buffer and all of screen to B<< C<Pt> >>
2019 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).
2020 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>.
2021 B<< C<Ps = 704> >> Change colour of italic characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
2022 B<< C<Ps = 705> >> Change background pixmap tint colour to B<< C<Pt> >> (Compile transparency).
2023 B<< C<Ps = 706> >> Change colour of bold characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
2024 B<< C<Ps = 707> >> Change colour of underlined characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
2025 B<< C<Ps = 710> >> Set normal fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>. Same as C<Ps = 50>.
2026 B<< C<Ps = 711> >> Set bold fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>. Similar to C<Ps = 50> (Compile styles).
2027 B<< C<Ps = 712> >> Set italic fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>. Similar to C<Ps = 50> (Compile styles).
2028 B<< C<Ps = 713> >> Set bold-italic fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>. Similar to C<Ps = 50> (Compile styles).
2029 B<< C<Ps = 720> >> Move viewing window up by B<< C<Pt> >> lines, or clear scrollback buffer if C<Pt = 0> (Compile frills).
2030 B<< C<Ps = 721> >> Move viewing window down by B<< C<Pt> >> lines, or clear scrollback buffer if C<Pt = 0> (Compile frills).
2031 B<< C<Ps = 777> >> Call the perl extension with the given string, which should be of the form C<extension:parameters> (Compile perl).
2037 =head1 BACKGROUND IMAGE
2039 For the BACGROUND IMAGE XTerm escape sequence B<< C<ESC ] 20 ; Pt ST> >> then value
2040 of B<< C<Pt> >> can be the name of the background image file followed by a
2041 sequence of scaling/positioning commands separated by semi-colons. The
2042 scaling/positioning commands are as follows:
2046 =item query scale/position
2050 =item change scale and position
2054 B<WxH+X> (== B<WxH+X+X>)
2056 B<WxH> (same as B<WxH+50+50>)
2058 B<W+X+Y> (same as B<WxW+X+Y>)
2060 B<W+X> (same as B<WxW+X+X>)
2062 B<W> (same as B<WxW+50+50>)
2064 =item change position (absolute)
2068 B<=+X> (same as B<=+X+Y>)
2070 =item change position (relative)
2074 B<+X> (same as B<+X+Y>)
2076 =item rescale (relative)
2078 B<Wx0> -> B<W *= (W/100)>
2080 B<0xH> -> B<H *= (H/100)>
2088 =item B<\E]20;funky.jpg\a>
2090 load B<funky.jpg> as a tiled image
2092 =item B<\E]20;mona.jpg;100\a>
2094 load B<mona.jpg> with a scaling of 100%
2096 =item B<\E]20;;200;?\a>
2098 rescale the current pixmap to 200% and display the image geometry in
2104 =head1 Mouse Reporting
2108 =item B<< C<< ESC [ M <b> <x> <y> >> >>
2110 report mouse position
2114 The lower 2 bits of B<< C<< <b> >> >> indicate the button:
2118 =item Button = B<< C<< (<b> - SPACE) & 3 >> >>
2125 3 button released (X11 mouse report)
2131 The upper bits of B<< C<< <b> >> >> indicate the modifiers when the
2132 button was pressed and are added together (X11 mouse report only):
2136 =item State = B<< C<< (<b> - SPACE) & 60 >> >>
2143 32 Double Click I<(rxvt extension)>
2147 Col = B<< C<< <x> - SPACE >> >>
2149 Row = B<< C<< <y> - SPACE >> >>
2156 Note: B<Shift> + B<F1>-B<F10> generates B<F11>-B<F20>
2158 For the keypad, use B<Shift> to temporarily override Application-Keypad
2159 setting use B<Num_Lock> to toggle Application-Keypad setting if
2160 B<Num_Lock> is off, toggle Application-Keypad setting. Also note that
2161 values of B<Home>, B<End>, B<Delete> may have been compiled differently on
2166 B<Normal> B<Shift> B<Control> B<Ctrl+Shift>
2167 Tab ^I ESC [ Z ^I ESC [ Z
2168 BackSpace ^H ^? ^? ^?
2169 Find ESC [ 1 ~ ESC [ 1 $ ESC [ 1 ^ ESC [ 1 @
2170 Insert ESC [ 2 ~ I<paste> ESC [ 2 ^ ESC [ 2 @
2171 Execute ESC [ 3 ~ ESC [ 3 $ ESC [ 3 ^ ESC [ 3 @
2172 Select ESC [ 4 ~ ESC [ 4 $ ESC [ 4 ^ ESC [ 4 @
2173 Prior ESC [ 5 ~ I<scroll-up> ESC [ 5 ^ ESC [ 5 @
2174 Next ESC [ 6 ~ I<scroll-down> ESC [ 6 ^ ESC [ 6 @
2175 Home ESC [ 7 ~ ESC [ 7 $ ESC [ 7 ^ ESC [ 7 @
2176 End ESC [ 8 ~ ESC [ 8 $ ESC [ 8 ^ ESC [ 8 @
2177 Delete ESC [ 3 ~ ESC [ 3 $ ESC [ 3 ^ ESC [ 3 @
2178 F1 ESC [ 11 ~ ESC [ 23 ~ ESC [ 11 ^ ESC [ 23 ^
2179 F2 ESC [ 12 ~ ESC [ 24 ~ ESC [ 12 ^ ESC [ 24 ^
2180 F3 ESC [ 13 ~ ESC [ 25 ~ ESC [ 13 ^ ESC [ 25 ^
2181 F4 ESC [ 14 ~ ESC [ 26 ~ ESC [ 14 ^ ESC [ 26 ^
2182 F5 ESC [ 15 ~ ESC [ 28 ~ ESC [ 15 ^ ESC [ 28 ^
2183 F6 ESC [ 17 ~ ESC [ 29 ~ ESC [ 17 ^ ESC [ 29 ^
2184 F7 ESC [ 18 ~ ESC [ 31 ~ ESC [ 18 ^ ESC [ 31 ^
2185 F8 ESC [ 19 ~ ESC [ 32 ~ ESC [ 19 ^ ESC [ 32 ^
2186 F9 ESC [ 20 ~ ESC [ 33 ~ ESC [ 20 ^ ESC [ 33 ^
2187 F10 ESC [ 21 ~ ESC [ 34 ~ ESC [ 21 ^ ESC [ 34 ^
2188 F11 ESC [ 23 ~ ESC [ 23 $ ESC [ 23 ^ ESC [ 23 @
2189 F12 ESC [ 24 ~ ESC [ 24 $ ESC [ 24 ^ ESC [ 24 @
2190 F13 ESC [ 25 ~ ESC [ 25 $ ESC [ 25 ^ ESC [ 25 @
2191 F14 ESC [ 26 ~ ESC [ 26 $ ESC [ 26 ^ ESC [ 26 @
2192 F15 (Help) ESC [ 28 ~ ESC [ 28 $ ESC [ 28 ^ ESC [ 28 @
2193 F16 (Menu) ESC [ 29 ~ ESC [ 29 $ ESC [ 29 ^ ESC [ 29 @
2194 F17 ESC [ 31 ~ ESC [ 31 $ ESC [ 31 ^ ESC [ 31 @
2195 F18 ESC [ 32 ~ ESC [ 32 $ ESC [ 32 ^ ESC [ 32 @
2196 F19 ESC [ 33 ~ ESC [ 33 $ ESC [ 33 ^ ESC [ 33 @
2197 F20 ESC [ 34 ~ ESC [ 34 $ ESC [ 34 ^ ESC [ 34 @
2199 Up ESC [ A ESC [ a ESC O a ESC O A
2200 Down ESC [ B ESC [ b ESC O b ESC O B
2201 Right ESC [ C ESC [ c ESC O c ESC O C
2202 Left ESC [ D ESC [ d ESC O d ESC O D
2204 KP_F1 ESC O P ESC O P
2205 KP_F2 ESC O Q ESC O Q
2206 KP_F3 ESC O R ESC O R
2207 KP_F4 ESC O S ESC O S
2208 XK_KP_Multiply * ESC O j
2210 XK_KP_Separator , ESC O l
2211 XK_KP_Subtract - ESC O m
2212 XK_KP_Decimal . ESC O n
2213 XK_KP_Divide / ESC O o
2227 =head1 CONFIGURE OPTIONS
2229 General hint: if you get compile errors, then likely your configuration
2230 hasn't been tested well. Either try with C<--enable-everything> or use
2231 the default configuration (i.e. no C<--enable-xxx> or C<--disable-xxx>
2232 switches). Of course, you should always report when a combination doesn't
2233 work, so it can be fixed. Marc Lehmann <rxvt@schmorp.de>.
2239 =item --enable-everything
2241 Add (or remove) support for all non-multichoice options listed in "./configure
2244 You can specify this and then disable options you do not like by
2245 I<following> this with the appropriate C<--disable-...> arguments,
2246 or you can start with a minimal configuration by specifying
2247 C<--disable-everything> and than adding just the C<--enable-...> arguments
2250 =item --enable-xft (default: enabled)
2252 Add support for Xft (anti-aliases, among others) fonts. Xft fonts are
2253 slower and require lots of memory, but as long as you don't use them, you
2256 =item --enable-font-styles (default: on)
2258 Add support for B<bold>, I<italic> and B<< I<bold italic> >> font
2259 styles. The fonts can be set manually or automatically.
2261 =item --with-codesets=NAME,... (default: all)
2263 Compile in support for additional codeset (encoding) groups (C<eu>, C<vn>
2264 are always compiled in, which includes most 8-bit character sets). These
2265 codeset tables are used for driving X11 core fonts, they are not required
2266 for Xft fonts, although having them compiled in lets rxvt-unicode choose
2267 replacement fonts more intelligently. Compiling them in will make your
2268 binary bigger (all of together cost about 700kB), but it doesn't increase
2269 memory usage unless you use a font requiring one of these encodings.
2273 all all available codeset groups
2274 zh common chinese encodings
2275 zh_ext rarely used but very big chinese encodings
2276 jp common japanese encodings
2277 jp_ext rarely used but big japanese encodings
2282 =item --enable-xim (default: on)
2284 Add support for XIM (X Input Method) protocol. This allows using
2285 alternative input methods (e.g. kinput2) and will also correctly
2286 set up the input for people using dead keys or compose keys.
2288 =item --enable-unicode3 (default: off)
2290 Recommended to stay off unless you really need non-BMP characters.
2292 Enable direct support for displaying unicode codepoints above
2293 65535 (the basic multilingual page). This increases storage
2294 requirements per character from 2 to 4 bytes. X11 fonts do not yet
2295 support these extra characters, but Xft does.
2297 Please note that rxvt-unicode can store unicode code points >65535
2298 even without this flag, but the number of such characters is
2299 limited to a few thousand (shared with combining characters,
2300 see next switch), and right now rxvt-unicode cannot display them
2301 (input/output and cut&paste still work, though).
2303 =item --enable-combining (default: on)
2305 Enable automatic composition of combining characters into
2306 composite characters. This is required for proper viewing of text
2307 where accents are encoded as seperate unicode characters. This is
2308 done by using precomposited characters when available or creating
2309 new pseudo-characters when no precomposed form exists.
2311 Without --enable-unicode3, the number of additional precomposed
2312 characters is somewhat limited (the 6400 private use characters will be
2313 (ab-)used). With --enable-unicode3, no practical limit exists.
2315 This option will also enable storage (but not display) of characters
2316 beyond plane 0 (>65535) when --enable-unicode3 was not specified.
2318 The combining table also contains entries for arabic presentation forms,
2319 but these are not currently used. Bug me if you want these to be used (and
2320 tell me how these are to be used...).
2322 =item --enable-fallback(=CLASS) (default: Rxvt)
2324 When reading resource settings, also read settings for class CLASS. To
2325 disable resource fallback use --disable-fallback.
2327 =item --with-res-name=NAME (default: urxvt)
2329 Use the given name as default application name when
2330 reading resources. Specify --with-res-name=rxvt to replace rxvt.
2332 =item --with-res-class=CLASS (default: URxvt)
2334 Use the given class as default application class
2335 when reading resources. Specify --with-res-class=Rxvt to replace
2338 =item --enable-utmp (default: on)
2340 Write user and tty to utmp file (used by programs like F<w>) at
2341 start of rxvt execution and delete information when rxvt exits.
2343 =item --enable-wtmp (default: on)
2345 Write user and tty to wtmp file (used by programs like F<last>) at
2346 start of rxvt execution and write logout when rxvt exits. This
2347 option requires --enable-utmp to also be specified.
2349 =item --enable-lastlog (default: on)
2351 Write user and tty to lastlog file (used by programs like
2352 F<lastlogin>) at start of rxvt execution. This option requires
2353 --enable-utmp to also be specified.
2355 =item --enable-afterimage (default: on)
2357 Add support for libAfterImage to be used for transparency and background
2358 images. It adds support for many file formats including JPG, PNG,
2359 SVG, TIFF, GIF, XPM, BMP, ICO, XCF, TGA and AfterStep image XML
2360 (L<http://www.afterstep.org/visualdoc.php?show=asimagexml>).
2362 This option also adds such eye candy as blending an image over the root
2363 background, as well as dynamic scaling and bluring of background images.
2365 Note that with this option enabled, @@RXVT_NAME@@'s memory footprint might
2366 increase by a few megabytes even if no extra features are used (mostly due
2367 to third-party libraries used by libAI). Memory footprint may somewhat be
2368 lowered if libAfterImage is configured without support for SVG.
2370 =item --enable-transparency (default: on)
2372 Add support for backgrounds, creating illusion of transparency in the term.
2374 =item --enable-fading (default: on)
2376 Add support for fading the text when focus is lost.
2378 =item --enable-rxvt-scroll (default: on)
2380 Add support for the original rxvt scrollbar.
2382 =item --enable-next-scroll (default: on)
2384 Add support for a NeXT-like scrollbar.
2386 =item --enable-xterm-scroll (default: on)
2388 Add support for an Xterm-like scrollbar.
2390 =item --enable-plain-scroll (default: on)
2392 Add support for a very unobtrusive, plain-looking scrollbar that
2393 is the favourite of the rxvt-unicode author, having used it for
2396 =item --disable-backspace-key
2398 Removes any handling of the backspace key by us - let the X server do it.
2400 =item --disable-delete-key
2402 Removes any handling of the delete key by us - let the X server
2405 =item --disable-resources
2407 Removes any support for resource checking.
2409 =item --disable-swapscreen
2411 Remove support for secondary/swap screen.
2413 =item --enable-frills (default: on)
2415 Add support for many small features that are not essential but nice to
2416 have. Normally you want this, but for very small binaries you may want to
2419 A non-exhaustive list of features enabled by C<--enable-frills> (possibly
2420 in combination with other switches) is:
2423 EWMH-hints (pid, utf8 names) and protocols (ping)
2425 seperate underline colour (-underlineColor)
2426 settable border widths and borderless switch (-w, -b, -bl)
2427 visual depth selection (-depth)
2428 settable extra linespacing /-lsp)
2429 iso-14755 5.1 (basic) support
2430 tripleclickwords (-tcw)
2431 settable insecure mode (-insecure)
2432 keysym remapping support
2433 cursor blinking and underline cursor (-cb, -uc)
2434 XEmbed support (-embed)
2436 hold on exit (-hold)
2437 compile in built-in block graphics
2438 skip builtin block graphics (-sbg)
2439 separate highlightcolor support (-hc)
2441 It also enables some non-essential features otherwise disabled, such as:
2443 some round-trip time optimisations
2444 nearest color allocation on pseudocolor screens
2445 UTF8_STRING support for selection
2446 sgr modes 90..97 and 100..107
2447 backindex and forwardindex escape sequences
2448 view change/zero scrollback escape sequences
2449 locale switching escape sequence
2450 window op and some xterm/OSC escape sequences
2451 rectangular selections
2452 trailing space removal for selections
2453 verbose X error handling
2455 =item --enable-iso14755 (default: on)
2457 Enable extended ISO 14755 support (see @@RXVT_NAME@@(1), or
2458 F<doc/rxvt.1.txt>). Basic support (section 5.1) is enabled by
2459 C<--enable-frills>, while support for 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 is enabled with
2462 =item --enable-keepscrolling (default: on)
2464 Add support for continual scrolling of the display when you hold
2465 the mouse button down on a scrollbar arrow.
2467 =item --enable-selectionscrolling (default: on)
2469 Add support for scrolling when the selection moves to the top or
2470 bottom of the screen.
2472 =item --enable-mousewheel (default: on)
2474 Add support for scrolling via mouse wheel or buttons 4 & 5.
2476 =item --enable-slipwheeling (default: on)
2478 Add support for continual scrolling (using the mouse wheel as an
2479 accelerator) while the control key is held down. This option
2480 requires --enable-mousewheel to also be specified.
2482 =item --enable-smart-resize (default: off)
2484 Add smart growth/shrink behaviour when resizing.
2485 This should keep the window corner which is closest to a corner of
2486 the screen in a fixed position.
2488 =item --enable-text-blink (default: on)
2490 Add support for blinking text.
2492 =item --enable-pointer-blank (default: on)
2494 Add support to have the pointer disappear when typing or inactive.
2496 =item --enable-perl (default: on)
2498 Enable an embedded perl interpreter. See the B<@@RXVT_NAME@@perl(3)>
2499 manpage (F<doc/rxvtperl.txt>) for more info on this feature, or the
2500 files in F<src/perl-ext/> for the extensions that are installed by
2501 default. The perl interpreter that is used can be specified via the
2502 C<PERL> environment variable when running configure. Even when compiled
2503 in, perl will I<not> be initialised when all extensions have been disabled
2504 C<-pe "" --perl-ext-common "">, so it should be safe to enable from a
2505 resource standpoint.
2507 =item --with-afterimage-config=DIR
2509 Look for the libAfterImage config script in DIR.
2511 =item --with-name=NAME (default: urxvt)
2513 Set the basename for the installed binaries, resulting
2514 in C<urxvt>, C<urxvtd> etc.). Specify C<--with-name=rxvt> to replace with
2517 =item --with-term=NAME (default: rxvt-unicode)
2519 Change the environmental variable for the terminal to NAME.
2521 =item --with-terminfo=PATH
2523 Change the environmental variable for the path to the terminfo tree to
2528 Use the X Window System (pretty much default, eh?).
2534 Marc Lehmann <rxvt@schmorp.de> converted this document to pod and
2535 reworked it from the original Rxvt documentation, which was done by Geoff
2536 Wing <gcw@pobox.com>, who in turn used the XTerm documentation and other