2 RXVT REFERENCE - FAQ, command sequences and other background information
4 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
5 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
6 The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
7 sequence "ESC[8n" sets the window title to the version number.
9 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
10 The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely
11 available as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same
12 problem often arises).
14 The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo,
15 this can be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp):
17 REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
18 infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
20 ... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system,
22 If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set
23 "TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of
24 problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and
25 different colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen
26 applications. It's a nice quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases,
29 If you always want to do this you can either recompile rxvt-unicode
30 with the desired TERM value or use a resource to set it:
34 If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also
35 replace the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one.
37 I need a termcap file entry.
38 You could use rxvt's termcap entry with resonable results in many
39 cases. You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's
40 infocmp program like this:
42 infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
44 OR you could this termcap entry:
46 rxvt-unicode|rxvt-unicode terminal (X Window System):\
47 :am:bw:eo:km:mi:ms:xn:xo:\
49 :AL=\E[%dL:DC=\E[%dP:DL=\E[%dM:DO=\E[%dB:IC=\E[%d@:\
50 :K1=\EOw:K2=\EOu:K3=\EOy:K4=\EOq:K5=\EOs:LE=\E[%dD:\
51 :RI=\E[%dC:SF=\E[%dS:SR=\E[%dT:UP=\E[%dA:ae=^O:al=\E[L:\
52 :as=^N:bl=^G:cd=\E[J:ce=\E[K:cl=\E[H\E[2J:cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:\
53 :cr=^M:cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:ct=\E[3g:dc=\E[P:dl=\E[M:do=^J:\
54 :ec=\E[%dX:ei=\E[4l:ho=\E[H:i1=\E[?47l\E=\E[?1l:ic=\E[@:\
55 :im=\E[4h:is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;3;4;6l\E[4l:\
56 :k0=\E[21~:k1=\E[11~:k2=\E[12~:k3=\E[13~:k4=\E[14~:\
57 :k5=\E[15~:k6=\E[17~:k7=\E[18~:k8=\E[19~:k9=\E[20~:\
58 :kD=\E[3~:kI=\E[2~:kN=\E[6~:kP=\E[5~:kb=\177:kd=\EOB:\
59 :ke=\E[?1l\E>:kh=\E[7~:kl=\EOD:kr=\EOC:ks=\E[?1h\E=:\
60 :ku=\EOA:le=^H:mb=\E[5m:md=\E[1m:me=\E[m\017:mr=\E[7m:\
61 :nd=\E[C:rc=\E8:sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:\
62 :st=\EH:ta=^I:te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:\
63 :up=\E[A:us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
66 Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output?
67 The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
68 decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration
69 file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in it's default file
70 (among with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
74 to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add:
76 alias ls='ls --color=auto'
78 to your ".profile" or ".bashrc".
80 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
81 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
82 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
83 Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged
84 distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by
85 setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features.
86 Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux)
87 furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file,
88 so you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I
89 log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on
92 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
93 Unicode does not seem to work?
94 If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character
95 but getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program
96 output is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale
99 Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the
100 programs. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale, while the
101 login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the
102 locale to sth. else, e.h. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this is
105 The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will
106 likely run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in
109 printf '\e]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE"
111 If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification
112 not supported on your systems. Some systems have a "locale" command
113 which displays this. If it displays sth. like:
115 locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ...
117 Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.
119 If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly
120 then you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs
121 just don't support locales :(
123 Why do some characters look so much different than others?
124 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
125 Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine.
126 Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
127 your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you
130 rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font.
131 Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks bad.
132 Many fonts have totally strange characters that don't resemble the
133 correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
134 intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to
135 believe the font that the characters it contains indeed look
138 In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font
141 rxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...
143 When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
144 font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to
145 the next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed
146 up this search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the
149 The only limitation is that all the fonts must not be larger than
150 the base font, as the base font defines the principal cell size,
151 which must be the same due to the way terminals work.
153 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
154 This is because there is a difference between script and language --
155 rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output
156 is, as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode
157 first sees a japanese character, it might choose a japanese font for
158 it. Subsequent japanese characters will take that font. Now, many
159 chinese characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the
160 first non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a
161 chinese font -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the
162 japanese font for japanese characters that are also chinese.
164 The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your
165 font list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font
166 list as a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a
167 japanese font first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font
170 In the future it might be possible to switch preferences at runtime
171 (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
172 fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for
173 this has been designed yet).
175 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
176 Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that
177 character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for
178 terminal use might contain some characters that are simply too wide.
179 Rxvt-unicode will avoid these characters. For characters that are
180 just "a bit" too wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used
181 that redraws adjacent characters.
183 All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
184 however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed
185 bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the
186 correct way is to ask for the character bounding box, which
187 unfortunately is wrong in these cases).
189 It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft,
190 freetype, or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you
191 might try using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If
192 that doesn't work, you might be forced to use a different font.
194 All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their
195 bounding box data is correct.
197 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
198 The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not
199 set correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported
200 by your input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and
201 your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose
202 keys) does not support this (for instance because it is not visual),
203 then rxvt-unicode will continue without an input method.
205 In this case either do not specify a preeditStyle or specify more
206 than one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.
208 I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO
210 Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
211 international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
212 advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for
213 other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default
214 telnet escape character and so on.
216 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
217 First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminfo
218 ("urxvt"), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then make
219 sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
220 rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
225 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how
227 For some unexplainable reason, some programs (i.e. irssi) assume a
228 very weird colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more
229 than the standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right
230 fix is, of course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO
231 colours without very good reasons.
233 In the meantime, you can either edit your "urxvt" terminfo
234 definition to only claim 8 colour support or use "TERM=rxvt", which
235 will fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode
238 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
239 Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined
240 in your compile environment, or an implementation that implements
241 it, wether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__"
242 requires that wchar_t is represented as unicode.
244 As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symobl
245 nor does it support it. Instead, it uses it's own internal
246 representation of wchar_t. This is, of course, completely legal.
248 However, "__STDC_ISO_10646__" is the only sane way to support
249 multi-language apps in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and
250 non-standardized) representation of wchar_t makes it impossible to
251 convert between wchar_t (as used by X11 and your applications) and
252 any other encoding without implementing OS-specific-wrappers for
253 each and every locale. There simply are no APIs to convert wchar_t
254 into anything except the current locale encoding.
256 Some applications (such as the formidable mlterm) work around this
257 by carrying their own replacement functions for character set
258 handling with them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or
259 doing multiple conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the
260 OS implements encodings slightly different than the terminal
263 The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in
264 the system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app
265 to carry complete replacements.
267 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
268 Is there an option to switch encodings?
269 Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch,
270 and no specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't
271 even know about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to
274 The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for
275 selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating
276 this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties
277 such as width and code number. This mechanism is the *locale*.
279 Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding.
280 All programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree
281 in the interpretation of characters.
283 Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales,
284 nor is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
286 On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable
287 contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an
288 already-installed locale. Common names for locales are
289 "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15", "ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e.
290 "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e. "de" or "german")
293 Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the
294 encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e.
295 "de_DE.UTF-8" and "ja_JP.UTF-8" are the same for rxvt-unicode.
297 If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you
298 start rxvt-unicode with the correct "LC_CTYPE" category.
300 Can I switch locales at runtime?
301 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try sth. like this, which sets
302 rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE".
304 printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
306 See also the previous question.
308 Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in
309 one locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support
310 UTF-8. For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which first
311 switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
313 printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
315 printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
317 Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
318 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try sth. like this, which has the
319 same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately:
321 printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
323 This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer
324 a japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily,
325 where japanese fonts would only be in your way.
327 You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
329 Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
330 Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
331 example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera
332 Sans Mono" completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround is to
333 enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
335 URxvt*italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
336 URxvt*boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
338 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
339 You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest
340 of the terminal, using the resource "imlocale":
342 URxvt*imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
344 Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and
345 still use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not
346 be able to input characters outside "EUC-JP" in a normal way then,
347 as your input method limits you.
349 Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
350 Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for sth. you
351 don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings
352 that you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by
353 design, when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be
354 loaded accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your
357 Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
358 scrollback buffers: Without "--enable-unicode3", rxvt-unicode will
359 use 6 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to
360 almost a kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will
361 then (if full) use 10 Megabytes of memory. With "--enable-unicode3"
362 it gets worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
364 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
365 Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely,
366 as it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to
367 disable antialiasing (by appending ":antialiasing=false"), which
368 saves lots of memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
370 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
371 Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
372 fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
373 fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It
374 has antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author
375 thinks they look best that way.
377 If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
379 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
380 Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
381 some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode.
382 I've heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise
383 specified. A quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt
384 or Shift keys are depressed. See rxvt(7)
386 What's with this bold/blink stuff?
387 If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using
388 the standard foreground colour.
390 For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the
391 text blink when compiled with "--enable-blinking". with standard
392 colours. Without "--enable-blinking", the blink attribute will be
395 On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set
396 high-intensity foreground/background colors.
398 color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
400 color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
402 I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
403 You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults
404 resources (or as long-options).
406 Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen,
407 including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
409 URxvt*color0: #000000
410 URxvt*color1: #A80000
411 URxvt*color2: #00A800
412 URxvt*color3: #A8A800
413 URxvt*color4: #0000A8
414 URxvt*color5: #A800A8
415 URxvt*color6: #00A8A8
416 URxvt*color7: #A8A8A8
418 URxvt*color8: #000054
419 URxvt*color9: #FF0054
420 URxvt*color10: #00FF54
421 URxvt*color11: #FFFF54
422 URxvt*color12: #0000FF
423 URxvt*color13: #FF00FF
424 URxvt*color14: #00FFFF
425 URxvt*color15: #FFFFFF
427 And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described as
430 URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
431 URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
432 URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
433 URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
434 URxvt.color0: #000000
435 URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
436 URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
437 URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
438 URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
439 URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
440 URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
441 URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
442 URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
443 URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
444 URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
445 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
446 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
447 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
449 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
450 Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
451 BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
452 question) there are two standard values that can be used for
453 Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
455 Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
456 debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one only
457 only correct choice :).
459 Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the
460 value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode
461 wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote
462 shell), then the system value of `erase', which corresponds to
463 CERASE in <termios.h>, will be used (which may not be the same as
466 For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
476 Toggle with "ESC[36h" / "ESC[36l" as documented in rxvt(7).
478 For an existing rxvt-unicode:
488 This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur,
489 but if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo
490 value properly reflects that.
492 The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace
493 problem. To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys,
494 the Delete key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the
495 vt100 for Execute (ESC[3~) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
497 Some other Backspace problems:
499 some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told)
500 expect Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for
503 Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
505 I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
506 There are some compile-time selections available via configure.
507 Unless you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources"
508 option you can use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings
509 associated with keysym 0xFF00 - 0xFFFF (function, cursor keys, etc).
511 Here's an example for a tn3270 session started using `rxvt -name
514 !# ----- special uses ------:
515 ! tn3270 login, remap function and arrow keys.
516 tn3270*font: *clean-bold-*-*--15-*
518 ! keysym - used by rxvt only
520 tn3270*keysym.0xFFFF: \004
523 tn3270*keysym.0xFF50: \001
525 tn3270*keysym.0xFF51: \002
527 tn3270*keysym.0xFF52: \020
529 tn3270*keysym.0xFF53: \006
531 tn3270*keysym.0xFF54: \016
533 tn3270*keysym.0xFF57: \005
536 tn3270*keysym.0xFFBE: \e1
537 tn3270*keysym.0xFFBF: \e2
538 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC0: \e3
539 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC1: \e4
540 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC2: \e5
541 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC3: \e6
542 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC4: \e7
543 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC5: \e8
544 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC6: \e9
545 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC7: \e0
546 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC8: \e-
547 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC9: \e=
549 ! map Prior/Next to F7/F8
550 tn3270*keysym.0xFF55: \e7
551 tn3270*keysym.0xFF56: \e8
553 I'm using keyboard model XXX that has extra Prior/Next/Insert keys. How
554 do I make use of them? For example, the Sun Keyboard type 4 has the
555 following mappings that rxvt-unicode doesn't recognize.
563 Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various
564 possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap
565 the keys as required for your particular machine.
567 How do I distinguish if I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I
568 need this to decide about setting colors etc.
569 rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you
570 can check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED,
571 slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide
572 whether or not to use color.
574 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
575 If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
576 insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
577 snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of
578 rxvt-unicode wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in
579 these snippets) then the COLORTERM variable can be used to
580 distinguish rxvt-unicode from a regular xterm.
582 Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell
585 # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
586 [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
587 if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
588 stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
592 if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
593 echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
594 read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
598 How do I compile the manual pages for myself?
599 You need to have a recent version of perl installed as
600 /usr/bin/perl, one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2html.
601 Then go to the doc subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
603 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
604 Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net",
605 channel "#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might
606 be interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not
611 printf '\33]50;%s\007' 9x15,xft:Kochi" Mincho"
613 # change the locale and tell rxvt-unicode about it
614 export LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.EUC-JP; printf "\33]701;$LC_CTYPE\007"
617 printf '\33]2;%s\007' "new window title"
620 The rest of this document describes various technical aspects of
621 rxvt-unicode. First the description of supported command sequences,
622 followed by menu and pixmap support and last by a description of all
623 features selectable at "configure" time.
625 RXVT TECHNICAL REFERENCE
627 "c" The literal character c.
629 "C" A single (required) character.
632 A single (usually optional) numeric parameter, composed of one or
636 A multiple numeric parameter composed of any number of single
637 numeric parameters, separated by ";" character(s).
640 A text parameter composed of printable characters.
644 Enquiry (Ctrl-E) = Send Device Attributes (DA) request attributes
645 from terminal. See "ESC [ Ps c".
654 Horizontal Tab (HT) (Ctrl-I)
657 Line Feed or New Line (NL) (Ctrl-J)
660 Vertical Tab (Ctrl-K) same as "LF"
663 Form Feed or New Page (NP) (Ctrl-L) same as "LF"
666 Carriage Return (Ctrl-M)
669 Shift Out (Ctrl-N), invokes the G1 character set. Switch to
670 Alternate Character Set
673 Shift In (Ctrl-O), invokes the G0 character set (the default).
674 Switch to Standard Character Set
681 DEC Screen Alignment Test (DECALN)
690 Application Keypad (SMKX). See also next sequence.
695 Note: If the numeric keypad is activated, eg, Num_Lock has been
696 pressed, numbers or control functions are generated by the numeric
697 keypad (see Key Codes).
712 Single Shift Select of G2 Character Set (SS2): affects next
713 character only *unimplemented*
716 Single Shift Select of G3 Character Set (SS3): affects next
717 character only *unimplemented*
720 Obsolete form of returns: "ESC[?1;2C" *rxvt-unicode compile-time
727 Invoke the G2 Character Set (LS2)
730 Invoke the G3 Character Set (LS3)
733 Designate G0 Character Set (ISO 2022), see below for values of "C".
736 Designate G1 Character Set (ISO 2022), see below for values of "C".
739 Designate G2 Character Set (ISO 2022), see below for values of "C".
742 Designate G3 Character Set (ISO 2022), see below for values of "C".
745 Designate Kanji Character Set
749 C = 0 DEC Special Character and Line Drawing Set
750 C = A United Kingdom (UK)
751 C = B United States (USASCII)
752 C = < Multinational character set unimplemented
753 C = 5 Finnish character set unimplemented
754 C = C Finnish character set unimplemented
755 C = K German character set unimplemented
759 CSI (Command Sequence Introducer) Sequences
761 Insert "Ps" (Blank) Character(s) [default: 1] (ICH)
764 Cursor Up "Ps" Times [default: 1] (CUU)
767 Cursor Down "Ps" Times [default: 1] (CUD)
770 Cursor Forward "Ps" Times [default: 1] (CUF)
773 Cursor Backward "Ps" Times [default: 1] (CUB)
776 Cursor Down "Ps" Times [default: 1] and to first column
779 Cursor Up "Ps" Times [default: 1] and to first column
782 Cursor to Column "Ps" (HPA)
785 Cursor Position [row;column] [default: 1;1] (CUP)
788 Move forward "Ps" tab stops [default: 1]
791 Erase in Display (ED)
793 Ps = 0 Clear Below (default)
800 Ps = 0 Clear to Right (default)
805 Insert "Ps" Line(s) [default: 1] (IL)
808 Delete "Ps" Line(s) [default: 1] (DL)
811 Delete "Ps" Character(s) [default: 1] (DCH)
813 "ESC [ Ps;Ps;Ps;Ps;Ps T"
814 Initiate . *unimplemented* Parameters are
815 [func;startx;starty;firstrow;lastrow].
821 Ps = 2 Tab Clear (TBC), Clear Current Column (default)
822 Ps = 5 Tab Clear (TBC), Clear All
825 Erase "Ps" Character(s) [default: 1] (ECH)
828 Move backward "Ps" [default: 1] tab stops
837 Send Device Attributes (DA) "Ps = 0" (or omitted): request
838 attributes from terminal returns: "ESC[?1;2c" (``I am a VT100 with
839 Advanced Video Option'')
842 Cursor to Line "Ps" (VPA)
848 Horizontal and Vertical Position [row;column] (HVP) [default: 1;1]
853 Ps = 0 Clear Current Column (default)
854 Ps = 3 Clear All (TBC)
857 Set Mode (SM). See "ESC [ Pm l" sequence for description of "Pm".
860 Printing. See also the "print-pipe" resource.
862 Ps = 0 print screen (MC0)
863 Ps = 4 disable transparent print mode (MC4)
864 Ps = 5 enable transparent print mode (MC5)
871 l Replace Mode (RMIR)
873 "Ps = 20" (partially implemented)
874 h Automatic Newline (LNM)
875 l Normal Linefeed (LNM)
878 Character Attributes (SGR)
880 Ps = 0 Normal (default)
881 Ps = 1 / 21 On / Off Bold (bright fg)
882 Ps = 3 / 23 On / Off Italic
883 Ps = 4 / 24 On / Off Underline
884 Ps = 5 / 25 On / Off Slow Blink (bright bg)
885 Ps = 6 / 26 On / Off Rapid Blink (bright bg)
886 Ps = 7 / 27 On / Off Inverse
887 Ps = 8 / 27 On / Off Invisible (NYI)
888 Ps = 30 / 40 fg/bg Black
889 Ps = 31 / 41 fg/bg Red
890 Ps = 32 / 42 fg/bg Green
891 Ps = 33 / 43 fg/bg Yellow
892 Ps = 34 / 44 fg/bg Blue
893 Ps = 35 / 45 fg/bg Magenta
894 Ps = 36 / 46 fg/bg Cyan
895 Ps = 38;5 / 48;5 set fg/bg to color #m (ISO 8613-6)
896 Ps = 37 / 47 fg/bg White
897 Ps = 39 / 49 fg/bg Default
898 Ps = 90 / 100 fg/bg Bright Black
899 Ps = 91 / 101 fg/bg Bright Red
900 Ps = 92 / 102 fg/bg Bright Green
901 Ps = 93 / 103 fg/bg Bright Yellow
902 Ps = 94 / 104 fg/bg Bright Blue
903 Ps = 95 / 105 fg/bg Bright Magenta
904 Ps = 96 / 106 fg/bg Bright Cyan
905 Ps = 97 / 107 fg/bg Bright White
906 Ps = 99 / 109 fg/bg Bright Default
909 Device Status Report (DSR)
911 Ps = 5 Status Report ESC [ 0 n (``OK'')
912 Ps = 6 Report Cursor Position (CPR) [row;column] as ESC [ r ; c R
913 Ps = 7 Request Display Name
914 Ps = 8 Request Version Number (place in window title)
917 Set Scrolling Region [top;bottom] [default: full size of window]
924 Request Terminal Parameters (DECREQTPARM)
933 DEC Private Mode Set (DECSET)
936 DEC Private Mode Reset (DECRST)
939 Restore previously saved DEC Private Mode Values.
942 Save DEC Private Mode Values.
945 Toggle DEC Private Mode Values (rxvt extension). *where*
948 h Application Cursor Keys
951 "Ps = 2" (ANSI/VT52 mode)
956 h 132 Column Mode (DECCOLM)
957 l 80 Column Mode (DECCOLM)
960 h Smooth (Slow) Scroll (DECSCLM)
961 l Jump (Fast) Scroll (DECSCLM)
964 h Reverse Video (DECSCNM)
965 l Normal Video (DECSCNM)
968 h Origin Mode (DECOM)
969 l Normal Cursor Mode (DECOM)
972 h Wraparound Mode (DECAWM)
973 l No Wraparound Mode (DECAWM)
975 "Ps = 8" *unimplemented*
976 h Auto-repeat Keys (DECARM)
977 l No Auto-repeat Keys (DECARM)
980 h Send Mouse X & Y on button press.
981 l No mouse reporting.
988 h Visible cursor {cnorm/cvvis}
989 l Invisible cursor {civis}
993 l scrollBar invisisble
996 h Allow XTerm Shift+key sequences
997 l Disallow XTerm Shift+key sequences
999 "Ps = 38" *unimplemented*
1000 Enter Tektronix Mode (DECTEK)
1004 l Disallow 80/132 Mode
1006 "Ps = 44" *unimplemented*
1007 h Turn On Margin Bell
1008 l Turn Off Margin Bell
1010 "Ps = 45" *unimplemented*
1011 h Reverse-wraparound Mode
1012 l No Reverse-wraparound Mode
1014 "Ps = 46" *unimplemented*
1016 h Use Alternate Screen Buffer
1017 l Use Normal Screen Buffer
1022 h Application Keypad (DECPAM) == ESC =
1023 l Normal Keypad (DECPNM) == ESC >
1026 h Backspace key sends BS (DECBKM)
1027 l Backspace key sends DEL
1029 "Ps = 1000" (X11 XTerm)
1030 h Send Mouse X & Y on button press and release.
1031 l No mouse reporting.
1033 "Ps = 1001" (X11 XTerm) *unimplemented*
1034 h Use Hilite Mouse Tracking.
1035 l No mouse reporting.
1038 h Don't scroll to bottom on TTY output
1039 l Scroll to bottom on TTY output
1042 h Scroll to bottom when a key is pressed
1043 l Don't scroll to bottom when a key is pressed
1046 h Use Alternate Screen Buffer
1047 l Use Normal Screen Buffer - clear Alternate Screen Buffer if returning from it
1050 h Save cursor position
1051 l Restore cursor position
1054 h Use Alternate Screen Buffer - clear Alternate Screen Buffer if switching to it
1055 l Use Normal Screen Buffer
1059 XTerm Operating System Commands
1061 Set XTerm Parameters. 8-bit ST: 0x9c, 7-bit ST sequence: ESC \
1062 (0x1b, 0x5c), backwards compatible terminator BEL (0x07) is also
1063 accepted. any octet can be escaped by prefixing it with SYN (0x16,
1066 Ps = 0 Change Icon Name and Window Title to Pt
1067 Ps = 1 Change Icon Name to Pt
1068 Ps = 2 Change Window Title to Pt
1069 Ps = 3 If Pt starts with a ?, query the (STRING) property of the window and return it. If Pt contains a =, set the named property to the given value, else delete the specified property.
1070 Ps = 4 Pt is a semi-colon separated sequence of one or more semi-colon separated number/name pairs, where number is an index to a colour and name is the name of a colour. Each pair causes the numbered colour to be changed to 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
1071 Ps = 10 Change colour of text foreground to Pt (NB: may change in future)
1072 Ps = 11 Change colour of text background to Pt (NB: may change in future)
1073 Ps = 12 Change colour of text cursor foreground to Pt
1074 Ps = 13 Change colour of mouse foreground to Pt
1075 Ps = 17 Change colour of highlight characters to Pt
1076 Ps = 18 Change colour of bold characters to Pt
1077 Ps = 19 Change colour of underlined characters to Pt
1078 Ps = 20 Change default background to Pt
1079 Ps = 39 Change default foreground colour to Pt rxvt compile-time option
1080 Ps = 46 Change Log File to Pt unimplemented
1081 Ps = 49 Change default background colour to Pt rxvt compile-time option
1082 Ps = 50 Set fontset to Pt, with the following special values of Pt (rxvt) #+n change up n #-n change down n if n is missing of 0, a value of 1 is used empty change to font0 n change to font n
1083 Ps = 55 Log all scrollback buffer and all of screen to Pt
1084 Ps = 701 Change current locale to Pt, or, if Pt is ?, return the current locale (rxvt extension)
1085 Ps = 703 Menubar command Pt rxvt compile-time option (rxvt-unicode extension)
1086 Ps = 704 Change colour of italic characters to Pt
1087 Ps = 705 Change background pixmap tint colour to Pt
1088 Ps = 710 Set normal fontset to Pt. Same as Ps = 50.
1089 Ps = 711 Set bold fontset to Pt. Similar to Ps = 50.
1090 Ps = 712 Set italic fontset to Pt. Similar to Ps = 50.
1091 Ps = 713 Set bold-italic fontset to Pt. Similar to Ps = 50.
1096 The exact syntax used is *almost* solidified. In the menus, DON'T try to
1097 use menuBar commands that add or remove a menuBar.
1099 Note that in all of the commands, the */path/* *cannot* be omitted: use
1100 ./ to specify a menu relative to the current menu.
1102 Overview of menuBar operation
1103 For the menuBar XTerm escape sequence "ESC ] 703 ; Pt ST", the syntax of
1104 "Pt" can be used for a variety of tasks:
1106 At the top level is the current menuBar which is a member of a circular
1107 linked-list of other such menuBars.
1109 The menuBar acts as a parent for the various drop-down menus, which in
1110 turn, may have labels, separator lines, menuItems and subMenus.
1112 The menuItems are the useful bits: you can use them to mimic keyboard
1113 input or even to send text or escape sequences back to rxvt.
1115 The menuBar syntax is intended to provide a simple yet robust method of
1116 constructing and manipulating menus and navigating through the menuBars.
1118 The first step is to use the tag [menu:*name*] which creates the menuBar
1119 called *name* and allows access. You may now or menus, subMenus, and
1120 menuItems. Finally, use the tag [done] to set the menuBar access as
1121 readonly to prevent accidental corruption of the menus. To re-access the
1122 current menuBar for alterations, use the tag [menu], make the
1123 alterations and then use [done]
1129 access the named menuBar for creation or alteration. If a new
1130 menuBar is created, it is called *name* (max of 15 chars) and the
1131 current menuBar is pushed onto the stack
1134 access the current menuBar for alteration
1137 set the current menuBar's title to *string*, which may contain the
1138 following format specifiers: %% : literal % character %n : rxvt name
1139 (as per the -name command-line option) %v : rxvt version
1142 set menuBar access as readonly. End-of-file tag for [read:+*file*]
1146 read menu commands directly from *file* (extension ".menu" will be
1147 appended if required.) Start reading at a line with [menu] or
1148 [menu:+*name* and continuing until [done] is encountered.
1150 Blank and comment lines (starting with #) are ignored. Actually,
1151 since any invalid menu commands are also ignored, almost anything
1152 could be construed as a comment line, but this may be tightened up
1153 in the future ... so don't count on it!.
1155 [read:+*file*;+*name*]
1156 The same as [read:+*file*], but start reading at a line with
1157 [menu:+*name*] and continuing until [done:+*name*] or [done] is
1161 dump all menuBars to the file /tmp/rxvt-PID in a format suitable for
1165 remove the named menuBar
1168 remove the current menuBar
1174 swap the top two menuBars
1177 access the previous menuBar
1180 access the next menuBar
1183 Enable display of the menuBar
1186 Disable display of the menuBar
1189 [pixmap:+*name*;*scaling*]
1190 (set the background pixmap globally
1192 A Future implementation *may* make this local to the menubar)
1195 ignore the menu readonly status and issue a *command* to or a menu
1196 or menuitem or change the ; a useful shortcut for setting the quick
1197 arrows from a menuBar.
1201 Adding and accessing menus
1202 The following commands may also be + prefixed.
1204 /+ access menuBar top level
1206 ./+ access current menu level
1209 access parent menu (1 level up)
1212 access parent menu (multiple levels up)
1218 add/access menu and clear it if it exists
1226 */path/*{item} action
1227 add/alter *menuitem* with an associated *action*
1229 */path/*{item}{right-text}
1230 add/alter *menuitem* with right-text as the right-justified text and
1231 as the associated *action*
1233 */path/*{item}{rtext} action
1234 add/alter *menuitem* with an associated *action* and with rtext as
1235 the right-justified text.
1237 Special characters in *action* must be backslash-escaped:
1238 \a \b \E \e \n \r \t \octal
1240 or in control-character notation:
1241 ^@, ^A .. ^Z .. ^_, ^?
1243 To send a string starting with a NUL (^@) character to the program,
1244 start *action* with a pair of NUL characters (^@^@), the first of which
1245 will be stripped off and the balance directed to the program. Otherwise
1246 if *action* begins with NUL followed by non-+NUL characters, the leading
1247 NUL is stripped off and the balance is sent back to rxvt.
1249 As a convenience for the many Emacs-type editors, *action* may start
1250 with M- (eg, M-$ is equivalent to \E$) and a CR will be appended if
1251 missed from M-x commands.
1253 As a convenience for issuing XTerm ESC] sequences from a menubar (or
1254 quick arrow), a BEL (^G) will be appended if needed.
1257 M-xapropos is equivalent to \Exapropos\r
1259 and \E]703;mona;100 is equivalent to \E]703;mona;100\a
1261 The option {*right-rtext*} will be right-justified. In the absence of a
1262 specified action, this text will be used as the *action* as well.
1265 /File/{Open}{^X^F} is equivalent to /File/{Open}{^X^F} ^X^F
1267 The left label *is* necessary, since it's used for matching, but
1268 implicitly hiding the left label (by using same name for both left and
1269 right labels), or explicitly hiding the left label (by preceeding it
1270 with a dot), makes it possible to have right-justified text only.
1273 /File/{Open}{Open} Open-File-Action
1276 /File/{.anylabel}{Open} Open-File-Action
1282 remove all menus from the menuBar, the same as [clear]
1294 remove all items, separators and submenus from menu
1299 The menus also provide a hook for *quick arrows* to provide easier user
1300 access. If nothing has been explicitly set, the default is to emulate
1301 the curror keys. The syntax permits each arrow to be altered
1302 individually or all four at once without re-entering their common
1303 beginning/end text. For example, to explicitly associate cursor actions
1304 with the arrows, any of the following forms could be used:
1310 Define actions for the respective arrow buttons
1314 Define common beginning/end parts for *quick arrows* which used in
1315 conjunction with the above <r> <l> <u> <d> constructs
1317 For example, define arrows individually,
1327 <u>\E[AZ<><d>\E[BZ<><r>\E[CZ<><l>\E[D
1329 or more compactly (factoring out common parts)
1330 <b>\E[<u>AZ<><d>BZ<><r>CZ<><l>D
1335 A short summary of the most *common* commands:
1338 use an existing named menuBar or start a new one
1341 use the current menuBar
1347 set menu access to readonly and, if reading from a file, signal EOF
1350 if reading from a file using [read:file;name] signal EOF
1353 remove named menuBar(s)
1356 remove current menuBar
1359 remove all menuBar(s)
1362 swap top two menuBars
1365 access the previous menuBar
1368 access the next menuBar
1377 [pixmap;file;scaling]
1378 set a background pixmap
1382 read in a menu from a file
1385 dump out all menuBars to /tmp/rxvt-PID
1387 / access menuBar top level
1392 access current or parent menu level
1400 /path/{item}{rtext} action
1403 -/* remove all menus from the menuBar
1406 remove menu items, separators and submenus from menu
1417 <b>Begin<r>Right<l>Left<u>Up<d>Down<e>End
1421 For the XPM XTerm escape sequence "ESC ] 20 ; Pt ST" then value of "Pt"
1422 can be the name of the background pixmap followed by a sequence of
1423 scaling/positioning commands separated by semi-colons. The
1424 scaling/positioning commands are as follows:
1426 query scale/position
1429 change scale and position
1434 WxH (same as WxH+50+50)
1436 W+X+Y (same as WxW+X+Y)
1438 W+X (same as WxW+X+X)
1440 W (same as WxW+50+50)
1442 change position (absolute)
1447 change position (relative)
1460 load funky.xpm as a tiled image
1463 load mona.xpm with a scaling of 100%
1466 rescale the current pixmap to 200% and display the image geometry in
1470 "ESC [ M <b> <x> <y>"
1471 report mouse position
1473 The lower 2 bits of "<b>" indicate the button:
1475 Button = "(<b> - SPACE) & 3"
1479 3 button released (X11 mouse report)
1481 The upper bits of "<b>" indicate the modifiers when the button was
1482 pressed and are added together (X11 mouse report only):
1484 State = "(<b> - SPACE) & 60"
1488 32 Double Click (Rxvt extension)
1495 Note: Shift + F1-F10 generates F11-F20
1497 For the keypad, use Shift to temporarily override Application-Keypad
1498 setting use Num_Lock to toggle Application-Keypad setting if Num_Lock is
1499 off, toggle Application-Keypad setting. Also note that values of Home,
1500 End, Delete may have been compiled differently on your system.
1502 Normal Shift Control Ctrl+Shift
1503 Tab ^I ESC [ Z ^I ESC [ Z
1504 BackSpace ^H ^? ^? ^?
1505 Find ESC [ 1 ~ ESC [ 1 $ ESC [ 1 ^ ESC [ 1 @
1506 Insert ESC [ 2 ~ paste ESC [ 2 ^ ESC [ 2 @
1507 Execute ESC [ 3 ~ ESC [ 3 $ ESC [ 3 ^ ESC [ 3 @
1508 Select ESC [ 4 ~ ESC [ 4 $ ESC [ 4 ^ ESC [ 4 @
1509 Prior ESC [ 5 ~ scroll-up ESC [ 5 ^ ESC [ 5 @
1510 Next ESC [ 6 ~ scroll-down ESC [ 6 ^ ESC [ 6 @
1511 Home ESC [ 7 ~ ESC [ 7 $ ESC [ 7 ^ ESC [ 7 @
1512 End ESC [ 8 ~ ESC [ 8 $ ESC [ 8 ^ ESC [ 8 @
1513 Delete ESC [ 3 ~ ESC [ 3 $ ESC [ 3 ^ ESC [ 3 @
1514 F1 ESC [ 11 ~ ESC [ 23 ~ ESC [ 11 ^ ESC [ 23 ^
1515 F2 ESC [ 12 ~ ESC [ 24 ~ ESC [ 12 ^ ESC [ 24 ^
1516 F3 ESC [ 13 ~ ESC [ 25 ~ ESC [ 13 ^ ESC [ 25 ^
1517 F4 ESC [ 14 ~ ESC [ 26 ~ ESC [ 14 ^ ESC [ 26 ^
1518 F5 ESC [ 15 ~ ESC [ 28 ~ ESC [ 15 ^ ESC [ 28 ^
1519 F6 ESC [ 17 ~ ESC [ 29 ~ ESC [ 17 ^ ESC [ 29 ^
1520 F7 ESC [ 18 ~ ESC [ 31 ~ ESC [ 18 ^ ESC [ 31 ^
1521 F8 ESC [ 19 ~ ESC [ 32 ~ ESC [ 19 ^ ESC [ 32 ^
1522 F9 ESC [ 20 ~ ESC [ 33 ~ ESC [ 20 ^ ESC [ 33 ^
1523 F10 ESC [ 21 ~ ESC [ 34 ~ ESC [ 21 ^ ESC [ 34 ^
1524 F11 ESC [ 23 ~ ESC [ 23 $ ESC [ 23 ^ ESC [ 23 @
1525 F12 ESC [ 24 ~ ESC [ 24 $ ESC [ 24 ^ ESC [ 24 @
1526 F13 ESC [ 25 ~ ESC [ 25 $ ESC [ 25 ^ ESC [ 25 @
1527 F14 ESC [ 26 ~ ESC [ 26 $ ESC [ 26 ^ ESC [ 26 @
1528 F15 (Help) ESC [ 28 ~ ESC [ 28 $ ESC [ 28 ^ ESC [ 28 @
1529 F16 (Menu) ESC [ 29 ~ ESC [ 29 $ ESC [ 29 ^ ESC [ 29 @
1530 F17 ESC [ 31 ~ ESC [ 31 $ ESC [ 31 ^ ESC [ 31 @
1531 F18 ESC [ 32 ~ ESC [ 32 $ ESC [ 32 ^ ESC [ 32 @
1532 F19 ESC [ 33 ~ ESC [ 33 $ ESC [ 33 ^ ESC [ 33 @
1533 F20 ESC [ 34 ~ ESC [ 34 $ ESC [ 34 ^ ESC [ 34 @
1535 Up ESC [ A ESC [ a ESC O a ESC O A
1536 Down ESC [ B ESC [ b ESC O b ESC O B
1537 Right ESC [ C ESC [ c ESC O c ESC O C
1538 Left ESC [ D ESC [ d ESC O d ESC O D
1540 KP_F1 ESC O P ESC O P
1541 KP_F2 ESC O Q ESC O Q
1542 KP_F3 ESC O R ESC O R
1543 KP_F4 ESC O S ESC O S
1544 XK_KP_Multiply * ESC O j
1546 XK_KP_Separator , ESC O l
1547 XK_KP_Subtract - ESC O m
1548 XK_KP_Decimal . ESC O n
1549 XK_KP_Divide / ESC O o
1562 General hint: if you get compile errors, then likely your configuration
1563 hasn't been tested well. Either try with --enable-everything or use the
1564 ./reconf script as a base for experiments. ./reconf is used by myself,
1565 so it should generally be a working config. Of course, you should always
1566 report when a combination doesn't work, so it can be fixed. Marc Lehmann
1570 Add support for all non-multichoice options listed in "./configure
1571 --help". Note that unlike other enable options this is order
1572 dependant. You can specify this and then disable options which this
1573 enables by *following* this with the appropriate commands.
1576 Add support for Xft (anti-aliases, among others) fonts. Xft fonts
1577 are slower and require lots of memory, but as long as you don't use
1578 them, you don't pay for them.
1580 --enable-font-styles
1581 Add support for bold, *italic* and *bold italic* font styles. The
1582 fonts can be set manually or automatically.
1584 --with-codesets=NAME,...
1585 Compile in support for additional codeset (encoding) groups (eu, vn
1586 are always compiled in, which includes most 8-bit character sets).
1587 These codeset tables are currently only used for driving X11 core
1588 fonts, they are not required for Xft fonts. Compiling them in will
1589 make your binary bigger (together about 700kB), but it doesn't
1590 increase memory usage unless you use an X11 font requiring one of
1593 all all available codeset groups
1594 zh common chinese encodings
1595 zh_ext rarely used but very big chinese encodigs
1596 jp common japanese encodings
1597 jp_ext rarely used but big japanese encodings
1601 Add support for XIM (X Input Method) protocol. This allows using
1602 alternative input methods (e.g. kinput2) and will also correctly set
1603 up the input for people using dead keys or compose keys.
1606 Enable direct support for displaying unicode codepoints above 65535
1607 (the basic multilingual page). This increases storage requirements
1608 per character from 2 to 4 bytes. X11 fonts do not yet support these
1609 extra characters, but Xft does.
1611 Please note that rxvt-unicode can store unicode code points >65535
1612 even without this flag, but the number of such characters is limited
1613 to a view thousand (shared with combining characters, see next
1614 switch), and right now rxvt-unicode cannot display them
1615 (input/output and cut&paste still work, though).
1618 Enable automatic composition of combining characters into composite
1619 characters. This is required for proper viewing of text where
1620 accents are encoded as seperate unicode characters. This is done by
1621 using precomposited characters when available or creating new
1622 pseudo-characters when no precomposed form exists.
1624 Without --enable-unicode3, the number of additional precomposed
1625 characters is rather limited (2048, if this is full, rxvt will use
1626 the private use area, extending the number of combinations to 8448).
1627 With --enable-unicode3, no practical limit exists. This will also
1628 enable storage of characters >65535.
1630 The combining table also contains entries for arabic presentation
1631 forms, but these are not currently used. Bug me if you want these to
1634 --enable-fallback(=CLASS)
1635 When reading resource settings, also read settings for class CLASS
1636 (default: Rxvt). To disable resource fallback use
1639 --with-res-name=NAME
1640 Use the given name (default: urxvt) as default application name when
1641 reading resources. Specify --with-res-name=rxvt to replace rxvt.
1643 --with-res-class=CLASS
1644 Use the given class (default: URxvt) as default application class
1645 when reading resources. Specify --with-res-class=Rxvt to replace
1649 Write user and tty to utmp file (used by programs like w) at start
1650 of rxvt execution and delete information when rxvt exits.
1653 Write user and tty to wtmp file (used by programs like last) at
1654 start of rxvt execution and write logout when rxvt exits. This
1655 option requires --enable-utmp to also be specified.
1658 Write user and tty to lastlog file (used by programs like lastlogin)
1659 at start of rxvt execution. This option requires --enable-utmp to
1662 --enable-xpm-background
1663 Add support for XPM background pixmaps.
1665 --enable-transparency
1666 Add support for inheriting parent backgrounds thus giving a fake
1667 transparency to the term.
1670 Add support for fading the text when focus is lost.
1673 Add support for tinting of transparent backgrounds.
1676 Add support for our menu bar system (this interacts badly with
1677 dynamic locale switching currently).
1679 --enable-rxvt-scroll
1680 Add support for the original rxvt scrollbar.
1682 --enable-next-scroll
1683 Add support for a NeXT-like scrollbar.
1685 --enable-xterm-scroll
1686 Add support for an Xterm-like scrollbar.
1688 --enable-plain-scroll
1689 Add support for a very unobtrusive, plain-looking scrollbar that is
1690 the favourite of the rxvt-unicode author, having used it for many
1693 --enable-half-shadow
1694 Make shadows on the scrollbar only half the normal width & height.
1695 only applicable to rxvt scrollbars.
1698 Change tty device setting to group "tty" - only use this if your
1699 system uses this type of security.
1701 --disable-backspace-key
1702 Disable any handling of the backspace key by us - let the X server
1705 --disable-delete-key
1706 Disable any handling of the delete key by us - let the X server do
1710 Remove all resources checking.
1712 --enable-xgetdefault
1713 Make resources checking via XGetDefault() instead of our small
1714 version which only checks ~/.Xdefaults, or if that doesn't exist
1718 Add support for our possibly faster memset() function and other
1719 various routines, overriding your system's versions which may have
1720 been hand-crafted in assembly or may require extra libraries to link
1721 in. (this breaks ANSI-C rules and has problems on many GNU/Linux
1724 --disable-swapscreen
1725 Remove support for swap screen.
1728 Add support for many small features that are not essential but nice
1729 to have. Normally you want this, but for very small binaries you may
1730 want to disable this.
1733 Enable extended ISO 14755 support (see rxvt(1), or doc/rxvt.1.txt).
1734 Basic support (section 5.1) is enabled by "--enable-frills", while
1735 support for 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 is enabled with this switch.
1737 --enable-keepscrolling
1738 Add support for continual scrolling of the display when you hold the
1739 mouse button down on a scrollbar arrow.
1742 Add support for scrolling via mouse wheel or buttons 4 & 5.
1744 --enable-slipwheeling
1745 Add support for continual scrolling (using the mouse wheel as an
1746 accelerator) while the control key is held down. This option
1747 requires --enable-mousewheel to also be specified.
1749 --disable-new-selection
1750 Remove support for mouse selection style like that of xterm.
1753 Use Gray Watson's malloc - which is good for debugging See
1754 http://www.letters.com/dmalloc/ for details If you use either this
1755 or the next option, you may need to edit src/Makefile after
1756 compiling to point DINCLUDE and DLIB to the right places.
1758 You can only use either this option and the following (should you
1762 Use Doug Lea's malloc - which is good for a production version See
1763 <http://g.oswego.edu/dl/html/malloc.html> for details.
1765 --enable-smart-resize
1766 Add smart growth/shrink behaviour when changing font size via from
1767 hot keys. This should keep in a fixed position the rxvt corner which
1768 is closest to a corner of the screen.
1770 --enable-cursor-blink
1771 Add support for a blinking cursor.
1773 --enable-pointer-blank
1774 Add support to have the pointer disappear when typing or inactive.
1777 Set the basename for the installed binaries (default: urxvt,
1778 resulting in urxvt, urxvtd etc.). Specify --with-name=rxvt to
1782 Change the environmental variable for the terminal to NAME (default
1785 --with-terminfo=PATH
1786 Change the environmental variable for the path to the terminfo tree
1790 Use the X Window System (pretty much default, eh?).
1792 --with-xpm-includes=DIR
1793 Look for the XPM includes in DIR.
1795 --with-xpm-library=DIR
1796 Look for the XPM library in DIR.
1799 Not needed - define via --enable-xpm-background.
1802 Marc Lehmann <rxvt@schmorp.de> converted this document to pod and
1803 reworked it from the original Rxvt documentation, which was done by
1804 Geoff Wing <gcw@pobox.com>, who in turn used the XTerm documentation and