This document contains the FAQ, the RXVT TECHNICAL REFERENCE documenting
all escape sequences, and other background information.
-The newest version of this document is
-also available on the World Wide Web at
-L<http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/*checkout*/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.html>.
+The newest version of this document is also available on the World Wide Web at
+L<http://pod.tst.eu/http://cvs.schmorp.de/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.pod>.
-=head1 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
+The main manual page for @@RXVT_NAME@@ itself is available at
+L<http://pod.tst.eu/http://cvs.schmorp.de/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.1.pod>.
-=over 4
+=head1 RXVT-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
-=item The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select
-single words?
-Yes. For example, if you want to select alphanumeric words, you can use
-the following resource:
+=head2 Meta, Features & Commandline Issues
- URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
+=head3 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
-If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended
-more and more.
+Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: C<irc.freenode.net>,
+channel C<#rxvt-unicode> has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
+interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
-To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this pattern:
+=head3 I use Gentoo, and I have a problem...
- URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
+There are three big problems with Gentoo Linux: first of all, most if not
+all Gentoo systems are completely broken (missing or mismatched header
+files, broken compiler etc. are just the tip of the iceberg); secondly,
+the Gentoo maintainer thinks it is a good idea to add broken patches to
+the code; and lastly, it should be called Gentoo GNU/Linux.
-Please also note that the I<LeftClick Shift-LeftClik> combination also
-selects words like the old code.
+For these reasons, it is impossible to support rxvt-unicode on
+Gentoo. Problems appearing on Gentoo systems will usually simply be
+ignored unless they can be reproduced on non-Gentoo systems.
-=item I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I
-change/disable it?
+=head3 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
-You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
-B<perl-ext-common> resource to the empty string, which also keeps
-rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
+Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a
+simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these should
+give you tabs:
-If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
-identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
-B<PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS> in the @@RXVT_NAME@@perl(3) manpage. For
-example, to disable the B<selection-popup> and B<option-popup>, specify
-this B<perl-ext-common> resource:
+ @@URXVT_NAME@@ -pe tabbed
- URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
+ URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
-This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
-extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
-scrollback search mode is triggered by B<M-s>. You can move it to any
-other combination either by setting the B<searchable-scrollback> resource:
+It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window managers
+or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be
+embedded into other programs, as witnessed by F<doc/rxvt-tabbed> or
+the upcoming C<Gtk2::URxvt> perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
+(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
- URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
+=head3 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
+
+The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
+sequence C<ESC [ 8 n> sets the window title to the version number. When
+using the @@URXVT_NAME@@c client, the version displayed is that of the
+daemon.
+
+=head3 Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
+
+Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something you
+don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings that
+you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by design,
+when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be loaded
+accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your characters.
+
+Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
+scrollback buffers: Without C<--enable-unicode3>, rxvt-unicode will use
+6 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
+kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if full)
+use 10 Megabytes of memory. With C<--enable-unicode3> it gets worse, as
+rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
+
+=head3 How can I start @@URXVT_NAME@@d in a race-free way?
+
+Try C<@@URXVT_NAME@@d -f -o>, which tells @@URXVT_NAME@@d to open the
+display, create the listening socket and then fork.
+
+=head3 How can I start @@URXVT_NAME@@d automatically when I run @@URXVT_NAME@@c?
+
+If you want to start @@URXVT_NAME@@d automatically whenever you run
+@@URXVT_NAME@@c and the daemon isn't running yet, use this script:
+
+ #!/bin/sh
+ @@URXVT_NAME@@c "$@"
+ if [ $? -eq 2 ]; then
+ @@URXVT_NAME@@d -q -o -f
+ @@URXVT_NAME@@c "$@"
+ fi
+
+This tries to create a new terminal, and if fails with exit status 2,
+meaning it couldn't connect to the daemon, it will start the daemon and
+re-run the command. Subsequent invocations of the script will re-use the
+existing daemon.
+
+=head3 How do I distinguish whether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
+
+The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM",
+so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED,
+slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide
+whether or not to use color.
+
+=head3 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
+
+If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
+insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
+snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
+wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets) then
+the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from a
+regular xterm.
+
+Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
+snippets:
+
+ # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
+ [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
+ if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
+ stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
+ echo -n '^[Z'
+ read term_id
+ stty icanon echo
+ if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
+ echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
+ read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
+ fi
+ fi
+
+=head3 How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
+
+You need to have a recent version of perl installed as F</usr/bin/perl>,
+one that comes with F<pod2man>, F<pod2text> and F<pod2xhtml> (from
+F<Pod::Xhtml>). Then go to the doc subdirectory and enter C<make alldoc>.
-=item Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
+=head3 Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra
bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see
98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything
188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything
-When you C<--enable-everything> (which _is_ unfair, as this involves xft
+When you C<--enable-everything> (which I<is> unfair, as this involves xft
and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my
-libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so.
+libc), the two diverge, but not unreasonably so.
text data bss drs rss filename
163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything
startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits out), it fares
extremely well *g*.
-=item Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
+=head3 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I had
to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a fraction
libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)
- libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
- libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
- /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
+ libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
+ libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
+ /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
except maybe libX11 :)
-=item Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
-
-Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a
-simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these should
-give you tabs:
-
- @@RXVT_NAME@@ -pe tabbed
- URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
+=head2 Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues
-It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window managers
-or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be
-embedded into other programs, as witnessed by F<doc/rxvt-tabbed> or
-the upcoming C<Gtk2::URxvt> perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
-(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
+=head3 I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
-=item How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
+First of all, please address all transparency related issues to Sasha Vasko at
+sasha@aftercode.net and do not bug the author about it. Also, if you can't
+get it working consider it a rite of passage: ... and you failed.
-The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
-sequence C<ESC [ 8 n> sets the window title to the version number. When
-using the @@RXVT_NAME@@c client, the version displayed is that of the
-daemon.
+Here are four ways to get transparency. B<Do> read the manpage and option
+descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
-=item I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
+1. Use transparent mode:
-The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
-patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
-unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
-the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
-version (L<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
-the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific to
-Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian Bug
-Tracking System (use C<reportbug> to report the bug).
+ Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
+ @@URXVT_NAME@@ -tr -tint red -sh 40
-For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
-probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
-bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users that
-might encounter the same issue.
+That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
+support, or you are unable to read.
-=item I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any
-recommendation?
+2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
+to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
+your picture with gimp or any other tool:
-You should build one binary with the default options. F<configure>
-now enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
-runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling them,
-except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter should
-be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely more in
-the future) depends on it.
+ convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.jpg
+ @@URXVT_NAME@@ -pixmap "background.jpg;:root"
-You should not overwrite the C<perl-ext-common> snd C<perl-ext> resources
-system-wide (except maybe with C<defaults>). This will result in useful
-behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
-C<perl-ext-common> resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
-perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
+That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack AfterImage support, or you
+are unable to read.
-If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal
-one with C<--disable-everything> (very useful) and a maximal one with
-C<--enable-everything> (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
-encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
+3. Use an ARGB visual:
-=item I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
+ @@URXVT_NAME@@ -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
-It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
-install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
+This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
+doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
+there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the necessary
+bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but that
+doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
-When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
-into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
-systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
-immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
-privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
-things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
+4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
-This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very early
-and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before main(), or
-things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should result in very
-little risk.
+ xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
+ -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
-=item When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
+Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace C<0xc0000000>
+by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
+your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
-The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
-as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often arises).
+=head3 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
-The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this can
-be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp):
+Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that character
+size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal use might
+contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode will avoid
+these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too wide a special
+"careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent characters.
- REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
- infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
+All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
+however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed bounding
+box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct way is to
+ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is wrong in these
+cases).
-... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system,
+It's not clear (to me at least), whether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
+or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try using
+the C<-lsp> option to give the font more height. If that doesn't work, you
+might be forced to use a different font.
-If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set
-C<TERM=rxvt> or even C<TERM=xterm>, and live with the small number of
-problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different
-colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice
-quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, though.
+All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their bounding
+box data is correct.
-If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) you
-can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or use a
-resource to set it:
+=head3 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
- URxvt.termName: rxvt
+First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
+(C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
+make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
+rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
-If you don't plan to use B<rxvt> (quite common...) you could also replace
-the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one.
+ URxvt.colorBD: white
+ URxvt.colorIT: green
-=item C<tic> outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
+=head3 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
-Most likely it's the empty definition for C<enacs=>. Just replace it by
-C<enacs=\E[0@> and try again.
+For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
+colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the standard
+8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of course, to fix
+these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very good reasons.
-=item C<bash>'s readline does not work correctly under @@RXVT_NAME@@.
+In the meantime, you can either edit your C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
+definition to only claim 8 colour support or use C<TERM=rxvt>, which will
+fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
-=item I need a termcap file entry.
+=head3 Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
-One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
-systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
-library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
-for C<rxvt-unicode>.
+Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the same
+effect as using the C<-fn> switch, and takes effect immediately:
-You could use rxvt's termcap entry with resonable results in many cases.
-You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp program
-like this:
+ printf '\33]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
- infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
+This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
+japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
+japanese fonts would only be in your way.
-Or you could use this termcap entry, generated by the command above:
-
- rxvt-unicode|rxvt-unicode terminal (X Window System):\
- :am:bw:eo:km:mi:ms:xn:xo:\
- :co#80:it#8:li#24:lm#0:\
- :AL=\E[%dL:DC=\E[%dP:DL=\E[%dM:DO=\E[%dB:IC=\E[%d@:\
- :K1=\EOw:K2=\EOu:K3=\EOy:K4=\EOq:K5=\EOs:LE=\E[%dD:\
- :RI=\E[%dC:SF=\E[%dS:SR=\E[%dT:UP=\E[%dA:ae=\E(B:al=\E[L:\
- :as=\E(0:bl=^G:cd=\E[J:ce=\E[K:cl=\E[H\E[2J:\
- :cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:cr=^M:cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:ct=\E[3g:dc=\E[P:\
- :dl=\E[M:do=^J:ec=\E[%dX:ei=\E[4l:ho=\E[H:\
- :i1=\E[?47l\E=\E[?1l:ic=\E[@:im=\E[4h:\
- :is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;3;4;6l\E[4l:\
- :k1=\E[11~:k2=\E[12~:k3=\E[13~:k4=\E[14~:k5=\E[15~:\
- :k6=\E[17~:k7=\E[18~:k8=\E[19~:k9=\E[20~:kD=\E[3~:\
- :kI=\E[2~:kN=\E[6~:kP=\E[5~:kb=\177:kd=\EOB:ke=\E[?1l\E>:\
- :kh=\E[7~:kl=\EOD:kr=\EOC:ks=\E[?1h\E=:ku=\EOA:le=^H:\
- :mb=\E[5m:md=\E[1m:me=\E[m\017:mr=\E[7m:nd=\E[C:rc=\E8:\
- :sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\
- :te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\
- :us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
- :vs=\E[?25h:
-
-=item Why does C<ls> no longer have coloured output?
+You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
-The C<ls> in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
-decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration
-file. Needless to say, C<rxvt-unicode> is not in it's default file (among
-with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
+=head3 Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
- TERM rxvt-unicode
+Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
+example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font C<xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
+Mono> completely fails in its italic face. A workaround might be to
+enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
-to C</etc/DIR_COLORS> or simply add:
+ URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
+ URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
- alias ls='ls --color=auto'
+=head3 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
-to your C<.profile> or C<.bashrc>.
+Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as
+it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
+antialiasing (by appending C<:antialias=false>), which saves lots of
+memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
-=item Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
+=head3 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
-=item Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
+Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
+fall back to its default font search list it will prefer X11 core
+fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
+antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
+look best that way.
-=item Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
+If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
-Make sure you are using C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>. Some pre-packaged
-distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode
-by setting C<TERM> to C<rxvt>, which doesn't have these extra
-features. Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian
-GNU/Linux) furthermore fail to even install the C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
-file, so you will need to install it on your own (See the question B<When
-I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?> on
-how to do this).
+=head3 What's with this bold/blink stuff?
-=item My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
+If no bold colour is set via C<colorBD:>, bold will invert text using the
+standard foreground colour.
-Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
-specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is caused
-by the wrong C<TERM> setting, although the details of wether and how
-this can happen are unknown, as C<TERM=rxvt> should offer a compatible
-keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please report if that
-helped.
+For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make
+the text blink when compiled with C<--enable-text-blink>. Without
+C<--enable-text-blink>, the blink attribute will be ignored.
-=item Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
+On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
+foreground/background colors.
-=item Unicode does not seem to work?
+color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
-If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
-getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output is
-subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
+color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
-Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same C<LC_CTYPE> setting as the
-programs. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the C<C> locale, while the
-login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the locale to
-something else, e.g. C<en_GB.UTF-8>. Needless to say, this is not going to work.
+=head3 I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
-The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely run
-into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your .profile.
+You can change the screen colors at run-time using F<~/.Xdefaults>
+resources (or as long-options).
- printf '\e]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE"
+Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen,
+including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
-If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a C<LC_CTYPE> specification not
-supported on your systems. Some systems have a C<locale> command which
-displays this (also, C<perl -e0> can be used to check locale settings, as
-it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays something
-like:
+ URxvt.color0: #000000
+ URxvt.color1: #A80000
+ URxvt.color2: #00A800
+ URxvt.color3: #A8A800
+ URxvt.color4: #0000A8
+ URxvt.color5: #A800A8
+ URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
+ URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
- locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ...
+ URxvt.color8: #000054
+ URxvt.color9: #FF0054
+ URxvt.color10: #00FF54
+ URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
+ URxvt.color12: #0000FF
+ URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
+ URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
+ URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
-Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.
+And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors.
-If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
-you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
-support locales :(
+ URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
+ URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
+ URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
+ URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
+ URxvt.color0: #000000
+ URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
+ URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
+ URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
+ URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
+ URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
+ URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
+ URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
+ URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
+ URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
+ URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
+ URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
+ URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
+ URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
+
+They have been described (not by me) as "pretty girly".
+
+=head3 Why do some characters look so much different than others?
-=item Why do some characters look so much different than others?
+See next entry.
-=item How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
+=head3 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is
fine. Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
e.g.:
- @@RXVT_NAME@@ -fn basefont,font2,font3...
+ @@URXVT_NAME@@ -fn basefont,font2,font3...
When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the
font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size, which
must be the same due to the way terminals work.
-=item Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
+=head3 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
This is because there is a difference between script and language --
rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is,
Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see L<Can
I switch the fonts at runtime?> later in this document).
-=item Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
+=head3 How can I make mplayer display video correctly?
-Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that character
-size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal use might
-contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode will avoid
-these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too wide a special
-"careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent characters.
+We are working on it, in the meantime, as a workaround, use something like:
-All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
-however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed bounding
-box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct way is to
-ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is wrong in these
-cases).
+ @@URXVT_NAME@@ -b 600 -geometry 20x1 -e sh -c 'mplayer -wid $WINDOWID file...'
-It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
-or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try using
-the C<-lsp> option to give the font more height. If that doesn't work, you
-might be forced to use a different font.
-All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their bounding
-box data is correct.
+=head2 Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
+
+=head3 The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
+
+If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
+setting:
+
+ URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
+
+If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended
+more and more.
+
+To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this pattern:
-=item On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.
+ URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
-Seems to be a known bug, read
-L<http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the
-following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
+Please also note that the I<LeftClick Shift-LeftClick> combination also
+selects words like the old code.
- #define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)
+=head3 I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
-=item My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
+You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
+B<perl-ext-common> resource to the empty string, which also keeps
+rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
+
+If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
+identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
+B<PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS> in the @@URXVT_NAME@@perl(3) manpage. For
+example, to disable the B<selection-popup> and B<option-popup>, specify
+this B<perl-ext-common> resource:
+
+ URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
+
+This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
+extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
+scrollback search mode is triggered by B<M-s>. You can move it to any
+other combination either by setting the B<searchable-scrollback> resource:
+
+ URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
+
+=head3 The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
+
+See next entry.
+
+=head3 During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
+
+These are caused by the C<readline> perl extension. Under normal
+circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
+line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
+but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in some
+cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
+
+You can permanently switch this feature off by disabling the C<readline>
+extension:
+
+ URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
+
+=head3 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
+
+Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
+specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is caused
+by the wrong C<TERM> setting, although the details of whether and how
+this can happen are unknown, as C<TERM=rxvt> should offer a compatible
+keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please report if that
+helped.
+
+=head3 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
correctly, or you specified a B<preeditStyle> that is not supported by
In this case either do not specify a B<preeditStyle> or specify more than
one pre-edit style, such as B<OverTheSpot,Root,None>.
-=item I cannot type C<Ctrl-Shift-2> to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
+If it still doesn't work, then maybe your input method doesn't support
+compose sequences - to fall back to the built-in one, make sure you don't
+specify an input method via C<-im> or C<XMODIFIERS>.
+
+=head3 I cannot type C<Ctrl-Shift-2> to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
Either try C<Ctrl-2> alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
codes, too, such as C<Ctrl-Shift-1-d> to type the default telnet escape
character and so on.
-=item How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
+=head3 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
-First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
-(C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
-make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
-rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
+Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
+some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've
+heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A
+quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
+depressed.
- URxvt.colorBD: white
- URxvt.colorIT: green
+=head3 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
-=item Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
+Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
+Backspace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
+question) there are two standard values that can be used for
+Backspace: C<^H> and C<^?>.
-For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
-colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the standard
-8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of course, to fix
-these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very good reasons.
+Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the debian
+policy of using C<^?> when unsure, because it's the one and only correct
+choice :).
-In the meantime, you can either edit your C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
-definition to only claim 8 colour support or use C<TERM=rxvt>, which will
-fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
+Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the value
+of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode wasn't
+started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), then the
+system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in <termios.h>, will
+be used (which may not be the same as your stty setting).
-=item I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
+For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
-Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> to be defined
-in your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
-wether it defines the symbol or not. C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> requires that
-B<wchar_t> is represented as unicode.
+ # use Backspace = ^H
+ $ stty erase ^H
+ $ @@URXVT_NAME@@
-As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symobl nor
-does it support it. Instead, it uses it's own internal representation of
-B<wchar_t>. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.
+ # use Backspace = ^?
+ $ stty erase ^?
+ $ @@URXVT_NAME@@
-However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in C<POSIX>, C<ISO-8859-1> and
-C<UTF-8> locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as B<wchar_t>.
+Toggle with C<ESC [ 36 h> / C<ESC [ 36 l>.
-C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> is the only sane way to support multi-language
-apps in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized)
-representation of B<wchar_t> makes it impossible to convert between
-B<wchar_t> (as used by X11 and your applications) and any other encoding
-without implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and every locale. There
-simply are no APIs to convert B<wchar_t> into anything except the current
-locale encoding.
+For an existing rxvt-unicode:
-Some applications (such as the formidable B<mlterm>) work around this
-by carrying their own replacement functions for character set handling
-with them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or doing multiple
-conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the OS implements
-encodings slightly different than the terminal emulator).
+ # use Backspace = ^H
+ $ stty erase ^H
+ $ echo -n "^[[36h"
-The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
-system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
-complete replacements for them :)
+ # use Backspace = ^?
+ $ stty erase ^?
+ $ echo -n "^[[36l"
-=item I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.
+This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
+if you use Backspace = C<^H>, make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
+properly reflects that.
-Try the diff in F<doc/solaris9.patch> as a base. It fixes the worst
-problems with C<wcwidth> and a compile problem.
+The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace problem.
+To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the Delete
+key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for Execute
+(C<ESC [ 3 ~>) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
-=item How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
+Some other Backspace problems:
-rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using
-the X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no
-longer supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a
-single font). I recommend starting the X-server in C<-multiwindow> or
-C<-rootless> mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
-old libW11 emulation.
+some editors use termcap/terminfo,
+some editors (vim I'm told) expect Backspace = ^H,
+GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
-At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any multi-byte
-encodings (you might try C<LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8>), so you are likely limited
-to 8-bit encodings.
+Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
+
+=head3 I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
+
+There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
+you have run "configure" with the C<--disable-resources> option you can
+use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with keysyms.
+
+Here's an example for a URxvt session started using C<@@URXVT_NAME@@ -name URxvt>
+
+ URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
+ URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
+ URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
+ URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
+ URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
+ URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
+ URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
+ URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
+ URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
+ URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
+ URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
+ URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
+ URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
+ URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
+ URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
+ URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
+ URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
+ URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
+ URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
+ URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
+
+See some more examples in the documentation for the B<keysym> resource.
+
+=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
+
+ KP_Insert == Insert
+ F22 == Print
+ F27 == Home
+ F29 == Prior
+ F33 == End
+ F35 == Next
+
+Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various possible
+keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the keys as
+required for your particular machine.
+
+
+=head2 Terminal Configuration
+
+=head3 Can I see a typical configuration?
+
+The default configuration tries to be xterm-like, which I don't like that
+much, but it's least surprise to regular users.
+
+As a rxvt or rxvt-unicode user, you are practically supposed to invest
+time into customising your terminal. To get you started, here is the
+author's .Xdefaults entries, with comments on what they do. It's certainly
+not I<typical>, but what's typical...
+
+ URxvt.cutchars: "()*,<>[]{}|'
+ URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/tmp/xxx
+
+These are just for testing stuff.
+
+ URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8
+ URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None
+
+This tells rxvt-unicode to use a special locale when communicating with
+the X Input Method, and also tells it to only use the OnTheSpot pre-edit
+type, which requires the C<xim-onthespot> perl extension but rewards me
+with correct-looking fonts.
+
+ URxvt.perl-lib: /root/lib/urxvt
+ URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,selection-autotransform,selection-pastebin,xim-onthespot,remote-clipboard
+ URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ( at .*? line \\d+)
+ URxvt.selection.pattern-1: ^(/[^:]+):\
+ URxvt.selection-autotransform.0: s/^([^:[:space:]]+):(\\d+):?$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
+ URxvt.selection-autotransform.1: s/^ at (.*?) line (\\d+)$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
+
+This is my perl configuration. The first two set the perl library
+directory and also tells urxvt to use a large number of extensions. I
+develop for myself mostly, so I actually use most of the extensions I
+write.
+
+The selection stuff mainly makes the selection perl-error-message aware
+and tells it to convert perl error messages into vi-commands to load the
+relevant file and go to the error line number.
+
+ URxvt.scrollstyle: plain
+ URxvt.secondaryScroll: true
-=item How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
+As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the
+author. The C<secondaryScroll> configures urxvt to scroll in full-screen
+apps, like screen, so lines scrolled out of screen end up in urxvt's
+scrollback buffer.
-=item Is there an option to switch encodings?
+ URxvt.background: #000000
+ URxvt.foreground: gray90
+ URxvt.color7: gray90
+ URxvt.colorBD: #ffffff
+ URxvt.cursorColor: #e0e080
+ URxvt.throughColor: #8080f0
+ URxvt.highlightColor: #f0f0f0
+
+Some colours. Not sure which ones are being used or even non-defaults, but
+these are in my .Xdefaults. Most notably, they set foreground/background
+to light gray/black, and also make sure that the colour 7 matches the
+default foreground colour.
+
+ URxvt.underlineColor: yellow
+
+Another colour, makes underline lines look different. Sometimes hurts, but
+is mostly a nice effect.
+
+ URxvt.geometry: 154x36
+ URxvt.loginShell: false
+ URxvt.meta: ignore
+ URxvt.utmpInhibit: true
+
+Uh, well, should be mostly self-explanatory. By specifying some defaults
+manually, I can quickly switch them for testing.
+
+ URxvt.saveLines: 8192
+
+A large scrollback buffer is essential. Really.
+
+ URxvt.mapAlert: true
+
+The only case I use it is for my IRC window, which I like to keep
+iconified till people msg me (which beeps).
+
+ URxvt.visualBell: true
+
+The audible bell is often annoying, especially when in a crowd.
+
+ URxvt.insecure: true
+
+Please don't hack my mutt! Ooops...
+
+ URxvt.pastableTabs: false
+
+I once thought this is a great idea.
+
+ urxvt.font: 9x15bold,\
+ -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
+ -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
+ [codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic, \
+ xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:autohint=true, \
+ xft:Code2000:antialias=false
+ urxvt.boldFont: -xos4-terminus-bold-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-15
+ urxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
+ urxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
+
+I wrote rxvt-unicode to be able to specify fonts exactly. So don't be
+overwhelmed. A special note: the C<9x15bold> mentioned above is actually
+the version from XFree-3.3, as XFree-4 replaced it by a totally different
+font (different glyphs for C<;> and many other harmless characters),
+while the second font is actually the C<9x15bold> from XFree4/XOrg. The
+bold version has less chars than the medium version, so I use it for rare
+characters, too. When editing sources with vim, I use italic for comments
+and other stuff, which looks quite good with Bitstream Vera anti-aliased.
+
+Terminus is a quite bad font (many very wrong glyphs), but for most of my
+purposes, it works, and gives a different look, as my normal (Non-bold)
+font is already bold, and I want to see a difference between bold and
+normal fonts.
+
+Please note that I used the C<urxvt> instance name and not the C<URxvt>
+class name. That is because I use different configs for different purposes,
+for example, my IRC window is started with C<-name IRC>, and uses these
+defaults:
+
+ IRC*title: IRC
+ IRC*geometry: 87x12+535+542
+ IRC*saveLines: 0
+ IRC*mapAlert: true
+ IRC*font: suxuseuro
+ IRC*boldFont: suxuseuro
+ IRC*colorBD: white
+ IRC*keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]710;suxuseuro\007\033]711;suxuseuro\007
+ IRC*keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]710;9x15bold\007\033]711;9x15bold\007
+
+C<Alt-Ctrl-1> and C<Alt-Ctrl-2> switch between two different font
+sizes. C<suxuseuro> allows me to keep an eye (and actually read)
+stuff while keeping a very small window. If somebody pastes something
+complicated (e.g. japanese), I temporarily switch to a larger font.
+
+The above is all in my C<.Xdefaults> (I don't use C<.Xresources> nor
+C<xrdb>). I also have some resources in a separate C<.Xdefaults-hostname>
+file for different hosts, for example, on ym main desktop, I use:
+
+ URxvt.keysym.C-M-q: command:\033[3;5;5t
+ URxvt.keysym.C-M-y: command:\033[3;5;606t
+ URxvt.keysym.C-M-e: command:\033[3;1605;5t
+ URxvt.keysym.C-M-c: command:\033[3;1605;606t
+ URxvt.keysym.C-M-p: perl:test
+
+The first for keysym definitions allow me to quickly bring some windows
+in the layout I like most. Ion users might start laughing but will stop
+immediately when I tell them that I use my own Fvwm2 module for much the
+same effect as Ion provides, and I only very rarely use the above key
+combinations :->
+
+=head3 Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
+
+Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
+applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
+resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
+ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
+F<$HOME/.Xdefaults> when no resources are attached to the display.
+
+If you have or use an F<$HOME/.Xresources> file, chances are that
+resources are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to
+re-login after every change (or run F<xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources>).
+
+Also consider the form resources have to use:
+
+ URxvt.resource: value
+
+If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
+specifying resources), make sure you understand whether and why it
+works. If unsure, use the form above.
+
+=head3 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
+
+The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
+as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often arises).
+
+The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this can
+be done by simply installing rxvt-unicode on the remote system as well
+(in case you have a nice package manager ready), or you can install the
+terminfo database manually like this (with ncurses infocmp. works as
+user and root):
+
+ REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
+ infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "mkdir -p .terminfo && cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
+
+One some systems you might need to set C<$TERMINFO> to the full path of
+F<$HOME/.terminfo> for this to work.
+
+If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set
+C<TERM=rxvt> or even C<TERM=xterm>, and live with the small number of
+problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different
+colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice
+quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, though.
+
+If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) you
+can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or use a
+resource to set it:
+
+ URxvt.termName: rxvt
+
+If you don't plan to use B<rxvt> (quite common...) you could also replace
+the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use C<TERM=rxvt>.
+
+=head3 nano fails with "Error opening terminal: rxvt-unicode"
+
+This exceptionally confusing and useless error message is printed by nano
+when it can't find the terminfo database. Nothing is wrong with your
+terminal, read the previous answer for a solution.
+
+=head3 C<tic> outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
+
+Most likely it's the empty definition for C<enacs=>. Just replace it by
+C<enacs=\E[0@> and try again.
+
+=head3 C<bash>'s readline does not work correctly under @@URXVT_NAME@@.
+
+See next entry.
+
+=head3 I need a termcap file entry.
+
+One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
+systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
+library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
+for C<rxvt-unicode>.
+
+You could use rxvt's termcap entry with reasonable results in many cases.
+You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp program
+like this:
+
+ infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
+
+Or you could use the termcap entry in doc/etc/rxvt-unicode.termcap,
+generated by the command above.
+
+=head3 Why does C<ls> no longer have coloured output?
+
+The C<ls> in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
+decide whether a terminal has colour, but uses its own configuration
+file. Needless to say, C<rxvt-unicode> is not in its default file (among
+with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
+
+ TERM rxvt-unicode
+
+to C</etc/DIR_COLORS> or simply add:
+
+ alias ls='ls --color=auto'
+
+to your C<.profile> or C<.bashrc>.
+
+=head3 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
+
+See next entry.
+
+=head3 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
+
+See next entry.
+
+=head3 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
+
+Make sure you are using C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>. Some pre-packaged
+distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode
+by setting C<TERM> to C<rxvt>, which doesn't have these extra
+features. Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian
+GNU/Linux) furthermore fail to even install the C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
+file, so you will need to install it on your own (See the question B<When
+I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?> on
+how to do this).
+
+
+=head2 Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues
+
+=head3 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
+
+See next entry.
+
+=head3 Unicode does not seem to work?
+
+If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
+getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output is
+subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
+
+Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same C<LC_CTYPE> setting as the
+programs running in it. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the C<C> locale,
+while the login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the
+locale to something else, e.g. C<en_GB.UTF-8>. Needless to say, this is
+not going to work, and is the most common cause for problems.
+
+The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely run
+into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your .profile.
+
+ printf '\33]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE" # $LANG or $LC_ALL are worth a try, too
+
+If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a C<LC_CTYPE> specification not
+supported on your systems. Some systems have a C<locale> command which
+displays this (also, C<perl -e0> can be used to check locale settings, as
+it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays something
+like:
+
+ locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ...
+
+Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.
+
+If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
+you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
+support locales :(
+
+=head3 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
+
+See next entry.
+
+=head3 Is there an option to switch encodings?
Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know about
applications so everybody agrees on character properties such as width
and code number. This mechanism is the I<locale>. Applications not using
that info will have problems (for example, C<xterm> gets the width of
-characters wrong as it uses it's own, locale-independent table under all
+characters wrong as it uses its own, locale-independent table under all
locales).
Rxvt-unicode uses the C<LC_CTYPE> locale category to select encoding. All
If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
rxvt-unicode with the correct C<LC_CTYPE> category.
-=item Can I switch locales at runtime?
+=head3 Can I switch locales at runtime?
Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
rxvt-unicode's idea of C<LC_CTYPE>.
- printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
+ printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
See also the previous answer.
(e.g. UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start C<xjdic>, which
first switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
- printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
+ printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
xjdic -js
- printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
+ printf '\33]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
You can also use xterm's C<luit> program, which usually works fine, except
for some locales where character width differs between program- and
rxvt-unicode-locales.
-=item Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
-
-Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the same
-effect as using the C<-fn> switch, and takes effect immediately:
-
- printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
-
-This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
-japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
-japanese fonts would only be in your way.
+=head3 I have problems getting my input method working.
-You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
+Try a search engine, as this is slightly different for every input method server.
-=item Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
+Here is a checklist:
-Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
-example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font C<xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
-Mono> completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might be to
-enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
-
- URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
- URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
-
-=item My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
-
-You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of the
-terminal, using the resource C<imlocale>:
-
- URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
-
-Now you can start your terminal with C<LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8> and still
-use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not be able to
-input characters outside C<EUC-JP> in a normal way then, as your input
-method limits you.
-
-=item Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
-
-Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
-design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
-leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
-exit time. B<kinput2> (and derived input methods) generally succeeds,
-while B<SCIM> (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however,
-crashes cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
-
-So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
-
-=item Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
-
-Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something you
-don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings that
-you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by design,
-when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be loaded
-accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your characters.
-
-Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
-scrollback buffers: Without C<--enable-unicode3>, rxvt-unicode will use
-6 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
-kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if full)
-use 10 Megabytes of memory. With C<--enable-unicode3> it gets worse, as
-rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
-
-=item Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
-
-Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as
-it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
-antialiasing (by appending C<:antialias=false>), which saves lots of
-memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
-
-=item Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
-
-Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
-fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
-fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
-antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
-look best that way.
-
-If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
-
-=item Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
-
-Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
-some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've
-heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A
-quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
-depressed.
-
-=item What's with this bold/blink stuff?
-
-If no bold colour is set via C<colorBD:>, bold will invert text using the
-standard foreground colour.
-
-For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the
-text blink when compiled with C<--enable-blinking>. with standard
-colours. Without C<--enable-blinking>, the blink attribute will be
-ignored.
-
-On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
-foreground/background colors.
-
-color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
-
-color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
-
-=item I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
-
-You can change the screen colors at run-time using F<~/.Xdefaults>
-resources (or as long-options).
-
-Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen,
-including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
-
- URxvt.color0: #000000
- URxvt.color1: #A80000
- URxvt.color2: #00A800
- URxvt.color3: #A8A800
- URxvt.color4: #0000A8
- URxvt.color5: #A800A8
- URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
- URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
+=over 4
- URxvt.color8: #000054
- URxvt.color9: #FF0054
- URxvt.color10: #00FF54
- URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
- URxvt.color12: #0000FF
- URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
- URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
- URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
+=item - Make sure your locale I<and> the imLocale are supported on your OS.
-And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described (not by
-me) as "pretty girly".
+Try C<locale -a> or check the documentation for your OS.
- URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
- URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
- URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
- URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
- URxvt.color0: #000000
- URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
- URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
- URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
- URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
- URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
- URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
- URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
- URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
- URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
- URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
- URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
- URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
- URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
+=item - Make sure your locale or imLocale matches a locale supported by your XIM.
-=item How can I start @@RXVT_NAME@@d in a race-free way?
+For example, B<kinput2> does not support UTF-8 locales, you should use
+C<ja_JP.EUC-JP> or equivalent.
-Try C<@@RXVT_NAME@@d -f -o>, which tells @@RXVT_NAME@@d to open the
-display, create the listening socket and then fork.
+=item - Make sure your XIM server is actually running.
-=item What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
+=item - Make sure the C<XMODIFIERS> environment variable is set correctly when I<starting> rxvt-unicode.
-Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
-BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
-question) there are two standard values that can be used for
-Backspace: C<^H> and C<^?>.
+When you want to use e.g. B<kinput2>, it must be set to
+C<@im=kinput2>. For B<scim>, use C<@im=SCIM>. You can see what input
+method servers are running with this command:
-Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the debian
-policy of using C<^?> when unsure, because it's the one only only correct
-choice :).
+ xprop -root XIM_SERVERS
-Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the value
-of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode wasn't
-started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), then the
-system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in <termios.h>, will
-be used (which may not be the same as your stty setting).
+=item
-For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
+=back
- # use Backspace = ^H
- $ stty erase ^H
- $ @@RXVT_NAME@@
+=head3 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
- # use Backspace = ^?
- $ stty erase ^?
- $ @@RXVT_NAME@@
+You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of the
+terminal, using the resource C<imlocale>:
-Toggle with C<ESC [ 36 h> / C<ESC [ 36 l>.
+ URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
-For an existing rxvt-unicode:
+Now you can start your terminal with C<LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8> and still
+use your input method. Please note, however, that, depending on your Xlib
+version, you may not be able to input characters outside C<EUC-JP> in a
+normal way then, as your input method limits you.
- # use Backspace = ^H
- $ stty erase ^H
- $ echo -n "^[[36h"
+=head3 Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
- # use Backspace = ^?
- $ stty erase ^?
- $ echo -n "^[[36l"
+Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
+design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
+leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
+exit time. B<kinput2> (and derived input methods) generally succeeds,
+while B<SCIM> (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however,
+crashes cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
-This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
-if you use Backspace = C<^H>, make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
-properly reflects that.
+So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
-The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace problem.
-To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the Delete
-key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for Execute
-(C<ESC [ 3 ~>) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
-Some other Backspace problems:
+=head2 Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
-some editors use termcap/terminfo,
-some editors (vim I'm told) expect Backspace = ^H,
-GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
+=head3 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
-Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
+The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
+patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
+unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
+the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
+version (L<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
+the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific to
+Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian Bug
+Tracking System (use C<reportbug> to report the bug).
-=item I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
+For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
+probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
+bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users that
+might encounter the same issue.
-There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
-you have run "configure" with the C<--disable-resources> option you can
-use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with keysyms.
+=head3 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
-Here's an example for a URxvt session started using C<@@RXVT_NAME@@ -name URxvt>
+You should build one binary with the default options. F<configure>
+now enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
+runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enabling them,
+except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter should
+be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely more in
+the future) depends on it.
- URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
- URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
- URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
- URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
- URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
- URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
- URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
- URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
- URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
- URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
- URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
- URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
- URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
- URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
- URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
- URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
- URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
- URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
- URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
- URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
+You should not overwrite the C<perl-ext-common> and C<perl-ext> resources
+system-wide (except maybe with C<defaults>). This will result in useful
+behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
+C<perl-ext-common> resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
+perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
-See some more examples in the documentation for the B<keysym> resource.
+If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal
+one with C<--disable-everything> (very useful) and a maximal one with
+C<--enable-everything> (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
+encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
-=item 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 mappings that rxvt-unicode doesn't recognize.
+=head3 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
- KP_Insert == Insert
- F22 == Print
- F27 == Home
- F29 == Prior
- F33 == End
- F35 == Next
+It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
+install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
-Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various possible
-keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the keys as
-required for your particular machine.
+When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
+into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
+systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
+immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
+privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
+things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
-=item How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm?
-I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
+This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very early
+and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before main(), or
+things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should result in very
+little risk.
-rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you can
-check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED, slrn,
-Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide whether or
-not to use color.
+=head3 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
-=item How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
+Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> to be defined
+in your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
+whether it defines the symbol or not. C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> requires that
+B<wchar_t> is represented as unicode.
-If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
-insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
-snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
-wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets) then
-the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from a
-regular xterm.
+As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symbol nor
+does it support it. Instead, it uses its own internal representation of
+B<wchar_t>. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.
-Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
-snippets:
+However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in C<POSIX>, C<ISO-8859-1> and
+C<UTF-8> locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as B<wchar_t>).
- # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
- [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
- if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
- stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
- echo -n '^[Z'
- read term_id
- stty icanon echo
- if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
- echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
- read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
- fi
- fi
+C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> is the only sane way to support multi-language
+apps in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized)
+representation of B<wchar_t> makes it impossible to convert between
+B<wchar_t> (as used by X11 and your applications) and any other encoding
+without implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and every locale. There
+simply are no APIs to convert B<wchar_t> into anything except the current
+locale encoding.
-=item How do I compile the manual pages for myself?
+Some applications (such as the formidable B<mlterm>) work around this
+by carrying their own replacement functions for character set handling
+with them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or doing multiple
+conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the OS implements
+encodings slightly different than the terminal emulator).
-You need to have a recent version of perl installed as F</usr/bin/perl>,
-one that comes with F<pod2man>, F<pod2text> and F<pod2html>. Then go to
-the doc subdirectory and enter C<make alldoc>.
+The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
+system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
+complete replacements for them :)
-=item My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
+=head3 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
-Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: C<irc.freenode.net>,
-channel C<#rxvt-unicode> has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
-interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
+rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using
+the X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no
+longer supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a
+single font). I recommend starting the X-server in C<-multiwindow> or
+C<-rootless> mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
+old libW11 emulation.
-=back
+At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any multi-byte
+encodings (you might try C<LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8>), so you are likely limited
+to 8-bit encodings.
-=head1 RXVT TECHNICAL REFERENCE
+=head3 Character widths are not correct.
-=head1 DESCRIPTION
+urxvt uses the system wcwidth function to know the information about
+the width of characters, so on systems with incorrect locale data you
+will likely get bad results. Two notorious examples are Solaris 9,
+where single-width characters like U+2514 are reported as double-width,
+and Darwin 8, where combining chars are reported having width 1.
+
+The solution is to upgrade your system or switch to a better one. A
+possibly working workaround is to use a wcwidth implementation like
+
+http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/wcwidth.c
+
+=head3 I want 256 colors
+
+Are you sure you need 256 colors? 88 colors should be enough for most
+purposes. If you really need more, there is an unsupported patch for
+it in the doc directory, but please do not ask for it to be applied.
+
+=head1 RXVT-UNICODE TECHNICAL REFERENCE
The rest of this document describes various technical aspects of
B<rxvt-unicode>. First the description of supported command sequences,
followed by pixmap support and last by a description of all features
selectable at C<configure> time.
-=head1 Definitions
+=head2 Definitions
=over 4
=back
-=head1 Values
+=head2 Values
=over 4
=back
-=head1 Escape Sequences
+=head2 Escape Sequences
=over 4
X<CSI>
-=head1 CSI (Command Sequence Introducer) Sequences
+=head2 CSI (Command Sequence Introducer) Sequences
=over 4
B<< C<Ps = 0> >> Clear to Right (default)
B<< C<Ps = 1> >> Clear to Left
B<< C<Ps = 2> >> Clear All
+ B<< C<Ps = 3> >> Like Ps = 0, but is ignored when wrapped
+ (@@RXVT_NAME@@ extension)
=end table
X<PrivateModes>
-=head1 DEC Private Modes
+=head2 DEC Private Modes
=over 4
=over 4
-=item B<< C<Ps = 1> >> (DECCKM)
+=item B<< C<Pm = 1> >> (DECCKM)
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 2> >> (ANSI/VT52 mode)
+=item B<< C<Pm = 2> >> (ANSI/VT52 mode)
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 3> >>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 3> >>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 4> >>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 4> >>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 5> >>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 5> >>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 6> >>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 6> >>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 7> >>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 7> >>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 8> >> I<unimplemented>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 8> >> I<unimplemented>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 9> >> X10 XTerm
+=item B<< C<Pm = 9> >> X10 XTerm
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 25> >>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 25> >>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 30> >>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 30> >>
=begin table
- B<< C<h> >> scrollBar visisble
- B<< C<l> >> scrollBar invisisble
+ B<< C<h> >> scrollBar visible
+ B<< C<l> >> scrollBar invisible
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 35> >> (B<rxvt>)
+=item B<< C<Pm = 35> >> (B<rxvt>)
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 38> >> I<unimplemented>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 38> >> I<unimplemented>
Enter Tektronix Mode (DECTEK)
-=item B<< C<Ps = 40> >>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 40> >>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 44> >> I<unimplemented>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 44> >> I<unimplemented>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 45> >> I<unimplemented>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 45> >> I<unimplemented>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 46> >> I<unimplemented>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 46> >> I<unimplemented>
-=item B<< C<Ps = 47> >>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 47> >>
=begin table
X<Priv66>
-=item B<< C<Ps = 66> >>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 66> >>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 67> >>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 67> >>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 1000> >> (X11 XTerm)
+=item B<< C<Pm = 1000> >> (X11 XTerm)
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 1001> >> (X11 XTerm) I<unimplemented>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 1001> >> (X11 XTerm) I<unimplemented>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 1010> >> (B<rxvt>)
+=item B<< C<Pm = 1002> >> (X11 XTerm)
+
+=begin table
+
+ B<< C<h> >> Send Mouse X & Y on button press and release, and motion with a button pressed.
+ B<< C<l> >> No mouse reporting.
+
+=end table
+
+=item B<< C<Pm = 1003> >> (X11 XTerm)
+
+=begin table
+
+ B<< C<h> >> Send Mouse X & Y on button press and release, and motion.
+ B<< C<l> >> No mouse reporting.
+
+=end table
+
+=item B<< C<Pm = 1010> >> (B<rxvt>)
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 1011> >> (B<rxvt>)
+=item B<< C<Pm = 1011> >> (B<rxvt>)
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 1021> >> (B<rxvt>)
+=item B<< C<Pm = 1021> >> (B<rxvt>)
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 1047> >>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 1047> >>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 1048> >>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 1048> >>
=begin table
=end table
-=item B<< C<Ps = 1049> >>
+=item B<< C<Pm = 1049> >>
=begin table
=end table
+=item B<< C<Pm = 2004> >>
+
+=begin table
+
+ B<< C<h> >> Enable bracketed paste mode - prepend / append to the pasted text the control sequences C<ESC [ 200 ~> / C<ESC [ 201 ~>
+ B<< C<l> >> Disable bracketed paste mode
+
+=end table
+
=back
=back
X<XTerm>
-=head1 XTerm Operating System Commands
+=head2 XTerm Operating System Commands
=over 4
B<< C<Ps = 2> >> Change Window Title to B<< C<Pt> >>
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.
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
- B<< C<Ps = 10> >> Change colour of text foreground to B<< C<Pt> >> B<(NB: may change in future)>
- B<< C<Ps = 11> >> Change colour of text background to B<< C<Pt> >> B<(NB: may change in future)>
+ B<< C<Ps = 10> >> Change colour of text foreground to B<< C<Pt> >>
+ B<< C<Ps = 11> >> Change colour of text background to B<< C<Pt> >>
B<< C<Ps = 12> >> Change colour of text cursor foreground to B<< C<Pt> >>
B<< C<Ps = 13> >> Change colour of mouse foreground to B<< C<Pt> >>
B<< C<Ps = 17> >> Change colour of highlight characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
B<< C<Ps = 18> >> Change colour of bold characters to B<< C<Pt> >> [deprecated, see 706]
B<< C<Ps = 19> >> Change colour of underlined characters to B<< C<Pt> >> [deprecated, see 707]
- B<< C<Ps = 20> >> Change background pixmap parameters (see section XPM) (Compile XPM).
- B<< C<Ps = 39> >> Change default foreground colour to B<< C<Pt> >>.
+ B<< C<Ps = 20> >> Change background pixmap parameters (see section BACKGROUND IMAGE) (Compile AfterImage).
+ B<< C<Ps = 39> >> Change default foreground colour to B<< C<Pt> >>. [deprecated, use 10]
B<< C<Ps = 46> >> Change Log File to B<< C<Pt> >> I<unimplemented>
- B<< C<Ps = 49> >> Change default background colour to B<< C<Pt> >>.
+ B<< C<Ps = 49> >> Change default background colour to B<< C<Pt> >>. [deprecated, use 11]
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> >>
- B<< C<Ps = 55> >> Log all scrollback buffer and all of screen to B<< C<Pt> >>
+ B<< C<Ps = 55> >> Log all scrollback buffer and all of screen to B<< C<Pt> >> [disabled]
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).
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>.
B<< C<Ps = 704> >> Change colour of italic characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
B<< C<Ps = 705> >> Change background pixmap tint colour to B<< C<Pt> >> (Compile transparency).
B<< C<Ps = 706> >> Change colour of bold characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
B<< C<Ps = 707> >> Change colour of underlined characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
+ B<< C<Ps = 708> >> Change colour of the border to B<< C<Pt> >>
B<< C<Ps = 710> >> Set normal fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>. Same as C<Ps = 50>.
B<< C<Ps = 711> >> Set bold fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>. Similar to C<Ps = 50> (Compile styles).
B<< C<Ps = 712> >> Set italic fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>. Similar to C<Ps = 50> (Compile styles).
=back
-X<XPM>
+=head1 BACKGROUND IMAGE
-=head1 XPM
-
-For the XPM XTerm escape sequence B<< C<ESC ] 20 ; Pt ST> >> then value
-of B<< C<Pt> >> can be the name of the background pixmap followed by a
+For the BACKGROUND IMAGE XTerm escape sequence B<< C<ESC ] 20 ; Pt ST> >> the value
+of B<< C<Pt> >> can be the name of the background image file followed by a
sequence of scaling/positioning commands separated by semi-colons. The
scaling/positioning commands are as follows:
=over 4
-=item B<\E]20;funky\a>
+=item B<\E]20;funky.jpg\a>
-load B<funky.xpm> as a tiled image
+load B<funky.jpg> as a tiled image
-=item B<\E]20;mona;100\a>
+=item B<\E]20;mona.jpg;100\a>
-load B<mona.xpm> with a scaling of 100%
+load B<mona.jpg> with a scaling of 100%
=item B<\E]20;;200;?\a>
the title
=back
+
X<Mouse>
=head1 Mouse Reporting
4 Shift
8 Meta
16 Control
- 32 Double Click I<(Rxvt extension)>
+ 32 Double Click I<(rxvt extension)>
=end table
Row = B<< C<< <y> - SPACE >> >>
=back
-X<KeyCodes>
=head1 Key Codes
+X<KeyCodes>
+
Note: B<Shift> + B<F1>-B<F10> generates B<F11>-B<F20>
For the keypad, use B<Shift> to temporarily override Application-Keypad
General hint: if you get compile errors, then likely your configuration
hasn't been tested well. Either try with C<--enable-everything> or use
-the F<./reconf> script as a base for experiments. F<./reconf> is used by
-myself, so it should generally be a working config. Of course, you should
-always report when a combination doesn't work, so it can be fixed. Marc
-Lehmann <rxvt@schmorp.de>.
+the default configuration (i.e. no C<--enable-xxx> or C<--disable-xxx>
+switches). Of course, you should always report when a combination doesn't
+work, so it can be fixed. Marc Lehmann <rxvt@schmorp.de>.
All
=item --enable-everything
-Add (or remove) support for all non-multichoice options listed in "./configure
---help".
+Add (or remove) support for all non-multichoice options listed in
+C<./configure --help>, except for C<--enable-assert>.
You can specify this and then disable options you do not like by
I<following> this with the appropriate C<--disable-...> arguments,
all all available codeset groups
zh common chinese encodings
- zh_ext rarely used but very big chinese encodigs
+ zh_ext rarely used but very big chinese encodings
jp common japanese encodings
jp_ext rarely used but big japanese encodings
kr korean encodings
Please note that rxvt-unicode can store unicode code points >65535
even without this flag, but the number of such characters is
-limited to a view thousand (shared with combining characters,
+limited to a few thousand (shared with combining characters,
see next switch), and right now rxvt-unicode cannot display them
(input/output and cut&paste still work, though).
Enable automatic composition of combining characters into
composite characters. This is required for proper viewing of text
-where accents are encoded as seperate unicode characters. This is
+where accents are encoded as separate unicode characters. This is
done by using precomposited characters when available or creating
new pseudo-characters when no precomposed form exists.
Use the given name as default application name when
reading resources. Specify --with-res-name=rxvt to replace rxvt.
-=item --with-res-class=CLASS /default: URxvt)
+=item --with-res-class=CLASS (default: URxvt)
Use the given class as default application class
when reading resources. Specify --with-res-class=Rxvt to replace
F<lastlogin>) at start of rxvt execution. This option requires
--enable-utmp to also be specified.
-=item --enable-xpm-background (default: on)
+=item --enable-afterimage (default: on)
-Add support for XPM background pixmaps.
+Add support for libAfterImage to be used for transparency and background
+images. It adds support for many file formats including JPG, PNG,
+SVG, TIFF, GIF, XPM, BMP, ICO, XCF, TGA and AfterStep image XML
+(L<http://www.afterstep.org/visualdoc.php?show=asimagexml>).
-=item --enable-transparency (default: on)
+This option also adds such eye candy as blending an image over the root
+background, as well as dynamic scaling and bluring of background images.
-Add support for inheriting parent backgrounds thus giving a fake
-transparency to the term.
+Note that with this option enabled, @@RXVT_NAME@@'s memory footprint might
+increase by a few megabytes even if no extra features are used (mostly due
+to third-party libraries used by libAI). Memory footprint may somewhat be
+lowered if libAfterImage is configured without support for SVG.
-=item --enable-fading (default: on)
+=item --enable-transparency (default: on)
-Add support for fading the text when focus is lost (requires C<--enable-transparency>).
+Add support for backgrounds, creating illusion of transparency in the term.
-=item --enable-tinting (default: on)
+=item --enable-fading (default: on)
-Add support for tinting of transparent backgrounds (requires C<--enable-transparency>).
+Add support for fading the text when focus is lost.
=item --enable-rxvt-scroll (default: on)
Add support for an Xterm-like scrollbar.
-=item --enable-plain-scroll (default: on)
-
-Add support for a very unobtrusive, plain-looking scrollbar that
-is the favourite of the rxvt-unicode author, having used it for
-many years.
-
-=item --enable-ttygid (default: off)
-
-Change tty device setting to group "tty" - only use this if
-your system uses this type of security.
-
=item --disable-backspace-key
Removes any handling of the backspace key by us - let the X server do it.
MWM-hints
EWMH-hints (pid, utf8 names) and protocols (ping)
- seperate underline colour (-underlineColor)
+ urgency hint
+ separate underline colour (-underlineColor)
settable border widths and borderless switch (-w, -b, -bl)
visual depth selection (-depth)
settable extra linespacing /-lsp)
- iso-14755-2 and -3, and visual feedback
+ iso-14755 5.1 (basic) support
tripleclickwords (-tcw)
settable insecure mode (-insecure)
keysym remapping support
- cursor blinking and underline cursor (-cb, -uc)
+ cursor blinking and underline cursor (-bc, -uc)
XEmbed support (-embed)
user-pty (-pty-fd)
hold on exit (-hold)
+ compile in built-in block graphics
skip builtin block graphics (-sbg)
+ separate highlightcolor support (-hc)
-It also enabled some non-essential features otherwise disabled, such as:
+It also enables some non-essential features otherwise disabled, such as:
some round-trip time optimisations
nearest color allocation on pseudocolor screens
- UTF8_STRING supporr for selection
+ UTF8_STRING support for selection
sgr modes 90..97 and 100..107
backindex and forwardindex escape sequences
- view change/zero scorllback esacpe sequences
+ view change/zero scrollback escape sequences
locale switching escape sequence
window op and some xterm/OSC escape sequences
rectangular selections
=item --enable-iso14755 (default: on)
-Enable extended ISO 14755 support (see @@RXVT_NAME@@(1), or
-F<doc/rxvt.1.txt>). Basic support (section 5.1) is enabled by
-C<--enable-frills>, while support for 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 is enabled with
-this switch.
+Enable extended ISO 14755 support (see @@RXVT_NAME@@(1)).
+Basic support (section 5.1) is enabled by C<--enable-frills>, while
+support for 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 is enabled with this switch.
=item --enable-keepscrolling (default: on)
Add support for continual scrolling of the display when you hold
the mouse button down on a scrollbar arrow.
+=item --enable-selectionscrolling (default: on)
+
+Add support for scrolling when the selection moves to the top or
+bottom of the screen.
+
=item --enable-mousewheel (default: on)
Add support for scrolling via mouse wheel or buttons 4 & 5.
accelerator) while the control key is held down. This option
requires --enable-mousewheel to also be specified.
-=item --disable-new-selection
-
-Remove support for mouse selection style like that of xterm.
+=item --enable-smart-resize (default: off)
-=item --enable-dmalloc (default: off)
-
-Use Gray Watson's malloc - which is good for debugging See
-http://www.letters.com/dmalloc/ for details If you use either this or the
-next option, you may need to edit src/Makefile after compiling to point
-DINCLUDE and DLIB to the right places.
-
-You can only use either this option and the following (should
-you use either) .
-
-=item --enable-dlmalloc (default: off)
-
-Use Doug Lea's malloc - which is good for a production version
-See L<http://g.oswego.edu/dl/html/malloc.html> for details.
+Add smart growth/shrink behaviour when resizing.
+This should keep the window corner which is closest to a corner of
+the screen in a fixed position.
-=item --enable-smart-resize (default: on)
+=item --enable-text-blink (default: on)
-Add smart growth/shrink behaviour when changing font size via hot
-keys. This should keep the window corner which is closest to a corner of
-the screen in a fixed position.
+Add support for blinking text.
=item --enable-pointer-blank (default: on)
=item --enable-perl (default: on)
Enable an embedded perl interpreter. See the B<@@RXVT_NAME@@perl(3)>
-manpage (F<doc/rxvtperl.txt>) for more info on this feature, or the files
-in F<src/perl-ext/> for the extensions that are installed by default. The
-perl interpreter that is used can be specified via the C<PERL> environment
-variable when running configure.
+manpage for more info on this feature, or the files in F<src/perl/>
+for the extensions that are installed by default.
+The perl interpreter that is used can be specified via the C<PERL>
+environment variable when running configure. Even when compiled in,
+perl will I<not> be initialised when all extensions have been disabled
+C<-pe "" --perl-ext-common "">, so it should be safe to enable from a
+resource standpoint.
+
+=item --enable-assert (default: off)
+
+Enables the assertions in the code, normally disabled. This switch is only
+useful when developing rxvt-unicode.
+
+=item --with-afterimage-config=DIR
+
+Look for the libAfterImage config script in DIR.
=item --with-name=NAME (default: urxvt)
Use the X Window System (pretty much default, eh?).
-=item --with-xpm-includes=DIR
-
-Look for the XPM includes in DIR.
-
-=item --with-xpm-library=DIR
-
-Look for the XPM library in DIR.
-
-=item --with-xpm
-
-Not needed - define via --enable-xpm-background.
-
=back
=head1 AUTHORS
projects / dana / urxvt.git / blobdiff