NAME
rxvt-unicode (ouR XVT, unicode) - (a VT102 emulator for the X window
system)
SYNOPSIS
rxvt [options] [-e command [ args ]]
DESCRIPTION
rxvt-unicode, version 4.8, is a colour vt102 terminal emulator intended
as an *xterm*(1) replacement for users who do not require features such
as Tektronix 4014 emulation and toolkit-style configurability. As a
result, rxvt-unicode uses much less swap space -- a significant
advantage on a machine serving many X sessions.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
See rxvt(7) (try "man 7 rxvt") for a list of frequently asked questions
and answer to them and some common problems.
RXVT-UNICODE VS. RXVT
Unlike the original rxvt, rxvt-unicode stores all text in Unicode
internally. That means it can store and display most scripts in the
world. Being a terminal emulator, however, some things are very
difficult, especially cursive scripts such as arabic, vertically written
scripts like mongolian or scripts requiring extremely complex combining
rules, like tibetan or devenagari. Don't expect pretty output when using
these scripts. Most other scripts, latin, cyrillic, kanji, thai etc.
should work fine, though. A somewhat difficult case are left-to-right
scripts, such as hebrew: rxvt-unicode adopts the view that bidirectional
algorithms belong into the application, not the terminal emulator (too
many things -- such as cursor-movement while editing -- break
otherwise), but that might change.
If you are looking for a terminal that supports more exotic scripts, let
me recommend "mlterm", which is a very userfriendly, lean and clean
terminal emulator. In fact, the reason rxvt-unicode was born was solely
because the author couldn't get "mlterm" to use one font for latin1 and
another for japanese.
Therefore another design rationale was the use of multiple fonts to
display characters: The idea of a single unicode font which many other
programs force onto it's users never made sense to me: You should be
able to choose any font for any script freely.
Apart from that, rxvt-unicode is also much better internationalised than
it's predecessor, supports things such as XFT and ISO 14755 that are
handy in i18n-environments, is faster, and has a lot less bugs than the
original rxvt. This all in addition to dozens of other small
improvements.
It is still faithfully following the original rxvt idea of being lean
and nice on resources: for example, you can still configure rxvt-unicode
without most of it's features to get a lean binary. It also comes with a
client/daemon pair that lets you open any number of terminal windows
from within a single process, which makes startup time very fast and
drastically reduces memory usage. See rxvtd(1) (daemon) and rxvtc(1)
(client).
It also makes technical information about escape sequences (which have
been extended) easier accessible: see rxvt(7) for technical reference
documentation (escape sequences etc.).
OPTIONS
The rxvt options (mostly a subset of *xterm*'s) are listed below. In
keeping with the smaller-is-better philosophy, options may be eliminated
or default values chosen at compile-time, so options and defaults listed
may not accurately reflect the version installed on your system. `rxvt
-h' gives a list of major compile-time options on the *Options* line.
Option descriptions may be prefixed with which compile option each is
dependent upon. e.g. `Compile *XIM*:' requires *XIM* on the *Options*
line. Note: `rxvt -help' gives a list of all command-line options
compiled into your version.
Note that rxvt permits the resource name to be used as a long-option
(--/++ option) so the potential command-line options are far greater
than those listed. For example: `rxvt --loginShell --color1 Orange'.
The following options are available:
-help, --help
Print out a message describing available options.
-display *displayname*
Attempt to open a window on the named X display (-d still
respected). In the absence of this option, the display specified by
the DISPLAY environment variable is used.
-geometry *geom*
Window geometry (-g still respected); resource geometry.
-rv|+rv
Turn on/off simulated reverse video; resource reverseVideo.
-j|+j
Turn on/off jump scrolling; resource jumpScroll.
-ip|+ip
Turn on/off inheriting parent window's pixmap. Alternative form is
-tr; resource inheritPixmap.
-fade *number*
Fade the text by the given percentage when focus is lost. resource
fading.
-tint *colour*
Tint the transparent background pixmap with the given colour when
transparency is enabled with -tr or -ip. See also the -sh option
that can be used to brighten or darken the image in addition to
tinting it.
-sh *number* Darken (0 .. 100) or lighten (-1 .. -100) the transparent
background image in addition to tinting it (i.e. -tint must be
specified, too, e.g. "-tint white").
-bg *colour*
Window background colour; resource background.
-fg *colour*
Window foreground colour; resource foreground.
-pixmap *file[;geom]*
Compile *XPM*: Specify XPM file for the background and also
optionally specify its scaling with a geometry string. Note you may
need to add quotes to avoid special shell interpretation of the `;'
in the command-line; resource backgroundPixmap.
-cr *colour*
The cursor colour; resource cursorColor.
-pr *colour*
The mouse pointer foreground colour; resource pointerColor.
-pr2 *colour*
The mouse pointer background colour; resource pointerColor2.
-bd *colour*
The colour of the border around the text area and between the
scrollbar and the text; resource borderColor.
-fn *fontlist*
Select the fonts to be used. This is a comma separated list of font
names that are used in turn when trying to display Unicode
characters. The first font defines the cell size for characters;
other fonts might be smaller, but not (in general) larger. A
(hopefully) reasonable default font list is always appended to it.
See resource font for more details.
In short, to specify an X11 core font, just specify it's name or
prefix it with "x:". To specify an XFT-font, you need to prefix it
with "xft:", e.g.:
rxvt -fn "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:pixelsize=15"
rxvt -fn "9x15bold,xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono"
See also the question "How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?" in the
FAQ section of rxvt(7).
-fb *fontlist*
Compile font-styles: The bold font list to use when bold characters
are to be printed. See resource boldFont for details.
-fi *fontlist*
Compile font-styles: The italic font list to use when bold
characters are to be printed. See resource italicFont for details.
-fbi *fontlist*
Compile font-styles: The bold italic font list to use when bold
characters are to be printed. See resource boldItalicFont for
details.
-name *name*
Specify the application name under which resources are to be
obtained, rather than the default executable file name. Name should
not contain `.' or `*' characters. Also sets the icon and title
name.
-ls|+ls
Start as a login-shell/sub-shell; resource loginShell.
-ut|+ut
Compile *utmp*: Inhibit/enable writing a utmp entry; resource
utmpInhibit.
-vb|+vb
Turn on/off visual bell on receipt of a bell character; resource
visualBell.
-sb|+sb
Turn on/off scrollbar; resource scrollBar.
-si|+si
Turn on/off scroll-to-bottom on TTY output inhibit; resource
scrollTtyOutput has opposite effect.
-sk|+sk
Turn on/off scroll-to-bottom on keypress; resource
scrollTtyKeypress.
-sw|+sw
Turn on/off scrolling with the scrollback buffer as new lines
appear. This only takes effect if -si is also given; resource
scrollWithBuffer.
-sr|+sr
Put scrollbar on right/left; resource scrollBar_right.
-st|+st
Display normal (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar without/with a trough;
resource scrollBar_floating.
-ptab|+ptab
If enabled (default), "Horizontal Tab" characters are being stored
as actual wide characters in the screen buffer, which makes it
possible to select and paste them. Since a horizontal tab is a
cursor movement and not an actual glyph, this can sometimes be
visually annoying as the cursor on a tab character is displayed as a
wide cursor; resource pastableTabs.
-bc|+bc
Blink the cursor; resource cursorBlink.
-iconic
Start iconified, if the window manager supports that option.
Alternative form is -ic.
-sl *number*
Save *number* lines in the scrollback buffer. See resource entry for
limits; resource saveLines.
-b *number*
Compile *frills*: Internal border of *number* pixels. See resource
entry for limits; resource internalBorder.
-w *number*
Compile *frills*: External border of *number* pixels. Also, -bw and
-borderwidth. See resource entry for limits; resource
externalBorder.
-bl Compile *frills*: Set MWM hints to request a borderless window, i.e.
if honoured by the WM, the rxvt-unicode window will not have window
decorations; resource borderLess.
-lsp *number*
Compile *frills*: Lines (pixel height) to insert between each row of
the display. Useful to work around font rendering problems; resource
linespace.
-tn *termname*
This option specifies the name of the terminal type to be set in the
TERM environment variable. This terminal type must exist in the
*termcap(5)* database and should have *li#* and *co#* entries;
resource termName.
-e *command [arguments]*
Run the command with its command-line arguments in the rxvt window;
also sets the window title and icon name to be the basename of the
program being executed if neither *-title* (*-T*) nor *-n* are given
on the command line. If this option is used, it must be the last on
the command-line. If there is no -e option then the default is to
run the program specified by the SHELL environment variable or,
failing that, *sh(1)*.
-title *text*
Window title (-T still respected); the default title is the basename
of the program specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the
application name; resource title.
-n *text*
Icon name; the default name is the basename of the program specified
after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application name;
resource iconName.
-C Capture system console messages.
-pt *style*
Compile *XIM*: input style for input method; OverTheSpot,
OffTheSpot, Root; resource preeditType.
-im *text*
Compile *XIM*: input method name. resource inputMethod.
-imlocale *string*
The locale to use for opening the IM. You can use an LC_CTYPE of
e.g. de_DE.UTF-8 for normal text processing but ja_JP.EUC-JP for the
input extension to be able to input japanese characters while
staying in another locale.
-insecure
Enable "insecure" mode, which currently enables most of the escape
sequences that echo strings. See the resource insecure for more
info.
-mod *modifier*
Override detection of Meta modifier with specified key: alt, meta,
hyper, super, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, mod5; resource *modifier*.
-ssc|+ssc
Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled); resource
secondaryScreen.
-ssr|+ssr
Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled); resource
secondaryScroll.
-xrm *resourcestring*
No effect on rxvt-unicode. Simply passes through an argument to be
made available in the instance's argument list. Appears in
*WM_COMMAND* in some window managers.
RESOURCES (available also as long-options)
Note: `rxvt --help' gives a list of all resources (long options)
compiled into your version.
There are two different methods that rxvt can use to get the Xresource
data: using the X libraries (Xrm*-functions) or internal Xresources
reader (~/.Xdefaults). For the first method (ie. rxvt -h lists
XGetDefaults), you can set and change the resources using X11 tools like
xset. Many distribution do also load settings from the ~/.Xresources
file when X starts.
If compiled with internal Xresources support (i.e. rxvt -h lists
.Xdefaults) then rxvt accepts application defaults set in
XAPPLOADDIR/URxvt (compile-time defined: usually
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/URxvt) and resources set in ~/.Xdefaults, or
~/.Xresources if ~/.Xdefaults does not exist. Note that when reading X
resources, rxvt recognizes two class names: XTerm and URxvt. The class
name Rxvt allows resources common to both rxvt and the original *rxvt*
to be easily configured, while the class name URxvt allows resources
unique to rxvt, notably colours and key-handling, to be shared between
different rxvt configurations. If no resources are specified, suitable
defaults will be used. Command-line arguments can be used to override
resource settings. The following resources are allowed:
geometry: *geom*
Create the window with the specified X window geometry [default
80x24]; option -geometry.
background: *colour*
Use the specified colour as the window's background colour [default
White]; option -bg.
foreground: *colour*
Use the specified colour as the window's foreground colour [default
Black]; option -fg.
color*n*: *colour*
Use the specified colour for the colour value *n*, where 0-7
corresponds to low-intensity (normal) colours and 8-15 corresponds
to high-intensity (bold = bright foreground, blink = bright
background) colours. The canonical names are as follows: 0=black,
1=red, 2=green, 3=yellow, 4=blue, 5=magenta, 6=cyan, 7=white, but
the actual colour names used are listed in the COLORS AND GRAPHICS
section.
Colours higher than 15 cannot be set using resources (yet), but can
be changed using an escape command (see rxvt(7)).
Colours 16-79 form a standard 4x4x4 colour cube (the same as xterm
with 88 colour support). Colours 80-87 are evenly spaces grey steps.
colorBD: *colour*
colorIT: *colour*
Use the specified colour to display bold or italic characters when
the foreground colour is the default. If font styles are not
available (Compile styles) and this option is unset, reverse video
is used instead.
colorUL: *colour*
Use the specified colour to display underlined characters when the
foreground colour is the default.
colorRV: *colour*
Use the specified colour as the background for reverse video
characters.
underlineColor: *colour*
If set, use the specified colour as the colour for the underline
itself. If unset, use the foreground colour.
cursorColor: *colour*
Use the specified colour for the cursor. The default is to use the
foreground colour; option -cr.
cursorColor2: *colour*
Use the specified colour for the colour of the cursor text. For this
to take effect, cursorColor must also be specified. The default is
to use the background colour.
reverseVideo: *boolean*
True: simulate reverse video by foreground and background colours;
option -rv. False: regular screen colours [default]; option +rv. See
note in COLORS AND GRAPHICS section.
jumpScroll: *boolean*
True: specify that jump scrolling should be used. When scrolling
quickly, fewer screen updates are performed [default]; option -j.
False: specify that smooth scrolling should be used; option +j.
inheritPixmap: *boolean*
True: make the background inherit the parent windows' pixmap, giving
artificial transparency. False: do not inherit the parent windows'
pixmap.
fading: *number*
Fade the text by the given percentage when focus is lost.
tintColor: *colour*
Tint the transparent background pixmap with the given colour.
shading: *number*
Darken (0 .. 100) or lighten (-1 .. -100) the transparent background
image in addition to tinting it.
scrollColor: *colour*
Use the specified colour for the scrollbar [default #B2B2B2].
troughColor: *colour*
Use the specified colour for the scrollbar's trough area [default
#969696]. Only relevant for normal (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar.
borderColor: *colour*
The colour of the border around the text area and between the
scrollbar and the text.
backgroundPixmap: *file[;geom]*
Use the specified XPM file (note the `.xpm' extension is optional)
for the background and also optionally specify its scaling with a
geometry string WxH+X+Y, in which "W" / "H" specify the
horizontal/vertical scale (percent) and "X" / "Y" locate the image
centre (percent). A scale of 0 displays the image with tiling. A
scale of 1 displays the image without any scaling. A scale of 2 to 9
specifies an integer number of images in that direction. No image
will be magnified beyond 10 times its original size. The maximum
permitted scale is 1000. [default 0x0+50+50]
menu: *file[;tag]*
Read in the specified menu file (note the `.menu' extension is
optional) and also optionally specify a starting tag to find. See
the reference documentation for details on the syntax for the
menuBar.
path: *path*
Specify the colon-delimited search path for finding files (XPM and
menus), in addition to the paths specified by the RXVTPATH and PATH
environment variables.
font: *fontlist*
Select the fonts to be used. This is a comma separated list of font
names that are used in turn when trying to display Unicode
characters. The first font defines the cell size for characters;
other fonts might be smaller, but not larger. A reasonable default
font list is always appended to it. option -fn.
Each font can either be a standard X11 core font (XLFD) name, with
optional prefix "x:" or a Xft font (Compile xft), prefixed with
"xft:".
In addition, each font can be prefixed with additional hints and
specifications enclosed in square brackets ("[]"). The only
available hint currently is "codeset=codeset-name", and this is only
used for Xft fonts.
For example, this font resource
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:antialias=false, \
xft:Code2000:antialias=false
specifies five fonts to be used. The first one is "9x15bold"
(actually the iso8859-1 version of the second font), which is the
base font (because it is named first) and thus defines the character
cell grid to be 9 pixels wide and 15 pixels high.
The second font is just used to add additional unicode characters
not in the base font, likewise the third, which is unfortunately
non-bold, but the bold version of the font does contain less
characters, so this is a useful supplement.
The third font is an Xft font with aliasing turned off, and the
characters are limited to the JIS 0208 codeset (i.e. japanese
kanji). The font contains other characters, but we are not
interested in them.
The last font is a useful catch-all font that supplies most of the
remaining unicode characters.
boldFont: *fontlist*
italicFont: *fontlist*
boldItalicFont: *fontlist*
The font list to use for displaying bold, *italic* or *bold italic*
characters, respectively.
If specified and non-empty, then the syntax is the same as for the
font-resource, and the given font list will be used as is, which
makes it possible to substitute completely different font styles for
bold and italic.
If unset (the default), a suitable font list will be synthesized by
"morphing" the normal text font list into the desired shape. If that
is not possible, replacement fonts of the desired shape will be
tried.
If set, but empty, then this specific style is disabled and the
normal text font will being used for the given style.
selectstyle: *mode*
Set mouse selection style to old which is 2.20, oldword which is
xterm style with 2.20 old word selection, or anything else which
gives xterm style selection.
scrollstyle: *mode*
Set scrollbar style to rxvt, plain, next or xterm. plain is the
author's favourite..
title: *string*
Set window title string, the default title is the command-line
specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application
name; option -title.
iconName: *string*
Set the name used to label the window's icon or displayed in an icon
manager window, it also sets the window's title unless it is
explicitly set; option -n.
mapAlert: *boolean*
True: de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character. False: no
de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character [default].
visualBell: *boolean*
True: use visual bell on receipt of a bell character; option -vb.
False: no visual bell [default]; option +vb.
loginShell: *boolean*
True: start as a login shell by prepending a `-' to argv[0] of the
shell; option -ls. False: start as a normal sub-shell [default];
option +ls.
utmpInhibit: *boolean*
True: inhibit writing record into the system log file utmp; option
-ut. False: write record into the system log file utmp [default];
option +ut.
print-pipe: *string*
Specify a command pipe for vt100 printer [default *lpr(1)*]. Use
Print to initiate a screen dump to the printer and Ctrl-Print or
Shift-Print to include the scrollback as well.
scrollBar: *boolean*
True: enable the scrollbar [default]; option -sb. False: disable the
scrollbar; option +sb.
scrollBar_right: *boolean*
True: place the scrollbar on the right of the window; option -sr.
False: place the scrollbar on the left of the window; option +sr.
scrollBar_floating: *boolean*
True: display an rxvt scrollbar without a trough; option -st. False:
display an rxvt scrollbar with a trough; option +st.
scrollBar_align: *mode*
Align the top, bottom or centre [default] of the scrollbar thumb
with the pointer on middle button press/drag.
scrollTtyOutput: *boolean*
True: scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option -si. False:
do not scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option +si.
scrollWithBuffer: *boolean*
True: scroll with scrollback buffer when tty receives new lines (and
scrollTtyOutput is False); option +sw. False: do not scroll with
scrollback buffer when tty recieves new lines; option -sw.
scrollTtyKeypress: *boolean*
True: scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed. Special
keys are those which are intercepted by rxvt-unicode for special
handling and are not passed onto the shell; option -sk. False: do
not scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed; option +sk.
saveLines: *number*
Save *number* lines in the scrollback buffer [default 64]. This
resource is limited on most machines to 65535; option -sl.
internalBorder: *number*
Internal border of *number* pixels. This resource is limited to 100;
option -b.
externalBorder: *number*
External border of *number* pixels. This resource is limited to 100;
option -w, -bw, -borderwidth.
borderLess: *boolean*
Set MWM hints to request a borderless window, i.e. if honoured by
the WM, the rxvt-unicode window will not have window decorations;
option -bl.
termName: *termname*
Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM environment
variable; option -tn.
linespace: *number*
Specifies number of lines (pixel height) to insert between each row
of the display [default 0]; option -lsp.
meta8: *boolean*
True: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress to set the 8th bit. False: handle
Meta (Alt) + keypress as an escape prefix [default].
mouseWheelScrollPage: *boolean*
True: the mouse wheel scrolls a page full. False: the mouse wheel
scrolls five lines [default].
pastableTabs: *boolean*
True: store tabs as wide characters. False: interpret tabs as cursor
movement only; option "-ptab".
cursorBlink: *boolean*
True: blink the cursor. False: do not blink the cursor [default];
option -bc.
pointerBlank: *boolean*
True: blank the pointer when a key is pressed or after a set number
of seconds of inactivity. False: the pointer is always visible
[default].
pointerColor: *colour*
Mouse pointer foreground colour.
pointerColor2: *colour*
Mouse pointer background colour.
pointerBlankDelay: *number*
Specifies number of seconds before blanking the pointer [default 2].
backspacekey: *string*
The string to send when the backspace key is pressed. If set to DEC
or unset it will send Delete (code 127) or, if shifted, Backspace
(code 8) - which can be reversed with the appropriate DEC private
mode escape sequence.
deletekey: *string*
The string to send when the delete key (not the keypad delete key)
is pressed. If unset it will send the sequence traditionally
associated with the Execute key.
cutchars: *string*
The characters used as delimiters for double-click word selection.
The built-in default:
BACKSLASH `"'&()*,;<=>?@[]{|}
preeditType: *style*
OverTheSpot, OffTheSpot, Root; option -pt.
inputMethod: *name*
*name* of inputMethod to use; option -im.
imLocale: *name*
The locale to use for opening the IM. You can use an LC_CTYPE of
e.g. de_DE.UTF-8 for normal text processing but ja_JP.EUC-JP for the
input extension to be able to input japanese characters while
staying in another locale. option -imlocale.
insecure: *boolean*
Enables "insecure" mode. Rxvt-unicode offers some escape sequences
that echo arbitrary strings like the icon name or the locale. This
could be abused if somebody gets 8-bit-clean access to your display,
whether throuh a mail client displaying mail bodies unfiltered or
though write(1). Therefore, these sequences are disabled by default.
(Note that other terminals, including xterm, have these sequences
enabled by default). You can enable them by setting this boolean
resource or specifying -insecure as an option. At the moment, this
enabled display-answer, locale, findfont, icon label and window
title requests as well as dynamic menubar dispatch.
modifier: *modifier*
Set the key to be interpreted as the Meta key to: alt, meta, hyper,
super, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, mod5; option -mod.
answerbackString: *string*
Specify the reply rxvt-unicode sends to the shell when an ENQ
(control-E) character is passed through. It may contain escape
values as described in the entry on keysym following.
secondaryScreen: *bool*
Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled).
secondaryScroll: *bool*
Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled). If the this
option is enabled, scrolls on the secondary screen will change the
scrollback buffer and switching to/from the secondary screen will
instead scroll the screen up.
keysym.*sym*: *string*
Associate *string* with keysym *sym* (0xFF00 - 0xFFFF). It may
contain escape values (\a: bell, \b: backspace, \e, \E: escape, \n:
newline, \r: return, \t: tab, \000: octal number) or control
characters (^?: delete, ^@: null, ^A ...) and may enclosed with
double quotes so that it can start or end with whitespace. The
intervening resource name keysym. cannot be omitted. This resource
is only available when compiled with KEYSYM_RESOURCE.
THE SCROLLBAR
Lines of text that scroll off the top of the rxvt window (resource:
saveLines) and can be scrolled back using the scrollbar or by
keystrokes. The normal rxvt scrollbar has arrows and its behaviour is
fairly intuitive. The xterm-scrollbar is without arrows and its
behaviour mimics that of *xterm*
Scroll down with Button1 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Next. Scroll up with
Button3 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Prior. Continuous scroll with
Button2.
MOUSE REPORTING
To temporarily override mouse reporting, for either the scrollbar or the
normal text selection/insertion, hold either the Shift or the Meta (Alt)
key while performing the desired mouse action.
If mouse reporting mode is active, the normal scrollbar actions are
disabled -- on the assumption that we are using a fullscreen
application. Instead, pressing Button1 and Button3 sends ESC[6~ (Next)
and ESC[5~ (Prior), respectively. Similarly, clicking on the up and down
arrows sends ESC[A (Up) and ESC[B (Down), respectively.
TEXT SELECTION AND INSERTION
The behaviour of text selection and insertion mechanism is similar to
*xterm*(1).
Selection:
Left click at the beginning of the region, drag to the end of the
region and release; Right click to extend the marked region; Left
double-click to select a word; Left triple-click to select the
entire line.
Starting a selection while pressing the Meta key (or Meta+Ctrl keys)
(Compile: frills) will create a rectangular selection instead of a
normal one.
Insertion:
Pressing and releasing the Middle mouse button (or Shift-Insert) in
an rxvt window causes the current text selection to be inserted as
if it had been typed on the keyboard.
CHANGING FONTS
Changing fonts (or font sizes, respectively) via the keypad is not yet
supported in rxvt-unicode. Bug me if you need this.
You can, however, switch fonts at runtime using escape sequences (and
therefore using the menubar), e.g.:
printf '\e]701;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
rxvt-unicode will automatically re-apply these fonts to the output so
far.
ISO 14755 SUPPORT
ISO 14755 is a standard for entering and viewing unicode characters and
character codes using the keyboard. It consists of 4 parts. The first
part is available rxvt-unicode has been compiled with "--enable-frills",
the rest is available when rxvt-unicode was compiled with
"--enable-iso14755".
5.1: Basic method
This allows you to enter unicode characters using their hexcode.
Start by pressing and holding both "Control" and "Shift", then enter
hex-digits (between one and six). Releasing "Control" and "Shift"
will commit the character as if it were typed directly. While
holding down "Control" and "Shift" you can also enter multiple
characters by pressing "Space", which will commit the current
character and lets you start a new one.
As an example of use, imagine a business card with a japanese e-mail
address, which you cannot type. Fortunately, the card has the e-mail
address printed as hexcodes, e.g. "671d 65e5". You can enter this
easily by pressing "Control" and "Shift", followed by
"6-7-1-D-SPACE-6-5-E-5", followed by releasing the modifier keys.
5.2: Keyboard symbols entry method
This mode lets you input characters representing the keycap symbols
of your keyboard, if representable in the current locale encoding.
Start by pressing "Control" and "Shift" together, then releasing
them. The next special key (cursor keys, home etc.) you enter will
not invoke it's usual function but instead will insert the
corresponding keycap symbol. The symbol will only be entered when
the key has been released, otherwise pressing e.g. "Shift" would
enter the symbol for "ISO Level 2 Switch", although your intention
might have been to enter a reverse tab (Shift-Tab).
5.3: Screen-selection entry method
While this is implemented already (it's basically the selection
mechanism), it could be extended by displaying a unicode character
map.
5.4: Feedback method for identifying displayed characters for later
input
This method lets you display the unicode character code associated
with characters already displayed.
You enter this mode by holding down "Control" and "Shift" together,
then pressing and holding the left mouse button and moving around.
The unicode hex code(s) (it might be a combining character) of the
character under the pointer is displayed until you release "Control"
and "Shift".
In addition to the hex codes it will display the font used to draw
this character - due to implementation reasons, characters combined
with combining characters, line drawing characters and unknown
characters will always be drawn using the built-in support font.
With respect to conformance, rxvt-unicode is supposed to be compliant to
both scenario A and B of ISO 14755, including part 5.2.
LOGIN STAMP
rxvt tries to write an entry into the *utmp*(5) file so that it can be
seen via the *who(1)* command, and can accept messages. To allow this
feature, rxvt must be installed setuid root on some systems.
COLORS AND GRAPHICS
In addition to the default foreground and background colours, rxvt can
display up to 16 colours (8 ANSI colours plus high-intensity bold/blink
versions of the same). Here is a list of the colours with their rgb.txt
names.
color0 (black) = Black
color1 (red) = Red3
color2 (green) = Green3
color3 (yellow) = Yellow3
color4 (blue) = Blue3
color5 (magenta) = Magenta3
color6 (cyan) = Cyan3
color7 (white) = AntiqueWhite
color8 (bright black) = Grey25
color9 (bright red) = Red
color10 (bright green) = Green
color11 (bright yellow) = Yellow
color12 (bright blue) = Blue
color13 (bright magenta) = Magenta
color14 (bright cyan) = Cyan
color15 (bright white) = White
foreground = Black
background = White
It is also possible to specify the colour values of foreground,
background, cursorColor, cursorColor2, colorBD, colorUL as a number
0-15, as a convenient shorthand to reference the colour name of
color0-color15.
Note that -rv ("reverseVideo: True") simulates reverse video by always
swapping the foreground/background colours. This is in contrast to
*xterm*(1) where the colours are only swapped if they have not otherwise
been specified. For example,
rxvt -fg Black -bg White -rv
would yield White on Black, while on *xterm*(1) it would yield Black
on White.
ENVIRONMENT
rxvt sets the environment variables TERM, COLORTERM and COLORFGBG. The
environment variable WINDOWID is set to the X window id number of the
rxvt window and it also uses and sets the environment variable DISPLAY
to specify which display terminal to use. rxvt uses the environment
variables RXVTPATH and PATH to find XPM files.
FILES
/etc/utmp
System file for login records.
/usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt
Color names.
SEE ALSO
rxvt(7), xterm(1), sh(1), resize(1), X(1), pty(4), tty(4), utmp(5)
BUGS
Check the BUGS file for an up-to-date list.
Cursor change support is not yet implemented.
Click-and-drag doesn't work with X11 mouse report overriding.
CURRENT PROJECT COORDINATOR
Project Coordinator
Marc A. Lehmann rxvt@schmorp.de
Web page maintainter
Marc A. Lehmann rxvt@schmorp.de
AUTHORS
John Bovey
University of Kent, 1992, wrote the original Xvt.
Rob Nation
very heavily modified Xvt and came up with Rxvt
Angelo Haritsis
wrote the Greek Keyboard Input (no longer in code)
mj olesen
Wrote the menu system.
Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.11 to 2.21)
Oezguer Kesim
Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.21a to 2.4.5)
Geoff Wing
Rewrote screen display and text selection routines. Project
Coordinator (changes.txt 2.4.6 - rxvt-unicode)
Marc Alexander Lehmann
Forked rxvt-unicode, rewrote most of the display code and internal
character handling to store text in unicode, improve xterm
compatibility and apply numerous other bugfixes and extensions.
Project Coordinator (Changes 1.0 -)