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Revision 1.12 by root, Thu Feb 17 12:06:21 2005 UTC vs.
Revision 1.28 by root, Fri Jan 13 12:40:46 2006 UTC

1FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 1FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
2 The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select
3 single words?
4 Yes. For example, if you want to select alphanumeric words, you can
5 use the following resource:
6
7 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
8
9 If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more
10 and more.
11
12 To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this
13 pattern:
14
15 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
16
17 Please also note that the *LeftClick Shift-LeftClik* combination
18 also selects words like the old code.
19
20 I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I
21 change/disable it?
22 You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
23 perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps
24 rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
25
26 If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
27 identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the
28 section PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the urxvtperl(3) manpage. For
29 example, to disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify
30 this perl-ext-common resource:
31
32 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
33
34 This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
35 extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
36 scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any
37 other combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback
38 resource:
39
40 URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
41
42 Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
43 I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause
44 extra bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you
45 can see that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables
46 always being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS)
47 after startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is
48 a bit unfair, as many features unique to urxvt (locale, encoding
49 conversion, iso14755 etc.) are already in use in this mode.
50
51 text data bss drs rss filename
52 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything
53 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything
54
55 When you "--enable-everything" (which _is_ unfair, as this involves
56 xft and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11
57 and my libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so.
58
59 text data bss drs rss filename
60 163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything
61 1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything
62
63 The very large size of the text section is explained by the
64 east-asian encoding tables, which, if unused, take up disk space but
65 nothing else and can be compiled out unless you rely on X11 core
66 fonts that use those encodings. The BSS size comes from the 64k
67 emergency buffer that my c++ compiler allocates (but of course
68 doesn't use unless you are out of memory). Also, using an xft font
69 instead of a core font immediately adds a few megabytes of RSS. Xft
70 indeed is responsible for a lot of RSS even when not used.
71
72 Of course, due to every character using two or four bytes instead of
73 one, a large scrollback buffer will ultimately make rxvt-unicode use
74 more memory.
75
76 Compared to e.g. Eterm (5112k), aterm (3132k) and xterm (4680k),
77 this still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like
78 gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or
79 konsole (22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after
80 exit, plus half a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of
81 warnings it spits out), it fares extremely well *g*.
82
83 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
84 Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is:
85 I had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a
86 fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me).
87 Put even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
88
89 My personal stance on this is that C++ is less portable than C, but
90 in the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability
91 limits are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale
92 support and unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than
93 C++ itself.
94
95 Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write
96 programs in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to
97 write programs in C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large
98 libraries, but this is not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is
99 what rxvt links against on my system with a minimal config:
100
101 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
102 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000)
103 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000)
104 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
105
106 And here is rxvt-unicode:
107
108 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
109 libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)
110 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
111 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
112 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
113
114 No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in
115 statically), except maybe libX11 :)
116
117 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
118 rxvt-unicode does not directly support tabs. It will work fine with
119 tabbing functionality of many window managers or similar tabbing
120 programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be embedded into
121 other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed or the upcoming
122 "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt (murxvt)
123 terminal as an example embedding application.
124
2 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? 125 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
3 The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape 126 The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
4 sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. 127 sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number.
128 When using the urxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the
129 daemon.
5 130
6 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem... 131 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
7 The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode contains large patches 132 The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
8 that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode. Before 133 patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode.
9 reporting a bug to the original rxvt-unicode author please download 134 Before reporting a bug to the original rxvt-unicode author please
10 and install the genuine version 135 download and install the genuine version
11 (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce the 136 (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce the
12 problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific 137 problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific
13 to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the 138 to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the
14 Debian Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug). 139 Debian Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug).
15 140
16 For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and 141 For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
17 probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's 142 probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's
18 also a bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for 143 also a bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for
19 other users that might encounter the same issue. 144 other users that might encounter the same issue.
145
146 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any
147 recommendation?
148 You should build one binary with the default options. configure now
149 enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
150 runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling
151 them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl
152 interpreter should be enabled, as important functionality (menus,
153 selection, likely more in the future) depends on it.
154
155 You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext"
156 resources system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will
157 result in useful behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory,
158 add an empty "perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file.
159 This will keep the perl interpreter disabled until the user enables
160 it.
161
162 If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal
163 one with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with
164 "--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot
165 of encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely
166 used).
167
168 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this
169 safe?
170 Likely not. While I honestly try to make it secure, and am probably
171 not bad at it, I think it is simply unreasonable to expect all of
172 freetype + fontconfig + xft + xlib + perl + ... + rxvt-unicode
173 itself to all be secure. Also, rxvt-unicode disables some options
174 when it detects that it runs setuid or setgid, which is not nice.
175 Besides, with the embedded perl interpreter the possibility for
176 security problems easily multiplies.
177
178 Elevated privileges are only required for utmp and pty operations on
179 some systems (for example, GNU/Linux doesn't need any extra
180 privileges for ptys, but some need it for utmp support). It is
181 planned to mvoe this into a forked handler process, but this is not
182 yet done.
183
184 So, while setuid/setgid operation is supported and not a problem on
185 your typical single-user-no-other-logins unix desktop, always
186 remember that its an awful lot of code, most of which isn't checked
187 for security issues regularly.
20 188
21 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? 189 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
22 The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely 190 The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely
23 available as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same 191 available as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same
24 problem often arises). 192 problem often arises).
45 URxvt.termName: rxvt 213 URxvt.termName: rxvt
46 214
47 If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also 215 If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also
48 replace the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one. 216 replace the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one.
49 217
218 "tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
219 Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it
220 by "enacs=\E[0@" and try again.
221
50 "bash"'s readline does not work correctly under rxvt. 222 "bash"'s readline does not work correctly under urxvt.
51 I need a termcap file entry. 223 I need a termcap file entry.
52 One reason you might want this is that some distributions or 224 One reason you might want this is that some distributions or
53 operating systems still compile some programs using the 225 operating systems still compile some programs using the
54 long-obsoleted termcap library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) 226 long-obsoleted termcap library (Fedora Core's bash is one example)
55 and rely on a termcap entry for "rxvt-unicode". 227 and rely on a termcap entry for "rxvt-unicode".
166 indeed look correct. 338 indeed look correct.
167 339
168 In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font 340 In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font
169 list, e.g.: 341 list, e.g.:
170 342
171 rxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3... 343 urxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...
172 344
173 When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base 345 When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
174 font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to 346 font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to
175 the next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed 347 the next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed
176 up this search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the 348 up this search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the
226 that doesn't work, you might be forced to use a different font. 398 that doesn't work, you might be forced to use a different font.
227 399
228 All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their 400 All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their
229 bounding box data is correct. 401 bounding box data is correct.
230 402
403 On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.
404 Seems to be a known bug, read
405 <http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the
406 following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
407
408 #define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)
409
231 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working. 410 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
232 The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not 411 The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not
233 set correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported 412 set correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported
234 by your input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and 413 by your input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and
235 your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose 414 your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose
279 As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symobl 458 As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symobl
280 nor does it support it. Instead, it uses it's own internal 459 nor does it support it. Instead, it uses it's own internal
281 representation of wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with 460 representation of wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with
282 respect to standards. 461 respect to standards.
283 462
463 However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1"
464 and "UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t.
465
284 However, "__STDC_ISO_10646__" is the only sane way to support 466 "__STDC_ISO_10646__" is the only sane way to support multi-language
285 multi-language apps in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and 467 apps in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized)
286 non-standardized) representation of wchar_t makes it impossible to 468 representation of wchar_t makes it impossible to convert between
287 convert between wchar_t (as used by X11 and your applications) and 469 wchar_t (as used by X11 and your applications) and any other
288 any other encoding without implementing OS-specific-wrappers for 470 encoding without implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and
289 each and every locale. There simply are no APIs to convert wchar_t 471 every locale. There simply are no APIs to convert wchar_t into
290 into anything except the current locale encoding. 472 anything except the current locale encoding.
291 473
292 Some applications (such as the formidable mlterm) work around this 474 Some applications (such as the formidable mlterm) work around this
293 by carrying their own replacement functions for character set 475 by carrying their own replacement functions for character set
294 handling with them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or 476 handling with them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or
295 doing multiple conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the 477 doing multiple conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the
297 emulator). 479 emulator).
298 480
299 The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in 481 The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in
300 the system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app 482 the system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app
301 to carry complete replacements for them :) 483 to carry complete replacements for them :)
484
485 I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.
486 Try the diff in doc/solaris9.patch as a base. It fixes the worst
487 problems with "wcwidth" and a compile problem.
488
489 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
490 rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using
491 the X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no
492 longer supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a
493 single font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or
494 "-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as
495 the old libW11 emulation.
496
497 At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any
498 multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are
499 likely limited to 8-bit encodings.
302 500
303 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use? 501 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
304 Is there an option to switch encodings? 502 Is there an option to switch encodings?
305 Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, 503 Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch,
306 and no specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't 504 and no specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't
418 it gets worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell. 616 it gets worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
419 617
420 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow? 618 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
421 Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, 619 Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely,
422 as it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to 620 as it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to
423 disable antialiasing (by appending ":antialiasing=false"), which 621 disable antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves
424 saves lots of memory and also speeds up rendering considerably. 622 lots of memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
425 623
426 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong? 624 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
427 Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to 625 Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
428 fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core 626 fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
429 fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It 627 fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It
435 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works. 633 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
436 Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing 634 Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
437 some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. 635 some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode.
438 I've heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise 636 I've heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise
439 specified. A quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt 637 specified. A quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt
440 or Shift keys are depressed. See rxvt(7) 638 or Shift keys are depressed.
441 639
442 What's with this bold/blink stuff? 640 What's with this bold/blink stuff?
443 If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using 641 If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using
444 the standard foreground colour. 642 the standard foreground colour.
445 643
500 URxvt.color6: #73f7ff 698 URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
501 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff 699 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
502 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd 700 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
503 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd 701 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
504 702
505 How can I start rxvtd in a race-free way? 703 How can I start urxvtd in a race-free way?
506 Despite it's name, rxvtd is not a real daemon, but more like a 704 Try "urxvtd -f -o", which tells urxvtd to open the display, create
507 server that answers rxvtc's requests, so it doesn't background 705 the listening socket and then fork.
508 itself.
509
510 To ensure rxvtd is listening on it's socket, you can use the
511 following method to wait for the startup message before continuing:
512
513 { rxvtd & } | read
514 706
515 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour? 707 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
516 Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the 708 Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
517 BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following 709 BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
518 question) there are two standard values that can be used for 710 question) there are two standard values that can be used for
531 723
532 For starting a new rxvt-unicode: 724 For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
533 725
534 # use Backspace = ^H 726 # use Backspace = ^H
535 $ stty erase ^H 727 $ stty erase ^H
536 $ rxvt 728 $ urxvt
537 729
538 # use Backspace = ^? 730 # use Backspace = ^?
539 $ stty erase ^? 731 $ stty erase ^?
540 $ rxvt 732 $ urxvt
541 733
542 Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l" as documented in rxvt(7). 734 Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l".
543 735
544 For an existing rxvt-unicode: 736 For an existing rxvt-unicode:
545 737
546 # use Backspace = ^H 738 # use Backspace = ^H
547 $ stty erase ^H 739 $ stty erase ^H
573 There are some compile-time selections available via configure. 765 There are some compile-time selections available via configure.
574 Unless you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" 766 Unless you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources"
575 option you can use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings 767 option you can use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings
576 associated with keysyms. 768 associated with keysyms.
577 769
578 Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "rxvt -name 770 Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "urxvt -name
579 URxvt" 771 URxvt"
580 772
581 URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~ 773 URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
582 URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~ 774 URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
583 URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'> 775 URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>

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