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Revision 1.15 by root, Wed Jul 13 02:53:54 2005 UTC vs.
Revision 1.21 by root, Mon Jan 2 15:11:05 2006 UTC

1FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 1FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
2 Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
3 I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause
4 extra bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you
5 can see that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables
6 always being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS)
7 after startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is
8 a bit unfair, as many features unique to urxvt (locale, encoding
9 conversion, iso14755 etc.) are already in use in this mode.
10
11 text data bss drs rss filename
12 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything
13 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything
14
15 When you "--enable-everything" (which _is_ unfair, as this involves
16 xft and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11
17 and my libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so.
18
19 text data bss drs rss filename
20 163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything
21 1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything
22
23 The very large size of the text section is explained by the
24 east-asian encoding tables, which, if unused, take up disk space but
25 nothing else and can be compiled out unless you rely on X11 core
26 fonts that use those encodings. The BSS size comes from the 64k
27 emergency buffer that my c++ compiler allocates (but of course
28 doesn't use unless you are out of memory). Also, using an xft font
29 instead of a core font immediately adds a few megabytes of RSS. Xft
30 indeed is responsible for a lot of RSS even when not used.
31
32 Of course, due to every character using two or four bytes instead of
33 one, a large scrollback buffer will ultimately make rxvt-unicode use
34 more memory.
35
36 Compared to e.g. Eterm (5112k), aterm (3132k) and xterm (4680k),
37 this still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like
38 gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or
39 konsole (22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after
40 exit, plus half aminute of startup time, including the hundreds of
41 warnings it spits out), it fares extremely well *g*.
42
43 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
44 Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is:
45 I had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a
46 fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me).
47 Put even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
48
49 My personal stance on this is that C++ is less portable than C, but
50 in the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability
51 limits are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale
52 support and unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than
53 C++ itself.
54
55 Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write
56 programs in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to
57 write programs in C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large
58 libraries, but this is not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is
59 what rxvt links against on my system with a minimal config:
60
61 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
62 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000)
63 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000)
64 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
65
66 And here is rxvt-unicode:
67
68 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
69 libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)
70 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
71 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
72 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
73
74 No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in
75 statically), except maybe libX11 :)
76
77 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
78 rxvt-unicode does not directly support tabs. It will work fine with
79 tabbing functionality of many window managers or similar tabbing
80 programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be embedded into
81 other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed or the upcoming
82 "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt (murxvt)
83 terminal as an example embedding application.
84
2 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? 85 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
3 The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape 86 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. 87 sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number.
88 When using the rxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the
89 daemon.
5 90
6 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem... 91 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
7 The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large 92 The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
8 patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode. 93 patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode.
9 Before reporting a bug to the original rxvt-unicode author please 94 Before reporting a bug to the original rxvt-unicode author please
… …
448 it gets worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell. 533 it gets worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
449 534
450 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow? 535 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
451 Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, 536 Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely,
452 as it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to 537 as it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to
453 disable antialiasing (by appending ":antialiasing=false"), which 538 disable antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves
454 saves lots of memory and also speeds up rendering considerably. 539 lots of memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
455 540
456 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong? 541 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
457 Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to 542 Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
458 fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core 543 fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
459 fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It 544 fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It
… …
531 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff 616 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
532 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd 617 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
533 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd 618 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
534 619
535 How can I start rxvtd in a race-free way? 620 How can I start rxvtd in a race-free way?
536 Despite it's name, rxvtd is not a real daemon, but more like a 621 Try "rxvtd -f -o", which tells rxvtd to open the display, create the
537 server that answers rxvtc's requests, so it doesn't background 622 listening socket and then fork.
538 itself.
539
540 To ensure rxvtd is listening on it's socket, you can use the
541 following method to wait for the startup message before continuing:
542
543 { rxvtd & } | read
544 623
545 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour? 624 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
546 Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the 625 Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
547 BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following 626 BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
548 question) there are two standard values that can be used for 627 question) there are two standard values that can be used for

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