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1FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 1RXVT-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
2 Meta, Features & Commandline Issues
3 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
4 Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net", channel
5 "#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
6 interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
7
8 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
9 Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a
10 simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these
11 should give you tabs:
12
13 urxvt -pe tabbed
14
15 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
16
17 It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window
18 managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow
19 it to be embedded into other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed
20 or the upcoming "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
21 (murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
22
2 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? 23 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
3 The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape 24 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. 25 sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. When
26 using the urxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the daemon.
5 27
6 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem... 28 Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
7 The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large 29 Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something
8 patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode. 30 you don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings
9 Before reporting a bug to the original rxvt-unicode author please 31 that you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by
10 download and install the genuine version 32 design, when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be
11 (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce the 33 loaded accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your
12 problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific 34 characters.
13 to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the
14 Debian Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug).
15 35
16 For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and 36 Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
17 probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's 37 scrollback buffers: Without "--enable-unicode3", rxvt-unicode will use 6
18 also a bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for 38 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
19 other users that might encounter the same issue. 39 kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if
40 full) use 10 Megabytes of memory. With "--enable-unicode3" it gets
41 worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
20 42
43 How can I start urxvtd in a race-free way?
44 Try "urxvtd -f -o", which tells urxvtd to open the display, create the
45 listening socket and then fork.
46
47 How can I start urxvtd automatically when I run URXVT_NAME@@c?
48 If you want to start urxvtd automatically whenever you run urxvtc and
49 the daemon isn't running yet, use this script:
50
51 #!/bin/sh
52 urxvtc "$@"
53 if [ $? -eq 2 ]; then
54 urxvtd -q -o -f
55 urxvtc "$@"
56 fi
57
58 This tries to create a new terminal, and if fails with exit status 2,
59 meaning it couldn't connect to the daemon, it will start the daemon and
60 re-run the command. Subsequent invocations of the script will re-use the
61 existing daemon.
62
63 How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
64 The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable
65 "COLORTERM", so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several
66 programs, JED, slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this
67 variable to decide whether or not to use color.
68
69 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
70 If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
71 insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
72 snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
73 wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets)
74 then the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from
75 a regular xterm.
76
77 Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
78 snippets:
79
80 # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
81 [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
82 if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
83 stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
84 echo -n '^[Z'
85 read term_id
86 stty icanon echo
87 if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
88 echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
89 read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
90 fi
91 fi
92
93 How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
94 You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,
95 one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2html. Then go to the doc
96 subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
97
98 Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
99 I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra
100 bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see
101 that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always
102 being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after
103 startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is a bit
104 unfair, as many features unique to urxvt (locale, encoding conversion,
105 iso14755 etc.) are already in use in this mode.
106
107 text data bss drs rss filename
108 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything
109 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything
110
111 When you "--enable-everything" (which *is* unfair, as this involves xft
112 and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my
113 libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so.
114
115 text data bss drs rss filename
116 163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything
117 1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything
118
119 The very large size of the text section is explained by the east-asian
120 encoding tables, which, if unused, take up disk space but nothing else
121 and can be compiled out unless you rely on X11 core fonts that use those
122 encodings. The BSS size comes from the 64k emergency buffer that my c++
123 compiler allocates (but of course doesn't use unless you are out of
124 memory). Also, using an xft font instead of a core font immediately adds
125 a few megabytes of RSS. Xft indeed is responsible for a lot of RSS even
126 when not used.
127
128 Of course, due to every character using two or four bytes instead of
129 one, a large scrollback buffer will ultimately make rxvt-unicode use
130 more memory.
131
132 Compared to e.g. Eterm (5112k), aterm (3132k) and xterm (4680k), this
133 still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like
134 gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole
135 (22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half
136 a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits
137 out), it fares extremely well *g*.
138
139 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
140 Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I
141 had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a
142 fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put
143 even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
144
145 My personal stance on this is that C++ is less portable than C, but in
146 the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability limits
147 are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale support and
148 unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than C++ itself.
149
150 Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write programs
151 in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to write programs in
152 C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large libraries, but this is
153 not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is what rxvt links against on my
154 system with a minimal config:
155
156 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
157 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000)
158 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000)
159 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
160
161 And here is rxvt-unicode:
162
163 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
164 libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)
165 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
166 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
167 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
168
169 No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
170 except maybe libX11 :)
171
172 Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues
173 I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
174 First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode,
175 so you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you
176 may bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a
177 rite of passage: ... and you failed.
178
179 Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option
180 descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
181
182 1. Use inheritPixmap:
183
184 Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
185 urxvt -ip -tint red -sh 40
186
187 That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
188 support, or you are unable to read.
189
190 2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
191 to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
192 your picture with gimp or any other tool:
193
194 convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm
195 urxvt -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background
196
197 That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or
198 you are unable to read.
199
200 3. Use an ARGB visual:
201
202 urxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
203
204 This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
205 doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
206 there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the
207 neccessary bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work,
208 but that doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
209
210 4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
211
212 xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
213 -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
214
215 Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace 0xc0000000
216 by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
217 your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
218
219 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
220 Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that
221 character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal
222 use might contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode
223 will avoid these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too
224 wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent
225 characters.
226
227 All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
228 however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed
229 bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct
230 way is to ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is
231 wrong in these cases).
232
233 It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
234 or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try
235 using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If that doesn't
236 work, you might be forced to use a different font.
237
238 All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their
239 bounding box data is correct.
240
241 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
242 First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
243 ("TERM=rxvt-unicode"), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
244 make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
245 rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
246
247 URxvt.colorBD: white
248 URxvt.colorIT: green
249
250 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
251 For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
252 colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the
253 standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of
254 course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very
255 good reasons.
256
257 In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo
258 definition to only claim 8 colour support or use "TERM=rxvt", which will
259 fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
260
261 Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
262 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the
263 same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately:
264
265 printf '\33]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
266
267 This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
268 japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
269 japanese fonts would only be in your way.
270
271 You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
272
273 Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
274 Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
275 example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
276 Mono" completely fails in its italic face. A workaround might be to
277 enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
278
279 URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
280 URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
281
282 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
283 Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as it
284 is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
285 antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of
286 memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
287
288 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
289 Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
290 fall back to its default font search list it will prefer X11 core fonts,
291 because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
292 antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
293 look best that way.
294
295 If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
296
297 What's with this bold/blink stuff?
298 If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using the
299 standard foreground colour.
300
301 For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text
302 blink when compiled with "--enable-blinking". with standard colours.
303 Without "--enable-blinking", the blink attribute will be ignored.
304
305 On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
306 foreground/background colors.
307
308 color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
309
310 color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
311
312 I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
313 You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults
314 resources (or as long-options).
315
316 Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, including
317 the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
318
319 URxvt.color0: #000000
320 URxvt.color1: #A80000
321 URxvt.color2: #00A800
322 URxvt.color3: #A8A800
323 URxvt.color4: #0000A8
324 URxvt.color5: #A800A8
325 URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
326 URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
327
328 URxvt.color8: #000054
329 URxvt.color9: #FF0054
330 URxvt.color10: #00FF54
331 URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
332 URxvt.color12: #0000FF
333 URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
334 URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
335 URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
336
337 And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors.
338
339 URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
340 URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
341 URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
342 URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
343 URxvt.color0: #000000
344 URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
345 URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
346 URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
347 URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
348 URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
349 URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
350 URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
351 URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
352 URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
353 URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
354 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
355 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
356 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
357
358 They have been described (not by me) as "pretty girly".
359
360 Why do some characters look so much different than others?
361 See next entry.
362
363 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
364 Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine.
365 Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of your
366 system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want to
367 display.
368
369 rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font.
370 Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
371 bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
372 resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
373 intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
374 the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
375
376 In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
377 e.g.:
378
379 urxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...
380
381 When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font.
382 If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the next
383 font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
384 search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
385
386 The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the
387 base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size,
388 which must be the same due to the way terminals work.
389
390 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
391 This is because there is a difference between script and language --
392 rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is, as
393 it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first sees a
394 japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for display.
395 Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many chinese
396 characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
397 non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese
398 font -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font
399 for chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
400
401 The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
402 list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a
403 preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
404 first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
405
406 In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
407 runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
408 fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
409 has been designed yet).
410
411 Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can
412 I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
413
414 Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
415 The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
416 If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
417 setting:
418
419 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
420
421 If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more and
422 more.
423
424 To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this
425 pattern:
426
427 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
428
429 Please also note that the *LeftClick Shift-LeftClik* combination also
430 selects words like the old code.
431
432 I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
433 You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
434 perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps
435 rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
436
437 If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
438 identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
439 PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the urxvtperl(3) manpage. For example, to
440 disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify this
441 perl-ext-common resource:
442
443 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
444
445 This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
446 extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
447 scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any other
448 combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback resource:
449
450 URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
451
452 The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
453 See next entry.
454
455 During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
456 These are caused by the "readline" perl extension. Under normal
457 circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
458 line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
459 but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in
460 some cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
461
462 You can permamently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline"
463 extension:
464
465 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
466
467 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
468 Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
469 specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is
470 caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of wether and
471 how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a
472 compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please
473 report if that helped.
474
475 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
476 The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
477 correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported by your
478 input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and your input
479 method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys) does not
480 support this (for instance because it is not visual), then rxvt-unicode
481 will continue without an input method.
482
483 In this case either do not specify a preeditStyle or specify more than
484 one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.
485
486 I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
487 Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
488 international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
489 advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for
490 other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default telnet
491 escape character and so on.
492
493 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
494 Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing some
495 editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've heard
496 that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A quick
497 check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
498 depressed.
499
500 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
501 Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the BackSpace
502 keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are
503 two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
504
505 Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
506 debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one only only
507 correct choice :).
508
509 Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the
510 value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode
511 wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell),
512 then the system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in
513 <termios.h>, will be used (which may not be the same as your stty
514 setting).
515
516 For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
517
518 # use Backspace = ^H
519 $ stty erase ^H
520 $ urxvt
521
522 # use Backspace = ^?
523 $ stty erase ^?
524 $ urxvt
525
526 Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l".
527
528 For an existing rxvt-unicode:
529
530 # use Backspace = ^H
531 $ stty erase ^H
532 $ echo -n "^[[36h"
533
534 # use Backspace = ^?
535 $ stty erase ^?
536 $ echo -n "^[[36l"
537
538 This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
539 if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
540 properly reflects that.
541
542 The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace
543 problem. To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the
544 Delete key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for
545 Execute ("ESC [ 3 ~") and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
546
547 Some other Backspace problems:
548
549 some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told) expect
550 Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
551
552 Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
553
554 I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
555 There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
556 you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" option you can
557 use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with
558 keysyms.
559
560 Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "urxvt -name URxvt"
561
562 URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
563 URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
564 URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
565 URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
566 URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
567 URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
568 URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
569 URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
570 URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
571 URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
572 URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
573 URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
574 URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
575 URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
576 URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
577 URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
578 URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
579 URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
580 URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
581 URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
582
583 See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.
584
585 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
586 KP_Insert == Insert
587 F22 == Print
588 F27 == Home
589 F29 == Prior
590 F33 == End
591 F35 == Next
592
593 Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various
594 possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the
595 keys as required for your particular machine.
596
597 Terminal Configuration
598 Can I see a typical configuration?
599 The default configuration tries to be xterm-like, which I don't like
600 that much, but it's least surprise to regular users.
601
602 As a rxvt or rxvt-unicode user, you are practically supposed to invest
603 time into customising your terminal. To get you started, here is the
604 author's .Xdefaults entries, with comments on what they do. It's
605 certainly not *typical*, but what's typical...
606
607 URxvt.cutchars: "()*,<>[]{}|'
608 URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/tmp/xxx
609
610 These are just for testing stuff.
611
612 URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8
613 URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None
614
615 This tells rxvt-unicode to use a special locale when communicating with
616 the X Input Method, and also tells it to only use the OnTheSpot pre-edit
617 type, which requires the "xim-onthespot" perl extension but rewards me
618 with correct-looking fonts.
619
620 URxvt.perl-lib: /root/lib/urxvt
621 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,selection-autotransform,selection-pastebin,xim-onthespot,remote-clipboard
622 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ( at .*? line \\d+)
623 URxvt.selection.pattern-1: ^(/[^:]+):\
624 URxvt.selection-autotransform.0: s/^([^:[:space:]]+):(\\d+):?$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
625 URxvt.selection-autotransform.1: s/^ at (.*?) line (\\d+)$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
626
627 This is my perl configuration. The first two set the perl library
628 directory and also tells urxvt to use a large number of extensions. I
629 develop for myself mostly, so I actually use most of the extensions I
630 write.
631
632 The selection stuff mainly makes the selection perl-error-message aware
633 and tells it to convert pelr error mssages into vi-commands to load the
634 relevant file and go tot he error line number.
635
636 URxvt.scrollstyle: plain
637 URxvt.secondaryScroll: true
638
639 As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the
640 author. The "secondaryScroll" confgiures urxvt to scroll in full-screen
641 apps, like screen, so lines scorlled out of screen end up in urxvt's
642 scrollback buffer.
643
644 URxvt.background: #000000
645 URxvt.foreground: gray90
646 URxvt.color7: gray90
647 URxvt.colorBD: #ffffff
648 URxvt.cursorColor: #e0e080
649 URxvt.throughColor: #8080f0
650 URxvt.highlightColor: #f0f0f0
651
652 Some colours. Not sure which ones are being used or even non-defaults,
653 but these are in my .Xdefaults. Most notably, they set
654 foreground/background to light gray/black, and also make sure that the
655 colour 7 matches the default foreground colour.
656
657 URxvt.underlineColor: yellow
658
659 Another colour, makes underline lines look different. Sometimes hurts,
660 but is mostly a nice effect.
661
662 URxvt.geometry: 154x36
663 URxvt.loginShell: false
664 URxvt.meta: ignore
665 URxvt.utmpInhibit: true
666
667 Uh, well, should be mostly self-explanatory. By specifying some defaults
668 manually, I can quickly switch them for testing.
669
670 URxvt.saveLines: 8192
671
672 A large scrollback buffer is essential. Really.
673
674 URxvt.mapAlert: true
675
676 The only case I use it is for my IRC window, which I like to keep
677 iconified till people msg me (which beeps).
678
679 URxvt.visualBell: true
680
681 The audible bell is often annoying, especially when in a crowd.
682
683 URxvt.insecure: true
684
685 Please don't hack my mutt! Ooops...
686
687 URxvt.pastableTabs: false
688
689 I once thought this is a great idea.
690
691 urxvt.font: 9x15bold,\
692 -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
693 -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
694 [codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic, \
695 xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:autohint=true, \
696 xft:Code2000:antialias=false
697 urxvt.boldFont: -xos4-terminus-bold-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-15
698 urxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
699 urxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
700
701 I wrote rxvt-unicode to be able to specify fonts exactly. So don't be
702 overwhelmed. A special note: the "9x15bold" mentioend above is actually
703 the version from XFree-3.3, as XFree-4 replaced it by a totally
704 different font (different glyphs for ";" and many other harmless
705 characters), while the second font is actually the "9x15bold" from
706 XFree4/XOrg. The bold version has less chars than the medium version, so
707 I use it for rare characters, too. Whene ditign sources with vim, I use
708 italic for comments and other stuff, which looks quite good with
709 Bitstream Vera anti-aliased.
710
711 Terminus is a quite bad font (many very wrong glyphs), but for most of
712 my purposes, it works, and gives a different look, as my normal
713 (Non-bold) font is already bold, and I want to see a difference between
714 bold and normal fonts.
715
716 Please note that I used the "urxvt" instance name and not the "URxvt"
717 class name. Thats because I use different configs for different
718 purposes, for example, my IRC window is started with "-name IRC", and
719 uses these defaults:
720
721 IRC*title: IRC
722 IRC*geometry: 87x12+535+542
723 IRC*saveLines: 0
724 IRC*mapAlert: true
725 IRC*font: suxuseuro
726 IRC*boldFont: suxuseuro
727 IRC*colorBD: white
728 IRC*keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]710;suxuseuro\007\033]711;suxuseuro\007
729 IRC*keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]710;9x15bold\007\033]711;9x15bold\007
730
731 "Alt-Shift-1" and "Alt-Shift-2" switch between two different font sizes.
732 "suxuseuro" allows me to keep an eye (and actually read) stuff while
733 keeping a very small window. If somebody pastes something complicated
734 (e.g. japanese), I temporarily switch to a larger font.
735
736 The above is all in my ".Xdefaults" (I don't use ".Xresources" nor
737 "xrdb"). I also have some resources in a separate ".Xdefaults-hostname"
738 file for different hosts, for example, on ym main desktop, I use:
739
740 URxvt.keysym.C-M-q: command:\033[3;5;5t
741 URxvt.keysym.C-M-y: command:\033[3;5;606t
742 URxvt.keysym.C-M-e: command:\033[3;1605;5t
743 URxvt.keysym.C-M-c: command:\033[3;1605;606t
744 URxvt.keysym.C-M-p: perl:test
745
746 The first for keysym definitions allow me to quickly bring some windows
747 in the layout I like most. Ion users might start laughing but will stop
748 immediately when I tell them that I use my own Fvwm2 module for much the
749 same effect as Ion provides, and I only very rarely use the above key
750 combinations :->
751
752 Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
753 Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
754 applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
755 resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
756 ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
757 $HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display.
758
759 If you have or use an $HOME/.Xresources file, chances are that resources
760 are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to re-login after
761 every change (or run xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources).
762
763 Also consider the form resources have to use:
764
765 URxvt.resource: value
766
767 If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
768 specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it works.
769 If unsure, use the form above.
770
21 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? 771 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 772 The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
23 available as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same 773 as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often
24 problem often arises). 774 arises).
25 775
26 The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, 776 The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this
27 this can be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp): 777 can be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp):
28 778
29 REMOTE=remotesystem.domain 779 REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
30 infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti" 780 infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
31 781
32 ... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system, 782 ... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system,
33 783
34 If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set 784 If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set
35 "TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of 785 "TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of
36 problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and 786 problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different
37 different colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen 787 colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice
38 applications. It's a nice quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, 788 quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, though.
39 though.
40 789
41 If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) 790 If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) you
42 you can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or 791 can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or use a
43 use a resource to set it: 792 resource to set it:
44 793
45 URxvt.termName: rxvt 794 URxvt.termName: rxvt
46 795
47 If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also 796 If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace
48 replace the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one. 797 the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use "TERM=rxvt".
49 798
50 "tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry. 799 "tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
51 Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it 800 Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by
52 by "enacs=\E[0@" and try again. 801 "enacs=\E[0@" and try again.
53 802
54 "bash"'s readline does not work correctly under urxvt. 803 "bash"'s readline does not work correctly under urxvt.
804 See next entry.
805
55 I need a termcap file entry. 806 I need a termcap file entry.
56 One reason you might want this is that some distributions or 807 One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
57 operating systems still compile some programs using the 808 systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
58 long-obsoleted termcap library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) 809 library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
59 and rely on a termcap entry for "rxvt-unicode". 810 for "rxvt-unicode".
60 811
61 You could use rxvt's termcap entry with resonable results in many 812 You could use rxvt's termcap entry with resonable results in many cases.
62 cases. You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's 813 You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp program
63 infocmp program like this: 814 like this:
64 815
65 infocmp -C rxvt-unicode 816 infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
66 817
67 Or you could use this termcap entry, generated by the command above: 818 Or you could use this termcap entry, generated by the command above:
68 819
69 rxvt-unicode|rxvt-unicode terminal (X Window System):\ 820 rxvt-unicode|rxvt-unicode terminal (X Window System):\
70 :am:bw:eo:km:mi:ms:xn:xo:\ 821 :am:bw:eo:km:mi:ms:xn:xo:\
71 :co#80:it#8:li#24:lm#0:\ 822 :co#80:it#8:li#24:lm#0:\
72 :AL=\E[%dL:DC=\E[%dP:DL=\E[%dM:DO=\E[%dB:IC=\E[%d@:\ 823 :AL=\E[%dL:DC=\E[%dP:DL=\E[%dM:DO=\E[%dB:IC=\E[%d@:\
73 :K1=\EOw:K2=\EOu:K3=\EOy:K4=\EOq:K5=\EOs:LE=\E[%dD:\ 824 :K1=\EOw:K2=\EOu:K3=\EOy:K4=\EOq:K5=\EOs:LE=\E[%dD:\
74 :RI=\E[%dC:SF=\E[%dS:SR=\E[%dT:UP=\E[%dA:ae=\E(B:al=\E[L:\ 825 :RI=\E[%dC:SF=\E[%dS:SR=\E[%dT:UP=\E[%dA:ae=\E(B:al=\E[L:\
75 :as=\E(0:bl=^G:cd=\E[J:ce=\E[K:cl=\E[H\E[2J:\ 826 :as=\E(0:bl=^G:cd=\E[J:ce=\E[K:cl=\E[H\E[2J:\
76 :cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:cr=^M:cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:ct=\E[3g:dc=\E[P:\ 827 :cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:cr=^M:cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:ct=\E[3g:dc=\E[P:\
77 :dl=\E[M:do=^J:ec=\E[%dX:ei=\E[4l:ho=\E[H:\ 828 :dl=\E[M:do=^J:ec=\E[%dX:ei=\E[4l:ho=\E[H:\
78 :i1=\E[?47l\E=\E[?1l:ic=\E[@:im=\E[4h:\ 829 :i1=\E[?47l\E=\E[?1l:ic=\E[@:im=\E[4h:\
79 :is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;3;4;6l\E[4l:\ 830 :is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;3;4;6l\E[4l:\
80 :k1=\E[11~:k2=\E[12~:k3=\E[13~:k4=\E[14~:k5=\E[15~:\ 831 :k1=\E[11~:k2=\E[12~:k3=\E[13~:k4=\E[14~:k5=\E[15~:\
81 :k6=\E[17~:k7=\E[18~:k8=\E[19~:k9=\E[20~:kD=\E[3~:\ 832 :k6=\E[17~:k7=\E[18~:k8=\E[19~:k9=\E[20~:kD=\E[3~:\
82 :kI=\E[2~:kN=\E[6~:kP=\E[5~:kb=\177:kd=\EOB:ke=\E[?1l\E>:\ 833 :kI=\E[2~:kN=\E[6~:kP=\E[5~:kb=\177:kd=\EOB:ke=\E[?1l\E>:\
83 :kh=\E[7~:kl=\EOD:kr=\EOC:ks=\E[?1h\E=:ku=\EOA:le=^H:\ 834 :kh=\E[7~:kl=\EOD:kr=\EOC:ks=\E[?1h\E=:ku=\EOA:le=^H:\
84 :mb=\E[5m:md=\E[1m:me=\E[m\017:mr=\E[7m:nd=\E[C:rc=\E8:\ 835 :mb=\E[5m:md=\E[1m:me=\E[m\017:mr=\E[7m:nd=\E[C:rc=\E8:\
85 :sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\ 836 :sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\
86 :te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\ 837 :te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\
87 :us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\ 838 :us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
88 :vs=\E[?25h: 839 :vs=\E[?25h:
89 840
90 Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output? 841 Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output?
91 The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to 842 The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
92 decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration 843 decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses its own configuration
93 file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in it's default file 844 file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in its default file (among
94 (among with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add: 845 with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
95 846
96 TERM rxvt-unicode 847 TERM rxvt-unicode
97 848
98 to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add: 849 to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add:
99 850
100 alias ls='ls --color=auto' 851 alias ls='ls --color=auto'
101 852
102 to your ".profile" or ".bashrc". 853 to your ".profile" or ".bashrc".
103 854
104 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode? 855 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
856 See next entry.
857
105 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic? 858 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
859 See next entry.
860
106 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly? 861 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
107 Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged 862 Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged
108 distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by 863 distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by
109 setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features. 864 setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features.
110 Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux) 865 Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux)
111 furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, 866 furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, so
112 so you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I 867 you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I log-in
113 log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on 868 to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do
114 how to do this). 869 this).
115 870
116 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output? 871 Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues
117 Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
118 specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is
119 caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of wether
120 and how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a
121 compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and
122 please report if that helped.
123
124 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding? 872 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
873 See next entry.
874
125 Unicode does not seem to work? 875 Unicode does not seem to work?
126 If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character 876 If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
127 but getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program 877 getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output
128 output is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale 878 is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
129 settings.
130 879
131 Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the 880 Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the
132 programs. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale, while the 881 programs. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale, while the
133 login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the 882 login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the locale
134 locale to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this 883 to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this is not
135 is not going to work. 884 going to work.
136 885
137 The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will 886 The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely
138 likely run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in 887 run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your
139 your .profile. 888 .profile.
140 889
141 printf '\e]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE" 890 printf '\33]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE"
142 891
143 If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification 892 If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification not
144 not supported on your systems. Some systems have a "locale" command 893 supported on your systems. Some systems have a "locale" command which
145 which displays this (also, "perl -e0" can be used to check locale 894 displays this (also, "perl -e0" can be used to check locale settings, as
146 settings, as it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). 895 it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays
147 If it displays something like: 896 something like:
148 897
149 locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ... 898 locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ...
150 899
151 Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system. 900 Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.
152 901
153 If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly 902 If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
154 then you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs 903 you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
155 just don't support locales :( 904 support locales :(
156 905
157 Why do some characters look so much different than others?
158 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
159 Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine.
160 Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
161 your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you
162 want to display.
163
164 rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font.
165 Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
166 bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that
167 don't resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the
168 artificial intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it
169 has to believe the font that the characters it claims to contain
170 indeed look correct.
171
172 In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font
173 list, e.g.:
174
175 urxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...
176
177 When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
178 font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to
179 the next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed
180 up this search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the
181 X-server.
182
183 The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the
184 base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell
185 size, which must be the same due to the way terminals work.
186
187 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
188 This is because there is a difference between script and language --
189 rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output
190 is, as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode
191 first sees a japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese
192 font for display. Subsequent japanese characters will use that font.
193 Now, many chinese characters aren't represented in japanese fonts,
194 so when the first non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will
195 look for a chinese font -- unfortunately at this point, it will
196 still use the japanese font for chinese characters that are also in
197 the japanese font.
198
199 The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your
200 font list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font
201 list as a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a
202 japanese font first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font
203 first.
204
205 In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
206 runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using
207 different fonts for the same character at the same time, but no
208 interface for this has been designed yet).
209
210 Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see
211 "Can I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
212
213 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
214 Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that
215 character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for
216 terminal use might contain some characters that are simply too wide.
217 Rxvt-unicode will avoid these characters. For characters that are
218 just "a bit" too wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used
219 that redraws adjacent characters.
220
221 All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
222 however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed
223 bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the
224 correct way is to ask for the character bounding box, which
225 unfortunately is wrong in these cases).
226
227 It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft,
228 freetype, or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you
229 might try using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If
230 that doesn't work, you might be forced to use a different font.
231
232 All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their
233 bounding box data is correct.
234
235 On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.
236 Seems to be a known bug, read
237 <http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the
238 following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
239
240 #define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)
241
242 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
243 The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not
244 set correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported
245 by your input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and
246 your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose
247 keys) does not support this (for instance because it is not visual),
248 then rxvt-unicode will continue without an input method.
249
250 In this case either do not specify a preeditStyle or specify more
251 than one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.
252
253 I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO
254 14755
255 Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
256 international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
257 advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for
258 other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default
259 telnet escape character and so on.
260
261 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
262 First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal
263 settings ("TERM=rxvt-unicode"), which will get rid of most of these
264 effects. Then make sure you have specified colours for italic and
265 bold, as otherwise rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate
266 the effect:
267
268 URxvt.colorBD: white
269 URxvt.colorIT: green
270
271 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how
272 can I fix that?
273 For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very
274 weird colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than
275 the standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is,
276 of course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours
277 without very good reasons.
278
279 In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo
280 definition to only claim 8 colour support or use "TERM=rxvt", which
281 will fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode
282 features.
283
284 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
285 Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined
286 in your compile environment, or an implementation that implements
287 it, wether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__"
288 requires that wchar_t is represented as unicode.
289
290 As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symobl
291 nor does it support it. Instead, it uses it's own internal
292 representation of wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with
293 respect to standards.
294
295 However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1"
296 and "UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t.
297
298 "__STDC_ISO_10646__" is the only sane way to support multi-language
299 apps in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized)
300 representation of wchar_t makes it impossible to convert between
301 wchar_t (as used by X11 and your applications) and any other
302 encoding without implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and
303 every locale. There simply are no APIs to convert wchar_t into
304 anything except the current locale encoding.
305
306 Some applications (such as the formidable mlterm) work around this
307 by carrying their own replacement functions for character set
308 handling with them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or
309 doing multiple conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the
310 OS implements encodings slightly different than the terminal
311 emulator).
312
313 The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in
314 the system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app
315 to carry complete replacements for them :)
316
317 I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.
318 Try the diff in doc/solaris9.patch as a base. It fixes the worst
319 problems with "wcwidth" and a compile problem.
320
321 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
322 rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using
323 the X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no
324 longer supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a
325 single font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or
326 "-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as
327 the old libW11 emulation.
328
329 At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any
330 multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are
331 likely limited to 8-bit encodings.
332
333 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use? 906 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
907 See next entry.
908
334 Is there an option to switch encodings? 909 Is there an option to switch encodings?
335 Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, 910 Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
336 and no specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't 911 specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know
337 even know about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to 912 about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
338 terminal I/O.
339 913
340 The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for 914 The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for
341 selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating 915 selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating
342 this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties 916 this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties
343 such as width and code number. This mechanism is the *locale*. 917 such as width and code number. This mechanism is the *locale*.
344 Applications not using that info will have problems (for example, 918 Applications not using that info will have problems (for example,
345 "xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses it's own, 919 "xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses its own,
346 locale-independent table under all locales). 920 locale-independent table under all locales).
347 921
348 Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. 922 Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. All
349 All programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree 923 programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
350 in the interpretation of characters. 924 interpretation of characters.
351 925
352 Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, 926 Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
353 nor is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like. 927 is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
354 928
355 On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable 929 On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable
356 contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an 930 contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
357 already-installed locale. Common names for locales are 931 locale. Common names for locales are "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15",
358 "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15", "ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e. 932 "ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e. "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e.
359 "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e. "de" or "german") 933 "de" or "german") are also common.
360 are also common.
361 934
362 Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the 935 Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the
363 encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e. 936 encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e.
364 "de_DE.UTF-8" and "ja_JP.UTF-8" are the normally same to 937 "de_DE.UTF-8" and "ja_JP.UTF-8" are the normally same to rxvt-unicode.
365 rxvt-unicode.
366 938
367 If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you 939 If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
368 start rxvt-unicode with the correct "LC_CTYPE" category. 940 rxvt-unicode with the correct "LC_CTYPE" category.
369 941
370 Can I switch locales at runtime? 942 Can I switch locales at runtime?
371 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets 943 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
372 rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE". 944 rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE".
373 945
374 printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS 946 printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
375 947
376 See also the previous answer. 948 See also the previous answer.
377 949
378 Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in 950 Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one
379 one locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support it 951 locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support it (e.g.
380 (e.g. UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which 952 UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which first
381 first switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later: 953 switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
382 954
383 printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS 955 printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
384 xjdic -js 956 xjdic -js
385 printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8 957 printf '\33]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
386 958
387 You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine, 959 You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine,
388 except for some locales where character width differs between 960 except for some locales where character width differs between program-
389 program- and rxvt-unicode-locales. 961 and rxvt-unicode-locales.
390 962
391 Can I switch the fonts at runtime? 963 I have problems getting my input method working.
392 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has 964 Try a search engine, as this is slightly different for every input
393 the same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect 965 method server.
394 immediately:
395 966
396 printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic" 967 Here is a checklist:
397 968
398 This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer 969 - Make sure your locale *and* the imLocale are supported on your OS.
399 a japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, 970 Try "locale -a" or check the documentation for your OS.
400 where japanese fonts would only be in your way.
401 971
402 You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching. 972 - Make sure your locale or imLocale matches a locale supported by your
973 XIM.
974 For example, kinput2 does not support UTF-8 locales, you should use
975 "ja_JP.EUC-JP" or equivalent.
403 976
404 Why do italic characters look as if clipped? 977 - Make sure your XIM server is actually running.
405 Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For 978 - Make sure the "XMODIFIERS" environment variable is set correctly when
406 example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera 979 *starting* rxvt-unicode.
407 Sans Mono" completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might 980 When you want to use e.g. kinput2, it must be set to "@im=kinput2".
408 be to enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this: 981 For scim, use "@im=SCIM". Youc an see what input method servers are
982 running with this command:
409 983
410 URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true 984 xprop -root XIM_SERVERS
411 URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
412 985
986
987
413 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do? 988 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
414 You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest 989 You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of
415 of the terminal, using the resource "imlocale": 990 the terminal, using the resource "imlocale":
416 991
417 URxvt*imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP 992 URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
418 993
419 Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and 994 Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and still
420 still use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not 995 use your input method. Please note, however, that, depending on your
421 be able to input characters outside "EUC-JP" in a normal way then, 996 Xlib version, you may not be able to input characters outside "EUC-JP"
422 as your input method limits you. 997 in a normal way then, as your input method limits you.
423 998
424 Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits. 999 Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
425 Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by 1000 Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
426 design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory 1001 design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
427 leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering 1002 leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
428 at exit time. kinput2 (and derived input methods) generally 1003 exit time. kinput2 (and derived input methods) generally succeeds, while
429 succeeds, while SCIM (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, 1004 SCIM (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however, crashes
430 however, crashes cannot be completely avoided even if both sides 1005 cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
431 cooperate.
432 1006
433 So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers. 1007 So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
434 1008
435 Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that? 1009 Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
436 Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for 1010 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
437 something you don't use. One thing you should try is to configure 1011 The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
438 out all settings that you don't need, for example, Xft support is a 1012 patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
439 resource hog by design, when used. Compiling it out ensures that no 1013 unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
440 Xft font will be loaded accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find 1014 the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
441 a font for your characters. 1015 version (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
1016 the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific
1017 to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian
1018 Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug).
442 1019
443 Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger 1020 For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
444 scrollback buffers: Without "--enable-unicode3", rxvt-unicode will 1021 probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
445 use 6 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to 1022 bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users
446 almost a kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will 1023 that might encounter the same issue.
447 then (if full) use 10 Megabytes of memory. With "--enable-unicode3"
448 it gets worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
449 1024
450 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow? 1025 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
451 Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, 1026 You should build one binary with the default options. configure now
452 as it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to 1027 enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
453 disable antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves 1028 runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling
454 lots of memory and also speeds up rendering considerably. 1029 them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter
1030 should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely
1031 more in the future) depends on it.
455 1032
456 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong? 1033 You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" resources
457 Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to 1034 system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful
458 fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core 1035 behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
459 fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It 1036 "perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
460 has antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author 1037 perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
461 thinks they look best that way.
462 1038
463 If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually. 1039 If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one
1040 with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with
1041 "--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
1042 encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
464 1043
465 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works. 1044 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
466 Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing 1045 It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
467 some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. 1046 install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
468 I've heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise
469 specified. A quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt
470 or Shift keys are depressed. See urxvt(7)
471 1047
472 What's with this bold/blink stuff? 1048 When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
473 If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using 1049 into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
474 the standard foreground colour. 1050 systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
1051 immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
1052 privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
1053 things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
475 1054
476 For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the 1055 This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very
477 text blink when compiled with "--enable-blinking". with standard 1056 early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before
478 colours. Without "--enable-blinking", the blink attribute will be 1057 main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should
479 ignored. 1058 result in very little risk.
480 1059
481 On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set 1060 On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.
482 high-intensity foreground/background colors. 1061 Seems to be a known bug, read
1062 <http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the
1063 following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
483 1064
484 color0-7 are the low-intensity colors. 1065 #define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)
485 1066
486 color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors. 1067 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
1068 Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined in
1069 your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
1070 wether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that
1071 wchar_t is represented as unicode.
487 1072
488 I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them? 1073 As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symobl nor
489 You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults 1074 does it support it. Instead, it uses its own internal representation of
490 resources (or as long-options). 1075 wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.
491 1076
492 Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, 1077 However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1" and
493 including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow: 1078 "UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t.
494 1079
495 URxvt.color0: #000000 1080 "__STDC_ISO_10646__" is the only sane way to support multi-language apps
496 URxvt.color1: #A80000 1081 in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized)
497 URxvt.color2: #00A800 1082 representation of wchar_t makes it impossible to convert between wchar_t
498 URxvt.color3: #A8A800 1083 (as used by X11 and your applications) and any other encoding without
499 URxvt.color4: #0000A8 1084 implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and every locale. There
500 URxvt.color5: #A800A8 1085 simply are no APIs to convert wchar_t into anything except the current
501 URxvt.color6: #00A8A8 1086 locale encoding.
502 URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
503 1087
504 URxvt.color8: #000054 1088 Some applications (such as the formidable mlterm) work around this by
505 URxvt.color9: #FF0054 1089 carrying their own replacement functions for character set handling with
506 URxvt.color10: #00FF54 1090 them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or doing multiple
507 URxvt.color11: #FFFF54 1091 conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the OS implements
508 URxvt.color12: #0000FF 1092 encodings slightly different than the terminal emulator).
509 URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
510 URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
511 URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
512 1093
513 And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described 1094 The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
514 (not by me) as "pretty girly". 1095 system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
1096 complete replacements for them :)
515 1097
516 URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1 1098 I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.
517 URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1 1099 Try the diff in doc/solaris9.patch as a base. It fixes the worst
518 URxvt.background: #0e0e0e 1100 problems with "wcwidth" and a compile problem.
519 URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
520 URxvt.color0: #000000
521 URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
522 URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
523 URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
524 URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
525 URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
526 URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
527 URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
528 URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
529 URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
530 URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
531 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
532 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
533 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
534 1101
535 How can I start urxvtd in a race-free way? 1102 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
536 Try "urxvtd -f -o", which tells urxvtd to open the display, create 1103 rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using the
537 the listening socket and then fork. 1104 X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no longer
1105 supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single
1106 font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or
1107 "-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
1108 old libW11 emulation.
538 1109
539 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour? 1110 At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any
540 Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the 1111 multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are
541 BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following 1112 likely limited to 8-bit encodings.
542 question) there are two standard values that can be used for
543 Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
544 1113
545 Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
546 debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one only
547 only correct choice :).
548
549 Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the
550 value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode
551 wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote
552 shell), then the system value of `erase', which corresponds to
553 CERASE in <termios.h>, will be used (which may not be the same as
554 your stty setting).
555
556 For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
557
558 # use Backspace = ^H
559 $ stty erase ^H
560 $ urxvt
561
562 # use Backspace = ^?
563 $ stty erase ^?
564 $ urxvt
565
566 Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l" as documented in urxvt(7).
567
568 For an existing rxvt-unicode:
569
570 # use Backspace = ^H
571 $ stty erase ^H
572 $ echo -n "^[[36h"
573
574 # use Backspace = ^?
575 $ stty erase ^?
576 $ echo -n "^[[36l"
577
578 This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur,
579 but if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo
580 value properly reflects that.
581
582 The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace
583 problem. To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys,
584 the Delete key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the
585 vt100 for Execute ("ESC [ 3 ~") and is in the supplied
586 termcap/terminfo.
587
588 Some other Backspace problems:
589
590 some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told)
591 expect Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for
592 help.
593
594 Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
595
596 I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
597 There are some compile-time selections available via configure.
598 Unless you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources"
599 option you can use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings
600 associated with keysyms.
601
602 Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "urxvt -name
603 URxvt"
604
605 URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
606 URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
607 URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
608 URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
609 URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
610 URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
611 URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
612 URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
613 URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
614 URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
615 URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
616 URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
617 URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
618 URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
619 URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
620 URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
621 URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
622 URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
623 URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
624 URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
625
626 See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.
627
628 I'm using keyboard model XXX that has extra Prior/Next/Insert keys. How
629 do I make use of them? For example, the Sun Keyboard type 4 has the
630 following mappings that rxvt-unicode doesn't recognize.
631 KP_Insert == Insert
632 F22 == Print
633 F27 == Home
634 F29 == Prior
635 F33 == End
636 F35 == Next
637
638 Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various
639 possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap
640 the keys as required for your particular machine.
641
642 How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm?
643 I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
644 rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you
645 can check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED,
646 slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide
647 whether or not to use color.
648
649 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
650 If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
651 insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
652 snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of
653 rxvt-unicode wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in
654 these snippets) then the COLORTERM variable can be used to
655 distinguish rxvt-unicode from a regular xterm.
656
657 Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell
658 script snippets:
659
660 # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
661 [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
662 if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
663 stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
664 echo -n '^[Z'
665 read term_id
666 stty icanon echo
667 if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
668 echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
669 read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
670 fi
671 fi
672
673 How do I compile the manual pages for myself?
674 You need to have a recent version of perl installed as
675 /usr/bin/perl, one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2html.
676 Then go to the doc subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
677
678 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
679 Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net",
680 channel "#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might
681 be interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not
682 FAQs :).
683

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