| 1 | FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS |
1 | FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS |
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2 | The new selection selects pieces that are too big/too small, can I |
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3 | change this? |
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4 | Yes. For example, if you want to select smaller pieces ("words") you |
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5 | can use the following resource: |
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6 | |
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7 | URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+) |
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8 | |
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9 | If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more |
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10 | and more. |
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11 | |
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12 | To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this |
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13 | pattern: |
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14 | |
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15 | URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+) |
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16 | |
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17 | I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I |
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18 | change/disable it? |
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19 | You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the |
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20 | perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps |
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21 | rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory. |
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22 | |
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23 | If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to |
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24 | identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the |
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25 | section PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the rxvtperl(3) manpage. For |
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26 | example, to disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify |
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27 | this perl-ext-common resource: |
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28 | |
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29 | URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup |
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30 | |
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31 | This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup |
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32 | extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example, |
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33 | scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any |
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34 | other combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback |
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35 | resource: |
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36 | |
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37 | URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s |
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38 | |
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39 | Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat? |
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40 | I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause |
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41 | extra bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you |
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42 | can see that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables |
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43 | always being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) |
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44 | after startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is |
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45 | a bit unfair, as many features unique to urxvt (locale, encoding |
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46 | conversion, iso14755 etc.) are already in use in this mode. |
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47 | |
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48 | text data bss drs rss filename |
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49 | 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything |
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50 | 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything |
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51 | |
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52 | When you "--enable-everything" (which _is_ unfair, as this involves |
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53 | xft and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 |
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54 | and my libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so. |
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55 | |
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56 | text data bss drs rss filename |
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57 | 163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything |
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58 | 1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything |
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59 | |
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60 | The very large size of the text section is explained by the |
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61 | east-asian encoding tables, which, if unused, take up disk space but |
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62 | nothing else and can be compiled out unless you rely on X11 core |
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63 | fonts that use those encodings. The BSS size comes from the 64k |
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64 | emergency buffer that my c++ compiler allocates (but of course |
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65 | doesn't use unless you are out of memory). Also, using an xft font |
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66 | instead of a core font immediately adds a few megabytes of RSS. Xft |
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67 | indeed is responsible for a lot of RSS even when not used. |
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68 | |
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69 | Of course, due to every character using two or four bytes instead of |
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70 | one, a large scrollback buffer will ultimately make rxvt-unicode use |
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71 | more memory. |
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72 | |
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73 | Compared to e.g. Eterm (5112k), aterm (3132k) and xterm (4680k), |
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74 | this still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like |
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75 | gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or |
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76 | konsole (22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after |
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77 | exit, plus half a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of |
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78 | warnings it spits out), it fares extremely well *g*. |
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79 | |
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80 | Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool? |
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81 | Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: |
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82 | I had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a |
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83 | fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). |
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84 | Put even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++. |
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85 | |
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86 | My personal stance on this is that C++ is less portable than C, but |
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87 | in the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability |
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88 | limits are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale |
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89 | support and unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than |
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90 | C++ itself. |
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91 | |
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92 | Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write |
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93 | programs in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to |
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94 | write programs in C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large |
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95 | libraries, but this is not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is |
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96 | what rxvt links against on my system with a minimal config: |
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97 | |
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98 | libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000) |
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99 | libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000) |
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100 | libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000) |
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101 | /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000) |
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102 | |
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103 | And here is rxvt-unicode: |
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104 | |
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105 | libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000) |
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106 | libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000) |
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107 | libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000) |
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108 | libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000) |
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109 | /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000) |
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110 | |
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111 | No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in |
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112 | statically), except maybe libX11 :) |
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113 | |
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114 | Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode? |
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115 | rxvt-unicode does not directly support tabs. It will work fine with |
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116 | tabbing functionality of many window managers or similar tabbing |
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117 | programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be embedded into |
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118 | other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed or the upcoming |
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119 | "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt (murxvt) |
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120 | terminal as an example embedding application. |
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121 | |
| 2 | How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? |
122 | How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? |
| 3 | The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape |
123 | 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. |
124 | sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. |
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125 | When using the rxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the |
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126 | daemon. |
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127 | |
| 6 | I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem... |
128 | I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem... |
| 7 | The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large |
129 | The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large |
| 8 | patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode. |
130 | patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode. |
| 9 | Before reporting a bug to the original rxvt-unicode author please |
131 | Before reporting a bug to the original rxvt-unicode author please |
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| 15 | |
137 | |
| 16 | For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and |
138 | 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 |
139 | 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 |
140 | also a bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for |
| 19 | other users that might encounter the same issue. |
141 | other users that might encounter the same issue. |
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142 | |
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143 | I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any |
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144 | recommendation? |
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145 | You should build one binary with the default options. configure now |
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146 | enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them |
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147 | runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling |
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148 | them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl |
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149 | interpreter should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, |
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150 | selection, likely more in the future) depends on it. |
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151 | |
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152 | You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" |
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153 | resources system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will |
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154 | result in useful behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, |
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155 | add an empty "perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. |
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156 | This will keep the perl interpreter disabled until the user enables |
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157 | it. |
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158 | |
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159 | If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal |
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160 | one with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with |
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161 | "--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot |
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162 | of encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely |
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163 | used). |
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164 | |
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165 | I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this |
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166 | safe? |
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167 | Likely not. While I honestly try to make it secure, and am probably |
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168 | not bad at it, I think it is simply unreasonable to expect all of |
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169 | freetype + fontconfig + xft + xlib + perl + ... + rxvt-unicode |
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170 | itself to all be secure. Also, rxvt-unicode disables some options |
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171 | when it detects that it runs setuid or setgid, which is not nice. |
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172 | Besides, with the embedded perl interpreter the possibility for |
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173 | security problems easily multiplies. |
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174 | |
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175 | Elevated privileges are only required for utmp and pty operations on |
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176 | some systems (for example, GNU/Linux doesn't need any extra |
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177 | privileges for ptys, but some need it for utmp support). It is |
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178 | planned to mvoe this into a forked handler process, but this is not |
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179 | yet done. |
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180 | |
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181 | So, while setuid/setgid operation is supported and not a problem on |
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182 | your typical single-user-no-other-logins unix desktop, always |
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183 | remember that its an awful lot of code, most of which isn't checked |
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184 | for security issues regularly. |
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185 | |
| 21 | When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? |
186 | 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 |
187 | The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely |
| 23 | available as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same |
188 | available as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same |
| 24 | problem often arises). |
189 | problem often arises). |
