[ViewVC] Diff of: cvs/rxvt-unicode/README.FAQ

Comparing rxvt-unicode/README.FAQ (file contents):
Revision 1.37 by root, Tue Jan 31 00:58:20 2006 UTC vs.
Revision 1.55 by root, Sun Jun 15 13:54:15 2008 UTC

…		…
1	FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS	1	RXVT-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
2	The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select	2	Meta, Features & Commandline Issues
3	single words?	3	My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
4	If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following	4	Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net", channel
5	setting:	5	"#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
		6	interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
6		7
7	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)	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:
8		12
9	If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more and	13	urxvt -pe tabbed
10	more.
11		14
12	To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this
13	pattern:
14
15	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{\|})]+)
16
17	Please also note that the LeftClick Shift-LeftClik combination also
18	selects words like the old code.
19
20	I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I
21	change/disable it?
22	You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
23	perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps
24	rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
25
26	If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
27	identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
28	PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the rxvtperl(3) manpage. For example, to
29	disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify this
30	perl-ext-common resource:
31
32	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
33
34	This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
35	extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
36	scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any other
37	combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback resource:
38
39	URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
40
41	The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how
42	do I switch this off?
43	During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor
44	outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
45	These are caused by the "readline" perl extension. Under normal
46	circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
47	line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
48	but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in
49	some cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
50
51	You can permamently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline"
52	extension:
53
54	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline	15	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
55		16
56	Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?	17	It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window
57	Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X	18	managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow
58	applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads	19	it to be embedded into other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed
59	resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will	20	or the upcoming "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
60	ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read	21	(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
61	$HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display.
62		22
63	If you have or use an $HOME/.Xresources file, chances are that resources	23	How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
64	are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to re-login after	24	The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
65	every change (or run xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources).	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.
66		27
67	Also consider the form resources have to use:	28	Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
		29	Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something
		30	you don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings
		31	that you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by
		32	design, when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be
		33	loaded accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your
		34	characters.
68		35
69	URxvt.resource: value	36	Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
		37	scrollback buffers: Without "--enable-unicode3", rxvt-unicode will use 6
		38	bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
		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.
70		42
71	If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of	43	How can I start urxvtd in a race-free way?
72	specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it works.	44	Try "urxvtd -f -o", which tells urxvtd to open the display, create the
73	If unsure, use the form above.	45	listening socket and then fork.
74		46
75	I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?	47	How can I start urxvtd automatically when I run urxvtc?
76	First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode,	48	If you want to start urxvtd automatically whenever you run urxvtc and
77	so you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you	49	the daemon isn't running yet, use this script:
78	may bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a
79	rite of passage: ... and you failed.
80		50
81	Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option	51	#!/bin/sh
82	descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!	52	urxvtc "$@"
		53	if [ $? -eq 2 ]; then
		54	urxvtd -q -o -f
		55	urxvtc "$@"
		56	fi
83		57
84	1. Use inheritPixmap:	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.
85		62
86	Esetroot wallpaper.jpg	63	How do I distinguish whether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
87	rxvt -ip -tint red -sh 40	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.
88		68
89	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting	69	How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
90	support, or you are unable to read.	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.
91		76
92	2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you	77	Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
93	to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever	78	snippets:
94	your picture with gimp:
95		79
96	convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm	80	# Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
97	rxvt -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background	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
98		92
99	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or	93	How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
100	you are unable to read.	94	You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,
		95	one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2xhtml (from Pod::Xhtml).
		96	Then go to the doc subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
101		97
102	3. Use an ARGB visual:
103
104	rxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
105
106	This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
107	doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
108	there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the
109	neccessary bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work,
110	but that doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
111
112	4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
113
114	xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
115	-set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
116
117	Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace 0xc0000000
118	by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
119	your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
120
121	Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?	98	Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
122	I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra	99	I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra
123	bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see	100	bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see
124	that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always	101	that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always
125	being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after	102	being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after
126	startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is a bit	103	startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is a bit
129		106
130	text data bss drs rss filename	107	text data bss drs rss filename
131	98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything	108	98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything
132	188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything	109	188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything
133		110
134	When you "--enable-everything" (which _is_ unfair, as this involves xft	111	When you "--enable-everything" (which is unfair, as this involves xft
135	and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my	112	and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my
136	libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so.	113	libc), the two diverge, but not unreasonably so.
137		114
138	text data bss drs rss filename	115	text data bss drs rss filename
139	163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything	116	163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything
140	1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything	117	1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything
141		118
…		…
157	gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole	134	gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole
158	(22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half	135	(22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half
159	a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits	136	a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits
160	out), it fares extremely well g.	137	out), it fares extremely well g.
161		138
162	Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?	139	Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
163	Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I	140	Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I
164	had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a	141	had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a
165	fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put	142	fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put
166	even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.	143	even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
167		144
…		…
183		160
184	And here is rxvt-unicode:	161	And here is rxvt-unicode:
185		162
186	libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)	163	libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
187	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)	164	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)
188	libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)	165	libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
189	libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)	166	libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
190	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)	167	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
191		168
192	No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),	169	No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
193	except maybe libX11 :)	170	except maybe libX11 :)
194		171
195	Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?	172	Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues
196	Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a	173	I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
197	simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these	174	First of all, please address all transparency related issues to Sasha
198	should give you tabs:	175	Vasko at sasha@aftercode.net and do not bug the author about it. Also,
199		176	if you can't get it working consider it a rite of passage: ... and you
200	rxvt -pe tabbed
201
202	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
203
204	It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window
205	managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow
206	it to be embedded into other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed
207	or the upcoming "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
208	(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
209
210	How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
211	The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
212	sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. When
213	using the rxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the daemon.
214
215	I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
216	The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
217	patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
218	unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
219	the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
220	version (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
221	the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific
222	to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian
223	Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug).
224
225	For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
226	probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
227	bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users
228	that might encounter the same issue.
229
230	I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any
231	recommendation?
232	You should build one binary with the default options. configure now
233	enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
234	runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling
235	them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter
236	should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely
237	more in the future) depends on it.
238
239	You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" resources
240	system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful
241	behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
242	"perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
243	perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
244
245	If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one
246	with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with
247	"--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
248	encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
249
250	I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
251	It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
252	install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
253
254	When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
255	into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
256	systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
257	immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
258	privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
259	things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
260
261	This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very
262	early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before
263	main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should
264	result in very little risk.
265
266	When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
267	The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
268	as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often
269	arises).
270
271	The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this
272	can be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp):
273
274	REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
275	infocmp rxvt-unicode \| ssh $REMOTE "cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
276
277	... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system,
278
279	If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set
280	"TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of
281	problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different
282	colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice
283	quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, though.
284
285	If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) you
286	can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or use a
287	resource to set it:
288
289	URxvt.termName: rxvt
290
291	If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace
292	the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one.
293
294	"tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
295	Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by
296	"enacs=\E[0@" and try again.
297
298	"bash"'s readline does not work correctly under rxvt.
299	I need a termcap file entry.
300	One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
301	systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
302	library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
303	for "rxvt-unicode".
304
305	You could use rxvt's termcap entry with resonable results in many cases.
306	You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp program
307	like this:
308
309	infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
310
311	Or you could use this termcap entry, generated by the command above:
312
313	rxvt-unicode\|rxvt-unicode terminal (X Window System):\
314	:am:bw:eo:km:mi:ms:xn:xo:\
315	:co#80:it#8:li#24:lm#0:\
316	:AL=\E[%dL:DC=\E[%dP:DL=\E[%dM:DO=\E[%dB:IC=\E[%d@:\
317	:K1=\EOw:K2=\EOu:K3=\EOy:K4=\EOq:K5=\EOs:LE=\E[%dD:\
318	:RI=\E[%dC:SF=\E[%dS:SR=\E[%dT:UP=\E[%dA:ae=\E(B:al=\E[L:\
319	:as=\E(0:bl=^G:cd=\E[J:ce=\E[K:cl=\E[H\E[2J:\
320	:cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:cr=^M:cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:ct=\E[3g:dc=\E[P:\
321	:dl=\E[M:do=^J:ec=\E[%dX:ei=\E[4l:ho=\E[H:\
322	:i1=\E[?47l\E=\E[?1l:ic=\E[@:im=\E[4h:\
323	:is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;3;4;6l\E[4l:\
324	:k1=\E[11~:k2=\E[12~:k3=\E[13~:k4=\E[14~:k5=\E[15~:\
325	:k6=\E[17~:k7=\E[18~:k8=\E[19~:k9=\E[20~:kD=\E[3~:\
326	:kI=\E[2~:kN=\E[6~:kP=\E[5~:kb=\177:kd=\EOB:ke=\E[?1l\E>:\
327	:kh=\E[7~:kl=\EOD:kr=\EOC:ks=\E[?1h\E=:ku=\EOA:le=^H:\
328	:mb=\E[5m:md=\E[1m:me=\E[m\017:mr=\E[7m:nd=\E[C:rc=\E8:\
329	:sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\
330	:te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\
331	:us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
332	:vs=\E[?25h:
333
334	Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output?
335	The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
336	decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration
337	file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in it's default file (among
338	with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
339
340	TERM rxvt-unicode
341
342	to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add:
343
344	alias ls='ls --color=auto'
345
346	to your ".profile" or ".bashrc".
347
348	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
349	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
350	Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
351	Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged
352	distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by
353	setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features.
354	Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux)
355	furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, so
356	you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I log-in
357	to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do
358	this).
359
360	My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
361	Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
362	specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is
363	caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of wether and
364	how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a
365	compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please
366	report if that helped.
367
368	Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
369	Unicode does not seem to work?
370	If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
371	getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output
372	is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
373
374	Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the
375	programs. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale, while the
376	login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the locale
377	to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this is not
378	going to work.
379
380	The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely
381	run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your
382	.profile.	177	failed.
383		178
384	printf '\e]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE"	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!
385		181
386	If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification not	182	1. Use transparent mode:
387	supported on your systems. Some systems have a "locale" command which
388	displays this (also, "perl -e0" can be used to check locale settings, as
389	it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays
390	something like:
391		183
392	locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ...	184	Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
		185	urxvt -tr -tint red -sh 40
393		186
394	Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.	187	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
		188	support, or you are unable to read.
395		189
396	If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then	190	2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
397	you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't	191	to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
398	support locales :(	192	your picture with gimp or any other tool:
399		193
400	Why do some characters look so much different than others?	194	convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.jpg
401	How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?	195	urxvt -pixmap "background.jpg;:root"
402	Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine.
403	Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of your
404	system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want to
405	display.
406		196
407	rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font.	197	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack AfterImage support, or you
408	Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks	198	are unable to read.
409	bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
410	resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
411	intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
412	the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
413		199
414	In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,	200	3. Use an ARGB visual:
415	e.g.:
416		201
417	rxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...	202	urxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
418		203
419	When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font.	204	This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
420	If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the next	205	doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
421	font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this	206	there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the
422	search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.	207	necessary bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but
		208	that doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
423		209
424	The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the	210	4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
425	base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size,
426	which must be the same due to the way terminals work.
427		211
428	Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?	212	xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
429	This is because there is a difference between script and language --	213	-set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
430	rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is, as
431	it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first sees a
432	japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for display.
433	Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many chinese
434	characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
435	non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese
436	font -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font
437	for chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
438		214
439	The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font	215	Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace 0xc0000000
440	list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a	216	by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
441	preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font	217	your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
442	first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
443		218
444	In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
445	runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
446	fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
447	has been designed yet).
448
449	Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can
450	I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
451
452	Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?	219	Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
453	Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that	220	Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that
454	character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal	221	character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal
455	use might contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode	222	use might contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode
456	will avoid these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too	223	will avoid these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too
457	wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent	224	wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent
…		…
461	however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed	228	however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed
462	bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct	229	bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct
463	way is to ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is	230	way is to ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is
464	wrong in these cases).	231	wrong in these cases).
465		232
466	It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,	233	It's not clear (to me at least), whether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
467	or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try	234	or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try
468	using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If that doesn't	235	using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If that doesn't
469	work, you might be forced to use a different font.	236	work, you might be forced to use a different font.
470		237
471	All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their	238	All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their
472	bounding box data is correct.	239	bounding box data is correct.
473		240
474	On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.
475	Seems to be a known bug, read
476	<http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the
477	following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
478
479	#define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)
480
481	My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
482	The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
483	correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported by your
484	input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and your input
485	method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys) does not
486	support this (for instance because it is not visual), then rxvt-unicode
487	will continue without an input method.
488
489	In this case either do not specify a preeditStyle or specify more than
490	one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.
491
492	I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
493	Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
494	international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
495	advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for
496	other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default telnet
497	escape character and so on.
498
499	How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?	241	How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
500	First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings	242	First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
501	("TERM=rxvt-unicode"), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then	243	("TERM=rxvt-unicode"), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
502	make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise	244	make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
503	rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:	245	rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
504		246
505	URxvt.colorBD: white	247	URxvt.colorBD: white
506	URxvt.colorIT: green	248	URxvt.colorIT: green
507		249
508	Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?	250	Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
509	For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird	251	For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
510	colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the	252	colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the
511	standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of	253	standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of
512	course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very	254	course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very
513	good reasons.	255	good reasons.
514		256
515	In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo	257	In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo
516	definition to only claim 8 colour support or use "TERM=rxvt", which will	258	definition to only claim 8 colour support or use "TERM=rxvt", which will
517	fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.	259	fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
518		260
519	I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
520	Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined in
521	your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
522	wether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that
523	wchar_t is represented as unicode.
524
525	As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symobl nor
526	does it support it. Instead, it uses it's own internal representation of
527	wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.
528
529	However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1" and
530	"UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t.
531
532	"__STDC_ISO_10646__" is the only sane way to support multi-language apps
533	in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized)
534	representation of wchar_t makes it impossible to convert between wchar_t
535	(as used by X11 and your applications) and any other encoding without
536	implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and every locale. There
537	simply are no APIs to convert wchar_t into anything except the current
538	locale encoding.
539
540	Some applications (such as the formidable mlterm) work around this by
541	carrying their own replacement functions for character set handling with
542	them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or doing multiple
543	conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the OS implements
544	encodings slightly different than the terminal emulator).
545
546	The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
547	system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
548	complete replacements for them :)
549
550	I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.
551	Try the diff in doc/solaris9.patch as a base. It fixes the worst
552	problems with "wcwidth" and a compile problem.
553
554	How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
555	rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using the
556	X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no longer
557	supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single
558	font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or
559	"-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
560	old libW11 emulation.
561
562	At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any
563	multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are
564	likely limited to 8-bit encodings.
565
566	How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
567	Is there an option to switch encodings?
568	Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
569	specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know
570	about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
571
572	The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for
573	selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating
574	this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties
575	such as width and code number. This mechanism is the locale.
576	Applications not using that info will have problems (for example,
577	"xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses it's own,
578	locale-independent table under all locales).
579
580	Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. All
581	programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
582	interpretation of characters.
583
584	Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
585	is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
586
587	On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable
588	contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
589	locale. Common names for locales are "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15",
590	"ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e. "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e.
591	"de" or "german") are also common.
592
593	Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the
594	encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e.
595	"de_DE.UTF-8" and "ja_JP.UTF-8" are the normally same to rxvt-unicode.
596
597	If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
598	rxvt-unicode with the correct "LC_CTYPE" category.
599
600	Can I switch locales at runtime?
601	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
602	rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE".
603
604	printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
605
606	See also the previous answer.
607
608	Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one
609	locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support it (e.g.
610	UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which first
611	switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
612
613	printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
614	xjdic -js
615	printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
616
617	You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine,
618	except for some locales where character width differs between program-
619	and rxvt-unicode-locales.
620
621	Can I switch the fonts at runtime?	261	Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
622	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the	262	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the
623	same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately:	263	same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately:
624		264
625	printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"	265	printf '\33]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
626		266
627	This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a	267	This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
628	japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where	268	japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
629	japanese fonts would only be in your way.	269	japanese fonts would only be in your way.
630		270
631	You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.	271	You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
632		272
633	Why do italic characters look as if clipped?	273	Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
634	Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For	274	Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
635	example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans	275	example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
636	Mono" completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might be to	276	Mono" completely fails in its italic face. A workaround might be to
637	enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:	277	enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
638		278
639	URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true	279	URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
640	URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true	280	URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
641		281
642	My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
643	You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of
644	the terminal, using the resource "imlocale":
645
646	URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
647
648	Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and still
649	use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not be able
650	to input characters outside "EUC-JP" in a normal way then, as your input
651	method limits you.
652
653	Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
654	Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
655	design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
656	leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
657	exit time. kinput2 (and derived input methods) generally succeeds, while
658	SCIM (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however, crashes
659	cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
660
661	So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
662
663	Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
664	Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something
665	you don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings
666	that you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by
667	design, when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be
668	loaded accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your
669	characters.
670
671	Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
672	scrollback buffers: Without "--enable-unicode3", rxvt-unicode will use 6
673	bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
674	kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if
675	full) use 10 Megabytes of memory. With "--enable-unicode3" it gets
676	worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
677
678	Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?	282	Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
679	Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as it	283	Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as it
680	is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable	284	is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
681	antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of	285	antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of
682	memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.	286	memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
683		287
684	Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?	288	Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
685	Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to	289	Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
686	fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core	290	fall back to its default font search list it will prefer X11 core fonts,
687	fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has	291	because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
688	antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they	292	antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
689	look best that way.	293	look best that way.
690		294
691	If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.	295	If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
692		296
693	Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
694	Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing some
695	editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've heard
696	that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A quick
697	check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
698	depressed.
699
700	What's with this bold/blink stuff?	297	What's with this bold/blink stuff?
701	If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using the	298	If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using the
702	standard foreground colour.	299	standard foreground colour.
703		300
704	For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text	301	For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text
705	blink when compiled with "--enable-blinking". with standard colours.	302	blink when compiled with "--enable-text-blink". Without
706	Without "--enable-blinking", the blink attribute will be ignored.	303	"--enable-text-blink", the blink attribute will be ignored.
707		304
708	On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity	305	On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
709	foreground/background colors.	306	foreground/background colors.
710		307
711	color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.	308	color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
712		309
713	color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.	310	color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
714		311
715	I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?	312	I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
716	You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults	313	You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults
717	resources (or as long-options).	314	resources (or as long-options).
718		315
719	Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, including	316	Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, including
720	the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:	317	the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
…		…
735	URxvt.color12: #0000FF	332	URxvt.color12: #0000FF
736	URxvt.color13: #FF00FF	333	URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
737	URxvt.color14: #00FFFF	334	URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
738	URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF	335	URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
739		336
740	And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described (not by	337	And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors.
741	me) as "pretty girly".
742		338
743	URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1	339	URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
744	URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1	340	URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
745	URxvt.background: #0e0e0e	341	URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
746	URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1	342	URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
…		…
757	URxvt.color6: #73f7ff	353	URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
758	URxvt.color14: #73f7ff	354	URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
759	URxvt.color7: #e1dddd	355	URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
760	URxvt.color15: #e1dddd	356	URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
761		357
762	How can I start rxvtd in a race-free way?	358	They have been described (not by me) as "pretty girly".
763	Try "rxvtd -f -o", which tells rxvtd to open the display, create the
764	listening socket and then fork.
765		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	How can I make mplayer display video correctly?
		415	We are working on it, in the meantime, as a workaround, use something
		416	like:
		417
		418	urxvt -b 600 -geometry 20x1 -e sh -c 'mplayer -wid $WINDOWID file...'
		419
		420	Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
		421	The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
		422	If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
		423	setting:
		424
		425	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
		426
		427	If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more and
		428	more.
		429
		430	To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this
		431	pattern:
		432
		433	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{\|})]+)
		434
		435	Please also note that the LeftClick Shift-LeftClick combination also
		436	selects words like the old code.
		437
		438	I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
		439	You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
		440	perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps
		441	rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
		442
		443	If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
		444	identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
		445	PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the urxvtperl(3) manpage. For example, to
		446	disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify this
		447	perl-ext-common resource:
		448
		449	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
		450
		451	This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
		452	extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
		453	scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any other
		454	combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback resource:
		455
		456	URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
		457
		458	The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
		459	See next entry.
		460
		461	During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
		462	These are caused by the "readline" perl extension. Under normal
		463	circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
		464	line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
		465	but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in
		466	some cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
		467
		468	You can permanently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline"
		469	extension:
		470
		471	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
		472
		473	My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
		474	Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
		475	specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is
		476	caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of whether and
		477	how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a
		478	compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please
		479	report if that helped.
		480
		481	My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
		482	The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
		483	correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported by your
		484	input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and your input
		485	method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys) does not
		486	support this (for instance because it is not visual), then rxvt-unicode
		487	will continue without an input method.
		488
		489	In this case either do not specify a preeditStyle or specify more than
		490	one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.
		491
		492	I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
		493	Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
		494	international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
		495	advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for
		496	other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default telnet
		497	escape character and so on.
		498
		499	Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
		500	Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing some
		501	editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've heard
		502	that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A quick
		503	check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
		504	depressed.
		505
766	What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?	506	What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
767	Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the BackSpace	507	Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the Backspace
768	keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are	508	keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are
769	two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".	509	two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
770		510
771	Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the	511	Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
772	debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one only only	512	debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one and only
773	correct choice :).	513	correct choice :).
774		514
775	Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the	515	Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the
776	value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode	516	value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode
777	wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell),	517	wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell),
…		…
781		521
782	For starting a new rxvt-unicode:	522	For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
783		523
784	# use Backspace = ^H	524	# use Backspace = ^H
785	$ stty erase ^H	525	$ stty erase ^H
786	$ rxvt	526	$ urxvt
787		527
788	# use Backspace = ^?	528	# use Backspace = ^?
789	$ stty erase ^?	529	$ stty erase ^?
790	$ rxvt	530	$ urxvt
791		531
792	Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l".	532	Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l".
793		533
794	For an existing rxvt-unicode:	534	For an existing rxvt-unicode:
795		535
…		…
815	some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told) expect	555	some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told) expect
816	Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.	556	Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
817		557
818	Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.	558	Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
819		559
820	I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?	560	I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
821	There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless	561	There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
822	you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" option you can	562	you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" option you can
823	use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with	563	use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with
824	keysyms.	564	keysyms.
825		565
826	Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "rxvt -name URxvt"	566	Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "urxvt -name URxvt"
827		567
828	URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~	568	URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
829	URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~	569	URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
830	URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>	570	URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
831	URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>	571	URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
…		…
846	URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >	586	URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
847	URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007	587	URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
848		588
849	See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.	589	See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.
850		590
851	I'm using keyboard model XXX that has extra Prior/Next/Insert keys.	591	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
852	How do I make use of them? For example, the Sun Keyboard type 4
853	has the following mappings that rxvt-unicode doesn't recognize.
854	KP_Insert == Insert	592	KP_Insert == Insert
855	F22 == Print	593	F22 == Print
856	F27 == Home	594	F27 == Home
857	F29 == Prior	595	F29 == Prior
858	F33 == End	596	F33 == End
…		…
860		598
861	Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various	599	Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various
862	possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the	600	possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the
863	keys as required for your particular machine.	601	keys as required for your particular machine.
864		602
865	How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm?	603	Terminal Configuration
866	I need this to decide about setting colors etc.	604	Can I see a typical configuration?
867	rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you can	605	The default configuration tries to be xterm-like, which I don't like
868	check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED, slrn,	606	that much, but it's least surprise to regular users.
869	Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide whether
870	or not to use color.
871		607
872	How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?	608	As a rxvt or rxvt-unicode user, you are practically supposed to invest
873	If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled	609	time into customising your terminal. To get you started, here is the
874	insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script	610	author's .Xdefaults entries, with comments on what they do. It's
875	snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode	611	certainly not typical, but what's typical...
876	wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets)
877	then the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from
878	a regular xterm.
879		612
880	Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script	613	URxvt.cutchars: "()*,<>[]{}\|'
881	snippets:	614	URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/tmp/xxx
882		615
883	# Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:	616	These are just for testing stuff.
884	[ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
885	if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
886	stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
887	echo -n '^[Z'
888	read term_id
889	stty icanon echo
890	if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
891	echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
892	read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
893	fi
894	fi
895		617
896	How do I compile the manual pages for myself?	618	URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8
897	You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,	619	URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None
898	one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2html. Then go to the doc
899	subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
900		620
901	My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?	621	This tells rxvt-unicode to use a special locale when communicating with
902	Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net", channel	622	the X Input Method, and also tells it to only use the OnTheSpot pre-edit
903	"#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be	623	type, which requires the "xim-onthespot" perl extension but rewards me
904	interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).	624	with correct-looking fonts.
905		625
		626	URxvt.perl-lib: /root/lib/urxvt
		627	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,selection-autotransform,selection-pastebin,xim-onthespot,remote-clipboard
		628	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ( at .*? line \\d+)
		629	URxvt.selection.pattern-1: ^(/[^:]+):\
		630	URxvt.selection-autotransform.0: s/^([^:[:space:]]+):(\\d+):?$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
		631	URxvt.selection-autotransform.1: s/^ at (.*?) line (\\d+)$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
		632
		633	This is my perl configuration. The first two set the perl library
		634	directory and also tells urxvt to use a large number of extensions. I
		635	develop for myself mostly, so I actually use most of the extensions I
		636	write.
		637
		638	The selection stuff mainly makes the selection perl-error-message aware
		639	and tells it to convert perl error messages into vi-commands to load the
		640	relevant file and go tot he error line number.
		641
		642	URxvt.scrollstyle: plain
		643	URxvt.secondaryScroll: true
		644
		645	As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the
		646	author. The "secondaryScroll" configures urxvt to scroll in full-screen
		647	apps, like screen, so lines scrolled out of screen end up in urxvt's
		648	scrollback buffer.
		649
		650	URxvt.background: #000000
		651	URxvt.foreground: gray90
		652	URxvt.color7: gray90
		653	URxvt.colorBD: #ffffff
		654	URxvt.cursorColor: #e0e080
		655	URxvt.throughColor: #8080f0
		656	URxvt.highlightColor: #f0f0f0
		657
		658	Some colours. Not sure which ones are being used or even non-defaults,
		659	but these are in my .Xdefaults. Most notably, they set
		660	foreground/background to light gray/black, and also make sure that the
		661	colour 7 matches the default foreground colour.
		662
		663	URxvt.underlineColor: yellow
		664
		665	Another colour, makes underline lines look different. Sometimes hurts,
		666	but is mostly a nice effect.
		667
		668	URxvt.geometry: 154x36
		669	URxvt.loginShell: false
		670	URxvt.meta: ignore
		671	URxvt.utmpInhibit: true
		672
		673	Uh, well, should be mostly self-explanatory. By specifying some defaults
		674	manually, I can quickly switch them for testing.
		675
		676	URxvt.saveLines: 8192
		677
		678	A large scrollback buffer is essential. Really.
		679
		680	URxvt.mapAlert: true
		681
		682	The only case I use it is for my IRC window, which I like to keep
		683	iconified till people msg me (which beeps).
		684
		685	URxvt.visualBell: true
		686
		687	The audible bell is often annoying, especially when in a crowd.
		688
		689	URxvt.insecure: true
		690
		691	Please don't hack my mutt! Ooops...
		692
		693	URxvt.pastableTabs: false
		694
		695	I once thought this is a great idea.
		696
		697	urxvt.font: 9x15bold,\
		698	-misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
		699	-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
		700	[codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic, \
		701	xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:autohint=true, \
		702	xft:Code2000:antialias=false
		703	urxvt.boldFont: -xos4-terminus-bold-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-15
		704	urxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
		705	urxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
		706
		707	I wrote rxvt-unicode to be able to specify fonts exactly. So don't be
		708	overwhelmed. A special note: the "9x15bold" mentioned above is actually
		709	the version from XFree-3.3, as XFree-4 replaced it by a totally
		710	different font (different glyphs for ";" and many other harmless
		711	characters), while the second font is actually the "9x15bold" from
		712	XFree4/XOrg. The bold version has less chars than the medium version, so
		713	I use it for rare characters, too. When editing sources with vim, I use
		714	italic for comments and other stuff, which looks quite good with
		715	Bitstream Vera anti-aliased.
		716
		717	Terminus is a quite bad font (many very wrong glyphs), but for most of
		718	my purposes, it works, and gives a different look, as my normal
		719	(Non-bold) font is already bold, and I want to see a difference between
		720	bold and normal fonts.
		721
		722	Please note that I used the "urxvt" instance name and not the "URxvt"
		723	class name. Thats because I use different configs for different
		724	purposes, for example, my IRC window is started with "-name IRC", and
		725	uses these defaults:
		726
		727	IRC*title: IRC
		728	IRC*geometry: 87x12+535+542
		729	IRC*saveLines: 0
		730	IRC*mapAlert: true
		731	IRC*font: suxuseuro
		732	IRC*boldFont: suxuseuro
		733	IRC*colorBD: white
		734	IRC*keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]710;suxuseuro\007\033]711;suxuseuro\007
		735	IRC*keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]710;9x15bold\007\033]711;9x15bold\007
		736
		737	"Alt-Shift-1" and "Alt-Shift-2" switch between two different font sizes.
		738	"suxuseuro" allows me to keep an eye (and actually read) stuff while
		739	keeping a very small window. If somebody pastes something complicated
		740	(e.g. japanese), I temporarily switch to a larger font.
		741
		742	The above is all in my ".Xdefaults" (I don't use ".Xresources" nor
		743	"xrdb"). I also have some resources in a separate ".Xdefaults-hostname"
		744	file for different hosts, for example, on ym main desktop, I use:
		745
		746	URxvt.keysym.C-M-q: command:\033[3;5;5t
		747	URxvt.keysym.C-M-y: command:\033[3;5;606t
		748	URxvt.keysym.C-M-e: command:\033[3;1605;5t
		749	URxvt.keysym.C-M-c: command:\033[3;1605;606t
		750	URxvt.keysym.C-M-p: perl:test
		751
		752	The first for keysym definitions allow me to quickly bring some windows
		753	in the layout I like most. Ion users might start laughing but will stop
		754	immediately when I tell them that I use my own Fvwm2 module for much the
		755	same effect as Ion provides, and I only very rarely use the above key
		756	combinations :->
		757
		758	Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
		759	Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
		760	applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
		761	resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
		762	ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
		763	$HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display.
		764
		765	If you have or use an $HOME/.Xresources file, chances are that resources
		766	are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to re-login after
		767	every change (or run xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources).
		768
		769	Also consider the form resources have to use:
		770
		771	URxvt.resource: value
		772
		773	If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
		774	specifying resources), make sure you understand whether and why it
		775	works. If unsure, use the form above.
		776
		777	When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
		778	The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
		779	as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often
		780	arises).
		781
		782	The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this
		783	can be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp and works as user and
		784	admin):
		785
		786	REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
		787	infocmp rxvt-unicode \| ssh $REMOTE "mkdir -p .terminfo && cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
		788
		789	... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system,
		790
		791	One some systems you might need to set $TERMINFO to the full path of
		792	$HOME/.terminfo for this to work.
		793
		794	If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set
		795	"TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of
		796	problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different
		797	colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice
		798	quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, though.
		799
		800	If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) you
		801	can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or use a
		802	resource to set it:
		803
		804	URxvt.termName: rxvt
		805
		806	If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace
		807	the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use "TERM=rxvt".
		808
		809	"tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
		810	Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by
		811	"enacs=\E[0@" and try again.
		812
		813	"bash"'s readline does not work correctly under urxvt.
		814	See next entry.
		815
		816	I need a termcap file entry.
		817	One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
		818	systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
		819	library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
		820	for "rxvt-unicode".
		821
		822	You could use rxvt's termcap entry with reasonable results in many
		823	cases. You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp
		824	program like this:
		825
		826	infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
		827
		828	Or you could use the termcap entry in doc/etc/rxvt-unicode.termcap,
		829	generated by the command above.
		830
		831	Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output?
		832	The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
		833	decide whether a terminal has colour, but uses its own configuration
		834	file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in its default file (among
		835	with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
		836
		837	TERM rxvt-unicode
		838
		839	to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add:
		840
		841	alias ls='ls --color=auto'
		842
		843	to your ".profile" or ".bashrc".
		844
		845	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
		846	See next entry.
		847
		848	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
		849	See next entry.
		850
		851	Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
		852	Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged
		853	distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by
		854	setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features.
		855	Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux)
		856	furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, so
		857	you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I log-in
		858	to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do
		859	this).
		860
		861	Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues
		862	Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
		863	See next entry.
		864
		865	Unicode does not seem to work?
		866	If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
		867	getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output
		868	is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
		869
		870	Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the
		871	programs running in it. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale,
		872	while the login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes
		873	the locale to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this
		874	is not going to work, and is the most common cause for problems.
		875
		876	The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely
		877	run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your
		878	.profile.
		879
		880	printf '\33]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE" # $LANG or $LC_ALL are worth a try, too
		881
		882	If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification not
		883	supported on your systems. Some systems have a "locale" command which
		884	displays this (also, "perl -e0" can be used to check locale settings, as
		885	it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays
		886	something like:
		887
		888	locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ...
		889
		890	Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.
		891
		892	If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
		893	you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
		894	support locales :(
		895
		896	How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
		897	See next entry.
		898
		899	Is there an option to switch encodings?
		900	Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
		901	specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know
		902	about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
		903
		904	The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for
		905	selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating
		906	this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties
		907	such as width and code number. This mechanism is the locale.
		908	Applications not using that info will have problems (for example,
		909	"xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses its own,
		910	locale-independent table under all locales).
		911
		912	Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. All
		913	programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
		914	interpretation of characters.
		915
		916	Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
		917	is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
		918
		919	On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable
		920	contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
		921	locale. Common names for locales are "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15",
		922	"ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e. "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e.
		923	"de" or "german") are also common.
		924
		925	Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the
		926	encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e.
		927	"de_DE.UTF-8" and "ja_JP.UTF-8" are the normally same to rxvt-unicode.
		928
		929	If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
		930	rxvt-unicode with the correct "LC_CTYPE" category.
		931
		932	Can I switch locales at runtime?
		933	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
		934	rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE".
		935
		936	printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
		937
		938	See also the previous answer.
		939
		940	Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one
		941	locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support it (e.g.
		942	UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which first
		943	switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
		944
		945	printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
		946	xjdic -js
		947	printf '\33]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
		948
		949	You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine,
		950	except for some locales where character width differs between program-
		951	and rxvt-unicode-locales.
		952
		953	I have problems getting my input method working.
		954	Try a search engine, as this is slightly different for every input
		955	method server.
		956
		957	Here is a checklist:
		958
		959	- Make sure your locale and the imLocale are supported on your OS.
		960	Try "locale -a" or check the documentation for your OS.
		961
		962	- Make sure your locale or imLocale matches a locale supported by your
		963	XIM.
		964	For example, kinput2 does not support UTF-8 locales, you should use
		965	"ja_JP.EUC-JP" or equivalent.
		966
		967	- Make sure your XIM server is actually running.
		968	- Make sure the "XMODIFIERS" environment variable is set correctly when
		969	starting rxvt-unicode.
		970	When you want to use e.g. kinput2, it must be set to "@im=kinput2".
		971	For scim, use "@im=SCIM". You can see what input method servers are
		972	running with this command:
		973
		974	xprop -root XIM_SERVERS
		975
		976
		977
		978	My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
		979	You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of
		980	the terminal, using the resource "imlocale":
		981
		982	URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
		983
		984	Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and still
		985	use your input method. Please note, however, that, depending on your
		986	Xlib version, you may not be able to input characters outside "EUC-JP"
		987	in a normal way then, as your input method limits you.
		988
		989	Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
		990	Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
		991	design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
		992	leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
		993	exit time. kinput2 (and derived input methods) generally succeeds, while
		994	SCIM (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however, crashes
		995	cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
		996
		997	So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
		998
		999	Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
		1000	I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
		1001	The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
		1002	patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
		1003	unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
		1004	the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
		1005	version (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
		1006	the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific
		1007	to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian
		1008	Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug).
		1009
		1010	For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
		1011	probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
		1012	bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users
		1013	that might encounter the same issue.
		1014
		1015	I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
		1016	You should build one binary with the default options. configure now
		1017	enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
		1018	runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enabling
		1019	them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter
		1020	should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely
		1021	more in the future) depends on it.
		1022
		1023	You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" resources
		1024	system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful
		1025	behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
		1026	"perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
		1027	perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
		1028
		1029	If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one
		1030	with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with
		1031	"--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
		1032	encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
		1033
		1034	I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
		1035	It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
		1036	install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
		1037
		1038	When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
		1039	into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
		1040	systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
		1041	immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
		1042	privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
		1043	things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
		1044
		1045	This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very
		1046	early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before
		1047	main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should
		1048	result in very little risk.
		1049
		1050	I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
		1051	Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined in
		1052	your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
		1053	whether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that
		1054	wchar_t is represented as unicode.
		1055
		1056	As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symbol nor
		1057	does it support it. Instead, it uses its own internal representation of
		1058	wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.
		1059
		1060	However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1" and
		1061	"UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t).
		1062
		1063	"__STDC_ISO_10646__" is the only sane way to support multi-language apps
		1064	in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized)
		1065	representation of wchar_t makes it impossible to convert between wchar_t
		1066	(as used by X11 and your applications) and any other encoding without
		1067	implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and every locale. There
		1068	simply are no APIs to convert wchar_t into anything except the current
		1069	locale encoding.
		1070
		1071	Some applications (such as the formidable mlterm) work around this by
		1072	carrying their own replacement functions for character set handling with
		1073	them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or doing multiple
		1074	conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the OS implements
		1075	encodings slightly different than the terminal emulator).
		1076
		1077	The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
		1078	system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
		1079	complete replacements for them :)
		1080
		1081	How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
		1082	rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using the
		1083	X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no longer
		1084	supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single
		1085	font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or
		1086	"-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
		1087	old libW11 emulation.
		1088
		1089	At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any
		1090	multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are
		1091	likely limited to 8-bit encodings.
		1092
		1093	Character widths are not correct.
		1094	urxvt uses the system wcwidth function to know the information about the
		1095	width of characters, so on systems with incorrect locale data you will
		1096	likely get bad results. Two notorious examples are Solaris 9, where
		1097	single-width characters like U+2514 are reported as double-width, and
		1098	Darwin 8, where combining chars are reported having width 1.
		1099
		1100	The solution is to upgrade your system or switch to a better one. A
		1101	possibly working workaround is to use a wcwidth implementation like
		1102
		1103	http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/wcwidth.c
		1104

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Revision 1.55 by root, Sun Jun 15 13:54:15 2008 UTC