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Revision 1.37 by root, Tue Jan 31 00:58:20 2006 UTC vs.
Revision 1.75 by root, Sun Nov 14 17:59:19 2021 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.libera.chat", 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	I use Gentoo, and I have a problem...
		9	There are two big problems with Gentoo Linux: first, most if not all
		10	Gentoo systems are completely broken (missing or mismatched header
		11	files, broken compiler etc. are just the tip of the iceberg); secondly,
		12	it should be called Gentoo GNU/Linux.
8		13
9	If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more and	14	For these reasons, it is impossible to support rxvt-unicode on Gentoo.
10	more.	15	Problems appearing on Gentoo systems will usually simply be ignored
		16	unless they can be reproduced on non-Gentoo systems.
11		17
12	To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this	18	Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
13	pattern:	19	Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a
		20	simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these
		21	should give you tabs:
14		22
15	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)	23	urxvt -pe tabbed
16		24
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	25	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
55		26
56	Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?	27	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	28	managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow
58	applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads	29	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	30	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	31	(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
61	$HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display.
62		32
63	If you have or use an $HOME/.Xresources file, chances are that resources	33	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	34	The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
65	every change (or run xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources).	35	sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. When
		36	using the urxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the daemon.
66		37
67	Also consider the form resources have to use:	38	Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
		39	Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something
		40	you don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings
		41	that you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by
		42	design, when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be
		43	loaded accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your
		44	characters.
68		45
69	URxvt.resource: value	46	Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
		47	scrollback buffers: Without "--enable-unicode3", rxvt-unicode will use 6
		48	bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
		49	kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if
		50	full) use 10 Megabytes of memory. With "--enable-unicode3" it gets
		51	worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
70		52
71	If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of	53	How can I start urxvtd in a race-free way?
72	specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it works.	54	Try "urxvtd -f -o", which tells urxvtd to open the display, create the
73	If unsure, use the form above.	55	listening socket and then fork.
74		56
75	I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?	57	How can I start urxvtd automatically when I run urxvtc?
76	First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode,	58	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	59	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		60
81	Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option	61	#!/bin/sh
82	descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!	62	urxvtc "$@"
		63	if [ $? -eq 2 ]; then
		64	urxvtd -q -o -f
		65	urxvtc "$@"
		66	fi
83		67
84	1. Use inheritPixmap:	68	This tries to create a new terminal, and if fails with exit status 2,
		69	meaning it couldn't connect to the daemon, it will start the daemon and
		70	re-run the command. Subsequent invocations of the script will re-use the
		71	existing daemon.
85		72
86	Esetroot wallpaper.jpg	73	Another option is to use systemd socket-based activation (see
87	rxvt -ip -tint red -sh 40	74	systemd.socket(5)). Here is an example of a service unit file and of a
		75	socket unit file for the default socket path:
88		76
89	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting	77	urxvtd.service
90	support, or you are unable to read.	78	[Unit]
		79	Description=urxvt terminal daemon
		80	Requires=urxvtd.socket
91		81
92	2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you	82	[Service]
93	to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever	83	ExecStart=/usr/bin/urxvtd -o
94	your picture with gimp:
95		84
96	convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm	85	urxvtd.socket
97	rxvt -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background	86	[Unit]
		87	Description=urxvt terminal daemon socket
98		88
99	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or	89	[Socket]
100	you are unable to read.	90	ListenStream=%h/.urxvt/urxvtd-%H
101		91
102	3. Use an ARGB visual:	92	[Install]
		93	WantedBy=sockets.target
103		94
104	rxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc	95	How do I distinguish whether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular
		96	xterm? I need this to decide about setting colours etc.
		97	The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable
		98	"COLORTERM", so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several
		99	programs, JED, slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this
		100	variable to decide whether or not to use colour.
105		101
106	This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that	102	How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
107	doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't	103	If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
108	there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the	104	insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
109	neccessary bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work,	105	snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
110	but that doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.	106	wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets)
		107	then the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from
		108	a regular xterm.
111		109
112	4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:	110	Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
		111	snippets:
113		112
114	xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \	113	# Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
115	-set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000	114	[ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
		115	if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
		116	stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
		117	printf "\eZ"
		118	read term_id
		119	stty icanon echo
		120	if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
		121	printf '\e[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
		122	read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
		123	fi
		124	fi
116		125
117	Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace 0xc0000000	126	How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
118	by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and	127	You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,
119	your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.	128	one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2xhtml (from Pod::Xhtml).
		129	Then go to the doc subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
120		130
121	Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?	131	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	132	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	133	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	134	that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always
125	being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after	135	being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after
126	startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is a bit	136	startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is a bit
…		…
129		139
130	text data bss drs rss filename	140	text data bss drs rss filename
131	98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything	141	98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything
132	188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything	142	188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything
133		143
134	When you "--enable-everything" (which _is_ unfair, as this involves xft	144	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	145	and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my
136	libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so.	146	libc), the two diverge, but not unreasonably so.
137		147
138	text data bss drs rss filename	148	text data bss drs rss filename
139	163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything	149	163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything
140	1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything	150	1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything
141		151
…		…
157	gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole	167	gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole
158	(22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half	168	(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	169	a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits
160	out), it fares extremely well *g*.	170	out), it fares extremely well *g*.
161		171
162	Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?	172	Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
163	Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I	173	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	174	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	175	fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put
166	even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.	176	even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
167		177
…		…
169	the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability limits	179	the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability limits
170	are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale support and	180	are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale support and
171	unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than C++ itself.	181	unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than C++ itself.
172		182
173	Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write programs	183	Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write programs
174	in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to write programs in	184	in C that use gobs of memory, and certainly possible to write programs
175	C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large libraries, but this is	185	in C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large libraries, but this
176	not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is what rxvt links against on my	186	is not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is what rxvt links against on
177	system with a minimal config:	187	my system with a minimal config:
178		188
179	libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)	189	libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
180	libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000)	190	libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000)
181	libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000)	191	libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000)
182	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)	192	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
183		193
184	And here is rxvt-unicode:	194	And here is rxvt-unicode:
185		195
186	libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)	196	libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
187	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)	197	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)
188	libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)	198	libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
189	libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)	199	libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
190	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)	200	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
191		201
192	No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),	202	No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
193	except maybe libX11 :)	203	except maybe libX11 :)
194		204
195	Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?	205	Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues
196	Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a	206	I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
197	simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these	207	First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode,
198	should give you tabs:	208	so you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you
		209	may bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a
		210	rite of passage: ... and you failed.
199		211
200	rxvt -pe tabbed	212	Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option
		213	descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
201		214
202	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed	215	1. Use pseudo-transparency:
203		216
204	It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window	217	Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
205	managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow	218	urxvt -tr -tint red -sh 40
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		219
210	How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?	220	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
211	The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape	221	support, or you are unable to read. This method requires that the
212	sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. When	222	background-setting program sets the _XROOTPMAP_ID or ESETROOT_PMAP_ID
213	using the rxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the daemon.	223	property. Compatible programs are Esetroot, hsetroot and feh.
214		224
215	I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...	225	2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
216	The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large	226	to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
217	patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but	227	your picture with gimp or any other tool:
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		228
225	For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and	229	convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.jpg
226	probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a	230	urxvt -pixmap "background.jpg;:root"
227	bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users
228	that might encounter the same issue.
229		231
230	I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any	232	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack GDK-PixBuf support, or you
231	recommendation?	233	are unable to read.
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		234
239	You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" resources	235	3. Use an ARGB visual:
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		236
245	If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one	237	urxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
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		238
250	I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?	239	This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
251	It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly	240	doesn't work for you, find a working composite manager or window
252	install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.	241	manager, both are required to support ARGB visuals for client windows.
253		242
254	When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork	243	4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
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		244
261	This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very	245	xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
262	early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before	246	-set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
263	main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should
264	result in very little risk.
265		247
266	When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?	248	Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace 0xc0000000
267	The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available	249	by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
268	as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often	250	your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
269	arises).
270		251
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.
383
384	printf '\e]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE"
385
386	If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification not
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
392	locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ...
393
394	Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.
395
396	If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
397	you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
398	support locales :(
399
400	Why do some characters look so much different than others?
401	How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
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
407	rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font.
408	Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
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
414	In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
415	e.g.:
416
417	rxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...
418
419	When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font.
420	If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the next
421	font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
422	search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
423
424	The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the
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
428	Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
429	This is because there is a difference between script and language --
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
439	The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
440	list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a
441	preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
442	first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
443
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?	252	Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
453	Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that	253	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	254	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	255	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	256	will avoid these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too
457	wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent	257	wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent
…		…
461	however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed	261	however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed
462	bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct	262	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	263	way is to ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is
464	wrong in these cases).	264	wrong in these cases).
465		265
466	It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,	266	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	267	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	268	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.	269	work, you might be forced to use a different font.
470		270
471	All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their	271	All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their
472	bounding box data is correct.	272	bounding box data is correct.
473		273
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?	274	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	275	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	276	("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	277	make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
503	rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:	278	rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
504		279
505	URxvt.colorBD: white	280	URxvt.colorBD: white
506	URxvt.colorIT: green	281	URxvt.colorIT: green
507		282
508	Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?	283	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	284	For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
510	colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the	285	colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the
511	standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of	286	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	287	course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very
513	good reasons.	288	good reasons.
514		289
515	In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo	290	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	291	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.	292	fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
518		293
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?	294	Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
622	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the	295	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the
623	same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately:	296	same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately:
624		297
625	printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"	298	printf '\33]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
626		299
627	This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a	300	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	301	japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
629	japanese fonts would only be in your way.	302	japanese fonts would only be in your way.
630		303
631	You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.	304	You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
632		305
633	Why do italic characters look as if clipped?	306	Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
634	Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For	307	Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
635	example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans	308	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	309	Mono" completely fails in its italic face. A workaround might be to
637	enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:	310	enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
638		311
639	URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true	312	URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
640	URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true	313	URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
641		314
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?	315	Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
679	Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as it	316	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	317	is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
681	antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of	318	antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of
682	memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.	319	memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
683		320
684	Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?	321	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	322	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	323	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	324	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	325	antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
689	look best that way.	326	look best that way.
690		327
691	If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.	328	If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
692		329
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?	330	What's with this bold/blink stuff?
701	If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using the	331	If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using the
702	standard foreground colour.	332	standard foreground colour.
703		333
704	For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text	334	For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text
705	blink when compiled with "--enable-blinking". with standard colours.	335	blink when compiled with "--enable-text-blink". Without
706	Without "--enable-blinking", the blink attribute will be ignored.	336	"--enable-text-blink", the blink attribute will be ignored.
707		337
708	On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity	338	On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
709	foreground/background colors.	339	foreground/background colours.
710		340
711	color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.	341	color0-7 are the low-intensity colours.
712		342
713	color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.	343	color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colours.
714		344
715	I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?	345	I don't like the screen colours. How do I change them?
716	You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults	346	You can change the screen colours at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults
717	resources (or as long-options).	347	resources (or as long-options).
718		348
719	Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, including	349	Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, including
720	the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:	350	the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
721		351
…		…
735	URxvt.color12: #0000FF	365	URxvt.color12: #0000FF
736	URxvt.color13: #FF00FF	366	URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
737	URxvt.color14: #00FFFF	367	URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
738	URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF	368	URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
739		369
740	And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described (not by	370	And here is a more complete set of non-standard colours.
741	me) as "pretty girly".
742		371
743	URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1	372	URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
744	URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1	373	URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
745	URxvt.background: #0e0e0e	374	URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
746	URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1	375	URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
…		…
757	URxvt.color6: #73f7ff	386	URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
758	URxvt.color14: #73f7ff	387	URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
759	URxvt.color7: #e1dddd	388	URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
760	URxvt.color15: #e1dddd	389	URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
761		390
762	How can I start rxvtd in a race-free way?	391	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		392
		393	Why do some characters look so much different than others?
		394	See next entry.
		395
		396	How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
		397	Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine.
		398	Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of your
		399	system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want to
		400	display.
		401
		402	rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font.
		403	Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
		404	bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
		405	resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
		406	intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
		407	the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
		408
		409	In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
		410	e.g.:
		411
		412	urxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...
		413
		414	When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font.
		415	If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the next
		416	font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
		417	search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
		418
		419	The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the
		420	base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size,
		421	which must be the same due to the way terminals work.
		422
		423	Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
		424	This is because there is a difference between script and language --
		425	rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is, as
		426	it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first sees a
		427	japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for display.
		428	Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many chinese
		429	characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
		430	non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese
		431	font -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font
		432	for chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
		433
		434	The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
		435	list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a
		436	preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
		437	first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
		438
		439	In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
		440	runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
		441	fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
		442	has been designed yet).
		443
		444	Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can
		445	I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
		446
		447	How can I make mplayer display video correctly?
		448	We are working on it, in the meantime, as a workaround, use something
		449	like:
		450
		451	urxvt -b 600 -geometry 20x1 -e sh -c 'mplayer -wid $WINDOWID file...'
		452
		453	Why is the cursor now blinking in emacs/vi/...?
		454	This is likely caused by your editor/program's use of the "cvvis"
		455	terminfo capability. Emacs uses it by default, as well as some versions
		456	of vi and possibly other programs.
		457
		458	In emacs, you can switch that off by adding this to your ".emacs" file:
		459
		460	(setq visible-cursor nil)
		461
		462	For other programs, if they do not have an option, your have to remove
		463	the "cvvis" capability from the terminfo description.
		464
		465	When urxvt first added the blinking cursor option, it didn't add a
		466	"cvvis" capability, which served no purpose before. Version 9.21
		467	introduced "cvvis" (and the ability to control blinking independent of
		468	cursor shape) for compatibility with other terminals, which
		469	traditionally use a blinking cursor for "cvvis". This also reflects the
		470	intent of programs such as emacs, who expect "cvvis" to enable a
		471	blinking cursor.
		472
		473	Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
		474	The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
		475	If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
		476	setting:
		477
		478	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
		479
		480	If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more and
		481	more.
		482
		483	To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this
		484	pattern:
		485
		486	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
		487
		488	Please also note that the *LeftClick Shift-LeftClick* combination also
		489	selects words like the old code.
		490
		491	I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
		492	You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
		493	perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps
		494	rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
		495
		496	If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
		497	identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
		498	PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the urxvtperl(3) manpage. For example, to
		499	disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify this
		500	perl-ext-common resource:
		501
		502	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
		503
		504	This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
		505	extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
		506	scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any other
		507	combination by adding a keysym resource that binds the desired
		508	combination to the "start" action of "searchable-scrollback" and another
		509	one that binds M-s to the "builtin:" action:
		510
		511	URxvt.keysym.CM-s: searchable-scrollback:start
		512	URxvt.keysym.M-s: builtin:
		513
		514	The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
		515	See next entry.
		516
		517	During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
		518	These are caused by the "readline" perl extension. Under normal
		519	circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
		520	line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
		521	but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in
		522	some cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
		523
		524	You can permanently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline"
		525	extension:
		526
		527	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
		528
		529	My numeric keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
		530	Some Debian GNU/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
		531	specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is
		532	caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of whether and
		533	how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a
		534	compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please
		535	report if that helped.
		536
		537	My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
		538	The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
		539	correctly, or you specified a preeditType that is not supported by your
		540	input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and your input
		541	method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys) does not
		542	support this (for instance because it is not visual), then rxvt-unicode
		543	will continue without an input method.
		544
		545	In this case either do not specify a preeditType or specify more than
		546	one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.
		547
		548	If it still doesn't work, then maybe your input method doesn't support
		549	compose sequences - to fall back to the built-in one, make sure you
		550	don't specify an input method via "-im" or "XMODIFIERS".
		551
		552	I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
		553	Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
		554	international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
		555	advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for
		556	other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default telnet
		557	escape character and so on.
		558
		559	Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
		560	Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing some
		561	editors prematurely may leave it active. I've heard that tcsh may use
		562	mouse reporting unless it is otherwise specified. A quick check is to
		563	see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are pressed.
		564
766	What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?	565	What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
767	Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the BackSpace	566	Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the Backspace
768	keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are	567	keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are
769	two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".	568	two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
770		569
771	Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the	570	Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
772	debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one only only	571	debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one and only
773	correct choice :).	572	correct choice :).
774		573
775	Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the	574	It is possible to toggle between "^H" and "^?" with the DECBKM private
776	value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode	575	mode:
777	wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell),
778	then the system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in
779	<termios.h>, will be used (which may not be the same as your stty
780	setting).
781
782	For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
783		576
784	# use Backspace = ^H	577	# use Backspace = ^H
785	$ stty erase ^H	578	$ stty erase ^H
786	$ rxvt	579	$ printf "\e[?67h"
787		580
788	# use Backspace = ^?	581	# use Backspace = ^?
789	$ stty erase ^?	582	$ stty erase ^?
790	$ rxvt	583	$ printf "\e[?67l"
791
792	Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l".
793
794	For an existing rxvt-unicode:
795
796	# use Backspace = ^H
797	$ stty erase ^H
798	$ echo -n "^[[36h"
799
800	# use Backspace = ^?
801	$ stty erase ^?
802	$ echo -n "^[[36l"
803		584
804	This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but	585	This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
805	if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo value	586	if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
806	properly reflects that.	587	properly reflects that.
807		588
…		…
815	some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told) expect	596	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.	597	Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
817		598
818	Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.	599	Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
819		600
820	I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?	601	I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
821	There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless	602	There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
822	you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" option you can	603	you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" option you can
823	use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with	604	use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with
824	keysyms.	605	keysyms.
825		606
826	Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "rxvt -name URxvt"	607	Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "urxvt -name URxvt"
827		608
		609	URxvt.keysym.Prior: \033[5~
		610	URxvt.keysym.Next: \033[6~
828	URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~	611	URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[7~
829	URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~	612	URxvt.keysym.End: \033[8~
830	URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
831	URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
832	URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
833	URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
834	URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
835	URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
836	URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
837	URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
838	URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
839	URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
840	URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
841	URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>	613	URxvt.keysym.Up: \033[A
842	URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>	614	URxvt.keysym.Down: \033[B
		615	URxvt.keysym.Right: \033[C
843	URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>	616	URxvt.keysym.Left: \033[D
844	URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
845	URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
846	URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
847	URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
848		617
849	See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.	618	See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.
850		619
851	I'm using keyboard model XXX that has extra Prior/Next/Insert keys.	620	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	621	KP_Insert == Insert
855	F22 == Print	622	F22 == Print
856	F27 == Home	623	F27 == Home
857	F29 == Prior	624	F29 == Prior
858	F33 == End	625	F33 == End
…		…
860		627
861	Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various	628	Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various
862	possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the	629	possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the
863	keys as required for your particular machine.	630	keys as required for your particular machine.
864		631
865	How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm?	632	Terminal Configuration
866	I need this to decide about setting colors etc.	633	Can I see a typical configuration?
867	rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you can	634	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,	635	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		636
872	How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?	637	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	638	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	639	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	640	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		641
880	Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script	642	URxvt.cutchars: "()*,<>[]{}|'
881	snippets:	643	URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/some/path
882		644
883	# Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:	645	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 ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
891	echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
892	read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
893	fi
894	fi
895		646
896	How do I compile the manual pages for myself?	647	URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8
897	You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,	648	URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None
898	one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2html. Then go to the doc
899	subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
900		649
901	My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?	650	This tells rxvt-unicode to use a special locale when communicating with
902	Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net", channel	651	the X Input Method, and also tells it to only use the OnTheSpot pre-edit
903	"#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be	652	type, which requires the "xim-onthespot" perl extension but rewards me
904	interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).	653	with correct-looking fonts.
905		654
		655	URxvt.perl-lib: /root/lib/urxvt
		656	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,selection-autotransform,selection-pastebin,xim-onthespot,remote-clipboard
		657	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ( at .*? line \\d+)
		658	URxvt.selection.pattern-1: ^(/[^:]+):\
		659	URxvt.selection-autotransform.0: s/^([^:[:space:]]+):(\\d+):?$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
		660	URxvt.selection-autotransform.1: s/^ at (.*?) line (\\d+)$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
		661
		662	This is my perl configuration. The first two set the perl library
		663	directory and also tells urxvt to use a large number of extensions. I
		664	develop for myself mostly, so I actually use most of the extensions I
		665	write.
		666
		667	The selection stuff mainly makes the selection perl-error-message aware
		668	and tells it to convert perl error messages into vi-commands to load the
		669	relevant file and go to the error line number.
		670
		671	URxvt.scrollstyle: plain
		672	URxvt.secondaryScroll: true
		673
		674	As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the
		675	author. The "secondaryScroll" configures urxvt to scroll in full-screen
		676	apps, like screen, so lines scrolled out of screen end up in urxvt's
		677	scrollback buffer.
		678
		679	URxvt.background: #000000
		680	URxvt.foreground: gray90
		681	URxvt.color7: gray90
		682	URxvt.colorBD: #ffffff
		683	URxvt.cursorColor: #e0e080
		684	URxvt.throughColor: #8080f0
		685	URxvt.highlightColor: #f0f0f0
		686
		687	Some colours. Not sure which ones are being used or even non-defaults,
		688	but these are in my .Xdefaults. Most notably, they set
		689	foreground/background to light gray/black, and also make sure that the
		690	colour 7 matches the default foreground colour.
		691
		692	URxvt.underlineColor: yellow
		693
		694	Another colour, makes underline lines look different. Sometimes hurts,
		695	but is mostly a nice effect.
		696
		697	URxvt.geometry: 154x36
		698	URxvt.loginShell: false
		699	URxvt.meta: ignore
		700	URxvt.utmpInhibit: true
		701
		702	Uh, well, should be mostly self-explanatory. By specifying some defaults
		703	manually, I can quickly switch them for testing.
		704
		705	URxvt.saveLines: 8192
		706
		707	A large scrollback buffer is essential. Really.
		708
		709	URxvt.mapAlert: true
		710
		711	The only case I use it is for my IRC window, which I like to keep
		712	iconified till people msg me (which beeps).
		713
		714	URxvt.visualBell: true
		715
		716	The audible bell is often annoying, especially when in a crowd.
		717
		718	URxvt.insecure: true
		719
		720	Please don't hack my mutt! Ooops...
		721
		722	URxvt.pastableTabs: false
		723
		724	I once thought this is a great idea.
		725
		726	urxvt.font: 9x15bold,\
		727	-misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
		728	-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
		729	[codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic, \
		730	xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:autohint=true, \
		731	xft:Code2000:antialias=false
		732	urxvt.boldFont: -xos4-terminus-bold-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-15
		733	urxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
		734	urxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
		735
		736	I wrote rxvt-unicode to be able to specify fonts exactly. So don't be
		737	overwhelmed. A special note: the "9x15bold" mentioned above is actually
		738	the version from XFree-3.3, as XFree-4 replaced it by a totally
		739	different font (different glyphs for ";" and many other harmless
		740	characters), while the second font is actually the "9x15bold" from
		741	XFree4/XOrg. The bold version has less chars than the medium version, so
		742	I use it for rare characters, too. When editing sources with vim, I use
		743	italic for comments and other stuff, which looks quite good with
		744	Bitstream Vera anti-aliased.
		745
		746	Terminus is a quite bad font (many very wrong glyphs), but for most of
		747	my purposes, it works, and gives a different look, as my normal
		748	(Non-bold) font is already bold, and I want to see a difference between
		749	bold and normal fonts.
		750
		751	Please note that I used the "urxvt" instance name and not the "URxvt"
		752	class name. That is because I use different configs for different
		753	purposes, for example, my IRC window is started with "-name IRC", and
		754	uses these defaults:
		755
		756	IRC*title: IRC
		757	IRC*geometry: 87x12+535+542
		758	IRC*saveLines: 0
		759	IRC*mapAlert: true
		760	IRC*font: suxuseuro
		761	IRC*boldFont: suxuseuro
		762	IRC*colorBD: white
		763	IRC*keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]710;suxuseuro\007\033]711;suxuseuro\007
		764	IRC*keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]710;9x15bold\007\033]711;9x15bold\007
		765
		766	"Alt-Ctrl-1" and "Alt-Ctrl-2" switch between two different font sizes.
		767	"suxuseuro" allows me to keep an eye (and actually read) stuff while
		768	keeping a very small window. If somebody pastes something complicated
		769	(e.g. japanese), I temporarily switch to a larger font.
		770
		771	The above is all in my ".Xdefaults" (I don't use ".Xresources" nor
		772	"xrdb"). I also have some resources in a separate ".Xdefaults-hostname"
		773	file for different hosts, for example, on my main desktop, I use:
		774
		775	URxvt.keysym.C-M-q: command:\033[3;5;5t
		776	URxvt.keysym.C-M-y: command:\033[3;5;606t
		777	URxvt.keysym.C-M-e: command:\033[3;1605;5t
		778	URxvt.keysym.C-M-c: command:\033[3;1605;606t
		779	URxvt.keysym.C-M-p: perl:test
		780
		781	The first for keysym definitions allow me to quickly bring some windows
		782	in the layout I like most. Ion users might start laughing but will stop
		783	immediately when I tell them that I use my own Fvwm2 module for much the
		784	same effect as Ion provides, and I only very rarely use the above key
		785	combinations :->
		786
		787	Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
		788	Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
		789	applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
		790	resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
		791	ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
		792	$HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display.
		793
		794	If you have or use an $HOME/.Xresources file, chances are that resources
		795	are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to re-login after
		796	every change (or run xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources).
		797
		798	Also consider the form resources have to use:
		799
		800	URxvt.resource: value
		801
		802	If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
		803	specifying resources), make sure you understand whether and why it
		804	works. If unsure, use the form above.
		805
		806	When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
		807	The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
		808	as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often
		809	arises).
		810
		811	The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this
		812	can be done by simply installing rxvt-unicode on the remote system as
		813	well (in case you have a nice package manager ready), or you can install
		814	the terminfo database manually like this (with ncurses infocmp. works as
		815	user and root):
		816
		817	REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
		818	infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "mkdir -p .terminfo && cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
		819
		820	One some systems you might need to set $TERMINFO to the full path of
		821	$HOME/.terminfo for this to work.
		822
		823	If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set
		824	"TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of
		825	problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different
		826	colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice
		827	quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, though.
		828
		829	If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) you
		830	can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or use a
		831	resource to set it:
		832
		833	URxvt.termName: rxvt
		834
		835	If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace
		836	the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use "TERM=rxvt".
		837
		838	nano fails with "Error opening terminal: rxvt-unicode"
		839	This exceptionally confusing and useless error message is printed by
		840	nano when it can't find the terminfo database. Nothing is wrong with
		841	your terminal, read the previous answer for a solution.
		842
		843	"tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
		844	Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by
		845	"enacs=\E[0@" and try again.
		846
		847	"bash"'s readline does not work correctly under urxvt.
		848	See next entry.
		849
		850	I need a termcap file entry.
		851	One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
		852	systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
		853	library (Fedora's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry for
		854	"rxvt-unicode".
		855
		856	You could use rxvt's termcap entry with reasonable results in many
		857	cases. You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp
		858	program like this:
		859
		860	infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
		861
		862	Or you could use the termcap entry in doc/etc/rxvt-unicode.termcap,
		863	generated by the command above.
		864
		865	Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output?
		866	The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
		867	decide whether a terminal has colour, but uses its own configuration
		868	file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in its default file (among
		869	with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
		870
		871	TERM rxvt-unicode
		872
		873	to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add:
		874
		875	alias ls='ls --color=auto'
		876
		877	to your ".profile" or ".bashrc".
		878
		879	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
		880	See next entry.
		881
		882	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
		883	See next entry.
		884
		885	Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
		886	Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged
		887	distributions break rxvt-unicode by setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which
		888	doesn't have these extra features. Unfortunately, some of these
		889	furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, so
		890	you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I log-in
		891	to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do
		892	this).
		893
		894	Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues
		895	Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
		896	See next entry.
		897
		898	Unicode does not seem to work?
		899	If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
		900	getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output
		901	is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
		902
		903	Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the
		904	programs running in it. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale,
		905	while the login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes
		906	the locale to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this
		907	is not going to work, and is the most common cause for problems.
		908
		909	The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely
		910	run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your
		911	.profile.
		912
		913	printf '\33]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE" # $LANG or $LC_ALL are worth a try, too
		914
		915	If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification not
		916	supported on your systems. Some systems have a "locale" command which
		917	displays this (also, "perl -e0" can be used to check locale settings, as
		918	it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays
		919	something like:
		920
		921	locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ...
		922
		923	Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.
		924
		925	If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
		926	you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
		927	support locales :(
		928
		929	How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
		930	See next entry.
		931
		932	Is there an option to switch encodings?
		933	Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
		934	specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know
		935	about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
		936
		937	The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for
		938	selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating
		939	this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties
		940	such as width and code number. This mechanism is the *locale*.
		941	Applications not using that info will have problems (for example,
		942	"xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses its own,
		943	locale-independent table under all locales).
		944
		945	Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. All
		946	programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
		947	interpretation of characters.
		948
		949	Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
		950	is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
		951
		952	On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable
		953	contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
		954	locale. Common names for locales are "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15",
		955	"ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e. "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e.
		956	"de" or "german") are also common.
		957
		958	Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the
		959	encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e.
		960	"de_DE.UTF-8" and "ja_JP.UTF-8" are the normally same to rxvt-unicode.
		961
		962	If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
		963	rxvt-unicode with the correct "LC_CTYPE" category.
		964
		965	Can I switch locales at runtime?
		966	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
		967	rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE".
		968
		969	printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
		970
		971	See also the previous answer.
		972
		973	Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one
		974	locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support it (e.g.
		975	UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which first
		976	switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
		977
		978	printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
		979	xjdic -js
		980	printf '\33]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
		981
		982	You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine,
		983	except for some locales where character width differs between program-
		984	and rxvt-unicode-locales.
		985
		986	I have problems getting my input method working.
		987	Try a search engine, as this is slightly different for every input
		988	method server.
		989
		990	Here is a checklist:
		991
		992	- Make sure your locale *and* the imLocale are supported on your OS.
		993	Try "locale -a" or check the documentation for your OS.
		994
		995	- Make sure your locale or imLocale matches a locale supported by your
		996	XIM.
		997	For example, kinput2 does not support UTF-8 locales, you should use
		998	"ja_JP.EUC-JP" or equivalent.
		999
		1000	- Make sure your XIM server is actually running.
		1001	- Make sure the "XMODIFIERS" environment variable is set correctly when
		1002	*starting* rxvt-unicode.
		1003	When you want to use e.g. kinput2, it must be set to "@im=kinput2".
		1004	For scim, use "@im=SCIM". You can see what input method servers are
		1005	running with this command:
		1006
		1007	xprop -root XIM_SERVERS
		1008
		1009	My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
		1010	You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of
		1011	the terminal, using the resource "imlocale":
		1012
		1013	URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
		1014
		1015	Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and still
		1016	use your input method. Please note, however, that, depending on your
		1017	Xlib version, you may not be able to input characters outside "EUC-JP"
		1018	in a normal way then, as your input method limits you.
		1019
		1020	Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
		1021	Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
		1022	design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
		1023	leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
		1024	exit time. kinput2 (and derived input methods) generally succeeds, while
		1025	SCIM (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however, crashes
		1026	cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
		1027
		1028	So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
		1029
		1030	Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
		1031	I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
		1032	You should build one binary with the default options. configure now
		1033	enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
		1034	runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enabling
		1035	them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter
		1036	should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely
		1037	more in the future) depends on it.
		1038
		1039	You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" and "perl-ext" resources
		1040	system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful
		1041	behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
		1042	"perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
		1043	perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
		1044
		1045	If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one
		1046	with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with
		1047	"--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
		1048	encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
		1049
		1050	I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
		1051	It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
		1052	install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
		1053
		1054	When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
		1055	into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
		1056	systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
		1057	immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
		1058	privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
		1059	things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
		1060
		1061	This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very
		1062	early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before
		1063	main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should
		1064	result in very little risk.
		1065
		1066	I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
		1067	Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined in
		1068	your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
		1069	whether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that
		1070	wchar_t is represented as unicode.
		1071
		1072	As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symbol nor
		1073	does it support it. Instead, it uses its own internal representation of
		1074	wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.
		1075
		1076	However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1" and
		1077	"UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t).
		1078
		1079	"__STDC_ISO_10646__" is the only sane way to support multi-language apps
		1080	in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized)
		1081	representation of wchar_t makes it impossible to convert between wchar_t
		1082	(as used by X11 and your applications) and any other encoding without
		1083	implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and every locale. There
		1084	simply are no APIs to convert wchar_t into anything except the current
		1085	locale encoding.
		1086
		1087	Some applications (such as the formidable mlterm) work around this by
		1088	carrying their own replacement functions for character set handling with
		1089	them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or doing multiple
		1090	conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the OS implements
		1091	encodings slightly different than the terminal emulator).
		1092
		1093	The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
		1094	system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
		1095	complete replacements for them :)
		1096
		1097	How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
		1098	rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using the
		1099	X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no longer
		1100	supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single
		1101	font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or
		1102	"-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
		1103	old libW11 emulation.
		1104
		1105	At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any
		1106	multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are
		1107	likely limited to 8-bit encodings.
		1108
		1109	Character widths are not correct.
		1110	urxvt uses the system wcwidth function to know the information about the
		1111	width of characters, so on systems with incorrect locale data you will
		1112	likely get bad results. Two notorious examples are Solaris 9, where
		1113	single-width characters like U+2514 are reported as double-width, and
		1114	Darwin 8, where combining chars are reported having width 1.
		1115
		1116	The solution is to upgrade your system or switch to a better one. A
		1117	possibly working workaround is to use a wcwidth implementation like
		1118
		1119	http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/wcwidth.c
		1120

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