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Revision 1.39 by root, Tue Jan 31 20:52:19 2006 UTC

1FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 1FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
2 The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words? 2 Meta, Features & Commandline Issues
3 If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following 3 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
4 setting: 4 Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net", channel
5 "#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
6 interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
5 7
6 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:
7 12
8 If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more and 13 rxvt -pe tabbed
9 more.
10 14
11 To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this
12 pattern:
13
14 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
15
16 Please also note that the *LeftClick Shift-LeftClik* combination also
17 selects words like the old code.
18
19 I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
20 You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
21 perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps
22 rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
23
24 If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
25 identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
26 PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the rxvtperl(3) manpage. For example, to
27 disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify this
28 perl-ext-common resource:
29
30 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
31
32 This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
33 extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
34 scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any other
35 combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback resource:
36
37 URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
38
39 The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
40 See next entry.
41
42 During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
43 These are caused by the "readline" perl extension. Under normal
44 circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
45 line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
46 but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in
47 some cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
48
49 You can permamently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline"
50 extension:
51
52 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline 15 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
53 16
54 Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources? 17 It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window
55 Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X 18 managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow
56 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
57 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
58 ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read 21 (murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
59 $HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display.
60 22
61 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?
62 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
63 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 rxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the daemon.
64 27
65 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.
66 35
67 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.
68 42
69 If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of 43 How can I start rxvtd in a race-free way?
70 specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it works. 44 Try "rxvtd -f -o", which tells rxvtd to open the display, create the
71 If unsure, use the form above. 45 listening socket and then fork.
72 46
73 I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong? 47 How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
74 First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode, 48 rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you can
75 so you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you 49 check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED, slrn,
76 may bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a 50 Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide whether
77 rite of passage: ... and you failed. 51 or not to use color.
78 52
79 Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option 53 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
80 descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it! 54 If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
55 insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
56 snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
57 wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets)
58 then the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from
59 a regular xterm.
81 60
82 1. Use inheritPixmap: 61 Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
62 snippets:
83 63
84 Esetroot wallpaper.jpg 64 # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
85 rxvt -ip -tint red -sh 40 65 [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
66 if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
67 stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
68 echo -n '^[Z'
69 read term_id
70 stty icanon echo
71 if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
72 echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
73 read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
74 fi
75 fi
86 76
87 That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting 77 How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
88 support, or you are unable to read. 78 You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,
79 one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2html. Then go to the doc
80 subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
89 81
90 2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
91 to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
92 your picture with gimp:
93
94 convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm
95 rxvt -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background
96
97 That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or
98 you are unable to read.
99
100 3. Use an ARGB visual:
101
102 rxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
103
104 This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
105 doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
106 there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the
107 neccessary bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work,
108 but that doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
109
110 4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
111
112 xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
113 -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
114
115 Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace 0xc0000000
116 by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
117 your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
118
119 Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat? 82 Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
120 I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra 83 I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra
121 bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see 84 bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see
122 that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always 85 that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always
123 being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after 86 being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after
124 startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is a bit 87 startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is a bit
155 gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole 118 gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole
156 (22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half 119 (22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half
157 a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits 120 a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits
158 out), it fares extremely well *g*. 121 out), it fares extremely well *g*.
159 122
160 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool? 123 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
161 Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I 124 Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I
162 had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a 125 had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a
163 fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put 126 fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put
164 even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++. 127 even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
165 128
188 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000) 151 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
189 152
190 No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically), 153 No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
191 except maybe libX11 :) 154 except maybe libX11 :)
192 155
193 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode? 156 Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues
194 Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a 157 I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
195 simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these 158 First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode,
196 should give you tabs: 159 so you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you
160 may bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a
161 rite of passage: ... and you failed.
197 162
198 rxvt -pe tabbed 163 Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option
164 descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
199 165
166 1. Use inheritPixmap:
167
168 Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
169 rxvt -ip -tint red -sh 40
170
171 That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
172 support, or you are unable to read.
173
174 2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
175 to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
176 your picture with gimp or any other tool:
177
178 convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm
179 rxvt -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background
180
181 That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or
182 you are unable to read.
183
184 3. Use an ARGB visual:
185
186 rxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
187
188 This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
189 doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
190 there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the
191 neccessary bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work,
192 but that doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
193
194 4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
195
196 xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
197 -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
198
199 Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace 0xc0000000
200 by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
201 your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
202
203 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
204 This is because there is a difference between script and language --
205 rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is, as
206 it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first sees a
207 japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for display.
208 Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many chinese
209 characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
210 non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese
211 font -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font
212 for chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
213
214 The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
215 list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a
216 preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
217 first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
218
219 In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
220 runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
221 fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
222 has been designed yet).
223
224 Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can
225 I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
226
227 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
228 Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that
229 character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal
230 use might contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode
231 will avoid these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too
232 wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent
233 characters.
234
235 All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
236 however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed
237 bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct
238 way is to ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is
239 wrong in these cases).
240
241 It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
242 or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try
243 using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If that doesn't
244 work, you might be forced to use a different font.
245
246 All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their
247 bounding box data is correct.
248
249 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
250 First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
251 ("TERM=rxvt-unicode"), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
252 make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
253 rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
254
255 URxvt.colorBD: white
256 URxvt.colorIT: green
257
258 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
259 For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
260 colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the
261 standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of
262 course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very
263 good reasons.
264
265 In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo
266 definition to only claim 8 colour support or use "TERM=rxvt", which will
267 fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
268
269 Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
270 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the
271 same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately:
272
273 printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
274
275 This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
276 japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
277 japanese fonts would only be in your way.
278
279 You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
280
281 Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
282 Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
283 example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
284 Mono" completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might be to
285 enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
286
287 URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
288 URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
289
290 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
291 Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as it
292 is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
293 antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of
294 memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
295
296 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
297 Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
298 fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
299 fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
300 antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
301 look best that way.
302
303 If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
304
305 What's with this bold/blink stuff?
306 If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using the
307 standard foreground colour.
308
309 For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text
310 blink when compiled with "--enable-blinking". with standard colours.
311 Without "--enable-blinking", the blink attribute will be ignored.
312
313 On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
314 foreground/background colors.
315
316 color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
317
318 color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
319
320 I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
321 You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults
322 resources (or as long-options).
323
324 Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, including
325 the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
326
327 URxvt.color0: #000000
328 URxvt.color1: #A80000
329 URxvt.color2: #00A800
330 URxvt.color3: #A8A800
331 URxvt.color4: #0000A8
332 URxvt.color5: #A800A8
333 URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
334 URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
335
336 URxvt.color8: #000054
337 URxvt.color9: #FF0054
338 URxvt.color10: #00FF54
339 URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
340 URxvt.color12: #0000FF
341 URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
342 URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
343 URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
344
345 And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described (not by
346 me) as "pretty girly".
347
348 URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
349 URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
350 URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
351 URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
352 URxvt.color0: #000000
353 URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
354 URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
355 URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
356 URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
357 URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
358 URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
359 URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
360 URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
361 URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
362 URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
363 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
364 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
365 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
366
367 Why do some characters look so much different than others?
368 See next entry.
369
370 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
371 Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine.
372 Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of your
373 system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want to
374 display.
375
376 rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font.
377 Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
378 bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
379 resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
380 intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
381 the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
382
383 In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
384 e.g.:
385
386 rxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...
387
388 When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font.
389 If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the next
390 font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
391 search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
392
393 The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the
394 base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size,
395 which must be the same due to the way terminals work.
396
397 Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
398 The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
399 If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
400 setting:
401
402 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
403
404 If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more and
405 more.
406
407 To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this
408 pattern:
409
410 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
411
412 Please also note that the *LeftClick Shift-LeftClik* combination also
413 selects words like the old code.
414
415 I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
416 You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
417 perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps
418 rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
419
420 If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
421 identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
422 PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the rxvtperl(3) manpage. For example, to
423 disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify this
424 perl-ext-common resource:
425
426 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
427
428 This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
429 extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
430 scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any other
431 combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback resource:
432
433 URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
434
435 The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
436 See next entry.
437
438 During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
439 These are caused by the "readline" perl extension. Under normal
440 circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
441 line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
442 but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in
443 some cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
444
445 You can permamently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline"
446 extension:
447
200 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed 448 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
201 449
202 It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window 450 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
203 managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow 451 Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
204 it to be embedded into other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed 452 specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is
205 or the upcoming "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt 453 caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of wether and
206 (murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application. 454 how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a
455 compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please
456 report if that helped.
207 457
208 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? 458 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
209 The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape 459 The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
210 sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. When 460 correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported by your
211 using the rxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the daemon. 461 input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and your input
462 method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys) does not
463 support this (for instance because it is not visual), then rxvt-unicode
464 will continue without an input method.
212 465
213 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem... 466 In this case either do not specify a preeditStyle or specify more than
214 The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large 467 one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.
215 patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
216 unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
217 the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
218 version (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
219 the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific
220 to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian
221 Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug).
222 468
223 For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and 469 I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
224 probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a 470 Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
225 bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users 471 international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
226 that might encounter the same issue. 472 advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for
473 other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default telnet
474 escape character and so on.
227 475
228 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation? 476 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
229 You should build one binary with the default options. configure now 477 Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing some
230 enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them 478 editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've heard
231 runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling 479 that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A quick
232 them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter 480 check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
233 should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely 481 depressed.
234 more in the future) depends on it.
235 482
236 You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" resources 483 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
237 system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful 484 Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the BackSpace
238 behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty 485 keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are
239 "perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the 486 two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
240 perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
241 487
242 If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one 488 Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
243 with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with 489 debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one only only
244 "--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of 490 correct choice :).
245 encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
246 491
247 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe? 492 Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the
248 It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly 493 value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode
249 install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now. 494 wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell),
495 then the system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in
496 <termios.h>, will be used (which may not be the same as your stty
497 setting).
250 498
251 When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork 499 For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
252 into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
253 systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
254 immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
255 privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
256 things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
257 500
258 This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very 501 # use Backspace = ^H
259 early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before 502 $ stty erase ^H
260 main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should 503 $ rxvt
261 result in very little risk.
262 504
505 # use Backspace = ^?
506 $ stty erase ^?
507 $ rxvt
508
509 Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l".
510
511 For an existing rxvt-unicode:
512
513 # use Backspace = ^H
514 $ stty erase ^H
515 $ echo -n "^[[36h"
516
517 # use Backspace = ^?
518 $ stty erase ^?
519 $ echo -n "^[[36l"
520
521 This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
522 if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
523 properly reflects that.
524
525 The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace
526 problem. To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the
527 Delete key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for
528 Execute ("ESC [ 3 ~") and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
529
530 Some other Backspace problems:
531
532 some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told) expect
533 Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
534
535 Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
536
537 I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
538 There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
539 you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" option you can
540 use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with
541 keysyms.
542
543 Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "rxvt -name URxvt"
544
545 URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
546 URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
547 URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
548 URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
549 URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
550 URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
551 URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
552 URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
553 URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
554 URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
555 URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
556 URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
557 URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
558 URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
559 URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
560 URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
561 URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
562 URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
563 URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
564 URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
565
566 See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.
567
568 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
569 KP_Insert == Insert
570 F22 == Print
571 F27 == Home
572 F29 == Prior
573 F33 == End
574 F35 == Next
575
576 Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various
577 possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the
578 keys as required for your particular machine.
579
580 Terminal Configuration
581 Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
582 Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
583 applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
584 resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
585 ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
586 $HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display.
587
588 If you have or use an $HOME/.Xresources file, chances are that resources
589 are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to re-login after
590 every change (or run xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources).
591
592 Also consider the form resources have to use:
593
594 URxvt.resource: value
595
596 If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
597 specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it works.
598 If unsure, use the form above.
599
263 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? 600 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
264 The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available 601 The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
265 as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often 602 as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often
266 arises). 603 arises).
267 604
268 The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this 605 The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this
286 URxvt.termName: rxvt 623 URxvt.termName: rxvt
287 624
288 If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace 625 If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace
289 the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one. 626 the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one.
290 627
291 "tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry. 628 "tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
292 Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by 629 Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by
293 "enacs=\E[0@" and try again. 630 "enacs=\E[0@" and try again.
294 631
295 "bash"'s readline does not work correctly under rxvt. 632 "bash"'s readline does not work correctly under rxvt.
296 See next entry. 633 See next entry.
297 634
298 I need a termcap file entry. 635 I need a termcap file entry.
299 One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating 636 One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
300 systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap 637 systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
301 library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry 638 library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
302 for "rxvt-unicode". 639 for "rxvt-unicode".
303 640
328 :sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\ 665 :sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\
329 :te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\ 666 :te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\
330 :us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\ 667 :us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
331 :vs=\E[?25h: 668 :vs=\E[?25h:
332 669
333 Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output? 670 Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output?
334 The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to 671 The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
335 decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration 672 decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration
336 file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in it's default file (among 673 file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in it's default file (among
337 with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add: 674 with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
338 675
342 679
343 alias ls='ls --color=auto' 680 alias ls='ls --color=auto'
344 681
345 to your ".profile" or ".bashrc". 682 to your ".profile" or ".bashrc".
346 683
347 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode? 684 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
348 See next entry. 685 See next entry.
349 686
350 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic? 687 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
351 See next entry. 688 See next entry.
352 689
353 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly? 690 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
354 Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged 691 Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged
355 distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by 692 distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by
356 setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features. 693 setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features.
357 Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux) 694 Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux)
358 furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, so 695 furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, so
359 you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I log-in 696 you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I log-in
360 to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do 697 to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do
361 this). 698 this).
362 699
363 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output? 700 Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues
364 Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
365 specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is
366 caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of wether and
367 how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a
368 compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please
369 report if that helped.
370
371 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding? 701 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
372 See next entry. 702 See next entry.
373 703
374 Unicode does not seem to work? 704 Unicode does not seem to work?
375 If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but 705 If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
376 getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output 706 getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output
377 is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings. 707 is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
378 708
379 Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the 709 Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the
400 730
401 If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then 731 If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
402 you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't 732 you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
403 support locales :( 733 support locales :(
404 734
405 Why do some characters look so much different than others? 735 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
406 See next entry. 736 See next entry.
407 737
408 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts? 738 Is there an option to switch encodings?
409 Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine. 739 Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
410 Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of your 740 specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know
411 system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want to 741 about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
412 display.
413 742
414 rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font. 743 The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for
415 Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks 744 selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating
416 bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't 745 this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties
417 resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial 746 such as width and code number. This mechanism is the *locale*.
418 intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe 747 Applications not using that info will have problems (for example,
419 the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct. 748 "xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses it's own,
749 locale-independent table under all locales).
420 750
421 In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list, 751 Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. All
422 e.g.: 752 programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
753 interpretation of characters.
423 754
424 rxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3... 755 Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
756 is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
425 757
426 When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font. 758 On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable
427 If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the next 759 contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
428 font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this 760 locale. Common names for locales are "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15",
429 search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server. 761 "ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e. "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e.
762 "de" or "german") are also common.
430 763
431 The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the 764 Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the
432 base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size, 765 encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e.
433 which must be the same due to the way terminals work. 766 "de_DE.UTF-8" and "ja_JP.UTF-8" are the normally same to rxvt-unicode.
434 767
435 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others? 768 If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
436 This is because there is a difference between script and language -- 769 rxvt-unicode with the correct "LC_CTYPE" category.
437 rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is, as
438 it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first sees a
439 japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for display.
440 Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many chinese
441 characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
442 non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese
443 font -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font
444 for chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
445 770
446 The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font 771 Can I switch locales at runtime?
447 list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a 772 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
448 preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font 773 rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE".
449 first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
450 774
451 In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at 775 printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
452 runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
453 fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
454 has been designed yet).
455 776
456 Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can 777 See also the previous answer.
457 I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
458 778
459 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings? 779 Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one
460 Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that 780 locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support it (e.g.
461 character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal 781 UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which first
462 use might contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode 782 switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
463 will avoid these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too
464 wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent
465 characters.
466 783
467 All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes, 784 printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
468 however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed 785 xjdic -js
469 bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct 786 printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
470 way is to ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is
471 wrong in these cases).
472 787
473 It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype, 788 You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine,
474 or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try 789 except for some locales where character width differs between program-
475 using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If that doesn't 790 and rxvt-unicode-locales.
476 work, you might be forced to use a different font.
477 791
478 All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their 792 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
479 bounding box data is correct. 793 You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of
794 the terminal, using the resource "imlocale":
480 795
796 URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
797
798 Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and still
799 use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not be able
800 to input characters outside "EUC-JP" in a normal way then, as your input
801 method limits you.
802
803 Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
804 Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
805 design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
806 leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
807 exit time. kinput2 (and derived input methods) generally succeeds, while
808 SCIM (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however, crashes
809 cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
810
811 So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
812
813 Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
814 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
815 The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
816 patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
817 unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
818 the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
819 version (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
820 the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific
821 to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian
822 Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug).
823
824 For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
825 probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
826 bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users
827 that might encounter the same issue.
828
829 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
830 You should build one binary with the default options. configure now
831 enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
832 runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling
833 them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter
834 should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely
835 more in the future) depends on it.
836
837 You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" resources
838 system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful
839 behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
840 "perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
841 perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
842
843 If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one
844 with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with
845 "--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
846 encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
847
848 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
849 It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
850 install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
851
852 When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
853 into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
854 systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
855 immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
856 privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
857 things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
858
859 This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very
860 early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before
861 main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should
862 result in very little risk.
863
481 On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide. 864 On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.
482 Seems to be a known bug, read 865 Seems to be a known bug, read
483 <http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the 866 <http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the
484 following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working: 867 following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
485 868
486 #define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x) 869 #define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)
487 870
488 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
489 The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
490 correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported by your
491 input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and your input
492 method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys) does not
493 support this (for instance because it is not visual), then rxvt-unicode
494 will continue without an input method.
495
496 In this case either do not specify a preeditStyle or specify more than
497 one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.
498
499 I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
500 Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
501 international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
502 advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for
503 other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default telnet
504 escape character and so on.
505
506 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
507 First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
508 ("TERM=rxvt-unicode"), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
509 make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
510 rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
511
512 URxvt.colorBD: white
513 URxvt.colorIT: green
514
515 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
516 For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
517 colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the
518 standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of
519 course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very
520 good reasons.
521
522 In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo
523 definition to only claim 8 colour support or use "TERM=rxvt", which will
524 fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
525
526 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all. 871 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
527 Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined in 872 Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined in
528 your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it, 873 your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
529 wether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that 874 wether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that
530 wchar_t is represented as unicode. 875 wchar_t is represented as unicode.
531 876
552 897
553 The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the 898 The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
554 system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry 899 system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
555 complete replacements for them :) 900 complete replacements for them :)
556 901
557 I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc. 902 I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.
558 Try the diff in doc/solaris9.patch as a base. It fixes the worst 903 Try the diff in doc/solaris9.patch as a base. It fixes the worst
559 problems with "wcwidth" and a compile problem. 904 problems with "wcwidth" and a compile problem.
560 905
561 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin? 906 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
562 rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using the 907 rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using the
563 X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no longer 908 X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no longer
564 supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single 909 supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single
565 font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or 910 font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or
566 "-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the 911 "-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
568 913
569 At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any 914 At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any
570 multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are 915 multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are
571 likely limited to 8-bit encodings. 916 likely limited to 8-bit encodings.
572 917
573 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
574 See next entry.
575
576 Is there an option to switch encodings?
577 Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
578 specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know
579 about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
580
581 The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for
582 selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating
583 this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties
584 such as width and code number. This mechanism is the *locale*.
585 Applications not using that info will have problems (for example,
586 "xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses it's own,
587 locale-independent table under all locales).
588
589 Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. All
590 programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
591 interpretation of characters.
592
593 Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
594 is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
595
596 On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable
597 contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
598 locale. Common names for locales are "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15",
599 "ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e. "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e.
600 "de" or "german") are also common.
601
602 Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the
603 encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e.
604 "de_DE.UTF-8" and "ja_JP.UTF-8" are the normally same to rxvt-unicode.
605
606 If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
607 rxvt-unicode with the correct "LC_CTYPE" category.
608
609 Can I switch locales at runtime?
610 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
611 rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE".
612
613 printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
614
615 See also the previous answer.
616
617 Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one
618 locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support it (e.g.
619 UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which first
620 switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
621
622 printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
623 xjdic -js
624 printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
625
626 You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine,
627 except for some locales where character width differs between program-
628 and rxvt-unicode-locales.
629
630 Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
631 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the
632 same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately:
633
634 printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
635
636 This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
637 japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
638 japanese fonts would only be in your way.
639
640 You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
641
642 Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
643 Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
644 example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
645 Mono" completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might be to
646 enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
647
648 URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
649 URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
650
651 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
652 You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of
653 the terminal, using the resource "imlocale":
654
655 URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
656
657 Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and still
658 use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not be able
659 to input characters outside "EUC-JP" in a normal way then, as your input
660 method limits you.
661
662 Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
663 Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
664 design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
665 leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
666 exit time. kinput2 (and derived input methods) generally succeeds, while
667 SCIM (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however, crashes
668 cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
669
670 So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
671
672 Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
673 Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something
674 you don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings
675 that you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by
676 design, when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be
677 loaded accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your
678 characters.
679
680 Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
681 scrollback buffers: Without "--enable-unicode3", rxvt-unicode will use 6
682 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
683 kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if
684 full) use 10 Megabytes of memory. With "--enable-unicode3" it gets
685 worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
686
687 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
688 Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as it
689 is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
690 antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of
691 memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
692
693 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
694 Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
695 fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
696 fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
697 antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
698 look best that way.
699
700 If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
701
702 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
703 Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing some
704 editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've heard
705 that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A quick
706 check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
707 depressed.
708
709 What's with this bold/blink stuff?
710 If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using the
711 standard foreground colour.
712
713 For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text
714 blink when compiled with "--enable-blinking". with standard colours.
715 Without "--enable-blinking", the blink attribute will be ignored.
716
717 On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
718 foreground/background colors.
719
720 color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
721
722 color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
723
724 I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
725 You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults
726 resources (or as long-options).
727
728 Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, including
729 the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
730
731 URxvt.color0: #000000
732 URxvt.color1: #A80000
733 URxvt.color2: #00A800
734 URxvt.color3: #A8A800
735 URxvt.color4: #0000A8
736 URxvt.color5: #A800A8
737 URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
738 URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
739
740 URxvt.color8: #000054
741 URxvt.color9: #FF0054
742 URxvt.color10: #00FF54
743 URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
744 URxvt.color12: #0000FF
745 URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
746 URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
747 URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
748
749 And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described (not by
750 me) as "pretty girly".
751
752 URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
753 URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
754 URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
755 URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
756 URxvt.color0: #000000
757 URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
758 URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
759 URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
760 URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
761 URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
762 URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
763 URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
764 URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
765 URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
766 URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
767 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
768 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
769 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
770
771 How can I start rxvtd in a race-free way?
772 Try "rxvtd -f -o", which tells rxvtd to open the display, create the
773 listening socket and then fork.
774
775 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
776 Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the BackSpace
777 keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are
778 two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
779
780 Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
781 debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one only only
782 correct choice :).
783
784 Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the
785 value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode
786 wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell),
787 then the system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in
788 <termios.h>, will be used (which may not be the same as your stty
789 setting).
790
791 For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
792
793 # use Backspace = ^H
794 $ stty erase ^H
795 $ rxvt
796
797 # use Backspace = ^?
798 $ stty erase ^?
799 $ rxvt
800
801 Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l".
802
803 For an existing rxvt-unicode:
804
805 # use Backspace = ^H
806 $ stty erase ^H
807 $ echo -n "^[[36h"
808
809 # use Backspace = ^?
810 $ stty erase ^?
811 $ echo -n "^[[36l"
812
813 This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
814 if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
815 properly reflects that.
816
817 The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace
818 problem. To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the
819 Delete key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for
820 Execute ("ESC [ 3 ~") and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
821
822 Some other Backspace problems:
823
824 some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told) expect
825 Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
826
827 Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
828
829 I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
830 There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
831 you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" option you can
832 use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with
833 keysyms.
834
835 Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "rxvt -name URxvt"
836
837 URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
838 URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
839 URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
840 URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
841 URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
842 URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
843 URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
844 URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
845 URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
846 URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
847 URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
848 URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
849 URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
850 URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
851 URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
852 URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
853 URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
854 URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
855 URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
856 URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
857
858 See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.
859
860 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 mappings that rxvt-unicode doesn't recognize.
861 KP_Insert == Insert
862 F22 == Print
863 F27 == Home
864 F29 == Prior
865 F33 == End
866 F35 == Next
867
868 Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various
869 possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the
870 keys as required for your particular machine.
871
872 How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
873 rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you can
874 check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED, slrn,
875 Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide whether
876 or not to use color.
877
878 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
879 If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
880 insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
881 snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
882 wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets)
883 then the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from
884 a regular xterm.
885
886 Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
887 snippets:
888
889 # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
890 [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
891 if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
892 stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
893 echo -n '^[Z'
894 read term_id
895 stty icanon echo
896 if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
897 echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
898 read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
899 fi
900 fi
901
902 How do I compile the manual pages for myself?
903 You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,
904 one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2html. Then go to the doc
905 subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
906
907 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
908 Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net", channel
909 "#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
910 interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
911

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