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Revision 1.38 by root, Tue Jan 31 01:42:21 2006 UTC vs.
Revision 1.71 by root, Wed Dec 31 14:40:24 2014 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 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	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.
7		13
8	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.
9	more.	15	Problems appearing on Gentoo systems will usually simply be ignored
		16	unless they can be reproduced on non-Gentoo systems.
10		17
11	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?
12	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:
13		22
14	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)	23	urxvt -pe tabbed
15		24
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	25	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
53		26
54	Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?	27	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	28	managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow
56	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
57	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
58	ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read	31	(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
59	$HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display.
60		32
61	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?
62	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
63	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.
64		37
65	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.
66		45
67	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.
68		52
69	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?
70	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
71	If unsure, use the form above.	55	listening socket and then fork.
72		56
73	I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?	57	How can I start urxvtd automatically when I run urxvtc?
74	First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode,	58	If you want to start urxvtd automatically whenever you run urxvtc and
75	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:
76	may bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a
77	rite of passage: ... and you failed.
78		60
79	Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option	61	#!/bin/sh
80	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
81		67
82	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.
83		72
84	Esetroot wallpaper.jpg	73	How do I distinguish whether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular
85	rxvt -ip -tint red -sh 40	74	xterm? I need this to decide about setting colours etc.
		75	The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable
		76	"COLORTERM", so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several
		77	programs, JED, slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this
		78	variable to decide whether or not to use colour.
86		79
87	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting	80	How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
88	support, or you are unable to read.	81	If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
		82	insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
		83	snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
		84	wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets)
		85	then the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from
		86	a regular xterm.
89		87
90	2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you	88	Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
91	to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever	89	snippets:
92	your picture with gimp:
93		90
94	convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm	91	# Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
95	rxvt -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background	92	[ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
		93	if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
		94	stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
		95	printf "\eZ"
		96	read term_id
		97	stty icanon echo
		98	if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
		99	printf '\e[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
		100	read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
		101	fi
		102	fi
96		103
97	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or	104	How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
98	you are unable to read.	105	You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,
		106	one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2xhtml (from Pod::Xhtml).
		107	Then go to the doc subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
99		108
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?	109	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	110	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	111	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	112	that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always
123	being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after	113	being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after
124	startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is a bit	114	startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is a bit
…		…
127		117
128	text data bss drs rss filename	118	text data bss drs rss filename
129	98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything	119	98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything
130	188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything	120	188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything
131		121
132	When you "--enable-everything" (which _is_ unfair, as this involves xft	122	When you "--enable-everything" (which *is* unfair, as this involves xft
133	and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my	123	and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my
134	libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so.	124	libc), the two diverge, but not unreasonably so.
135		125
136	text data bss drs rss filename	126	text data bss drs rss filename
137	163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything	127	163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything
138	1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything	128	1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything
139		129
…		…
155	gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole	145	gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole
156	(22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half	146	(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	147	a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits
158	out), it fares extremely well *g*.	148	out), it fares extremely well *g*.
159		149
160	Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?	150	Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
161	Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I	151	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	152	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	153	fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put
164	even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.	154	even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
165		155
…		…
167	the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability limits	157	the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability limits
168	are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale support and	158	are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale support and
169	unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than C++ itself.	159	unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than C++ itself.
170		160
171	Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write programs	161	Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write programs
172	in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to write programs in	162	in C that use gobs of memory, and certainly possible to write programs
173	C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large libraries, but this is	163	in C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large libraries, but this
174	not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is what rxvt links against on my	164	is not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is what rxvt links against on
175	system with a minimal config:	165	my system with a minimal config:
176		166
177	libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)	167	libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
178	libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000)	168	libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000)
179	libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000)	169	libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000)
180	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)	170	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
181		171
182	And here is rxvt-unicode:	172	And here is rxvt-unicode:
183		173
184	libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)	174	libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
185	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)	175	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)
186	libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)	176	libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
187	libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)	177	libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
188	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)	178	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
189		179
190	No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),	180	No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
191	except maybe libX11 :)	181	except maybe libX11 :)
192		182
193	Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?	183	Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues
194	Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a	184	I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
195	simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these	185	First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode,
196	should give you tabs:	186	so you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you
		187	may bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a
		188	rite of passage: ... and you failed.
197		189
198	rxvt -pe tabbed	190	Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option
		191	descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
199		192
200	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed	193	1. Use transparent mode:
201		194
202	It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window	195	Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
203	managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow	196	urxvt -tr -tint red -sh 40
204	it to be embedded into other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed
205	or the upcoming "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
206	(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
207		197
208	How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?	198	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
209	The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape	199	support, or you are unable to read. This method requires that the
210	sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. When	200	background-setting program sets the _XROOTPMAP_ID or ESETROOT_PMAP_ID
211	using the rxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the daemon.	201	property. Compatible programs are Esetroot, hsetroot and feh.
212		202
213	I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...	203	2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
214	The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large	204	to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
215	patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but	205	your picture with gimp or any other tool:
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		206
223	For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and	207	convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.jpg
224	probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a	208	urxvt -pixmap "background.jpg;:root"
225	bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users
226	that might encounter the same issue.
227		209
228	I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?	210	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack GDK-PixBuf support, or you
229	You should build one binary with the default options. configure now	211	are unable to read.
230	enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
231	runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling
232	them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter
233	should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely
234	more in the future) depends on it.
235		212
236	You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" resources	213	3. Use an ARGB visual:
237	system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful
238	behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
239	"perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
240	perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
241		214
242	If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one	215	urxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
243	with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with
244	"--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
245	encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
246		216
247	I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?	217	This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
248	It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly	218	doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
249	install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.	219	there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the
		220	necessary bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but
		221	that doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
250		222
251	When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork	223	4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
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		224
258	This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very	225	xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
259	early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before	226	-set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
260	main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should
261	result in very little risk.
262		227
263	When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?	228	Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace 0xc0000000
264	The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available	229	by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
265	as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often	230	your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
266	arises).
267		231
268	The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this
269	can be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp):
270
271	REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
272	infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
273
274	... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system,
275
276	If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set
277	"TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of
278	problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different
279	colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice
280	quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, though.
281
282	If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) you
283	can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or use a
284	resource to set it:
285
286	URxvt.termName: rxvt
287
288	If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace
289	the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one.
290
291	"tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
292	Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by
293	"enacs=\E[0@" and try again.
294
295	"bash"'s readline does not work correctly under rxvt.
296	See next entry.
297
298	I need a termcap file entry.
299	One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
300	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
302	for "rxvt-unicode".
303
304	You could use rxvt's termcap entry with resonable results in many cases.
305	You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp program
306	like this:
307
308	infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
309
310	Or you could use this termcap entry, generated by the command above:
311
312	rxvt-unicode|rxvt-unicode terminal (X Window System):\
313	:am:bw:eo:km:mi:ms:xn:xo:\
314	:co#80:it#8:li#24:lm#0:\
315	:AL=\E[%dL:DC=\E[%dP:DL=\E[%dM:DO=\E[%dB:IC=\E[%d@:\
316	:K1=\EOw:K2=\EOu:K3=\EOy:K4=\EOq:K5=\EOs:LE=\E[%dD:\
317	:RI=\E[%dC:SF=\E[%dS:SR=\E[%dT:UP=\E[%dA:ae=\E(B:al=\E[L:\
318	:as=\E(0:bl=^G:cd=\E[J:ce=\E[K:cl=\E[H\E[2J:\
319	:cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:cr=^M:cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:ct=\E[3g:dc=\E[P:\
320	:dl=\E[M:do=^J:ec=\E[%dX:ei=\E[4l:ho=\E[H:\
321	:i1=\E[?47l\E=\E[?1l:ic=\E[@:im=\E[4h:\
322	:is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;3;4;6l\E[4l:\
323	:k1=\E[11~:k2=\E[12~:k3=\E[13~:k4=\E[14~:k5=\E[15~:\
324	:k6=\E[17~:k7=\E[18~:k8=\E[19~:k9=\E[20~:kD=\E[3~:\
325	:kI=\E[2~:kN=\E[6~:kP=\E[5~:kb=\177:kd=\EOB:ke=\E[?1l\E>:\
326	:kh=\E[7~:kl=\EOD:kr=\EOC:ks=\E[?1h\E=:ku=\EOA:le=^H:\
327	:mb=\E[5m:md=\E[1m:me=\E[m\017:mr=\E[7m:nd=\E[C:rc=\E8:\
328	: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:\
330	:us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
331	:vs=\E[?25h:
332
333	Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output?
334	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
336	file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in it's default file (among
337	with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
338
339	TERM rxvt-unicode
340
341	to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add:
342
343	alias ls='ls --color=auto'
344
345	to your ".profile" or ".bashrc".
346
347	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
348	See next entry.
349
350	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
351	See next entry.
352
353	Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
354	Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged
355	distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by
356	setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features.
357	Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux)
358	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
360	to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do
361	this).
362
363	My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
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?
372	See next entry.
373
374	Unicode does not seem to work?
375	If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
376	getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output
377	is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
378
379	Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the
380	programs. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale, while the
381	login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the locale
382	to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this is not
383	going to work.
384
385	The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely
386	run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your
387	.profile.
388
389	printf '\e]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE"
390
391	If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification not
392	supported on your systems. Some systems have a "locale" command which
393	displays this (also, "perl -e0" can be used to check locale settings, as
394	it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays
395	something like:
396
397	locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ...
398
399	Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.
400
401	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
403	support locales :(
404
405	Why do some characters look so much different than others?
406	See next entry.
407
408	How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
409	Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine.
410	Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of your
411	system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want to
412	display.
413
414	rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font.
415	Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
416	bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
417	resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
418	intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
419	the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
420
421	In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
422	e.g.:
423
424	rxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...
425
426	When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font.
427	If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the next
428	font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
429	search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
430
431	The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the
432	base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size,
433	which must be the same due to the way terminals work.
434
435	Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
436	This is because there is a difference between script and language --
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
446	The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
447	list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a
448	preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
449	first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
450
451	In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
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
456	Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can
457	I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
458
459	Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?	232	Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
460	Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that	233	Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that
461	character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal	234	character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal
462	use might contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode	235	use might contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode
463	will avoid these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too	236	will avoid these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too
464	wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent	237	wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent
…		…
468	however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed	241	however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed
469	bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct	242	bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct
470	way is to ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is	243	way is to ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is
471	wrong in these cases).	244	wrong in these cases).
472		245
473	It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,	246	It's not clear (to me at least), whether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
474	or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try	247	or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try
475	using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If that doesn't	248	using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If that doesn't
476	work, you might be forced to use a different font.	249	work, you might be forced to use a different font.
477		250
478	All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their	251	All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their
479	bounding box data is correct.	252	bounding box data is correct.
480		253
481	On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.
482	Seems to be a known bug, read
483	<http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the
484	following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
485
486	#define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)
487
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?	254	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	255	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	256	("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	257	make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
510	rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:	258	rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
511		259
512	URxvt.colorBD: white	260	URxvt.colorBD: white
513	URxvt.colorIT: green	261	URxvt.colorIT: green
514		262
515	Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?	263	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	264	For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
517	colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the	265	colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the
518	standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of	266	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	267	course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very
520	good reasons.	268	good reasons.
521		269
522	In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo	270	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	271	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.	272	fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
525		273
526	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
528	your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
529	wether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that
530	wchar_t is represented as unicode.
531
532	As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symobl nor
533	does it support it. Instead, it uses it's own internal representation of
534	wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.
535
536	However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1" and
537	"UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t.
538
539	"__STDC_ISO_10646__" is the only sane way to support multi-language apps
540	in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized)
541	representation of wchar_t makes it impossible to convert between wchar_t
542	(as used by X11 and your applications) and any other encoding without
543	implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and every locale. There
544	simply are no APIs to convert wchar_t into anything except the current
545	locale encoding.
546
547	Some applications (such as the formidable mlterm) work around this by
548	carrying their own replacement functions for character set handling with
549	them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or doing multiple
550	conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the OS implements
551	encodings slightly different than the terminal emulator).
552
553	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
555	complete replacements for them :)
556
557	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
559	problems with "wcwidth" and a compile problem.
560
561	How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
562	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
564	supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single
565	font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or
566	"-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
567	old libW11 emulation.
568
569	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
571	likely limited to 8-bit encodings.
572
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?	274	Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
631	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the	275	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the
632	same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately:	276	same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately:
633		277
634	printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"	278	printf '\33]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
635		279
636	This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a	280	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	281	japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
638	japanese fonts would only be in your way.	282	japanese fonts would only be in your way.
639		283
640	You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.	284	You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
641		285
642	Why do italic characters look as if clipped?	286	Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
643	Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For	287	Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
644	example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans	288	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	289	Mono" completely fails in its italic face. A workaround might be to
646	enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:	290	enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
647		291
648	URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true	292	URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
649	URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true	293	URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
650		294
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?	295	Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
688	Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as it	296	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	297	is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
690	antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of	298	antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of
691	memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.	299	memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
692		300
693	Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?	301	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	302	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	303	fall back to its default font search list it will prefer X11 core fonts,
696	fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has	304	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	305	antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
698	look best that way.	306	look best that way.
699		307
700	If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.	308	If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
701		309
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?	310	What's with this bold/blink stuff?
710	If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using the	311	If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using the
711	standard foreground colour.	312	standard foreground colour.
712		313
713	For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text	314	For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text
714	blink when compiled with "--enable-blinking". with standard colours.	315	blink when compiled with "--enable-text-blink". Without
715	Without "--enable-blinking", the blink attribute will be ignored.	316	"--enable-text-blink", the blink attribute will be ignored.
716		317
717	On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity	318	On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
718	foreground/background colors.	319	foreground/background colours.
719		320
720	color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.	321	color0-7 are the low-intensity colours.
721		322
722	color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.	323	color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colours.
723		324
724	I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?	325	I don't like the screen colours. How do I change them?
725	You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults	326	You can change the screen colours at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults
726	resources (or as long-options).	327	resources (or as long-options).
727		328
728	Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, including	329	Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, including
729	the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:	330	the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
730		331
…		…
744	URxvt.color12: #0000FF	345	URxvt.color12: #0000FF
745	URxvt.color13: #FF00FF	346	URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
746	URxvt.color14: #00FFFF	347	URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
747	URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF	348	URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
748		349
749	And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described (not by	350	And here is a more complete set of non-standard colours.
750	me) as "pretty girly".
751		351
752	URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1	352	URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
753	URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1	353	URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
754	URxvt.background: #0e0e0e	354	URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
755	URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1	355	URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
…		…
766	URxvt.color6: #73f7ff	366	URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
767	URxvt.color14: #73f7ff	367	URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
768	URxvt.color7: #e1dddd	368	URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
769	URxvt.color15: #e1dddd	369	URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
770		370
771	How can I start rxvtd in a race-free way?	371	They have been described (not by me) as "pretty girly".
772	Try "rxvtd -f -o", which tells rxvtd to open the display, create the
773	listening socket and then fork.
774		372
		373	Why do some characters look so much different than others?
		374	See next entry.
		375
		376	How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
		377	Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine.
		378	Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of your
		379	system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want to
		380	display.
		381
		382	rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font.
		383	Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
		384	bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
		385	resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
		386	intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
		387	the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
		388
		389	In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
		390	e.g.:
		391
		392	urxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...
		393
		394	When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font.
		395	If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the next
		396	font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
		397	search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
		398
		399	The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the
		400	base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size,
		401	which must be the same due to the way terminals work.
		402
		403	Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
		404	This is because there is a difference between script and language --
		405	rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is, as
		406	it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first sees a
		407	japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for display.
		408	Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many chinese
		409	characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
		410	non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese
		411	font -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font
		412	for chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
		413
		414	The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
		415	list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a
		416	preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
		417	first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
		418
		419	In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
		420	runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
		421	fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
		422	has been designed yet).
		423
		424	Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can
		425	I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
		426
		427	How can I make mplayer display video correctly?
		428	We are working on it, in the meantime, as a workaround, use something
		429	like:
		430
		431	urxvt -b 600 -geometry 20x1 -e sh -c 'mplayer -wid $WINDOWID file...'
		432
		433	Why is the cursor now blinking in emacs/vi/...?
		434	This is likely caused by your editor/program's use of the "cvvis"
		435	terminfo capability. Emacs uses it by default, as well as some versions
		436	of vi and possibly other programs.
		437
		438	In emacs, you can switch that off by adding this to your ".emacs" file:
		439
		440	(setq visible-cursor nil)
		441
		442	For other programs, if they do not have an option, your have to remove
		443	the "cvvis" capability from the terminfo description.
		444
		445	When urxvt first added the blinking cursor option, it didn't add a
		446	"cvvis" capability, which served no purpose before. Version 9.21
		447	introduced "cvvis" (and the ability to control blinking independent of
		448	cursor shape) for compatibility with other terminals, which
		449	traditionally use a blinking cursor for "cvvis". This also reflects the
		450	intent of programs such as emacs, who expect "cvvis" to enable a
		451	blinking cursor.
		452
		453	Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
		454	The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
		455	If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
		456	setting:
		457
		458	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
		459
		460	If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more and
		461	more.
		462
		463	To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this
		464	pattern:
		465
		466	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
		467
		468	Please also note that the *LeftClick Shift-LeftClick* combination also
		469	selects words like the old code.
		470
		471	I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
		472	You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
		473	perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps
		474	rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
		475
		476	If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
		477	identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
		478	PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the urxvtperl(3) manpage. For example, to
		479	disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify this
		480	perl-ext-common resource:
		481
		482	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
		483
		484	This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
		485	extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
		486	scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any other
		487	combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback resource:
		488
		489	URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
		490
		491	The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
		492	See next entry.
		493
		494	During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
		495	These are caused by the "readline" perl extension. Under normal
		496	circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
		497	line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
		498	but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in
		499	some cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
		500
		501	You can permanently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline"
		502	extension:
		503
		504	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
		505
		506	My numeric keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
		507	Some Debian GNU/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
		508	specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is
		509	caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of whether and
		510	how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a
		511	compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please
		512	report if that helped.
		513
		514	My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
		515	The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
		516	correctly, or you specified a preeditType that is not supported by your
		517	input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and your input
		518	method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys) does not
		519	support this (for instance because it is not visual), then rxvt-unicode
		520	will continue without an input method.
		521
		522	In this case either do not specify a preeditType or specify more than
		523	one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.
		524
		525	If it still doesn't work, then maybe your input method doesn't support
		526	compose sequences - to fall back to the built-in one, make sure you
		527	don't specify an input method via "-im" or "XMODIFIERS".
		528
		529	I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
		530	Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
		531	international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
		532	advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for
		533	other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default telnet
		534	escape character and so on.
		535
		536	Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
		537	Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing some
		538	editors prematurely may leave it active. I've heard that tcsh may use
		539	mouse reporting unless it is otherwise specified. A quick check is to
		540	see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are pressed.
		541
775	What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?	542	What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
776	Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the BackSpace	543	Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the Backspace
777	keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are	544	keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are
778	two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".	545	two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
779		546
780	Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the	547	Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
781	debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one only only	548	debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one and only
782	correct choice :).	549	correct choice :).
783		550
784	Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the	551	It is possible to toggle between "^H" and "^?" with the DECBKM private
785	value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode	552	mode:
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		553
793	# use Backspace = ^H	554	# use Backspace = ^H
794	$ stty erase ^H	555	$ stty erase ^H
795	$ rxvt	556	$ printf "\e[?67h"
796		557
797	# use Backspace = ^?	558	# use Backspace = ^?
798	$ stty erase ^?	559	$ stty erase ^?
799	$ rxvt	560	$ printf "\e[?67l"
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		561
813	This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but	562	This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
814	if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo value	563	if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
815	properly reflects that.	564	properly reflects that.
816		565
…		…
824	some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told) expect	573	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.	574	Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
826		575
827	Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.	576	Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
828		577
829	I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?	578	I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
830	There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless	579	There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
831	you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" option you can	580	you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" option you can
832	use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with	581	use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with
833	keysyms.	582	keysyms.
834		583
835	Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "rxvt -name URxvt"	584	Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "urxvt -name URxvt"
836		585
		586	URxvt.keysym.Prior: \033[5~
		587	URxvt.keysym.Next: \033[6~
837	URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~	588	URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[7~
838	URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~	589	URxvt.keysym.End: \033[8~
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>	590	URxvt.keysym.Up: \033[A
851	URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>	591	URxvt.keysym.Down: \033[B
		592	URxvt.keysym.Right: \033[C
852	URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>	593	URxvt.keysym.Left: \033[D
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		594
858	See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.	595	See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.
859		596
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.	597	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
861	KP_Insert == Insert	598	KP_Insert == Insert
862	F22 == Print	599	F22 == Print
863	F27 == Home	600	F27 == Home
864	F29 == Prior	601	F29 == Prior
865	F33 == End	602	F33 == End
…		…
867		604
868	Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various	605	Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various
869	possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the	606	possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the
870	keys as required for your particular machine.	607	keys as required for your particular machine.
871		608
872	How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.	609	Terminal Configuration
873	rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you can	610	Can I see a typical configuration?
874	check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED, slrn,	611	The default configuration tries to be xterm-like, which I don't like
875	Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide whether	612	that much, but it's least surprise to regular users.
876	or not to use color.
877		613
878	How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?	614	As a rxvt or rxvt-unicode user, you are practically supposed to invest
879	If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled	615	time into customising your terminal. To get you started, here is the
880	insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script	616	author's .Xdefaults entries, with comments on what they do. It's
881	snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode	617	certainly not *typical*, but what's typical...
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		618
886	Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script	619	URxvt.cutchars: "()*,<>[]{}|'
887	snippets:	620	URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/tmp/xxx
888		621
889	# Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:	622	These are just for testing stuff.
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 ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
897	echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
898	read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
899	fi
900	fi
901		623
902	How do I compile the manual pages for myself?	624	URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8
903	You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,	625	URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None
904	one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2html. Then go to the doc
905	subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
906		626
907	My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?	627	This tells rxvt-unicode to use a special locale when communicating with
908	Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net", channel	628	the X Input Method, and also tells it to only use the OnTheSpot pre-edit
909	"#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be	629	type, which requires the "xim-onthespot" perl extension but rewards me
910	interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).	630	with correct-looking fonts.
911		631
		632	URxvt.perl-lib: /root/lib/urxvt
		633	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,selection-autotransform,selection-pastebin,xim-onthespot,remote-clipboard
		634	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ( at .*? line \\d+)
		635	URxvt.selection.pattern-1: ^(/[^:]+):\
		636	URxvt.selection-autotransform.0: s/^([^:[:space:]]+):(\\d+):?$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
		637	URxvt.selection-autotransform.1: s/^ at (.*?) line (\\d+)$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
		638
		639	This is my perl configuration. The first two set the perl library
		640	directory and also tells urxvt to use a large number of extensions. I
		641	develop for myself mostly, so I actually use most of the extensions I
		642	write.
		643
		644	The selection stuff mainly makes the selection perl-error-message aware
		645	and tells it to convert perl error messages into vi-commands to load the
		646	relevant file and go to the error line number.
		647
		648	URxvt.scrollstyle: plain
		649	URxvt.secondaryScroll: true
		650
		651	As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the
		652	author. The "secondaryScroll" configures urxvt to scroll in full-screen
		653	apps, like screen, so lines scrolled out of screen end up in urxvt's
		654	scrollback buffer.
		655
		656	URxvt.background: #000000
		657	URxvt.foreground: gray90
		658	URxvt.color7: gray90
		659	URxvt.colorBD: #ffffff
		660	URxvt.cursorColor: #e0e080
		661	URxvt.throughColor: #8080f0
		662	URxvt.highlightColor: #f0f0f0
		663
		664	Some colours. Not sure which ones are being used or even non-defaults,
		665	but these are in my .Xdefaults. Most notably, they set
		666	foreground/background to light gray/black, and also make sure that the
		667	colour 7 matches the default foreground colour.
		668
		669	URxvt.underlineColor: yellow
		670
		671	Another colour, makes underline lines look different. Sometimes hurts,
		672	but is mostly a nice effect.
		673
		674	URxvt.geometry: 154x36
		675	URxvt.loginShell: false
		676	URxvt.meta: ignore
		677	URxvt.utmpInhibit: true
		678
		679	Uh, well, should be mostly self-explanatory. By specifying some defaults
		680	manually, I can quickly switch them for testing.
		681
		682	URxvt.saveLines: 8192
		683
		684	A large scrollback buffer is essential. Really.
		685
		686	URxvt.mapAlert: true
		687
		688	The only case I use it is for my IRC window, which I like to keep
		689	iconified till people msg me (which beeps).
		690
		691	URxvt.visualBell: true
		692
		693	The audible bell is often annoying, especially when in a crowd.
		694
		695	URxvt.insecure: true
		696
		697	Please don't hack my mutt! Ooops...
		698
		699	URxvt.pastableTabs: false
		700
		701	I once thought this is a great idea.
		702
		703	urxvt.font: 9x15bold,\
		704	-misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
		705	-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
		706	[codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic, \
		707	xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:autohint=true, \
		708	xft:Code2000:antialias=false
		709	urxvt.boldFont: -xos4-terminus-bold-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-15
		710	urxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
		711	urxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
		712
		713	I wrote rxvt-unicode to be able to specify fonts exactly. So don't be
		714	overwhelmed. A special note: the "9x15bold" mentioned above is actually
		715	the version from XFree-3.3, as XFree-4 replaced it by a totally
		716	different font (different glyphs for ";" and many other harmless
		717	characters), while the second font is actually the "9x15bold" from
		718	XFree4/XOrg. The bold version has less chars than the medium version, so
		719	I use it for rare characters, too. When editing sources with vim, I use
		720	italic for comments and other stuff, which looks quite good with
		721	Bitstream Vera anti-aliased.
		722
		723	Terminus is a quite bad font (many very wrong glyphs), but for most of
		724	my purposes, it works, and gives a different look, as my normal
		725	(Non-bold) font is already bold, and I want to see a difference between
		726	bold and normal fonts.
		727
		728	Please note that I used the "urxvt" instance name and not the "URxvt"
		729	class name. That is because I use different configs for different
		730	purposes, for example, my IRC window is started with "-name IRC", and
		731	uses these defaults:
		732
		733	IRC*title: IRC
		734	IRC*geometry: 87x12+535+542
		735	IRC*saveLines: 0
		736	IRC*mapAlert: true
		737	IRC*font: suxuseuro
		738	IRC*boldFont: suxuseuro
		739	IRC*colorBD: white
		740	IRC*keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]710;suxuseuro\007\033]711;suxuseuro\007
		741	IRC*keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]710;9x15bold\007\033]711;9x15bold\007
		742
		743	"Alt-Ctrl-1" and "Alt-Ctrl-2" switch between two different font sizes.
		744	"suxuseuro" allows me to keep an eye (and actually read) stuff while
		745	keeping a very small window. If somebody pastes something complicated
		746	(e.g. japanese), I temporarily switch to a larger font.
		747
		748	The above is all in my ".Xdefaults" (I don't use ".Xresources" nor
		749	"xrdb"). I also have some resources in a separate ".Xdefaults-hostname"
		750	file for different hosts, for example, on my main desktop, I use:
		751
		752	URxvt.keysym.C-M-q: command:\033[3;5;5t
		753	URxvt.keysym.C-M-y: command:\033[3;5;606t
		754	URxvt.keysym.C-M-e: command:\033[3;1605;5t
		755	URxvt.keysym.C-M-c: command:\033[3;1605;606t
		756	URxvt.keysym.C-M-p: perl:test
		757
		758	The first for keysym definitions allow me to quickly bring some windows
		759	in the layout I like most. Ion users might start laughing but will stop
		760	immediately when I tell them that I use my own Fvwm2 module for much the
		761	same effect as Ion provides, and I only very rarely use the above key
		762	combinations :->
		763
		764	Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
		765	Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
		766	applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
		767	resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
		768	ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
		769	$HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display.
		770
		771	If you have or use an $HOME/.Xresources file, chances are that resources
		772	are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to re-login after
		773	every change (or run xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources).
		774
		775	Also consider the form resources have to use:
		776
		777	URxvt.resource: value
		778
		779	If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
		780	specifying resources), make sure you understand whether and why it
		781	works. If unsure, use the form above.
		782
		783	When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
		784	The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
		785	as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often
		786	arises).
		787
		788	The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this
		789	can be done by simply installing rxvt-unicode on the remote system as
		790	well (in case you have a nice package manager ready), or you can install
		791	the terminfo database manually like this (with ncurses infocmp. works as
		792	user and root):
		793
		794	REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
		795	infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "mkdir -p .terminfo && cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
		796
		797	One some systems you might need to set $TERMINFO to the full path of
		798	$HOME/.terminfo for this to work.
		799
		800	If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set
		801	"TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of
		802	problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different
		803	colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice
		804	quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, though.
		805
		806	If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) you
		807	can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or use a
		808	resource to set it:
		809
		810	URxvt.termName: rxvt
		811
		812	If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace
		813	the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use "TERM=rxvt".
		814
		815	nano fails with "Error opening terminal: rxvt-unicode"
		816	This exceptionally confusing and useless error message is printed by
		817	nano when it can't find the terminfo database. Nothing is wrong with
		818	your terminal, read the previous answer for a solution.
		819
		820	"tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
		821	Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by
		822	"enacs=\E[0@" and try again.
		823
		824	"bash"'s readline does not work correctly under urxvt.
		825	See next entry.
		826
		827	I need a termcap file entry.
		828	One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
		829	systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
		830	library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
		831	for "rxvt-unicode".
		832
		833	You could use rxvt's termcap entry with reasonable results in many
		834	cases. You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp
		835	program like this:
		836
		837	infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
		838
		839	Or you could use the termcap entry in doc/etc/rxvt-unicode.termcap,
		840	generated by the command above.
		841
		842	Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output?
		843	The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
		844	decide whether a terminal has colour, but uses its own configuration
		845	file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in its default file (among
		846	with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
		847
		848	TERM rxvt-unicode
		849
		850	to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add:
		851
		852	alias ls='ls --color=auto'
		853
		854	to your ".profile" or ".bashrc".
		855
		856	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
		857	See next entry.
		858
		859	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
		860	See next entry.
		861
		862	Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
		863	Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged
		864	distributions break rxvt-unicode by setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which
		865	doesn't have these extra features. Unfortunately, some of these
		866	furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, so
		867	you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I log-in
		868	to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do
		869	this).
		870
		871	Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues
		872	Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
		873	See next entry.
		874
		875	Unicode does not seem to work?
		876	If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
		877	getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output
		878	is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
		879
		880	Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the
		881	programs running in it. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale,
		882	while the login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes
		883	the locale to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this
		884	is not going to work, and is the most common cause for problems.
		885
		886	The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely
		887	run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your
		888	.profile.
		889
		890	printf '\33]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE" # $LANG or $LC_ALL are worth a try, too
		891
		892	If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification not
		893	supported on your systems. Some systems have a "locale" command which
		894	displays this (also, "perl -e0" can be used to check locale settings, as
		895	it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays
		896	something like:
		897
		898	locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ...
		899
		900	Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.
		901
		902	If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
		903	you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
		904	support locales :(
		905
		906	How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
		907	See next entry.
		908
		909	Is there an option to switch encodings?
		910	Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
		911	specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know
		912	about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
		913
		914	The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for
		915	selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating
		916	this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties
		917	such as width and code number. This mechanism is the *locale*.
		918	Applications not using that info will have problems (for example,
		919	"xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses its own,
		920	locale-independent table under all locales).
		921
		922	Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. All
		923	programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
		924	interpretation of characters.
		925
		926	Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
		927	is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
		928
		929	On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable
		930	contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
		931	locale. Common names for locales are "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15",
		932	"ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e. "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e.
		933	"de" or "german") are also common.
		934
		935	Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the
		936	encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e.
		937	"de_DE.UTF-8" and "ja_JP.UTF-8" are the normally same to rxvt-unicode.
		938
		939	If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
		940	rxvt-unicode with the correct "LC_CTYPE" category.
		941
		942	Can I switch locales at runtime?
		943	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
		944	rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE".
		945
		946	printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
		947
		948	See also the previous answer.
		949
		950	Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one
		951	locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support it (e.g.
		952	UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which first
		953	switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
		954
		955	printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
		956	xjdic -js
		957	printf '\33]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
		958
		959	You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine,
		960	except for some locales where character width differs between program-
		961	and rxvt-unicode-locales.
		962
		963	I have problems getting my input method working.
		964	Try a search engine, as this is slightly different for every input
		965	method server.
		966
		967	Here is a checklist:
		968
		969	- Make sure your locale *and* the imLocale are supported on your OS.
		970	Try "locale -a" or check the documentation for your OS.
		971
		972	- Make sure your locale or imLocale matches a locale supported by your
		973	XIM.
		974	For example, kinput2 does not support UTF-8 locales, you should use
		975	"ja_JP.EUC-JP" or equivalent.
		976
		977	- Make sure your XIM server is actually running.
		978	- Make sure the "XMODIFIERS" environment variable is set correctly when
		979	*starting* rxvt-unicode.
		980	When you want to use e.g. kinput2, it must be set to "@im=kinput2".
		981	For scim, use "@im=SCIM". You can see what input method servers are
		982	running with this command:
		983
		984	xprop -root XIM_SERVERS
		985
		986	My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
		987	You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of
		988	the terminal, using the resource "imlocale":
		989
		990	URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
		991
		992	Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and still
		993	use your input method. Please note, however, that, depending on your
		994	Xlib version, you may not be able to input characters outside "EUC-JP"
		995	in a normal way then, as your input method limits you.
		996
		997	Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
		998	Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
		999	design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
		1000	leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
		1001	exit time. kinput2 (and derived input methods) generally succeeds, while
		1002	SCIM (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however, crashes
		1003	cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
		1004
		1005	So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
		1006
		1007	Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
		1008	I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
		1009	You should build one binary with the default options. configure now
		1010	enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
		1011	runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enabling
		1012	them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter
		1013	should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely
		1014	more in the future) depends on it.
		1015
		1016	You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" and "perl-ext" resources
		1017	system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful
		1018	behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
		1019	"perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
		1020	perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
		1021
		1022	If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one
		1023	with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with
		1024	"--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
		1025	encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
		1026
		1027	I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
		1028	It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
		1029	install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
		1030
		1031	When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
		1032	into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
		1033	systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
		1034	immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
		1035	privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
		1036	things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
		1037
		1038	This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very
		1039	early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before
		1040	main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should
		1041	result in very little risk.
		1042
		1043	I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
		1044	Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined in
		1045	your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
		1046	whether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that
		1047	wchar_t is represented as unicode.
		1048
		1049	As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symbol nor
		1050	does it support it. Instead, it uses its own internal representation of
		1051	wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.
		1052
		1053	However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1" and
		1054	"UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t).
		1055
		1056	"__STDC_ISO_10646__" is the only sane way to support multi-language apps
		1057	in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized)
		1058	representation of wchar_t makes it impossible to convert between wchar_t
		1059	(as used by X11 and your applications) and any other encoding without
		1060	implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and every locale. There
		1061	simply are no APIs to convert wchar_t into anything except the current
		1062	locale encoding.
		1063
		1064	Some applications (such as the formidable mlterm) work around this by
		1065	carrying their own replacement functions for character set handling with
		1066	them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or doing multiple
		1067	conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the OS implements
		1068	encodings slightly different than the terminal emulator).
		1069
		1070	The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
		1071	system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
		1072	complete replacements for them :)
		1073
		1074	How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
		1075	rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using the
		1076	X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no longer
		1077	supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single
		1078	font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or
		1079	"-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
		1080	old libW11 emulation.
		1081
		1082	At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any
		1083	multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are
		1084	likely limited to 8-bit encodings.
		1085
		1086	Character widths are not correct.
		1087	urxvt uses the system wcwidth function to know the information about the
		1088	width of characters, so on systems with incorrect locale data you will
		1089	likely get bad results. Two notorious examples are Solaris 9, where
		1090	single-width characters like U+2514 are reported as double-width, and
		1091	Darwin 8, where combining chars are reported having width 1.
		1092
		1093	The solution is to upgrade your system or switch to a better one. A
		1094	possibly working workaround is to use a wcwidth implementation like
		1095
		1096	http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/wcwidth.c
		1097

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