--- rxvt-unicode/README.FAQ 2006/01/31 20:58:12 1.41 +++ rxvt-unicode/README.FAQ 2006/07/06 19:43:21 1.42 @@ -0,0 +1,1113 @@ +RXVT-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS + Meta, Features & Commandline Issues + My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human? + Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net", channel + "#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be + interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :). + + Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode? + Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a + simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these + should give you tabs: + + urxvt -pe tabbed + + URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed + + It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window + managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow + it to be embedded into other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed + or the upcoming "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt + (murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application. + + How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? + The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape + sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. When + using the urxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the daemon. + + Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that? + Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something + you don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings + that you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by + design, when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be + loaded accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your + characters. + + Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger + scrollback buffers: Without "--enable-unicode3", rxvt-unicode will use 6 + bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a + kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if + full) use 10 Megabytes of memory. With "--enable-unicode3" it gets + worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell. + + How can I start urxvtd in a race-free way? + Try "urxvtd -f -o", which tells urxvtd to open the display, create the + listening socket and then fork. + + How can I start urxvtd automatically when I run URXVT_NAME@@c? + If you want to start urxvtd automatically whenever you run urxvtc and + the daemon isn't running yet, use this script: + + #!/bin/sh + urxvtc "$@" + if [ $? -eq 2 ]; then + urxvtd -q -o -f + urxvtc "$@" + fi + + This tries to create a new terminal, and if fails with exit status 2, + meaning it couldn't connect to the daemon, it will start the daemon and + re-run the command. Subsequent invocations of the script will re-use the + existing daemon. + + How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc. + The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable + "COLORTERM", so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several + programs, JED, slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this + variable to decide whether or not to use color. + + How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable? + If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled + insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script + snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode + wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets) + then the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from + a regular xterm. + + Courtesy of Chuck Blake with the following shell script + snippets: + + # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells: + [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know + if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then + stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not + echo -n '^[Z' + read term_id + stty icanon echo + if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then + echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string + read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell + fi + fi + + How do I compile the manual pages on my own? + You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl, + one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2html. Then go to the doc + subdirectory and enter "make alldoc". + + Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat? + I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra + bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see + that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always + being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after + startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is a bit + unfair, as many features unique to urxvt (locale, encoding conversion, + iso14755 etc.) are already in use in this mode. + + text data bss drs rss filename + 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything + 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything + + When you "--enable-everything" (which *is* unfair, as this involves xft + and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my + libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so. + + text data bss drs rss filename + 163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything + 1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything + + The very large size of the text section is explained by the east-asian + encoding tables, which, if unused, take up disk space but nothing else + and can be compiled out unless you rely on X11 core fonts that use those + encodings. The BSS size comes from the 64k emergency buffer that my c++ + compiler allocates (but of course doesn't use unless you are out of + memory). Also, using an xft font instead of a core font immediately adds + a few megabytes of RSS. Xft indeed is responsible for a lot of RSS even + when not used. + + Of course, due to every character using two or four bytes instead of + one, a large scrollback buffer will ultimately make rxvt-unicode use + more memory. + + Compared to e.g. Eterm (5112k), aterm (3132k) and xterm (4680k), this + still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like + gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole + (22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half + a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits + out), it fares extremely well *g*. + + Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool? + Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I + had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a + fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put + even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++. + + My personal stance on this is that C++ is less portable than C, but in + the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability limits + are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale support and + unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than C++ itself. + + Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write programs + in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to write programs in + C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large libraries, but this is + not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is what rxvt links against on my + system with a minimal config: + + libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000) + libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000) + libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000) + /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000) + + And here is rxvt-unicode: + + libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000) + libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000) + libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000) + libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000) + /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000) + + No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically), + except maybe libX11 :) + + Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues + I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong? + First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode, + so you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you + may bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a + rite of passage: ... and you failed. + + Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option + descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it! + + 1. Use inheritPixmap: + + Esetroot wallpaper.jpg + urxvt -ip -tint red -sh 40 + + That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting + support, or you are unable to read. + + 2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you + to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever + your picture with gimp or any other tool: + + convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm + urxvt -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background + + That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or + you are unable to read. + + 3. Use an ARGB visual: + + urxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc + + This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that + doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't + there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the + neccessary bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, + but that doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place. + + 4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job: + + xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \ + -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000 + + Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace 0xc0000000 + by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and + your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces. + + Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings? + Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that + character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal + use might contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode + will avoid these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too + wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent + characters. + + All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes, + however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed + bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct + way is to ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is + wrong in these cases). + + It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype, + or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try + using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If that doesn't + work, you might be forced to use a different font. + + All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their + bounding box data is correct. + + How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much? + First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings + ("TERM=rxvt-unicode"), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then + make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise + rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect: + + URxvt.colorBD: white + URxvt.colorIT: green + + Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that? + For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird + colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the + standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of + course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very + good reasons. + + In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo + definition to only claim 8 colour support or use "TERM=rxvt", which will + fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features. + + Can I switch the fonts at runtime? + Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the + same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately: + + printf '\33]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic" + + This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a + japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where + japanese fonts would only be in your way. + + You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching. + + Why do italic characters look as if clipped? + Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For + example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans + Mono" completely fails in its italic face. A workaround might be to + enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this: + + URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true + URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true + + Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow? + Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as it + is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable + antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of + memory and also speeds up rendering considerably. + + Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong? + Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to + fall back to its default font search list it will prefer X11 core fonts, + because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has + antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they + look best that way. + + If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually. + + What's with this bold/blink stuff? + If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using the + standard foreground colour. + + For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text + blink when compiled with "--enable-blinking". with standard colours. + Without "--enable-blinking", the blink attribute will be ignored. + + On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity + foreground/background colors. + + color0-7 are the low-intensity colors. + + color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors. + + I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them? + You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults + resources (or as long-options). + + Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, including + the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow: + + URxvt.color0: #000000 + URxvt.color1: #A80000 + URxvt.color2: #00A800 + URxvt.color3: #A8A800 + URxvt.color4: #0000A8 + URxvt.color5: #A800A8 + URxvt.color6: #00A8A8 + URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8 + + URxvt.color8: #000054 + URxvt.color9: #FF0054 + URxvt.color10: #00FF54 + URxvt.color11: #FFFF54 + URxvt.color12: #0000FF + URxvt.color13: #FF00FF + URxvt.color14: #00FFFF + URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF + + And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors. + + URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1 + URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1 + URxvt.background: #0e0e0e + URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1 + URxvt.color0: #000000 + URxvt.color8: #8b8f93 + URxvt.color1: #dc74d1 + URxvt.color9: #dc74d1 + URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7 + URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7 + URxvt.color3: #dfe37e + URxvt.color11: #dfe37e + URxvt.color5: #9e88f0 + URxvt.color13: #9e88f0 + URxvt.color6: #73f7ff + URxvt.color14: #73f7ff + URxvt.color7: #e1dddd + URxvt.color15: #e1dddd + + They have been described (not by me) as "pretty girly". + + Why do some characters look so much different than others? + See next entry. + + How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts? + Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine. + Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of your + system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want to + display. + + rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font. + Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks + bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't + resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial + intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe + the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct. + + In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list, + e.g.: + + urxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3... + + When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font. + If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the next + font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this + search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server. + + The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the + base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size, + which must be the same due to the way terminals work. + + Why do some chinese characters look so different than others? + This is because there is a difference between script and language -- + rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is, as + it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first sees a + japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for display. + Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many chinese + characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first + non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese + font -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font + for chinese characters that are also in the japanese font. + + The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font + list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a + preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font + first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first. + + In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at + runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different + fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this + has been designed yet). + + Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can + I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document). + + Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction + The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words? + If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following + setting: + + URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+) + + If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more and + more. + + To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this + pattern: + + URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+) + + Please also note that the *LeftClick Shift-LeftClik* combination also + selects words like the old code. + + I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it? + You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the + perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps + rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory. + + If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to + identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section + PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the urxvtperl(3) manpage. For example, to + disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify this + perl-ext-common resource: + + URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup + + This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup + extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example, + scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any other + combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback resource: + + URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s + + The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off? + See next entry. + + During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this? + These are caused by the "readline" perl extension. Under normal + circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the + line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment, + but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in + some cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly. + + You can permamently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline" + extension: + + URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline + + My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output? + Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no + specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is + caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of wether and + how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a + compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please + report if that helped. + + My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working. + The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set + correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported by your + input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and your input + method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys) does not + support this (for instance because it is not visual), then rxvt-unicode + will continue without an input method. + + In this case either do not specify a preeditStyle or specify more than + one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None. + + I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755 + Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on + international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your + advantage, typing to get a ASCII NUL. This works for + other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default telnet + escape character and so on. + + Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works. + Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing some + editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've heard + that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A quick + check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are + depressed. + + What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour? + Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the BackSpace + keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are + two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?". + + Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the + debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one only only + correct choice :). + + Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the + value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode + wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), + then the system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in + , will be used (which may not be the same as your stty + setting). + + For starting a new rxvt-unicode: + + # use Backspace = ^H + $ stty erase ^H + $ urxvt + + # use Backspace = ^? + $ stty erase ^? + $ urxvt + + Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l". + + For an existing rxvt-unicode: + + # use Backspace = ^H + $ stty erase ^H + $ echo -n "^[[36h" + + # use Backspace = ^? + $ stty erase ^? + $ echo -n "^[[36l" + + This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but + if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo value + properly reflects that. + + The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace + problem. To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the + Delete key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for + Execute ("ESC [ 3 ~") and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo. + + Some other Backspace problems: + + some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told) expect + Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help. + + Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner. + + I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them? + There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless + you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" option you can + use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with + keysyms. + + Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "urxvt -name URxvt" + + URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~ + URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~ + URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033 + URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033 + URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033 + URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033 + URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033 + URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033 + URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033 + URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033 + URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033 + URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033 + URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033 + URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033 + URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033 + URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033 + URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033 + URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033 + URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033 + URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007 + + See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource. + + 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 + KP_Insert == Insert + F22 == Print + F27 == Home + F29 == Prior + F33 == End + F35 == Next + + Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various + possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the + keys as required for your particular machine. + + Terminal Configuration + Can I see a typical configuration? + The default configuration tries to be xterm-like, which I don't like + that much, but it's least surprise to regular users. + + As a rxvt or rxvt-unicode user, you are practically supposed to invest + time into customising your terminal. To get you started, here is the + author's .Xdefaults entries, with comments on what they do. It's + certainly not *typical*, but what's typical... + + URxvt.cutchars: "()*,<>[]{}|' + URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/tmp/xxx + + These are just for testing stuff. + + URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8 + URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None + + This tells rxvt-unicode to use a special locale when communicating with + the X Input Method, and also tells it to only use the OnTheSpot pre-edit + type, which requires the "xim-onthespot" perl extension but rewards me + with correct-looking fonts. + + URxvt.perl-lib: /root/lib/urxvt + URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,selection-autotransform,selection-pastebin,xim-onthespot,remote-clipboard + URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ( at .*? line \\d+) + URxvt.selection.pattern-1: ^(/[^:]+):\ + URxvt.selection-autotransform.0: s/^([^:[:space:]]+):(\\d+):?$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/ + URxvt.selection-autotransform.1: s/^ at (.*?) line (\\d+)$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/ + + This is my perl configuration. The first two set the perl library + directory and also tells urxvt to use a large number of extensions. I + develop for myself mostly, so I actually use most of the extensions I + write. + + The selection stuff mainly makes the selection perl-error-message aware + and tells it to convert pelr error mssages into vi-commands to load the + relevant file and go tot he error line number. + + URxvt.scrollstyle: plain + URxvt.secondaryScroll: true + + As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the + author. The "secondaryScroll" confgiures urxvt to scroll in full-screen + apps, like screen, so lines scorlled out of screen end up in urxvt's + scrollback buffer. + + URxvt.background: #000000 + URxvt.foreground: gray90 + URxvt.color7: gray90 + URxvt.colorBD: #ffffff + URxvt.cursorColor: #e0e080 + URxvt.throughColor: #8080f0 + URxvt.highlightColor: #f0f0f0 + + Some colours. Not sure which ones are being used or even non-defaults, + but these are in my .Xdefaults. Most notably, they set + foreground/background to light gray/black, and also make sure that the + colour 7 matches the default foreground colour. + + URxvt.underlineColor: yellow + + Another colour, makes underline lines look different. Sometimes hurts, + but is mostly a nice effect. + + URxvt.geometry: 154x36 + URxvt.loginShell: false + URxvt.meta: ignore + URxvt.utmpInhibit: true + + Uh, well, should be mostly self-explanatory. By specifying some defaults + manually, I can quickly switch them for testing. + + URxvt.saveLines: 8192 + + A large scrollback buffer is essential. Really. + + URxvt.mapAlert: true + + The only case I use it is for my IRC window, which I like to keep + iconified till people msg me (which beeps). + + URxvt.visualBell: true + + The audible bell is often annoying, especially when in a crowd. + + URxvt.insecure: true + + Please don't hack my mutt! Ooops... + + URxvt.pastableTabs: false + + I once thought this is a great idea. + + urxvt.font: 9x15bold,\ + -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\ + -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \ + [codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic, \ + xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:autohint=true, \ + xft:Code2000:antialias=false + urxvt.boldFont: -xos4-terminus-bold-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-15 + urxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true + urxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true + + I wrote rxvt-unicode to be able to specify fonts exactly. So don't be + overwhelmed. A special note: the "9x15bold" mentioend above is actually + the version from XFree-3.3, as XFree-4 replaced it by a totally + different font (different glyphs for ";" and many other harmless + characters), while the second font is actually the "9x15bold" from + XFree4/XOrg. The bold version has less chars than the medium version, so + I use it for rare characters, too. Whene ditign sources with vim, I use + italic for comments and other stuff, which looks quite good with + Bitstream Vera anti-aliased. + + Terminus is a quite bad font (many very wrong glyphs), but for most of + my purposes, it works, and gives a different look, as my normal + (Non-bold) font is already bold, and I want to see a difference between + bold and normal fonts. + + Please note that I used the "urxvt" instance name and not the "URxvt" + class name. Thats because I use different configs for different + purposes, for example, my IRC window is started with "-name IRC", and + uses these defaults: + + IRC*title: IRC + IRC*geometry: 87x12+535+542 + IRC*saveLines: 0 + IRC*mapAlert: true + IRC*font: suxuseuro + IRC*boldFont: suxuseuro + IRC*colorBD: white + IRC*keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]710;suxuseuro\007\033]711;suxuseuro\007 + IRC*keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]710;9x15bold\007\033]711;9x15bold\007 + + "Alt-Shift-1" and "Alt-Shift-2" switch between two different font sizes. + "suxuseuro" allows me to keep an eye (and actually read) stuff while + keeping a very small window. If somebody pastes something complicated + (e.g. japanese), I temporarily switch to a larger font. + + The above is all in my ".Xdefaults" (I don't use ".Xresources" nor + "xrdb"). I also have some resources in a separate ".Xdefaults-hostname" + file for different hosts, for example, on ym main desktop, I use: + + URxvt.keysym.C-M-q: command:\033[3;5;5t + URxvt.keysym.C-M-y: command:\033[3;5;606t + URxvt.keysym.C-M-e: command:\033[3;1605;5t + URxvt.keysym.C-M-c: command:\033[3;1605;606t + URxvt.keysym.C-M-p: perl:test + + The first for keysym definitions allow me to quickly bring some windows + in the layout I like most. Ion users might start laughing but will stop + immediately when I tell them that I use my own Fvwm2 module for much the + same effect as Ion provides, and I only very rarely use the above key + combinations :-> + + Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources? + Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X + applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads + resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will + ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read + $HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display. + + If you have or use an $HOME/.Xresources file, chances are that resources + are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to re-login after + every change (or run xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources). + + Also consider the form resources have to use: + + URxvt.resource: value + + If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of + specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it works. + If unsure, use the form above. + + When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? + The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available + as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often + arises). + + The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this + can be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp): + + REMOTE=remotesystem.domain + infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti" + + ... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system, + + If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set + "TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of + problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different + colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice + quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, though. + + If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) you + can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or use a + resource to set it: + + URxvt.termName: rxvt + + If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace + the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use "TERM=rxvt". + + "tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry. + Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by + "enacs=\E[0@" and try again. + + "bash"'s readline does not work correctly under urxvt. + See next entry. + + I need a termcap file entry. + One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating + systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap + library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry + for "rxvt-unicode". + + You could use rxvt's termcap entry with resonable results in many cases. + You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp program + like this: + + infocmp -C rxvt-unicode + + Or you could use this termcap entry, generated by the command above: + + rxvt-unicode|rxvt-unicode terminal (X Window System):\ + :am:bw:eo:km:mi:ms:xn:xo:\ + :co#80:it#8:li#24:lm#0:\ + :AL=\E[%dL:DC=\E[%dP:DL=\E[%dM:DO=\E[%dB:IC=\E[%d@:\ + :K1=\EOw:K2=\EOu:K3=\EOy:K4=\EOq:K5=\EOs:LE=\E[%dD:\ + :RI=\E[%dC:SF=\E[%dS:SR=\E[%dT:UP=\E[%dA:ae=\E(B:al=\E[L:\ + :as=\E(0:bl=^G:cd=\E[J:ce=\E[K:cl=\E[H\E[2J:\ + :cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:cr=^M:cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:ct=\E[3g:dc=\E[P:\ + :dl=\E[M:do=^J:ec=\E[%dX:ei=\E[4l:ho=\E[H:\ + :i1=\E[?47l\E=\E[?1l:ic=\E[@:im=\E[4h:\ + :is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;3;4;6l\E[4l:\ + :k1=\E[11~:k2=\E[12~:k3=\E[13~:k4=\E[14~:k5=\E[15~:\ + :k6=\E[17~:k7=\E[18~:k8=\E[19~:k9=\E[20~:kD=\E[3~:\ + :kI=\E[2~:kN=\E[6~:kP=\E[5~:kb=\177:kd=\EOB:ke=\E[?1l\E>:\ + :kh=\E[7~:kl=\EOD:kr=\EOC:ks=\E[?1h\E=:ku=\EOA:le=^H:\ + :mb=\E[5m:md=\E[1m:me=\E[m\017:mr=\E[7m:nd=\E[C:rc=\E8:\ + :sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\ + :te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\ + :us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\ + :vs=\E[?25h: + + Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output? + The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to + decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses its own configuration + file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in its default file (among + with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add: + + TERM rxvt-unicode + + to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add: + + alias ls='ls --color=auto' + + to your ".profile" or ".bashrc". + + Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode? + See next entry. + + Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic? + See next entry. + + Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly? + Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged + distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by + setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features. + Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux) + furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, so + you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I log-in + to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do + this). + + Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues + Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding? + See next entry. + + Unicode does not seem to work? + If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but + getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output + is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings. + + Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the + programs. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale, while the + login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the locale + to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this is not + going to work. + + The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely + run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your + .profile. + + printf '\33]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE" + + If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification not + supported on your systems. Some systems have a "locale" command which + displays this (also, "perl -e0" can be used to check locale settings, as + it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays + something like: + + locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ... + + Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system. + + If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then + you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't + support locales :( + + How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use? + See next entry. + + Is there an option to switch encodings? + Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no + specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know + about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O. + + The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for + selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating + this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties + such as width and code number. This mechanism is the *locale*. + Applications not using that info will have problems (for example, + "xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses its own, + locale-independent table under all locales). + + Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. All + programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the + interpretation of characters. + + Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor + is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like. + + On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable + contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed + locale. Common names for locales are "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15", + "ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e. "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e. + "de" or "german") are also common. + + Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the + encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e. + "de_DE.UTF-8" and "ja_JP.UTF-8" are the normally same to rxvt-unicode. + + If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start + rxvt-unicode with the correct "LC_CTYPE" category. + + Can I switch locales at runtime? + Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets + rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE". + + printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS + + See also the previous answer. + + Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one + locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support it (e.g. + UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which first + switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later: + + printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS + xjdic -js + printf '\33]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8 + + You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine, + except for some locales where character width differs between program- + and rxvt-unicode-locales. + + I have problems getting my input method working. + Try a search engine, as this is slightly different for every input + method server. + + Here is a checklist: + + - Make sure your locale *and* the imLocale are supported on your OS. + Try "locale -a" or check the documentation for your OS. + + - Make sure your locale or imLocale matches a locale supported by your + XIM. + For example, kinput2 does not support UTF-8 locales, you should use + "ja_JP.EUC-JP" or equivalent. + + - Make sure your XIM server is actually running. + - Make sure the "XMODIFIERS" environment variable is set correctly when + *starting* rxvt-unicode. + When you want to use e.g. kinput2, it must be set to "@im=kinput2". + For scim, use "@im=SCIM". Youc an see what input method servers are + running with this command: + + xprop -root XIM_SERVERS + + + + My input method wants but I want UTF-8, what can I do? + You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of + the terminal, using the resource "imlocale": + + URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP + + Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and still + use your input method. Please note, however, that, depending on your + Xlib version, you may not be able to input characters outside "EUC-JP" + in a normal way then, as your input method limits you. + + Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits. + Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by + design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory + leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at + exit time. kinput2 (and derived input methods) generally succeeds, while + SCIM (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however, crashes + cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate. + + So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers. + + Operating Systems / Package Maintaining + I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem... + The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large + patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but + unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to + the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine + version () and try to reproduce + the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific + to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian + Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug). + + For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and + probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a + bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users + that might encounter the same issue. + + I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation? + You should build one binary with the default options. configure now + enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them + runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling + them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter + should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely + more in the future) depends on it. + + You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" resources + system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful + behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty + "perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the + perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it. + + If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one + with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with + "--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of + encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used). + + I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe? + It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly + install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now. + + When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork + into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some + systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges + immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep + privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains + things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers). + + This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very + early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before + main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should + result in very little risk. + + On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide. + Seems to be a known bug, read + . Some people use the + following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working: + + #define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x) + + I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all. + Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined in + your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it, + wether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that + wchar_t is represented as unicode. + + As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symobl nor + does it support it. Instead, it uses its own internal representation of + wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards. + + However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1" and + "UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t. + + "__STDC_ISO_10646__" is the only sane way to support multi-language apps + in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized) + representation of wchar_t makes it impossible to convert between wchar_t + (as used by X11 and your applications) and any other encoding without + implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and every locale. There + simply are no APIs to convert wchar_t into anything except the current + locale encoding. + + Some applications (such as the formidable mlterm) work around this by + carrying their own replacement functions for character set handling with + them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or doing multiple + conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the OS implements + encodings slightly different than the terminal emulator). + + The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the + system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry + complete replacements for them :) + + I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc. + Try the diff in doc/solaris9.patch as a base. It fixes the worst + problems with "wcwidth" and a compile problem. + + How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin? + rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using the + X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no longer + supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single + font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or + "-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the + old libW11 emulation. + + At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any + multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are + likely limited to 8-bit encodings. +