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Revision 1.37 by root, Tue Jan 31 00:58:20 2006 UTC vs.
Revision 1.48 by root, Tue Jun 26 00:40:18 2007 UTC

1	FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS	1	RXVT-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
2	The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select	2	Meta, Features & Commandline Issues
3	single words?	3	My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
4	If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following	4	Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net", channel
5	setting:	5	"#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
		6	interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
6		7
7	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)	8	Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
		9	Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a
		10	simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these
		11	should give you tabs:
8		12
9	If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more and	13	urxvt -pe tabbed
10	more.
11		14
12	To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this
13	pattern:
14
15	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
16
17	Please also note that the *LeftClick Shift-LeftClik* combination also
18	selects words like the old code.
19
20	I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I
21	change/disable it?
22	You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
23	perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps
24	rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
25
26	If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
27	identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
28	PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the rxvtperl(3) manpage. For example, to
29	disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify this
30	perl-ext-common resource:
31
32	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
33
34	This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
35	extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
36	scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any other
37	combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback resource:
38
39	URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
40
41	The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how
42	do I switch this off?
43	During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor
44	outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
45	These are caused by the "readline" perl extension. Under normal
46	circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
47	line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
48	but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in
49	some cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
50
51	You can permamently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline"
52	extension:
53
54	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline	15	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
55		16
56	Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?	17	It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window
57	Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X	18	managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow
58	applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads	19	it to be embedded into other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed
59	resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will	20	or the upcoming "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
60	ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read	21	(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
61	$HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display.
62		22
63	If you have or use an $HOME/.Xresources file, chances are that resources	23	How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
64	are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to re-login after	24	The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
65	every change (or run xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources).	25	sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. When
		26	using the urxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the daemon.
66		27
67	Also consider the form resources have to use:	28	Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
		29	Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something
		30	you don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings
		31	that you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by
		32	design, when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be
		33	loaded accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your
		34	characters.
68		35
69	URxvt.resource: value	36	Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
		37	scrollback buffers: Without "--enable-unicode3", rxvt-unicode will use 6
		38	bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
		39	kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if
		40	full) use 10 Megabytes of memory. With "--enable-unicode3" it gets
		41	worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
70		42
71	If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of	43	How can I start urxvtd in a race-free way?
72	specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it works.	44	Try "urxvtd -f -o", which tells urxvtd to open the display, create the
73	If unsure, use the form above.	45	listening socket and then fork.
74		46
75	I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?	47	How can I start urxvtd automatically when I run urxvtc?
76	First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode,	48	If you want to start urxvtd automatically whenever you run urxvtc and
77	so you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you	49	the daemon isn't running yet, use this script:
78	may bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a
79	rite of passage: ... and you failed.
80		50
81	Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option	51	#!/bin/sh
82	descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!	52	urxvtc "$@"
		53	if [ $? -eq 2 ]; then
		54	urxvtd -q -o -f
		55	urxvtc "$@"
		56	fi
83		57
84	1. Use inheritPixmap:	58	This tries to create a new terminal, and if fails with exit status 2,
		59	meaning it couldn't connect to the daemon, it will start the daemon and
		60	re-run the command. Subsequent invocations of the script will re-use the
		61	existing daemon.
85		62
86	Esetroot wallpaper.jpg	63	How do I distinguish whether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
87	rxvt -ip -tint red -sh 40	64	The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable
		65	"COLORTERM", so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several
		66	programs, JED, slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this
		67	variable to decide whether or not to use color.
88		68
89	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting	69	How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
90	support, or you are unable to read.	70	If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
		71	insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
		72	snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
		73	wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets)
		74	then the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from
		75	a regular xterm.
91		76
92	2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you	77	Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
93	to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever	78	snippets:
94	your picture with gimp:
95		79
96	convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm	80	# Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
97	rxvt -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background	81	[ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
		82	if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
		83	stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
		84	echo -n '^[Z'
		85	read term_id
		86	stty icanon echo
		87	if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
		88	echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
		89	read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
		90	fi
		91	fi
98		92
99	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or	93	How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
100	you are unable to read.	94	You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,
		95	one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2xhtml (from Pod::XHTML).
		96	Then go to the doc subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
101		97
102	3. Use an ARGB visual:
103
104	rxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
105
106	This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
107	doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
108	there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the
109	neccessary bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work,
110	but that doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
111
112	4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
113
114	xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
115	-set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
116
117	Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace 0xc0000000
118	by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
119	your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
120
121	Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?	98	Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
122	I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra	99	I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra
123	bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see	100	bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see
124	that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always	101	that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always
125	being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after	102	being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after
126	startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is a bit	103	startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is a bit
…		…
129		106
130	text data bss drs rss filename	107	text data bss drs rss filename
131	98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything	108	98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything
132	188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything	109	188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything
133		110
134	When you "--enable-everything" (which _is_ unfair, as this involves xft	111	When you "--enable-everything" (which *is* unfair, as this involves xft
135	and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my	112	and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my
136	libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so.	113	libc), the two diverge, but not unreasonably so.
137		114
138	text data bss drs rss filename	115	text data bss drs rss filename
139	163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything	116	163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything
140	1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything	117	1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything
141		118
…		…
157	gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole	134	gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole
158	(22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half	135	(22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half
159	a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits	136	a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits
160	out), it fares extremely well *g*.	137	out), it fares extremely well *g*.
161		138
162	Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?	139	Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
163	Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I	140	Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I
164	had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a	141	had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a
165	fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put	142	fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put
166	even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.	143	even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
167		144
…		…
190	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)	167	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
191		168
192	No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),	169	No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
193	except maybe libX11 :)	170	except maybe libX11 :)
194		171
195	Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?	172	Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues
196	Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a	173	I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
197	simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these	174	First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode,
198	should give you tabs:	175	so you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you
		176	may bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a
		177	rite of passage: ... and you failed.
199		178
200	rxvt -pe tabbed	179	Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option
		180	descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
201		181
		182	1. Use inheritPixmap:
		183
		184	Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
		185	urxvt -ip -tint red -sh 40
		186
		187	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
		188	support, or you are unable to read.
		189
		190	2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
		191	to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
		192	your picture with gimp or any other tool:
		193
		194	convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm
		195	urxvt -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background
		196
		197	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or
		198	you are unable to read.
		199
		200	3. Use an ARGB visual:
		201
		202	urxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
		203
		204	This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
		205	doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
		206	there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the
		207	necessary bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but
		208	that doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
		209
		210	4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
		211
		212	xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
		213	-set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
		214
		215	Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace 0xc0000000
		216	by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
		217	your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
		218
		219	Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
		220	Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that
		221	character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal
		222	use might contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode
		223	will avoid these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too
		224	wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent
		225	characters.
		226
		227	All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
		228	however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed
		229	bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct
		230	way is to ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is
		231	wrong in these cases).
		232
		233	It's not clear (to me at least), whether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
		234	or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try
		235	using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If that doesn't
		236	work, you might be forced to use a different font.
		237
		238	All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their
		239	bounding box data is correct.
		240
		241	How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
		242	First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
		243	("TERM=rxvt-unicode"), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
		244	make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
		245	rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
		246
		247	URxvt.colorBD: white
		248	URxvt.colorIT: green
		249
		250	Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
		251	For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
		252	colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the
		253	standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of
		254	course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very
		255	good reasons.
		256
		257	In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo
		258	definition to only claim 8 colour support or use "TERM=rxvt", which will
		259	fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
		260
		261	Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
		262	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the
		263	same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately:
		264
		265	printf '\33]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
		266
		267	This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
		268	japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
		269	japanese fonts would only be in your way.
		270
		271	You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
		272
		273	Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
		274	Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
		275	example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
		276	Mono" completely fails in its italic face. A workaround might be to
		277	enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
		278
		279	URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
		280	URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
		281
		282	Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
		283	Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as it
		284	is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
		285	antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of
		286	memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
		287
		288	Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
		289	Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
		290	fall back to its default font search list it will prefer X11 core fonts,
		291	because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
		292	antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
		293	look best that way.
		294
		295	If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
		296
		297	What's with this bold/blink stuff?
		298	If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using the
		299	standard foreground colour.
		300
		301	For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text
		302	blink when compiled with "--enable-blinking". with standard colours.
		303	Without "--enable-blinking", the blink attribute will be ignored.
		304
		305	On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
		306	foreground/background colors.
		307
		308	color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
		309
		310	color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
		311
		312	I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
		313	You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults
		314	resources (or as long-options).
		315
		316	Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, including
		317	the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
		318
		319	URxvt.color0: #000000
		320	URxvt.color1: #A80000
		321	URxvt.color2: #00A800
		322	URxvt.color3: #A8A800
		323	URxvt.color4: #0000A8
		324	URxvt.color5: #A800A8
		325	URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
		326	URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
		327
		328	URxvt.color8: #000054
		329	URxvt.color9: #FF0054
		330	URxvt.color10: #00FF54
		331	URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
		332	URxvt.color12: #0000FF
		333	URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
		334	URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
		335	URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
		336
		337	And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors.
		338
		339	URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
		340	URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
		341	URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
		342	URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
		343	URxvt.color0: #000000
		344	URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
		345	URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
		346	URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
		347	URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
		348	URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
		349	URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
		350	URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
		351	URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
		352	URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
		353	URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
		354	URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
		355	URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
		356	URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
		357
		358	They have been described (not by me) as "pretty girly".
		359
		360	Why do some characters look so much different than others?
		361	See next entry.
		362
		363	How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
		364	Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine.
		365	Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of your
		366	system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want to
		367	display.
		368
		369	rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font.
		370	Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
		371	bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
		372	resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
		373	intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
		374	the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
		375
		376	In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
		377	e.g.:
		378
		379	urxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...
		380
		381	When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font.
		382	If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the next
		383	font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
		384	search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
		385
		386	The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the
		387	base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size,
		388	which must be the same due to the way terminals work.
		389
		390	Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
		391	This is because there is a difference between script and language --
		392	rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is, as
		393	it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first sees a
		394	japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for display.
		395	Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many chinese
		396	characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
		397	non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese
		398	font -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font
		399	for chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
		400
		401	The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
		402	list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a
		403	preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
		404	first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
		405
		406	In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
		407	runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
		408	fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
		409	has been designed yet).
		410
		411	Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can
		412	I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
		413
		414	Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
		415	The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
		416	If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
		417	setting:
		418
		419	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
		420
		421	If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more and
		422	more.
		423
		424	To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this
		425	pattern:
		426
		427	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
		428
		429	Please also note that the *LeftClick Shift-LeftClik* combination also
		430	selects words like the old code.
		431
		432	I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
		433	You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
		434	perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps
		435	rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
		436
		437	If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
		438	identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
		439	PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the urxvtperl(3) manpage. For example, to
		440	disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify this
		441	perl-ext-common resource:
		442
		443	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
		444
		445	This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
		446	extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
		447	scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any other
		448	combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback resource:
		449
		450	URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
		451
		452	The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
		453	See next entry.
		454
		455	During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
		456	These are caused by the "readline" perl extension. Under normal
		457	circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
		458	line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
		459	but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in
		460	some cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
		461
		462	You can permanently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline"
		463	extension:
		464
202	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed	465	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
203		466
204	It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window	467	My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
205	managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow	468	Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
206	it to be embedded into other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed	469	specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is
207	or the upcoming "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt	470	caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of whether and
208	(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.	471	how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a
		472	compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please
		473	report if that helped.
209		474
210	How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?	475	My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
211	The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape	476	The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
212	sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. When	477	correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported by your
213	using the rxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the daemon.	478	input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and your input
		479	method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys) does not
		480	support this (for instance because it is not visual), then rxvt-unicode
		481	will continue without an input method.
214		482
215	I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...	483	In this case either do not specify a preeditStyle or specify more than
216	The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large	484	one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.
217	patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
218	unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
219	the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
220	version (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
221	the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific
222	to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian
223	Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug).
224		485
225	For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and	486	I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
226	probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a	487	Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
227	bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users	488	international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
228	that might encounter the same issue.	489	advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for
		490	other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default telnet
		491	escape character and so on.
229		492
230	I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any	493	Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
231	recommendation?	494	Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing some
232	You should build one binary with the default options. configure now	495	editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've heard
233	enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them	496	that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A quick
234	runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling	497	check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
235	them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter	498	depressed.
236	should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely
237	more in the future) depends on it.
238		499
239	You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" resources	500	What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
240	system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful	501	Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the Backspace
241	behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty	502	keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are
242	"perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the	503	two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
243	perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
244		504
245	If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one	505	Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
246	with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with	506	debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one and only
247	"--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of	507	correct choice :).
248	encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
249		508
250	I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?	509	Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the
251	It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly	510	value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode
252	install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.	511	wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell),
		512	then the system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in
		513	<termios.h>, will be used (which may not be the same as your stty
		514	setting).
253		515
254	When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork	516	For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
255	into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
256	systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
257	immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
258	privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
259	things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
260		517
261	This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very	518	# use Backspace = ^H
262	early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before	519	$ stty erase ^H
263	main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should	520	$ urxvt
264	result in very little risk.
265		521
		522	# use Backspace = ^?
		523	$ stty erase ^?
		524	$ urxvt
		525
		526	Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l".
		527
		528	For an existing rxvt-unicode:
		529
		530	# use Backspace = ^H
		531	$ stty erase ^H
		532	$ echo -n "^[[36h"
		533
		534	# use Backspace = ^?
		535	$ stty erase ^?
		536	$ echo -n "^[[36l"
		537
		538	This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
		539	if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
		540	properly reflects that.
		541
		542	The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace
		543	problem. To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the
		544	Delete key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for
		545	Execute ("ESC [ 3 ~") and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
		546
		547	Some other Backspace problems:
		548
		549	some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told) expect
		550	Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
		551
		552	Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
		553
		554	I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
		555	There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
		556	you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" option you can
		557	use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with
		558	keysyms.
		559
		560	Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "urxvt -name URxvt"
		561
		562	URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
		563	URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
		564	URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
		565	URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
		566	URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
		567	URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
		568	URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
		569	URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
		570	URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
		571	URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
		572	URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
		573	URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
		574	URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
		575	URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
		576	URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
		577	URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
		578	URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
		579	URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
		580	URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
		581	URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
		582
		583	See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.
		584
		585	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
		586	KP_Insert == Insert
		587	F22 == Print
		588	F27 == Home
		589	F29 == Prior
		590	F33 == End
		591	F35 == Next
		592
		593	Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various
		594	possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the
		595	keys as required for your particular machine.
		596
		597	Terminal Configuration
		598	Can I see a typical configuration?
		599	The default configuration tries to be xterm-like, which I don't like
		600	that much, but it's least surprise to regular users.
		601
		602	As a rxvt or rxvt-unicode user, you are practically supposed to invest
		603	time into customising your terminal. To get you started, here is the
		604	author's .Xdefaults entries, with comments on what they do. It's
		605	certainly not *typical*, but what's typical...
		606
		607	URxvt.cutchars: "()*,<>[]{}|'
		608	URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/tmp/xxx
		609
		610	These are just for testing stuff.
		611
		612	URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8
		613	URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None
		614
		615	This tells rxvt-unicode to use a special locale when communicating with
		616	the X Input Method, and also tells it to only use the OnTheSpot pre-edit
		617	type, which requires the "xim-onthespot" perl extension but rewards me
		618	with correct-looking fonts.
		619
		620	URxvt.perl-lib: /root/lib/urxvt
		621	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,selection-autotransform,selection-pastebin,xim-onthespot,remote-clipboard
		622	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ( at .*? line \\d+)
		623	URxvt.selection.pattern-1: ^(/[^:]+):\
		624	URxvt.selection-autotransform.0: s/^([^:[:space:]]+):(\\d+):?$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
		625	URxvt.selection-autotransform.1: s/^ at (.*?) line (\\d+)$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
		626
		627	This is my perl configuration. The first two set the perl library
		628	directory and also tells urxvt to use a large number of extensions. I
		629	develop for myself mostly, so I actually use most of the extensions I
		630	write.
		631
		632	The selection stuff mainly makes the selection perl-error-message aware
		633	and tells it to convert perl error messages into vi-commands to load the
		634	relevant file and go tot he error line number.
		635
		636	URxvt.scrollstyle: plain
		637	URxvt.secondaryScroll: true
		638
		639	As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the
		640	author. The "secondaryScroll" configures urxvt to scroll in full-screen
		641	apps, like screen, so lines scrolled out of screen end up in urxvt's
		642	scrollback buffer.
		643
		644	URxvt.background: #000000
		645	URxvt.foreground: gray90
		646	URxvt.color7: gray90
		647	URxvt.colorBD: #ffffff
		648	URxvt.cursorColor: #e0e080
		649	URxvt.throughColor: #8080f0
		650	URxvt.highlightColor: #f0f0f0
		651
		652	Some colours. Not sure which ones are being used or even non-defaults,
		653	but these are in my .Xdefaults. Most notably, they set
		654	foreground/background to light gray/black, and also make sure that the
		655	colour 7 matches the default foreground colour.
		656
		657	URxvt.underlineColor: yellow
		658
		659	Another colour, makes underline lines look different. Sometimes hurts,
		660	but is mostly a nice effect.
		661
		662	URxvt.geometry: 154x36
		663	URxvt.loginShell: false
		664	URxvt.meta: ignore
		665	URxvt.utmpInhibit: true
		666
		667	Uh, well, should be mostly self-explanatory. By specifying some defaults
		668	manually, I can quickly switch them for testing.
		669
		670	URxvt.saveLines: 8192
		671
		672	A large scrollback buffer is essential. Really.
		673
		674	URxvt.mapAlert: true
		675
		676	The only case I use it is for my IRC window, which I like to keep
		677	iconified till people msg me (which beeps).
		678
		679	URxvt.visualBell: true
		680
		681	The audible bell is often annoying, especially when in a crowd.
		682
		683	URxvt.insecure: true
		684
		685	Please don't hack my mutt! Ooops...
		686
		687	URxvt.pastableTabs: false
		688
		689	I once thought this is a great idea.
		690
		691	urxvt.font: 9x15bold,\
		692	-misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
		693	-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
		694	[codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic, \
		695	xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:autohint=true, \
		696	xft:Code2000:antialias=false
		697	urxvt.boldFont: -xos4-terminus-bold-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-15
		698	urxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
		699	urxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
		700
		701	I wrote rxvt-unicode to be able to specify fonts exactly. So don't be
		702	overwhelmed. A special note: the "9x15bold" mentioned above is actually
		703	the version from XFree-3.3, as XFree-4 replaced it by a totally
		704	different font (different glyphs for ";" and many other harmless
		705	characters), while the second font is actually the "9x15bold" from
		706	XFree4/XOrg. The bold version has less chars than the medium version, so
		707	I use it for rare characters, too. When editing sources with vim, I use
		708	italic for comments and other stuff, which looks quite good with
		709	Bitstream Vera anti-aliased.
		710
		711	Terminus is a quite bad font (many very wrong glyphs), but for most of
		712	my purposes, it works, and gives a different look, as my normal
		713	(Non-bold) font is already bold, and I want to see a difference between
		714	bold and normal fonts.
		715
		716	Please note that I used the "urxvt" instance name and not the "URxvt"
		717	class name. Thats because I use different configs for different
		718	purposes, for example, my IRC window is started with "-name IRC", and
		719	uses these defaults:
		720
		721	IRC*title: IRC
		722	IRC*geometry: 87x12+535+542
		723	IRC*saveLines: 0
		724	IRC*mapAlert: true
		725	IRC*font: suxuseuro
		726	IRC*boldFont: suxuseuro
		727	IRC*colorBD: white
		728	IRC*keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]710;suxuseuro\007\033]711;suxuseuro\007
		729	IRC*keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]710;9x15bold\007\033]711;9x15bold\007
		730
		731	"Alt-Shift-1" and "Alt-Shift-2" switch between two different font sizes.
		732	"suxuseuro" allows me to keep an eye (and actually read) stuff while
		733	keeping a very small window. If somebody pastes something complicated
		734	(e.g. japanese), I temporarily switch to a larger font.
		735
		736	The above is all in my ".Xdefaults" (I don't use ".Xresources" nor
		737	"xrdb"). I also have some resources in a separate ".Xdefaults-hostname"
		738	file for different hosts, for example, on ym main desktop, I use:
		739
		740	URxvt.keysym.C-M-q: command:\033[3;5;5t
		741	URxvt.keysym.C-M-y: command:\033[3;5;606t
		742	URxvt.keysym.C-M-e: command:\033[3;1605;5t
		743	URxvt.keysym.C-M-c: command:\033[3;1605;606t
		744	URxvt.keysym.C-M-p: perl:test
		745
		746	The first for keysym definitions allow me to quickly bring some windows
		747	in the layout I like most. Ion users might start laughing but will stop
		748	immediately when I tell them that I use my own Fvwm2 module for much the
		749	same effect as Ion provides, and I only very rarely use the above key
		750	combinations :->
		751
		752	Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
		753	Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
		754	applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
		755	resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
		756	ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
		757	$HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display.
		758
		759	If you have or use an $HOME/.Xresources file, chances are that resources
		760	are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to re-login after
		761	every change (or run xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources).
		762
		763	Also consider the form resources have to use:
		764
		765	URxvt.resource: value
		766
		767	If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
		768	specifying resources), make sure you understand whether and why it
		769	works. If unsure, use the form above.
		770
266	When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?	771	When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
267	The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available	772	The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
268	as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often	773	as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often
269	arises).	774	arises).
270		775
271	The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this	776	The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this
272	can be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp):	777	can be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp and works as user and
		778	admin):
273		779
274	REMOTE=remotesystem.domain	780	REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
275	infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"	781	infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "mkdir -p .terminfo && cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
276		782
277	... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system,	783	... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system,
		784
		785	One some systems you might need to set $TERMINFO to the full path of
		786	$HOME/.terminfo for this to work.
278		787
279	If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set	788	If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set
280	"TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of	789	"TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of
281	problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different	790	problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different
282	colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice	791	colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice
…		…
287	resource to set it:	796	resource to set it:
288		797
289	URxvt.termName: rxvt	798	URxvt.termName: rxvt
290		799
291	If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace	800	If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace
292	the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one.	801	the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use "TERM=rxvt".
293		802
294	"tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.	803	"tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
295	Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by	804	Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by
296	"enacs=\E[0@" and try again.	805	"enacs=\E[0@" and try again.
297		806
298	"bash"'s readline does not work correctly under rxvt.	807	"bash"'s readline does not work correctly under urxvt.
		808	See next entry.
		809
299	I need a termcap file entry.	810	I need a termcap file entry.
300	One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating	811	One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
301	systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap	812	systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
302	library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry	813	library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
303	for "rxvt-unicode".	814	for "rxvt-unicode".
304		815
305	You could use rxvt's termcap entry with resonable results in many cases.	816	You could use rxvt's termcap entry with reasonable results in many
306	You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp program	817	cases. You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp
307	like this:	818	program like this:
308		819
309	infocmp -C rxvt-unicode	820	infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
310		821
311	Or you could use this termcap entry, generated by the command above:	822	Or you could use this termcap entry, generated by the command above:
312		823
…		…
329	:sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\	840	:sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\
330	:te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\	841	:te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\
331	:us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\	842	:us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
332	:vs=\E[?25h:	843	:vs=\E[?25h:
333		844
334	Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output?	845	Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output?
335	The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to	846	The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
336	decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration	847	decide whether a terminal has colour, but uses its own configuration
337	file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in it's default file (among	848	file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in its default file (among
338	with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:	849	with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
339		850
340	TERM rxvt-unicode	851	TERM rxvt-unicode
341		852
342	to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add:	853	to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add:
343		854
344	alias ls='ls --color=auto'	855	alias ls='ls --color=auto'
345		856
346	to your ".profile" or ".bashrc".	857	to your ".profile" or ".bashrc".
347		858
348	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?	859	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
		860	See next entry.
		861
349	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?	862	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
		863	See next entry.
		864
350	Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?	865	Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
351	Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged	866	Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged
352	distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by	867	distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by
353	setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features.	868	setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features.
354	Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux)	869	Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux)
355	furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, so	870	furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, so
356	you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I log-in	871	you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I log-in
357	to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do	872	to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do
358	this).	873	this).
359		874
360	My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?	875	Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues
361	Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
362	specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is
363	caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of wether and
364	how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a
365	compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please
366	report if that helped.
367
368	Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?	876	Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
		877	See next entry.
		878
369	Unicode does not seem to work?	879	Unicode does not seem to work?
370	If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but	880	If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
371	getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output	881	getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output
372	is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.	882	is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
373		883
374	Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the	884	Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the
375	programs. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale, while the	885	programs running in it. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale,
376	login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the locale	886	while the login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes
377	to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this is not	887	the locale to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this
378	going to work.	888	is not going to work, and is the most common cause for problems.
379		889
380	The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely	890	The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely
381	run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your	891	run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your
382	.profile.	892	.profile.
383		893
384	printf '\e]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE"	894	printf '\33]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE" # $LANG or $LC_ALL are worth a try, too
385		895
386	If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification not	896	If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification not
387	supported on your systems. Some systems have a "locale" command which	897	supported on your systems. Some systems have a "locale" command which
388	displays this (also, "perl -e0" can be used to check locale settings, as	898	displays this (also, "perl -e0" can be used to check locale settings, as
389	it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays	899	it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays
…		…
395		905
396	If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then	906	If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
397	you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't	907	you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
398	support locales :(	908	support locales :(
399		909
400	Why do some characters look so much different than others?	910	How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
401	How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?	911	See next entry.
402	Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine.
403	Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of your
404	system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want to
405	display.
406		912
407	rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font.	913	Is there an option to switch encodings?
408	Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks	914	Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
409	bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't	915	specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know
410	resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial	916	about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
411	intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
412	the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
413		917
414	In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,	918	The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for
415	e.g.:	919	selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating
		920	this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties
		921	such as width and code number. This mechanism is the *locale*.
		922	Applications not using that info will have problems (for example,
		923	"xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses its own,
		924	locale-independent table under all locales).
416		925
417	rxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...	926	Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. All
		927	programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
		928	interpretation of characters.
418		929
419	When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font.	930	Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
420	If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the next	931	is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
421	font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
422	search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
423		932
424	The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the	933	On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable
425	base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size,	934	contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
426	which must be the same due to the way terminals work.	935	locale. Common names for locales are "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15",
		936	"ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e. "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e.
		937	"de" or "german") are also common.
427		938
428	Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?	939	Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the
429	This is because there is a difference between script and language --	940	encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e.
430	rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is, as	941	"de_DE.UTF-8" and "ja_JP.UTF-8" are the normally same to rxvt-unicode.
431	it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first sees a
432	japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for display.
433	Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many chinese
434	characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
435	non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese
436	font -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font
437	for chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
438		942
439	The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font	943	If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
440	list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a	944	rxvt-unicode with the correct "LC_CTYPE" category.
441	preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
442	first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
443		945
444	In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at	946	Can I switch locales at runtime?
445	runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different	947	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
446	fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this	948	rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE".
447	has been designed yet).
448		949
449	Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can	950	printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
450	I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
451		951
452	Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?	952	See also the previous answer.
453	Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that
454	character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal
455	use might contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode
456	will avoid these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too
457	wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent
458	characters.
459		953
460	All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,	954	Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one
461	however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed	955	locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support it (e.g.
462	bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct	956	UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which first
463	way is to ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is	957	switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
464	wrong in these cases).
465		958
466	It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,	959	printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
467	or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try	960	xjdic -js
468	using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If that doesn't	961	printf '\33]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
469	work, you might be forced to use a different font.
470		962
471	All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their	963	You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine,
472	bounding box data is correct.	964	except for some locales where character width differs between program-
		965	and rxvt-unicode-locales.
473		966
		967	I have problems getting my input method working.
		968	Try a search engine, as this is slightly different for every input
		969	method server.
		970
		971	Here is a checklist:
		972
		973	- Make sure your locale *and* the imLocale are supported on your OS.
		974	Try "locale -a" or check the documentation for your OS.
		975
		976	- Make sure your locale or imLocale matches a locale supported by your
		977	XIM.
		978	For example, kinput2 does not support UTF-8 locales, you should use
		979	"ja_JP.EUC-JP" or equivalent.
		980
		981	- Make sure your XIM server is actually running.
		982	- Make sure the "XMODIFIERS" environment variable is set correctly when
		983	*starting* rxvt-unicode.
		984	When you want to use e.g. kinput2, it must be set to "@im=kinput2".
		985	For scim, use "@im=SCIM". You can see what input method servers are
		986	running with this command:
		987
		988	xprop -root XIM_SERVERS
		989
		990	*
		991
		992	My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
		993	You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of
		994	the terminal, using the resource "imlocale":
		995
		996	URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
		997
		998	Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and still
		999	use your input method. Please note, however, that, depending on your
		1000	Xlib version, you may not be able to input characters outside "EUC-JP"
		1001	in a normal way then, as your input method limits you.
		1002
		1003	Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
		1004	Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
		1005	design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
		1006	leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
		1007	exit time. kinput2 (and derived input methods) generally succeeds, while
		1008	SCIM (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however, crashes
		1009	cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
		1010
		1011	So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
		1012
		1013	Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
		1014	I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
		1015	The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
		1016	patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
		1017	unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
		1018	the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
		1019	version (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
		1020	the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific
		1021	to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian
		1022	Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug).
		1023
		1024	For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
		1025	probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
		1026	bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users
		1027	that might encounter the same issue.
		1028
		1029	I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
		1030	You should build one binary with the default options. configure now
		1031	enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
		1032	runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enabling
		1033	them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter
		1034	should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely
		1035	more in the future) depends on it.
		1036
		1037	You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" resources
		1038	system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful
		1039	behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
		1040	"perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
		1041	perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
		1042
		1043	If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one
		1044	with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with
		1045	"--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
		1046	encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
		1047
		1048	I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
		1049	It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
		1050	install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
		1051
		1052	When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
		1053	into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
		1054	systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
		1055	immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
		1056	privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
		1057	things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
		1058
		1059	This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very
		1060	early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before
		1061	main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should
		1062	result in very little risk.
		1063
474	On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.	1064	On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.
475	Seems to be a known bug, read	1065	Seems to be a known bug, read
476	<http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the	1066	<http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the
477	following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:	1067	following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
478		1068
479	#define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)	1069	#define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)
480		1070
481	My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
482	The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
483	correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported by your
484	input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and your input
485	method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys) does not
486	support this (for instance because it is not visual), then rxvt-unicode
487	will continue without an input method.
488
489	In this case either do not specify a preeditStyle or specify more than
490	one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.
491
492	I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
493	Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
494	international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
495	advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for
496	other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default telnet
497	escape character and so on.
498
499	How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
500	First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
501	("TERM=rxvt-unicode"), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
502	make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
503	rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
504
505	URxvt.colorBD: white
506	URxvt.colorIT: green
507
508	Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
509	For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
510	colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the
511	standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of
512	course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very
513	good reasons.
514
515	In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo
516	definition to only claim 8 colour support or use "TERM=rxvt", which will
517	fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
518
519	I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.	1071	I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
520	Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined in	1072	Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined in
521	your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,	1073	your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
522	wether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that	1074	whether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that
523	wchar_t is represented as unicode.	1075	wchar_t is represented as unicode.
524		1076
525	As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symobl nor	1077	As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symbol nor
526	does it support it. Instead, it uses it's own internal representation of	1078	does it support it. Instead, it uses its own internal representation of
527	wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.	1079	wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.
528		1080
529	However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1" and	1081	However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1" and
530	"UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t.	1082	"UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t.
531		1083
…		…
545		1097
546	The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the	1098	The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
547	system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry	1099	system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
548	complete replacements for them :)	1100	complete replacements for them :)
549		1101
550	I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.	1102	I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.
551	Try the diff in doc/solaris9.patch as a base. It fixes the worst	1103	Try the diff in doc/solaris9.patch as a base. It fixes the worst
552	problems with "wcwidth" and a compile problem.	1104	problems with "wcwidth" and a compile problem.
553		1105
554	How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?	1106	How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
555	rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using the	1107	rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using the
556	X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no longer	1108	X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no longer
557	supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single	1109	supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single
558	font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or	1110	font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or
559	"-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the	1111	"-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
…		…
561		1113
562	At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any	1114	At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any
563	multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are	1115	multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are
564	likely limited to 8-bit encodings.	1116	likely limited to 8-bit encodings.
565		1117
566	How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
567	Is there an option to switch encodings?
568	Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
569	specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know
570	about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
571
572	The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for
573	selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating
574	this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties
575	such as width and code number. This mechanism is the *locale*.
576	Applications not using that info will have problems (for example,
577	"xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses it's own,
578	locale-independent table under all locales).
579
580	Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. All
581	programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
582	interpretation of characters.
583
584	Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
585	is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
586
587	On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable
588	contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
589	locale. Common names for locales are "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15",
590	"ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e. "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e.
591	"de" or "german") are also common.
592
593	Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the
594	encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e.
595	"de_DE.UTF-8" and "ja_JP.UTF-8" are the normally same to rxvt-unicode.
596
597	If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
598	rxvt-unicode with the correct "LC_CTYPE" category.
599
600	Can I switch locales at runtime?
601	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
602	rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE".
603
604	printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
605
606	See also the previous answer.
607
608	Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one
609	locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support it (e.g.
610	UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which first
611	switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
612
613	printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
614	xjdic -js
615	printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
616
617	You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine,
618	except for some locales where character width differs between program-
619	and rxvt-unicode-locales.
620
621	Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
622	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the
623	same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately:
624
625	printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
626
627	This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
628	japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
629	japanese fonts would only be in your way.
630
631	You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
632
633	Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
634	Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
635	example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
636	Mono" completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might be to
637	enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
638
639	URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
640	URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
641
642	My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
643	You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of
644	the terminal, using the resource "imlocale":
645
646	URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
647
648	Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and still
649	use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not be able
650	to input characters outside "EUC-JP" in a normal way then, as your input
651	method limits you.
652
653	Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
654	Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
655	design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
656	leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
657	exit time. kinput2 (and derived input methods) generally succeeds, while
658	SCIM (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however, crashes
659	cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
660
661	So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
662
663	Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
664	Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something
665	you don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings
666	that you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by
667	design, when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be
668	loaded accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your
669	characters.
670
671	Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
672	scrollback buffers: Without "--enable-unicode3", rxvt-unicode will use 6
673	bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
674	kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if
675	full) use 10 Megabytes of memory. With "--enable-unicode3" it gets
676	worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
677
678	Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
679	Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as it
680	is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
681	antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of
682	memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
683
684	Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
685	Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
686	fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
687	fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
688	antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
689	look best that way.
690
691	If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
692
693	Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
694	Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing some
695	editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've heard
696	that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A quick
697	check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
698	depressed.
699
700	What's with this bold/blink stuff?
701	If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using the
702	standard foreground colour.
703
704	For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text
705	blink when compiled with "--enable-blinking". with standard colours.
706	Without "--enable-blinking", the blink attribute will be ignored.
707
708	On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
709	foreground/background colors.
710
711	color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
712
713	color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
714
715	I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
716	You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults
717	resources (or as long-options).
718
719	Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, including
720	the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
721
722	URxvt.color0: #000000
723	URxvt.color1: #A80000
724	URxvt.color2: #00A800
725	URxvt.color3: #A8A800
726	URxvt.color4: #0000A8
727	URxvt.color5: #A800A8
728	URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
729	URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
730
731	URxvt.color8: #000054
732	URxvt.color9: #FF0054
733	URxvt.color10: #00FF54
734	URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
735	URxvt.color12: #0000FF
736	URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
737	URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
738	URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
739
740	And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described (not by
741	me) as "pretty girly".
742
743	URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
744	URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
745	URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
746	URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
747	URxvt.color0: #000000
748	URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
749	URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
750	URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
751	URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
752	URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
753	URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
754	URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
755	URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
756	URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
757	URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
758	URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
759	URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
760	URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
761
762	How can I start rxvtd in a race-free way?
763	Try "rxvtd -f -o", which tells rxvtd to open the display, create the
764	listening socket and then fork.
765
766	What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
767	Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the BackSpace
768	keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are
769	two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
770
771	Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
772	debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one only only
773	correct choice :).
774
775	Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the
776	value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode
777	wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell),
778	then the system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in
779	<termios.h>, will be used (which may not be the same as your stty
780	setting).
781
782	For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
783
784	# use Backspace = ^H
785	$ stty erase ^H
786	$ rxvt
787
788	# use Backspace = ^?
789	$ stty erase ^?
790	$ rxvt
791
792	Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l".
793
794	For an existing rxvt-unicode:
795
796	# use Backspace = ^H
797	$ stty erase ^H
798	$ echo -n "^[[36h"
799
800	# use Backspace = ^?
801	$ stty erase ^?
802	$ echo -n "^[[36l"
803
804	This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
805	if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
806	properly reflects that.
807
808	The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace
809	problem. To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the
810	Delete key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for
811	Execute ("ESC [ 3 ~") and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
812
813	Some other Backspace problems:
814
815	some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told) expect
816	Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
817
818	Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
819
820	I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
821	There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
822	you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" option you can
823	use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with
824	keysyms.
825
826	Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "rxvt -name URxvt"
827
828	URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
829	URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
830	URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
831	URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
832	URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
833	URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
834	URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
835	URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
836	URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
837	URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
838	URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
839	URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
840	URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
841	URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
842	URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
843	URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
844	URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
845	URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
846	URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
847	URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
848
849	See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.
850
851	I'm using keyboard model XXX that has extra Prior/Next/Insert keys.
852	How do I make use of them? For example, the Sun Keyboard type 4
853	has the following mappings that rxvt-unicode doesn't recognize.
854	KP_Insert == Insert
855	F22 == Print
856	F27 == Home
857	F29 == Prior
858	F33 == End
859	F35 == Next
860
861	Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various
862	possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the
863	keys as required for your particular machine.
864
865	How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm?
866	I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
867	rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you can
868	check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED, slrn,
869	Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide whether
870	or not to use color.
871
872	How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
873	If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
874	insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
875	snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
876	wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets)
877	then the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from
878	a regular xterm.
879
880	Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
881	snippets:
882
883	# Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
884	[ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
885	if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
886	stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
887	echo -n '^[Z'
888	read term_id
889	stty icanon echo
890	if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
891	echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
892	read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
893	fi
894	fi
895
896	How do I compile the manual pages for myself?
897	You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,
898	one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2html. Then go to the doc
899	subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
900
901	My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
902	Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net", channel
903	"#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
904	interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
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