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Revision 1.37 by root, Tue Jan 31 00:58:20 2006 UTC vs.
Revision 1.53 by root, Mon Dec 24 08:00:14 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
…		…
183		160
184	And here is rxvt-unicode:	161	And here is rxvt-unicode:
185		162
186	libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)	163	libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
187	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)	164	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)
188	libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)	165	libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
189	libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)	166	libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
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, please address all transparency related issues to Sasha
198	should give you tabs:	175	Vasko at sasha@aftercode.net and do not bug the author about it. Also,
		176	if you can't get it working consider it a rite of passage: ... and you
		177	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 transparent mode:
		183
		184	Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
		185	urxvt -tr -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.jpg
		195	urxvt -pixmap "background.jpg;:root"
		196
		197	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack AfterImage support, or you
		198	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-text-blink". Without
		303	"--enable-text-blink", 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	How can I make mplayer display video correctly?
		415	We are working on it, in the meantime, as a workaround, use something
		416	like:
		417
		418	urxvt -b 600 -geometry 20x1 -e sh -c 'mplayer -wid $WINDOWID file...'
		419
		420	Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
		421	The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
		422	If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
		423	setting:
		424
		425	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
		426
		427	If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more and
		428	more.
		429
		430	To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this
		431	pattern:
		432
		433	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
		434
		435	Please also note that the *LeftClick Shift-LeftClick* combination also
		436	selects words like the old code.
		437
		438	I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
		439	You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
		440	perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps
		441	rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
		442
		443	If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
		444	identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
		445	PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the urxvtperl(3) manpage. For example, to
		446	disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify this
		447	perl-ext-common resource:
		448
		449	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
		450
		451	This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
		452	extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
		453	scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any other
		454	combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback resource:
		455
		456	URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
		457
		458	The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
		459	See next entry.
		460
		461	During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
		462	These are caused by the "readline" perl extension. Under normal
		463	circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
		464	line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
		465	but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in
		466	some cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
		467
		468	You can permanently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline"
		469	extension:
		470
202	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed	471	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
203		472
204	It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window	473	My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
205	managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow	474	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	475	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	476	caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of whether and
208	(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.	477	how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a
		478	compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please
		479	report if that helped.
209		480
210	How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?	481	My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
211	The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape	482	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	483	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.	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.
214		488
215	I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...	489	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	490	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		491
225	For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and	492	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	493	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	494	international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
228	that might encounter the same issue.	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.
229		498
230	I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any	499	Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
231	recommendation?	500	Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing some
232	You should build one binary with the default options. configure now	501	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	502	that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A quick
234	runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling	503	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	504	depressed.
236	should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely
237	more in the future) depends on it.
238		505
239	You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" resources	506	What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
240	system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful	507	Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the Backspace
241	behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty	508	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	509	two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
243	perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
244		510
245	If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one	511	Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
246	with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with	512	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	513	correct choice :).
248	encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
249		514
250	I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?	515	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	516	value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode
252	install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.	517	wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell),
		518	then the system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in
		519	<termios.h>, will be used (which may not be the same as your stty
		520	setting).
253		521
254	When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork	522	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		523
261	This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very	524	# use Backspace = ^H
262	early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before	525	$ stty erase ^H
263	main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should	526	$ urxvt
264	result in very little risk.
265		527
		528	# use Backspace = ^?
		529	$ stty erase ^?
		530	$ urxvt
		531
		532	Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l".
		533
		534	For an existing rxvt-unicode:
		535
		536	# use Backspace = ^H
		537	$ stty erase ^H
		538	$ echo -n "^[[36h"
		539
		540	# use Backspace = ^?
		541	$ stty erase ^?
		542	$ echo -n "^[[36l"
		543
		544	This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
		545	if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
		546	properly reflects that.
		547
		548	The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace
		549	problem. To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the
		550	Delete key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for
		551	Execute ("ESC [ 3 ~") and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
		552
		553	Some other Backspace problems:
		554
		555	some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told) expect
		556	Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
		557
		558	Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
		559
		560	I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
		561	There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
		562	you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" option you can
		563	use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with
		564	keysyms.
		565
		566	Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "urxvt -name URxvt"
		567
		568	URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
		569	URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
		570	URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
		571	URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
		572	URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
		573	URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
		574	URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
		575	URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
		576	URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
		577	URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
		578	URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
		579	URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
		580	URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
		581	URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
		582	URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
		583	URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
		584	URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
		585	URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
		586	URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
		587	URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
		588
		589	See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.
		590
		591	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
		592	KP_Insert == Insert
		593	F22 == Print
		594	F27 == Home
		595	F29 == Prior
		596	F33 == End
		597	F35 == Next
		598
		599	Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various
		600	possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the
		601	keys as required for your particular machine.
		602
		603	Terminal Configuration
		604	Can I see a typical configuration?
		605	The default configuration tries to be xterm-like, which I don't like
		606	that much, but it's least surprise to regular users.
		607
		608	As a rxvt or rxvt-unicode user, you are practically supposed to invest
		609	time into customising your terminal. To get you started, here is the
		610	author's .Xdefaults entries, with comments on what they do. It's
		611	certainly not *typical*, but what's typical...
		612
		613	URxvt.cutchars: "()*,<>[]{}|'
		614	URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/tmp/xxx
		615
		616	These are just for testing stuff.
		617
		618	URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8
		619	URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None
		620
		621	This tells rxvt-unicode to use a special locale when communicating with
		622	the X Input Method, and also tells it to only use the OnTheSpot pre-edit
		623	type, which requires the "xim-onthespot" perl extension but rewards me
		624	with correct-looking fonts.
		625
		626	URxvt.perl-lib: /root/lib/urxvt
		627	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,selection-autotransform,selection-pastebin,xim-onthespot,remote-clipboard
		628	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ( at .*? line \\d+)
		629	URxvt.selection.pattern-1: ^(/[^:]+):\
		630	URxvt.selection-autotransform.0: s/^([^:[:space:]]+):(\\d+):?$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
		631	URxvt.selection-autotransform.1: s/^ at (.*?) line (\\d+)$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
		632
		633	This is my perl configuration. The first two set the perl library
		634	directory and also tells urxvt to use a large number of extensions. I
		635	develop for myself mostly, so I actually use most of the extensions I
		636	write.
		637
		638	The selection stuff mainly makes the selection perl-error-message aware
		639	and tells it to convert perl error messages into vi-commands to load the
		640	relevant file and go tot he error line number.
		641
		642	URxvt.scrollstyle: plain
		643	URxvt.secondaryScroll: true
		644
		645	As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the
		646	author. The "secondaryScroll" configures urxvt to scroll in full-screen
		647	apps, like screen, so lines scrolled out of screen end up in urxvt's
		648	scrollback buffer.
		649
		650	URxvt.background: #000000
		651	URxvt.foreground: gray90
		652	URxvt.color7: gray90
		653	URxvt.colorBD: #ffffff
		654	URxvt.cursorColor: #e0e080
		655	URxvt.throughColor: #8080f0
		656	URxvt.highlightColor: #f0f0f0
		657
		658	Some colours. Not sure which ones are being used or even non-defaults,
		659	but these are in my .Xdefaults. Most notably, they set
		660	foreground/background to light gray/black, and also make sure that the
		661	colour 7 matches the default foreground colour.
		662
		663	URxvt.underlineColor: yellow
		664
		665	Another colour, makes underline lines look different. Sometimes hurts,
		666	but is mostly a nice effect.
		667
		668	URxvt.geometry: 154x36
		669	URxvt.loginShell: false
		670	URxvt.meta: ignore
		671	URxvt.utmpInhibit: true
		672
		673	Uh, well, should be mostly self-explanatory. By specifying some defaults
		674	manually, I can quickly switch them for testing.
		675
		676	URxvt.saveLines: 8192
		677
		678	A large scrollback buffer is essential. Really.
		679
		680	URxvt.mapAlert: true
		681
		682	The only case I use it is for my IRC window, which I like to keep
		683	iconified till people msg me (which beeps).
		684
		685	URxvt.visualBell: true
		686
		687	The audible bell is often annoying, especially when in a crowd.
		688
		689	URxvt.insecure: true
		690
		691	Please don't hack my mutt! Ooops...
		692
		693	URxvt.pastableTabs: false
		694
		695	I once thought this is a great idea.
		696
		697	urxvt.font: 9x15bold,\
		698	-misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
		699	-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
		700	[codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic, \
		701	xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:autohint=true, \
		702	xft:Code2000:antialias=false
		703	urxvt.boldFont: -xos4-terminus-bold-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-15
		704	urxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
		705	urxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
		706
		707	I wrote rxvt-unicode to be able to specify fonts exactly. So don't be
		708	overwhelmed. A special note: the "9x15bold" mentioned above is actually
		709	the version from XFree-3.3, as XFree-4 replaced it by a totally
		710	different font (different glyphs for ";" and many other harmless
		711	characters), while the second font is actually the "9x15bold" from
		712	XFree4/XOrg. The bold version has less chars than the medium version, so
		713	I use it for rare characters, too. When editing sources with vim, I use
		714	italic for comments and other stuff, which looks quite good with
		715	Bitstream Vera anti-aliased.
		716
		717	Terminus is a quite bad font (many very wrong glyphs), but for most of
		718	my purposes, it works, and gives a different look, as my normal
		719	(Non-bold) font is already bold, and I want to see a difference between
		720	bold and normal fonts.
		721
		722	Please note that I used the "urxvt" instance name and not the "URxvt"
		723	class name. Thats because I use different configs for different
		724	purposes, for example, my IRC window is started with "-name IRC", and
		725	uses these defaults:
		726
		727	IRC*title: IRC
		728	IRC*geometry: 87x12+535+542
		729	IRC*saveLines: 0
		730	IRC*mapAlert: true
		731	IRC*font: suxuseuro
		732	IRC*boldFont: suxuseuro
		733	IRC*colorBD: white
		734	IRC*keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]710;suxuseuro\007\033]711;suxuseuro\007
		735	IRC*keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]710;9x15bold\007\033]711;9x15bold\007
		736
		737	"Alt-Shift-1" and "Alt-Shift-2" switch between two different font sizes.
		738	"suxuseuro" allows me to keep an eye (and actually read) stuff while
		739	keeping a very small window. If somebody pastes something complicated
		740	(e.g. japanese), I temporarily switch to a larger font.
		741
		742	The above is all in my ".Xdefaults" (I don't use ".Xresources" nor
		743	"xrdb"). I also have some resources in a separate ".Xdefaults-hostname"
		744	file for different hosts, for example, on ym main desktop, I use:
		745
		746	URxvt.keysym.C-M-q: command:\033[3;5;5t
		747	URxvt.keysym.C-M-y: command:\033[3;5;606t
		748	URxvt.keysym.C-M-e: command:\033[3;1605;5t
		749	URxvt.keysym.C-M-c: command:\033[3;1605;606t
		750	URxvt.keysym.C-M-p: perl:test
		751
		752	The first for keysym definitions allow me to quickly bring some windows
		753	in the layout I like most. Ion users might start laughing but will stop
		754	immediately when I tell them that I use my own Fvwm2 module for much the
		755	same effect as Ion provides, and I only very rarely use the above key
		756	combinations :->
		757
		758	Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
		759	Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
		760	applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
		761	resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
		762	ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
		763	$HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display.
		764
		765	If you have or use an $HOME/.Xresources file, chances are that resources
		766	are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to re-login after
		767	every change (or run xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources).
		768
		769	Also consider the form resources have to use:
		770
		771	URxvt.resource: value
		772
		773	If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
		774	specifying resources), make sure you understand whether and why it
		775	works. If unsure, use the form above.
		776
266	When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?	777	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	778	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	779	as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often
269	arises).	780	arises).
270		781
271	The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this	782	The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this
272	can be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp):	783	can be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp and works as user and
		784	admin):
273		785
274	REMOTE=remotesystem.domain	786	REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
275	infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"	787	infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "mkdir -p .terminfo && cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
276		788
277	... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system,	789	... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system,
		790
		791	One some systems you might need to set $TERMINFO to the full path of
		792	$HOME/.terminfo for this to work.
278		793
279	If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set	794	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	795	"TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of
281	problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different	796	problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different
282	colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice	797	colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice
…		…
287	resource to set it:	802	resource to set it:
288		803
289	URxvt.termName: rxvt	804	URxvt.termName: rxvt
290		805
291	If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace	806	If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace
292	the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one.	807	the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use "TERM=rxvt".
293		808
294	"tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.	809	"tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
295	Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by	810	Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by
296	"enacs=\E[0@" and try again.	811	"enacs=\E[0@" and try again.
297		812
298	"bash"'s readline does not work correctly under rxvt.	813	"bash"'s readline does not work correctly under urxvt.
		814	See next entry.
		815
299	I need a termcap file entry.	816	I need a termcap file entry.
300	One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating	817	One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
301	systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap	818	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	819	library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
303	for "rxvt-unicode".	820	for "rxvt-unicode".
304		821
305	You could use rxvt's termcap entry with resonable results in many cases.	822	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	823	cases. You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp
307	like this:	824	program like this:
308		825
309	infocmp -C rxvt-unicode	826	infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
310		827
311	Or you could use this termcap entry, generated by the command above:	828	Or you could use this termcap entry, generated by the command above:
312		829
…		…
329	:sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\	846	: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:\	847	: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:\	848	:us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
332	:vs=\E[?25h:	849	:vs=\E[?25h:
333		850
334	Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output?	851	Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output?
335	The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to	852	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	853	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	854	file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in its default file (among
338	with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:	855	with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
339		856
340	TERM rxvt-unicode	857	TERM rxvt-unicode
341		858
342	to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add:	859	to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add:
343		860
344	alias ls='ls --color=auto'	861	alias ls='ls --color=auto'
345		862
346	to your ".profile" or ".bashrc".	863	to your ".profile" or ".bashrc".
347		864
348	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?	865	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
		866	See next entry.
		867
349	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?	868	Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
		869	See next entry.
		870
350	Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?	871	Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
351	Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged	872	Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged
352	distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by	873	distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by
353	setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features.	874	setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features.
354	Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux)	875	Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux)
355	furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, so	876	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	877	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	878	to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do
358	this).	879	this).
359		880
360	My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?	881	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?	882	Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
		883	See next entry.
		884
369	Unicode does not seem to work?	885	Unicode does not seem to work?
370	If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but	886	If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
371	getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output	887	getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output
372	is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.	888	is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
373		889
374	Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the	890	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	891	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	892	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	893	the locale to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this
378	going to work.	894	is not going to work, and is the most common cause for problems.
379		895
380	The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely	896	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	897	run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your
382	.profile.	898	.profile.
383		899
384	printf '\e]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE"	900	printf '\33]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE" # $LANG or $LC_ALL are worth a try, too
385		901
386	If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification not	902	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	903	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	904	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	905	it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays
…		…
395		911
396	If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then	912	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	913	you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
398	support locales :(	914	support locales :(
399		915
400	Why do some characters look so much different than others?	916	How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
401	How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?	917	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		918
407	rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font.	919	Is there an option to switch encodings?
408	Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks	920	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	921	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	922	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		923
414	In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,	924	The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for
415	e.g.:	925	selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating
		926	this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties
		927	such as width and code number. This mechanism is the *locale*.
		928	Applications not using that info will have problems (for example,
		929	"xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses its own,
		930	locale-independent table under all locales).
416		931
417	rxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...	932	Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. All
		933	programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
		934	interpretation of characters.
418		935
419	When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font.	936	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	937	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		938
424	The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the	939	On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable
425	base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size,	940	contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
426	which must be the same due to the way terminals work.	941	locale. Common names for locales are "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15",
		942	"ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e. "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e.
		943	"de" or "german") are also common.
427		944
428	Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?	945	Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the
429	This is because there is a difference between script and language --	946	encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e.
430	rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is, as	947	"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		948
439	The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font	949	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	950	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		951
444	In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at	952	Can I switch locales at runtime?
445	runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different	953	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	954	rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE".
447	has been designed yet).
448		955
449	Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can	956	printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
450	I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
451		957
452	Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?	958	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		959
460	All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,	960	Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one
461	however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed	961	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	962	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	963	switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
464	wrong in these cases).
465		964
466	It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,	965	printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
467	or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try	966	xjdic -js
468	using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If that doesn't	967	printf '\33]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
469	work, you might be forced to use a different font.
470		968
471	All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their	969	You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine,
472	bounding box data is correct.	970	except for some locales where character width differs between program-
		971	and rxvt-unicode-locales.
473		972
474	On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.	973	I have problems getting my input method working.
475	Seems to be a known bug, read	974	Try a search engine, as this is slightly different for every input
476	<http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the	975	method server.
477	following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
478		976
479	#define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)	977	Here is a checklist:
480		978
481	My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.	979	- Make sure your locale *and* the imLocale are supported on your OS.
482	The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set	980	Try "locale -a" or check the documentation for your OS.
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		981
489	In this case either do not specify a preeditStyle or specify more than	982	- Make sure your locale or imLocale matches a locale supported by your
490	one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.	983	XIM.
		984	For example, kinput2 does not support UTF-8 locales, you should use
		985	"ja_JP.EUC-JP" or equivalent.
491		986
492	I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755	987	- Make sure your XIM server is actually running.
493	Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on	988	- Make sure the "XMODIFIERS" environment variable is set correctly when
494	international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your	989	*starting* rxvt-unicode.
495	advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for	990	When you want to use e.g. kinput2, it must be set to "@im=kinput2".
496	other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default telnet	991	For scim, use "@im=SCIM". You can see what input method servers are
497	escape character and so on.	992	running with this command:
498		993
499	How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?	994	xprop -root XIM_SERVERS
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		995
505	URxvt.colorBD: white	996	*
506	URxvt.colorIT: green
507		997
508	Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?	998	My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
509	For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird	999	You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of
510	colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the	1000	the terminal, using the resource "imlocale":
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		1001
515	In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo	1002	URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
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		1003
		1004	Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and still
		1005	use your input method. Please note, however, that, depending on your
		1006	Xlib version, you may not be able to input characters outside "EUC-JP"
		1007	in a normal way then, as your input method limits you.
		1008
		1009	Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
		1010	Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
		1011	design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
		1012	leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
		1013	exit time. kinput2 (and derived input methods) generally succeeds, while
		1014	SCIM (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however, crashes
		1015	cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
		1016
		1017	So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
		1018
		1019	Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
		1020	I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
		1021	The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
		1022	patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
		1023	unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
		1024	the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
		1025	version (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
		1026	the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific
		1027	to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian
		1028	Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug).
		1029
		1030	For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
		1031	probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
		1032	bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users
		1033	that might encounter the same issue.
		1034
		1035	I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
		1036	You should build one binary with the default options. configure now
		1037	enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
		1038	runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enabling
		1039	them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter
		1040	should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely
		1041	more in the future) depends on it.
		1042
		1043	You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" resources
		1044	system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful
		1045	behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
		1046	"perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
		1047	perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
		1048
		1049	If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one
		1050	with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with
		1051	"--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
		1052	encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
		1053
		1054	I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
		1055	It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
		1056	install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
		1057
		1058	When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
		1059	into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
		1060	systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
		1061	immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
		1062	privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
		1063	things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
		1064
		1065	This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very
		1066	early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before
		1067	main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should
		1068	result in very little risk.
		1069
519	I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.	1070	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	1071	Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined in
521	your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,	1072	your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
522	wether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that	1073	whether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that
523	wchar_t is represented as unicode.	1074	wchar_t is represented as unicode.
524		1075
525	As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symobl nor	1076	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	1077	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.	1078	wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.
528		1079
529	However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1" and	1080	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.	1081	"UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t.
531		1082
…		…
545		1096
546	The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the	1097	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	1098	system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
548	complete replacements for them :)	1099	complete replacements for them :)
549		1100
550	I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.
551	Try the diff in doc/solaris9.patch as a base. It fixes the worst
552	problems with "wcwidth" and a compile problem.
553
554	How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?	1101	How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
555	rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using the	1102	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	1103	X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no longer
557	supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single	1104	supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single
558	font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or	1105	font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or
559	"-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the	1106	"-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
…		…
561		1108
562	At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any	1109	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	1110	multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are
564	likely limited to 8-bit encodings.	1111	likely limited to 8-bit encodings.
565		1112
566	How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?	1113	Character widths are not correct.
567	Is there an option to switch encodings?	1114	urxvt uses the system wcwidth function to know the information about the
568	Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no	1115	width of characters, so on systems with incorrect locale data you will
569	specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know	1116	likely get bad results. Two notorious examples are Solaris 9, where
570	about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.	1117	single-width characters like U+2514 are reported as double-width, and
		1118	Darwin 8, where combining chars are reported having width 1.
571		1119
572	The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for	1120	The solution is to upgrade your system or switch to a better one. A
573	selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating	1121	possibly working workaround is to use a wcwidth implementation like
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		1122
580	Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. All	1123	http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/wcwidth.c
581	programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
582	interpretation of characters.
583		1124
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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