[ViewVC] Diff of: cvs/rxvt-unicode/README.FAQ

Comparing rxvt-unicode/README.FAQ (file contents):
Revision 1.40 by root, Tue Jan 31 20:57:29 2006 UTC vs.
Revision 1.54 by root, Fri Jan 25 18:42:22 2008 UTC

-FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
+RXVT-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
   Meta, Features & Commandline Issues
    My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
     Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net", channel
     "#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
     interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
    How can I start urxvtd in a race-free way?
     Try "urxvtd -f -o", which tells urxvtd to open the display, create the
     listening socket and then fork.
+   How can I start urxvtd automatically when I run urxvtc?
+    If you want to start urxvtd automatically whenever you run urxvtc and
+    the daemon isn't running yet, use this script:
+       #!/bin/sh
+       urxvtc "$@"
+       if [ $? -eq 2 ]; then
+          urxvtd -q -o -f
+          urxvtc "$@"
+       fi
+    This tries to create a new terminal, and if fails with exit status 2,
+    meaning it couldn't connect to the daemon, it will start the daemon and
+    re-run the command. Subsequent invocations of the script will re-use the
+    existing daemon.
-   How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
+   How do I distinguish whether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
-    rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you can
+    The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable
-    check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED, slrn,
+    "COLORTERM", so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several
-    Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide whether
+    programs, JED, slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this
-    or not to use color.
+    variable to decide whether or not to use color.
    How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
     If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
     insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
     snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
           fi
        fi
    How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
     You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,
-    one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2html. Then go to the doc
+    one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2xhtml (from Pod::Xhtml).
-    subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
+    Then go to the doc subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
    Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
     I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra
     bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see
     that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always
         text    data     bss     drs     rss filename
        98398    1664      24   15695    1824 rxvt --disable-everything
       188985    9048   66616   18222    1788 urxvt --disable-everything
-    When you "--enable-everything" (which _is_ unfair, as this involves xft
+    When you "--enable-everything" (which *is* unfair, as this involves xft
     and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my
-    libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so.
+    libc), the two diverge, but not unreasonably so.
         text    data     bss     drs     rss filename
       163431    2152      24   20123    2060 rxvt --enable-everything
      1035683   49680   66648   29096    3680 urxvt --enable-everything
     And here is rxvt-unicode:
        libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
        libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
        /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
     No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
     except maybe libX11 :)
   Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues
    I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
-    First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode,
+    First of all, please address all transparency related issues to Sasha
-    so you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you
+    Vasko at sasha@aftercode.net and do not bug the author about it. Also,
-    may bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a
+    if you can't get it working consider it a rite of passage: ... and you
-    rite of passage: ... and you failed.
+    failed.
     Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option
     descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
-    1. Use inheritPixmap:
+    1. Use transparent mode:
        Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
-       urxvt -ip -tint red -sh 40
+       urxvt -tr -tint red -sh 40
     That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
     support, or you are unable to read.
     2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
     to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
     your picture with gimp or any other tool:
-       convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm
+       convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.jpg
-       urxvt -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background
+       urxvt -pixmap "background.jpg;:root"
-    That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or
+    That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack AfterImage support, or you
-    you are unable to read.
+    are unable to read.
     3. Use an ARGB visual:
        urxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
     This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
     doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
     there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the
-    neccessary bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work,
+    necessary bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but
-    but that doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
+    that doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
     4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
       xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
             -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
     Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace 0xc0000000
     by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
     your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
-   Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
-    This is because there is a difference between script and language --
-    rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is, as
-    it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first sees a
-    japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for display.
-    Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many chinese
-    characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
-    non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese
-    font -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font
-    for chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
-    The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
-    list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a
-    preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
-    first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
-    In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
-    runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
-    fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
-    has been designed yet).
-    Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can
-    I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
    Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
     Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that
     character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal
     use might contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode
     however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed
     bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct
     way is to ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is
     wrong in these cases).
-    It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
+    It's not clear (to me at least), whether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
     or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try
     using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If that doesn't
     work, you might be forced to use a different font.
     All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their
    Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
     Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the
     same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately:
-       printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
+       printf '\33]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
     This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
     japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
     japanese fonts would only be in your way.
     You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
    Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
     Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
     example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
-    Mono" completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might be to
+    Mono" completely fails in its italic face. A workaround might be to
     enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
        URxvt.italicFont:        xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
        URxvt.boldItalicFont:    xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
     antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of
     memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
    Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
     Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
-    fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
+    fall back to its default font search list it will prefer X11 core fonts,
-    fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
+    because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
     antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
     look best that way.
     If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
    What's with this bold/blink stuff?
     If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using the
     standard foreground colour.
     For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text
-    blink when compiled with "--enable-blinking". with standard colours.
+    blink when compiled with "--enable-text-blink". Without
-    Without "--enable-blinking", the blink attribute will be ignored.
+    "--enable-text-blink", the blink attribute will be ignored.
     On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
     foreground/background colors.
     color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
        URxvt.color12:  #0000FF
        URxvt.color13:  #FF00FF
        URxvt.color14:  #00FFFF
        URxvt.color15:  #FFFFFF
-    And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described (not by
+    And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors.
-    me) as "pretty girly".
        URxvt.cursorColor:  #dc74d1
        URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
        URxvt.background:   #0e0e0e
        URxvt.foreground:   #4ad5e1
        URxvt.color6:       #73f7ff
        URxvt.color14:      #73f7ff
        URxvt.color7:       #e1dddd
        URxvt.color15:      #e1dddd
+    They have been described (not by me) as "pretty girly".
    Why do some characters look so much different than others?
     See next entry.
    How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
     Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine.
     In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
     e.g.:
        urxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...
     When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font.
     If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the next
     font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
     search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
     The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the
     base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size,
     which must be the same due to the way terminals work.
+   Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
+    This is because there is a difference between script and language --
+    rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is, as
+    it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first sees a
+    japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for display.
+    Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many chinese
+    characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
+    non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese
+    font -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font
+    for chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
+    The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
+    list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a
+    preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
+    first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
+    In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
+    runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
+    fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
+    has been designed yet).
+    Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can
+    I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
+   How can I make mplayer display video correctly?
+    We are working on it, in the meantime, as a workaround, use something
+    like:
+       urxvt -b 600 -geometry 20x1 -e sh -c 'mplayer -wid $WINDOWID file...'
   Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
    The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
     If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
     setting:
     To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this
     pattern:
        URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
-    Please also note that the *LeftClick Shift-LeftClik* combination also
+    Please also note that the *LeftClick Shift-LeftClick* combination also
     selects words like the old code.
    I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
     You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
     perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps
     circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
     line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
     but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in
     some cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
-    You can permamently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline"
+    You can permanently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline"
     extension:
        URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
    My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
     Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
     specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is
-    caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of wether and
+    caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of whether and
     how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a
     compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please
     report if that helped.
    My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
     that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A quick
     check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
     depressed.
    What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
-    Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the BackSpace
+    Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the Backspace
     keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are
     two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
     Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
-    debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one only only
+    debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one and only
     correct choice :).
     Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the
     value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode
     wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell),
     Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various
     possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the
     keys as required for your particular machine.
   Terminal Configuration
+   Can I see a typical configuration?
+    The default configuration tries to be xterm-like, which I don't like
+    that much, but it's least surprise to regular users.
+    As a rxvt or rxvt-unicode user, you are practically supposed to invest
+    time into customising your terminal. To get you started, here is the
+    author's .Xdefaults entries, with comments on what they do. It's
+    certainly not *typical*, but what's typical...
+       URxvt.cutchars: "()*,<>[]{}|'
+       URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/tmp/xxx
+    These are just for testing stuff.
+       URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8
+       URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None
+    This tells rxvt-unicode to use a special locale when communicating with
+    the X Input Method, and also tells it to only use the OnTheSpot pre-edit
+    type, which requires the "xim-onthespot" perl extension but rewards me
+    with correct-looking fonts.
+       URxvt.perl-lib: /root/lib/urxvt
+       URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,selection-autotransform,selection-pastebin,xim-onthespot,remote-clipboard
+       URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ( at .*? line \\d+)
+       URxvt.selection.pattern-1: ^(/[^:]+):\
+       URxvt.selection-autotransform.0: s/^([^:[:space:]]+):(\\d+):?$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
+       URxvt.selection-autotransform.1: s/^ at (.*?) line (\\d+)$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
+    This is my perl configuration. The first two set the perl library
+    directory and also tells urxvt to use a large number of extensions. I
+    develop for myself mostly, so I actually use most of the extensions I
+    write.
+    The selection stuff mainly makes the selection perl-error-message aware
+    and tells it to convert perl error messages into vi-commands to load the
+    relevant file and go tot he error line number.
+       URxvt.scrollstyle:      plain
+       URxvt.secondaryScroll:  true
+    As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the
+    author. The "secondaryScroll" configures urxvt to scroll in full-screen
+    apps, like screen, so lines scrolled out of screen end up in urxvt's
+    scrollback buffer.
+       URxvt.background:       #000000
+       URxvt.foreground:       gray90
+       URxvt.color7:           gray90
+       URxvt.colorBD:          #ffffff
+       URxvt.cursorColor:      #e0e080
+       URxvt.throughColor:     #8080f0
+       URxvt.highlightColor:   #f0f0f0
+    Some colours. Not sure which ones are being used or even non-defaults,
+    but these are in my .Xdefaults. Most notably, they set
+    foreground/background to light gray/black, and also make sure that the
+    colour 7 matches the default foreground colour.
+       URxvt.underlineColor:   yellow
+    Another colour, makes underline lines look different. Sometimes hurts,
+    but is mostly a nice effect.
+       URxvt.geometry:         154x36
+       URxvt.loginShell:       false
+       URxvt.meta:             ignore
+       URxvt.utmpInhibit:      true
+    Uh, well, should be mostly self-explanatory. By specifying some defaults
+    manually, I can quickly switch them for testing.
+       URxvt.saveLines:        8192
+    A large scrollback buffer is essential. Really.
+       URxvt.mapAlert:         true
+    The only case I use it is for my IRC window, which I like to keep
+    iconified till people msg me (which beeps).
+       URxvt.visualBell:       true
+    The audible bell is often annoying, especially when in a crowd.
+       URxvt.insecure:         true
+    Please don't hack my mutt! Ooops...
+       URxvt.pastableTabs:     false
+    I once thought this is a great idea.
+       urxvt.font:             9x15bold,\
+                               -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
+                               -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
+                               [codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic, \
+                               xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:autohint=true, \
+                               xft:Code2000:antialias=false
+       urxvt.boldFont:         -xos4-terminus-bold-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-15
+       urxvt.italicFont:       xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
+       urxvt.boldItalicFont:   xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
+    I wrote rxvt-unicode to be able to specify fonts exactly. So don't be
+    overwhelmed. A special note: the "9x15bold" mentioned above is actually
+    the version from XFree-3.3, as XFree-4 replaced it by a totally
+    different font (different glyphs for ";" and many other harmless
+    characters), while the second font is actually the "9x15bold" from
+    XFree4/XOrg. The bold version has less chars than the medium version, so
+    I use it for rare characters, too. When editing sources with vim, I use
+    italic for comments and other stuff, which looks quite good with
+    Bitstream Vera anti-aliased.
+    Terminus is a quite bad font (many very wrong glyphs), but for most of
+    my purposes, it works, and gives a different look, as my normal
+    (Non-bold) font is already bold, and I want to see a difference between
+    bold and normal fonts.
+    Please note that I used the "urxvt" instance name and not the "URxvt"
+    class name. Thats because I use different configs for different
+    purposes, for example, my IRC window is started with "-name IRC", and
+    uses these defaults:
+       IRC*title:              IRC
+       IRC*geometry:           87x12+535+542
+       IRC*saveLines:          0
+       IRC*mapAlert:           true
+       IRC*font:               suxuseuro
+       IRC*boldFont:           suxuseuro
+       IRC*colorBD:            white
+       IRC*keysym.M-C-1:       command:\033]710;suxuseuro\007\033]711;suxuseuro\007
+       IRC*keysym.M-C-2:       command:\033]710;9x15bold\007\033]711;9x15bold\007
+    "Alt-Shift-1" and "Alt-Shift-2" switch between two different font sizes.
+    "suxuseuro" allows me to keep an eye (and actually read) stuff while
+    keeping a very small window. If somebody pastes something complicated
+    (e.g. japanese), I temporarily switch to a larger font.
+    The above is all in my ".Xdefaults" (I don't use ".Xresources" nor
+    "xrdb"). I also have some resources in a separate ".Xdefaults-hostname"
+    file for different hosts, for example, on ym main desktop, I use:
+       URxvt.keysym.C-M-q: command:\033[3;5;5t
+       URxvt.keysym.C-M-y: command:\033[3;5;606t
+       URxvt.keysym.C-M-e: command:\033[3;1605;5t
+       URxvt.keysym.C-M-c: command:\033[3;1605;606t
+       URxvt.keysym.C-M-p: perl:test
+    The first for keysym definitions allow me to quickly bring some windows
+    in the layout I like most. Ion users might start laughing but will stop
+    immediately when I tell them that I use my own Fvwm2 module for much the
+    same effect as Ion provides, and I only very rarely use the above key
+    combinations :->
    Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
     Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
     applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
     resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
     ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
     Also consider the form resources have to use:
       URxvt.resource: value
     If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
-    specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it works.
+    specifying resources), make sure you understand whether and why it
-    If unsure, use the form above.
+    works. If unsure, use the form above.
    When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
     The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
     as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often
     arises).
     The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this
-    can be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp):
+    can be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp and works as user and
+    admin):
        REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
-       infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
+       infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "mkdir -p .terminfo && cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti"
     ... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system,
+    One some systems you might need to set $TERMINFO to the full path of
+    $HOME/.terminfo for this to work.
     If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set
     "TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of
     problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different
     colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice
     resource to set it:
        URxvt.termName: rxvt
     If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace
-    the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one.
+    the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use "TERM=rxvt".
    "tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
     Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by
     "enacs=\E[0@" and try again.
     One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
     systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
     library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
     for "rxvt-unicode".
-    You could use rxvt's termcap entry with resonable results in many cases.
+    You could use rxvt's termcap entry with reasonable results in many
-    You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp program
+    cases. You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp
-    like this:
+    program like this:
        infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
     Or you could use this termcap entry, generated by the command above:
                :us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
                :vs=\E[?25h:
    Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output?
     The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
-    decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration
+    decide whether a terminal has colour, but uses its own configuration
-    file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in it's default file (among
+    file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in its default file (among
     with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
        TERM rxvt-unicode
     to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add:
     If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
     getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output
     is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
     Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the
-    programs. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale, while the
+    programs running in it. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale,
-    login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the locale
+    while the login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes
-    to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this is not
+    the locale to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this
-    going to work.
+    is not going to work, and is the most common cause for problems.
     The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely
     run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your
     .profile.
-      printf '\e]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE"
+      printf '\33]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE"   # $LANG or $LC_ALL are worth a try, too
     If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification not
     supported on your systems. Some systems have a "locale" command which
     displays this (also, "perl -e0" can be used to check locale settings, as
     it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays
     The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for
     selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating
     this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties
     such as width and code number. This mechanism is the *locale*.
     Applications not using that info will have problems (for example,
-    "xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses it's own,
+    "xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses its own,
     locale-independent table under all locales).
     Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. All
     programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
     interpretation of characters.
    Can I switch locales at runtime?
     Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
     rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE".
-      printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
+      printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
     See also the previous answer.
     Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one
     locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support it (e.g.
     UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which first
     switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
-       printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
+       printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
        xjdic -js
-       printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
+       printf '\33]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
     You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine,
     except for some locales where character width differs between program-
     and rxvt-unicode-locales.
+   I have problems getting my input method working.
+    Try a search engine, as this is slightly different for every input
+    method server.
+    Here is a checklist:
+    - Make sure your locale *and* the imLocale are supported on your OS.
+        Try "locale -a" or check the documentation for your OS.
+    - Make sure your locale or imLocale matches a locale supported by your
+    XIM.
+        For example, kinput2 does not support UTF-8 locales, you should use
+        "ja_JP.EUC-JP" or equivalent.
+    - Make sure your XIM server is actually running.
+    - Make sure the "XMODIFIERS" environment variable is set correctly when
+    *starting* rxvt-unicode.
+        When you want to use e.g. kinput2, it must be set to "@im=kinput2".
+        For scim, use "@im=SCIM". You can see what input method servers are
+        running with this command:
+           xprop -root XIM_SERVERS
    My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
     You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of
     the terminal, using the resource "imlocale":
        URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
     Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and still
-    use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not be able
+    use your input method. Please note, however, that, depending on your
-    to input characters outside "EUC-JP" in a normal way then, as your input
+    Xlib version, you may not be able to input characters outside "EUC-JP"
-    method limits you.
+    in a normal way then, as your input method limits you.
    Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
     Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
     design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
     leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
     that might encounter the same issue.
    I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
     You should build one binary with the default options. configure now
     enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
-    runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling
+    runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enabling
     them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter
     should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely
     more in the future) depends on it.
     You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" resources
     This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very
     early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before
     main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should
     result in very little risk.
-   On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.
-    Seems to be a known bug, read
-    <http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the
-    following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
-       #define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)
    I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
     Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined in
     your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
-    wether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that
+    whether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that
     wchar_t is represented as unicode.
-    As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symobl nor
+    As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symbol nor
-    does it support it. Instead, it uses it's own internal representation of
+    does it support it. Instead, it uses its own internal representation of
     wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.
     However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1" and
     "UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t.
     The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
     system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
     complete replacements for them :)
-   I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.
-    Try the diff in doc/solaris9.patch as a base. It fixes the worst
-    problems with "wcwidth" and a compile problem.
    How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
     rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using the
     X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no longer
     supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single
     font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or
     At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any
     multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are
     likely limited to 8-bit encodings.
+   Character widths are not correct.
+    urxvt uses the system wcwidth function to know the information about the
+    width of characters, so on systems with incorrect locale data you will
+    likely get bad results. Two notorious examples are Solaris 9, where
+    single-width characters like U+2514 are reported as double-width, and
+    Darwin 8, where combining chars are reported having width 1.
+    The solution is to upgrade your system or switch to a better one. A
+    possibly working workaround is to use a wcwidth implementation like
+    http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/wcwidth.c

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Comparing rxvt-unicode/README.FAQ (file contents): Revision 1.40 by root, Tue Jan 31 20:57:29 2006 UTC vs. Revision 1.54 by root, Fri Jan 25 18:42:22 2008 UTC

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Comparing rxvt-unicode/README.FAQ (file contents):
Revision 1.40 by root, Tue Jan 31 20:57:29 2006 UTC vs.
Revision 1.54 by root, Fri Jan 25 18:42:22 2008 UTC