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Revision 1.23 by root, Tue Jan 10 04:26:54 2006 UTC vs.
Revision 1.60 by root, Fri Oct 15 21:30:51 2010 UTC

1FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 1RXVT-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
2 Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat? 2 Meta, Features & Commandline Issues
3 I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause 3 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
4 extra bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you 4 Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net", channel
5 can see that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables 5 "#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
6 always being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) 6 interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
7 after startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is
8 a bit unfair, as many features unique to urxvt (locale, encoding
9 conversion, iso14755 etc.) are already in use in this mode.
10 7
11 text data bss drs rss filename 8 I use Gentoo, and I have a problem...
12 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything 9 There are three big problems with Gentoo Linux: first of all, most if
13 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything 10 not all Gentoo systems are completely broken (missing or mismatched
11 header files, broken compiler etc. are just the tip of the iceberg);
12 secondly, the Gentoo maintainer thinks it is a good idea to add broken
13 patches to the code; and lastly, it should be called Gentoo GNU/Linux.
14 14
15 When you "--enable-everything" (which _is_ unfair, as this involves 15 For these reasons, it is impossible to support rxvt-unicode on Gentoo.
16 xft and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 16 Problems appearing on Gentoo systems will usually simply be ignored
17 and my libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so. 17 unless they can be reproduced on non-Gentoo systems.
18 18
19 text data bss drs rss filename
20 163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything
21 1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything
22
23 The very large size of the text section is explained by the
24 east-asian encoding tables, which, if unused, take up disk space but
25 nothing else and can be compiled out unless you rely on X11 core
26 fonts that use those encodings. The BSS size comes from the 64k
27 emergency buffer that my c++ compiler allocates (but of course
28 doesn't use unless you are out of memory). Also, using an xft font
29 instead of a core font immediately adds a few megabytes of RSS. Xft
30 indeed is responsible for a lot of RSS even when not used.
31
32 Of course, due to every character using two or four bytes instead of
33 one, a large scrollback buffer will ultimately make rxvt-unicode use
34 more memory.
35
36 Compared to e.g. Eterm (5112k), aterm (3132k) and xterm (4680k),
37 this still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like
38 gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or
39 konsole (22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after
40 exit, plus half a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of
41 warnings it spits out), it fares extremely well *g*.
42
43 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
44 Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is:
45 I had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a
46 fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me).
47 Put even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
48
49 My personal stance on this is that C++ is less portable than C, but
50 in the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability
51 limits are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale
52 support and unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than
53 C++ itself.
54
55 Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write
56 programs in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to
57 write programs in C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large
58 libraries, but this is not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is
59 what rxvt links against on my system with a minimal config:
60
61 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
62 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000)
63 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000)
64 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
65
66 And here is rxvt-unicode:
67
68 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
69 libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)
70 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
71 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
72 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
73
74 No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in
75 statically), except maybe libX11 :)
76
77 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode? 19 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
78 rxvt-unicode does not directly support tabs. It will work fine with 20 Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a
79 tabbing functionality of many window managers or similar tabbing 21 simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these
80 programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be embedded into 22 should give you tabs:
81 other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed or the upcoming 23
24 urxvt -pe tabbed
25
26 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
27
28 It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window
29 managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow
30 it to be embedded into other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed
82 "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt (murxvt) 31 or the upcoming "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
83 terminal as an example embedding application. 32 (murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
84 33
85 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? 34 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
86 The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape 35 The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
87 sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. 36 sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. When
88 When using the rxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the 37 using the urxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the daemon.
89 daemon.
90 38
91 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem... 39 Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
92 The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large 40 Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something
93 patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode. 41 you don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings
94 Before reporting a bug to the original rxvt-unicode author please 42 that you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by
95 download and install the genuine version 43 design, when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be
96 (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce the 44 loaded accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your
97 problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific 45 characters.
98 to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the
99 Debian Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug).
100 46
101 For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and 47 Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
102 probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's 48 scrollback buffers: Without "--enable-unicode3", rxvt-unicode will use 6
103 also a bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for 49 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
104 other users that might encounter the same issue. 50 kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if
51 full) use 10 Megabytes of memory. With "--enable-unicode3" it gets
52 worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
105 53
106 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any 54 How can I start urxvtd in a race-free way?
107 recommendation? 55 Try "urxvtd -f -o", which tells urxvtd to open the display, create the
108 You should build one binary with the default options. configure now 56 listening socket and then fork.
109 enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
110 runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling
111 them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl
112 interpreter should be enabled, as important functionality (menus,
113 selection, likely more in the future) depends on it.
114 57
115 You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" 58 How can I start urxvtd automatically when I run urxvtc?
116 resources system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will 59 If you want to start urxvtd automatically whenever you run urxvtc and
117 result in useful behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, 60 the daemon isn't running yet, use this script:
118 add an empty "perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. 61
119 This will keep the perl interpreter disabled until the user enables 62 #!/bin/sh
63 urxvtc "$@"
64 if [ $? -eq 2 ]; then
65 urxvtd -q -o -f
66 urxvtc "$@"
120 it. 67 fi
121 68
122 If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal 69 This tries to create a new terminal, and if fails with exit status 2,
123 one with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with 70 meaning it couldn't connect to the daemon, it will start the daemon and
124 "--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot 71 re-run the command. Subsequent invocations of the script will re-use the
125 of encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely 72 existing daemon.
126 used).
127 73
128 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this 74 How do I distinguish whether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular
129 safe? 75xterm? I need this to decide about setting colours etc.
130 Likely not. While I honestly try to make it secure, and am probably 76 The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable
131 not bad at it, I think it is simply unreasonable to expect all of 77 "COLORTERM", so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several
132 freetype + fontconfig + xft + xlib + ... + rxvt-unicode itself to 78 programs, JED, slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this
133 all be secure. Also, rxvt-unicode disables some options when it 79 variable to decide whether or not to use colour.
134 detects that it runs setuid or setgid, which is not nice.
135 80
136 Elevated privileges are only required for utmp and pty operations on 81 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
137 some systems (for example, GNU/Linux doesn't need any extra 82 If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
138 privileges for ptys, but some need it for utmp support). If 83 insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
139 rxvt-unicode doesn't support the library/setuid helper that your OS 84 snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
140 needs I'll be happy to assist you in implementing support for it. 85 wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets)
86 then the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from
87 a regular xterm.
141 88
142 So, while setuid/setgid operation is supported and not a problem on 89 Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
143 your typical single-user-no-other-logins unix desktop, always 90 snippets:
144 remember that its an awful lot of code, most of which isn't checked
145 for security issues regularly.
146 91
92 # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
93 [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
94 if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
95 stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
96 echo -n '^[Z'
97 read term_id
98 stty icanon echo
99 if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
100 echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
101 read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
102 fi
103 fi
104
105 How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
106 You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,
107 one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2xhtml (from Pod::Xhtml).
108 Then go to the doc subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
109
110 Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
111 I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra
112 bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see
113 that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always
114 being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after
115 startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is a bit
116 unfair, as many features unique to urxvt (locale, encoding conversion,
117 iso14755 etc.) are already in use in this mode.
118
119 text data bss drs rss filename
120 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything
121 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything
122
123 When you "--enable-everything" (which *is* unfair, as this involves xft
124 and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my
125 libc), the two diverge, but not unreasonably so.
126
127 text data bss drs rss filename
128 163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything
129 1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything
130
131 The very large size of the text section is explained by the east-asian
132 encoding tables, which, if unused, take up disk space but nothing else
133 and can be compiled out unless you rely on X11 core fonts that use those
134 encodings. The BSS size comes from the 64k emergency buffer that my c++
135 compiler allocates (but of course doesn't use unless you are out of
136 memory). Also, using an xft font instead of a core font immediately adds
137 a few megabytes of RSS. Xft indeed is responsible for a lot of RSS even
138 when not used.
139
140 Of course, due to every character using two or four bytes instead of
141 one, a large scrollback buffer will ultimately make rxvt-unicode use
142 more memory.
143
144 Compared to e.g. Eterm (5112k), aterm (3132k) and xterm (4680k), this
145 still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like
146 gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole
147 (22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half
148 a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits
149 out), it fares extremely well *g*.
150
151 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
152 Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I
153 had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a
154 fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put
155 even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
156
157 My personal stance on this is that C++ is less portable than C, but in
158 the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability limits
159 are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale support and
160 unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than C++ itself.
161
162 Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write programs
163 in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to write programs in
164 C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large libraries, but this is
165 not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is what rxvt links against on my
166 system with a minimal config:
167
168 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
169 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000)
170 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000)
171 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
172
173 And here is rxvt-unicode:
174
175 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
176 libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)
177 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
178 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
179 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
180
181 No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
182 except maybe libX11 :)
183
184 Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues
185 I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
186 First of all, please address all transparency related issues to Sasha
187 Vasko at sasha@aftercode.net and do not bug the author about it. Also,
188 if you can't get it working consider it a rite of passage: ... and you
189 failed.
190
191 Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option
192 descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
193
194 1. Use transparent mode:
195
196 Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
197 urxvt -tr -tint red -sh 40
198
199 That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
200 support, or you are unable to read.
201
202 2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
203 to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
204 your picture with gimp or any other tool:
205
206 convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.jpg
207 urxvt -pixmap "background.jpg;:root"
208
209 That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack libAfterImage or
210 GDK-PixBuf support, or you are unable to read.
211
212 3. Use an ARGB visual:
213
214 urxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
215
216 This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
217 doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
218 there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the
219 necessary bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but
220 that doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
221
222 4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
223
224 xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
225 -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
226
227 Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace 0xc0000000
228 by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
229 your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
230
231 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
232 Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that
233 character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal
234 use might contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode
235 will avoid these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too
236 wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent
237 characters.
238
239 All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
240 however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed
241 bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct
242 way is to ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is
243 wrong in these cases).
244
245 It's not clear (to me at least), whether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
246 or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try
247 using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If that doesn't
248 work, you might be forced to use a different font.
249
250 All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their
251 bounding box data is correct.
252
253 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
254 First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
255 ("TERM=rxvt-unicode"), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
256 make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
257 rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
258
259 URxvt.colorBD: white
260 URxvt.colorIT: green
261
262 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
263 For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
264 colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the
265 standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of
266 course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very
267 good reasons.
268
269 In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo
270 definition to only claim 8 colour support or use "TERM=rxvt", which will
271 fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
272
273 Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
274 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the
275 same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately:
276
277 printf '\33]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
278
279 This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
280 japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
281 japanese fonts would only be in your way.
282
283 You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
284
285 Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
286 Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
287 example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
288 Mono" completely fails in its italic face. A workaround might be to
289 enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
290
291 URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
292 URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
293
294 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
295 Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as it
296 is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
297 antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of
298 memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
299
300 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
301 Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
302 fall back to its default font search list it will prefer X11 core fonts,
303 because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
304 antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
305 look best that way.
306
307 If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
308
309 What's with this bold/blink stuff?
310 If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using the
311 standard foreground colour.
312
313 For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text
314 blink when compiled with "--enable-text-blink". Without
315 "--enable-text-blink", the blink attribute will be ignored.
316
317 On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
318 foreground/background colours.
319
320 color0-7 are the low-intensity colours.
321
322 color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colours.
323
324 I don't like the screen colours. How do I change them?
325 You can change the screen colours at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults
326 resources (or as long-options).
327
328 Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, including
329 the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
330
331 URxvt.color0: #000000
332 URxvt.color1: #A80000
333 URxvt.color2: #00A800
334 URxvt.color3: #A8A800
335 URxvt.color4: #0000A8
336 URxvt.color5: #A800A8
337 URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
338 URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
339
340 URxvt.color8: #000054
341 URxvt.color9: #FF0054
342 URxvt.color10: #00FF54
343 URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
344 URxvt.color12: #0000FF
345 URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
346 URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
347 URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
348
349 And here is a more complete set of non-standard colours.
350
351 URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
352 URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
353 URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
354 URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
355 URxvt.color0: #000000
356 URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
357 URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
358 URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
359 URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
360 URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
361 URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
362 URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
363 URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
364 URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
365 URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
366 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
367 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
368 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
369
370 They have been described (not by me) as "pretty girly".
371
372 Why do some characters look so much different than others?
373 See next entry.
374
375 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
376 Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine.
377 Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of your
378 system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want to
379 display.
380
381 rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font.
382 Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
383 bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
384 resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
385 intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
386 the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
387
388 In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
389 e.g.:
390
391 urxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...
392
393 When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font.
394 If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the next
395 font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
396 search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
397
398 The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the
399 base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size,
400 which must be the same due to the way terminals work.
401
402 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
403 This is because there is a difference between script and language --
404 rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is, as
405 it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first sees a
406 japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for display.
407 Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many chinese
408 characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
409 non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese
410 font -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font
411 for chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
412
413 The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
414 list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a
415 preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
416 first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
417
418 In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
419 runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
420 fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
421 has been designed yet).
422
423 Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can
424 I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
425
426 How can I make mplayer display video correctly?
427 We are working on it, in the meantime, as a workaround, use something
428 like:
429
430 urxvt -b 600 -geometry 20x1 -e sh -c 'mplayer -wid $WINDOWID file...'
431
432 Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
433 The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
434 If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
435 setting:
436
437 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
438
439 If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more and
440 more.
441
442 To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this
443 pattern:
444
445 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
446
447 Please also note that the *LeftClick Shift-LeftClick* combination also
448 selects words like the old code.
449
450 I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
451 You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
452 perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps
453 rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
454
455 If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
456 identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
457 PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the urxvtperl(3) manpage. For example, to
458 disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify this
459 perl-ext-common resource:
460
461 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
462
463 This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
464 extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
465 scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any other
466 combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback resource:
467
468 URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
469
470 The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
471 See next entry.
472
473 During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
474 These are caused by the "readline" perl extension. Under normal
475 circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
476 line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
477 but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in
478 some cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
479
480 You can permanently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline"
481 extension:
482
483 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
484
485 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
486 Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
487 specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is
488 caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of whether and
489 how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a
490 compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please
491 report if that helped.
492
493 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
494 The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
495 correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported by your
496 input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and your input
497 method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys) does not
498 support this (for instance because it is not visual), then rxvt-unicode
499 will continue without an input method.
500
501 In this case either do not specify a preeditStyle or specify more than
502 one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.
503
504 If it still doesn't work, then maybe your input method doesn't support
505 compose sequences - to fall back to the built-in one, make sure you
506 don't specify an input method via "-im" or "XMODIFIERS".
507
508 I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
509 Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
510 international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
511 advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for
512 other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default telnet
513 escape character and so on.
514
515 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
516 Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing some
517 editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've heard
518 that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A quick
519 check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
520 depressed.
521
522 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
523 Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the Backspace
524 keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are
525 two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
526
527 Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
528 debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one and only
529 correct choice :).
530
531 It is possible to toggle between "^H" and "^?" with the DECBKM private
532 mode:
533
534 # use Backspace = ^H
535 $ stty erase ^H
536 $ echo -n "^[[?67h"
537
538 # use Backspace = ^?
539 $ stty erase ^?
540 $ echo -n "^[[?67l"
541
542 This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
543 if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
544 properly reflects that.
545
546 The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace
547 problem. To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the
548 Delete key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for
549 Execute ("ESC [ 3 ~") and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
550
551 Some other Backspace problems:
552
553 some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told) expect
554 Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
555
556 Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
557
558 I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
559 There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
560 you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources" option you can
561 use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with
562 keysyms.
563
564 Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "urxvt -name URxvt"
565
566 URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
567 URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
568 URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
569 URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
570 URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
571 URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
572 URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
573 URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
574 URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
575 URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
576 URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
577 URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
578 URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
579 URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
580 URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
581 URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
582 URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
583 URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
584 URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
585 URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
586
587 See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.
588
589 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
590 KP_Insert == Insert
591 F22 == Print
592 F27 == Home
593 F29 == Prior
594 F33 == End
595 F35 == Next
596
597 Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various
598 possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the
599 keys as required for your particular machine.
600
601 Terminal Configuration
602 Can I see a typical configuration?
603 The default configuration tries to be xterm-like, which I don't like
604 that much, but it's least surprise to regular users.
605
606 As a rxvt or rxvt-unicode user, you are practically supposed to invest
607 time into customising your terminal. To get you started, here is the
608 author's .Xdefaults entries, with comments on what they do. It's
609 certainly not *typical*, but what's typical...
610
611 URxvt.cutchars: "()*,<>[]{}|'
612 URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/tmp/xxx
613
614 These are just for testing stuff.
615
616 URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8
617 URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None
618
619 This tells rxvt-unicode to use a special locale when communicating with
620 the X Input Method, and also tells it to only use the OnTheSpot pre-edit
621 type, which requires the "xim-onthespot" perl extension but rewards me
622 with correct-looking fonts.
623
624 URxvt.perl-lib: /root/lib/urxvt
625 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,selection-autotransform,selection-pastebin,xim-onthespot,remote-clipboard
626 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ( at .*? line \\d+)
627 URxvt.selection.pattern-1: ^(/[^:]+):\
628 URxvt.selection-autotransform.0: s/^([^:[:space:]]+):(\\d+):?$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
629 URxvt.selection-autotransform.1: s/^ at (.*?) line (\\d+)$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
630
631 This is my perl configuration. The first two set the perl library
632 directory and also tells urxvt to use a large number of extensions. I
633 develop for myself mostly, so I actually use most of the extensions I
634 write.
635
636 The selection stuff mainly makes the selection perl-error-message aware
637 and tells it to convert perl error messages into vi-commands to load the
638 relevant file and go to the error line number.
639
640 URxvt.scrollstyle: plain
641 URxvt.secondaryScroll: true
642
643 As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the
644 author. The "secondaryScroll" configures urxvt to scroll in full-screen
645 apps, like screen, so lines scrolled out of screen end up in urxvt's
646 scrollback buffer.
647
648 URxvt.background: #000000
649 URxvt.foreground: gray90
650 URxvt.color7: gray90
651 URxvt.colorBD: #ffffff
652 URxvt.cursorColor: #e0e080
653 URxvt.throughColor: #8080f0
654 URxvt.highlightColor: #f0f0f0
655
656 Some colours. Not sure which ones are being used or even non-defaults,
657 but these are in my .Xdefaults. Most notably, they set
658 foreground/background to light gray/black, and also make sure that the
659 colour 7 matches the default foreground colour.
660
661 URxvt.underlineColor: yellow
662
663 Another colour, makes underline lines look different. Sometimes hurts,
664 but is mostly a nice effect.
665
666 URxvt.geometry: 154x36
667 URxvt.loginShell: false
668 URxvt.meta: ignore
669 URxvt.utmpInhibit: true
670
671 Uh, well, should be mostly self-explanatory. By specifying some defaults
672 manually, I can quickly switch them for testing.
673
674 URxvt.saveLines: 8192
675
676 A large scrollback buffer is essential. Really.
677
678 URxvt.mapAlert: true
679
680 The only case I use it is for my IRC window, which I like to keep
681 iconified till people msg me (which beeps).
682
683 URxvt.visualBell: true
684
685 The audible bell is often annoying, especially when in a crowd.
686
687 URxvt.insecure: true
688
689 Please don't hack my mutt! Ooops...
690
691 URxvt.pastableTabs: false
692
693 I once thought this is a great idea.
694
695 urxvt.font: 9x15bold,\
696 -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
697 -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
698 [codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic, \
699 xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:autohint=true, \
700 xft:Code2000:antialias=false
701 urxvt.boldFont: -xos4-terminus-bold-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-15
702 urxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
703 urxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
704
705 I wrote rxvt-unicode to be able to specify fonts exactly. So don't be
706 overwhelmed. A special note: the "9x15bold" mentioned above is actually
707 the version from XFree-3.3, as XFree-4 replaced it by a totally
708 different font (different glyphs for ";" and many other harmless
709 characters), while the second font is actually the "9x15bold" from
710 XFree4/XOrg. The bold version has less chars than the medium version, so
711 I use it for rare characters, too. When editing sources with vim, I use
712 italic for comments and other stuff, which looks quite good with
713 Bitstream Vera anti-aliased.
714
715 Terminus is a quite bad font (many very wrong glyphs), but for most of
716 my purposes, it works, and gives a different look, as my normal
717 (Non-bold) font is already bold, and I want to see a difference between
718 bold and normal fonts.
719
720 Please note that I used the "urxvt" instance name and not the "URxvt"
721 class name. That is because I use different configs for different
722 purposes, for example, my IRC window is started with "-name IRC", and
723 uses these defaults:
724
725 IRC*title: IRC
726 IRC*geometry: 87x12+535+542
727 IRC*saveLines: 0
728 IRC*mapAlert: true
729 IRC*font: suxuseuro
730 IRC*boldFont: suxuseuro
731 IRC*colorBD: white
732 IRC*keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]710;suxuseuro\007\033]711;suxuseuro\007
733 IRC*keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]710;9x15bold\007\033]711;9x15bold\007
734
735 "Alt-Ctrl-1" and "Alt-Ctrl-2" switch between two different font sizes.
736 "suxuseuro" allows me to keep an eye (and actually read) stuff while
737 keeping a very small window. If somebody pastes something complicated
738 (e.g. japanese), I temporarily switch to a larger font.
739
740 The above is all in my ".Xdefaults" (I don't use ".Xresources" nor
741 "xrdb"). I also have some resources in a separate ".Xdefaults-hostname"
742 file for different hosts, for example, on my main desktop, I use:
743
744 URxvt.keysym.C-M-q: command:\033[3;5;5t
745 URxvt.keysym.C-M-y: command:\033[3;5;606t
746 URxvt.keysym.C-M-e: command:\033[3;1605;5t
747 URxvt.keysym.C-M-c: command:\033[3;1605;606t
748 URxvt.keysym.C-M-p: perl:test
749
750 The first for keysym definitions allow me to quickly bring some windows
751 in the layout I like most. Ion users might start laughing but will stop
752 immediately when I tell them that I use my own Fvwm2 module for much the
753 same effect as Ion provides, and I only very rarely use the above key
754 combinations :->
755
756 Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
757 Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
758 applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
759 resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
760 ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
761 $HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display.
762
763 If you have or use an $HOME/.Xresources file, chances are that resources
764 are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to re-login after
765 every change (or run xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources).
766
767 Also consider the form resources have to use:
768
769 URxvt.resource: value
770
771 If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
772 specifying resources), make sure you understand whether and why it
773 works. If unsure, use the form above.
774
147 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? 775 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
148 The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely 776 The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
149 available as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same 777 as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often
150 problem often arises). 778 arises).
151 779
152 The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, 780 The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this
153 this can be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp): 781 can be done by simply installing rxvt-unicode on the remote system as
782 well (in case you have a nice package manager ready), or you can install
783 the terminfo database manually like this (with ncurses infocmp. works as
784 user and root):
154 785
155 REMOTE=remotesystem.domain 786 REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
156 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"
157 788
158 ... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system, 789 One some systems you might need to set $TERMINFO to the full path of
790 $HOME/.terminfo for this to work.
159 791
160 If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set 792 If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set
161 "TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of 793 "TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of
162 problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and 794 problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different
163 different colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen 795 colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice
164 applications. It's a nice quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, 796 quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, though.
165 though.
166 797
167 If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) 798 If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) you
168 you can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or 799 can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or use a
169 use a resource to set it: 800 resource to set it:
170 801
171 URxvt.termName: rxvt 802 URxvt.termName: rxvt
172 803
173 If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also 804 If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace
174 replace the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one. 805 the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use "TERM=rxvt".
175 806
807 nano fails with "Error opening terminal: rxvt-unicode"
808 This exceptionally confusing and useless error message is printed by
809 nano when it can't find the terminfo database. Nothing is wrong with
810 your terminal, read the previous answer for a solution.
811
176 "tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry. 812 "tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
177 Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it 813 Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by
178 by "enacs=\E[0@" and try again. 814 "enacs=\E[0@" and try again.
179 815
180 "bash"'s readline does not work correctly under rxvt. 816 "bash"'s readline does not work correctly under urxvt.
817 See next entry.
818
181 I need a termcap file entry. 819 I need a termcap file entry.
182 One reason you might want this is that some distributions or 820 One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
183 operating systems still compile some programs using the 821 systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
184 long-obsoleted termcap library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) 822 library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
185 and rely on a termcap entry for "rxvt-unicode". 823 for "rxvt-unicode".
186 824
187 You could use rxvt's termcap entry with resonable results in many 825 You could use rxvt's termcap entry with reasonable results in many
188 cases. You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's 826 cases. You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp
189 infocmp program like this: 827 program like this:
190 828
191 infocmp -C rxvt-unicode 829 infocmp -C rxvt-unicode
192 830
193 Or you could use this termcap entry, generated by the command above: 831 Or you could use the termcap entry in doc/etc/rxvt-unicode.termcap,
832 generated by the command above.
194 833
195 rxvt-unicode|rxvt-unicode terminal (X Window System):\
196 :am:bw:eo:km:mi:ms:xn:xo:\
197 :co#80:it#8:li#24:lm#0:\
198 :AL=\E[%dL:DC=\E[%dP:DL=\E[%dM:DO=\E[%dB:IC=\E[%d@:\
199 :K1=\EOw:K2=\EOu:K3=\EOy:K4=\EOq:K5=\EOs:LE=\E[%dD:\
200 :RI=\E[%dC:SF=\E[%dS:SR=\E[%dT:UP=\E[%dA:ae=\E(B:al=\E[L:\
201 :as=\E(0:bl=^G:cd=\E[J:ce=\E[K:cl=\E[H\E[2J:\
202 :cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:cr=^M:cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:ct=\E[3g:dc=\E[P:\
203 :dl=\E[M:do=^J:ec=\E[%dX:ei=\E[4l:ho=\E[H:\
204 :i1=\E[?47l\E=\E[?1l:ic=\E[@:im=\E[4h:\
205 :is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;3;4;6l\E[4l:\
206 :k1=\E[11~:k2=\E[12~:k3=\E[13~:k4=\E[14~:k5=\E[15~:\
207 :k6=\E[17~:k7=\E[18~:k8=\E[19~:k9=\E[20~:kD=\E[3~:\
208 :kI=\E[2~:kN=\E[6~:kP=\E[5~:kb=\177:kd=\EOB:ke=\E[?1l\E>:\
209 :kh=\E[7~:kl=\EOD:kr=\EOC:ks=\E[?1h\E=:ku=\EOA:le=^H:\
210 :mb=\E[5m:md=\E[1m:me=\E[m\017:mr=\E[7m:nd=\E[C:rc=\E8:\
211 :sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\
212 :te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\
213 :us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
214 :vs=\E[?25h:
215
216 Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output? 834 Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output?
217 The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to 835 The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
218 decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration 836 decide whether a terminal has colour, but uses its own configuration
219 file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in it's default file 837 file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in its default file (among
220 (among with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add: 838 with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
221 839
222 TERM rxvt-unicode 840 TERM rxvt-unicode
223 841
224 to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add: 842 to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add:
225 843
226 alias ls='ls --color=auto' 844 alias ls='ls --color=auto'
227 845
228 to your ".profile" or ".bashrc". 846 to your ".profile" or ".bashrc".
229 847
230 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode? 848 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
849 See next entry.
850
231 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic? 851 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
852 See next entry.
853
232 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly? 854 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
233 Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged 855 Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged
234 distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by 856 distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by
235 setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features. 857 setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features.
236 Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux) 858 Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux)
237 furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, 859 furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, so
238 so you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I 860 you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I log-in
239 log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on 861 to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do
240 how to do this). 862 this).
241 863
242 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output? 864 Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues
243 Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
244 specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is
245 caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of wether
246 and how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a
247 compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and
248 please report if that helped.
249
250 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding? 865 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
866 See next entry.
867
251 Unicode does not seem to work? 868 Unicode does not seem to work?
252 If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character 869 If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
253 but getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program 870 getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output
254 output is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale 871 is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
255 settings.
256 872
257 Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the 873 Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same "LC_CTYPE" setting as the
258 programs. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale, while the 874 programs running in it. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the "C" locale,
259 login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the 875 while the login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes
260 locale to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this 876 the locale to something else, e.g. "en_GB.UTF-8". Needless to say, this
261 is not going to work. 877 is not going to work, and is the most common cause for problems.
262 878
263 The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will 879 The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely
264 likely run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in 880 run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your
265 your .profile. 881 .profile.
266 882
267 printf '\e]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE" 883 printf '\33]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE" # $LANG or $LC_ALL are worth a try, too
268 884
269 If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification 885 If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a "LC_CTYPE" specification not
270 not supported on your systems. Some systems have a "locale" command 886 supported on your systems. Some systems have a "locale" command which
271 which displays this (also, "perl -e0" can be used to check locale 887 displays this (also, "perl -e0" can be used to check locale settings, as
272 settings, as it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). 888 it will complain loudly if it cannot set the locale). If it displays
273 If it displays something like: 889 something like:
274 890
275 locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ... 891 locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ...
276 892
277 Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system. 893 Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.
278 894
279 If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly 895 If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
280 then you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs 896 you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
281 just don't support locales :( 897 support locales :(
282 898
283 Why do some characters look so much different than others?
284 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
285 Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine.
286 Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
287 your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you
288 want to display.
289
290 rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font.
291 Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
292 bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that
293 don't resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the
294 artificial intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it
295 has to believe the font that the characters it claims to contain
296 indeed look correct.
297
298 In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font
299 list, e.g.:
300
301 rxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...
302
303 When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
304 font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to
305 the next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed
306 up this search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the
307 X-server.
308
309 The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the
310 base font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell
311 size, which must be the same due to the way terminals work.
312
313 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
314 This is because there is a difference between script and language --
315 rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output
316 is, as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode
317 first sees a japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese
318 font for display. Subsequent japanese characters will use that font.
319 Now, many chinese characters aren't represented in japanese fonts,
320 so when the first non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will
321 look for a chinese font -- unfortunately at this point, it will
322 still use the japanese font for chinese characters that are also in
323 the japanese font.
324
325 The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your
326 font list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font
327 list as a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a
328 japanese font first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font
329 first.
330
331 In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
332 runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using
333 different fonts for the same character at the same time, but no
334 interface for this has been designed yet).
335
336 Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see
337 "Can I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document).
338
339 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
340 Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that
341 character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for
342 terminal use might contain some characters that are simply too wide.
343 Rxvt-unicode will avoid these characters. For characters that are
344 just "a bit" too wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used
345 that redraws adjacent characters.
346
347 All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
348 however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed
349 bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the
350 correct way is to ask for the character bounding box, which
351 unfortunately is wrong in these cases).
352
353 It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft,
354 freetype, or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you
355 might try using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If
356 that doesn't work, you might be forced to use a different font.
357
358 All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their
359 bounding box data is correct.
360
361 On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.
362 Seems to be a known bug, read
363 <http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the
364 following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
365
366 #define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)
367
368 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
369 The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not
370 set correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported
371 by your input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and
372 your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose
373 keys) does not support this (for instance because it is not visual),
374 then rxvt-unicode will continue without an input method.
375
376 In this case either do not specify a preeditStyle or specify more
377 than one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.
378
379 I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO
380 14755
381 Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
382 international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
383 advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for
384 other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default
385 telnet escape character and so on.
386
387 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
388 First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal
389 settings ("TERM=rxvt-unicode"), which will get rid of most of these
390 effects. Then make sure you have specified colours for italic and
391 bold, as otherwise rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate
392 the effect:
393
394 URxvt.colorBD: white
395 URxvt.colorIT: green
396
397 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how
398 can I fix that?
399 For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very
400 weird colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than
401 the standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is,
402 of course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours
403 without very good reasons.
404
405 In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo
406 definition to only claim 8 colour support or use "TERM=rxvt", which
407 will fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode
408 features.
409
410 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
411 Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined
412 in your compile environment, or an implementation that implements
413 it, wether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__"
414 requires that wchar_t is represented as unicode.
415
416 As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symobl
417 nor does it support it. Instead, it uses it's own internal
418 representation of wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with
419 respect to standards.
420
421 However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1"
422 and "UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t.
423
424 "__STDC_ISO_10646__" is the only sane way to support multi-language
425 apps in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized)
426 representation of wchar_t makes it impossible to convert between
427 wchar_t (as used by X11 and your applications) and any other
428 encoding without implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and
429 every locale. There simply are no APIs to convert wchar_t into
430 anything except the current locale encoding.
431
432 Some applications (such as the formidable mlterm) work around this
433 by carrying their own replacement functions for character set
434 handling with them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or
435 doing multiple conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the
436 OS implements encodings slightly different than the terminal
437 emulator).
438
439 The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in
440 the system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app
441 to carry complete replacements for them :)
442
443 I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.
444 Try the diff in doc/solaris9.patch as a base. It fixes the worst
445 problems with "wcwidth" and a compile problem.
446
447 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
448 rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using
449 the X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no
450 longer supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a
451 single font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or
452 "-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as
453 the old libW11 emulation.
454
455 At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any
456 multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are
457 likely limited to 8-bit encodings.
458
459 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use? 899 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
900 See next entry.
901
460 Is there an option to switch encodings? 902 Is there an option to switch encodings?
461 Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, 903 Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
462 and no specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't 904 specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know
463 even know about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to 905 about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
464 terminal I/O.
465 906
466 The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for 907 The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for
467 selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating 908 selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating
468 this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties 909 this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties
469 such as width and code number. This mechanism is the *locale*. 910 such as width and code number. This mechanism is the *locale*.
470 Applications not using that info will have problems (for example, 911 Applications not using that info will have problems (for example,
471 "xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses it's own, 912 "xterm" gets the width of characters wrong as it uses its own,
472 locale-independent table under all locales). 913 locale-independent table under all locales).
473 914
474 Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. 915 Rxvt-unicode uses the "LC_CTYPE" locale category to select encoding. All
475 All programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree 916 programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
476 in the interpretation of characters. 917 interpretation of characters.
477 918
478 Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, 919 Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
479 nor is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like. 920 is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
480 921
481 On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable 922 On most systems, the content of the "LC_CTYPE" environment variable
482 contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an 923 contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
483 already-installed locale. Common names for locales are 924 locale. Common names for locales are "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15",
484 "en_US.UTF-8", "de_DE.ISO-8859-15", "ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e. 925 "ja_JP.EUC-JP", i.e. "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e.
485 "language_country.encoding", but other forms (i.e. "de" or "german") 926 "de" or "german") are also common.
486 are also common.
487 927
488 Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the 928 Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the
489 encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e. 929 encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e.
490 "de_DE.UTF-8" and "ja_JP.UTF-8" are the normally same to 930 "de_DE.UTF-8" and "ja_JP.UTF-8" are the normally same to rxvt-unicode.
491 rxvt-unicode.
492 931
493 If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you 932 If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
494 start rxvt-unicode with the correct "LC_CTYPE" category. 933 rxvt-unicode with the correct "LC_CTYPE" category.
495 934
496 Can I switch locales at runtime? 935 Can I switch locales at runtime?
497 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets 936 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
498 rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE". 937 rxvt-unicode's idea of "LC_CTYPE".
499 938
500 printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS 939 printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
501 940
502 See also the previous answer. 941 See also the previous answer.
503 942
504 Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in 943 Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one
505 one locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support it 944 locale (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8") but some programs don't support it (e.g.
506 (e.g. UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which 945 UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start "xjdic", which first
507 first switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later: 946 switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
508 947
509 printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS 948 printf '\33]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
510 xjdic -js 949 xjdic -js
511 printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8 950 printf '\33]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
512 951
513 You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine, 952 You can also use xterm's "luit" program, which usually works fine,
514 except for some locales where character width differs between 953 except for some locales where character width differs between program-
515 program- and rxvt-unicode-locales. 954 and rxvt-unicode-locales.
516 955
517 Can I switch the fonts at runtime? 956 I have problems getting my input method working.
518 Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has 957 Try a search engine, as this is slightly different for every input
519 the same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect 958 method server.
520 immediately:
521 959
522 printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic" 960 Here is a checklist:
523 961
524 This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer 962 - Make sure your locale *and* the imLocale are supported on your OS.
525 a japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, 963 Try "locale -a" or check the documentation for your OS.
526 where japanese fonts would only be in your way.
527 964
528 You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching. 965 - Make sure your locale or imLocale matches a locale supported by your
966 XIM.
967 For example, kinput2 does not support UTF-8 locales, you should use
968 "ja_JP.EUC-JP" or equivalent.
529 969
530 Why do italic characters look as if clipped? 970 - Make sure your XIM server is actually running.
531 Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For 971 - Make sure the "XMODIFIERS" environment variable is set correctly when
532 example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera 972 *starting* rxvt-unicode.
533 Sans Mono" completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might 973 When you want to use e.g. kinput2, it must be set to "@im=kinput2".
534 be to enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this: 974 For scim, use "@im=SCIM". You can see what input method servers are
975 running with this command:
535 976
536 URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true 977 xprop -root XIM_SERVERS
537 URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
538 978
979
980
539 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do? 981 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
540 You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest 982 You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of
541 of the terminal, using the resource "imlocale": 983 the terminal, using the resource "imlocale":
542 984
543 URxvt*imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP 985 URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
544 986
545 Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and 987 Now you can start your terminal with "LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8" and still
546 still use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not 988 use your input method. Please note, however, that, depending on your
547 be able to input characters outside "EUC-JP" in a normal way then, 989 Xlib version, you may not be able to input characters outside "EUC-JP"
548 as your input method limits you. 990 in a normal way then, as your input method limits you.
549 991
550 Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits. 992 Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
551 Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by 993 Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
552 design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory 994 design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
553 leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering 995 leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
554 at exit time. kinput2 (and derived input methods) generally 996 exit time. kinput2 (and derived input methods) generally succeeds, while
555 succeeds, while SCIM (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, 997 SCIM (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however, crashes
556 however, crashes cannot be completely avoided even if both sides 998 cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
557 cooperate.
558 999
559 So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers. 1000 So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
560 1001
561 Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that? 1002 Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
562 Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for 1003 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
563 something you don't use. One thing you should try is to configure 1004 The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
564 out all settings that you don't need, for example, Xft support is a 1005 patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
565 resource hog by design, when used. Compiling it out ensures that no 1006 unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
566 Xft font will be loaded accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find 1007 the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
567 a font for your characters. 1008 version (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
1009 the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific
1010 to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian
1011 Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug).
568 1012
569 Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger 1013 For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
570 scrollback buffers: Without "--enable-unicode3", rxvt-unicode will 1014 probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
571 use 6 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to 1015 bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users
572 almost a kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will 1016 that might encounter the same issue.
573 then (if full) use 10 Megabytes of memory. With "--enable-unicode3"
574 it gets worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
575 1017
576 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow? 1018 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
577 Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, 1019 You should build one binary with the default options. configure now
578 as it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to 1020 enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
579 disable antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves 1021 runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enabling
580 lots of memory and also speeds up rendering considerably. 1022 them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter
1023 should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely
1024 more in the future) depends on it.
581 1025
582 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong? 1026 You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" and "perl-ext" resources
583 Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to 1027 system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful
584 fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core 1028 behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
585 fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It 1029 "perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
586 has antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author 1030 perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
587 thinks they look best that way.
588 1031
589 If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually. 1032 If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal one
1033 with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with
1034 "--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
1035 encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
590 1036
591 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works. 1037 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
592 Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing 1038 It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
593 some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. 1039 install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
594 I've heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise
595 specified. A quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt
596 or Shift keys are depressed. See rxvt(7)
597 1040
598 What's with this bold/blink stuff? 1041 When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
599 If no bold colour is set via "colorBD:", bold will invert text using 1042 into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
600 the standard foreground colour. 1043 systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
1044 immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
1045 privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
1046 things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
601 1047
602 For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the 1048 This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very
603 text blink when compiled with "--enable-blinking". with standard 1049 early and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before
604 colours. Without "--enable-blinking", the blink attribute will be 1050 main(), or things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should
605 ignored. 1051 result in very little risk.
606 1052
607 On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set 1053 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
608 high-intensity foreground/background colors. 1054 Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol "__STDC_ISO_10646__" to be defined in
1055 your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
1056 whether it defines the symbol or not. "__STDC_ISO_10646__" requires that
1057 wchar_t is represented as unicode.
609 1058
610 color0-7 are the low-intensity colors. 1059 As you might have guessed, FreeBSD does neither define this symbol nor
1060 does it support it. Instead, it uses its own internal representation of
1061 wchar_t. This is, of course, completely fine with respect to standards.
611 1062
612 color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors. 1063 However, that means rxvt-unicode only works in "POSIX", "ISO-8859-1" and
1064 "UTF-8" locales under FreeBSD (which all use Unicode as wchar_t).
613 1065
614 I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them? 1066 "__STDC_ISO_10646__" is the only sane way to support multi-language apps
615 You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults 1067 in an OS, as using a locale-dependent (and non-standardized)
616 resources (or as long-options). 1068 representation of wchar_t makes it impossible to convert between wchar_t
1069 (as used by X11 and your applications) and any other encoding without
1070 implementing OS-specific-wrappers for each and every locale. There
1071 simply are no APIs to convert wchar_t into anything except the current
1072 locale encoding.
617 1073
618 Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, 1074 Some applications (such as the formidable mlterm) work around this by
619 including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow: 1075 carrying their own replacement functions for character set handling with
1076 them, and either implementing OS-dependent hacks or doing multiple
1077 conversions (which is slow and unreliable in case the OS implements
1078 encodings slightly different than the terminal emulator).
620 1079
621 URxvt.color0: #000000 1080 The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
622 URxvt.color1: #A80000 1081 system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
623 URxvt.color2: #00A800 1082 complete replacements for them :)
624 URxvt.color3: #A8A800
625 URxvt.color4: #0000A8
626 URxvt.color5: #A800A8
627 URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
628 URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
629 1083
630 URxvt.color8: #000054 1084 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
631 URxvt.color9: #FF0054 1085 rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using the
632 URxvt.color10: #00FF54 1086 X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no longer
633 URxvt.color11: #FFFF54 1087 supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a single
634 URxvt.color12: #0000FF 1088 font). I recommend starting the X-server in "-multiwindow" or
635 URxvt.color13: #FF00FF 1089 "-rootless" mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
636 URxvt.color14: #00FFFF 1090 old libW11 emulation.
637 URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
638 1091
639 And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described 1092 At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any
640 (not by me) as "pretty girly". 1093 multi-byte encodings (you might try "LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8"), so you are
1094 likely limited to 8-bit encodings.
641 1095
642 URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1 1096 Character widths are not correct.
643 URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1 1097 urxvt uses the system wcwidth function to know the information about the
644 URxvt.background: #0e0e0e 1098 width of characters, so on systems with incorrect locale data you will
645 URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1 1099 likely get bad results. Two notorious examples are Solaris 9, where
646 URxvt.color0: #000000 1100 single-width characters like U+2514 are reported as double-width, and
647 URxvt.color8: #8b8f93 1101 Darwin 8, where combining chars are reported having width 1.
648 URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
649 URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
650 URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
651 URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
652 URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
653 URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
654 URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
655 URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
656 URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
657 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
658 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
659 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
660 1102
661 How can I start rxvtd in a race-free way? 1103 The solution is to upgrade your system or switch to a better one. A
662 Try "rxvtd -f -o", which tells rxvtd to open the display, create the 1104 possibly working workaround is to use a wcwidth implementation like
663 listening socket and then fork.
664 1105
665 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour? 1106 http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/wcwidth.c
666 Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
667 BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
668 question) there are two standard values that can be used for
669 Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
670 1107
671 Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
672 debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one only
673 only correct choice :).
674
675 Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the
676 value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode
677 wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote
678 shell), then the system value of `erase', which corresponds to
679 CERASE in <termios.h>, will be used (which may not be the same as
680 your stty setting).
681
682 For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
683
684 # use Backspace = ^H
685 $ stty erase ^H
686 $ rxvt
687
688 # use Backspace = ^?
689 $ stty erase ^?
690 $ rxvt
691
692 Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l" as documented in rxvt(7).
693
694 For an existing rxvt-unicode:
695
696 # use Backspace = ^H
697 $ stty erase ^H
698 $ echo -n "^[[36h"
699
700 # use Backspace = ^?
701 $ stty erase ^?
702 $ echo -n "^[[36l"
703
704 This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur,
705 but if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo
706 value properly reflects that.
707
708 The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace
709 problem. To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys,
710 the Delete key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the
711 vt100 for Execute ("ESC [ 3 ~") and is in the supplied
712 termcap/terminfo.
713
714 Some other Backspace problems:
715
716 some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told)
717 expect Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for
718 help.
719
720 Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
721
722 I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
723 There are some compile-time selections available via configure.
724 Unless you have run "configure" with the "--disable-resources"
725 option you can use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings
726 associated with keysyms.
727
728 Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "rxvt -name
729 URxvt"
730
731 URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
732 URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
733 URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
734 URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
735 URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
736 URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
737 URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
738 URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
739 URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
740 URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
741 URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
742 URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
743 URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
744 URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
745 URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
746 URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
747 URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
748 URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
749 URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
750 URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
751
752 See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.
753
754 I'm using keyboard model XXX that has extra Prior/Next/Insert keys. How
755 do I make use of them? For example, the Sun Keyboard type 4 has the
756 following mappings that rxvt-unicode doesn't recognize.
757 KP_Insert == Insert
758 F22 == Print
759 F27 == Home
760 F29 == Prior
761 F33 == End
762 F35 == Next
763
764 Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various
765 possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap
766 the keys as required for your particular machine.
767
768 How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm?
769 I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
770 rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you
771 can check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED,
772 slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide
773 whether or not to use color.
774
775 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
776 If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
777 insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
778 snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of
779 rxvt-unicode wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in
780 these snippets) then the COLORTERM variable can be used to
781 distinguish rxvt-unicode from a regular xterm.
782
783 Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell
784 script snippets:
785
786 # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
787 [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
788 if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
789 stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
790 echo -n '^[Z'
791 read term_id
792 stty icanon echo
793 if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
794 echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
795 read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
796 fi
797 fi
798
799 How do I compile the manual pages for myself?
800 You need to have a recent version of perl installed as
801 /usr/bin/perl, one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2html.
802 Then go to the doc subdirectory and enter "make alldoc".
803
804 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
805 Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net",
806 channel "#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might
807 be interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not
808 FAQs :).
809

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