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

Comparing rxvt-unicode/README.FAQ (file contents):
Revision 1.55 by root, Sun Jun 15 13:54:15 2008 UTC vs.
Revision 1.73 by root, Fri May 14 13:47:43 2021 UTC

   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 :).
+   I use Gentoo, and I have a problem...
+    There are two big problems with Gentoo Linux: first, most if not all
+    Gentoo systems are completely broken (missing or mismatched header
+    files, broken compiler etc. are just the tip of the iceberg); secondly,
+    it should be called Gentoo GNU/Linux.
+    For these reasons, it is impossible to support rxvt-unicode on Gentoo.
+    Problems appearing on Gentoo systems will usually simply be ignored
+    unless they can be reproduced on non-Gentoo systems.
    Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
     Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a
     simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these
     should give you tabs:
     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 whether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
+    Another option is to use systemd socket-based activation (see
+    systemd.socket(5)). Here is an example of a service unit file and of a
+    socket unit file for the default socket path:
+    urxvtd.service
+          [Unit]
+          Description=urxvt terminal daemon
+          Requires=urxvtd.socket
+          [Service]
+          ExecStart=/usr/bin/urxvtd -o
+    urxvtd.socket
+          [Unit]
+          Description=urxvt terminal daemon socket
+          [Socket]
+          ListenStream=%h/.urxvt/urxvtd-%H
+          [Install]
+          WantedBy=sockets.target
+   How do I distinguish whether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular
+xterm? I need this to decide about setting colours etc.
     The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable
     "COLORTERM", so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several
     programs, JED, slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this
-    variable to decide whether or not to use color.
+    variable to decide whether or not to use colour.
    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
        # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
        [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
        if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
           stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
-          echo -n '^[Z'
+          printf "\eZ"
           read term_id
           stty icanon echo
           if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
-             echo -n '^[[7n'        # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
+             printf '\e[7n'        # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
-             read DISPLAY           # set it in our local shell
+             read DISPLAY          # set it in our local shell
           fi
        fi
    How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
     You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,
     the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability limits
     are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale support and
     unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than C++ itself.
     Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write programs
-    in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to write programs in
+    in C that use gobs of memory, and certainly possible to write programs
-    C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large libraries, but this is
+    in C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large libraries, but this
-    not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is what rxvt links against on my
+    is not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is what rxvt links against on
-    system with a minimal config:
+    my system with a minimal config:
        libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000)
        /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
     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, please address all transparency related issues to Sasha
+    First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode,
-    Vasko at sasha@aftercode.net and do not bug the author about it. Also,
+    so you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you
-    if you can't get it working consider it a rite of passage: ... and you
+    may bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a
-    failed.
+    rite of passage: ... and you failed.
     Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option
     descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
     1. Use transparent mode:
        Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
        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.
+    support, or you are unable to read. This method requires that the
+    background-setting program sets the _XROOTPMAP_ID or ESETROOT_PMAP_ID
+    property. Compatible programs are Esetroot, hsetroot and feh.
     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.jpg
        urxvt -pixmap "background.jpg;:root"
-    That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack AfterImage support, or you
+    That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack GDK-PixBuf support, or you
     are unable to read.
     3. Use an ARGB visual:
        urxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
     For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text
     blink when compiled with "--enable-text-blink". Without
     "--enable-text-blink", the blink attribute will be ignored.
     On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
-    foreground/background colors.
+    foreground/background colours.
-    color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
+    color0-7 are the low-intensity colours.
-    color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
+    color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colours.
-   I don't like the screen colors.  How do I change them?
+   I don't like the screen colours.  How do I change them?
-    You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults
+    You can change the screen colours at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults
     resources (or as long-options).
     Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen, including
     the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
        URxvt.color12:  #0000FF
        URxvt.color13:  #FF00FF
        URxvt.color14:  #00FFFF
        URxvt.color15:  #FFFFFF
-    And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors.
+    And here is a more complete set of non-standard colours.
        URxvt.cursorColor:  #dc74d1
        URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
        URxvt.background:   #0e0e0e
        URxvt.foreground:   #4ad5e1
     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...'
+   Why is the cursor now blinking in emacs/vi/...?
+    This is likely caused by your editor/program's use of the "cvvis"
+    terminfo capability. Emacs uses it by default, as well as some versions
+    of vi and possibly other programs.
+    In emacs, you can switch that off by adding this to your ".emacs" file:
+       (setq visible-cursor nil)
+    For other programs, if they do not have an option, your have to remove
+    the "cvvis" capability from the terminfo description.
+    When urxvt first added the blinking cursor option, it didn't add a
+    "cvvis" capability, which served no purpose before. Version 9.21
+    introduced "cvvis" (and the ability to control blinking independent of
+    cursor shape) for compatibility with other terminals, which
+    traditionally use a blinking cursor for "cvvis". This also reflects the
+    intent of programs such as emacs, who expect "cvvis" to enable a
+    blinking cursor.
   Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
    The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
     If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
     setting:
        URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
     This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
     extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
     scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any other
-    combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback resource:
+    combination by adding a keysym resource that binds the desired
+    combination to the "start" action of "searchable-scrollback" and another
+    one that binds M-s to the "builtin:" action:
-       URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
+       URxvt.keysym.CM-s: searchable-scrollback:start
+       URxvt.keysym.M-s: builtin:
    The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
     See next entry.
    During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
     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?
+   My numeric keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
-    Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
+    Some Debian GNU/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 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.
     The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
-    correctly, or you specified a preeditStyle that is not supported by your
+    correctly, or you specified a preeditType that is not supported by your
     input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and your input
     method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys) does not
     support this (for instance because it is not visual), then rxvt-unicode
     will continue without an input method.
-    In this case either do not specify a preeditStyle or specify more than
+    In this case either do not specify a preeditType or specify more than
     one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None.
+    If it still doesn't work, then maybe your input method doesn't support
+    compose sequences - to fall back to the built-in one, make sure you
+    don't specify an input method via "-im" or "XMODIFIERS".
    I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
     Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
     international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
     advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for
     other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default telnet
     escape character and so on.
    Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
     Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing some
-    editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've heard
+    editors prematurely may leave it active. I've heard that tcsh may use
-    that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A quick
+    mouse reporting unless it is otherwise specified. A quick check is to
-    check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
+    see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are pressed.
-    depressed.
    What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
     Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the Backspace
     keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following question) there are
     two standard values that can be used for Backspace: "^H" and "^?".
     Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the
     debian policy of using "^?" when unsure, because it's the one and only
     correct choice :).
-    Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the
+    It is possible to toggle between "^H" and "^?" with the DECBKM private
-    value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode
+    mode:
-    wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell),
-    then the system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in
-    <termios.h>, will be used (which may not be the same as your stty
-    setting).
-    For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
        # use Backspace = ^H
        $ stty erase ^H
-       $ urxvt
+       $ printf "\e[?67h"
        # use Backspace = ^?
        $ stty erase ^?
-       $ urxvt
+       $ printf "\e[?67l"
-    Toggle with "ESC [ 36 h" / "ESC [ 36 l".
-    For an existing rxvt-unicode:
-       # use Backspace = ^H
-       $ stty erase ^H
-       $ echo -n "^[[36h"
-       # use Backspace = ^?
-       $ stty erase ^?
-       $ echo -n "^[[36l"
     This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
     if you use Backspace = "^H", make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
     properly reflects that.
     use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with
     keysyms.
     Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "urxvt -name URxvt"
+       URxvt.keysym.Prior:         \033[5~
+       URxvt.keysym.Next:          \033[6~
-       URxvt.keysym.Home:          \033[1~
+       URxvt.keysym.Home:          \033[7~
-       URxvt.keysym.End:           \033[4~
+       URxvt.keysym.End:           \033[8~
-       URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe:  \033<C-'>
-       URxvt.keysym.C-slash:       \033<C-/>
-       URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon:   \033<C-;>
-       URxvt.keysym.C-grave:       \033<C-`>
-       URxvt.keysym.C-comma:       \033<C-,>
-       URxvt.keysym.C-period:      \033<C-.>
-       URxvt.keysym.C-0x60:        \033<C-`>
-       URxvt.keysym.C-Tab:         \033<C-Tab>
-       URxvt.keysym.C-Return:      \033<C-Return>
-       URxvt.keysym.S-Return:      \033<S-Return>
-       URxvt.keysym.S-space:       \033<S-Space>
-       URxvt.keysym.M-Up:          \033<M-Up>
+       URxvt.keysym.Up:            \033[A
-       URxvt.keysym.M-Down:        \033<M-Down>
+       URxvt.keysym.Down:          \033[B
+       URxvt.keysym.Right:         \033[C
-       URxvt.keysym.M-Left:        \033<M-Left>
+       URxvt.keysym.Left:          \033[D
-       URxvt.keysym.M-Right:       \033<M-Right>
-       URxvt.keysym.M-C-0:         list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
-       URxvt.keysym.M-C-a:         list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
-       URxvt.keysym.F12:           command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
     See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource.
    I'm using keyboard model XXX that has extra Prior/Next/Insert keys. How do I make use of them? For example, the Sun Keyboard type 4 has the following map
        KP_Insert == Insert
     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
+       URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/some/path
     These are just for testing stuff.
        URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8
        URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None
     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.
+    relevant file and go to the error line number.
        URxvt.scrollstyle:      plain
        URxvt.secondaryScroll:  true
     As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the
     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
+    class name. That is 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*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.
+    "Alt-Ctrl-1" and "Alt-Ctrl-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:
+    file for different hosts, for example, on my 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
     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 and works as user and
+    can be done by simply installing rxvt-unicode on the remote system as
-    admin):
+    well (in case you have a nice package manager ready), or you can install
+    the terminfo database manually like this (with ncurses infocmp. works as
+    user and root):
        REMOTE=remotesystem.domain
        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
        URxvt.termName: rxvt
     If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace
     the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use "TERM=rxvt".
+   nano fails with "Error opening terminal: rxvt-unicode"
+    This exceptionally confusing and useless error message is printed by
+    nano when it can't find the terminfo database. Nothing is wrong with
+    your terminal, read the previous answer for a solution.
    "tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
     Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by
     "enacs=\E[0@" and try again.
    "bash"'s readline does not work correctly under urxvt.
     See next entry.
    I need a termcap file entry.
     One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
     systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
-    library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
+    library (Fedora's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry for
-    for "rxvt-unicode".
+    "rxvt-unicode".
     You could use rxvt's termcap entry with reasonable results in many
     cases. You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp
     program like this:
    Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
     See next entry.
    Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
     Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged
-    distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode by
+    distributions break rxvt-unicode by setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which
-    setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which doesn't have these extra features.
+    doesn't have these extra features. Unfortunately, some of these
-    Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian GNU/Linux)
     furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, so
     you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I log-in
     to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do
     this).
         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
     cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
     So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
   Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
-   I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
-    The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
-    patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
-    unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
-    the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
-    version (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
-    the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific
-    to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian
-    Bug Tracking System (use "reportbug" to report the bug).
-    For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
-    probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
-    bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users
-    that might encounter the same issue.
    I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
     You should build one binary with the default options. configure now
     enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
     runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to 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
+    You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" and "perl-ext" resources
     system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will result in useful
     behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
     "perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
     perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.

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Comparing rxvt-unicode/README.FAQ (file contents): Revision 1.55 by root, Sun Jun 15 13:54:15 2008 UTC vs. Revision 1.73 by root, Fri May 14 13:47:43 2021 UTC

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Comparing rxvt-unicode/README.FAQ (file contents):
Revision 1.55 by root, Sun Jun 15 13:54:15 2008 UTC vs.
Revision 1.73 by root, Fri May 14 13:47:43 2021 UTC