rxvt-unicode (ouR XVT, unicode) - (a VT102 emulator for the X window system)
rxvt [options] [-e command [ args ]]
rxvt-unicode, version 6.3, is a colour vt102 terminal
emulator intended as an xterm(1) replacement for users who do not
require features such as Tektronix 4014 emulation and toolkit-style
configurability. As a result, rxvt-unicode uses much less swap space --
a significant advantage on a machine serving many X sessions.
See rxvt(7)
(try man 7 rxvt
) for a list of
frequently asked questions and answer to them and some common
problems. That document is also accessible on the World-Wide-Web at
http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/*checkout*/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.html.
Unlike the original rxvt, rxvt-unicode stores all text in Unicode
internally. That means it can store and display most scripts in the
world. Being a terminal emulator, however, some things are very difficult,
especially cursive scripts such as arabic, vertically written scripts
like mongolian or scripts requiring extremely complex combining rules,
like tibetan or devenagari. Don't expect pretty output when using these
scripts. Most other scripts, latin, cyrillic, kanji, thai etc. should work
fine, though. A somewhat difficult case are left-to-right scripts, such
as hebrew: rxvt-unicode adopts the view that bidirectional algorithms
belong into the application, not the terminal emulator (too many things --
such as cursor-movement while editing -- break otherwise), but that might
change.
If you are looking for a terminal that supports more exotic scripts, let
me recommend mlterm
, which is a very userfriendly, lean and clean
terminal emulator. In fact, the reason rxvt-unicode was born was solely
because the author couldn't get mlterm
to use one font for latin1 and
another for japanese.
Therefore another design rationale was the use of multiple fonts to
display characters: The idea of a single unicode font which many other
programs force onto it's users never made sense to me: You should be able
to choose any font for any script freely.
Apart from that, rxvt-unicode is also much better internationalised than
it's predecessor, supports things such as XFT and ISO 14755 that are handy
in i18n-environments, is faster, and has a lot less bugs than the original
rxvt. This all in addition to dozens of other small improvements.
It is still faithfully following the original rxvt idea of being lean
and nice on resources: for example, you can still configure rxvt-unicode
without most of it's features to get a lean binary. It also comes with
a client/daemon pair that lets you open any number of terminal windows
from within a single process, which makes startup time very fast and
drastically reduces memory usage. See rxvtd(1)
(daemon) and
rxvtc(1)
(client).
It also makes technical information about escape sequences (which have
been extended) easier accessible: see rxvt(7)
for technical
reference documentation (escape sequences etc.).
The rxvt options (mostly a subset of xterm's) are listed
below. In keeping with the smaller-is-better philosophy, options may be
eliminated or default values chosen at compile-time, so options and
defaults listed may not accurately reflect the version installed on
your system. `rxvt -h' gives a list of major compile-time options on
the Options line. Option descriptions may be prefixed with which
compile option each is dependent upon. e.g. `Compile XIM:' requires
XIM on the Options line. Note: `rxvt -help' gives a list of all
command-line options compiled into your version.
Note that rxvt permits the resource name to be used as a
long-option (--/++ option) so the potential command-line options are
far greater than those listed. For example: `rxvt --loginShell --color1
Orange'.
The following options are available:
- -help, --help
-
Print out a message describing available options.
- -display displayname
-
Attempt to open a window on the named X display (-d still
respected). In the absence of this option, the display specified by the
DISPLAY environment variable is used.
- -geometry geom
-
Window geometry (-g still respected); resource geometry.
- -rv|+rv
-
Turn on/off simulated reverse video; resource reverseVideo.
- -j|+j
-
Turn on/off jump scrolling; resource jumpScroll.
- -ip|+ip | -tr|+tr
-
Turn on/off inheriting parent window's pixmap. Alternative form is
-tr; resource inheritPixmap.
- -fade number
-
Fade the text by the given percentage when focus is lost. Small values
fade a little only, 100 completely replaces all colours by the fade
colour; resource fading.
- -fadecolor colour
-
Fade to this colour when fading is used (see -fade). The default colour
is black. resource fadeColor.
- -tint colour
-
Tint the transparent background pixmap with the given colour when
transparency is enabled with -tr or -ip. This only works for
non-tiled backgrounds, currently. See also the -sh option that can be
used to brighten or darken the image in addition to tinting it; resource
tintColor. Example:
-
rxvt -tr -tint blue -sh 40
- -sh
-
number Darken (0 .. 100) or lighten (-1 .. -100) the transparent
background image in addition to tinting it (i.e. -tint must be
specified, too, e.g.
-tint white
).
- -bg colour
-
Window background colour; resource background.
- -fg colour
-
Window foreground colour; resource foreground.
- -pixmap file[;geom]
-
Compile XPM: Specify XPM file for the background and also optionally
specify its scaling with a geometry string. Note you may need to
add quotes to avoid special shell interpretation of the
;
in the
command-line; resource backgroundPixmap.
- -cr colour
-
The cursor colour; resource cursorColor.
- -pr colour
-
The mouse pointer foreground colour; resource pointerColor.
- -pr2 colour
-
The mouse pointer background colour; resource pointerColor2.
- -bd colour
-
The colour of the border around the text area and between the scrollbar and the text;
resource borderColor.
- -fn fontlist
-
Select the fonts to be used. This is a comma separated list of font names
that are used in turn when trying to display Unicode characters. The
first font defines the cell size for characters; other fonts might be
smaller, but not (in general) larger. A (hopefully) reasonable default
font list is always appended to it. See resource font for more details.
-
In short, to specify an X11 core font, just specify it's name or prefix it
with x:
. To specify an XFT-font, you need to prefix it with xft:
,
e.g.:
-
rxvt -fn "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:pixelsize=15"
rxvt -fn "9x15bold,xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono"
-
See also the question ``How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?'' in the FAQ
section of rxvt(7).
- -fb fontlist
-
Compile font-styles: The bold font list to use when bold characters
are to be printed. See resource boldFont for details.
- -fi fontlist
-
Compile font-styles: The italic font list to use when italic
characters are to be printed. See resource italicFont for details.
- -fbi fontlist
-
Compile font-styles: The bold italic font list to use when bold
italic > characters are to be printed. See resource boldItalicFont
for details.
- -is|+is
-
Compile font-styles: Bold/Italic font styles imply high intensity
foreground/background (default). See resource intensityStyles for
details.
- -name name
-
Specify the application name under which resources are to be obtained,
rather than the default executable file name. Name should not contain
`.' or `*' characters. Also sets the icon and title name.
- -ls|+ls
-
Start as a login-shell/sub-shell; resource loginShell.
- -ut|+ut
-
Compile utmp: Inhibit/enable writing a utmp entry; resource
utmpInhibit.
- -vb|+vb
-
Turn on/off visual bell on receipt of a bell character; resource
visualBell.
- -sb|+sb
-
Turn on/off scrollbar; resource scrollBar.
- -si|+si
-
Turn on/off scroll-to-bottom on TTY output inhibit; resource
scrollTtyOutput has opposite effect.
- -sk|+sk
-
Turn on/off scroll-to-bottom on keypress; resource
scrollTtyKeypress.
- -sw|+sw
-
Turn on/off scrolling with the scrollback buffer as new lines appear.
This only takes effect if -si is also given; resource
scrollWithBuffer.
- -sr|+sr
-
Put scrollbar on right/left; resource scrollBar_right.
- -st|+st
-
Display rxvt (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar without/with a trough;
resource scrollBar_floating.
- -ptab|+ptab
-
If enabled (default), ``Horizontal Tab'' characters are being stored as
actual wide characters in the screen buffer, which makes it possible to
select and paste them. Since a horizontal tab is a cursor movement and
not an actual glyph, this can sometimes be visually annoying as the cursor
on a tab character is displayed as a wide cursor; resource pastableTabs.
- -bc|+bc
-
Blink the cursor; resource cursorBlink.
- -iconic
-
Start iconified, if the window manager supports that option.
Alternative form is -ic.
- -sl number
-
Save number lines in the scrollback buffer. See resource entry for
limits; resource saveLines.
- -b number
-
Compile frills: Internal border of number pixels. See resource
entry for limits; resource internalBorder.
- -w number
-
Compile frills: External border of number pixels. Also, -bw
and -borderwidth. See resource entry for limits; resource
externalBorder.
- -bl
-
Compile frills: Set MWM hints to request a borderless window, i.e.
if honoured by the WM, the rxvt-unicode window will not have window
decorations; resource borderLess.
- -sbg
-
Compile frills: Disable the usage of the built-in block graphics/line
drawing characters and just rely on what the specified fonts provide. Use
this if you have a good font and want to use its block graphic glyphs;
resource skipBuiltinGlyphs.
- -lsp number
-
Compile frills: Lines (pixel height) to insert between each row of
the display. Useful to work around font rendering problems; resource
linespace.
- -tn termname
-
This option specifies the name of the terminal type to be set in the
TERM environment variable. This terminal type must exist in the
termcap(5) database and should have li# and co# entries;
resource termName.
- -e command [arguments]
-
Run the command with its command-line arguments in the rxvt
window; also sets the window title and icon name to be the basename of
the program being executed if neither -title (-T) nor -n are
given on the command line. If this option is used, it must be the last
on the command-line. If there is no -e option then the default is to
run the program specified by the SHELL environment variable or,
failing that, sh(1).
-
Please note that you must specify a program with arguments. If you want to
run shell commands, you have to specify the shell, like this:
-
rxvt -e sh -c "shell commands"
- -title text
-
Window title (-T still respected); the default title is the basename
of the program specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the
application name; resource title.
- -n text
-
Icon name; the default name is the basename of the program specified
after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application name;
resource iconName.
- -C
-
Capture system console messages.
- -pt style
-
Compile XIM: input style for input method; OverTheSpot,
OffTheSpot, Root; resource preeditType.
- -im text
-
Compile XIM: input method name. resource inputMethod.
- -imlocale string
-
The locale to use for opening the IM. You can use an
LC_CTYPE
of e.g.
de_DE.UTF-8
for normal text processing but ja_JP.EUC-JP
for the
input extension to be able to input japanese characters while staying in
another locale. resource imLocale.
- -imfont fontset
-
Set the font set to use for the X Input Method, see resource imFont
for more info.
- -tcw
-
Change the meaning of triple-click selection with the left mouse
button. Instead of selecting a full line it will extend the selection the
end of the logical line only. resource tripleclickwords.
- -insecure
-
Enable ``insecure'' mode, which currently enables most of the escape
sequences that echo strings. See the resource insecure for more
info.
- -mod modifier
-
Override detection of Meta modifier with specified key: alt,
meta, hyper, super, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4,
mod5; resource modifier.
- -ssc|+ssc
-
Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled); resource
secondaryScreen.
- -ssr|+ssr
-
Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled); resource
secondaryScroll.
- -hold|+hold
-
Turn on/off hold window after exit support. If enabled, rxvt
will not immediately destroy its window when the program executed within
it exits. Instead, it will wait till it is being killed or closed by the
user; resource hold.
- -keysym.sym string
-
Remap a key symbol. See resource keysym.
- -embed windowid
-
Tells rxvt to embed it's windows into an already-existing window,
which enables applications to easily embed a terminal.
-
Right now, rxvt will first unmap/map the specified window, so it
shouldn't be a top-level window. rxvt will also reconfigure it
quite a bit, so don't expect it to keep some specific state. It's best to
create an extra subwindow for rxvt and leave it alone.
-
The window will not be destroyed when rxvt exits.
-
It might be useful to know that rxvt will not close file
descriptors passed to it (except for stdin/out/err, of course), so you
can use file descriptors to communicate with the programs within the
terminal. This works regardless of wether the -embed
option was used or
not.
-
Here is a short Gtk2-perl snippet that illustrates how this option can be
used (a longer example is in doc/embed):
-
my $rxvt = new Gtk2::Socket;
$rxvt->signal_connect_after (realize => sub {
my $xid = $_[0]->window->get_xid;
system "rxvt -embed $xid &";
});
- -pty-fd file descriptor
-
Tells rxvt NOT to execute any commands or create a new pty/tty
pair but instead use the given filehandle as the tty master. This is
useful if you want to drive rxvt as a generic terminal emulator
without having to run a program within it.
-
If this switch is given, rxvt will not create any utmp/wtmp
entries and will not tinker with pty/tty permissions - you have to do that
yourself if you want that.
-
As an extremely special case, specifying -1
will completely suppress
pty/tty operations.
-
Here is a example in perl that illustrates how this option can be used (a
longer example is in doc/pty-fd):
-
use IO::Pty;
use Fcntl;
-
my $pty = new IO::Pty;
fcntl $pty, F_SETFD, 0; # clear close-on-exec
system "rxvt -pty-fd " . (fileno $pty) . "&";
close $pty;
-
# now communicate with rxvt
my $slave = $pty->slave;
while (<$slave>) { print $slave "got <$_>\n" }
- -pe string
-
Comma-separated list of perl extension scripts to use (or not to use) in
this terminal instance. See resource perl-ext for details.
Note: `rxvt --help' gives a list of all resources (long
options) compiled into your version.
There are two different methods that rxvt can use to get the
Xresource data: using the X libraries (Xrm*-functions) or internal
Xresources reader (~/.Xdefaults). For the first method (ie.
rxvt -h lists XGetDefaults), you can set and change the
resources using X11 tools like xrdb. Many distribution do also load
settings from the ~/.Xresources file when X starts. rxvt
will consult the following files/resources in order, with later settings
overwriting earlier ones:
1. system-wide app-defaults file, either locale-dependent OR global
2. app-defaults file in $XAPPLRESDIR
3. RESOURCE_MANAGER property on root-window OR $HOME/.Xdefaults
4. SCREEN_RESOURCES for the current screen
5. $XENVIRONMENT file OR $HOME/.Xdefaults-<nodename>
If compiled with internal Xresources support (i.e. rxvt -h
lists .Xdefaults) then rxvt accepts application defaults
set in XAPPLOADDIR/URxvt (compile-time defined: usually
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/URxvt) and resources set in
~/.Xdefaults, or ~/.Xresources if ~/.Xdefaults does not exist.
Note that when reading X resources, rxvt recognizes two
class names: XTerm and URxvt. The class name Rxvt allows
resources common to both rxvt and the original rxvt to be
easily configured, while the class name URxvt allows resources
unique to rxvt, notably colours and key-handling, to be
shared between different rxvt configurations. If no
resources are specified, suitable defaults will be used. Command-line
arguments can be used to override resource settings. The following
resources are allowed:
- geometry: geom
-
Create the window with the specified X window geometry [default 80x24];
option -geometry.
- background: colour
-
Use the specified colour as the window's background colour [default
White]; option -bg.
- foreground: colour
-
Use the specified colour as the window's foreground colour [default
Black]; option -fg.
- colorn: colour
-
Use the specified colour for the colour value n, where 0-7
corresponds to low-intensity (normal) colours and 8-15 corresponds to
high-intensity (bold = bright foreground, blink = bright background)
colours. The canonical names are as follows: 0=black, 1=red, 2=green,
3=yellow, 4=blue, 5=magenta, 6=cyan, 7=white, but the actual colour
names used are listed in the COLORS AND GRAPHICS section.
-
Colours higher than 15 cannot be set using resources (yet), but can be
changed using an escape command (see rxvt(7)).
-
Colours 16-79 form a standard 4x4x4 colour cube (the same as xterm with
88 colour support). Colours 80-87 are evenly spaces grey steps.
- colorBD: colour
- colorIT: colour
-
Use the specified colour to display bold or italic characters when the
foreground colour is the default. If font styles are not available
(Compile styles) and this option is unset, reverse video is used instead.
- colorUL: colour
-
Use the specified colour to display underlined characters when the
foreground colour is the default.
- colorRV: colour
-
Use the specified colour as the background for reverse video
characters.
- underlineColor: colour
-
If set, use the specified colour as the colour for the underline
itself. If unset, use the foreground colour.
- cursorColor: colour
-
Use the specified colour for the cursor. The default is to use the
foreground colour; option -cr.
- cursorColor2: colour
-
Use the specified colour for the colour of the cursor text. For this to
take effect, cursorColor must also be specified. The default is to
use the background colour.
- reverseVideo: boolean
-
True: simulate reverse video by foreground and background colours;
option -rv. False: regular screen colours [default]; option
+rv. See note in COLORS AND GRAPHICS section.
- jumpScroll: boolean
-
True: specify that jump scrolling should be used. When scrolling
quickly, fewer screen updates are performed [default]; option -j.
False: specify that smooth scrolling should be used; option +j.
- inheritPixmap: boolean
-
True: make the background inherit the parent windows' pixmap, giving
artificial transparency. False: do not inherit the parent windows'
pixmap.
- fading: number
-
Fade the text by the given percentage when focus is lost; option -fade.
- fadeColor: colour
-
Fade to this colour, when fading is used (see fading:). The default
colour is black; option -fadecolor.
- tintColor: colour
-
Tint the transparent background pixmap with the given colour; option
-tint.
- shading: number
-
Darken (0 .. 100) or lighten (-1 .. -100) the transparent background
image in addition to tinting it.
- scrollColor: colour
-
Use the specified colour for the scrollbar [default #B2B2B2].
- troughColor: colour
-
Use the specified colour for the scrollbar's trough area [default
#969696]. Only relevant for rxvt (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar.
- borderColor: colour
-
The colour of the border around the text area and between the scrollbar
and the text.
- backgroundPixmap: file[;geom]
-
Use the specified XPM file (note the `.xpm' extension is optional) for
the background and also optionally specify its scaling with a geometry
string WxH+X+Y, in which ``W'' / ``H'' specify the
horizontal/vertical scale (percent) and ``X'' / ``Y'' locate the image
centre (percent). A scale of 0 displays the image with tiling. A scale
of 1 displays the image without any scaling. A scale of 2 to 9
specifies an integer number of images in that direction. No image will
be magnified beyond 10 times its original size. The maximum permitted
scale is 1000. [default 0x0+50+50]
- menu: file[;tag]
-
Read in the specified menu file (note the `.menu' extension is
optional) and also optionally specify a starting tag to find. See the
reference documentation for details on the syntax for the menuBar.
- path: path
-
Specify the colon-delimited search path for finding files (XPM and
menus), in addition to the paths specified by the RXVTPATH and
PATH environment variables.
- font: fontlist
-
Select the fonts to be used. This is a comma separated list of font
names that are used in turn when trying to display Unicode characters.
The first font defines the cell size for characters; other fonts might
be smaller, but not larger. A reasonable default font list is always
appended to it; option -fn.
-
Each font can either be a standard X11 core font (XLFD) name, with
optional prefix x:
or a Xft font (Compile xft), prefixed with xft:
.
-
In addition, each font can be prefixed with additional hints and
specifications enclosed in square brackets ([]
). The only available
hint currently is codeset=codeset-name
, and this is only used for Xft
fonts.
-
For example, this font resource
-
URxvt*font: 9x15bold,\
-misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
[codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic:antialias=false, \
xft:Code2000:antialias=false
-
specifies five fonts to be used. The first one is 9x15bold
(actually
the iso8859-1 version of the second font), which is the base font (because
it is named first) and thus defines the character cell grid to be 9 pixels
wide and 15 pixels high.
-
The second font is just used to add additional unicode characters not in
the base font, likewise the third, which is unfortunately non-bold, but
the bold version of the font does contain less characters, so this is a
useful supplement.
-
The third font is an Xft font with aliasing turned off, and the characters
are limited to the JIS 0208 codeset (i.e. japanese kanji). The font
contains other characters, but we are not interested in them.
-
The last font is a useful catch-all font that supplies most of the
remaining unicode characters.
- boldFont: fontlist
- italicFont: fontlist
- boldItalicFont: fontlist
-
The font list to use for displaying bold, italic or bold
italic > characters, respectively.
-
If specified and non-empty, then the syntax is the same as for the
font-resource, and the given font list will be used as is, which makes
it possible to substitute completely different font styles for bold and
italic.
-
If unset (the default), a suitable font list will be synthesized by
``morphing'' the normal text font list into the desired shape. If that is
not possible, replacement fonts of the desired shape will be tried.
-
If set, but empty, then this specific style is disabled and the normal
text font will being used for the given style.
- intensityStyles: boolean
-
When font styles are not enabled, or this option is enabled (True,
option -is, the default), bold and italic font styles imply high
intensity foreground/backround colours. Disabling this option (False,
option +is) disables this behaviour, the high intensity colours are not
reachable.
- selectstyle: mode
-
Set mouse selection style to old which is 2.20, oldword which is
xterm style with 2.20 old word selection, or anything else which gives
xterm style selection.
- scrollstyle: mode
-
Set scrollbar style to rxvt, plain, next or xterm. plain is
the author's favourite.
- title: string
-
Set window title string, the default title is the command-line
specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application
name; option -title.
- iconName: string
-
Set the name used to label the window's icon or displayed in an icon
manager window, it also sets the window's title unless it is explicitly
set; option -n.
- mapAlert: boolean
-
True: de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character. False: no
de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character [default].
- visualBell: boolean
-
True: use visual bell on receipt of a bell character; option -vb.
False: no visual bell [default]; option +vb.
- loginShell: boolean
-
True: start as a login shell by prepending a `-' to argv[0] of
the shell; option -ls. False: start as a normal sub-shell
[default]; option +ls.
- utmpInhibit: boolean
-
True: inhibit writing record into the system log file utmp;
option -ut. False: write record into the system log file utmp
[default]; option +ut.
- print-pipe: string
-
Specify a command pipe for vt100 printer [default lpr(1)]. Use
Print to initiate a screen dump to the printer and Ctrl-Print or
Shift-Print to include the scrollback as well.
-
The string will be interpreted as if typed into the shell as-is.
-
Example:
-
URxvt*print-pipe: cat > $(TMPDIR=$HOME mktemp urxvt.XXXXXX)
-
This creates a new file in your home directory with the screen contents
everytime you hit Print
.
- scrollBar: boolean
-
True: enable the scrollbar [default]; option -sb. False:
disable the scrollbar; option +sb.
- scrollBar_right: boolean
-
True: place the scrollbar on the right of the window; option -sr.
False: place the scrollbar on the left of the window; option +sr.
- scrollBar_floating: boolean
-
True: display an rxvt scrollbar without a trough; option -st.
False: display an rxvt scrollbar with a trough; option +st.
- scrollBar_align: mode
-
Align the top, bottom or centre [default] of the scrollbar
thumb with the pointer on middle button press/drag.
- scrollTtyOutput: boolean
-
True: scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option -si.
False: do not scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option
+si.
- scrollWithBuffer: boolean
-
True: scroll with scrollback buffer when tty receives new lines (and
scrollTtyOutput is False); option -sw. False: do not scroll
with scrollback buffer when tty recieves new lines; option +sw.
- scrollTtyKeypress: boolean
-
True: scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed. Special keys
are those which are intercepted by rxvt-unicode for special handling and
are not passed onto the shell; option -sk. False: do not scroll to
bottom when a non-special key is pressed; option +sk.
- saveLines: number
-
Save number lines in the scrollback buffer [default 64]. This
resource is limited on most machines to 65535; option -sl.
- internalBorder: number
-
Internal border of number pixels. This resource is limited to 100;
option -b.
- externalBorder: number
-
External border of number pixels. This resource is limited to 100;
option -w, -bw, -borderwidth.
- borderLess: boolean
-
Set MWM hints to request a borderless window, i.e. if honoured by the
WM, the rxvt-unicode window will not have window decorations; option -bl.
- skipBuiltinGlyphs: boolean
-
Compile frills: Disable the usage of the built-in block graphics/line
drawing characters and just rely on what the specified fonts provide. Use
this if you have a good font and want to use its block graphic glyphs;
option -sbg.
- termName: termname
-
Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM environment
variable; option -tn.
- linespace: number
-
Specifies number of lines (pixel height) to insert between each row of
the display [default 0]; option -lsp.
- meta8: boolean
-
True: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress to set the 8th bit. False:
handle Meta (Alt) + keypress as an escape prefix [default].
- mouseWheelScrollPage: boolean
-
True: the mouse wheel scrolls a page full. False: the mouse wheel
scrolls five lines [default].
- pastableTabs: boolean
-
True: store tabs as wide characters. False: interpret tabs as cursor
movement only; option
-ptab
.
- cursorBlink: boolean
-
True: blink the cursor. False: do not blink the cursor [default];
option -bc.
- pointerBlank: boolean
-
True: blank the pointer when a key is pressed or after a set number
of seconds of inactivity. False: the pointer is always visible
[default].
- pointerColor: colour
-
Mouse pointer foreground colour.
- pointerColor2: colour
-
Mouse pointer background colour.
- pointerBlankDelay: number
-
Specifies number of seconds before blanking the pointer [default 2]. Use a
large number (e.g.
987654321
) to effectively disable the timeout.
- backspacekey: string
-
The string to send when the backspace key is pressed. If set to DEC
or unset it will send Delete (code 127) or, if shifted, Backspace
(code 8) - which can be reversed with the appropriate DEC private mode
escape sequence.
- deletekey: string
-
The string to send when the delete key (not the keypad delete key) is
pressed. If unset it will send the sequence traditionally associated
with the Execute key.
- cutchars: string
-
The characters used as delimiters for double-click word selection. The
built-in default:
-
BACKSLASH ```'&()*,;<=?@[]{|} >>
- preeditType: style
-
OverTheSpot, OffTheSpot, Root; option -pt.
- inputMethod: name
-
name of inputMethod to use; option -im.
- imLocale: name
-
The locale to use for opening the IM. You can use an
LC_CTYPE
of e.g.
de_DE.UTF-8
for normal text processing but ja_JP.EUC-JP
for the
input extension to be able to input japanese characters while staying in
another locale; option -imlocale.
- imFont: fontset
-
Specify the font-set used for XIM styles
OverTheSpot
or
OffTheSpot
. It must be a standard X font set (XLFD patterns separated
by commas), i.e. it's not in the same format as the other font lists used
in rxvt. The default will be set-up to chose *any* suitable found
found, preferably one or two pixels differing in size to the base font.
option -imfont.
- tripleclickwords: boolean
-
Change the meaning of triple-click selection with the left mouse
button. Instead of selecting a full line it will extend the selection to
the end of the logical line only; option -tcw.
- insecure: boolean
-
Enables ``insecure'' mode. Rxvt-unicode offers some escape sequences that
echo arbitrary strings like the icon name or the locale. This could be
abused if somebody gets 8-bit-clean access to your display, whether
through a mail client displaying mail bodies unfiltered or through
write(1)
or any other means. Therefore, these sequences are disabled by
default. (Note that many other terminals, including xterm, have these
sequences enabled by default, which doesn't make it safer, though).
-
You can enable them by setting this boolean resource or specifying
-insecure as an option. At the moment, this enables display-answer,
locale, findfont, icon label and window title requests as well as dynamic
menubar dispatch.
- modifier: modifier
-
Set the key to be interpreted as the Meta key to: alt, meta,
hyper, super, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, mod5; option
-mod.
- answerbackString: string
-
Specify the reply rxvt-unicode sends to the shell when an ENQ (control-E)
character is passed through. It may contain escape values as described
in the entry on keysym following.
- secondaryScreen: bool
-
Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled).
- secondaryScroll: bool
-
Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled). If the this
option is enabled, scrolls on the secondary screen will change the
scrollback buffer and switching to/from the secondary screen will
instead scroll the screen up.
- hold: bool
-
Turn on/off hold window after exit support. If enabled, rxvt
will not immediately destroy its window when the program executed within
it exits. Instead, it will wait till it is being killed or closed by the
user.
- keysym.sym: string
-
Compile frills: Associate string with keysym sym. The
intervening resource name keysym. cannot be omitted.
-
The format of sym is ``(modifiers-)key'', where modifiers can be
any combination of ISOLevel3, AppKeypad, Control, NumLock,
Shift, Meta, Lock, Mod1, Mod2, Mod3, Mod4, Mod5,
and the abbreviated I, K, C, N, S, M, A, L, 1,
2, 3, 4, 5.
-
The NumLock, Meta and ISOLevel3 modifiers are usually aliased to
whatever modifier the NumLock key, Meta/Alt keys or ISO Level3 Shift/AltGr
keys are being mapped. AppKeypad is a synthetic modifier mapped to the
current application keymap mode state.
-
The spellings of key can be obtained by using xev(1) command or
searching keysym macros from /usr/X11R6/include/X11/keysymdef.h and
omitting the prefix XK_. Alternatively you can specify key by its hex
keysym value (0x0000 - 0xFFFF). Note that the lookup of syms is not
performed in an exact manner; however, the closest match is assured.
-
string may contain escape values (\a
: bell, \b
: backspace,
\e
, \E
: escape, \n
: newline, \r
: carriage return, \t
: tab,
\000
: octal number) or verbatim control characters (^?
: delete,
^@
: null, ^A
...) and may be enclosed with double quotes so that it
can start or end with whitespace.
-
Please note that you need to double the \
when using
--enable-xgetdefault
, as X itself does it's own de-escaping (you can
use \033
instead of \e
(and so on), which will work with both Xt and
rxvt's own processing).
-
You can define a range of keysyms in one shot by providing a string
with pattern list/PREFIX/MIDDLE/SUFFIX, where the delimeter `/'
should be a character not used by the strings.
-
Its usage can be demonstrated by an example:
-
URxvt.keysym.M-C-0x61: list|\033<M-C-|abc|>
-
The above line is equivalent to the following three lines:
-
URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x61: \033<M-C-a>
URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x62: \033<M-C-b>
URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x63: \033<M-C-c>
-
If string takes the form of command:STRING
, the specified STRING
is interpreted and executed as rxvt's control sequence. For
example the following means ``change the current locale to zh_CN.GBK
when Control-Meta-c is being pressed'':
-
URxvt.keysym.M-C-c: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
-
If string takes the form perl:STRING
, then the specified STRING
is passed to the on_keyboard_command
perl handler. See the rxvtperl(3)
manpage. For example, the selection extension (activated via
rxvt -pe selection
) listens for selection:rot13
events:
-
URxvt.keysym.M-C-c: perl:selection:rot13
-
Due the the large number of modifier combinations, a defined key mapping
will match if at at least the specified identifiers are being set, and
no other key mappings with those and more bits are being defined. That
means that defining a key map for a
will automatically provide
definitions for Meta-a
, Shift-a
and so on, unless some of those are defined
mappings themselves.
-
Unfortunately, this will override built-in key mappings. For example
if you overwrite the Insert
key you will disable rxvt's
Shift-Insert
mapping. To re-enable that, you can poke ``holes'' into the
user-defined keymap using the builtin:
replacement:
-
URxvt.keysym.Insert: <my insert key sequence>
URxvt.keysym.S-Insert: builtin:
-
The first line defines a mapping for Insert
and any combination
of modifiers. The second line re-establishes the default mapping for
Shift-Insert
.
-
The following example will map Control-Meta-1 and Control-Meta-2 to
the fonts suxuseuro
and 9x15bold
, so you can have some limited
font-switching at runtime:
-
URxvt.keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]50;suxuseuro\007
URxvt.keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]50;9x15bold\007
-
Other things are possible, e.g. resizing (see rxvt(7)
for more
info):
-
URxvt.keysym.M-C-3: command:\033[8;25;80t
URxvt.keysym.M-C-4: command:\033[8;48;110t
- perl-ext-common: string
- perl-ext: string
-
Comma-separated
list(s)
of perl extension scripts (default: default
) to
use in this terminal instance; option -pe.
-
Extension names can be prefixed with a -
sign to prohibit using
them. This can be useful to selectively disable some extensions loaded
by default, or specified via the perl-ext-common
resource. For
example, default,-selection
will use all the default extension except
selection
.
-
Extension names can also be followed by an argument in angle brackets
(e.g. searchable-scrollback<M-s>
, which binds the hotkey for
searchable scorllback to Alt/Meta-s). Mentioning the same extension
multiple times with different arguments will pass multiple arguments to
the extension.
-
Each extension is looked up in the library directories, loaded if
necessary, and bound to the current terminal instance.
-
If both of these resources are the empty string, then the perl
interpreter will not be initialized. The idea behind two options is that
perl-ext-common will be used for extensions that should be available to
all instances, while perl-ext is used for specific instances.
- perl-eval: string
-
Perl code to be evaluated when all extensions have been registered. See
the
rxvtperl(3)
manpage. Due to security reasons, this resource
will be ignored when running setuid/setgid.
- perl-lib: path
-
Colon-separated list of additional directories that hold extension
scripts. When looking for extensions specified by the
perl
resource,
rxvt will first look in these directories and then in
/opt/rxvt/lib/urxvt/perl/. Due to security reasons, this resource
will be ignored when running setuid/setgid.
-
See the rxvtperl(3)
manpage.
- transient-for: windowid
-
Sets the WM_TRANSIENT_FOR property to the given window iw.
Lines of text that scroll off the top of the rxvt window
(resource: saveLines) and can be scrolled back using the scrollbar
or by keystrokes. The normal rxvt scrollbar has arrows and
its behaviour is fairly intuitive. The xterm-scrollbar is without
arrows and its behaviour mimics that of xterm
Scroll down with Button1 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Next.
Scroll up with Button3 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Prior.
Continuous scroll with Button2.
To temporarily override mouse reporting, for either the scrollbar or
the normal text selection/insertion, hold either the Shift or the Meta
(Alt) key while performing the desired mouse action.
If mouse reporting mode is active, the normal scrollbar actions are
disabled -- on the assumption that we are using a fullscreen
application. Instead, pressing Button1 and Button3 sends ESC [ 6 ~
(Next) and ESC [ 5 ~ (Prior), respectively. Similarly, clicking on the
up and down arrows sends ESC [ A (Up) and ESC [ B (Down),
respectively.
The behaviour of text selection and insertion mechanism is similar to
xterm(1).
- Selection:
-
Left click at the beginning of the region, drag to the end of the region
and release; Right click to extend the marked region; Left double-click
to select a word; Left triple-click to select the entire logical line
(which can span multiple screen lines), unless modified by resource
tripleclickwords.
-
Starting a selection while pressing the Meta key (or Meta+Ctrl keys)
(Compile: frills) will create a rectangular selection instead of a
normal one. In this mode, every selected row becomes its own line in the
selection, and trailing whitespace is visually underlined and removed from
the selection.
- Insertion:
-
Pressing and releasing the Middle mouse button (or Shift-Insert) in
an rxvt window causes the current text selection to be
inserted as if it had been typed on the keyboard.
Changing fonts (or font sizes, respectively) via the keypad is not yet
supported in rxvt-unicode. Bug me if you need this.
You can, however, switch fonts at runtime using escape sequences (and
therefore using the menubar), e.g.:
printf '\e]710;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
rxvt-unicode will automatically re-apply these fonts to the output so far.
ISO 14755 is a standard for entering and viewing unicode characters
and character codes using the keyboard. It consists of 4 parts. The
first part is available rxvt-unicode has been compiled with
--enable-frills
, the rest is available when rxvt-unicode was compiled
with --enable-iso14755
.
- 5.1: Basic method
This allows you to enter unicode characters using their hexcode.
Start by pressing and holding both Control
and Shift
, then enter
hex-digits (between one and six). Releasing Control
and Shift
will
commit the character as if it were typed directly. While holding down
Control
and Shift
you can also enter multiple characters by pressing
Space
, which will commit the current character and lets you start a new
one.
As an example of use, imagine a business card with a japanese e-mail
address, which you cannot type. Fortunately, the card has the e-mail
address printed as hexcodes, e.g. 671d 65e5
. You can enter this easily
by pressing Control
and Shift
, followed by 6-7-1-D-SPACE-6-5-E-5
,
followed by releasing the modifier keys.
- 5.2: Keyboard symbols entry method
This mode lets you input characters representing the keycap symbols of
your keyboard, if representable in the current locale encoding.
Start by pressing Control
and Shift
together, then releasing
them. The next special key (cursor keys, home etc.) you enter will not
invoke it's usual function but instead will insert the corresponding
keycap symbol. The symbol will only be entered when the key has been
released, otherwise pressing e.g. Shift
would enter the symbol for
ISO Level 2 Switch
, although your intention might have been to enter a
reverse tab (Shift-Tab).
- 5.3: Screen-selection entry method
While this is implemented already (it's basically the selection
mechanism), it could be extended by displaying a unicode character map.
- 5.4: Feedback method for identifying displayed characters for later input
This method lets you display the unicode character code associated with
characters already displayed.
You enter this mode by holding down Control
and Shift
together, then
pressing and holding the left mouse button and moving around. The unicode
hex code(s)
(it might be a combining character) of the character under the
pointer is displayed until you release Control
and Shift
.
In addition to the hex codes it will display the font used to draw this
character - due to implementation reasons, characters combined with
combining characters, line drawing characters and unknown characters will
always be drawn using the built-in support font.
With respect to conformance, rxvt-unicode is supposed to be compliant to
both scenario A and B of ISO 14755, including part 5.2.
rxvt tries to write an entry into the utmp(5) file so that
it can be seen via the who(1) command, and can accept messages. To
allow this feature, rxvt may need to be installed setuid root
on some systems or setgid to root or to some other group on others.
In addition to the default foreground and background colours,
rxvt can display up to 16 colours (8 ANSI colours plus
high-intensity bold/blink versions of the same). Here is a list of the
colours with their rgb.txt names.
color0 | (black) | = Black |
color1 | (red) | = Red3 |
color2 | (green) | = Green3 |
color3 | (yellow) | = Yellow3 |
color4 | (blue) | = Blue3 |
color5 | (magenta) | = Magenta3 |
color6 | (cyan) | = Cyan3 |
color7 | (white) | = AntiqueWhite |
color8 | (bright black) | = Grey25 |
color9 | (bright red) | = Red |
color10 | (bright green) | = Green |
color11 | (bright yellow) | = Yellow |
color12 | (bright blue) | = Blue |
color13 | (bright magenta) | = Magenta |
color14 | (bright cyan) | = Cyan |
color15 | (bright white) | = White |
foreground | | = Black |
background | | = White |
It is also possible to specify the colour values of foreground,
background, cursorColor, cursorColor2, colorBD, colorUL as
a number 0-15, as a convenient shorthand to reference the colour name of
color0-color15.
Note that -rv (``reverseVideo: True'') simulates reverse video by
always swapping the foreground/background colours. This is in contrast to
xterm(1) where the colours are only swapped if they have not otherwise
been specified. For example,
- rxvt -fg Black -bg White -rv
-
would yield White on Black, while on xterm(1) it would yield Black
on White.
rxvt sets and/or uses the following environment variables:
- TERM
-
Normally set to
rxvt-unicode
, unless overwritten at configure time, via
resources or on the commandline.
- COLORTERM
-
Either
rxvt
, rxvt-xpm
, depending on wether rxvt was
compiled with XPM support, and optionally with the added extension
-mono
to indicate that rxvt-unicode runs on a monochrome screen.
- COLORFGBG
-
Set to a string of the form
fg;bg
or fg;xpm;bg
, where fg
is
the colour code used as default foreground/text colour (or the string
default
to indicate that the default-colour escape sequence is to be
used), bg
is the colour code used as default background colour (or the
string default
), and xpm
is the string default
if rxvt
was compiled with XPM support. Libraries like ncurses
and slang
can
(and do) use this information to optimize screen output.
- WINDOWID
-
Set to the (decimal) X Window ID of the rxvt window (the toplevel
window, which usually has subwindows for the scrollbar, the terminal
window and so on).
- TERMINFO
-
Set to the terminfo directory iff rxvt was configured with
--with-terminfo=PATH
.
- DISPLAY
-
Used by rxvt to connect to the display and set to the correct
display in it's child processes.
- SHELL
-
The shell to be used for command execution, defaults to
/bin/sh
.
- RXVTPATH
-
The path where rxvt looks for support files such as menu and xpm
files.
- PATH
-
Used in the same way as
RXVTPATH
.
- RXVT_SOCKET
-
The unix domain socket path used by
rxvtc(1)
and
rxvtd(1).
-
Default $HOME/.rxvt-unicode-<nodename >>>.
- HOME
-
Used to locate the default directory for the unix domain socket for
daemon communications and to locate various resource files (such as
.Xdefaults
)
- XAPPLRESDIR
-
Directory where various X resource files are being located.
- XENVIRONMENT
-
If set and accessible, gives the name of a X resource file to be loaded by
rxvt.
- /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt
-
Color names.
rxvt(7), rxvtc(1), rxvtd(1), xterm(1), sh(1), resize(1), X(1), pty(4), tty(4), utmp(5)
- Project Coordinator
-
Marc A. Lehmann >
-
http://software.schmorp.de/#rxvt-unicode
- John Bovey
-
University of Kent, 1992, wrote the original Xvt.
- Rob Nation >
-
very heavily modified Xvt and came up with Rxvt
- Angelo Haritsis >
-
wrote the Greek Keyboard Input (no longer in code)
- mj olesen >
-
Wrote the menu system.
-
Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.11 to 2.21)
- Oezguer Kesim >
-
Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.21a to 2.4.5)
- Geoff Wing >
-
Rewrote screen display and text selection routines. Project Coordinator
(changes.txt 2.4.6 - rxvt-unicode)
- Marc Alexander Lehmann >
-
Forked rxvt-unicode, rewrote most of the display code and internal
character handling to store text in unicode, improve xterm
compatibility and apply numerous other bugfixes and extensions.
-
Project Coordinator (Changes 1.0 -)