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Revision 1.4 by root, Fri Aug 13 03:47:09 2004 UTC vs.
Revision 1.5 by root, Sat Aug 14 03:00:32 2004 UTC

… …
12emulator intended as an I<xterm>(1) replacement for users who do not 12emulator intended as an I<xterm>(1) replacement for users who do not
13require features such as Tektronix 4014 emulation and toolkit-style 13require features such as Tektronix 4014 emulation and toolkit-style
14configurability. As a result, B<rxvt-unicode> uses much less swap space -- 14configurability. As a result, B<rxvt-unicode> uses much less swap space --
15a significant advantage on a machine serving many X sessions. 15a significant advantage on a machine serving many X sessions.
16 16
17See also @@RXVT_NAME@@(7) for technical reference documentation (escape 17=head1 RXVT-UNICODE VS. RXVT
18sequences etc.) and the FAQ section at the end of this document. 18
19Unlike the original rxvt, B<rxvt-unicode> stores all text in Unicode
20internally. That means it can store and display most scripts in the
21world. Being a terminal emulator, however, some things are very difficult,
22especially cursive scripts such as arabic, vertically written scripts
23like mongolian or scripts requiring extremely complex combining rules,
24like tibetan or devenagari. Don't expect pretty output when using these
25scripts. Most other scripts, latin, cyrillic, kanji, thai etc. should work
26fine, though. A somewhat difficult case are left-to-right scripts, such
27as hebrew: B<rxvt-unicode> adopts the view that bidirectional algorithms
28belong into the application, not the terminal emulator (too many things --
29such as cursor-movement -- break othwerwise).
30
31Another design rationale was the use of multiple fonts to display
32characters: The idea of a single unicode font which many other programs
33force onto it's users never made sense to me: You should be able to choose
34any font for any script.
35
36Apart from that, rxvt-unicode is also much better internationalised than
37it's predecessor, supports things such as XFT and ISO 14755 that are handy
38in i18n-environments, is faster, and has a lot less bugs than the original
39rxvt. This all in addition to dozens of other small improvements.
40
41It is still faithfully following the original rxvt idea of being lean
42and nice on resources: for example, you can still configure rxvt-unicode
43without most of it's features to get a lean binary. It also comes with
44a client/daemon pair that lets you open any number of terminal windows
45from within a single process, which makes startup time very fast and
46drastically reduces memory usage. See @@RXVT_NAME@@d(1) (daemon) and
47@@RXVT_NAME@@c(1) (client).
48
49It also makes technical information about escape sequences (which have
50been extended) easier accessible: see @@RXVT_NAME@@(7) for technical
51reference documentation (escape sequences etc.) and the FAQ section at the
52end of this document.
19 53
20=head1 OPTIONS 54=head1 OPTIONS
21 55
22The B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> options (mostly a subset of I<xterm>'s) are listed 56The B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> options (mostly a subset of I<xterm>'s) are listed
23below. In keeping with the smaller-is-better philosophy, options may be 57below. In keeping with the smaller-is-better philosophy, options may be
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119Select the fonts to be used. This is a comma seperated list of font 153Select the fonts to be used. This is a comma seperated list of font
120names that are used in turn when trying to display Unicode characters. 154names that are used in turn when trying to display Unicode characters.
121The first font defines the cell size for characters; other fonts might 155The first font defines the cell size for characters; other fonts might
122be smaller, but not larger. A reasonable default font list is always 156be smaller, but not larger. A reasonable default font list is always
123appended to it. resource B<font>. 157appended to it. resource B<font>.
158
159See also the question "How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?" in the FAQ
160section.
124 161
125=item B<-rb>|B<+rb> 162=item B<-rb>|B<+rb>
126 163
127Enable "real bold" support. When this option is on, bold text will be 164Enable "real bold" support. When this option is on, bold text will be
128displayed using the first available bold font in the font list. Bold 165displayed using the first available bold font in the font list. Bold
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830would yield White on Black, while on I<xterm>(1) it would yield Black 867would yield White on Black, while on I<xterm>(1) it would yield Black
831on White. 868on White.
832 869
833=back 870=back
834 871
835=head1 ENVIRONMENT
836
837B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> sets the environment variables B<TERM>, B<COLORTERM>
838and B<COLORFGBG>. The environment variable B<WINDOWID> is set to the X
839window id number of the B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> window and it also uses and
840sets the environment variable B<DISPLAY> to specify which display
841terminal to use. B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> uses the environment variables
842B<RXVTPATH> and B<PATH> to find XPM files.
843
844=head1 FILES
845
846=over 4
847
848=item B</etc/utmp>
849
850System file for login records.
851
852=item B</usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt>
853
854Color names.
855
856=back
857
858=head1 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) 872=head1 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
859 873
860=over 4 874=over 4
861 875
862=item How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? 876=item How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
863 877
864The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). For rxvt-unicode 878The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). For rxvt-unicode
865version 2.14 and later, the escape sequence C<ESC[8n> sets the window 879version 2.14 and later, the escape sequence C<ESC[8n> sets the window
866title to the version number. 880title to the version number.
881
882=item Why do the characters look ugly?
883
884=item How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
885
886Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is
887fine. Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
888your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want
889to display.
890
891B<rxvt-unicode> makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement
892font. Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
893bad. In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font
894list, e.g.:
895
896 @@RXVT_NAME@@ -fn basefont,font2,font3...
897
898When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
899font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the
900next font, and so on.
901
902The only limitation is that all the fonts must not be larger than the base
903font, as the base font defines the principial cell size, which must be the
904same due to the way terminals work.
905
906=item Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
907
908This is because there is a difference between script and language --
909rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output
910is, as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode
911first sees a japanese character, it might choose a japanese font for
912it. Subseqzuent japanese characters will take that font. Now, many chinese
913characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
914non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese font
915-- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font for
916japanese characters that are also chinese.
917
918The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
919list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as
920a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
921first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
922
923In the future it might be possible to switch preferences at runtime (the
924internal data structure has no problem with using different fonts for
925the same character at the same time, but no interface for this has been
926designed yet).
867 927
868=item Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works. 928=item Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
869 929
870Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing 930Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
871some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've 931some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've
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1074one that comes with F<pod2man>, F<pod2text> and F<pod2html>. Then go to 1134one that comes with F<pod2man>, F<pod2text> and F<pod2html>. Then go to
1075the doc subdirectory and enter C<make alldoc>. 1135the doc subdirectory and enter C<make alldoc>.
1076 1136
1077=back 1137=back
1078 1138
1139=head1 ENVIRONMENT
1140
1141B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> sets the environment variables B<TERM>, B<COLORTERM>
1142and B<COLORFGBG>. The environment variable B<WINDOWID> is set to the X
1143window id number of the B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> window and it also uses and
1144sets the environment variable B<DISPLAY> to specify which display
1145terminal to use. B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> uses the environment variables
1146B<RXVTPATH> and B<PATH> to find XPM files.
1147
1148=head1 FILES
1149
1150=over 4
1151
1152=item B</etc/utmp>
1153
1154System file for login records.
1155
1156=item B</usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt>
1157
1158Color names.
1159
1160=back
1161
1079=head1 SEE ALSO 1162=head1 SEE ALSO
1080 1163
1081@@RXVT_NAME@@(7), xterm(1), sh(1), resize(1), X(1), pty(4), tty(4), utmp(5) 1164@@RXVT_NAME@@(7), xterm(1), sh(1), resize(1), X(1), pty(4), tty(4), utmp(5)
1082 1165
1083=head1 BUGS 1166=head1 BUGS

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