=head1 NAME rxvt-unicode (ouR XVT, unicode) - (a VT102 emulator for the X window system) =head1 SYNOPSIS B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> [options] [-e command [ args ]] =head1 DESCRIPTION B, version B<@@RXVT_VERSION@@>, is a colour vt102 terminal emulator intended as an I(1) replacement for users who do not require features such as Tektronix 4014 emulation and toolkit-style configurability. As a result, B uses much less swap space -- a significant advantage on a machine serving many X sessions. =head1 RXVT-UNICODE VS. RXVT Unlike the original rxvt, B 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: B adopts the view that bidirectional algorithms belong into the application, not the terminal emulator (too many things -- such as cursor-movement while editing -- break othwerwise), but that might change. If you are looking for a terminal that supports more exotic scripts, let me recommend C, 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 C 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 @@RXVT_NAME@@d(1) (daemon) and @@RXVT_NAME@@c(1) (client). It also makes technical information about escape sequences (which have been extended) easier accessible: see @@RXVT_NAME@@(7) for technical reference documentation (escape sequences etc.) and the FAQ section at the end of this document. =head1 OPTIONS The B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> options (mostly a subset of I'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_NAME@@ -h' gives a list of major compile-time options on the I line. Option descriptions may be prefixed with which compile option each is dependent upon. e.g. `Compile I:' requires I on the I line. Note: `@@RXVT_NAME@@ -help' gives a list of all command-line options compiled into your version. Note that B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> 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_NAME@@ --loginShell --color1 Orange'. The following options are available: =over 4 =item B<-help>, B<--help> Print out a message describing available options. =item B<-display> I Attempt to open a window on the named X display (B<-d> still respected). In the absence of this option, the display specified by the B environment variable is used. =item B<-geometry> I Window geometry (B<-g> still respected); resource B. =item B<-rv>|B<+rv> Turn on/off simulated reverse video; resource B. =item B<-j>|B<+j> Turn on/off jump scrolling; resource B. =item B<-ip>|B<+ip> Turn on/off inheriting parent window's pixmap. Alternative form is B<-tr>; resource B. =item B<-fade> I Fade the text by the given percentage when focus is lost. =item B<-tint> I Tint the transparent background pixmap with the given colour when transparency is enabled with B<-tr> or B<-ip>. See also the B<-sh> option that can be used to brighten or darken the image in addition to tinting it. =item B<-sh> I Darken (0 .. 100) or lighten (-1 .. -100) the transparent background image in addition to tinting it (i.e. B<-tint> must be specified, too). =item B<-bg> I Window background colour; resource B. =item B<-fg> I Window foreground colour; resource B. =item B<-pixmap> I Compile I: 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 B. =item B<-cr> I The cursor colour; resource B. =item B<-pr> I The mouse pointer foreground colour; resource B. =item B<-pr2> I The mouse pointer background colour; resource B. =item B<-bd> I The colour of the border around the text area and between the scrollbar and the text; resource B. =item B<-fn> I 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 reasonable default font list is always appended to it. See resource B for details. See also the question "How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?" in the FAQ section. =item B<-fb> I Compile font-styles: The bold font list to use when bold characters are to be printed. See resource B for details. =item B<-fi> I Compile font-styles: The italic font list to use when bold characters are to be printed. See resource B for details. =item B<-fbi> I Compile font-styles: The bold italic font list to use when bold characters are to be printed. See resource B for details. =item B<-name> I 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. =item B<-ls>|B<+ls> Start as a login-shell/sub-shell; resource B. =item B<-ut>|B<+ut> Compile I: Inhibit/enable writing a utmp entry; resource B. =item B<-vb>|B<+vb> Turn on/off visual bell on receipt of a bell character; resource B. =item B<-sb>|B<+sb> Turn on/off scrollbar; resource B. =item B<-si>|B<+si> Turn on/off scroll-to-bottom on TTY output inhibit; resource B has opposite effect. =item B<-sk>|B<+sk> Turn on/off scroll-to-bottom on keypress; resource B. =item B<-sw>|B<+sw> Turn on/off scrolling with the scrollback buffer as new lines appear. This only takes effect if B<-si> is also given; resource B. =item B<-sr>|B<+sr> Put scrollbar on right/left; resource B. =item B<-st>|B<+st> Display normal (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar without/with a trough; resource B. =item B<-bc>|B<+bc> Blink the cursor; resource B. =item B<-iconic> Start iconified, if the window manager supports that option. Alternative form is B<-ic>. =item B<-sl> I Save I lines in the scrollback buffer. See resource entry for limits; resource B. =item B<-b> I Compile I: Internal border of I pixels. See resource entry for limits; resource B. =item B<-w> I Compile I: External border of I pixels. Also, B<-bw> and B<-borderwidth>. See resource entry for limits; resource B. =item B<-bl> Compile I: 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 B. =item B<-lsp> I Compile I: Lines (pixel height) to insert between each row of the display; resource B. =item B<-tn> I This option specifies the name of the terminal type to be set in the B environment variable. This terminal type must exist in the I database and should have I and I entries; resource B. =item B<-e> I Run the command with its command-line arguments in the B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> window; also sets the window title and icon name to be the basename of the program being executed if neither I<-title> (I<-T>) nor I<-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 B<-e> option then the default is to run the program specified by the B environment variable or, failing that, I. =item B<-title> I Window title (B<-T> still respected); the default title is the basename of the program specified after the B<-e> option, if any, otherwise the application name; resource B. =item B<-n> I<text> Icon name; the default name is the basename of the program specified after the B<-e> option, if any, otherwise the application name; resource B<iconName>. =item B<-C> Capture system console messages. =item B<-pt> I<style> Compile I<XIM>: input style for input method; B<OverTheSpot>, B<OffTheSpot>, B<Root>; resource B<preeditType>. =item B<-im> I<text> Compile I<XIM>: input method name. resource B<inputMethod>. =item B<-imlocale> I<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. =item B<-insecure> Enable "insecure" mode, which currently enables most of the escape sequences that echo strings. See the resource B<insecure> for more info. =item B<-mod> I<modifier> Override detection of Meta modifier with specified key: B<alt>, B<meta>, B<hyper>, B<super>, B<mod1>, B<mod2>, B<mod3>, B<mod4>, B<mod5>; resource I<modifier>. =item B<-ssc>|B<+ssc> Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled); resource B<secondaryScreen>. =item B<-ssr>|B<+ssr> Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled); resource B<secondaryScroll>. =item B<-xrm> I<resourcestring> No effect on rxvt-unicode. Simply passes through an argument to be made available in the instance's argument list. Appears in I<WM_COMMAND> in some window managers. =back =head1 RESOURCES (available also as long-options) Note: `@@RXVT_NAME@@ --help' gives a list of all resources (long options) compiled into your version. There are two different methods that @@RXVT_NAME@@ can use to get the Xresource data: using the X libraries (Xrm*-functions) or internal Xresources reader (B<~/.Xdefaults>). For the first method (ie. B<@@RXVT_NAME@@ -h> lists B<XGetDefaults>), you can set and change the resources using X11 tools like B<xset>. Many distribution do also load settings from the B<~/.Xresources> file when X starts. If compiled with internal Xresources support (i.e. B<@@RXVT_NAME@@ -h> lists B<.Xdefaults>) then B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> accepts application defaults set in XAPPLOADDIR/URxvt (compile-time defined: usually B</usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/URxvt>) and resources set in B<~/.Xdefaults>, or B<~/.Xresources> if B<~/.Xdefaults> does not exist. Note that when reading X resources, B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> recognizes two class names: B<XTerm> and B<URxvt>. The class name B<Rxvt> allows resources common to both B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> and the original I<rxvt> to be easily configured, while the class name B<URxvt> allows resources unique to B<@@RXVT_NAME@@>, notably colours and key-handling, to be shared between different B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> 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: =over 4 =item B<geometry:> I<geom> Create the window with the specified X window geometry [default 80x24]; option B<-geometry>. =item B<background:> I<colour> Use the specified colour as the window's background colour [default White]; option B<-bg>. =item B<foreground:> I<colour> Use the specified colour as the window's foreground colour [default Black]; option B<-fg>. =item B<color>I<n>B<:> I<colour> Use the specified colour for the colour value I<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 B<COLORS AND GRAPHICS> section. Colours higher than 15 cannot be set using resources (yet), but can be changed using an escape command (see @@RXVT_NAME@@(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. =item B<colorBD:> I<colour> =item B<colorIT:> I<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. =item B<colorUL:> I<colour> Use the specified colour to display underlined characters when the foreground colour is the default. =item B<colorRV:> I<colour> Use the specified colour as the background for reverse video characters. =item B<cursorColor:> I<colour> Use the specified colour for the cursor. The default is to use the foreground colour; option B<-cr>. =item B<cursorColor2:> I<colour> Use the specified colour for the colour of the cursor text. For this to take effect, B<cursorColor> must also be specified. The default is to use the background colour. =item B<reverseVideo:> I<boolean> B<True>: simulate reverse video by foreground and background colours; option B<-rv>. B<False>: regular screen colours [default]; option B<+rv>. See note in B<COLORS AND GRAPHICS> section. =item B<jumpScroll:> I<boolean> B<True>: specify that jump scrolling should be used. When scrolling quickly, fewer screen updates are performed [default]; option B<-j>. B<False>: specify that smooth scrolling should be used; option B<+j>. =item B<inheritPixmap:> I<boolean> B<True>: make the background inherit the parent windows' pixmap, giving artificial transparency. B<False>: do not inherit the parent windows' pixmap. =item B<fading:> I<number> Fade the text by the given percentage when focus is lost. =item B<tintColor:> I<colour> Tint the transparent background pixmap with the given colour. =item B<shading:> I<number> Darken (0 .. 100) or lighten (-1 .. -100) the transparent background image in addition to tinting it. =item B<fading:> I<number> Scale the tint colour by the given percentage. =item B<scrollColor:> I<colour> Use the specified colour for the scrollbar [default #B2B2B2]. =item B<troughColor:> I<colour> Use the specified colour for the scrollbar's trough area [default #969696]. Only relevant for normal (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar. =item B<borderColor:> I<colour> The colour of the border around the text area and between the scrollbar and the text. =item B<backgroundPixmap:> I<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 B<WxH+X+Y>, in which B<"W" / "H"> specify the horizontal/vertical scale (percent) and B<"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] =item B<menu:> I<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. =item B<path:> I<path> Specify the colon-delimited search path for finding files (XPM and menus), in addition to the paths specified by the B<RXVTPATH> and B<PATH> environment variables. =item B<font:> I<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 B<-fn>. Each font can either be a standard X11 core font (XLFD) name, with optional prefix C<x:> or a Xft font (Compile xft), prefixed with C<xft:>. In addition, each font can be prefixed with additional hints and specifications enclosed in square brackets (C<[]>). The only available hint currently is C<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 C<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 B<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. =item B<boldFont:> I<fontlist> =item B<italicFont:> I<fontlist> =item B<boldItalicFont:> I<fontlist> The font list to use for displaying B<bold>, I<italic> or B<< I<bold italic> >> characters, respectively. If specified and non-empty, then the syntax is the same as for the B<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. =item B<selectstyle:> I<mode> Set mouse selection style to B<old> which is 2.20, B<oldword> which is xterm style with 2.20 old word selection, or anything else which gives xterm style selection. =item B<scrollstyle:> I<mode> Set scrollbar style to B<rxvt>, B<plain>, B<next> or B<xterm>. B<plain> is the author's favourite.. =item B<title:> I<string> Set window title string, the default title is the command-line specified after the B<-e> option, if any, otherwise the application name; option B<-title>. =item B<iconName:> I<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 B<-n>. =item B<mapAlert:> I<boolean> B<True>: de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character. B<False>: no de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character [default]. =item B<visualBell:> I<boolean> B<True>: use visual bell on receipt of a bell character; option B<-vb>. B<False>: no visual bell [default]; option B<+vb>. =item B<loginShell:> I<boolean> B<True>: start as a login shell by prepending a `-' to B<argv[0]> of the shell; option B<-ls>. B<False>: start as a normal sub-shell [default]; option B<+ls>. =item B<utmpInhibit:> I<boolean> B<True>: inhibit writing record into the system log file B<utmp>; option B<-ut>. B<False>: write record into the system log file B<utmp> [default]; option B<+ut>. =item B<print-pipe:> I<string> Specify a command pipe for vt100 printer [default I<lpr(1)>]. Use B<Print> to initiate a screen dump to the printer and B<Ctrl-Print> or B<Shift-Print> to include the scrollback as well. =item B<scrollBar:> I<boolean> B<True>: enable the scrollbar [default]; option B<-sb>. B<False>: disable the scrollbar; option B<+sb>. =item B<scrollBar_right:> I<boolean> B<True>: place the scrollbar on the right of the window; option B<-sr>. B<False>: place the scrollbar on the left of the window; option B<+sr>. =item B<scrollBar_floating:> I<boolean> B<True>: display an rxvt scrollbar without a trough; option B<-st>. B<False>: display an rxvt scrollbar with a trough; option B<+st>. =item B<scrollBar_align:> I<mode> Align the B<top>, B<bottom> or B<centre> [default] of the scrollbar thumb with the pointer on middle button press/drag. =item B<scrollTtyOutput:> I<boolean> B<True>: scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option B<-si>. B<False>: do not scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option B<+si>. =item B<scrollWithBuffer:> I<boolean> B<True>: scroll with scrollback buffer when tty recieves new lines (and B<scrollTtyOutput> is False); option B<+sw>. B<False>: do not scroll with scrollback buffer when tty recieves new lines; option B<-sw>. =item B<scrollTtyKeypress:> I<boolean> B<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 B<-sk>. B<False>: do not scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed; option B<+sk>. =item B<saveLines:> I<number> Save I<number> lines in the scrollback buffer [default 64]. This resource is limited on most machines to 65535; option B<-sl>. =item B<internalBorder:> I<number> Internal border of I<number> pixels. This resource is limited to 100; option B<-b>. =item B<externalBorder:> I<number> External border of I<number> pixels. This resource is limited to 100; option B<-w>, B<-bw>, B<-borderwidth>. =item B<borderLess:> I<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 B<-bl>. =item B<termName:> I<termname> Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the B<TERM> environment variable; option B<-tn>. =item B<linespace:> I<number> Specifies number of lines (pixel height) to insert between each row of the display [default 0]; option B<-lsp>. =item B<meta8:> I<boolean> B<True>: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress to set the 8th bit. B<False>: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress as an escape prefix [default]. =item B<mouseWheelScrollPage:> I<boolean> B<True>: the mouse wheel scrolls a page full. B<False>: the mouse wheel scrolls five lines [default]. =item B<cursorBlink:> I<boolean> B<True>: blink the cursor. B<False>: do not blink the cursor [default]; option B<-bc>. =item B<pointerBlank:> I<boolean> B<True>: blank the pointer when a key is pressed or after a set number of seconds of inactivity. B<False>: the pointer is always visible [default]. =item B<pointerColor:> I<colour> Mouse pointer foreground colour. =item B<pointerColor2:> I<colour> Mouse pointer background colour. =item B<pointerBlankDelay:> I<number> Specifies number of seconds before blanking the pointer [default 2]. =item B<backspacekey:> I<string> The string to send when the backspace key is pressed. If set to B<DEC> or unset it will send B<Delete> (code 127) or, if shifted, B<Backspace> (code 8) - which can be reversed with the appropriate DEC private mode escape sequence. =item B<deletekey:> I<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 B<Execute> key. =item B<cutchars:> I<string> The characters used as delimiters for double-click word selection. The built-in default: B<< BACKSLASH `"'&()*,;<=>?@[]{|} >> =item B<preeditType:> I<style> B<OverTheSpot>, B<OffTheSpot>, B<Root>; option B<-pt>. =item B<inputMethod:> I<name> I<name> of inputMethod to use; option B<-im>. =item B<imLocale:> I<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 B<-imlocale>. =item B<insecure:> I<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, wether throuh a mail client displaying mail bodies unfiltered or though write(1). Therefore, these sequences are disabled by default. (Note that other terminals, including xterm, have these sequences enabled by default). You can enable them by setting this boolean resource or specifying B<-insecure> as an option. At the moment, this enabled display-answer, locale, findfont, icon label and window title requests as well as dynamic menubar dispatch. =item B<modifier:> I<modifier> Set the key to be interpreted as the Meta key to: B<alt>, B<meta>, B<hyper>, B<super>, B<mod1>, B<mod2>, B<mod3>, B<mod4>, B<mod5>; option B<-mod>. =item B<answerbackString:> I<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 B<keysym> following. =item B<secondaryScreen:> I<bool> Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled). =item B<secondaryScroll:> I<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. =item B<keysym.>I<sym>: I<string> Associate I<string> with keysym I<sym> (B<0xFF00 - 0xFFFF>). It may contain escape values (\a: bell, \b: backspace, \e, \E: escape, \n: newline, \r: return, \t: tab, \000: octal number) or control characters (^?: delete, ^@: null, ^A ...) and may enclosed with double quotes so that it can start or end with whitespace. The intervening resource name B<keysym.> cannot be omitted. This resource is only available when compiled with KEYSYM_RESOURCE. =back =head1 THE SCROLLBAR Lines of text that scroll off the top of the B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> window (resource: B<saveLines>) and can be scrolled back using the scrollbar or by keystrokes. The normal B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> scrollbar has arrows and its behaviour is fairly intuitive. The B<xterm-scrollbar> is without arrows and its behaviour mimics that of I<xterm> Scroll down with B<Button1> (B<xterm-scrollbar>) or B<Shift-Next>. Scroll up with B<Button3> (B<xterm-scrollbar>) or B<Shift-Prior>. Continuous scroll with B<Button2>. =head1 MOUSE REPORTING 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 B<ESC[6~> (Next) and B<ESC[5~> (Prior), respectively. Similarly, clicking on the up and down arrows sends B<ESC[A> (Up) and B<ESC[B> (Down), respectively. =head1 TEXT SELECTION AND INSERTION The behaviour of text selection and insertion mechanism is similar to I<xterm>(1). =over 4 =item B<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 line. =item B<Insertion>: Pressing and releasing the Middle mouse button (or B<Shift-Insert>) in an B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> window causes the current text selection to be inserted as if it had been typed on the keyboard. =back =head1 CHANGING FONTS 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]701;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic" rxvt-unicode will automatically re-apply these fonts to the output so far. =head1 ISO 14755 SUPPORT 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 C<--enable-frills>, the rest is available when rxvt-unicode was compiled with C<--enable-iso14755>. =over 4 =item 5.1: Basic method This allows you to enter unicode characters using their hexcode. Start by pressing and holding both C<Control> and C<Shift>, then enter hex-digits (between one and six). Releasing C<Control> and C<Shift> will commit the character as if it were typed directly. While holding down C<Control> and C<Shift> you can also enter multiple characters by pressing C<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. C<671d 65e5>. You can enter this easily by pressing C<Control> and C<Shift>, followed by C<6-7-1-D-SPACE-6-5-E-5>, followed by releasing the modifier keys. =item 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 C<Control> and C<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. C<Shift> would enter the symbol for C<ISO Level 2 Switch>, although your intention might have beenm to enter a reverse tab (Shift-Tab). =item 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. =item 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 C<Control> and C<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 C<Control> and C<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. =back With respect to conformance, rxvt-unicode is supposed to be compliant to both scenario A and B of ISO 14755, including part 5.2. =head1 LOGIN STAMP B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> tries to write an entry into the I<utmp>(5) file so that it can be seen via the I<who(1)> command, and can accept messages. To allow this feature, B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> must be installed setuid root on some systems. =head1 COLORS AND GRAPHICS In addition to the default foreground and background colours, B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> 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 B<rgb.txt> names. =begin table B<color0> (black) = Black B<color1> (red) = Red3 B<color2> (green) = Green3 B<color3> (yellow) = Yellow3 B<color4> (blue) = Blue3 B<color5> (magenta) = Magenta3 B<color6> (cyan) = Cyan3 B<color7> (white) = AntiqueWhite B<color8> (bright black) = Grey25 B<color9> (bright red) = Red B<color10> (bright green) = Green B<color11> (bright yellow) = Yellow B<color12> (bright blue) = Blue B<color13> (bright magenta) = Magenta B<color14> (bright cyan) = Cyan B<color15> (bright white) = White B<foreground> = Black B<background> = White =end table It is also possible to specify the colour values of B<foreground>, B<background>, B<cursorColor>, B<cursorColor2>, B<colorBD>, B<colorUL> as a number 0-15, as a convenient shorthand to reference the colour name of color0-color15. Note that B<-rv> (B<"reverseVideo: True">) simulates reverse video by always swapping the foreground/background colours. This is in contrast to I<xterm>(1) where the colours are only swapped if they have not otherwise been specified. For example, =over 4 =item B<@@RXVT_NAME@@ -fg Black -bg White -rv> would yield White on Black, while on I<xterm>(1) it would yield Black on White. =back =head1 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) =over 4 =item How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape sequence C<ESC[8n> sets the window title to the version number. =item When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often arises). The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this can be done like this: infocmp rxvt-unicode >rxvt.unicode.tic scp rxvt-unicode.tic remotesystem: ssh remotesystem tic rxvt-unicode.tic ... or by installing rxvt-unicode normally on the remote system, If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set C<TERM=rxvt> or even C<TERM=xterm>, and live with the small number of problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, though. If you always want to do this you can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or use a resource to set it: URxvt.termName: rxvt =item How can I configure rxvt-unicode so that it looks similar to the original rxvt? Felix von Leitner says that these two lines, in your F<.Xdefaults>, will make rxvt-unicode behave similar to the original rxvt: URxvt.font: -misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1 URxvt.boldFont: -misc-fixed-bold-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1 =item Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding? =item Unicode does not seem to work? If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output is subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings. Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same C<LC_CTYPE> setting as the programs. Often rxvt-unicode is started in the C<C> locale, while the login script running within the rxvt-unicode window changes the locale to sth. else, e.h. C<en_GB.UTF-8>. Needless to say, this is not going to work. The best thing is to fix your startup environment, as you will likely run into other problems. If nothing works you can try this in your .profile. printf '\e]701;%s\007' "$LC_CTYPE" If this doesn't work, then maybe you use a C<LC_CTYPE> specification not supported on your systems. Some systems have a C<locale> comamnd which displays this. If it displays sth. like: locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: ... Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system. If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't support locales :( =item Why do the characters look ugly? =item How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts? Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is fine. Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want to display. B<rxvt-unicode> makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement font. Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks bad. Many fonts have totally strange characters that don't resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial intelligence to detetc that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe the font that the characters it contains indeed look correct. In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list, e.g.: @@RXVT_NAME@@ -fn basefont,font2,font3... When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server. The only limitation is that all the fonts must not be larger than the base font, as the base font defines the principial cell size, which must be the same due to the way terminals work. =item Why do some chinese characters look so different than others? This is because there is a difference between script and language -- rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is, as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first sees a japanese character, it might choose a japanese font for it. Subseqzuent japanese characters will take that font. Now, many chinese characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese font -- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font for japanese characters that are also chinese. The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first. In the future it might be possible to switch preferences at runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this has been designed yet). =item How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much? First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminfo (C<urxvt>), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect: URxvt*colorBD: white URxvt*colorIT: green =item Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that? For some unexplainable reason, some programs (i.e. irssi) assume a very weird colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very good reasons. In the meantime, you can either edit your C<urxvt> terminfo definition to only claim 8 colour support or use C<TERM=rxvt>, which will fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features. =item How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use? =item Is there an option to switch encodings? Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know about UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O. The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for selecting the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating this to all applications so everybody agrees on character properties such as width and code number. This mechanism is the I<locale>. Rxvt-unicode uses the C<LC_CTYPE> locale category to select encoding. All programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the interpretation of characters. Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like. On most systems, the content of the C<LC_CTYPE> environment variable contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed locale. Common names for locales are C<en_US.UTF-8>, C<de_DE.ISO-8859-15>, C<ja_JP.EUC-JP>, i.e. C<language_country.encoding>, but other forms (i.e. C<de> or C<german>) are also common. Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for the encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings, i.e. C<de_DE.UTF-8> and C<ja_JP.UTF-8> are the same for rxvt-unicode. If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start rxvt-unicode with the correct C<LC_CTYPE> category. =item Can I switch locales at runtime? Yes, using an escape sequence. Try sth. like this, which sets rxvt-unicode's idea of C<LC_CTYPE>. printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS See also the previous question. Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in one locale (e.g. C<de_DE.UTF-8>) but some programs don't support UTF-8. For example, I use this script to start C<xjdic>, which first switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later: printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS xjdic -js printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8 =item Can I switch the fonts at runtime? Yes, using an escape sequence. Try sth. like this, which has the same effect as using the C<-fn> switch, and takes effect immediately: printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic" This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where japanese fonts would only be in your way. You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching. =item Why do italic characters look as if clipped? Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font C<xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono> completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround is to enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this: URxvt*italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true URxvt*boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true =item My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do? You cna specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of the terminal, using the resource C<imlocale>: URxvt*imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP Now you can start your terminal with C<LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8> and still use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not be able to input characters outside C<EUC-JP> in a normal way then, as your input method limits you. =item Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that? Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for sth. you don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings that you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by design, when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be loaded accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your characters. Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger scrollback buffers: Without C<--enable-unicode3>, rxvt-unicode will use 6 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a kilobyte per line. A scorllback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if full) use 10 Megabytes of memory. With C<--enable-unicode3> it gets worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell. =item Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow? Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable antialiasing (by appending C<:antialiasing=false>), which saves lots of memory and also speeds up rendering considerably. =item Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong? Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has antialiaisng disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they look best that way. If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually. =item 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 that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are depressed. See @@RXVT_NAME@@(7) =item What's with this bold/blink stuff? If no bold colour is set via C<colorBD:>, bold will invert text using the standard foreground colour. For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the text blink when compiled with C<--enable-blinking>. with standard colours. Without C<--enable-blinking>, the blink attribute will be ignored. On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity foreground/background colors. color0-7 are the low-intensity colors. color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors. =item I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them? You can change the screen colors at run-time using F<~/.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: Rxvt*color0: #000000 Rxvt*color1: #A80000 Rxvt*color2: #00A800 Rxvt*color3: #A8A800 Rxvt*color4: #0000A8 Rxvt*color5: #A800A8 Rxvt*color6: #00A8A8 Rxvt*color7: #A8A8A8 Rxvt*color8: #000054 Rxvt*color9: #FF0054 Rxvt*color10: #00FF54 Rxvt*color11: #FFFF54 Rxvt*color12: #0000FF Rxvt*color13: #FF00FF Rxvt*color14: #00FFFF Rxvt*color15: #FFFFFF =item 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: C<^H> and C<^?>. Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the debian policy of using C<^?> when unsure, because it's the one only only correct choice :). Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the value of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode wasn't started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), 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 $ @@RXVT_NAME@@ # use Backspace = ^? $ stty erase ^? $ @@RXVT_NAME@@ Toggle with "ESC[36h" / "ESC[36l" as documented in @@RXVT_NAME@@(7). 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 = C<^H>, make sure that the termcap/terminfo value properly reflects that. The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace problem. To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the Delete key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for Execute (ESC[3~) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo. Some other Backspace problems: some editors use termcap/terminfo, some editors (vim I'm told) expect Backspace = ^H, GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help. Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner. =item I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them? There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless you have run "configure" with the C<--disable-resources> option you can use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with keysym 0xFF00 - 0xFFFF (function, cursor keys, etc). Here's an example for a tn3270 session started using `@@RXVT_NAME@@ -name tn3270' !# ----- special uses ------: ! tn3270 login, remap function and arrow keys. tn3270*font: *clean-bold-*-*--15-* ! keysym - used by rxvt only ! Delete - ^D tn3270*keysym.0xFFFF: \004 ! Home - ^A tn3270*keysym.0xFF50: \001 ! Left - ^B tn3270*keysym.0xFF51: \002 ! Up - ^P tn3270*keysym.0xFF52: \020 ! Right - ^F tn3270*keysym.0xFF53: \006 ! Down - ^N tn3270*keysym.0xFF54: \016 ! End - ^E tn3270*keysym.0xFF57: \005 ! F1 - F12 tn3270*keysym.0xFFBE: \e1 tn3270*keysym.0xFFBF: \e2 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC0: \e3 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC1: \e4 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC2: \e5 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC3: \e6 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC4: \e7 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC5: \e8 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC6: \e9 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC7: \e0 tn3270*keysym.0xFFC8: \e- tn3270*keysym.0xFFC9: \e= ! map Prior/Next to F7/F8 tn3270*keysym.0xFF55: \e7 tn3270*keysym.0xFF56: \e8 =item 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 mappings that rxvt-unicode doesn't recognize. KP_Insert == Insert F22 == Print F27 == Home F29 == Prior F33 == End F35 == Next Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accomodate all the various possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the keys as required for your particular machine. =item How do I distinguish if I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc. rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you can 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. =item How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable? If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and ahve 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 wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets) then the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from a regular xterm. Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script snippets: # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells: [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not echo -n '^[Z' read term_id stty icanon echo if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell fi fi =item How do I compile the manual pages for myself? You need to have a recent version of perl installed as F</usr/bin/perl>, one that comes with F<pod2man>, F<pod2text> and F<pod2html>. Then go to the doc subdirectory and enter C<make alldoc>. =back =head1 ENVIRONMENT B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> sets the environment variables B<TERM>, B<COLORTERM> and B<COLORFGBG>. The environment variable B<WINDOWID> is set to the X window id number of the B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> window and it also uses and sets the environment variable B<DISPLAY> to specify which display terminal to use. B<@@RXVT_NAME@@> uses the environment variables B<RXVTPATH> and B<PATH> to find XPM files. =head1 FILES =over 4 =item B</etc/utmp> System file for login records. =item B</usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt> Color names. =back =head1 SEE ALSO @@RXVT_NAME@@(7), xterm(1), sh(1), resize(1), X(1), pty(4), tty(4), utmp(5) =head1 BUGS Check the BUGS file for an up-to-date list. Cursor change support is not yet implemented. Click-and-drag doesn't work with X11 mouse report overriding. =head1 CURRENT PROJECT COORDINATOR =over 4 =item Project Coordinator @@RXVT_MAINT@@ L<@@RXVT_MAINTEMAIL@@> =item Web page maintainter @@RXVT_WEBMAINT@@ L<@@RXVT_WEBMAINTEMAIL@@> L<@@RXVT_WEBPAGE@@> =back =head1 AUTHORS =over 4 =item John Bovey University of Kent, 1992, wrote the original Xvt. =item Rob Nation L<< <nation@rocket.sanders.lockheed.com> >> very heavily modified Xvt and came up with Rxvt =item Angelo Haritsis L<< <ah@doc.ic.ac.uk> >> wrote the Greek Keyboard Input (no longer in code) =item mj olesen L<< <olesen@me.QueensU.CA> >> Wrote the menu system. Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.11 to 2.21) =item Oezguer Kesim L<< <kesim@math.fu-berlin.de> >> Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.21a to 2.4.5) =item Geoff Wing L<< <gcw@pobox.com> >> Rewrote screen display and text selection routines. Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.4.6 - rxvt-unicode) =item Marc Alexander Lehmann L<< <rxvt@schmorp.de> >> 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 -) =back