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# Content
1 NAME
2 rxvt-unicode (ouR XVT, unicode) - (a VT102 emulator for the X window
3 system)
4
5 SYNOPSIS
6 rxvt [options] [-e command [ args ]]
7
8 DESCRIPTION
9 rxvt-unicode, version 5.9, is a colour vt102 terminal emulator intended
10 as an *xterm*(1) replacement for users who do not require features such
11 as Tektronix 4014 emulation and toolkit-style configurability. As a
12 result, rxvt-unicode uses much less swap space -- a significant
13 advantage on a machine serving many X sessions.
14
15 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
16 See rxvt(7) (try "man 7 rxvt") for a list of frequently asked questions
17 and answer to them and some common problems. That document is also
18 accessible on the World-Wide-Web at
19 <http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/*checkout*/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.html>.
20
21 RXVT-UNICODE VS. RXVT
22 Unlike the original rxvt, rxvt-unicode stores all text in Unicode
23 internally. That means it can store and display most scripts in the
24 world. Being a terminal emulator, however, some things are very
25 difficult, especially cursive scripts such as arabic, vertically written
26 scripts like mongolian or scripts requiring extremely complex combining
27 rules, like tibetan or devenagari. Don't expect pretty output when using
28 these scripts. Most other scripts, latin, cyrillic, kanji, thai etc.
29 should work fine, though. A somewhat difficult case are left-to-right
30 scripts, such as hebrew: rxvt-unicode adopts the view that bidirectional
31 algorithms belong into the application, not the terminal emulator (too
32 many things -- such as cursor-movement while editing -- break
33 otherwise), but that might change.
34
35 If you are looking for a terminal that supports more exotic scripts, let
36 me recommend "mlterm", which is a very userfriendly, lean and clean
37 terminal emulator. In fact, the reason rxvt-unicode was born was solely
38 because the author couldn't get "mlterm" to use one font for latin1 and
39 another for japanese.
40
41 Therefore another design rationale was the use of multiple fonts to
42 display characters: The idea of a single unicode font which many other
43 programs force onto it's users never made sense to me: You should be
44 able to choose any font for any script freely.
45
46 Apart from that, rxvt-unicode is also much better internationalised than
47 it's predecessor, supports things such as XFT and ISO 14755 that are
48 handy in i18n-environments, is faster, and has a lot less bugs than the
49 original rxvt. This all in addition to dozens of other small
50 improvements.
51
52 It is still faithfully following the original rxvt idea of being lean
53 and nice on resources: for example, you can still configure rxvt-unicode
54 without most of it's features to get a lean binary. It also comes with a
55 client/daemon pair that lets you open any number of terminal windows
56 from within a single process, which makes startup time very fast and
57 drastically reduces memory usage. See rxvtd(1) (daemon) and rxvtc(1)
58 (client).
59
60 It also makes technical information about escape sequences (which have
61 been extended) easier accessible: see rxvt(7) for technical reference
62 documentation (escape sequences etc.).
63
64 OPTIONS
65 The rxvt options (mostly a subset of *xterm*'s) are listed below. In
66 keeping with the smaller-is-better philosophy, options may be eliminated
67 or default values chosen at compile-time, so options and defaults listed
68 may not accurately reflect the version installed on your system. `rxvt
69 -h' gives a list of major compile-time options on the *Options* line.
70 Option descriptions may be prefixed with which compile option each is
71 dependent upon. e.g. `Compile *XIM*:' requires *XIM* on the *Options*
72 line. Note: `rxvt -help' gives a list of all command-line options
73 compiled into your version.
74
75 Note that rxvt permits the resource name to be used as a long-option
76 (--/++ option) so the potential command-line options are far greater
77 than those listed. For example: `rxvt --loginShell --color1 Orange'.
78
79 The following options are available:
80
81 -help, --help
82 Print out a message describing available options.
83
84 -display *displayname*
85 Attempt to open a window on the named X display (-d still
86 respected). In the absence of this option, the display specified by
87 the DISPLAY environment variable is used.
88
89 -geometry *geom*
90 Window geometry (-g still respected); resource geometry.
91
92 -rv|+rv
93 Turn on/off simulated reverse video; resource reverseVideo.
94
95 -j|+j
96 Turn on/off jump scrolling; resource jumpScroll.
97
98 -ip|+ip | -tr|+tr
99 Turn on/off inheriting parent window's pixmap. Alternative form is
100 -tr; resource inheritPixmap.
101
102 -fade *number*
103 Fade the text by the given percentage when focus is lost. Small
104 values fade a little only, 100 completely replaces all colours by
105 the fade colour; resource fading.
106
107 -fadecolor *colour*
108 Fade to this colour when fading is used (see -fade). The default
109 colour is black. resource fadeColor.
110
111 -tint *colour*
112 Tint the transparent background pixmap with the given colour when
113 transparency is enabled with -tr or -ip. This only works for
114 non-tiled backgrounds, currently. See also the -sh option that can
115 be used to brighten or darken the image in addition to tinting it;
116 resource *tintColor*. Example:
117
118 rxvt -tr -tint blue -sh 40
119
120 -sh *number* Darken (0 .. 100) or lighten (-1 .. -100) the transparent
121 background image in addition to tinting it (i.e. -tint must be
122 specified, too, e.g. "-tint white").
123
124 -bg *colour*
125 Window background colour; resource background.
126
127 -fg *colour*
128 Window foreground colour; resource foreground.
129
130 -pixmap *file[;geom]*
131 Compile *XPM*: Specify XPM file for the background and also
132 optionally specify its scaling with a geometry string. Note you may
133 need to add quotes to avoid special shell interpretation of the ";"
134 in the command-line; resource backgroundPixmap.
135
136 -cr *colour*
137 The cursor colour; resource cursorColor.
138
139 -pr *colour*
140 The mouse pointer foreground colour; resource pointerColor.
141
142 -pr2 *colour*
143 The mouse pointer background colour; resource pointerColor2.
144
145 -bd *colour*
146 The colour of the border around the text area and between the
147 scrollbar and the text; resource borderColor.
148
149 -fn *fontlist*
150 Select the fonts to be used. This is a comma separated list of font
151 names that are used in turn when trying to display Unicode
152 characters. The first font defines the cell size for characters;
153 other fonts might be smaller, but not (in general) larger. A
154 (hopefully) reasonable default font list is always appended to it.
155 See resource font for more details.
156
157 In short, to specify an X11 core font, just specify it's name or
158 prefix it with "x:". To specify an XFT-font, you need to prefix it
159 with "xft:", e.g.:
160
161 rxvt -fn "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:pixelsize=15"
162 rxvt -fn "9x15bold,xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono"
163
164 See also the question "How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?" in the
165 FAQ section of rxvt(7).
166
167 -fb *fontlist*
168 Compile font-styles: The bold font list to use when bold characters
169 are to be printed. See resource boldFont for details.
170
171 -fi *fontlist*
172 Compile font-styles: The italic font list to use when bold
173 characters are to be printed. See resource italicFont for details.
174
175 -fbi *fontlist*
176 Compile font-styles: The bold italic font list to use when bold
177 characters are to be printed. See resource boldItalicFont for
178 details.
179
180 -name *name*
181 Specify the application name under which resources are to be
182 obtained, rather than the default executable file name. Name should
183 not contain `.' or `*' characters. Also sets the icon and title
184 name.
185
186 -ls|+ls
187 Start as a login-shell/sub-shell; resource loginShell.
188
189 -ut|+ut
190 Compile *utmp*: Inhibit/enable writing a utmp entry; resource
191 utmpInhibit.
192
193 -vb|+vb
194 Turn on/off visual bell on receipt of a bell character; resource
195 visualBell.
196
197 -sb|+sb
198 Turn on/off scrollbar; resource scrollBar.
199
200 -si|+si
201 Turn on/off scroll-to-bottom on TTY output inhibit; resource
202 scrollTtyOutput has opposite effect.
203
204 -sk|+sk
205 Turn on/off scroll-to-bottom on keypress; resource
206 scrollTtyKeypress.
207
208 -sw|+sw
209 Turn on/off scrolling with the scrollback buffer as new lines
210 appear. This only takes effect if -si is also given; resource
211 scrollWithBuffer.
212
213 -sr|+sr
214 Put scrollbar on right/left; resource scrollBar_right.
215
216 -st|+st
217 Display rxvt (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar without/with a trough;
218 resource scrollBar_floating.
219
220 -ptab|+ptab
221 If enabled (default), "Horizontal Tab" characters are being stored
222 as actual wide characters in the screen buffer, which makes it
223 possible to select and paste them. Since a horizontal tab is a
224 cursor movement and not an actual glyph, this can sometimes be
225 visually annoying as the cursor on a tab character is displayed as a
226 wide cursor; resource pastableTabs.
227
228 -bc|+bc
229 Blink the cursor; resource cursorBlink.
230
231 -iconic
232 Start iconified, if the window manager supports that option.
233 Alternative form is -ic.
234
235 -sl *number*
236 Save *number* lines in the scrollback buffer. See resource entry for
237 limits; resource saveLines.
238
239 -b *number*
240 Compile *frills*: Internal border of *number* pixels. See resource
241 entry for limits; resource internalBorder.
242
243 -w *number*
244 Compile *frills*: External border of *number* pixels. Also, -bw and
245 -borderwidth. See resource entry for limits; resource
246 externalBorder.
247
248 -bl Compile *frills*: Set MWM hints to request a borderless window, i.e.
249 if honoured by the WM, the rxvt-unicode window will not have window
250 decorations; resource borderLess.
251
252 -lsp *number*
253 Compile *frills*: Lines (pixel height) to insert between each row of
254 the display. Useful to work around font rendering problems; resource
255 linespace.
256
257 -tn *termname*
258 This option specifies the name of the terminal type to be set in the
259 TERM environment variable. This terminal type must exist in the
260 *termcap(5)* database and should have *li#* and *co#* entries;
261 resource termName.
262
263 -e *command [arguments]*
264 Run the command with its command-line arguments in the rxvt window;
265 also sets the window title and icon name to be the basename of the
266 program being executed if neither *-title* (*-T*) nor *-n* are given
267 on the command line. If this option is used, it must be the last on
268 the command-line. If there is no -e option then the default is to
269 run the program specified by the SHELL environment variable or,
270 failing that, *sh(1)*.
271
272 -title *text*
273 Window title (-T still respected); the default title is the basename
274 of the program specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the
275 application name; resource title.
276
277 -n *text*
278 Icon name; the default name is the basename of the program specified
279 after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application name;
280 resource iconName.
281
282 -C Capture system console messages.
283
284 -pt *style*
285 Compile *XIM*: input style for input method; OverTheSpot,
286 OffTheSpot, Root; resource preeditType.
287
288 -im *text*
289 Compile *XIM*: input method name. resource inputMethod.
290
291 -imlocale *string*
292 The locale to use for opening the IM. You can use an "LC_CTYPE" of
293 e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8" for normal text processing but "ja_JP.EUC-JP" for
294 the input extension to be able to input japanese characters while
295 staying in another locale. resource imLocale.
296
297 -imfont *fontset*
298 Set the font set to use for the X Input Method, see resource imFont
299 for more info.
300
301 -tcw
302 Change the meaning of triple-click selection with the left mouse
303 button. Instead of selecting a full line it will extend the
304 selection the end of the logical line only. resource
305 tripleclickwords.
306
307 -insecure
308 Enable "insecure" mode, which currently enables most of the escape
309 sequences that echo strings. See the resource insecure for more
310 info.
311
312 -mod *modifier*
313 Override detection of Meta modifier with specified key: alt, meta,
314 hyper, super, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, mod5; resource *modifier*.
315
316 -ssc|+ssc
317 Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled); resource
318 secondaryScreen.
319
320 -ssr|+ssr
321 Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled); resource
322 secondaryScroll.
323
324 -keysym.*sym* *string*
325 Remap a key symbol. See resource keysym.
326
327 -embed *windowid*
328 Tells rxvt to embed it's windows into an already-existing window,
329 which enables applications to easily embed a terminal.
330
331 Right now, rxvt will first unmap/map the specified window, so it
332 shouldn't be a top-level window. rxvt will also reconfigure it quite
333 a bit, so don't expect it to keep some specific state. It's best to
334 create an extra subwindow for rxvt and leave it alone.
335
336 The window will not be destroyed when rxvt exits.
337
338 It might be useful to know that rxvt will not close file descriptors
339 passed to it (except for stdin/out/err, of course), so you can use
340 file descriptors to communicate with the programs within the
341 terminal. This works regardless of wether the "-embed" option was
342 used or not.
343
344 Here is a short Gtk2-perl snippet that illustrates how this option
345 can be used (a longer example is in doc/embed):
346
347 my $rxvt = new Gtk2::Socket;
348 $rxvt->signal_connect_after (realize => sub {
349 my $xid = $_[0]->window->get_xid;
350 system "rxvt -embed $xid &";
351 });
352
353 -pty-fd *fileno*
354 Tells rxvt NOT to execute any commands or create a new pty/tty pair
355 but instead use the given filehandle as the tty master. This is
356 useful if you want to drive rxvt as a generic terminal emulator
357 without having to run a program within it.
358
359 If this switch is given, rxvt will not create any utmp/wtmp entries
360 and will not tinker with pty/tty permissions - you have to do that
361 yourself if you want that.
362
363 Here is a example in perl that illustrates how this option can be
364 used (a longer example is in doc/pty-fd):
365
366 use IO::Pty;
367 use Fcntl;
368
369 my $pty = new IO::Pty;
370 fcntl $pty, F_SETFD, 0; # clear close-on-exec
371 system "rxvt -pty-fd " . (fileno $pty) . "&";
372 close $pty;
373
374 # now communicate with rxvt
375 my $slave = $pty->slave;
376 while (<$slave>) { print $slave "got <$_>\n" }
377
378 RESOURCES (available also as long-options)
379 Note: `rxvt --help' gives a list of all resources (long options)
380 compiled into your version.
381
382 There are two different methods that rxvt can use to get the Xresource
383 data: using the X libraries (Xrm*-functions) or internal Xresources
384 reader (~/.Xdefaults). For the first method (ie. rxvt -h lists
385 XGetDefaults), you can set and change the resources using X11 tools like
386 xrdb. Many distribution do also load settings from the ~/.Xresources
387 file when X starts. rxvt will consult the following files/resources in
388 order, with later settings overwriting earlier ones:
389
390 1. system-wide app-defaults file, either locale-dependent OR global
391 2. app-defaults file in $XAPPLRESDIR
392 3. RESOURCE_MANAGER property on root-window OR $HOME/.Xdefaults
393 4. SCREEN_RESOURCES for the current screen
394 5. $XENVIRONMENT file OR $HOME/.Xdefaults-<nodename>
395
396 If compiled with internal Xresources support (i.e. rxvt -h lists
397 .Xdefaults) then rxvt accepts application defaults set in
398 XAPPLOADDIR/URxvt (compile-time defined: usually
399 /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/URxvt) and resources set in ~/.Xdefaults, or
400 ~/.Xresources if ~/.Xdefaults does not exist. Note that when reading X
401 resources, rxvt recognizes two class names: XTerm and URxvt. The class
402 name Rxvt allows resources common to both rxvt and the original *rxvt*
403 to be easily configured, while the class name URxvt allows resources
404 unique to rxvt, notably colours and key-handling, to be shared between
405 different rxvt configurations. If no resources are specified, suitable
406 defaults will be used. Command-line arguments can be used to override
407 resource settings. The following resources are allowed:
408
409 geometry: *geom*
410 Create the window with the specified X window geometry [default
411 80x24]; option -geometry.
412
413 background: *colour*
414 Use the specified colour as the window's background colour [default
415 White]; option -bg.
416
417 foreground: *colour*
418 Use the specified colour as the window's foreground colour [default
419 Black]; option -fg.
420
421 color*n*: *colour*
422 Use the specified colour for the colour value *n*, where 0-7
423 corresponds to low-intensity (normal) colours and 8-15 corresponds
424 to high-intensity (bold = bright foreground, blink = bright
425 background) colours. The canonical names are as follows: 0=black,
426 1=red, 2=green, 3=yellow, 4=blue, 5=magenta, 6=cyan, 7=white, but
427 the actual colour names used are listed in the COLORS AND GRAPHICS
428 section.
429
430 Colours higher than 15 cannot be set using resources (yet), but can
431 be changed using an escape command (see rxvt(7)).
432
433 Colours 16-79 form a standard 4x4x4 colour cube (the same as xterm
434 with 88 colour support). Colours 80-87 are evenly spaces grey steps.
435
436 colorBD: *colour*
437 colorIT: *colour*
438 Use the specified colour to display bold or italic characters when
439 the foreground colour is the default. If font styles are not
440 available (Compile *styles*) and this option is unset, reverse video
441 is used instead.
442
443 colorUL: *colour*
444 Use the specified colour to display underlined characters when the
445 foreground colour is the default.
446
447 colorRV: *colour*
448 Use the specified colour as the background for reverse video
449 characters.
450
451 underlineColor: *colour*
452 If set, use the specified colour as the colour for the underline
453 itself. If unset, use the foreground colour.
454
455 cursorColor: *colour*
456 Use the specified colour for the cursor. The default is to use the
457 foreground colour; option -cr.
458
459 cursorColor2: *colour*
460 Use the specified colour for the colour of the cursor text. For this
461 to take effect, cursorColor must also be specified. The default is
462 to use the background colour.
463
464 reverseVideo: *boolean*
465 True: simulate reverse video by foreground and background colours;
466 option -rv. False: regular screen colours [default]; option +rv. See
467 note in COLORS AND GRAPHICS section.
468
469 jumpScroll: *boolean*
470 True: specify that jump scrolling should be used. When scrolling
471 quickly, fewer screen updates are performed [default]; option -j.
472 False: specify that smooth scrolling should be used; option +j.
473
474 inheritPixmap: *boolean*
475 True: make the background inherit the parent windows' pixmap, giving
476 artificial transparency. False: do not inherit the parent windows'
477 pixmap.
478
479 fading: *number*
480 Fade the text by the given percentage when focus is lost; option
481 -fade.
482
483 fadeColor: *colour*
484 Fade to this colour, when fading is used (see fading:). The default
485 colour is black; option -fadecolor.
486
487 tintColor: *colour*
488 Tint the transparent background pixmap with the given colour; option
489 -tint.
490
491 shading: *number*
492 Darken (0 .. 100) or lighten (-1 .. -100) the transparent background
493 image in addition to tinting it.
494
495 scrollColor: *colour*
496 Use the specified colour for the scrollbar [default #B2B2B2].
497
498 troughColor: *colour*
499 Use the specified colour for the scrollbar's trough area [default
500 #969696]. Only relevant for rxvt (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar.
501
502 borderColor: *colour*
503 The colour of the border around the text area and between the
504 scrollbar and the text.
505
506 backgroundPixmap: *file[;geom]*
507 Use the specified XPM file (note the `.xpm' extension is optional)
508 for the background and also optionally specify its scaling with a
509 geometry string WxH+X+Y, in which "W" / "H" specify the
510 horizontal/vertical scale (percent) and "X" / "Y" locate the image
511 centre (percent). A scale of 0 displays the image with tiling. A
512 scale of 1 displays the image without any scaling. A scale of 2 to 9
513 specifies an integer number of images in that direction. No image
514 will be magnified beyond 10 times its original size. The maximum
515 permitted scale is 1000. [default 0x0+50+50]
516
517 menu: *file[;tag]*
518 Read in the specified menu file (note the `.menu' extension is
519 optional) and also optionally specify a starting tag to find. See
520 the reference documentation for details on the syntax for the
521 menuBar.
522
523 path: *path*
524 Specify the colon-delimited search path for finding files (XPM and
525 menus), in addition to the paths specified by the RXVTPATH and PATH
526 environment variables.
527
528 font: *fontlist*
529 Select the fonts to be used. This is a comma separated list of font
530 names that are used in turn when trying to display Unicode
531 characters. The first font defines the cell size for characters;
532 other fonts might be smaller, but not larger. A reasonable default
533 font list is always appended to it. option -fn.
534
535 Each font can either be a standard X11 core font (XLFD) name, with
536 optional prefix "x:" or a Xft font (Compile *xft*), prefixed with
537 "xft:".
538
539 In addition, each font can be prefixed with additional hints and
540 specifications enclosed in square brackets ("[]"). The only
541 available hint currently is "codeset=codeset-name", and this is only
542 used for Xft fonts.
543
544 For example, this font resource
545
546 URxvt*font: 9x15bold,\
547 -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
548 -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
549 [codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic:antialias=false, \
550 xft:Code2000:antialias=false
551
552 specifies five fonts to be used. The first one is "9x15bold"
553 (actually the iso8859-1 version of the second font), which is the
554 base font (because it is named first) and thus defines the character
555 cell grid to be 9 pixels wide and 15 pixels high.
556
557 The second font is just used to add additional unicode characters
558 not in the base font, likewise the third, which is unfortunately
559 non-bold, but the bold version of the font does contain less
560 characters, so this is a useful supplement.
561
562 The third font is an Xft font with aliasing turned off, and the
563 characters are limited to the JIS 0208 codeset (i.e. japanese
564 kanji). The font contains other characters, but we are not
565 interested in them.
566
567 The last font is a useful catch-all font that supplies most of the
568 remaining unicode characters.
569
570 boldFont: *fontlist*
571 italicFont: *fontlist*
572 boldItalicFont: *fontlist*
573 The font list to use for displaying bold, *italic* or *bold italic*
574 characters, respectively.
575
576 If specified and non-empty, then the syntax is the same as for the
577 font-resource, and the given font list will be used as is, which
578 makes it possible to substitute completely different font styles for
579 bold and italic.
580
581 If unset (the default), a suitable font list will be synthesized by
582 "morphing" the normal text font list into the desired shape. If that
583 is not possible, replacement fonts of the desired shape will be
584 tried.
585
586 If set, but empty, then this specific style is disabled and the
587 normal text font will being used for the given style.
588
589 selectstyle: *mode*
590 Set mouse selection style to old which is 2.20, oldword which is
591 xterm style with 2.20 old word selection, or anything else which
592 gives xterm style selection.
593
594 scrollstyle: *mode*
595 Set scrollbar style to rxvt, plain, next or xterm. plain is the
596 author's favourite.
597
598 title: *string*
599 Set window title string, the default title is the command-line
600 specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application
601 name; option -title.
602
603 iconName: *string*
604 Set the name used to label the window's icon or displayed in an icon
605 manager window, it also sets the window's title unless it is
606 explicitly set; option -n.
607
608 mapAlert: *boolean*
609 True: de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character. False: no
610 de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character [default].
611
612 visualBell: *boolean*
613 True: use visual bell on receipt of a bell character; option -vb.
614 False: no visual bell [default]; option +vb.
615
616 loginShell: *boolean*
617 True: start as a login shell by prepending a `-' to argv[0] of the
618 shell; option -ls. False: start as a normal sub-shell [default];
619 option +ls.
620
621 utmpInhibit: *boolean*
622 True: inhibit writing record into the system log file utmp; option
623 -ut. False: write record into the system log file utmp [default];
624 option +ut.
625
626 print-pipe: *string*
627 Specify a command pipe for vt100 printer [default *lpr(1)*]. Use
628 Print to initiate a screen dump to the printer and Ctrl-Print or
629 Shift-Print to include the scrollback as well.
630
631 The string will be interpreted as if typed into the shell as-is.
632
633 Example:
634
635 URxvt*print-pipe: cat > $(TMPDIR=$HOME mktemp urxvt.XXXXXX)
636
637 This creates a new file in your home directory with the screen
638 contents everytime you hit "Print".
639
640 scrollBar: *boolean*
641 True: enable the scrollbar [default]; option -sb. False: disable the
642 scrollbar; option +sb.
643
644 scrollBar_right: *boolean*
645 True: place the scrollbar on the right of the window; option -sr.
646 False: place the scrollbar on the left of the window; option +sr.
647
648 scrollBar_floating: *boolean*
649 True: display an rxvt scrollbar without a trough; option -st. False:
650 display an rxvt scrollbar with a trough; option +st.
651
652 scrollBar_align: *mode*
653 Align the top, bottom or centre [default] of the scrollbar thumb
654 with the pointer on middle button press/drag.
655
656 scrollTtyOutput: *boolean*
657 True: scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option -si. False:
658 do not scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option +si.
659
660 scrollWithBuffer: *boolean*
661 True: scroll with scrollback buffer when tty receives new lines (and
662 scrollTtyOutput is False); option -sw. False: do not scroll with
663 scrollback buffer when tty recieves new lines; option +sw.
664
665 scrollTtyKeypress: *boolean*
666 True: scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed. Special
667 keys are those which are intercepted by rxvt-unicode for special
668 handling and are not passed onto the shell; option -sk. False: do
669 not scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed; option +sk.
670
671 saveLines: *number*
672 Save *number* lines in the scrollback buffer [default 64]. This
673 resource is limited on most machines to 65535; option -sl.
674
675 internalBorder: *number*
676 Internal border of *number* pixels. This resource is limited to 100;
677 option -b.
678
679 externalBorder: *number*
680 External border of *number* pixels. This resource is limited to 100;
681 option -w, -bw, -borderwidth.
682
683 borderLess: *boolean*
684 Set MWM hints to request a borderless window, i.e. if honoured by
685 the WM, the rxvt-unicode window will not have window decorations;
686 option -bl.
687
688 termName: *termname*
689 Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM environment
690 variable; option -tn.
691
692 linespace: *number*
693 Specifies number of lines (pixel height) to insert between each row
694 of the display [default 0]; option -lsp.
695
696 meta8: *boolean*
697 True: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress to set the 8th bit. False: handle
698 Meta (Alt) + keypress as an escape prefix [default].
699
700 mouseWheelScrollPage: *boolean*
701 True: the mouse wheel scrolls a page full. False: the mouse wheel
702 scrolls five lines [default].
703
704 pastableTabs: *boolean*
705 True: store tabs as wide characters. False: interpret tabs as cursor
706 movement only; option "-ptab".
707
708 cursorBlink: *boolean*
709 True: blink the cursor. False: do not blink the cursor [default];
710 option -bc.
711
712 pointerBlank: *boolean*
713 True: blank the pointer when a key is pressed or after a set number
714 of seconds of inactivity. False: the pointer is always visible
715 [default].
716
717 pointerColor: *colour*
718 Mouse pointer foreground colour.
719
720 pointerColor2: *colour*
721 Mouse pointer background colour.
722
723 pointerBlankDelay: *number*
724 Specifies number of seconds before blanking the pointer [default 2].
725 Use a large number (e.g. 987654321) to effectively disable the
726 timeout.
727
728 backspacekey: *string*
729 The string to send when the backspace key is pressed. If set to DEC
730 or unset it will send Delete (code 127) or, if shifted, Backspace
731 (code 8) - which can be reversed with the appropriate DEC private
732 mode escape sequence.
733
734 deletekey: *string*
735 The string to send when the delete key (not the keypad delete key)
736 is pressed. If unset it will send the sequence traditionally
737 associated with the Execute key.
738
739 cutchars: *string*
740 The characters used as delimiters for double-click word selection.
741 The built-in default:
742
743 BACKSLASH `"'&()*,;<=>?@[]{|}
744
745 preeditType: *style*
746 OverTheSpot, OffTheSpot, Root; option -pt.
747
748 inputMethod: *name*
749 *name* of inputMethod to use; option -im.
750
751 imLocale: *name*
752 The locale to use for opening the IM. You can use an "LC_CTYPE" of
753 e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8" for normal text processing but "ja_JP.EUC-JP" for
754 the input extension to be able to input japanese characters while
755 staying in another locale. option -imlocale.
756
757 imFont: *fontset*
758 Specify the font-set used for XIM styles "OverTheSpot" or
759 "OffTheSpot". It must be a standard X font set (XLFD patterns
760 separated by commas), i.e. it's not in the same format as the other
761 font lists used in rxvt. The default will be set-up to chose *any*
762 suitable found found, preferably one or two pixels differing in size
763 to the base font. option -imfont.
764
765 tripleclickwords: *boolean*
766 Change the meaning of triple-click selection with the left mouse
767 button. Instead of selecting a full line it will extend the
768 selection to the end of the logical line only. option -tcw.
769
770 insecure: *boolean*
771 Enables "insecure" mode. Rxvt-unicode offers some escape sequences
772 that echo arbitrary strings like the icon name or the locale. This
773 could be abused if somebody gets 8-bit-clean access to your display,
774 whether through a mail client displaying mail bodies unfiltered or
775 through write(1) or any other means. Therefore, these sequences are
776 disabled by default. (Note that many other terminals, including
777 xterm, have these sequences enabled by default, which doesn't make
778 it safer, though).
779
780 You can enable them by setting this boolean resource or specifying
781 -insecure as an option. At the moment, this enables display-answer,
782 locale, findfont, icon label and window title requests as well as
783 dynamic menubar dispatch.
784
785 modifier: *modifier*
786 Set the key to be interpreted as the Meta key to: alt, meta, hyper,
787 super, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, mod5; option -mod.
788
789 answerbackString: *string*
790 Specify the reply rxvt-unicode sends to the shell when an ENQ
791 (control-E) character is passed through. It may contain escape
792 values as described in the entry on keysym following.
793
794 secondaryScreen: *bool*
795 Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled).
796
797 secondaryScroll: *bool*
798 Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled). If the this
799 option is enabled, scrolls on the secondary screen will change the
800 scrollback buffer and switching to/from the secondary screen will
801 instead scroll the screen up.
802
803 keysym.*sym*: *string*
804 Compile *frills*: Associate *string* with keysym *sym*. The
805 intervening resource name keysym. cannot be omitted.
806
807 The format of *sym* is "*(modifiers-)key*", where *modifiers* can be
808 any combination of ISOLevel3, AppKeypad, Control, NumLock, Shift,
809 Meta, Lock, Mod1, Mod2, Mod3, Mod4, Mod5, and the abbreviated I, K,
810 C, N, S, M, A, L, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
811
812 The NumLock, Meta and ISOLevel3 modifiers are usually aliased to
813 whatever modifier the NumLock key, Meta/Alt keys or ISO Level3
814 Shift/AltGr keys are being mapped. AppKeypad is a synthetic modifier
815 mapped to the current application keymap mode state.
816
817 The spellings of *key* can be obtained by using xev(1) command or
818 searching keysym macros from /usr/X11R6/include/X11/keysymdef.h and
819 omitting the prefix XK_. Alternatively you can specify *key* by its
820 hex keysym value (0x0000 - 0xFFFF). Note that the lookup of *sym*s
821 is not performed in an exact manner; however, the closest match is
822 assured.
823
824 *string* may contain escape values ("\a": bell, "\b": backspace,
825 "\e", "\E": escape, "\n": newline, "\r": carriage return, "\t": tab,
826 "\000": octal number) or verbatim control characters ("^?": delete,
827 "^@": null, "^A" ...) and may be enclosed with double quotes so that
828 it can start or end with whitespace.
829
830 Please note that you need to double the "\" when using
831 "--enable-xgetdefault", as X itself does it's own de-escaping (you
832 can use "\033" instead of "\e" (and so on), which will work with
833 both Xt and rxvt's own processing).
834
835 You can define a range of keysyms in one shot by providing a
836 *string* with pattern list/PREFIX/MIDDLE/SUFFIX, where the delimeter
837 `/' should be a character not used by the strings.
838
839 Its usage can be demonstrated by an example:
840
841 URxvt.keysym.M-C-0x61: list|\033<M-C-|abc|>
842
843 The above line is equivalent to the following three lines:
844
845 URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x61: \033<M-C-a>
846 URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x62: \033<M-C-b>
847 URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x63: \033<M-C-c>
848
849 If *string* takes the form of "command:STRING", the specified STRING
850 is interpreted and executed as rxvt's control sequence. For example
851 the following means "change the current locale to "zh_CN.GBK" when
852 Control-Meta-c is being pressed":
853
854 URxvt.keysym.M-C-c: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
855
856 Due the the large number of modifier combinations, a defined key
857 mapping will match if at *at least* the specified identifiers are
858 being set, and no other key mappings with those and more bits are
859 being defined. That means that defining a key map for "a" will
860 automatically provide definitions for "Meta-a", "Shift-a" and so on,
861 unless some of those are defined mappings themselves.
862
863 Unfortunately, this will override built-in key mappings. For example
864 if you overwrite the "Insert" key you will disable rxvt's
865 "Shift-Insert" mapping. To re-enable that, you can poke "holes" into
866 the user-defined keymap using the "builtin:" replacement:
867
868 URxvt.keysym.Insert: <my insert key sequence>
869 URxvt.keysym.S-Insert: builtin:
870
871 The first line defines a mapping for "Insert" and *any* combination
872 of modifiers. The second line re-establishes the default mapping for
873 "Shift-Insert".
874
875 The following example will map Control-Meta-1 and Control-Meta-2 to
876 the fonts "suxuseuro" and "9x15bold", so you can have some limited
877 font-switching at runtime:
878
879 URxvt.keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]50;suxuseuro\007
880 URxvt.keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]50;9x15bold\007
881
882 Other things are possible, e.g. resizing (see rxvt(7) for more
883 info):
884
885 URxvt.keysym.M-C-3: command:\033[8;25;80t
886 URxvt.keysym.M-C-4: command:\033[8;48;110t
887
888 THE SCROLLBAR
889 Lines of text that scroll off the top of the rxvt window (resource:
890 saveLines) and can be scrolled back using the scrollbar or by
891 keystrokes. The normal rxvt scrollbar has arrows and its behaviour is
892 fairly intuitive. The xterm-scrollbar is without arrows and its
893 behaviour mimics that of *xterm*
894
895 Scroll down with Button1 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Next. Scroll up with
896 Button3 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Prior. Continuous scroll with
897 Button2.
898
899 MOUSE REPORTING
900 To temporarily override mouse reporting, for either the scrollbar or the
901 normal text selection/insertion, hold either the Shift or the Meta (Alt)
902 key while performing the desired mouse action.
903
904 If mouse reporting mode is active, the normal scrollbar actions are
905 disabled -- on the assumption that we are using a fullscreen
906 application. Instead, pressing Button1 and Button3 sends ESC [ 6 ~
907 (Next) and ESC [ 5 ~ (Prior), respectively. Similarly, clicking on the
908 up and down arrows sends ESC [ A (Up) and ESC [ B (Down), respectively.
909
910 TEXT SELECTION AND INSERTION
911 The behaviour of text selection and insertion mechanism is similar to
912 *xterm*(1).
913
914 Selection:
915 Left click at the beginning of the region, drag to the end of the
916 region and release; Right click to extend the marked region; Left
917 double-click to select a word; Left triple-click to select the
918 entire logical line (which can span multiple screen lines), unless
919 modified by resource tripleclickwords.
920
921 Starting a selection while pressing the Meta key (or Meta+Ctrl keys)
922 (Compile: *frills*) will create a rectangular selection instead of a
923 normal one.
924
925 Insertion:
926 Pressing and releasing the Middle mouse button (or Shift-Insert) in
927 an rxvt window causes the current text selection to be inserted as
928 if it had been typed on the keyboard.
929
930 CHANGING FONTS
931 Changing fonts (or font sizes, respectively) via the keypad is not yet
932 supported in rxvt-unicode. Bug me if you need this.
933
934 You can, however, switch fonts at runtime using escape sequences (and
935 therefore using the menubar), e.g.:
936
937 printf '\e]710;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
938
939 rxvt-unicode will automatically re-apply these fonts to the output so
940 far.
941
942 ISO 14755 SUPPORT
943 ISO 14755 is a standard for entering and viewing unicode characters and
944 character codes using the keyboard. It consists of 4 parts. The first
945 part is available rxvt-unicode has been compiled with "--enable-frills",
946 the rest is available when rxvt-unicode was compiled with
947 "--enable-iso14755".
948
949 * 5.1: Basic method
950 This allows you to enter unicode characters using their hexcode.
951
952 Start by pressing and holding both "Control" and "Shift", then enter
953 hex-digits (between one and six). Releasing "Control" and "Shift"
954 will commit the character as if it were typed directly. While
955 holding down "Control" and "Shift" you can also enter multiple
956 characters by pressing "Space", which will commit the current
957 character and lets you start a new one.
958
959 As an example of use, imagine a business card with a japanese e-mail
960 address, which you cannot type. Fortunately, the card has the e-mail
961 address printed as hexcodes, e.g. "671d 65e5". You can enter this
962 easily by pressing "Control" and "Shift", followed by
963 "6-7-1-D-SPACE-6-5-E-5", followed by releasing the modifier keys.
964
965 * 5.2: Keyboard symbols entry method
966 This mode lets you input characters representing the keycap symbols
967 of your keyboard, if representable in the current locale encoding.
968
969 Start by pressing "Control" and "Shift" together, then releasing
970 them. The next special key (cursor keys, home etc.) you enter will
971 not invoke it's usual function but instead will insert the
972 corresponding keycap symbol. The symbol will only be entered when
973 the key has been released, otherwise pressing e.g. "Shift" would
974 enter the symbol for "ISO Level 2 Switch", although your intention
975 might have been to enter a reverse tab (Shift-Tab).
976
977 * 5.3: Screen-selection entry method
978 While this is implemented already (it's basically the selection
979 mechanism), it could be extended by displaying a unicode character
980 map.
981
982 * 5.4: Feedback method for identifying displayed characters for later
983 input
984 This method lets you display the unicode character code associated
985 with characters already displayed.
986
987 You enter this mode by holding down "Control" and "Shift" together,
988 then pressing and holding the left mouse button and moving around.
989 The unicode hex code(s) (it might be a combining character) of the
990 character under the pointer is displayed until you release "Control"
991 and "Shift".
992
993 In addition to the hex codes it will display the font used to draw
994 this character - due to implementation reasons, characters combined
995 with combining characters, line drawing characters and unknown
996 characters will always be drawn using the built-in support font.
997
998 With respect to conformance, rxvt-unicode is supposed to be compliant to
999 both scenario A and B of ISO 14755, including part 5.2.
1000
1001 LOGIN STAMP
1002 rxvt tries to write an entry into the *utmp*(5) file so that it can be
1003 seen via the *who(1)* command, and can accept messages. To allow this
1004 feature, rxvt may need to be installed setuid root on some systems or
1005 setgid to root or to some other group on others.
1006
1007 COLORS AND GRAPHICS
1008 In addition to the default foreground and background colours, rxvt can
1009 display up to 16 colours (8 ANSI colours plus high-intensity bold/blink
1010 versions of the same). Here is a list of the colours with their rgb.txt
1011 names.
1012
1013 color0 (black) = Black
1014 color1 (red) = Red3
1015 color2 (green) = Green3
1016 color3 (yellow) = Yellow3
1017 color4 (blue) = Blue3
1018 color5 (magenta) = Magenta3
1019 color6 (cyan) = Cyan3
1020 color7 (white) = AntiqueWhite
1021 color8 (bright black) = Grey25
1022 color9 (bright red) = Red
1023 color10 (bright green) = Green
1024 color11 (bright yellow) = Yellow
1025 color12 (bright blue) = Blue
1026 color13 (bright magenta) = Magenta
1027 color14 (bright cyan) = Cyan
1028 color15 (bright white) = White
1029 foreground = Black
1030 background = White
1031
1032 It is also possible to specify the colour values of foreground,
1033 background, cursorColor, cursorColor2, colorBD, colorUL as a number
1034 0-15, as a convenient shorthand to reference the colour name of
1035 color0-color15.
1036
1037 Note that -rv ("reverseVideo: True") simulates reverse video by always
1038 swapping the foreground/background colours. This is in contrast to
1039 *xterm*(1) where the colours are only swapped if they have not otherwise
1040 been specified. For example,
1041
1042 rxvt -fg Black -bg White -rv
1043 would yield White on Black, while on *xterm*(1) it would yield Black
1044 on White.
1045
1046 ENVIRONMENT
1047 rxvt sets and/or uses the following environment variables:
1048
1049 TERM
1050 Normally set to "rxvt-unicode", unless overwritten at configure
1051 time, via resources or on the commandline.
1052
1053 COLORTERM
1054 Either "rxvt", "rxvt-xpm", depending on wether rxvt was compiled
1055 with XPM support, and optionally with the added extension "-mono" to
1056 indicate that rxvt-unicode runs on a monochrome screen.
1057
1058 COLORFGBG
1059 Set to a string of the form "fg;bg" or "fg;xpm;bg", where "fg" is
1060 the colour code used as default foreground/text colour (or the
1061 string "default" to indicate that the default-colour escape sequence
1062 is to be used), "bg" is the colour code used as default background
1063 colour (or the string "default"), and "xpm" is the string "default"
1064 if rxvt was compiled with XPM support. Libraries like "ncurses" and
1065 "slang" can (and do) use this information to optimize screen output.
1066
1067 WINDOWID
1068 Set to the (decimal) X Window ID of the rxvt window (the toplevel
1069 window, which usually has subwindows for the scrollbar, the terminal
1070 window and so on).
1071
1072 TERMINFO
1073 Set to the terminfo directory iff rxvt was configured with
1074 "--with-terminfo=PATH".
1075
1076 DISPLAY
1077 Used by rxvt to connect to the display and set to the correct
1078 display in it's child processes.
1079
1080 SHELL
1081 The shell to be used for command execution, defaults to "/bin/sh".
1082
1083 RXVTPATH
1084 The path where rxvt looks for support files such as menu and xpm
1085 files.
1086
1087 PATH
1088 Used in the same way as "RXVTPATH".
1089
1090 RXVT_SOCKET
1091 The unix domain socket path used by rxvtc(1) and rxvtd(1).
1092
1093 Default $HOME/.rxvt-unicode-*<nodename*.
1094
1095 HOME
1096 Used to locate the default directory for the unix domain socket for
1097 daemon communications and to locate various resource files (such as
1098 ".Xdefaults")
1099
1100 XAPPLRESDIR
1101 Directory where various X resource files are being located.
1102
1103 XENVIRONMENT
1104 If set and accessible, gives the name of a X resource file to be
1105 loaded by rxvt.
1106
1107 FILES
1108 /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt
1109 Color names.
1110
1111 SEE ALSO
1112 rxvt(7), rxvtc(1), rxvtd(1), xterm(1), sh(1), resize(1), X(1), pty(4),
1113 tty(4), utmp(5)
1114
1115 CURRENT PROJECT COORDINATOR
1116 Project Coordinator
1117 Marc A. Lehmann <rxvt-unicode@schmorp.de>
1118
1119 <http://software.schmorp.de/#rxvt-unicode>
1120
1121 AUTHORS
1122 John Bovey
1123 University of Kent, 1992, wrote the original Xvt.
1124
1125 Rob Nation <nation@rocket.sanders.lockheed.com>
1126 very heavily modified Xvt and came up with Rxvt
1127
1128 Angelo Haritsis <ah@doc.ic.ac.uk>
1129 wrote the Greek Keyboard Input (no longer in code)
1130
1131 mj olesen <olesen@me.QueensU.CA>
1132 Wrote the menu system.
1133
1134 Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.11 to 2.21)
1135
1136 Oezguer Kesim <kesim@math.fu-berlin.de>
1137 Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.21a to 2.4.5)
1138
1139 Geoff Wing <gcw@pobox.com>
1140 Rewrote screen display and text selection routines. Project
1141 Coordinator (changes.txt 2.4.6 - rxvt-unicode)
1142
1143 Marc Alexander Lehmann <rxvt-unicode@schmorp.de>
1144 Forked rxvt-unicode, rewrote most of the display code and internal
1145 character handling to store text in unicode, improve xterm
1146 compatibility and apply numerous other bugfixes and extensions.
1147
1148 Project Coordinator (Changes 1.0 -)
1149