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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 6.1, 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 Please note that you must specify a program with arguments. If you
273 want to run shell commands, you have to specify the shell, like
274 this:
275
276 rxvt -e sh -c "shell commands"
277
278 -title *text*
279 Window title (-T still respected); the default title is the basename
280 of the program specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the
281 application name; resource title.
282
283 -n *text*
284 Icon name; the default name is the basename of the program specified
285 after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application name;
286 resource iconName.
287
288 -C Capture system console messages.
289
290 -pt *style*
291 Compile *XIM*: input style for input method; OverTheSpot,
292 OffTheSpot, Root; resource preeditType.
293
294 -im *text*
295 Compile *XIM*: input method name. resource inputMethod.
296
297 -imlocale *string*
298 The locale to use for opening the IM. You can use an "LC_CTYPE" of
299 e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8" for normal text processing but "ja_JP.EUC-JP" for
300 the input extension to be able to input japanese characters while
301 staying in another locale. resource imLocale.
302
303 -imfont *fontset*
304 Set the font set to use for the X Input Method, see resource imFont
305 for more info.
306
307 -tcw
308 Change the meaning of triple-click selection with the left mouse
309 button. Instead of selecting a full line it will extend the
310 selection the end of the logical line only. resource
311 tripleclickwords.
312
313 -insecure
314 Enable "insecure" mode, which currently enables most of the escape
315 sequences that echo strings. See the resource insecure for more
316 info.
317
318 -mod *modifier*
319 Override detection of Meta modifier with specified key: alt, meta,
320 hyper, super, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, mod5; resource *modifier*.
321
322 -ssc|+ssc
323 Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled); resource
324 secondaryScreen.
325
326 -ssr|+ssr
327 Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled); resource
328 secondaryScroll.
329
330 -hold|+hold
331 Turn on/off hold window after exit support. If enabled, rxvt will
332 not immediately destroy its window when the program executed within
333 it exits. Instead, it will wait till it is being killed or closed by
334 the user; resource hold.
335
336 -keysym.*sym* *string*
337 Remap a key symbol. See resource keysym.
338
339 -embed *windowid*
340 Tells rxvt to embed it's windows into an already-existing window,
341 which enables applications to easily embed a terminal.
342
343 Right now, rxvt will first unmap/map the specified window, so it
344 shouldn't be a top-level window. rxvt will also reconfigure it quite
345 a bit, so don't expect it to keep some specific state. It's best to
346 create an extra subwindow for rxvt and leave it alone.
347
348 The window will not be destroyed when rxvt exits.
349
350 It might be useful to know that rxvt will not close file descriptors
351 passed to it (except for stdin/out/err, of course), so you can use
352 file descriptors to communicate with the programs within the
353 terminal. This works regardless of wether the "-embed" option was
354 used or not.
355
356 Here is a short Gtk2-perl snippet that illustrates how this option
357 can be used (a longer example is in doc/embed):
358
359 my $rxvt = new Gtk2::Socket;
360 $rxvt->signal_connect_after (realize => sub {
361 my $xid = $_[0]->window->get_xid;
362 system "rxvt -embed $xid &";
363 });
364
365 -pty-fd *fileno*
366 Tells rxvt NOT to execute any commands or create a new pty/tty pair
367 but instead use the given filehandle as the tty master. This is
368 useful if you want to drive rxvt as a generic terminal emulator
369 without having to run a program within it.
370
371 If this switch is given, rxvt will not create any utmp/wtmp entries
372 and will not tinker with pty/tty permissions - you have to do that
373 yourself if you want that.
374
375 Here is a example in perl that illustrates how this option can be
376 used (a longer example is in doc/pty-fd):
377
378 use IO::Pty;
379 use Fcntl;
380
381 my $pty = new IO::Pty;
382 fcntl $pty, F_SETFD, 0; # clear close-on-exec
383 system "rxvt -pty-fd " . (fileno $pty) . "&";
384 close $pty;
385
386 # now communicate with rxvt
387 my $slave = $pty->slave;
388 while (<$slave>) { print $slave "got <$_>\n" }
389
390 RESOURCES (available also as long-options)
391 Note: `rxvt --help' gives a list of all resources (long options)
392 compiled into your version.
393
394 There are two different methods that rxvt can use to get the Xresource
395 data: using the X libraries (Xrm*-functions) or internal Xresources
396 reader (~/.Xdefaults). For the first method (ie. rxvt -h lists
397 XGetDefaults), you can set and change the resources using X11 tools like
398 xrdb. Many distribution do also load settings from the ~/.Xresources
399 file when X starts. rxvt will consult the following files/resources in
400 order, with later settings overwriting earlier ones:
401
402 1. system-wide app-defaults file, either locale-dependent OR global
403 2. app-defaults file in $XAPPLRESDIR
404 3. RESOURCE_MANAGER property on root-window OR $HOME/.Xdefaults
405 4. SCREEN_RESOURCES for the current screen
406 5. $XENVIRONMENT file OR $HOME/.Xdefaults-<nodename>
407
408 If compiled with internal Xresources support (i.e. rxvt -h lists
409 .Xdefaults) then rxvt accepts application defaults set in
410 XAPPLOADDIR/URxvt (compile-time defined: usually
411 /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/URxvt) and resources set in ~/.Xdefaults, or
412 ~/.Xresources if ~/.Xdefaults does not exist. Note that when reading X
413 resources, rxvt recognizes two class names: XTerm and URxvt. The class
414 name Rxvt allows resources common to both rxvt and the original *rxvt*
415 to be easily configured, while the class name URxvt allows resources
416 unique to rxvt, notably colours and key-handling, to be shared between
417 different rxvt configurations. If no resources are specified, suitable
418 defaults will be used. Command-line arguments can be used to override
419 resource settings. The following resources are allowed:
420
421 geometry: *geom*
422 Create the window with the specified X window geometry [default
423 80x24]; option -geometry.
424
425 background: *colour*
426 Use the specified colour as the window's background colour [default
427 White]; option -bg.
428
429 foreground: *colour*
430 Use the specified colour as the window's foreground colour [default
431 Black]; option -fg.
432
433 color*n*: *colour*
434 Use the specified colour for the colour value *n*, where 0-7
435 corresponds to low-intensity (normal) colours and 8-15 corresponds
436 to high-intensity (bold = bright foreground, blink = bright
437 background) colours. The canonical names are as follows: 0=black,
438 1=red, 2=green, 3=yellow, 4=blue, 5=magenta, 6=cyan, 7=white, but
439 the actual colour names used are listed in the COLORS AND GRAPHICS
440 section.
441
442 Colours higher than 15 cannot be set using resources (yet), but can
443 be changed using an escape command (see rxvt(7)).
444
445 Colours 16-79 form a standard 4x4x4 colour cube (the same as xterm
446 with 88 colour support). Colours 80-87 are evenly spaces grey steps.
447
448 colorBD: *colour*
449 colorIT: *colour*
450 Use the specified colour to display bold or italic characters when
451 the foreground colour is the default. If font styles are not
452 available (Compile *styles*) and this option is unset, reverse video
453 is used instead.
454
455 colorUL: *colour*
456 Use the specified colour to display underlined characters when the
457 foreground colour is the default.
458
459 colorRV: *colour*
460 Use the specified colour as the background for reverse video
461 characters.
462
463 underlineColor: *colour*
464 If set, use the specified colour as the colour for the underline
465 itself. If unset, use the foreground colour.
466
467 cursorColor: *colour*
468 Use the specified colour for the cursor. The default is to use the
469 foreground colour; option -cr.
470
471 cursorColor2: *colour*
472 Use the specified colour for the colour of the cursor text. For this
473 to take effect, cursorColor must also be specified. The default is
474 to use the background colour.
475
476 reverseVideo: *boolean*
477 True: simulate reverse video by foreground and background colours;
478 option -rv. False: regular screen colours [default]; option +rv. See
479 note in COLORS AND GRAPHICS section.
480
481 jumpScroll: *boolean*
482 True: specify that jump scrolling should be used. When scrolling
483 quickly, fewer screen updates are performed [default]; option -j.
484 False: specify that smooth scrolling should be used; option +j.
485
486 inheritPixmap: *boolean*
487 True: make the background inherit the parent windows' pixmap, giving
488 artificial transparency. False: do not inherit the parent windows'
489 pixmap.
490
491 fading: *number*
492 Fade the text by the given percentage when focus is lost; option
493 -fade.
494
495 fadeColor: *colour*
496 Fade to this colour, when fading is used (see fading:). The default
497 colour is black; option -fadecolor.
498
499 tintColor: *colour*
500 Tint the transparent background pixmap with the given colour; option
501 -tint.
502
503 shading: *number*
504 Darken (0 .. 100) or lighten (-1 .. -100) the transparent background
505 image in addition to tinting it.
506
507 scrollColor: *colour*
508 Use the specified colour for the scrollbar [default #B2B2B2].
509
510 troughColor: *colour*
511 Use the specified colour for the scrollbar's trough area [default
512 #969696]. Only relevant for rxvt (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar.
513
514 borderColor: *colour*
515 The colour of the border around the text area and between the
516 scrollbar and the text.
517
518 backgroundPixmap: *file[;geom]*
519 Use the specified XPM file (note the `.xpm' extension is optional)
520 for the background and also optionally specify its scaling with a
521 geometry string WxH+X+Y, in which "W" / "H" specify the
522 horizontal/vertical scale (percent) and "X" / "Y" locate the image
523 centre (percent). A scale of 0 displays the image with tiling. A
524 scale of 1 displays the image without any scaling. A scale of 2 to 9
525 specifies an integer number of images in that direction. No image
526 will be magnified beyond 10 times its original size. The maximum
527 permitted scale is 1000. [default 0x0+50+50]
528
529 menu: *file[;tag]*
530 Read in the specified menu file (note the `.menu' extension is
531 optional) and also optionally specify a starting tag to find. See
532 the reference documentation for details on the syntax for the
533 menuBar.
534
535 path: *path*
536 Specify the colon-delimited search path for finding files (XPM and
537 menus), in addition to the paths specified by the RXVTPATH and PATH
538 environment variables.
539
540 font: *fontlist*
541 Select the fonts to be used. This is a comma separated list of font
542 names that are used in turn when trying to display Unicode
543 characters. The first font defines the cell size for characters;
544 other fonts might be smaller, but not larger. A reasonable default
545 font list is always appended to it. option -fn.
546
547 Each font can either be a standard X11 core font (XLFD) name, with
548 optional prefix "x:" or a Xft font (Compile *xft*), prefixed with
549 "xft:".
550
551 In addition, each font can be prefixed with additional hints and
552 specifications enclosed in square brackets ("[]"). The only
553 available hint currently is "codeset=codeset-name", and this is only
554 used for Xft fonts.
555
556 For example, this font resource
557
558 URxvt*font: 9x15bold,\
559 -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
560 -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
561 [codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic:antialias=false, \
562 xft:Code2000:antialias=false
563
564 specifies five fonts to be used. The first one is "9x15bold"
565 (actually the iso8859-1 version of the second font), which is the
566 base font (because it is named first) and thus defines the character
567 cell grid to be 9 pixels wide and 15 pixels high.
568
569 The second font is just used to add additional unicode characters
570 not in the base font, likewise the third, which is unfortunately
571 non-bold, but the bold version of the font does contain less
572 characters, so this is a useful supplement.
573
574 The third font is an Xft font with aliasing turned off, and the
575 characters are limited to the JIS 0208 codeset (i.e. japanese
576 kanji). The font contains other characters, but we are not
577 interested in them.
578
579 The last font is a useful catch-all font that supplies most of the
580 remaining unicode characters.
581
582 boldFont: *fontlist*
583 italicFont: *fontlist*
584 boldItalicFont: *fontlist*
585 The font list to use for displaying bold, *italic* or *bold italic*
586 characters, respectively.
587
588 If specified and non-empty, then the syntax is the same as for the
589 font-resource, and the given font list will be used as is, which
590 makes it possible to substitute completely different font styles for
591 bold and italic.
592
593 If unset (the default), a suitable font list will be synthesized by
594 "morphing" the normal text font list into the desired shape. If that
595 is not possible, replacement fonts of the desired shape will be
596 tried.
597
598 If set, but empty, then this specific style is disabled and the
599 normal text font will being used for the given style.
600
601 selectstyle: *mode*
602 Set mouse selection style to old which is 2.20, oldword which is
603 xterm style with 2.20 old word selection, or anything else which
604 gives xterm style selection.
605
606 scrollstyle: *mode*
607 Set scrollbar style to rxvt, plain, next or xterm. plain is the
608 author's favourite.
609
610 title: *string*
611 Set window title string, the default title is the command-line
612 specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application
613 name; option -title.
614
615 iconName: *string*
616 Set the name used to label the window's icon or displayed in an icon
617 manager window, it also sets the window's title unless it is
618 explicitly set; option -n.
619
620 mapAlert: *boolean*
621 True: de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character. False: no
622 de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character [default].
623
624 visualBell: *boolean*
625 True: use visual bell on receipt of a bell character; option -vb.
626 False: no visual bell [default]; option +vb.
627
628 loginShell: *boolean*
629 True: start as a login shell by prepending a `-' to argv[0] of the
630 shell; option -ls. False: start as a normal sub-shell [default];
631 option +ls.
632
633 utmpInhibit: *boolean*
634 True: inhibit writing record into the system log file utmp; option
635 -ut. False: write record into the system log file utmp [default];
636 option +ut.
637
638 print-pipe: *string*
639 Specify a command pipe for vt100 printer [default *lpr(1)*]. Use
640 Print to initiate a screen dump to the printer and Ctrl-Print or
641 Shift-Print to include the scrollback as well.
642
643 The string will be interpreted as if typed into the shell as-is.
644
645 Example:
646
647 URxvt*print-pipe: cat > $(TMPDIR=$HOME mktemp urxvt.XXXXXX)
648
649 This creates a new file in your home directory with the screen
650 contents everytime you hit "Print".
651
652 scrollBar: *boolean*
653 True: enable the scrollbar [default]; option -sb. False: disable the
654 scrollbar; option +sb.
655
656 scrollBar_right: *boolean*
657 True: place the scrollbar on the right of the window; option -sr.
658 False: place the scrollbar on the left of the window; option +sr.
659
660 scrollBar_floating: *boolean*
661 True: display an rxvt scrollbar without a trough; option -st. False:
662 display an rxvt scrollbar with a trough; option +st.
663
664 scrollBar_align: *mode*
665 Align the top, bottom or centre [default] of the scrollbar thumb
666 with the pointer on middle button press/drag.
667
668 scrollTtyOutput: *boolean*
669 True: scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option -si. False:
670 do not scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option +si.
671
672 scrollWithBuffer: *boolean*
673 True: scroll with scrollback buffer when tty receives new lines (and
674 scrollTtyOutput is False); option -sw. False: do not scroll with
675 scrollback buffer when tty recieves new lines; option +sw.
676
677 scrollTtyKeypress: *boolean*
678 True: scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed. Special
679 keys are those which are intercepted by rxvt-unicode for special
680 handling and are not passed onto the shell; option -sk. False: do
681 not scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed; option +sk.
682
683 saveLines: *number*
684 Save *number* lines in the scrollback buffer [default 64]. This
685 resource is limited on most machines to 65535; option -sl.
686
687 internalBorder: *number*
688 Internal border of *number* pixels. This resource is limited to 100;
689 option -b.
690
691 externalBorder: *number*
692 External border of *number* pixels. This resource is limited to 100;
693 option -w, -bw, -borderwidth.
694
695 borderLess: *boolean*
696 Set MWM hints to request a borderless window, i.e. if honoured by
697 the WM, the rxvt-unicode window will not have window decorations;
698 option -bl.
699
700 termName: *termname*
701 Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM environment
702 variable; option -tn.
703
704 linespace: *number*
705 Specifies number of lines (pixel height) to insert between each row
706 of the display [default 0]; option -lsp.
707
708 meta8: *boolean*
709 True: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress to set the 8th bit. False: handle
710 Meta (Alt) + keypress as an escape prefix [default].
711
712 mouseWheelScrollPage: *boolean*
713 True: the mouse wheel scrolls a page full. False: the mouse wheel
714 scrolls five lines [default].
715
716 pastableTabs: *boolean*
717 True: store tabs as wide characters. False: interpret tabs as cursor
718 movement only; option "-ptab".
719
720 cursorBlink: *boolean*
721 True: blink the cursor. False: do not blink the cursor [default];
722 option -bc.
723
724 pointerBlank: *boolean*
725 True: blank the pointer when a key is pressed or after a set number
726 of seconds of inactivity. False: the pointer is always visible
727 [default].
728
729 pointerColor: *colour*
730 Mouse pointer foreground colour.
731
732 pointerColor2: *colour*
733 Mouse pointer background colour.
734
735 pointerBlankDelay: *number*
736 Specifies number of seconds before blanking the pointer [default 2].
737 Use a large number (e.g. 987654321) to effectively disable the
738 timeout.
739
740 backspacekey: *string*
741 The string to send when the backspace key is pressed. If set to DEC
742 or unset it will send Delete (code 127) or, if shifted, Backspace
743 (code 8) - which can be reversed with the appropriate DEC private
744 mode escape sequence.
745
746 deletekey: *string*
747 The string to send when the delete key (not the keypad delete key)
748 is pressed. If unset it will send the sequence traditionally
749 associated with the Execute key.
750
751 cutchars: *string*
752 The characters used as delimiters for double-click word selection.
753 The built-in default:
754
755 BACKSLASH `"'&()*,;<=>?@[]{|}
756
757 preeditType: *style*
758 OverTheSpot, OffTheSpot, Root; option -pt.
759
760 inputMethod: *name*
761 *name* of inputMethod to use; option -im.
762
763 imLocale: *name*
764 The locale to use for opening the IM. You can use an "LC_CTYPE" of
765 e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8" for normal text processing but "ja_JP.EUC-JP" for
766 the input extension to be able to input japanese characters while
767 staying in another locale. option -imlocale.
768
769 imFont: *fontset*
770 Specify the font-set used for XIM styles "OverTheSpot" or
771 "OffTheSpot". It must be a standard X font set (XLFD patterns
772 separated by commas), i.e. it's not in the same format as the other
773 font lists used in rxvt. The default will be set-up to chose *any*
774 suitable found found, preferably one or two pixels differing in size
775 to the base font. option -imfont.
776
777 tripleclickwords: *boolean*
778 Change the meaning of triple-click selection with the left mouse
779 button. Instead of selecting a full line it will extend the
780 selection to the end of the logical line only. option -tcw.
781
782 insecure: *boolean*
783 Enables "insecure" mode. Rxvt-unicode offers some escape sequences
784 that echo arbitrary strings like the icon name or the locale. This
785 could be abused if somebody gets 8-bit-clean access to your display,
786 whether through a mail client displaying mail bodies unfiltered or
787 through write(1) or any other means. Therefore, these sequences are
788 disabled by default. (Note that many other terminals, including
789 xterm, have these sequences enabled by default, which doesn't make
790 it safer, though).
791
792 You can enable them by setting this boolean resource or specifying
793 -insecure as an option. At the moment, this enables display-answer,
794 locale, findfont, icon label and window title requests as well as
795 dynamic menubar dispatch.
796
797 modifier: *modifier*
798 Set the key to be interpreted as the Meta key to: alt, meta, hyper,
799 super, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, mod5; option -mod.
800
801 answerbackString: *string*
802 Specify the reply rxvt-unicode sends to the shell when an ENQ
803 (control-E) character is passed through. It may contain escape
804 values as described in the entry on keysym following.
805
806 secondaryScreen: *bool*
807 Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled).
808
809 secondaryScroll: *bool*
810 Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled). If the this
811 option is enabled, scrolls on the secondary screen will change the
812 scrollback buffer and switching to/from the secondary screen will
813 instead scroll the screen up.
814
815 hold: *bool*
816 Turn on/off hold window after exit support. If enabled, rxvt will
817 not immediately destroy its window when the program executed within
818 it exits. Instead, it will wait till it is being killed or closed by
819 the user.
820
821 keysym.*sym*: *string*
822 Compile *frills*: Associate *string* with keysym *sym*. The
823 intervening resource name keysym. cannot be omitted.
824
825 The format of *sym* is "*(modifiers-)key*", where *modifiers* can be
826 any combination of ISOLevel3, AppKeypad, Control, NumLock, Shift,
827 Meta, Lock, Mod1, Mod2, Mod3, Mod4, Mod5, and the abbreviated I, K,
828 C, N, S, M, A, L, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
829
830 The NumLock, Meta and ISOLevel3 modifiers are usually aliased to
831 whatever modifier the NumLock key, Meta/Alt keys or ISO Level3
832 Shift/AltGr keys are being mapped. AppKeypad is a synthetic modifier
833 mapped to the current application keymap mode state.
834
835 The spellings of *key* can be obtained by using xev(1) command or
836 searching keysym macros from /usr/X11R6/include/X11/keysymdef.h and
837 omitting the prefix XK_. Alternatively you can specify *key* by its
838 hex keysym value (0x0000 - 0xFFFF). Note that the lookup of *sym*s
839 is not performed in an exact manner; however, the closest match is
840 assured.
841
842 *string* may contain escape values ("\a": bell, "\b": backspace,
843 "\e", "\E": escape, "\n": newline, "\r": carriage return, "\t": tab,
844 "\000": octal number) or verbatim control characters ("^?": delete,
845 "^@": null, "^A" ...) and may be enclosed with double quotes so that
846 it can start or end with whitespace.
847
848 Please note that you need to double the "\" when using
849 "--enable-xgetdefault", as X itself does it's own de-escaping (you
850 can use "\033" instead of "\e" (and so on), which will work with
851 both Xt and rxvt's own processing).
852
853 You can define a range of keysyms in one shot by providing a
854 *string* with pattern list/PREFIX/MIDDLE/SUFFIX, where the delimeter
855 `/' should be a character not used by the strings.
856
857 Its usage can be demonstrated by an example:
858
859 URxvt.keysym.M-C-0x61: list|\033<M-C-|abc|>
860
861 The above line is equivalent to the following three lines:
862
863 URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x61: \033<M-C-a>
864 URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x62: \033<M-C-b>
865 URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x63: \033<M-C-c>
866
867 If *string* takes the form of "command:STRING", the specified STRING
868 is interpreted and executed as rxvt's control sequence. For example
869 the following means "change the current locale to "zh_CN.GBK" when
870 Control-Meta-c is being pressed":
871
872 URxvt.keysym.M-C-c: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
873
874 Due the the large number of modifier combinations, a defined key
875 mapping will match if at *at least* the specified identifiers are
876 being set, and no other key mappings with those and more bits are
877 being defined. That means that defining a key map for "a" will
878 automatically provide definitions for "Meta-a", "Shift-a" and so on,
879 unless some of those are defined mappings themselves.
880
881 Unfortunately, this will override built-in key mappings. For example
882 if you overwrite the "Insert" key you will disable rxvt's
883 "Shift-Insert" mapping. To re-enable that, you can poke "holes" into
884 the user-defined keymap using the "builtin:" replacement:
885
886 URxvt.keysym.Insert: <my insert key sequence>
887 URxvt.keysym.S-Insert: builtin:
888
889 The first line defines a mapping for "Insert" and *any* combination
890 of modifiers. The second line re-establishes the default mapping for
891 "Shift-Insert".
892
893 The following example will map Control-Meta-1 and Control-Meta-2 to
894 the fonts "suxuseuro" and "9x15bold", so you can have some limited
895 font-switching at runtime:
896
897 URxvt.keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]50;suxuseuro\007
898 URxvt.keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]50;9x15bold\007
899
900 Other things are possible, e.g. resizing (see rxvt(7) for more
901 info):
902
903 URxvt.keysym.M-C-3: command:\033[8;25;80t
904 URxvt.keysym.M-C-4: command:\033[8;48;110t
905
906 THE SCROLLBAR
907 Lines of text that scroll off the top of the rxvt window (resource:
908 saveLines) and can be scrolled back using the scrollbar or by
909 keystrokes. The normal rxvt scrollbar has arrows and its behaviour is
910 fairly intuitive. The xterm-scrollbar is without arrows and its
911 behaviour mimics that of *xterm*
912
913 Scroll down with Button1 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Next. Scroll up with
914 Button3 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Prior. Continuous scroll with
915 Button2.
916
917 MOUSE REPORTING
918 To temporarily override mouse reporting, for either the scrollbar or the
919 normal text selection/insertion, hold either the Shift or the Meta (Alt)
920 key while performing the desired mouse action.
921
922 If mouse reporting mode is active, the normal scrollbar actions are
923 disabled -- on the assumption that we are using a fullscreen
924 application. Instead, pressing Button1 and Button3 sends ESC [ 6 ~
925 (Next) and ESC [ 5 ~ (Prior), respectively. Similarly, clicking on the
926 up and down arrows sends ESC [ A (Up) and ESC [ B (Down), respectively.
927
928 TEXT SELECTION AND INSERTION
929 The behaviour of text selection and insertion mechanism is similar to
930 *xterm*(1).
931
932 Selection:
933 Left click at the beginning of the region, drag to the end of the
934 region and release; Right click to extend the marked region; Left
935 double-click to select a word; Left triple-click to select the
936 entire logical line (which can span multiple screen lines), unless
937 modified by resource tripleclickwords.
938
939 Starting a selection while pressing the Meta key (or Meta+Ctrl keys)
940 (Compile: *frills*) will create a rectangular selection instead of a
941 normal one. In this mode, every selected row becomes its own line in
942 the selection, and trailing whitespace is visually underlined and
943 removed from the selection.
944
945 Insertion:
946 Pressing and releasing the Middle mouse button (or Shift-Insert) in
947 an rxvt window causes the current text selection to be inserted as
948 if it had been typed on the keyboard.
949
950 CHANGING FONTS
951 Changing fonts (or font sizes, respectively) via the keypad is not yet
952 supported in rxvt-unicode. Bug me if you need this.
953
954 You can, however, switch fonts at runtime using escape sequences (and
955 therefore using the menubar), e.g.:
956
957 printf '\e]710;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
958
959 rxvt-unicode will automatically re-apply these fonts to the output so
960 far.
961
962 ISO 14755 SUPPORT
963 ISO 14755 is a standard for entering and viewing unicode characters and
964 character codes using the keyboard. It consists of 4 parts. The first
965 part is available rxvt-unicode has been compiled with "--enable-frills",
966 the rest is available when rxvt-unicode was compiled with
967 "--enable-iso14755".
968
969 * 5.1: Basic method
970 This allows you to enter unicode characters using their hexcode.
971
972 Start by pressing and holding both "Control" and "Shift", then enter
973 hex-digits (between one and six). Releasing "Control" and "Shift"
974 will commit the character as if it were typed directly. While
975 holding down "Control" and "Shift" you can also enter multiple
976 characters by pressing "Space", which will commit the current
977 character and lets you start a new one.
978
979 As an example of use, imagine a business card with a japanese e-mail
980 address, which you cannot type. Fortunately, the card has the e-mail
981 address printed as hexcodes, e.g. "671d 65e5". You can enter this
982 easily by pressing "Control" and "Shift", followed by
983 "6-7-1-D-SPACE-6-5-E-5", followed by releasing the modifier keys.
984
985 * 5.2: Keyboard symbols entry method
986 This mode lets you input characters representing the keycap symbols
987 of your keyboard, if representable in the current locale encoding.
988
989 Start by pressing "Control" and "Shift" together, then releasing
990 them. The next special key (cursor keys, home etc.) you enter will
991 not invoke it's usual function but instead will insert the
992 corresponding keycap symbol. The symbol will only be entered when
993 the key has been released, otherwise pressing e.g. "Shift" would
994 enter the symbol for "ISO Level 2 Switch", although your intention
995 might have been to enter a reverse tab (Shift-Tab).
996
997 * 5.3: Screen-selection entry method
998 While this is implemented already (it's basically the selection
999 mechanism), it could be extended by displaying a unicode character
1000 map.
1001
1002 * 5.4: Feedback method for identifying displayed characters for later
1003 input
1004 This method lets you display the unicode character code associated
1005 with characters already displayed.
1006
1007 You enter this mode by holding down "Control" and "Shift" together,
1008 then pressing and holding the left mouse button and moving around.
1009 The unicode hex code(s) (it might be a combining character) of the
1010 character under the pointer is displayed until you release "Control"
1011 and "Shift".
1012
1013 In addition to the hex codes it will display the font used to draw
1014 this character - due to implementation reasons, characters combined
1015 with combining characters, line drawing characters and unknown
1016 characters will always be drawn using the built-in support font.
1017
1018 With respect to conformance, rxvt-unicode is supposed to be compliant to
1019 both scenario A and B of ISO 14755, including part 5.2.
1020
1021 LOGIN STAMP
1022 rxvt tries to write an entry into the *utmp*(5) file so that it can be
1023 seen via the *who(1)* command, and can accept messages. To allow this
1024 feature, rxvt may need to be installed setuid root on some systems or
1025 setgid to root or to some other group on others.
1026
1027 COLORS AND GRAPHICS
1028 In addition to the default foreground and background colours, rxvt can
1029 display up to 16 colours (8 ANSI colours plus high-intensity bold/blink
1030 versions of the same). Here is a list of the colours with their rgb.txt
1031 names.
1032
1033 color0 (black) = Black
1034 color1 (red) = Red3
1035 color2 (green) = Green3
1036 color3 (yellow) = Yellow3
1037 color4 (blue) = Blue3
1038 color5 (magenta) = Magenta3
1039 color6 (cyan) = Cyan3
1040 color7 (white) = AntiqueWhite
1041 color8 (bright black) = Grey25
1042 color9 (bright red) = Red
1043 color10 (bright green) = Green
1044 color11 (bright yellow) = Yellow
1045 color12 (bright blue) = Blue
1046 color13 (bright magenta) = Magenta
1047 color14 (bright cyan) = Cyan
1048 color15 (bright white) = White
1049 foreground = Black
1050 background = White
1051
1052 It is also possible to specify the colour values of foreground,
1053 background, cursorColor, cursorColor2, colorBD, colorUL as a number
1054 0-15, as a convenient shorthand to reference the colour name of
1055 color0-color15.
1056
1057 Note that -rv ("reverseVideo: True") simulates reverse video by always
1058 swapping the foreground/background colours. This is in contrast to
1059 *xterm*(1) where the colours are only swapped if they have not otherwise
1060 been specified. For example,
1061
1062 rxvt -fg Black -bg White -rv
1063 would yield White on Black, while on *xterm*(1) it would yield Black
1064 on White.
1065
1066 ENVIRONMENT
1067 rxvt sets and/or uses the following environment variables:
1068
1069 TERM
1070 Normally set to "rxvt-unicode", unless overwritten at configure
1071 time, via resources or on the commandline.
1072
1073 COLORTERM
1074 Either "rxvt", "rxvt-xpm", depending on wether rxvt was compiled
1075 with XPM support, and optionally with the added extension "-mono" to
1076 indicate that rxvt-unicode runs on a monochrome screen.
1077
1078 COLORFGBG
1079 Set to a string of the form "fg;bg" or "fg;xpm;bg", where "fg" is
1080 the colour code used as default foreground/text colour (or the
1081 string "default" to indicate that the default-colour escape sequence
1082 is to be used), "bg" is the colour code used as default background
1083 colour (or the string "default"), and "xpm" is the string "default"
1084 if rxvt was compiled with XPM support. Libraries like "ncurses" and
1085 "slang" can (and do) use this information to optimize screen output.
1086
1087 WINDOWID
1088 Set to the (decimal) X Window ID of the rxvt window (the toplevel
1089 window, which usually has subwindows for the scrollbar, the terminal
1090 window and so on).
1091
1092 TERMINFO
1093 Set to the terminfo directory iff rxvt was configured with
1094 "--with-terminfo=PATH".
1095
1096 DISPLAY
1097 Used by rxvt to connect to the display and set to the correct
1098 display in it's child processes.
1099
1100 SHELL
1101 The shell to be used for command execution, defaults to "/bin/sh".
1102
1103 RXVTPATH
1104 The path where rxvt looks for support files such as menu and xpm
1105 files.
1106
1107 PATH
1108 Used in the same way as "RXVTPATH".
1109
1110 RXVT_SOCKET
1111 The unix domain socket path used by rxvtc(1) and rxvtd(1).
1112
1113 Default $HOME/.rxvt-unicode-*<nodename*.
1114
1115 HOME
1116 Used to locate the default directory for the unix domain socket for
1117 daemon communications and to locate various resource files (such as
1118 ".Xdefaults")
1119
1120 XAPPLRESDIR
1121 Directory where various X resource files are being located.
1122
1123 XENVIRONMENT
1124 If set and accessible, gives the name of a X resource file to be
1125 loaded by rxvt.
1126
1127 FILES
1128 /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt
1129 Color names.
1130
1131 SEE ALSO
1132 rxvt(7), rxvtc(1), rxvtd(1), xterm(1), sh(1), resize(1), X(1), pty(4),
1133 tty(4), utmp(5)
1134
1135 CURRENT PROJECT COORDINATOR
1136 Project Coordinator
1137 Marc A. Lehmann <rxvt-unicode@schmorp.de>
1138
1139 <http://software.schmorp.de/#rxvt-unicode>
1140
1141 AUTHORS
1142 John Bovey
1143 University of Kent, 1992, wrote the original Xvt.
1144
1145 Rob Nation <nation@rocket.sanders.lockheed.com>
1146 very heavily modified Xvt and came up with Rxvt
1147
1148 Angelo Haritsis <ah@doc.ic.ac.uk>
1149 wrote the Greek Keyboard Input (no longer in code)
1150
1151 mj olesen <olesen@me.QueensU.CA>
1152 Wrote the menu system.
1153
1154 Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.11 to 2.21)
1155
1156 Oezguer Kesim <kesim@math.fu-berlin.de>
1157 Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.21a to 2.4.5)
1158
1159 Geoff Wing <gcw@pobox.com>
1160 Rewrote screen display and text selection routines. Project
1161 Coordinator (changes.txt 2.4.6 - rxvt-unicode)
1162
1163 Marc Alexander Lehmann <rxvt-unicode@schmorp.de>
1164 Forked rxvt-unicode, rewrote most of the display code and internal
1165 character handling to store text in unicode, improve xterm
1166 compatibility and apply numerous other bugfixes and extensions.
1167
1168 Project Coordinator (Changes 1.0 -)
1169