ViewVC Help
View File | Revision Log | Show Annotations | Download File
/cvs/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.1.txt
Revision: 1.30
Committed: Mon Jan 2 19:36:07 2006 UTC (18 years, 5 months ago) by root
Content type: text/plain
Branch: MAIN
Changes since 1.29: +22 -3 lines
Log Message:
*** empty log message ***

File Contents

# 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 6.2, 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 -is|+is
181 Compile font-styles: Bold/Italic font styles imply high intensity
182 foreground/background (default). See resource intensityStyles for
183 details.
184
185 -name *name*
186 Specify the application name under which resources are to be
187 obtained, rather than the default executable file name. Name should
188 not contain `.' or `*' characters. Also sets the icon and title
189 name.
190
191 -ls|+ls
192 Start as a login-shell/sub-shell; resource loginShell.
193
194 -ut|+ut
195 Compile *utmp*: Inhibit/enable writing a utmp entry; resource
196 utmpInhibit.
197
198 -vb|+vb
199 Turn on/off visual bell on receipt of a bell character; resource
200 visualBell.
201
202 -sb|+sb
203 Turn on/off scrollbar; resource scrollBar.
204
205 -si|+si
206 Turn on/off scroll-to-bottom on TTY output inhibit; resource
207 scrollTtyOutput has opposite effect.
208
209 -sk|+sk
210 Turn on/off scroll-to-bottom on keypress; resource
211 scrollTtyKeypress.
212
213 -sw|+sw
214 Turn on/off scrolling with the scrollback buffer as new lines
215 appear. This only takes effect if -si is also given; resource
216 scrollWithBuffer.
217
218 -sr|+sr
219 Put scrollbar on right/left; resource scrollBar_right.
220
221 -st|+st
222 Display rxvt (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar without/with a trough;
223 resource scrollBar_floating.
224
225 -ptab|+ptab
226 If enabled (default), "Horizontal Tab" characters are being stored
227 as actual wide characters in the screen buffer, which makes it
228 possible to select and paste them. Since a horizontal tab is a
229 cursor movement and not an actual glyph, this can sometimes be
230 visually annoying as the cursor on a tab character is displayed as a
231 wide cursor; resource pastableTabs.
232
233 -bc|+bc
234 Blink the cursor; resource cursorBlink.
235
236 -iconic
237 Start iconified, if the window manager supports that option.
238 Alternative form is -ic.
239
240 -sl *number*
241 Save *number* lines in the scrollback buffer. See resource entry for
242 limits; resource saveLines.
243
244 -b *number*
245 Compile *frills*: Internal border of *number* pixels. See resource
246 entry for limits; resource internalBorder.
247
248 -w *number*
249 Compile *frills*: External border of *number* pixels. Also, -bw and
250 -borderwidth. See resource entry for limits; resource
251 externalBorder.
252
253 -bl Compile *frills*: Set MWM hints to request a borderless window, i.e.
254 if honoured by the WM, the rxvt-unicode window will not have window
255 decorations; resource borderLess.
256
257 -lsp *number*
258 Compile *frills*: Lines (pixel height) to insert between each row of
259 the display. Useful to work around font rendering problems; resource
260 linespace.
261
262 -tn *termname*
263 This option specifies the name of the terminal type to be set in the
264 TERM environment variable. This terminal type must exist in the
265 *termcap(5)* database and should have *li#* and *co#* entries;
266 resource termName.
267
268 -e *command [arguments]*
269 Run the command with its command-line arguments in the rxvt window;
270 also sets the window title and icon name to be the basename of the
271 program being executed if neither *-title* (*-T*) nor *-n* are given
272 on the command line. If this option is used, it must be the last on
273 the command-line. If there is no -e option then the default is to
274 run the program specified by the SHELL environment variable or,
275 failing that, *sh(1)*.
276
277 Please note that you must specify a program with arguments. If you
278 want to run shell commands, you have to specify the shell, like
279 this:
280
281 rxvt -e sh -c "shell commands"
282
283 -title *text*
284 Window title (-T still respected); the default title is the basename
285 of the program specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the
286 application name; resource title.
287
288 -n *text*
289 Icon name; the default name is the basename of the program specified
290 after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application name;
291 resource iconName.
292
293 -C Capture system console messages.
294
295 -pt *style*
296 Compile *XIM*: input style for input method; OverTheSpot,
297 OffTheSpot, Root; resource preeditType.
298
299 -im *text*
300 Compile *XIM*: input method name. resource inputMethod.
301
302 -imlocale *string*
303 The locale to use for opening the IM. You can use an "LC_CTYPE" of
304 e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8" for normal text processing but "ja_JP.EUC-JP" for
305 the input extension to be able to input japanese characters while
306 staying in another locale. resource imLocale.
307
308 -imfont *fontset*
309 Set the font set to use for the X Input Method, see resource imFont
310 for more info.
311
312 -tcw
313 Change the meaning of triple-click selection with the left mouse
314 button. Instead of selecting a full line it will extend the
315 selection the end of the logical line only. resource
316 tripleclickwords.
317
318 -insecure
319 Enable "insecure" mode, which currently enables most of the escape
320 sequences that echo strings. See the resource insecure for more
321 info.
322
323 -mod *modifier*
324 Override detection of Meta modifier with specified key: alt, meta,
325 hyper, super, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, mod5; resource *modifier*.
326
327 -ssc|+ssc
328 Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled); resource
329 secondaryScreen.
330
331 -ssr|+ssr
332 Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled); resource
333 secondaryScroll.
334
335 -hold|+hold
336 Turn on/off hold window after exit support. If enabled, rxvt will
337 not immediately destroy its window when the program executed within
338 it exits. Instead, it will wait till it is being killed or closed by
339 the user; resource hold.
340
341 -keysym.*sym* *string*
342 Remap a key symbol. See resource keysym.
343
344 -embed *windowid*
345 Tells rxvt to embed it's windows into an already-existing window,
346 which enables applications to easily embed a terminal.
347
348 Right now, rxvt will first unmap/map the specified window, so it
349 shouldn't be a top-level window. rxvt will also reconfigure it quite
350 a bit, so don't expect it to keep some specific state. It's best to
351 create an extra subwindow for rxvt and leave it alone.
352
353 The window will not be destroyed when rxvt exits.
354
355 It might be useful to know that rxvt will not close file descriptors
356 passed to it (except for stdin/out/err, of course), so you can use
357 file descriptors to communicate with the programs within the
358 terminal. This works regardless of wether the "-embed" option was
359 used or not.
360
361 Here is a short Gtk2-perl snippet that illustrates how this option
362 can be used (a longer example is in doc/embed):
363
364 my $rxvt = new Gtk2::Socket;
365 $rxvt->signal_connect_after (realize => sub {
366 my $xid = $_[0]->window->get_xid;
367 system "rxvt -embed $xid &";
368 });
369
370 -pty-fd *fileno*
371 Tells rxvt NOT to execute any commands or create a new pty/tty pair
372 but instead use the given filehandle as the tty master. This is
373 useful if you want to drive rxvt as a generic terminal emulator
374 without having to run a program within it.
375
376 If this switch is given, rxvt will not create any utmp/wtmp entries
377 and will not tinker with pty/tty permissions - you have to do that
378 yourself if you want that.
379
380 Here is a example in perl that illustrates how this option can be
381 used (a longer example is in doc/pty-fd):
382
383 use IO::Pty;
384 use Fcntl;
385
386 my $pty = new IO::Pty;
387 fcntl $pty, F_SETFD, 0; # clear close-on-exec
388 system "rxvt -pty-fd " . (fileno $pty) . "&";
389 close $pty;
390
391 # now communicate with rxvt
392 my $slave = $pty->slave;
393 while (<$slave>) { print $slave "got <$_>\n" }
394
395 -perl *string*
396 Used by perl extension. See resource perl.
397
398 RESOURCES (available also as long-options)
399 Note: `rxvt --help' gives a list of all resources (long options)
400 compiled into your version.
401
402 There are two different methods that rxvt can use to get the Xresource
403 data: using the X libraries (Xrm*-functions) or internal Xresources
404 reader (~/.Xdefaults). For the first method (ie. rxvt -h lists
405 XGetDefaults), you can set and change the resources using X11 tools like
406 xrdb. Many distribution do also load settings from the ~/.Xresources
407 file when X starts. rxvt will consult the following files/resources in
408 order, with later settings overwriting earlier ones:
409
410 1. system-wide app-defaults file, either locale-dependent OR global
411 2. app-defaults file in $XAPPLRESDIR
412 3. RESOURCE_MANAGER property on root-window OR $HOME/.Xdefaults
413 4. SCREEN_RESOURCES for the current screen
414 5. $XENVIRONMENT file OR $HOME/.Xdefaults-<nodename>
415
416 If compiled with internal Xresources support (i.e. rxvt -h lists
417 .Xdefaults) then rxvt accepts application defaults set in
418 XAPPLOADDIR/URxvt (compile-time defined: usually
419 /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/URxvt) and resources set in ~/.Xdefaults, or
420 ~/.Xresources if ~/.Xdefaults does not exist. Note that when reading X
421 resources, rxvt recognizes two class names: XTerm and URxvt. The class
422 name Rxvt allows resources common to both rxvt and the original *rxvt*
423 to be easily configured, while the class name URxvt allows resources
424 unique to rxvt, notably colours and key-handling, to be shared between
425 different rxvt configurations. If no resources are specified, suitable
426 defaults will be used. Command-line arguments can be used to override
427 resource settings. The following resources are allowed:
428
429 geometry: *geom*
430 Create the window with the specified X window geometry [default
431 80x24]; option -geometry.
432
433 background: *colour*
434 Use the specified colour as the window's background colour [default
435 White]; option -bg.
436
437 foreground: *colour*
438 Use the specified colour as the window's foreground colour [default
439 Black]; option -fg.
440
441 color*n*: *colour*
442 Use the specified colour for the colour value *n*, where 0-7
443 corresponds to low-intensity (normal) colours and 8-15 corresponds
444 to high-intensity (bold = bright foreground, blink = bright
445 background) colours. The canonical names are as follows: 0=black,
446 1=red, 2=green, 3=yellow, 4=blue, 5=magenta, 6=cyan, 7=white, but
447 the actual colour names used are listed in the COLORS AND GRAPHICS
448 section.
449
450 Colours higher than 15 cannot be set using resources (yet), but can
451 be changed using an escape command (see rxvt(7)).
452
453 Colours 16-79 form a standard 4x4x4 colour cube (the same as xterm
454 with 88 colour support). Colours 80-87 are evenly spaces grey steps.
455
456 colorBD: *colour*
457 colorIT: *colour*
458 Use the specified colour to display bold or italic characters when
459 the foreground colour is the default. If font styles are not
460 available (Compile *styles*) and this option is unset, reverse video
461 is used instead.
462
463 colorUL: *colour*
464 Use the specified colour to display underlined characters when the
465 foreground colour is the default.
466
467 colorRV: *colour*
468 Use the specified colour as the background for reverse video
469 characters.
470
471 underlineColor: *colour*
472 If set, use the specified colour as the colour for the underline
473 itself. If unset, use the foreground colour.
474
475 cursorColor: *colour*
476 Use the specified colour for the cursor. The default is to use the
477 foreground colour; option -cr.
478
479 cursorColor2: *colour*
480 Use the specified colour for the colour of the cursor text. For this
481 to take effect, cursorColor must also be specified. The default is
482 to use the background colour.
483
484 reverseVideo: *boolean*
485 True: simulate reverse video by foreground and background colours;
486 option -rv. False: regular screen colours [default]; option +rv. See
487 note in COLORS AND GRAPHICS section.
488
489 jumpScroll: *boolean*
490 True: specify that jump scrolling should be used. When scrolling
491 quickly, fewer screen updates are performed [default]; option -j.
492 False: specify that smooth scrolling should be used; option +j.
493
494 inheritPixmap: *boolean*
495 True: make the background inherit the parent windows' pixmap, giving
496 artificial transparency. False: do not inherit the parent windows'
497 pixmap.
498
499 fading: *number*
500 Fade the text by the given percentage when focus is lost; option
501 -fade.
502
503 fadeColor: *colour*
504 Fade to this colour, when fading is used (see fading:). The default
505 colour is black; option -fadecolor.
506
507 tintColor: *colour*
508 Tint the transparent background pixmap with the given colour; option
509 -tint.
510
511 shading: *number*
512 Darken (0 .. 100) or lighten (-1 .. -100) the transparent background
513 image in addition to tinting it.
514
515 scrollColor: *colour*
516 Use the specified colour for the scrollbar [default #B2B2B2].
517
518 troughColor: *colour*
519 Use the specified colour for the scrollbar's trough area [default
520 #969696]. Only relevant for rxvt (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar.
521
522 borderColor: *colour*
523 The colour of the border around the text area and between the
524 scrollbar and the text.
525
526 backgroundPixmap: *file[;geom]*
527 Use the specified XPM file (note the `.xpm' extension is optional)
528 for the background and also optionally specify its scaling with a
529 geometry string WxH+X+Y, in which "W" / "H" specify the
530 horizontal/vertical scale (percent) and "X" / "Y" locate the image
531 centre (percent). A scale of 0 displays the image with tiling. A
532 scale of 1 displays the image without any scaling. A scale of 2 to 9
533 specifies an integer number of images in that direction. No image
534 will be magnified beyond 10 times its original size. The maximum
535 permitted scale is 1000. [default 0x0+50+50]
536
537 menu: *file[;tag]*
538 Read in the specified menu file (note the `.menu' extension is
539 optional) and also optionally specify a starting tag to find. See
540 the reference documentation for details on the syntax for the
541 menuBar.
542
543 path: *path*
544 Specify the colon-delimited search path for finding files (XPM and
545 menus), in addition to the paths specified by the RXVTPATH and PATH
546 environment variables.
547
548 font: *fontlist*
549 Select the fonts to be used. This is a comma separated list of font
550 names that are used in turn when trying to display Unicode
551 characters. The first font defines the cell size for characters;
552 other fonts might be smaller, but not larger. A reasonable default
553 font list is always appended to it; option -fn.
554
555 Each font can either be a standard X11 core font (XLFD) name, with
556 optional prefix "x:" or a Xft font (Compile *xft*), prefixed with
557 "xft:".
558
559 In addition, each font can be prefixed with additional hints and
560 specifications enclosed in square brackets ("[]"). The only
561 available hint currently is "codeset=codeset-name", and this is only
562 used for Xft fonts.
563
564 For example, this font resource
565
566 URxvt*font: 9x15bold,\
567 -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
568 -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
569 [codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic:antialias=false, \
570 xft:Code2000:antialias=false
571
572 specifies five fonts to be used. The first one is "9x15bold"
573 (actually the iso8859-1 version of the second font), which is the
574 base font (because it is named first) and thus defines the character
575 cell grid to be 9 pixels wide and 15 pixels high.
576
577 The second font is just used to add additional unicode characters
578 not in the base font, likewise the third, which is unfortunately
579 non-bold, but the bold version of the font does contain less
580 characters, so this is a useful supplement.
581
582 The third font is an Xft font with aliasing turned off, and the
583 characters are limited to the JIS 0208 codeset (i.e. japanese
584 kanji). The font contains other characters, but we are not
585 interested in them.
586
587 The last font is a useful catch-all font that supplies most of the
588 remaining unicode characters.
589
590 boldFont: *fontlist*
591 italicFont: *fontlist*
592 boldItalicFont: *fontlist*
593 The font list to use for displaying bold, *italic* or *bold italic*
594 characters, respectively.
595
596 If specified and non-empty, then the syntax is the same as for the
597 font-resource, and the given font list will be used as is, which
598 makes it possible to substitute completely different font styles for
599 bold and italic.
600
601 If unset (the default), a suitable font list will be synthesized by
602 "morphing" the normal text font list into the desired shape. If that
603 is not possible, replacement fonts of the desired shape will be
604 tried.
605
606 If set, but empty, then this specific style is disabled and the
607 normal text font will being used for the given style.
608
609 intensityStyles: *boolean*
610 When font styles are not enabled, or this option is enabled (True,
611 option -is, the default), bold and italic font styles imply high
612 intensity foreground/backround colours. Disabling this option
613 (False, option +is) disables this behaviour, the high intensity
614 colours are not reachable.
615
616 selectstyle: *mode*
617 Set mouse selection style to old which is 2.20, oldword which is
618 xterm style with 2.20 old word selection, or anything else which
619 gives xterm style selection.
620
621 scrollstyle: *mode*
622 Set scrollbar style to rxvt, plain, next or xterm. plain is the
623 author's favourite.
624
625 title: *string*
626 Set window title string, the default title is the command-line
627 specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application
628 name; option -title.
629
630 iconName: *string*
631 Set the name used to label the window's icon or displayed in an icon
632 manager window, it also sets the window's title unless it is
633 explicitly set; option -n.
634
635 mapAlert: *boolean*
636 True: de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character. False: no
637 de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character [default].
638
639 visualBell: *boolean*
640 True: use visual bell on receipt of a bell character; option -vb.
641 False: no visual bell [default]; option +vb.
642
643 loginShell: *boolean*
644 True: start as a login shell by prepending a `-' to argv[0] of the
645 shell; option -ls. False: start as a normal sub-shell [default];
646 option +ls.
647
648 utmpInhibit: *boolean*
649 True: inhibit writing record into the system log file utmp; option
650 -ut. False: write record into the system log file utmp [default];
651 option +ut.
652
653 print-pipe: *string*
654 Specify a command pipe for vt100 printer [default *lpr(1)*]. Use
655 Print to initiate a screen dump to the printer and Ctrl-Print or
656 Shift-Print to include the scrollback as well.
657
658 The string will be interpreted as if typed into the shell as-is.
659
660 Example:
661
662 URxvt*print-pipe: cat > $(TMPDIR=$HOME mktemp urxvt.XXXXXX)
663
664 This creates a new file in your home directory with the screen
665 contents everytime you hit "Print".
666
667 scrollBar: *boolean*
668 True: enable the scrollbar [default]; option -sb. False: disable the
669 scrollbar; option +sb.
670
671 scrollBar_right: *boolean*
672 True: place the scrollbar on the right of the window; option -sr.
673 False: place the scrollbar on the left of the window; option +sr.
674
675 scrollBar_floating: *boolean*
676 True: display an rxvt scrollbar without a trough; option -st. False:
677 display an rxvt scrollbar with a trough; option +st.
678
679 scrollBar_align: *mode*
680 Align the top, bottom or centre [default] of the scrollbar thumb
681 with the pointer on middle button press/drag.
682
683 scrollTtyOutput: *boolean*
684 True: scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option -si. False:
685 do not scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option +si.
686
687 scrollWithBuffer: *boolean*
688 True: scroll with scrollback buffer when tty receives new lines (and
689 scrollTtyOutput is False); option -sw. False: do not scroll with
690 scrollback buffer when tty recieves new lines; option +sw.
691
692 scrollTtyKeypress: *boolean*
693 True: scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed. Special
694 keys are those which are intercepted by rxvt-unicode for special
695 handling and are not passed onto the shell; option -sk. False: do
696 not scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed; option +sk.
697
698 saveLines: *number*
699 Save *number* lines in the scrollback buffer [default 64]. This
700 resource is limited on most machines to 65535; option -sl.
701
702 internalBorder: *number*
703 Internal border of *number* pixels. This resource is limited to 100;
704 option -b.
705
706 externalBorder: *number*
707 External border of *number* pixels. This resource is limited to 100;
708 option -w, -bw, -borderwidth.
709
710 borderLess: *boolean*
711 Set MWM hints to request a borderless window, i.e. if honoured by
712 the WM, the rxvt-unicode window will not have window decorations;
713 option -bl.
714
715 termName: *termname*
716 Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM environment
717 variable; option -tn.
718
719 linespace: *number*
720 Specifies number of lines (pixel height) to insert between each row
721 of the display [default 0]; option -lsp.
722
723 meta8: *boolean*
724 True: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress to set the 8th bit. False: handle
725 Meta (Alt) + keypress as an escape prefix [default].
726
727 mouseWheelScrollPage: *boolean*
728 True: the mouse wheel scrolls a page full. False: the mouse wheel
729 scrolls five lines [default].
730
731 pastableTabs: *boolean*
732 True: store tabs as wide characters. False: interpret tabs as cursor
733 movement only; option "-ptab".
734
735 cursorBlink: *boolean*
736 True: blink the cursor. False: do not blink the cursor [default];
737 option -bc.
738
739 pointerBlank: *boolean*
740 True: blank the pointer when a key is pressed or after a set number
741 of seconds of inactivity. False: the pointer is always visible
742 [default].
743
744 pointerColor: *colour*
745 Mouse pointer foreground colour.
746
747 pointerColor2: *colour*
748 Mouse pointer background colour.
749
750 pointerBlankDelay: *number*
751 Specifies number of seconds before blanking the pointer [default 2].
752 Use a large number (e.g. 987654321) to effectively disable the
753 timeout.
754
755 backspacekey: *string*
756 The string to send when the backspace key is pressed. If set to DEC
757 or unset it will send Delete (code 127) or, if shifted, Backspace
758 (code 8) - which can be reversed with the appropriate DEC private
759 mode escape sequence.
760
761 deletekey: *string*
762 The string to send when the delete key (not the keypad delete key)
763 is pressed. If unset it will send the sequence traditionally
764 associated with the Execute key.
765
766 cutchars: *string*
767 The characters used as delimiters for double-click word selection.
768 The built-in default:
769
770 BACKSLASH `"'&()*,;<=>?@[]{|}
771
772 preeditType: *style*
773 OverTheSpot, OffTheSpot, Root; option -pt.
774
775 inputMethod: *name*
776 *name* of inputMethod to use; option -im.
777
778 imLocale: *name*
779 The locale to use for opening the IM. You can use an "LC_CTYPE" of
780 e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8" for normal text processing but "ja_JP.EUC-JP" for
781 the input extension to be able to input japanese characters while
782 staying in another locale; option -imlocale.
783
784 imFont: *fontset*
785 Specify the font-set used for XIM styles "OverTheSpot" or
786 "OffTheSpot". It must be a standard X font set (XLFD patterns
787 separated by commas), i.e. it's not in the same format as the other
788 font lists used in rxvt. The default will be set-up to chose *any*
789 suitable found found, preferably one or two pixels differing in size
790 to the base font. option -imfont.
791
792 tripleclickwords: *boolean*
793 Change the meaning of triple-click selection with the left mouse
794 button. Instead of selecting a full line it will extend the
795 selection to the end of the logical line only; option -tcw.
796
797 insecure: *boolean*
798 Enables "insecure" mode. Rxvt-unicode offers some escape sequences
799 that echo arbitrary strings like the icon name or the locale. This
800 could be abused if somebody gets 8-bit-clean access to your display,
801 whether through a mail client displaying mail bodies unfiltered or
802 through write(1) or any other means. Therefore, these sequences are
803 disabled by default. (Note that many other terminals, including
804 xterm, have these sequences enabled by default, which doesn't make
805 it safer, though).
806
807 You can enable them by setting this boolean resource or specifying
808 -insecure as an option. At the moment, this enables display-answer,
809 locale, findfont, icon label and window title requests as well as
810 dynamic menubar dispatch.
811
812 modifier: *modifier*
813 Set the key to be interpreted as the Meta key to: alt, meta, hyper,
814 super, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, mod5; option -mod.
815
816 answerbackString: *string*
817 Specify the reply rxvt-unicode sends to the shell when an ENQ
818 (control-E) character is passed through. It may contain escape
819 values as described in the entry on keysym following.
820
821 secondaryScreen: *bool*
822 Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled).
823
824 secondaryScroll: *bool*
825 Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled). If the this
826 option is enabled, scrolls on the secondary screen will change the
827 scrollback buffer and switching to/from the secondary screen will
828 instead scroll the screen up.
829
830 hold: *bool*
831 Turn on/off hold window after exit support. If enabled, rxvt will
832 not immediately destroy its window when the program executed within
833 it exits. Instead, it will wait till it is being killed or closed by
834 the user.
835
836 keysym.*sym*: *string*
837 Compile *frills*: Associate *string* with keysym *sym*. The
838 intervening resource name keysym. cannot be omitted.
839
840 The format of *sym* is "*(modifiers-)key*", where *modifiers* can be
841 any combination of ISOLevel3, AppKeypad, Control, NumLock, Shift,
842 Meta, Lock, Mod1, Mod2, Mod3, Mod4, Mod5, and the abbreviated I, K,
843 C, N, S, M, A, L, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
844
845 The NumLock, Meta and ISOLevel3 modifiers are usually aliased to
846 whatever modifier the NumLock key, Meta/Alt keys or ISO Level3
847 Shift/AltGr keys are being mapped. AppKeypad is a synthetic modifier
848 mapped to the current application keymap mode state.
849
850 The spellings of *key* can be obtained by using xev(1) command or
851 searching keysym macros from /usr/X11R6/include/X11/keysymdef.h and
852 omitting the prefix XK_. Alternatively you can specify *key* by its
853 hex keysym value (0x0000 - 0xFFFF). Note that the lookup of *sym*s
854 is not performed in an exact manner; however, the closest match is
855 assured.
856
857 *string* may contain escape values ("\a": bell, "\b": backspace,
858 "\e", "\E": escape, "\n": newline, "\r": carriage return, "\t": tab,
859 "\000": octal number) or verbatim control characters ("^?": delete,
860 "^@": null, "^A" ...) and may be enclosed with double quotes so that
861 it can start or end with whitespace.
862
863 Please note that you need to double the "\" when using
864 "--enable-xgetdefault", as X itself does it's own de-escaping (you
865 can use "\033" instead of "\e" (and so on), which will work with
866 both Xt and rxvt's own processing).
867
868 You can define a range of keysyms in one shot by providing a
869 *string* with pattern list/PREFIX/MIDDLE/SUFFIX, where the delimeter
870 `/' should be a character not used by the strings.
871
872 Its usage can be demonstrated by an example:
873
874 URxvt.keysym.M-C-0x61: list|\033<M-C-|abc|>
875
876 The above line is equivalent to the following three lines:
877
878 URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x61: \033<M-C-a>
879 URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x62: \033<M-C-b>
880 URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x63: \033<M-C-c>
881
882 If *string* takes the form of "command:STRING", the specified STRING
883 is interpreted and executed as rxvt's control sequence. For example
884 the following means "change the current locale to "zh_CN.GBK" when
885 Control-Meta-c is being pressed":
886
887 URxvt.keysym.M-C-c: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
888
889 Due the the large number of modifier combinations, a defined key
890 mapping will match if at *at least* the specified identifiers are
891 being set, and no other key mappings with those and more bits are
892 being defined. That means that defining a key map for "a" will
893 automatically provide definitions for "Meta-a", "Shift-a" and so on,
894 unless some of those are defined mappings themselves.
895
896 Unfortunately, this will override built-in key mappings. For example
897 if you overwrite the "Insert" key you will disable rxvt's
898 "Shift-Insert" mapping. To re-enable that, you can poke "holes" into
899 the user-defined keymap using the "builtin:" replacement:
900
901 URxvt.keysym.Insert: <my insert key sequence>
902 URxvt.keysym.S-Insert: builtin:
903
904 The first line defines a mapping for "Insert" and *any* combination
905 of modifiers. The second line re-establishes the default mapping for
906 "Shift-Insert".
907
908 The following example will map Control-Meta-1 and Control-Meta-2 to
909 the fonts "suxuseuro" and "9x15bold", so you can have some limited
910 font-switching at runtime:
911
912 URxvt.keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]50;suxuseuro\007
913 URxvt.keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]50;9x15bold\007
914
915 Other things are possible, e.g. resizing (see rxvt(7) for more
916 info):
917
918 URxvt.keysym.M-C-3: command:\033[8;25;80t
919 URxvt.keysym.M-C-4: command:\033[8;48;110t
920
921 perl: *string*
922 Used by perl extension and is free for any use, as it is not
923 interpreted by rxvt-unicode itself; option perl.
924
925 perl-eval: *string*
926 Perl code to be evaluated when all extensions have been loaded. See
927 the rxvtperl(3) manpage.
928
929 perl-lib: *path*
930 Additional directory that holds extension scripts that are loaded
931 and enabled for this terminal instance, in addition to scripts
932 stored in /opt/rxvt/lib/urxvt/perl-ext/, which are global to all
933 terminal instances.
934
935 See the rxvtperl(3) manpage.
936
937 THE SCROLLBAR
938 Lines of text that scroll off the top of the rxvt window (resource:
939 saveLines) and can be scrolled back using the scrollbar or by
940 keystrokes. The normal rxvt scrollbar has arrows and its behaviour is
941 fairly intuitive. The xterm-scrollbar is without arrows and its
942 behaviour mimics that of *xterm*
943
944 Scroll down with Button1 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Next. Scroll up with
945 Button3 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Prior. Continuous scroll with
946 Button2.
947
948 MOUSE REPORTING
949 To temporarily override mouse reporting, for either the scrollbar or the
950 normal text selection/insertion, hold either the Shift or the Meta (Alt)
951 key while performing the desired mouse action.
952
953 If mouse reporting mode is active, the normal scrollbar actions are
954 disabled -- on the assumption that we are using a fullscreen
955 application. Instead, pressing Button1 and Button3 sends ESC [ 6 ~
956 (Next) and ESC [ 5 ~ (Prior), respectively. Similarly, clicking on the
957 up and down arrows sends ESC [ A (Up) and ESC [ B (Down), respectively.
958
959 TEXT SELECTION AND INSERTION
960 The behaviour of text selection and insertion mechanism is similar to
961 *xterm*(1).
962
963 Selection:
964 Left click at the beginning of the region, drag to the end of the
965 region and release; Right click to extend the marked region; Left
966 double-click to select a word; Left triple-click to select the
967 entire logical line (which can span multiple screen lines), unless
968 modified by resource tripleclickwords.
969
970 Starting a selection while pressing the Meta key (or Meta+Ctrl keys)
971 (Compile: *frills*) will create a rectangular selection instead of a
972 normal one. In this mode, every selected row becomes its own line in
973 the selection, and trailing whitespace is visually underlined and
974 removed from the selection.
975
976 Insertion:
977 Pressing and releasing the Middle mouse button (or Shift-Insert) in
978 an rxvt window causes the current text selection to be inserted as
979 if it had been typed on the keyboard.
980
981 CHANGING FONTS
982 Changing fonts (or font sizes, respectively) via the keypad is not yet
983 supported in rxvt-unicode. Bug me if you need this.
984
985 You can, however, switch fonts at runtime using escape sequences (and
986 therefore using the menubar), e.g.:
987
988 printf '\e]710;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
989
990 rxvt-unicode will automatically re-apply these fonts to the output so
991 far.
992
993 ISO 14755 SUPPORT
994 ISO 14755 is a standard for entering and viewing unicode characters and
995 character codes using the keyboard. It consists of 4 parts. The first
996 part is available rxvt-unicode has been compiled with "--enable-frills",
997 the rest is available when rxvt-unicode was compiled with
998 "--enable-iso14755".
999
1000 * 5.1: Basic method
1001 This allows you to enter unicode characters using their hexcode.
1002
1003 Start by pressing and holding both "Control" and "Shift", then enter
1004 hex-digits (between one and six). Releasing "Control" and "Shift"
1005 will commit the character as if it were typed directly. While
1006 holding down "Control" and "Shift" you can also enter multiple
1007 characters by pressing "Space", which will commit the current
1008 character and lets you start a new one.
1009
1010 As an example of use, imagine a business card with a japanese e-mail
1011 address, which you cannot type. Fortunately, the card has the e-mail
1012 address printed as hexcodes, e.g. "671d 65e5". You can enter this
1013 easily by pressing "Control" and "Shift", followed by
1014 "6-7-1-D-SPACE-6-5-E-5", followed by releasing the modifier keys.
1015
1016 * 5.2: Keyboard symbols entry method
1017 This mode lets you input characters representing the keycap symbols
1018 of your keyboard, if representable in the current locale encoding.
1019
1020 Start by pressing "Control" and "Shift" together, then releasing
1021 them. The next special key (cursor keys, home etc.) you enter will
1022 not invoke it's usual function but instead will insert the
1023 corresponding keycap symbol. The symbol will only be entered when
1024 the key has been released, otherwise pressing e.g. "Shift" would
1025 enter the symbol for "ISO Level 2 Switch", although your intention
1026 might have been to enter a reverse tab (Shift-Tab).
1027
1028 * 5.3: Screen-selection entry method
1029 While this is implemented already (it's basically the selection
1030 mechanism), it could be extended by displaying a unicode character
1031 map.
1032
1033 * 5.4: Feedback method for identifying displayed characters for later
1034 input
1035 This method lets you display the unicode character code associated
1036 with characters already displayed.
1037
1038 You enter this mode by holding down "Control" and "Shift" together,
1039 then pressing and holding the left mouse button and moving around.
1040 The unicode hex code(s) (it might be a combining character) of the
1041 character under the pointer is displayed until you release "Control"
1042 and "Shift".
1043
1044 In addition to the hex codes it will display the font used to draw
1045 this character - due to implementation reasons, characters combined
1046 with combining characters, line drawing characters and unknown
1047 characters will always be drawn using the built-in support font.
1048
1049 With respect to conformance, rxvt-unicode is supposed to be compliant to
1050 both scenario A and B of ISO 14755, including part 5.2.
1051
1052 LOGIN STAMP
1053 rxvt tries to write an entry into the *utmp*(5) file so that it can be
1054 seen via the *who(1)* command, and can accept messages. To allow this
1055 feature, rxvt may need to be installed setuid root on some systems or
1056 setgid to root or to some other group on others.
1057
1058 COLORS AND GRAPHICS
1059 In addition to the default foreground and background colours, rxvt can
1060 display up to 16 colours (8 ANSI colours plus high-intensity bold/blink
1061 versions of the same). Here is a list of the colours with their rgb.txt
1062 names.
1063
1064 color0 (black) = Black
1065 color1 (red) = Red3
1066 color2 (green) = Green3
1067 color3 (yellow) = Yellow3
1068 color4 (blue) = Blue3
1069 color5 (magenta) = Magenta3
1070 color6 (cyan) = Cyan3
1071 color7 (white) = AntiqueWhite
1072 color8 (bright black) = Grey25
1073 color9 (bright red) = Red
1074 color10 (bright green) = Green
1075 color11 (bright yellow) = Yellow
1076 color12 (bright blue) = Blue
1077 color13 (bright magenta) = Magenta
1078 color14 (bright cyan) = Cyan
1079 color15 (bright white) = White
1080 foreground = Black
1081 background = White
1082
1083 It is also possible to specify the colour values of foreground,
1084 background, cursorColor, cursorColor2, colorBD, colorUL as a number
1085 0-15, as a convenient shorthand to reference the colour name of
1086 color0-color15.
1087
1088 Note that -rv ("reverseVideo: True") simulates reverse video by always
1089 swapping the foreground/background colours. This is in contrast to
1090 *xterm*(1) where the colours are only swapped if they have not otherwise
1091 been specified. For example,
1092
1093 rxvt -fg Black -bg White -rv
1094 would yield White on Black, while on *xterm*(1) it would yield Black
1095 on White.
1096
1097 ENVIRONMENT
1098 rxvt sets and/or uses the following environment variables:
1099
1100 TERM
1101 Normally set to "rxvt-unicode", unless overwritten at configure
1102 time, via resources or on the commandline.
1103
1104 COLORTERM
1105 Either "rxvt", "rxvt-xpm", depending on wether rxvt was compiled
1106 with XPM support, and optionally with the added extension "-mono" to
1107 indicate that rxvt-unicode runs on a monochrome screen.
1108
1109 COLORFGBG
1110 Set to a string of the form "fg;bg" or "fg;xpm;bg", where "fg" is
1111 the colour code used as default foreground/text colour (or the
1112 string "default" to indicate that the default-colour escape sequence
1113 is to be used), "bg" is the colour code used as default background
1114 colour (or the string "default"), and "xpm" is the string "default"
1115 if rxvt was compiled with XPM support. Libraries like "ncurses" and
1116 "slang" can (and do) use this information to optimize screen output.
1117
1118 WINDOWID
1119 Set to the (decimal) X Window ID of the rxvt window (the toplevel
1120 window, which usually has subwindows for the scrollbar, the terminal
1121 window and so on).
1122
1123 TERMINFO
1124 Set to the terminfo directory iff rxvt was configured with
1125 "--with-terminfo=PATH".
1126
1127 DISPLAY
1128 Used by rxvt to connect to the display and set to the correct
1129 display in it's child processes.
1130
1131 SHELL
1132 The shell to be used for command execution, defaults to "/bin/sh".
1133
1134 RXVTPATH
1135 The path where rxvt looks for support files such as menu and xpm
1136 files.
1137
1138 PATH
1139 Used in the same way as "RXVTPATH".
1140
1141 RXVT_SOCKET
1142 The unix domain socket path used by rxvtc(1) and rxvtd(1).
1143
1144 Default $HOME/.rxvt-unicode-*<nodename*.
1145
1146 HOME
1147 Used to locate the default directory for the unix domain socket for
1148 daemon communications and to locate various resource files (such as
1149 ".Xdefaults")
1150
1151 XAPPLRESDIR
1152 Directory where various X resource files are being located.
1153
1154 XENVIRONMENT
1155 If set and accessible, gives the name of a X resource file to be
1156 loaded by rxvt.
1157
1158 FILES
1159 /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt
1160 Color names.
1161
1162 SEE ALSO
1163 rxvt(7), rxvtc(1), rxvtd(1), xterm(1), sh(1), resize(1), X(1), pty(4),
1164 tty(4), utmp(5)
1165
1166 CURRENT PROJECT COORDINATOR
1167 Project Coordinator
1168 Marc A. Lehmann <rxvt-unicode@schmorp.de>
1169
1170 <http://software.schmorp.de/#rxvt-unicode>
1171
1172 AUTHORS
1173 John Bovey
1174 University of Kent, 1992, wrote the original Xvt.
1175
1176 Rob Nation <nation@rocket.sanders.lockheed.com>
1177 very heavily modified Xvt and came up with Rxvt
1178
1179 Angelo Haritsis <ah@doc.ic.ac.uk>
1180 wrote the Greek Keyboard Input (no longer in code)
1181
1182 mj olesen <olesen@me.QueensU.CA>
1183 Wrote the menu system.
1184
1185 Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.11 to 2.21)
1186
1187 Oezguer Kesim <kesim@math.fu-berlin.de>
1188 Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.21a to 2.4.5)
1189
1190 Geoff Wing <gcw@pobox.com>
1191 Rewrote screen display and text selection routines. Project
1192 Coordinator (changes.txt 2.4.6 - rxvt-unicode)
1193
1194 Marc Alexander Lehmann <rxvt-unicode@schmorp.de>
1195 Forked rxvt-unicode, rewrote most of the display code and internal
1196 character handling to store text in unicode, improve xterm
1197 compatibility and apply numerous other bugfixes and extensions.
1198
1199 Project Coordinator (Changes 1.0 -)
1200