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# Content
1 NAME
2 rxvt-unicode (ouR XVT, unicode) - (a VT102 emulator for the X window
3 system)
4
5 SYNOPSIS
6 rxvt [options] [-e command [ args ]]
7
8 DESCRIPTION
9 rxvt-unicode, version 5.8, is a colour vt102 terminal emulator intended
10 as an *xterm*(1) replacement for users who do not require features such
11 as Tektronix 4014 emulation and toolkit-style configurability. As a
12 result, rxvt-unicode uses much less swap space -- a significant
13 advantage on a machine serving many X sessions.
14
15 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
16 See rxvt(7) (try "man 7 rxvt") for a list of frequently asked questions
17 and answer to them and some common problems. That document is also
18 accessible on the World-Wide-Web at
19 <http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/*checkout*/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.html>.
20
21 RXVT-UNICODE VS. RXVT
22 Unlike the original rxvt, rxvt-unicode stores all text in Unicode
23 internally. That means it can store and display most scripts in the
24 world. Being a terminal emulator, however, some things are very
25 difficult, especially cursive scripts such as arabic, vertically written
26 scripts like mongolian or scripts requiring extremely complex combining
27 rules, like tibetan or devenagari. Don't expect pretty output when using
28 these scripts. Most other scripts, latin, cyrillic, kanji, thai etc.
29 should work fine, though. A somewhat difficult case are left-to-right
30 scripts, such as hebrew: rxvt-unicode adopts the view that bidirectional
31 algorithms belong into the application, not the terminal emulator (too
32 many things -- such as cursor-movement while editing -- break
33 otherwise), but that might change.
34
35 If you are looking for a terminal that supports more exotic scripts, let
36 me recommend "mlterm", which is a very userfriendly, lean and clean
37 terminal emulator. In fact, the reason rxvt-unicode was born was solely
38 because the author couldn't get "mlterm" to use one font for latin1 and
39 another for japanese.
40
41 Therefore another design rationale was the use of multiple fonts to
42 display characters: The idea of a single unicode font which many other
43 programs force onto it's users never made sense to me: You should be
44 able to choose any font for any script freely.
45
46 Apart from that, rxvt-unicode is also much better internationalised than
47 it's predecessor, supports things such as XFT and ISO 14755 that are
48 handy in i18n-environments, is faster, and has a lot less bugs than the
49 original rxvt. This all in addition to dozens of other small
50 improvements.
51
52 It is still faithfully following the original rxvt idea of being lean
53 and nice on resources: for example, you can still configure rxvt-unicode
54 without most of it's features to get a lean binary. It also comes with a
55 client/daemon pair that lets you open any number of terminal windows
56 from within a single process, which makes startup time very fast and
57 drastically reduces memory usage. See rxvtd(1) (daemon) and rxvtc(1)
58 (client).
59
60 It also makes technical information about escape sequences (which have
61 been extended) easier accessible: see rxvt(7) for technical reference
62 documentation (escape sequences etc.).
63
64 OPTIONS
65 The rxvt options (mostly a subset of *xterm*'s) are listed below. In
66 keeping with the smaller-is-better philosophy, options may be eliminated
67 or default values chosen at compile-time, so options and defaults listed
68 may not accurately reflect the version installed on your system. `rxvt
69 -h' gives a list of major compile-time options on the *Options* line.
70 Option descriptions may be prefixed with which compile option each is
71 dependent upon. e.g. `Compile *XIM*:' requires *XIM* on the *Options*
72 line. Note: `rxvt -help' gives a list of all command-line options
73 compiled into your version.
74
75 Note that rxvt permits the resource name to be used as a long-option
76 (--/++ option) so the potential command-line options are far greater
77 than those listed. For example: `rxvt --loginShell --color1 Orange'.
78
79 The following options are available:
80
81 -help, --help
82 Print out a message describing available options.
83
84 -display *displayname*
85 Attempt to open a window on the named X display (-d still
86 respected). In the absence of this option, the display specified by
87 the DISPLAY environment variable is used.
88
89 -geometry *geom*
90 Window geometry (-g still respected); resource geometry.
91
92 -rv|+rv
93 Turn on/off simulated reverse video; resource reverseVideo.
94
95 -j|+j
96 Turn on/off jump scrolling; resource jumpScroll.
97
98 -ip|+ip | -tr|+tr
99 Turn on/off inheriting parent window's pixmap. Alternative form is
100 -tr; resource inheritPixmap.
101
102 -fade *number*
103 Fade the text by the given percentage when focus is lost. Small
104 values fade a little only, 100 completely replaces all colours by
105 the fade colour; resource fading.
106
107 -fadecolor *colour*
108 Fade to this colour when fading is used (see -fade). The default
109 colour is black. resource fadeColor.
110
111 -tint *colour*
112 Tint the transparent background pixmap with the given colour when
113 transparency is enabled with -tr or -ip. This only works for
114 non-tiled backgrounds, currently. See also the -sh option that can
115 be used to brighten or darken the image in addition to tinting it;
116 resource *tintColor*. Example:
117
118 rxvt -tr -tint blue -sh 40
119
120 -sh *number* Darken (0 .. 100) or lighten (-1 .. -100) the transparent
121 background image in addition to tinting it (i.e. -tint must be
122 specified, too, e.g. "-tint white").
123
124 -bg *colour*
125 Window background colour; resource background.
126
127 -fg *colour*
128 Window foreground colour; resource foreground.
129
130 -pixmap *file[;geom]*
131 Compile *XPM*: Specify XPM file for the background and also
132 optionally specify its scaling with a geometry string. Note you may
133 need to add quotes to avoid special shell interpretation of the ";"
134 in the command-line; resource backgroundPixmap.
135
136 -cr *colour*
137 The cursor colour; resource cursorColor.
138
139 -pr *colour*
140 The mouse pointer foreground colour; resource pointerColor.
141
142 -pr2 *colour*
143 The mouse pointer background colour; resource pointerColor2.
144
145 -bd *colour*
146 The colour of the border around the text area and between the
147 scrollbar and the text; resource borderColor.
148
149 -fn *fontlist*
150 Select the fonts to be used. This is a comma separated list of font
151 names that are used in turn when trying to display Unicode
152 characters. The first font defines the cell size for characters;
153 other fonts might be smaller, but not (in general) larger. A
154 (hopefully) reasonable default font list is always appended to it.
155 See resource font for more details.
156
157 In short, to specify an X11 core font, just specify it's name or
158 prefix it with "x:". To specify an XFT-font, you need to prefix it
159 with "xft:", e.g.:
160
161 rxvt -fn "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:pixelsize=15"
162 rxvt -fn "9x15bold,xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono"
163
164 See also the question "How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?" in the
165 FAQ section of rxvt(7).
166
167 -fb *fontlist*
168 Compile font-styles: The bold font list to use when bold characters
169 are to be printed. See resource boldFont for details.
170
171 -fi *fontlist*
172 Compile font-styles: The italic font list to use when bold
173 characters are to be printed. See resource italicFont for details.
174
175 -fbi *fontlist*
176 Compile font-styles: The bold italic font list to use when bold
177 characters are to be printed. See resource boldItalicFont for
178 details.
179
180 -name *name*
181 Specify the application name under which resources are to be
182 obtained, rather than the default executable file name. Name should
183 not contain `.' or `*' characters. Also sets the icon and title
184 name.
185
186 -ls|+ls
187 Start as a login-shell/sub-shell; resource loginShell.
188
189 -ut|+ut
190 Compile *utmp*: Inhibit/enable writing a utmp entry; resource
191 utmpInhibit.
192
193 -vb|+vb
194 Turn on/off visual bell on receipt of a bell character; resource
195 visualBell.
196
197 -sb|+sb
198 Turn on/off scrollbar; resource scrollBar.
199
200 -si|+si
201 Turn on/off scroll-to-bottom on TTY output inhibit; resource
202 scrollTtyOutput has opposite effect.
203
204 -sk|+sk
205 Turn on/off scroll-to-bottom on keypress; resource
206 scrollTtyKeypress.
207
208 -sw|+sw
209 Turn on/off scrolling with the scrollback buffer as new lines
210 appear. This only takes effect if -si is also given; resource
211 scrollWithBuffer.
212
213 -sr|+sr
214 Put scrollbar on right/left; resource scrollBar_right.
215
216 -st|+st
217 Display rxvt (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar without/with a trough;
218 resource scrollBar_floating.
219
220 -ptab|+ptab
221 If enabled (default), "Horizontal Tab" characters are being stored
222 as actual wide characters in the screen buffer, which makes it
223 possible to select and paste them. Since a horizontal tab is a
224 cursor movement and not an actual glyph, this can sometimes be
225 visually annoying as the cursor on a tab character is displayed as a
226 wide cursor; resource pastableTabs.
227
228 -bc|+bc
229 Blink the cursor; resource cursorBlink.
230
231 -iconic
232 Start iconified, if the window manager supports that option.
233 Alternative form is -ic.
234
235 -sl *number*
236 Save *number* lines in the scrollback buffer. See resource entry for
237 limits; resource saveLines.
238
239 -b *number*
240 Compile *frills*: Internal border of *number* pixels. See resource
241 entry for limits; resource internalBorder.
242
243 -w *number*
244 Compile *frills*: External border of *number* pixels. Also, -bw and
245 -borderwidth. See resource entry for limits; resource
246 externalBorder.
247
248 -bl Compile *frills*: Set MWM hints to request a borderless window, i.e.
249 if honoured by the WM, the rxvt-unicode window will not have window
250 decorations; resource borderLess.
251
252 -lsp *number*
253 Compile *frills*: Lines (pixel height) to insert between each row of
254 the display. Useful to work around font rendering problems; resource
255 linespace.
256
257 -tn *termname*
258 This option specifies the name of the terminal type to be set in the
259 TERM environment variable. This terminal type must exist in the
260 *termcap(5)* database and should have *li#* and *co#* entries;
261 resource termName.
262
263 -e *command [arguments]*
264 Run the command with its command-line arguments in the rxvt window;
265 also sets the window title and icon name to be the basename of the
266 program being executed if neither *-title* (*-T*) nor *-n* are given
267 on the command line. If this option is used, it must be the last on
268 the command-line. If there is no -e option then the default is to
269 run the program specified by the SHELL environment variable or,
270 failing that, *sh(1)*.
271
272 -title *text*
273 Window title (-T still respected); the default title is the basename
274 of the program specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the
275 application name; resource title.
276
277 -n *text*
278 Icon name; the default name is the basename of the program specified
279 after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application name;
280 resource iconName.
281
282 -C Capture system console messages.
283
284 -pt *style*
285 Compile *XIM*: input style for input method; OverTheSpot,
286 OffTheSpot, Root; resource preeditType.
287
288 -im *text*
289 Compile *XIM*: input method name. resource inputMethod.
290
291 -imlocale *string*
292 The locale to use for opening the IM. You can use an "LC_CTYPE" of
293 e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8" for normal text processing but "ja_JP.EUC-JP" for
294 the input extension to be able to input japanese characters while
295 staying in another locale. resource imLocale.
296
297 -imfont *fontset*
298 Set the font set to use for the X Input Method, see resource imFont
299 for more info.
300
301 -tcw
302 Change the meaning of triple-click selection with the left mouse
303 button. Instead of selecting a full line it will extend the
304 selection the end of the logical line only. resource
305 tripleclickwords.
306
307 -insecure
308 Enable "insecure" mode, which currently enables most of the escape
309 sequences that echo strings. See the resource insecure for more
310 info.
311
312 -mod *modifier*
313 Override detection of Meta modifier with specified key: alt, meta,
314 hyper, super, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, mod5; resource *modifier*.
315
316 -ssc|+ssc
317 Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled); resource
318 secondaryScreen.
319
320 -ssr|+ssr
321 Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled); resource
322 secondaryScroll.
323
324 -keysym.*sym* *string*
325 Remap a key symbol. See resource keysym.
326
327 -embed *windowid*
328 Tells rxvt to embed it's windows into an already-existing window,
329 which enables applications to easily embed a terminal.
330
331 Right now, rxvt will first unmap/map the specified window, so it
332 shouldn't be a top-level window. rxvt will also reconfigure it quite
333 a bit, so don't expect it to keep some specific state. It's best to
334 create an extra subwindow for rxvt and leave it alone.
335
336 The window will not be destroyed when rxvt exits.
337
338 It might be useful to know that rxvt will not close file descriptors
339 passed to it (except for stdin/out/err, of course), so you can use
340 file descriptors to communicate with the programs within the
341 terminal. This works regardless of wether the "-embed" option was
342 used or not.
343
344 Here is a short Gtk2-perl snippet that illustrates how this option
345 can be used (a longer example is in doc/embed):
346
347 my $rxvt = new Gtk2::Socket;
348 $rxvt->signal_connect_after (realize => sub {
349 my $xid = $_[0]->window->get_xid;
350 system "rxvt -embed $xid &";
351 });
352
353 -pty-fd *fileno*
354 Tells rxvt NOT to execute any commands or create a new pty/tty pair
355 but instead use the given filehandle as the tty master. This is
356 useful if you want to drive rxvt as a generic terminal emulator
357 without having to run a program within it.
358
359 If this switch is given, rxvt will not create any utmp/wtmp entries
360 and will not tinker with pty/tty permissions - you have to do that
361 yourself if you want that.
362
363 Here is a example in perl that illustrates how this option can be
364 used (a longer example is in doc/pty-fd):
365
366 use IO::Pty;
367 use Fcntl;
368
369 my $pty = new IO::Pty;
370 fcntl $pty, F_SETFD, 0; # clear close-on-exec
371 system "rxvt -pty-fd " . (fileno $pty) . "&";
372 close $pty;
373
374 # now communicate with rxvt
375 my $slave = $pty->slave;
376 while (<$slave>) { print $slave "got <$_>\n" }
377
378 RESOURCES (available also as long-options)
379 Note: `rxvt --help' gives a list of all resources (long options)
380 compiled into your version.
381
382 There are two different methods that rxvt can use to get the Xresource
383 data: using the X libraries (Xrm*-functions) or internal Xresources
384 reader (~/.Xdefaults). For the first method (ie. rxvt -h lists
385 XGetDefaults), you can set and change the resources using X11 tools like
386 xrdb. Many distribution do also load settings from the ~/.Xresources
387 file when X starts. rxvt will consult the following files/resources in
388 order, with later settings overwriting earlier ones:
389
390 1. system-wide app-defaults file, either locale-dependent OR global
391 2. app-defaults file in $XAPPLRESDIR
392 3. RESOURCE_MANAGER property on root-window OR $HOME/.Xdefaults
393 4. SCREEN_RESOURCES for the current screen
394 5. $XENVIRONMENT file OR $HOME/.Xdefaults-<nodename>
395
396 If compiled with internal Xresources support (i.e. rxvt -h lists
397 .Xdefaults) then rxvt accepts application defaults set in
398 XAPPLOADDIR/URxvt (compile-time defined: usually
399 /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/URxvt) and resources set in ~/.Xdefaults, or
400 ~/.Xresources if ~/.Xdefaults does not exist. Note that when reading X
401 resources, rxvt recognizes two class names: XTerm and URxvt. The class
402 name Rxvt allows resources common to both rxvt and the original *rxvt*
403 to be easily configured, while the class name URxvt allows resources
404 unique to rxvt, notably colours and key-handling, to be shared between
405 different rxvt configurations. If no resources are specified, suitable
406 defaults will be used. Command-line arguments can be used to override
407 resource settings. The following resources are allowed:
408
409 geometry: *geom*
410 Create the window with the specified X window geometry [default
411 80x24]; option -geometry.
412
413 background: *colour*
414 Use the specified colour as the window's background colour [default
415 White]; option -bg.
416
417 foreground: *colour*
418 Use the specified colour as the window's foreground colour [default
419 Black]; option -fg.
420
421 color*n*: *colour*
422 Use the specified colour for the colour value *n*, where 0-7
423 corresponds to low-intensity (normal) colours and 8-15 corresponds
424 to high-intensity (bold = bright foreground, blink = bright
425 background) colours. The canonical names are as follows: 0=black,
426 1=red, 2=green, 3=yellow, 4=blue, 5=magenta, 6=cyan, 7=white, but
427 the actual colour names used are listed in the COLORS AND GRAPHICS
428 section.
429
430 Colours higher than 15 cannot be set using resources (yet), but can
431 be changed using an escape command (see rxvt(7)).
432
433 Colours 16-79 form a standard 4x4x4 colour cube (the same as xterm
434 with 88 colour support). Colours 80-87 are evenly spaces grey steps.
435
436 colorBD: *colour*
437 colorIT: *colour*
438 Use the specified colour to display bold or italic characters when
439 the foreground colour is the default. If font styles are not
440 available (Compile *styles*) and this option is unset, reverse video
441 is used instead.
442
443 colorUL: *colour*
444 Use the specified colour to display underlined characters when the
445 foreground colour is the default.
446
447 colorRV: *colour*
448 Use the specified colour as the background for reverse video
449 characters.
450
451 underlineColor: *colour*
452 If set, use the specified colour as the colour for the underline
453 itself. If unset, use the foreground colour.
454
455 cursorColor: *colour*
456 Use the specified colour for the cursor. The default is to use the
457 foreground colour; option -cr.
458
459 cursorColor2: *colour*
460 Use the specified colour for the colour of the cursor text. For this
461 to take effect, cursorColor must also be specified. The default is
462 to use the background colour.
463
464 reverseVideo: *boolean*
465 True: simulate reverse video by foreground and background colours;
466 option -rv. False: regular screen colours [default]; option +rv. See
467 note in COLORS AND GRAPHICS section.
468
469 jumpScroll: *boolean*
470 True: specify that jump scrolling should be used. When scrolling
471 quickly, fewer screen updates are performed [default]; option -j.
472 False: specify that smooth scrolling should be used; option +j.
473
474 inheritPixmap: *boolean*
475 True: make the background inherit the parent windows' pixmap, giving
476 artificial transparency. False: do not inherit the parent windows'
477 pixmap.
478
479 fading: *number*
480 Fade the text by the given percentage when focus is lost; option
481 -fade.
482
483 fadeColor: *colour*
484 Fade to this colour, when fading is used (see fading:). The default
485 colour is black; option -fadecolor.
486
487 tintColor: *colour*
488 Tint the transparent background pixmap with the given colour; option
489 -tint.
490
491 shading: *number*
492 Darken (0 .. 100) or lighten (-1 .. -100) the transparent background
493 image in addition to tinting it.
494
495 scrollColor: *colour*
496 Use the specified colour for the scrollbar [default #B2B2B2].
497
498 troughColor: *colour*
499 Use the specified colour for the scrollbar's trough area [default
500 #969696]. Only relevant for rxvt (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar.
501
502 borderColor: *colour*
503 The colour of the border around the text area and between the
504 scrollbar and the text.
505
506 backgroundPixmap: *file[;geom]*
507 Use the specified XPM file (note the `.xpm' extension is optional)
508 for the background and also optionally specify its scaling with a
509 geometry string WxH+X+Y, in which "W" / "H" specify the
510 horizontal/vertical scale (percent) and "X" / "Y" locate the image
511 centre (percent). A scale of 0 displays the image with tiling. A
512 scale of 1 displays the image without any scaling. A scale of 2 to 9
513 specifies an integer number of images in that direction. No image
514 will be magnified beyond 10 times its original size. The maximum
515 permitted scale is 1000. [default 0x0+50+50]
516
517 menu: *file[;tag]*
518 Read in the specified menu file (note the `.menu' extension is
519 optional) and also optionally specify a starting tag to find. See
520 the reference documentation for details on the syntax for the
521 menuBar.
522
523 path: *path*
524 Specify the colon-delimited search path for finding files (XPM and
525 menus), in addition to the paths specified by the RXVTPATH and PATH
526 environment variables.
527
528 font: *fontlist*
529 Select the fonts to be used. This is a comma separated list of font
530 names that are used in turn when trying to display Unicode
531 characters. The first font defines the cell size for characters;
532 other fonts might be smaller, but not larger. A reasonable default
533 font list is always appended to it. option -fn.
534
535 Each font can either be a standard X11 core font (XLFD) name, with
536 optional prefix "x:" or a Xft font (Compile *xft*), prefixed with
537 "xft:".
538
539 In addition, each font can be prefixed with additional hints and
540 specifications enclosed in square brackets ("[]"). The only
541 available hint currently is "codeset=codeset-name", and this is only
542 used for Xft fonts.
543
544 For example, this font resource
545
546 URxvt*font: 9x15bold,\
547 -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
548 -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
549 [codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic:antialias=false, \
550 xft:Code2000:antialias=false
551
552 specifies five fonts to be used. The first one is "9x15bold"
553 (actually the iso8859-1 version of the second font), which is the
554 base font (because it is named first) and thus defines the character
555 cell grid to be 9 pixels wide and 15 pixels high.
556
557 The second font is just used to add additional unicode characters
558 not in the base font, likewise the third, which is unfortunately
559 non-bold, but the bold version of the font does contain less
560 characters, so this is a useful supplement.
561
562 The third font is an Xft font with aliasing turned off, and the
563 characters are limited to the JIS 0208 codeset (i.e. japanese
564 kanji). The font contains other characters, but we are not
565 interested in them.
566
567 The last font is a useful catch-all font that supplies most of the
568 remaining unicode characters.
569
570 boldFont: *fontlist*
571 italicFont: *fontlist*
572 boldItalicFont: *fontlist*
573 The font list to use for displaying bold, *italic* or *bold italic*
574 characters, respectively.
575
576 If specified and non-empty, then the syntax is the same as for the
577 font-resource, and the given font list will be used as is, which
578 makes it possible to substitute completely different font styles for
579 bold and italic.
580
581 If unset (the default), a suitable font list will be synthesized by
582 "morphing" the normal text font list into the desired shape. If that
583 is not possible, replacement fonts of the desired shape will be
584 tried.
585
586 If set, but empty, then this specific style is disabled and the
587 normal text font will being used for the given style.
588
589 selectstyle: *mode*
590 Set mouse selection style to old which is 2.20, oldword which is
591 xterm style with 2.20 old word selection, or anything else which
592 gives xterm style selection.
593
594 scrollstyle: *mode*
595 Set scrollbar style to rxvt, plain, next or xterm. plain is the
596 author's favourite.
597
598 title: *string*
599 Set window title string, the default title is the command-line
600 specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application
601 name; option -title.
602
603 iconName: *string*
604 Set the name used to label the window's icon or displayed in an icon
605 manager window, it also sets the window's title unless it is
606 explicitly set; option -n.
607
608 mapAlert: *boolean*
609 True: de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character. False: no
610 de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character [default].
611
612 visualBell: *boolean*
613 True: use visual bell on receipt of a bell character; option -vb.
614 False: no visual bell [default]; option +vb.
615
616 loginShell: *boolean*
617 True: start as a login shell by prepending a `-' to argv[0] of the
618 shell; option -ls. False: start as a normal sub-shell [default];
619 option +ls.
620
621 utmpInhibit: *boolean*
622 True: inhibit writing record into the system log file utmp; option
623 -ut. False: write record into the system log file utmp [default];
624 option +ut.
625
626 print-pipe: *string*
627 Specify a command pipe for vt100 printer [default *lpr(1)*]. Use
628 Print to initiate a screen dump to the printer and Ctrl-Print or
629 Shift-Print to include the scrollback as well.
630
631 The string will be interpreted as if typed into the shell as-is.
632
633 Example:
634
635 URxvt*print-pipe: cat > $(TMPDIR=$HOME mktemp urxvt.XXXXXX)
636
637 This creates a new file in your home directory with the screen
638 contents everytime you hit "Print".
639
640 scrollBar: *boolean*
641 True: enable the scrollbar [default]; option -sb. False: disable the
642 scrollbar; option +sb.
643
644 scrollBar_right: *boolean*
645 True: place the scrollbar on the right of the window; option -sr.
646 False: place the scrollbar on the left of the window; option +sr.
647
648 scrollBar_floating: *boolean*
649 True: display an rxvt scrollbar without a trough; option -st. False:
650 display an rxvt scrollbar with a trough; option +st.
651
652 scrollBar_align: *mode*
653 Align the top, bottom or centre [default] of the scrollbar thumb
654 with the pointer on middle button press/drag.
655
656 scrollTtyOutput: *boolean*
657 True: scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option -si. False:
658 do not scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option +si.
659
660 scrollWithBuffer: *boolean*
661 True: scroll with scrollback buffer when tty receives new lines (and
662 scrollTtyOutput is False); option -sw. False: do not scroll with
663 scrollback buffer when tty recieves new lines; option +sw.
664
665 scrollTtyKeypress: *boolean*
666 True: scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed. Special
667 keys are those which are intercepted by rxvt-unicode for special
668 handling and are not passed onto the shell; option -sk. False: do
669 not scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed; option +sk.
670
671 saveLines: *number*
672 Save *number* lines in the scrollback buffer [default 64]. This
673 resource is limited on most machines to 65535; option -sl.
674
675 internalBorder: *number*
676 Internal border of *number* pixels. This resource is limited to 100;
677 option -b.
678
679 externalBorder: *number*
680 External border of *number* pixels. This resource is limited to 100;
681 option -w, -bw, -borderwidth.
682
683 borderLess: *boolean*
684 Set MWM hints to request a borderless window, i.e. if honoured by
685 the WM, the rxvt-unicode window will not have window decorations;
686 option -bl.
687
688 termName: *termname*
689 Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM environment
690 variable; option -tn.
691
692 linespace: *number*
693 Specifies number of lines (pixel height) to insert between each row
694 of the display [default 0]; option -lsp.
695
696 meta8: *boolean*
697 True: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress to set the 8th bit. False: handle
698 Meta (Alt) + keypress as an escape prefix [default].
699
700 mouseWheelScrollPage: *boolean*
701 True: the mouse wheel scrolls a page full. False: the mouse wheel
702 scrolls five lines [default].
703
704 pastableTabs: *boolean*
705 True: store tabs as wide characters. False: interpret tabs as cursor
706 movement only; option "-ptab".
707
708 cursorBlink: *boolean*
709 True: blink the cursor. False: do not blink the cursor [default];
710 option -bc.
711
712 pointerBlank: *boolean*
713 True: blank the pointer when a key is pressed or after a set number
714 of seconds of inactivity. False: the pointer is always visible
715 [default].
716
717 pointerColor: *colour*
718 Mouse pointer foreground colour.
719
720 pointerColor2: *colour*
721 Mouse pointer background colour.
722
723 pointerBlankDelay: *number*
724 Specifies number of seconds before blanking the pointer [default 2].
725 Use a large number (e.g. 987654321) to effectively disable the
726 timeout.
727
728 backspacekey: *string*
729 The string to send when the backspace key is pressed. If set to DEC
730 or unset it will send Delete (code 127) or, if shifted, Backspace
731 (code 8) - which can be reversed with the appropriate DEC private
732 mode escape sequence.
733
734 deletekey: *string*
735 The string to send when the delete key (not the keypad delete key)
736 is pressed. If unset it will send the sequence traditionally
737 associated with the Execute key.
738
739 cutchars: *string*
740 The characters used as delimiters for double-click word selection.
741 The built-in default:
742
743 BACKSLASH `"'&()*,;<=>?@[]{|}
744
745 preeditType: *style*
746 OverTheSpot, OffTheSpot, Root; option -pt.
747
748 inputMethod: *name*
749 *name* of inputMethod to use; option -im.
750
751 imLocale: *name*
752 The locale to use for opening the IM. You can use an "LC_CTYPE" of
753 e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8" for normal text processing but "ja_JP.EUC-JP" for
754 the input extension to be able to input japanese characters while
755 staying in another locale. option -imlocale.
756
757 imFont: *fontset*
758 Specify the font-set used for XIM styles "OverTheSpot" or
759 "OffTheSpot". It must be a standard X font set (XLFD patterns
760 separated by commas), i.e. it's not in the same format as the other
761 font lists used in rxvt. The default will be set-up to chose *any*
762 suitable found found, preferably one or two pixels differing in size
763 to the base font. option -imfont.
764
765 tripleclickwords: *boolean*
766 Change the meaning of triple-click selection with the left mouse
767 button. Instead of selecting a full line it will extend the
768 selection to the end of the logical line only. option -tcw.
769
770 insecure: *boolean*
771 Enables "insecure" mode. Rxvt-unicode offers some escape sequences
772 that echo arbitrary strings like the icon name or the locale. This
773 could be abused if somebody gets 8-bit-clean access to your display,
774 whether throuh a mail client displaying mail bodies unfiltered or
775 though write(1). Therefore, these sequences are disabled by default.
776 (Note that other terminals, including xterm, have these sequences
777 enabled by default). You can enable them by setting this boolean
778 resource or specifying -insecure as an option. At the moment, this
779 enabled display-answer, locale, findfont, icon label and window
780 title requests as well as dynamic menubar dispatch.
781
782 modifier: *modifier*
783 Set the key to be interpreted as the Meta key to: alt, meta, hyper,
784 super, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, mod5; option -mod.
785
786 answerbackString: *string*
787 Specify the reply rxvt-unicode sends to the shell when an ENQ
788 (control-E) character is passed through. It may contain escape
789 values as described in the entry on keysym following.
790
791 secondaryScreen: *bool*
792 Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled).
793
794 secondaryScroll: *bool*
795 Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled). If the this
796 option is enabled, scrolls on the secondary screen will change the
797 scrollback buffer and switching to/from the secondary screen will
798 instead scroll the screen up.
799
800 keysym.*sym*: *string*
801 Compile *frills*: Associate *string* with keysym *sym*. The
802 intervening resource name keysym. cannot be omitted.
803
804 The format of *sym* is "*(modifiers-)key*", where *modifiers* can be
805 any combination of ISOLevel3, AppKeypad, Control, NumLock, Shift,
806 Meta, Lock, Mod1, Mod2, Mod3, Mod4, Mod5, and the abbreviated I, K,
807 C, N, S, M, A, L, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
808
809 The NumLock, Meta and ISOLevel3 modifiers are usually aliased to
810 whatever modifier the NumLock key, Meta/Alt keys or ISO Level3
811 Shift/AltGr keys are being mapped. AppKeypad is a synthetic modifier
812 mapped to the current application keymap mode state.
813
814 The spellings of *key* can be obtained by using xev(1) command or
815 searching keysym macros from /usr/X11R6/include/X11/keysymdef.h and
816 omitting the prefix XK_. Alternatively you can specify *key* by its
817 hex keysym value (0x0000 - 0xFFFF). Note that the lookup of *sym*s
818 is not performed in an exact manner; however, the closest match is
819 assured.
820
821 *string* may contain escape values ("\a": bell, "\b": backspace,
822 "\e", "\E": escape, "\n": newline, "\r": carriage return, "\t": tab,
823 "\000": octal number) or verbatim control characters ("^?": delete,
824 "^@": null, "^A" ...) and may be enclosed with double quotes so that
825 it can start or end with whitespace.
826
827 Please note that you need to double the "\" when using
828 "--enable-xgetdefault", as X itself does it's own de-escaping (you
829 can use "\033" instead of "\e" (and so on), which will work with
830 both Xt and rxvt's own processing).
831
832 You can define a range of keysyms in one shot by providing a
833 *string* with pattern list/PREFIX/MIDDLE/SUFFIX, where the delimeter
834 `/' should be a character not used by the strings.
835
836 Its usage can be demonstrated by an example:
837
838 URxvt.keysym.M-C-0x61: list|\033<M-C-|abc|>
839
840 The above line is equivalent to the following three lines:
841
842 URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x61: \033<M-C-a>
843 URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x62: \033<M-C-b>
844 URxvt.keysym.Meta-Control-0x63: \033<M-C-c>
845
846 If *string* takes the form of "command:STRING", the specified STRING
847 is interpreted and executed as rxvt's control sequence. For example
848 the following means "change the current locale to "zh_CN.GBK" when
849 Control-Meta-c is being pressed":
850
851 URxvt.keysym.M-C-c: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
852
853 Due the the large number of modifier combinations, a defined key
854 mapping will match if at *at least* the specified identifiers are
855 being set, and no other key mappings with those and more bits are
856 being defined. That means that defining a key map for "a" will
857 automatically provide definitions for "Meta-a", "Shift-a" and so on,
858 unless some of those are defined mappings themselves.
859
860 Unfortunately, this will override built-in key mappings. For example
861 if you overwrite the "Insert" key you will disable rxvt's
862 "Shift-Insert" mapping. To re-enable that, you can poke "holes" into
863 the user-defined keymap using the "builtin:" replacement:
864
865 URxvt.keysym.Insert: <my insert key sequence>
866 URxvt.keysym.S-Insert: builtin:
867
868 The first line defines a mapping for "Insert" and *any* combination
869 of modifiers. The second line re-establishes the default mapping for
870 "Shift-Insert".
871
872 The following example will map Control-Meta-1 and Control-Meta-2 to
873 the fonts "suxuseuro" and "9x15bold", so you can have some limited
874 font-switching at runtime:
875
876 URxvt.keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]50;suxuseuro\007
877 URxvt.keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]50;9x15bold\007
878
879 Other things are possible, e.g. resizing (see rxvt(7) for more
880 info):
881
882 URxvt.keysym.M-C-3: command:\033[8;25;80t
883 URxvt.keysym.M-C-4: command:\033[8;48;110t
884
885 THE SCROLLBAR
886 Lines of text that scroll off the top of the rxvt window (resource:
887 saveLines) and can be scrolled back using the scrollbar or by
888 keystrokes. The normal rxvt scrollbar has arrows and its behaviour is
889 fairly intuitive. The xterm-scrollbar is without arrows and its
890 behaviour mimics that of *xterm*
891
892 Scroll down with Button1 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Next. Scroll up with
893 Button3 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Prior. Continuous scroll with
894 Button2.
895
896 MOUSE REPORTING
897 To temporarily override mouse reporting, for either the scrollbar or the
898 normal text selection/insertion, hold either the Shift or the Meta (Alt)
899 key while performing the desired mouse action.
900
901 If mouse reporting mode is active, the normal scrollbar actions are
902 disabled -- on the assumption that we are using a fullscreen
903 application. Instead, pressing Button1 and Button3 sends ESC [ 6 ~
904 (Next) and ESC [ 5 ~ (Prior), respectively. Similarly, clicking on the
905 up and down arrows sends ESC [ A (Up) and ESC [ B (Down), respectively.
906
907 TEXT SELECTION AND INSERTION
908 The behaviour of text selection and insertion mechanism is similar to
909 *xterm*(1).
910
911 Selection:
912 Left click at the beginning of the region, drag to the end of the
913 region and release; Right click to extend the marked region; Left
914 double-click to select a word; Left triple-click to select the
915 entire logical line (which can span multiple screen lines), unless
916 modified by resource tripleclickwords.
917
918 Starting a selection while pressing the Meta key (or Meta+Ctrl keys)
919 (Compile: *frills*) will create a rectangular selection instead of a
920 normal one.
921
922 Insertion:
923 Pressing and releasing the Middle mouse button (or Shift-Insert) in
924 an rxvt window causes the current text selection to be inserted as
925 if it had been typed on the keyboard.
926
927 CHANGING FONTS
928 Changing fonts (or font sizes, respectively) via the keypad is not yet
929 supported in rxvt-unicode. Bug me if you need this.
930
931 You can, however, switch fonts at runtime using escape sequences (and
932 therefore using the menubar), e.g.:
933
934 printf '\e]701;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
935
936 rxvt-unicode will automatically re-apply these fonts to the output so
937 far.
938
939 ISO 14755 SUPPORT
940 ISO 14755 is a standard for entering and viewing unicode characters and
941 character codes using the keyboard. It consists of 4 parts. The first
942 part is available rxvt-unicode has been compiled with "--enable-frills",
943 the rest is available when rxvt-unicode was compiled with
944 "--enable-iso14755".
945
946 * 5.1: Basic method
947 This allows you to enter unicode characters using their hexcode.
948
949 Start by pressing and holding both "Control" and "Shift", then enter
950 hex-digits (between one and six). Releasing "Control" and "Shift"
951 will commit the character as if it were typed directly. While
952 holding down "Control" and "Shift" you can also enter multiple
953 characters by pressing "Space", which will commit the current
954 character and lets you start a new one.
955
956 As an example of use, imagine a business card with a japanese e-mail
957 address, which you cannot type. Fortunately, the card has the e-mail
958 address printed as hexcodes, e.g. "671d 65e5". You can enter this
959 easily by pressing "Control" and "Shift", followed by
960 "6-7-1-D-SPACE-6-5-E-5", followed by releasing the modifier keys.
961
962 * 5.2: Keyboard symbols entry method
963 This mode lets you input characters representing the keycap symbols
964 of your keyboard, if representable in the current locale encoding.
965
966 Start by pressing "Control" and "Shift" together, then releasing
967 them. The next special key (cursor keys, home etc.) you enter will
968 not invoke it's usual function but instead will insert the
969 corresponding keycap symbol. The symbol will only be entered when
970 the key has been released, otherwise pressing e.g. "Shift" would
971 enter the symbol for "ISO Level 2 Switch", although your intention
972 might have been to enter a reverse tab (Shift-Tab).
973
974 * 5.3: Screen-selection entry method
975 While this is implemented already (it's basically the selection
976 mechanism), it could be extended by displaying a unicode character
977 map.
978
979 * 5.4: Feedback method for identifying displayed characters for later
980 input
981 This method lets you display the unicode character code associated
982 with characters already displayed.
983
984 You enter this mode by holding down "Control" and "Shift" together,
985 then pressing and holding the left mouse button and moving around.
986 The unicode hex code(s) (it might be a combining character) of the
987 character under the pointer is displayed until you release "Control"
988 and "Shift".
989
990 In addition to the hex codes it will display the font used to draw
991 this character - due to implementation reasons, characters combined
992 with combining characters, line drawing characters and unknown
993 characters will always be drawn using the built-in support font.
994
995 With respect to conformance, rxvt-unicode is supposed to be compliant to
996 both scenario A and B of ISO 14755, including part 5.2.
997
998 LOGIN STAMP
999 rxvt tries to write an entry into the *utmp*(5) file so that it can be
1000 seen via the *who(1)* command, and can accept messages. To allow this
1001 feature, rxvt may need to be installed setuid root on some systems or
1002 setgid to root or to some other group on others.
1003
1004 COLORS AND GRAPHICS
1005 In addition to the default foreground and background colours, rxvt can
1006 display up to 16 colours (8 ANSI colours plus high-intensity bold/blink
1007 versions of the same). Here is a list of the colours with their rgb.txt
1008 names.
1009
1010 color0 (black) = Black
1011 color1 (red) = Red3
1012 color2 (green) = Green3
1013 color3 (yellow) = Yellow3
1014 color4 (blue) = Blue3
1015 color5 (magenta) = Magenta3
1016 color6 (cyan) = Cyan3
1017 color7 (white) = AntiqueWhite
1018 color8 (bright black) = Grey25
1019 color9 (bright red) = Red
1020 color10 (bright green) = Green
1021 color11 (bright yellow) = Yellow
1022 color12 (bright blue) = Blue
1023 color13 (bright magenta) = Magenta
1024 color14 (bright cyan) = Cyan
1025 color15 (bright white) = White
1026 foreground = Black
1027 background = White
1028
1029 It is also possible to specify the colour values of foreground,
1030 background, cursorColor, cursorColor2, colorBD, colorUL as a number
1031 0-15, as a convenient shorthand to reference the colour name of
1032 color0-color15.
1033
1034 Note that -rv ("reverseVideo: True") simulates reverse video by always
1035 swapping the foreground/background colours. This is in contrast to
1036 *xterm*(1) where the colours are only swapped if they have not otherwise
1037 been specified. For example,
1038
1039 rxvt -fg Black -bg White -rv
1040 would yield White on Black, while on *xterm*(1) it would yield Black
1041 on White.
1042
1043 ENVIRONMENT
1044 rxvt sets and/or uses the following environment variables:
1045
1046 TERM
1047 Normally set to "rxvt-unicode", unless overwritten at configure
1048 time, via resources or on the commandline.
1049
1050 COLORTERM
1051 Either "rxvt", "rxvt-xpm", depending on wether rxvt was compiled
1052 with XPM support, and optionally with the added extension "-mono" to
1053 indicate that rxvt-unicode runs on a monochrome screen.
1054
1055 COLORFGBG
1056 Set to a string of the form "fg;bg" or "fg;xpm;bg", where "fg" is
1057 the colour code used as default foreground/text colour (or the
1058 string "default" to indicate that the default-colour escape sequence
1059 is to be used), "bg" is the colour code used as default background
1060 colour (or the string "default"), and "xpm" is the string "default"
1061 if rxvt was compiled with XPM support. Libraries like "ncurses" and
1062 "slang" can (and do) use this information to optimize screen output.
1063
1064 WINDOWID
1065 Set to the (decimal) X Window ID of the rxvt window (the toplevel
1066 window, which usually has subwindows for the scrollbar, the terminal
1067 window and so on).
1068
1069 TERMINFO
1070 Set to the terminfo directory iff rxvt was configured with
1071 "--with-terminfo=PATH".
1072
1073 DISPLAY
1074 Used by rxvt to connect to the display and set to the correct
1075 display in it's child processes.
1076
1077 SHELL
1078 The shell to be used for command execution, defaults to "/bin/sh".
1079
1080 RXVTPATH
1081 The path where rxvt looks for support files such as menu and xpm
1082 files.
1083
1084 PATH
1085 Used in the same way as "RXVTPATH".
1086
1087 RXVT_SOCKET
1088 The unix domain socket path used by rxvtc(1) and rxvtd(1).
1089
1090 Default $HOME/.rxvt-unicode-*<nodename*.
1091
1092 HOME
1093 Used to locate the default directory for the unix domain socket for
1094 daemon communications and to locate various resource files (such as
1095 ".Xdefaults")
1096
1097 XAPPLRESDIR
1098 Directory where various X resource files are being located.
1099
1100 XENVIRONMENT
1101 If set and accessible, gives the name of a X resource file to be
1102 loaded by rxvt.
1103
1104 FILES
1105 /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt
1106 Color names.
1107
1108 SEE ALSO
1109 rxvt(7), rxvtc(1), rxvtd(1), xterm(1), sh(1), resize(1), X(1), pty(4),
1110 tty(4), utmp(5)
1111
1112 CURRENT PROJECT COORDINATOR
1113 Project Coordinator
1114 Marc A. Lehmann <rxvt-unicode@schmorp.de>
1115
1116 <http://software.schmorp.de/#rxvt-unicode>
1117
1118 AUTHORS
1119 John Bovey
1120 University of Kent, 1992, wrote the original Xvt.
1121
1122 Rob Nation <nation@rocket.sanders.lockheed.com>
1123 very heavily modified Xvt and came up with Rxvt
1124
1125 Angelo Haritsis <ah@doc.ic.ac.uk>
1126 wrote the Greek Keyboard Input (no longer in code)
1127
1128 mj olesen <olesen@me.QueensU.CA>
1129 Wrote the menu system.
1130
1131 Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.11 to 2.21)
1132
1133 Oezguer Kesim <kesim@math.fu-berlin.de>
1134 Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.21a to 2.4.5)
1135
1136 Geoff Wing <gcw@pobox.com>
1137 Rewrote screen display and text selection routines. Project
1138 Coordinator (changes.txt 2.4.6 - rxvt-unicode)
1139
1140 Marc Alexander Lehmann <rxvt-unicode@schmorp.de>
1141 Forked rxvt-unicode, rewrote most of the display code and internal
1142 character handling to store text in unicode, improve xterm
1143 compatibility and apply numerous other bugfixes and extensions.
1144
1145 Project Coordinator (Changes 1.0 -)
1146