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153This document contains the \s-1FAQ\s0, the \s-1RXVT\s0 \s-1TECHNICAL\s0 \s-1REFERENCE\s0 documenting 153This document contains the \s-1FAQ\s0, the \s-1RXVT\s0 \s-1TECHNICAL\s0 \s-1REFERENCE\s0 documenting
154all escape sequences, and other background information. 154all escape sequences, and other background information.
155.PP 155.PP
156The newest version of this document is also available on the World Wide Web at 156The newest version of this document is also available on the World Wide Web at
157<http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/*checkout*/rxvt\-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.html>. 157<http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/*checkout*/rxvt\-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.html>.
158.SH "FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS" 158.SH "RXVT\-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS"
159.IX Header "FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS" 159.IX Header "RXVT-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS"
160.Sh "The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?" 160.Sh "Meta, Features & Commandline Issues"
161.IX Subsection "The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?" 161.IX Subsection "Meta, Features & Commandline Issues"
162If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following 162\fIMy question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?\fR
163setting: 163.IX Subsection "My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?"
164.PP
165Before sending me mail, you could go to \s-1IRC:\s0 \f(CW\*(C`irc.freenode.net\*(C'\fR,
166channel \f(CW\*(C`#rxvt\-unicode\*(C'\fR has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
167interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
168.PP
169\fIDoes it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt\-unicode?\fR
170.IX Subsection "Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?"
171.PP
172Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a
173simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these should
174give you tabs:
164.PP 175.PP
165.Vb 1 176.Vb 1
166\& URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+) 177\& @@URXVT_NAME@@ -pe tabbed
167.Ve 178.Ve
168.PP
169If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended
170more and more.
171.PP
172To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this pattern:
173.PP 179.PP
174.Vb 1 180.Vb 1
175\& URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\e\e\e\e]^`{|})]+) 181\& URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
176.Ve 182.Ve
177.PP 183.PP
178Please also note that the \fILeftClick Shift-LeftClik\fR combination also 184It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window managers
179selects words like the old code. 185or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be
180.Sh "I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?" 186embedded into other programs, as witnessed by \fIdoc/rxvt\-tabbed\fR or
181.IX Subsection "I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?" 187the upcoming \f(CW\*(C`Gtk2::URxvt\*(C'\fR perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
182You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the 188(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
183\&\fBperl-ext-common\fR resource to the empty string, which also keeps
184rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
185.PP 189.PP
186If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to 190\fIHow do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?\fR
187identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section 191.IX Subsection "How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?"
188\&\fB\s-1PREPACKAGED\s0 \s-1EXTENSIONS\s0\fR in the @@RXVT_NAME@@\fIperl\fR\|(3) manpage. For
189example, to disable the \fBselection-popup\fR and \fBoption-popup\fR, specify
190this \fBperl-ext-common\fR resource:
191.PP 192.PP
193The version number is displayed with the usage (\-h). Also the escape
194sequence \f(CW\*(C`ESC [ 8 n\*(C'\fR sets the window title to the version number. When
195using the @@URXVT_NAME@@c client, the version displayed is that of the
196daemon.
197.PP
198\fIRxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?\fR
199.IX Subsection "Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?"
200.PP
201Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something you
202don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings that
203you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by design,
204when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be loaded
205accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your characters.
206.PP
207Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
208scrollback buffers: Without \f(CW\*(C`\-\-enable\-unicode3\*(C'\fR, rxvt-unicode will use
2096 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
210kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if full)
211use 10 Megabytes of memory. With \f(CW\*(C`\-\-enable\-unicode3\*(C'\fR it gets worse, as
212rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
213.PP
214\fIHow can I start @@URXVT_NAME@@d in a race-free way?\fR
215.IX Subsection "How can I start @@URXVT_NAME@@d in a race-free way?"
216.PP
217Try \f(CW\*(C`@@URXVT_NAME@@d \-f \-o\*(C'\fR, which tells @@URXVT_NAME@@d to open the
218display, create the listening socket and then fork.
219.PP
220\fIHow do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.\fR
221.IX Subsection "How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc."
222.PP
223The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable \*(L"\s-1COLORTERM\s0\*(R",
224so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, \s-1JED\s0,
225slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide
226whether or not to use color.
227.PP
228\fIHow do I set the correct, full \s-1IP\s0 address for the \s-1DISPLAY\s0 variable?\fR
229.IX Subsection "How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?"
230.PP
231If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with \s-1DISPLAY_IS_IP\s0 and have enabled
232insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
233snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
234wasn't also compiled with \s-1ESCZ_ANSWER\s0 (as assumed in these snippets) then
235the \s-1COLORTERM\s0 variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from a
236regular xterm.
237.PP
238Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
239snippets:
240.PP
192.Vb 1 241.Vb 12
193\& URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup 242\& # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
243\& [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
244\& if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
245\& stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
246\& echo -n '^[Z'
247\& read term_id
248\& stty icanon echo
249\& if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
250\& echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
251\& read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
252\& fi
253\& fi
194.Ve 254.Ve
195.PP 255.PP
196This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup 256\fIHow do I compile the manual pages on my own?\fR
197extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example, 257.IX Subsection "How do I compile the manual pages on my own?"
198scrollback search mode is triggered by \fBM\-s\fR. You can move it to any
199other combination either by setting the \fBsearchable-scrollback\fR resource:
200.PP 258.PP
201.Vb 1 259You need to have a recent version of perl installed as \fI/usr/bin/perl\fR,
202\& URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s 260one that comes with \fIpod2man\fR, \fIpod2text\fR and \fIpod2html\fR. Then go to
203.Ve 261the doc subdirectory and enter \f(CW\*(C`make alldoc\*(C'\fR.
204.PP 262.PP
205\fIThe cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?\fR
206.IX Subsection "The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?"
207.PP
208See next entry.
209.Sh "During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?"
210.IX Subsection "During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?"
211These are caused by the \f(CW\*(C`readline\*(C'\fR perl extension. Under normal
212circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
213line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
214but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in some
215cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
216.PP
217You can permamently switch this feature off by disabling the \f(CW\*(C`readline\*(C'\fR
218extension:
219.PP
220.Vb 1
221\& URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
222.Ve
223.Sh "Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?"
224.IX Subsection "Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?"
225Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
226applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your \s-1OS\s0 loads
227resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
228ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
229\&\fI$HOME/.Xdefaults\fR when no resources are attached to the display.
230.PP
231If you have or use an \fI$HOME/.Xresources\fR file, chances are that
232resources are loaded into your X\-server. In this case, you have to
233re-login after every change (or run \fIxrdb \-merge \f(CI$HOME\fI/.Xresources\fR).
234.PP
235Also consider the form resources have to use:
236.PP
237.Vb 1
238\& URxvt.resource: value
239.Ve
240.PP
241If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
242specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it
243works. If unsure, use the form above.
244.Sh "I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?"
245.IX Subsection "I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?"
246First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt\-unicode, so
247you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you may
248bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a rite
249of passage: ... and you failed.
250.PP
251Here are four ways to get transparency. \fBDo\fR read the manpage and option
252descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt\-unicode. Really, do it!
253.PP
2541. Use inheritPixmap:
255.PP
256.Vb 2
257\& Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
258\& @@RXVT_NAME@@ -ip -tint red -sh 40
259.Ve
260.PP
261That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
262support, or you are unable to read.
263.PP
2642. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo\-transparency. This enables you
265to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
266your picture with gimp:
267.PP
268.Vb 2
269\& convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm
270\& @@RXVT_NAME@@ -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background
271.Ve
272.PP
273That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack \s-1XPM\s0 and Perl support, or you
274are unable to read.
275.PP
2763. Use an \s-1ARGB\s0 visual:
277.PP
278.Vb 1
279\& @@RXVT_NAME@@ -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
280.Ve
281.PP
282This requires \s-1XFT\s0 support, and the support of your X\-server. If that
283doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. \s-1ARGB\s0 visuals aren't
284there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the neccessary
285bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but that
286doesn't mean that your \s-1WM\s0 has the required kludges in place.
287.PP
2884. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
289.PP
290.Vb 2
291\& xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \e
292\& -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
293.Ve
294.PP
295Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace \f(CW0xc0000000\fR
296by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
297your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
298.Sh "Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?" 263\fIIsn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?\fR
299.IX Subsection "Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?" 264.IX Subsection "Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?"
265.PP
300I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra 266I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra
301bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see 267bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see
302that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always being 268that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always being
303compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (\s-1RSS\s0) after startup. Even 269compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (\s-1RSS\s0) after startup. Even
304with \f(CW\*(C`\-\-disable\-everything\*(C'\fR, this comparison is a bit unfair, as many 270with \f(CW\*(C`\-\-disable\-everything\*(C'\fR, this comparison is a bit unfair, as many
… …
309\& text data bss drs rss filename 275\& text data bss drs rss filename
310\& 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything 276\& 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything
311\& 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything 277\& 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything
312.Ve 278.Ve
313.PP 279.PP
314When you \f(CW\*(C`\-\-enable\-everything\*(C'\fR (which _is_ unfair, as this involves xft 280When you \f(CW\*(C`\-\-enable\-everything\*(C'\fR (which \fIis\fR unfair, as this involves xft
315and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my 281and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my
316libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so. 282libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so.
317.PP 283.PP
318.Vb 3 284.Vb 3
319\& text data bss drs rss filename 285\& text data bss drs rss filename
… …
338still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like gnome-terminal 304still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like gnome-terminal
339(21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole (22200k + extra 305(21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole (22200k + extra
34043180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half a minute of 30643180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half a minute of
341startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits out), it fares 307startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits out), it fares
342extremely well *g*. 308extremely well *g*.
309.PP
343.Sh "Why \*(C+, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?" 310\fIWhy \*(C+, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?\fR
344.IX Subsection "Why , isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?" 311.IX Subsection "Why , isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?"
312.PP
345Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I had 313Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I had
346to write it, and \*(C+ allowed me to write and maintain it in a fraction 314to write it, and \*(C+ allowed me to write and maintain it in a fraction
347of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put even 315of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put even
348shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without \*(C+. 316shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without \*(C+.
349.PP 317.PP
… …
375\& /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000) 343\& /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
376.Ve 344.Ve
377.PP 345.PP
378No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically), 346No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
379except maybe libX11 :) 347except maybe libX11 :)
380.Sh "Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt\-unicode?" 348.Sh "Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues"
381.IX Subsection "Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?" 349.IX Subsection "Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues"
382Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a 350\fII can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?\fR
383simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these should 351.IX Subsection "I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?"
384give you tabs: 352.PP
353First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt\-unicode, so
354you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you may
355bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a rite
356of passage: ... and you failed.
357.PP
358Here are four ways to get transparency. \fBDo\fR read the manpage and option
359descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt\-unicode. Really, do it!
360.PP
3611. Use inheritPixmap:
362.PP
363.Vb 2
364\& Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
365\& @@URXVT_NAME@@ -ip -tint red -sh 40
366.Ve
367.PP
368That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
369support, or you are unable to read.
370.PP
3712. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo\-transparency. This enables you
372to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
373your picture with gimp or any other tool:
374.PP
375.Vb 2
376\& convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm
377\& @@URXVT_NAME@@ -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background
378.Ve
379.PP
380That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack \s-1XPM\s0 and Perl support, or you
381are unable to read.
382.PP
3833. Use an \s-1ARGB\s0 visual:
385.PP 384.PP
386.Vb 1 385.Vb 1
387\& @@RXVT_NAME@@ -pe tabbed 386\& @@URXVT_NAME@@ -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
388.Ve 387.Ve
388.PP
389This requires \s-1XFT\s0 support, and the support of your X\-server. If that
390doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. \s-1ARGB\s0 visuals aren't
391there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the neccessary
392bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but that
393doesn't mean that your \s-1WM\s0 has the required kludges in place.
394.PP
3954. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
396.PP
397.Vb 2
398\& xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \e
399\& -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
400.Ve
401.PP
402Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace \f(CW0xc0000000\fR
403by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
404your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
405.PP
406\fIWhy do some chinese characters look so different than others?\fR
407.IX Subsection "Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?"
408.PP
409This is because there is a difference between script and language \*(--
410rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is,
411as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first
412sees a japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for
413display. Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many
414chinese characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
415non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese font
416\&\*(-- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font for
417chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
418.PP
419The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
420list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as
421a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
422first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
423.PP
424In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
425runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
426fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
427has been designed yet).
428.PP
429Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see \*(L"Can I switch the fonts at runtime?\*(R" later in this document).
430.PP
431\fIWhy does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?\fR
432.IX Subsection "Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?"
433.PP
434Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that character
435size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal use might
436contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode will avoid
437these characters. For characters that are just \*(L"a bit\*(R" too wide a special
438\&\*(L"careful\*(R" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent characters.
439.PP
440All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
441however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed bounding
442box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct way is to
443ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is wrong in these
444cases).
445.PP
446It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
447or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try using
448the \f(CW\*(C`\-lsp\*(C'\fR option to give the font more height. If that doesn't work, you
449might be forced to use a different font.
450.PP
451All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their bounding
452box data is correct.
453.PP
454\fIHow can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?\fR
455.IX Subsection "How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?"
456.PP
457First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
458(\f(CW\*(C`TERM=rxvt\-unicode\*(C'\fR), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
459make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
460rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
461.PP
462.Vb 2
463\& URxvt.colorBD: white
464\& URxvt.colorIT: green
465.Ve
466.PP
467\fISome programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?\fR
468.IX Subsection "Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?"
469.PP
470For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
471colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the standard
4728 colours (rxvt\-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of course, to fix
473these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very good reasons.
474.PP
475In the meantime, you can either edit your \f(CW\*(C`rxvt\-unicode\*(C'\fR terminfo
476definition to only claim 8 colour support or use \f(CW\*(C`TERM=rxvt\*(C'\fR, which will
477fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
478.PP
479\fICan I switch the fonts at runtime?\fR
480.IX Subsection "Can I switch the fonts at runtime?"
481.PP
482Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the same
483effect as using the \f(CW\*(C`\-fn\*(C'\fR switch, and takes effect immediately:
389.PP 484.PP
390.Vb 1 485.Vb 1
486\& printf '\ee]50;%s\e007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
487.Ve
488.PP
489This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
490japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
491japanese fonts would only be in your way.
492.PP
493You can think of this as a kind of manual \s-1ISO\-2022\s0 switching.
494.PP
495\fIWhy do italic characters look as if clipped?\fR
496.IX Subsection "Why do italic characters look as if clipped?"
497.PP
498Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
499example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font \f(CW\*(C`xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
500Mono\*(C'\fR completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might be to
501enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
502.PP
503.Vb 2
504\& URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
505\& URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
506.Ve
507.PP
508\fICan I speed up Xft rendering somehow?\fR
509.IX Subsection "Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?"
510.PP
511Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as
512it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
513antialiasing (by appending \f(CW\*(C`:antialias=false\*(C'\fR), which saves lots of
514memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
515.PP
516\fIRxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?\fR
517.IX Subsection "Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?"
518.PP
519Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
520fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
521fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
522antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
523look best that way.
524.PP
525If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
526.PP
527\fIWhat's with this bold/blink stuff?\fR
528.IX Subsection "What's with this bold/blink stuff?"
529.PP
530If no bold colour is set via \f(CW\*(C`colorBD:\*(C'\fR, bold will invert text using the
531standard foreground colour.
532.PP
533For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the
534text blink when compiled with \f(CW\*(C`\-\-enable\-blinking\*(C'\fR. with standard
535colours. Without \f(CW\*(C`\-\-enable\-blinking\*(C'\fR, the blink attribute will be
536ignored.
537.PP
538On \s-1ANSI\s0 colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
539foreground/background colors.
540.PP
541color0\-7 are the low-intensity colors.
542.PP
543color8\-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
544.PP
545\fII don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?\fR
546.IX Subsection "I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?"
547.PP
548You can change the screen colors at run-time using \fI~/.Xdefaults\fR
549resources (or as long\-options).
550.PP
551Here are values that are supposed to resemble a \s-1VGA\s0 screen,
552including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
553.PP
554.Vb 8
555\& URxvt.color0: #000000
556\& URxvt.color1: #A80000
557\& URxvt.color2: #00A800
558\& URxvt.color3: #A8A800
559\& URxvt.color4: #0000A8
560\& URxvt.color5: #A800A8
561\& URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
562\& URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
563.Ve
564.PP
565.Vb 8
566\& URxvt.color8: #000054
567\& URxvt.color9: #FF0054
568\& URxvt.color10: #00FF54
569\& URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
570\& URxvt.color12: #0000FF
571\& URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
572\& URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
573\& URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
574.Ve
575.PP
576And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors.
577.PP
578.Vb 18
579\& URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
580\& URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
581\& URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
582\& URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
583\& URxvt.color0: #000000
584\& URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
585\& URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
586\& URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
587\& URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
588\& URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
589\& URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
590\& URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
591\& URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
592\& URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
593\& URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
594\& URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
595\& URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
596\& URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
597.Ve
598.PP
599(They were described (not by me) as \*(L"pretty girly\*(R").
600.PP
601\fIHow does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?\fR
602.IX Subsection "How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?"
603.PP
604Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is
605fine. Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
606your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want
607to display.
608.PP
609\&\fBrxvt-unicode\fR makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement
610font. Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
611bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
612resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
613intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
614the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
615.PP
616In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
617e.g.:
618.PP
619.Vb 1
620\& @@URXVT_NAME@@ -fn basefont,font2,font3...
621.Ve
622.PP
623When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
624font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the
625next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
626search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X\-server.
627.PP
628The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the base
629font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size, which
630must be the same due to the way terminals work.
631.Sh "Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction"
632.IX Subsection "Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction"
633\fIThe new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?\fR
634.IX Subsection "The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?"
635.PP
636If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
637setting:
638.PP
639.Vb 1
640\& URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
641.Ve
642.PP
643If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended
644more and more.
645.PP
646To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this pattern:
647.PP
648.Vb 1
649\& URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\e\e\e\e]^`{|})]+)
650.Ve
651.PP
652Please also note that the \fILeftClick Shift-LeftClik\fR combination also
653selects words like the old code.
654.PP
655\fII don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?\fR
656.IX Subsection "I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?"
657.PP
658You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
659\&\fBperl-ext-common\fR resource to the empty string, which also keeps
660rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
661.PP
662If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
663identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
664\&\fB\s-1PREPACKAGED\s0 \s-1EXTENSIONS\s0\fR in the @@URXVT_NAME@@\fIperl\fR\|(3) manpage. For
665example, to disable the \fBselection-popup\fR and \fBoption-popup\fR, specify
666this \fBperl-ext-common\fR resource:
667.PP
668.Vb 1
669\& URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
670.Ve
671.PP
672This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
673extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
674scrollback search mode is triggered by \fBM\-s\fR. You can move it to any
675other combination either by setting the \fBsearchable-scrollback\fR resource:
676.PP
677.Vb 1
678\& URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
679.Ve
680.PP
681\fIThe cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?\fR
682.IX Subsection "The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?"
683.PP
684See next entry.
685.PP
686\fIDuring rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?\fR
687.IX Subsection "During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?"
688.PP
689These are caused by the \f(CW\*(C`readline\*(C'\fR perl extension. Under normal
690circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
691line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
692but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in some
693cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
694.PP
695You can permamently switch this feature off by disabling the \f(CW\*(C`readline\*(C'\fR
696extension:
697.PP
698.Vb 1
391\& URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed 699\& URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
392.Ve 700.Ve
393.PP 701.PP
394It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window managers 702\fIMy numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?\fR
395or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be 703.IX Subsection "My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?"
396embedded into other programs, as witnessed by \fIdoc/rxvt\-tabbed\fR or
397the upcoming \f(CW\*(C`Gtk2::URxvt\*(C'\fR perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
398(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
399.Sh "How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?"
400.IX Subsection "How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?"
401The version number is displayed with the usage (\-h). Also the escape
402sequence \f(CW\*(C`ESC [ 8 n\*(C'\fR sets the window title to the version number. When
403using the @@RXVT_NAME@@c client, the version displayed is that of the
404daemon.
405.Sh "I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem..."
406.IX Subsection "I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem..."
407The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
408patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
409unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
410the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
411version (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt\-unicode>) and try to reproduce
412the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific to
413Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian Bug
414Tracking System (use \f(CW\*(C`reportbug\*(C'\fR to report the bug).
415.PP 704.PP
416For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and 705Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
417probably should use the Debian \s-1BTS\s0, too, because, after all, it's also a 706specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is caused
418bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users that 707by the wrong \f(CW\*(C`TERM\*(C'\fR setting, although the details of wether and how
419might encounter the same issue. 708this can happen are unknown, as \f(CW\*(C`TERM=rxvt\*(C'\fR should offer a compatible
420.Sh "I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS \s-1XXX\s0, any recommendation?" 709keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please report if that
421.IX Subsection "I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?" 710helped.
422You should build one binary with the default options. \fIconfigure\fR
423now enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
424runtime\-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling them,
425except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter should
426be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely more in
427the future) depends on it.
428.PP 711.PP
429You should not overwrite the \f(CW\*(C`perl\-ext\-common\*(C'\fR snd \f(CW\*(C`perl\-ext\*(C'\fR resources 712\fIMy Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.\fR
430system-wide (except maybe with \f(CW\*(C`defaults\*(C'\fR). This will result in useful 713.IX Subsection "My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working."
431behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
432\&\f(CW\*(C`perl\-ext\-common\*(C'\fR resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
433perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
434.PP 714.PP
435If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal 715The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
436one with \f(CW\*(C`\-\-disable\-everything\*(C'\fR (very useful) and a maximal one with 716correctly, or you specified a \fBpreeditStyle\fR that is not supported by
437\&\f(CW\*(C`\-\-enable\-everything\*(C'\fR (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of 717your input method. For example, if you specified \fBOverTheSpot\fR and
438encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used). 718your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys)
439.Sh "I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my \s-1OS\s0, is this safe?" 719does not support this (for instance because it is not visual), then
440.IX Subsection "I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?" 720rxvt-unicode will continue without an input method.
441It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
442install urxvt with privileges necessary for your \s-1OS\s0 now.
443.PP 721.PP
444When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork 722In this case either do not specify a \fBpreeditStyle\fR or specify more than
445into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some 723one pre-edit style, such as \fBOverTheSpot,Root,None\fR.
446systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
447immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
448privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
449things as perl interpreters, which might be \*(L"helpful\*(R" to attackers).
450.PP 724.PP
451This forking is done as the very first within \fImain()\fR, which is very early 725\fII cannot type \f(CI\*(C`Ctrl\-Shift\-2\*(C'\fI to get an \s-1ASCII\s0 \s-1NUL\s0 character due to \s-1ISO\s0 14755\fR
452and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before \fImain()\fR, or 726.IX Subsection "I cannot type Ctrl-Shift-2 to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755"
453things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should result in very 727.PP
454little risk. 728Either try \f(CW\*(C`Ctrl\-2\*(C'\fR alone (it often is mapped to \s-1ASCII\s0 \s-1NUL\s0 even on
729international keyboards) or simply use \s-1ISO\s0 14755 support to your
730advantage, typing <Ctrl\-Shift\-0> to get a \s-1ASCII\s0 \s-1NUL\s0. This works for other
731codes, too, such as \f(CW\*(C`Ctrl\-Shift\-1\-d\*(C'\fR to type the default telnet escape
732character and so on.
733.PP
734\fIMouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.\fR
735.IX Subsection "Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works."
736.PP
737Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
738some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've
739heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A
740quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
741depressed.
742.PP
743\fIWhat's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?\fR
744.IX Subsection "What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?"
745.PP
746Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
747BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
748question) there are two standard values that can be used for
749Backspace: \f(CW\*(C`^H\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`^?\*(C'\fR.
750.PP
751Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the debian
752policy of using \f(CW\*(C`^?\*(C'\fR when unsure, because it's the one only only correct
753choice :).
754.PP
755Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the value
756of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode wasn't
757started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), then the
758system value of `erase', which corresponds to \s-1CERASE\s0 in <termios.h>, will
759be used (which may not be the same as your stty setting).
760.PP
761For starting a new rxvt\-unicode:
762.PP
763.Vb 3
764\& # use Backspace = ^H
765\& $ stty erase ^H
766\& $ @@URXVT_NAME@@
767.Ve
768.PP
769.Vb 3
770\& # use Backspace = ^?
771\& $ stty erase ^?
772\& $ @@URXVT_NAME@@
773.Ve
774.PP
775Toggle with \f(CW\*(C`ESC [ 36 h\*(C'\fR / \f(CW\*(C`ESC [ 36 l\*(C'\fR.
776.PP
777For an existing rxvt\-unicode:
778.PP
779.Vb 3
780\& # use Backspace = ^H
781\& $ stty erase ^H
782\& $ echo -n "^[[36h"
783.Ve
784.PP
785.Vb 3
786\& # use Backspace = ^?
787\& $ stty erase ^?
788\& $ echo -n "^[[36l"
789.Ve
790.PP
791This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
792if you use Backspace = \f(CW\*(C`^H\*(C'\fR, make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
793properly reflects that.
794.PP
795The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace problem.
796To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the Delete
797key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for Execute
798(\f(CW\*(C`ESC [ 3 ~\*(C'\fR) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
799.PP
800Some other Backspace problems:
801.PP
802some editors use termcap/terminfo,
803some editors (vim I'm told) expect Backspace = ^H,
804\&\s-1GNU\s0 Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
805.PP
806Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
807.PP
808\fII don't like the key\-bindings. How do I change them?\fR
809.IX Subsection "I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?"
810.PP
811There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
812you have run \*(L"configure\*(R" with the \f(CW\*(C`\-\-disable\-resources\*(C'\fR option you can
813use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with keysyms.
814.PP
815Here's an example for a URxvt session started using \f(CW\*(C`@@URXVT_NAME@@ \-name URxvt\*(C'\fR
816.PP
817.Vb 20
818\& URxvt.keysym.Home: \e033[1~
819\& URxvt.keysym.End: \e033[4~
820\& URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \e033<C-'>
821\& URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \e033<C-/>
822\& URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \e033<C-;>
823\& URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \e033<C-`>
824\& URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \e033<C-,>
825\& URxvt.keysym.C-period: \e033<C-.>
826\& URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \e033<C-`>
827\& URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \e033<C-Tab>
828\& URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \e033<C-Return>
829\& URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \e033<S-Return>
830\& URxvt.keysym.S-space: \e033<S-Space>
831\& URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \e033<M-Up>
832\& URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \e033<M-Down>
833\& URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \e033<M-Left>
834\& URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \e033<M-Right>
835\& URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \e033<M-C- 0123456789 >
836\& URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \e033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
837\& URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\e033]701;zh_CN.GBK\e007
838.Ve
839.PP
840See some more examples in the documentation for the \fBkeysym\fR resource.
841.PP
842\fII'm using keyboard model \s-1XXX\s0 that has extra Prior/Next/Insert keys. How do I make use of them? For example, the Sun Keyboard type 4 has the following map\fR
843.IX Subsection "I'm using keyboard model XXX that has extra Prior/Next/Insert keys. How do I make use of them? For example, the Sun Keyboard type 4 has the following map"
844.PP
845.Vb 6
846\& KP_Insert == Insert
847\& F22 == Print
848\& F27 == Home
849\& F29 == Prior
850\& F33 == End
851\& F35 == Next
852.Ve
853.PP
854Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various possible
855keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the keys as
856required for your particular machine.
857.Sh "Terminal Configuration"
858.IX Subsection "Terminal Configuration"
859\fIWhy doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?\fR
860.IX Subsection "Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?"
861.PP
862Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
863applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your \s-1OS\s0 loads
864resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
865ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
866\&\fI$HOME/.Xdefaults\fR when no resources are attached to the display.
867.PP
868If you have or use an \fI$HOME/.Xresources\fR file, chances are that
869resources are loaded into your X\-server. In this case, you have to
870re-login after every change (or run \fIxrdb \-merge \f(CI$HOME\fI/.Xresources\fR).
871.PP
872Also consider the form resources have to use:
873.PP
874.Vb 1
875\& URxvt.resource: value
876.Ve
877.PP
878If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
879specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it
880works. If unsure, use the form above.
881.PP
455.Sh "When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?" 882\fIWhen I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?\fR
456.IX Subsection "When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?" 883.IX Subsection "When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?"
884.PP
457The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available 885The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
458as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often arises). 886as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often arises).
459.PP 887.PP
460The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this can 888The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this can
461be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp): 889be done like this (with ncurses' infocmp):
… …
480.Vb 1 908.Vb 1
481\& URxvt.termName: rxvt 909\& URxvt.termName: rxvt
482.Ve 910.Ve
483.PP 911.PP
484If you don't plan to use \fBrxvt\fR (quite common...) you could also replace 912If you don't plan to use \fBrxvt\fR (quite common...) you could also replace
485the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one. 913the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use \f(CW\*(C`TERM=rxvt\*(C'\fR.
486.ie n .Sh """tic"" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry." 914.PP
487.el .Sh "\f(CWtic\fP outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry." 915\fI\f(CI\*(C`tic\*(C'\fI outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.\fR
488.IX Subsection "tic outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry." 916.IX Subsection "tic outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry."
917.PP
489Most likely it's the empty definition for \f(CW\*(C`enacs=\*(C'\fR. Just replace it by 918Most likely it's the empty definition for \f(CW\*(C`enacs=\*(C'\fR. Just replace it by
490\&\f(CW\*(C`enacs=\eE[0@\*(C'\fR and try again. 919\&\f(CW\*(C`enacs=\eE[0@\*(C'\fR and try again.
491.ie n .Sh """bash""'s readline does not work correctly under @@RXVT_NAME@@." 920.PP
492.el .Sh "\f(CWbash\fP's readline does not work correctly under @@RXVT_NAME@@." 921\fI\f(CI\*(C`bash\*(C'\fI's readline does not work correctly under @@URXVT_NAME@@.\fR
493.IX Subsection "bash's readline does not work correctly under @@RXVT_NAME@@." 922.IX Subsection "bash's readline does not work correctly under @@URXVT_NAME@@."
923.PP
494See next entry. 924See next entry.
925.PP
495.Sh "I need a termcap file entry." 926\fII need a termcap file entry.\fR
496.IX Subsection "I need a termcap file entry." 927.IX Subsection "I need a termcap file entry."
928.PP
497One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating 929One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
498systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap 930systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
499library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry 931library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
500for \f(CW\*(C`rxvt\-unicode\*(C'\fR. 932for \f(CW\*(C`rxvt\-unicode\*(C'\fR.
501.PP 933.PP
… …
529\& :sc=\eE7:se=\eE[27m:sf=^J:so=\eE[7m:sr=\eEM:st=\eEH:ta=^I:\e 961\& :sc=\eE7:se=\eE[27m:sf=^J:so=\eE[7m:sr=\eEM:st=\eEH:ta=^I:\e
530\& :te=\eE[r\eE[?1049l:ti=\eE[?1049h:ue=\eE[24m:up=\eE[A:\e 962\& :te=\eE[r\eE[?1049l:ti=\eE[?1049h:ue=\eE[24m:up=\eE[A:\e
531\& :us=\eE[4m:vb=\eE[?5h\eE[?5l:ve=\eE[?25h:vi=\eE[?25l:\e 963\& :us=\eE[4m:vb=\eE[?5h\eE[?5l:ve=\eE[?25h:vi=\eE[?25l:\e
532\& :vs=\eE[?25h: 964\& :vs=\eE[?25h:
533.Ve 965.Ve
534.ie n .Sh "Why does ""ls"" no longer have coloured output?" 966.PP
535.el .Sh "Why does \f(CWls\fP no longer have coloured output?" 967\fIWhy does \f(CI\*(C`ls\*(C'\fI no longer have coloured output?\fR
536.IX Subsection "Why does ls no longer have coloured output?" 968.IX Subsection "Why does ls no longer have coloured output?"
969.PP
537The \f(CW\*(C`ls\*(C'\fR in the \s-1GNU\s0 coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to 970The \f(CW\*(C`ls\*(C'\fR in the \s-1GNU\s0 coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
538decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration 971decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration
539file. Needless to say, \f(CW\*(C`rxvt\-unicode\*(C'\fR is not in it's default file (among 972file. Needless to say, \f(CW\*(C`rxvt\-unicode\*(C'\fR is not in it's default file (among
540with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add: 973with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
541.PP 974.PP
… …
548.Vb 1 981.Vb 1
549\& alias ls='ls --color=auto' 982\& alias ls='ls --color=auto'
550.Ve 983.Ve
551.PP 984.PP
552to your \f(CW\*(C`.profile\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`.bashrc\*(C'\fR. 985to your \f(CW\*(C`.profile\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`.bashrc\*(C'\fR.
986.PP
553.Sh "Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?" 987\fIWhy doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?\fR
554.IX Subsection "Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?" 988.IX Subsection "Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?"
989.PP
555See next entry. 990See next entry.
991.PP
556.Sh "Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?" 992\fIWhy doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?\fR
557.IX Subsection "Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?" 993.IX Subsection "Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?"
994.PP
558See next entry. 995See next entry.
996.PP
559.Sh "Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?" 997\fIWhy are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?\fR
560.IX Subsection "Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?" 998.IX Subsection "Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?"
999.PP
561Make sure you are using \f(CW\*(C`TERM=rxvt\-unicode\*(C'\fR. Some pre-packaged 1000Make sure you are using \f(CW\*(C`TERM=rxvt\-unicode\*(C'\fR. Some pre-packaged
562distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode 1001distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode
563by setting \f(CW\*(C`TERM\*(C'\fR to \f(CW\*(C`rxvt\*(C'\fR, which doesn't have these extra 1002by setting \f(CW\*(C`TERM\*(C'\fR to \f(CW\*(C`rxvt\*(C'\fR, which doesn't have these extra
564features. Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian 1003features. Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian
565GNU/Linux) furthermore fail to even install the \f(CW\*(C`rxvt\-unicode\*(C'\fR terminfo 1004GNU/Linux) furthermore fail to even install the \f(CW\*(C`rxvt\-unicode\*(C'\fR terminfo
566file, so you will need to install it on your own (See the question \fBWhen 1005file, so you will need to install it on your own (See the question \fBWhen
567I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?\fR on 1006I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?\fR on
568how to do this). 1007how to do this).
569.Sh "My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?" 1008.Sh "Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues"
570.IX Subsection "My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?" 1009.IX Subsection "Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues"
571Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
572specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is caused
573by the wrong \f(CW\*(C`TERM\*(C'\fR setting, although the details of wether and how
574this can happen are unknown, as \f(CW\*(C`TERM=rxvt\*(C'\fR should offer a compatible
575keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please report if that
576helped.
577.Sh "Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?" 1010\fIRxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?\fR
578.IX Subsection "Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?" 1011.IX Subsection "Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?"
1012.PP
579See next entry. 1013See next entry.
1014.PP
580.Sh "Unicode does not seem to work?" 1015\fIUnicode does not seem to work?\fR
581.IX Subsection "Unicode does not seem to work?" 1016.IX Subsection "Unicode does not seem to work?"
1017.PP
582If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but 1018If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
583getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output is 1019getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output is
584subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings. 1020subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
585.PP 1021.PP
586Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same \f(CW\*(C`LC_CTYPE\*(C'\fR setting as the 1022Rxvt-unicode must be started with the same \f(CW\*(C`LC_CTYPE\*(C'\fR setting as the
… …
608Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system. 1044Then the locale you specified is not supported on your system.
609.PP 1045.PP
610If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then 1046If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
611you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't 1047you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
612support locales :( 1048support locales :(
613.Sh "Why do some characters look so much different than others?" 1049.PP
614.IX Subsection "Why do some characters look so much different than others?" 1050\fIHow does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?\fR
1051.IX Subsection "How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?"
1052.PP
615See next entry. 1053See next entry.
616.Sh "How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?"
617.IX Subsection "How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?"
618Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is
619fine. Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
620your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want
621to display.
622.PP 1054.PP
623\&\fBrxvt-unicode\fR makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement 1055\fIIs there an option to switch encodings?\fR
624font. Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks 1056.IX Subsection "Is there an option to switch encodings?"
625bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
626resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
627intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
628the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
629.PP 1057.PP
630In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list, 1058Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
631e.g.: 1059specific \*(L"utf\-8\*(R" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know about
1060\&\s-1UTF\-8\s0 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
1061.PP
1062The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for selecting
1063the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating this to all
1064applications so everybody agrees on character properties such as width
1065and code number. This mechanism is the \fIlocale\fR. Applications not using
1066that info will have problems (for example, \f(CW\*(C`xterm\*(C'\fR gets the width of
1067characters wrong as it uses it's own, locale-independent table under all
1068locales).
1069.PP
1070Rxvt-unicode uses the \f(CW\*(C`LC_CTYPE\*(C'\fR locale category to select encoding. All
1071programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
1072interpretation of characters.
1073.PP
1074Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
1075is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
1076.PP
1077On most systems, the content of the \f(CW\*(C`LC_CTYPE\*(C'\fR environment variable
1078contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
1079locale. Common names for locales are \f(CW\*(C`en_US.UTF\-8\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`de_DE.ISO\-8859\-15\*(C'\fR,
1080\&\f(CW\*(C`ja_JP.EUC\-JP\*(C'\fR, i.e. \f(CW\*(C`language_country.encoding\*(C'\fR, but other forms
1081(i.e. \f(CW\*(C`de\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`german\*(C'\fR) are also common.
1082.PP
1083Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for
1084the encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings,
1085i.e. \f(CW\*(C`de_DE.UTF\-8\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`ja_JP.UTF\-8\*(C'\fR are the normally same to
1086rxvt\-unicode.
1087.PP
1088If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
1089rxvt-unicode with the correct \f(CW\*(C`LC_CTYPE\*(C'\fR category.
1090.PP
1091\fICan I switch locales at runtime?\fR
1092.IX Subsection "Can I switch locales at runtime?"
1093.PP
1094Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
1095rxvt\-unicode's idea of \f(CW\*(C`LC_CTYPE\*(C'\fR.
632.PP 1096.PP
633.Vb 1 1097.Vb 1
634\& @@RXVT_NAME@@ -fn basefont,font2,font3... 1098\& printf '\ee]701;%s\e007' ja_JP.SJIS
635.Ve 1099.Ve
636.PP 1100.PP
637When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base 1101See also the previous answer.
638font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the
639next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
640search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X\-server.
641.PP 1102.PP
642The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the base 1103Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in
643font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size, which 1104one locale (e.g. \f(CW\*(C`de_DE.UTF\-8\*(C'\fR) but some programs don't support it
644must be the same due to the way terminals work. 1105(e.g. \s-1UTF\-8\s0). For example, I use this script to start \f(CW\*(C`xjdic\*(C'\fR, which
645.Sh "Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?" 1106first switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
646.IX Subsection "Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?"
647This is because there is a difference between script and language \*(--
648rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is,
649as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first
650sees a japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for
651display. Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many
652chinese characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
653non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese font
654\&\*(-- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font for
655chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
656.PP 1107.PP
657The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font 1108.Vb 3
658list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as 1109\& printf '\ee]701;%s\e007' ja_JP.SJIS
659a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font 1110\& xjdic -js
660first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first. 1111\& printf '\ee]701;%s\e007' de_DE.UTF-8
1112.Ve
661.PP 1113.PP
662In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at 1114You can also use xterm's \f(CW\*(C`luit\*(C'\fR program, which usually works fine, except
663runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different 1115for some locales where character width differs between program\- and
664fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this 1116rxvt\-unicode\-locales.
665has been designed yet).
666.PP 1117.PP
667Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see \*(L"Can I switch the fonts at runtime?\*(R" later in this document). 1118\fIMy input method wants <some encoding> but I want \s-1UTF\-8\s0, what can I do?\fR
668.Sh "Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?" 1119.IX Subsection "My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?"
669.IX Subsection "Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?"
670Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that character
671size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal use might
672contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode will avoid
673these characters. For characters that are just \*(L"a bit\*(R" too wide a special
674\&\*(L"careful\*(R" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent characters.
675.PP 1120.PP
676All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes, 1121You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of the
677however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed bounding 1122terminal, using the resource \f(CW\*(C`imlocale\*(C'\fR:
678box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct way is to
679ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is wrong in these
680cases).
681.PP 1123.PP
682It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype, 1124.Vb 1
683or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try using 1125\& URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
684the \f(CW\*(C`\-lsp\*(C'\fR option to give the font more height. If that doesn't work, you 1126.Ve
685might be forced to use a different font.
686.PP 1127.PP
687All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their bounding 1128Now you can start your terminal with \f(CW\*(C`LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF\-8\*(C'\fR and still
688box data is correct. 1129use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not be able to
1130input characters outside \f(CW\*(C`EUC\-JP\*(C'\fR in a normal way then, as your input
1131method limits you.
1132.PP
1133\fIRxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.\fR
1134.IX Subsection "Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits."
1135.PP
1136Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the \s-1XIM\s0 protocol is racy by
1137design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
1138leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
1139exit time. \fBkinput2\fR (and derived input methods) generally succeeds,
1140while \fB\s-1SCIM\s0\fR (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however,
1141crashes cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
1142.PP
1143So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
1144.Sh "Operating Systems / Package Maintaining"
1145.IX Subsection "Operating Systems / Package Maintaining"
1146\fII am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...\fR
1147.IX Subsection "I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem..."
1148.PP
1149The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
1150patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
1151unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
1152the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
1153version (<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt\-unicode>) and try to reproduce
1154the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific to
1155Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian Bug
1156Tracking System (use \f(CW\*(C`reportbug\*(C'\fR to report the bug).
1157.PP
1158For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
1159probably should use the Debian \s-1BTS\s0, too, because, after all, it's also a
1160bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users that
1161might encounter the same issue.
1162.PP
1163\fII am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS \s-1XXX\s0, any recommendation?\fR
1164.IX Subsection "I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?"
1165.PP
1166You should build one binary with the default options. \fIconfigure\fR
1167now enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
1168runtime\-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling them,
1169except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter should
1170be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely more in
1171the future) depends on it.
1172.PP
1173You should not overwrite the \f(CW\*(C`perl\-ext\-common\*(C'\fR snd \f(CW\*(C`perl\-ext\*(C'\fR resources
1174system-wide (except maybe with \f(CW\*(C`defaults\*(C'\fR). This will result in useful
1175behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
1176\&\f(CW\*(C`perl\-ext\-common\*(C'\fR resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
1177perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
1178.PP
1179If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal
1180one with \f(CW\*(C`\-\-disable\-everything\*(C'\fR (very useful) and a maximal one with
1181\&\f(CW\*(C`\-\-enable\-everything\*(C'\fR (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
1182encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
1183.PP
1184\fII need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my \s-1OS\s0, is this safe?\fR
1185.IX Subsection "I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?"
1186.PP
1187It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
1188install urxvt with privileges necessary for your \s-1OS\s0 now.
1189.PP
1190When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
1191into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
1192systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
1193immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
1194privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
1195things as perl interpreters, which might be \*(L"helpful\*(R" to attackers).
1196.PP
1197This forking is done as the very first within \fImain()\fR, which is very early
1198and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before \fImain()\fR, or
1199things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should result in very
1200little risk.
1201.PP
689.Sh "On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide." 1202\fIOn Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.\fR
690.IX Subsection "On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide." 1203.IX Subsection "On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide."
1204.PP
691Seems to be a known bug, read 1205Seems to be a known bug, read
692<http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the 1206<http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the
693following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working: 1207following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
694.PP 1208.PP
695.Vb 1 1209.Vb 1
696\& #define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x) 1210\& #define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)
697.Ve 1211.Ve
698.Sh "My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working."
699.IX Subsection "My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working."
700The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
701correctly, or you specified a \fBpreeditStyle\fR that is not supported by
702your input method. For example, if you specified \fBOverTheSpot\fR and
703your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys)
704does not support this (for instance because it is not visual), then
705rxvt-unicode will continue without an input method.
706.PP 1212.PP
707In this case either do not specify a \fBpreeditStyle\fR or specify more than
708one pre-edit style, such as \fBOverTheSpot,Root,None\fR.
709.ie n .Sh "I cannot type ""Ctrl\-Shift\-2"" to get an \s-1ASCII\s0 \s-1NUL\s0 character due to \s-1ISO\s0 14755"
710.el .Sh "I cannot type \f(CWCtrl\-Shift\-2\fP to get an \s-1ASCII\s0 \s-1NUL\s0 character due to \s-1ISO\s0 14755"
711.IX Subsection "I cannot type Ctrl-Shift-2 to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755"
712Either try \f(CW\*(C`Ctrl\-2\*(C'\fR alone (it often is mapped to \s-1ASCII\s0 \s-1NUL\s0 even on
713international keyboards) or simply use \s-1ISO\s0 14755 support to your
714advantage, typing <Ctrl\-Shift\-0> to get a \s-1ASCII\s0 \s-1NUL\s0. This works for other
715codes, too, such as \f(CW\*(C`Ctrl\-Shift\-1\-d\*(C'\fR to type the default telnet escape
716character and so on.
717.Sh "How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?"
718.IX Subsection "How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?"
719First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
720(\f(CW\*(C`TERM=rxvt\-unicode\*(C'\fR), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
721make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
722rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
723.PP
724.Vb 2
725\& URxvt.colorBD: white
726\& URxvt.colorIT: green
727.Ve
728.Sh "Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?"
729.IX Subsection "Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?"
730For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
731colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the standard
7328 colours (rxvt\-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of course, to fix
733these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very good reasons.
734.PP
735In the meantime, you can either edit your \f(CW\*(C`rxvt\-unicode\*(C'\fR terminfo
736definition to only claim 8 colour support or use \f(CW\*(C`TERM=rxvt\*(C'\fR, which will
737fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
738.Sh "I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all." 1213\fII am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.\fR
739.IX Subsection "I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all." 1214.IX Subsection "I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all."
1215.PP
740Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol \f(CW\*(C`_\|_STDC_ISO_10646_\|_\*(C'\fR to be defined 1216Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol \f(CW\*(C`_\|_STDC_ISO_10646_\|_\*(C'\fR to be defined
741in your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it, 1217in your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
742wether it defines the symbol or not. \f(CW\*(C`_\|_STDC_ISO_10646_\|_\*(C'\fR requires that 1218wether it defines the symbol or not. \f(CW\*(C`_\|_STDC_ISO_10646_\|_\*(C'\fR requires that
743\&\fBwchar_t\fR is represented as unicode. 1219\&\fBwchar_t\fR is represented as unicode.
744.PP 1220.PP
… …
764encodings slightly different than the terminal emulator). 1240encodings slightly different than the terminal emulator).
765.PP 1241.PP
766The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the 1242The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
767system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry 1243system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
768complete replacements for them :) 1244complete replacements for them :)
1245.PP
769.Sh "I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc." 1246\fII use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.\fR
770.IX Subsection "I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc." 1247.IX Subsection "I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc."
1248.PP
771Try the diff in \fIdoc/solaris9.patch\fR as a base. It fixes the worst 1249Try the diff in \fIdoc/solaris9.patch\fR as a base. It fixes the worst
772problems with \f(CW\*(C`wcwidth\*(C'\fR and a compile problem. 1250problems with \f(CW\*(C`wcwidth\*(C'\fR and a compile problem.
1251.PP
773.Sh "How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?" 1252\fIHow can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?\fR
774.IX Subsection "How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?" 1253.IX Subsection "How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?"
1254.PP
775rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using 1255rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using
776the X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no 1256the X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no
777longer supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a 1257longer supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a
778single font). I recommend starting the X\-server in \f(CW\*(C`\-multiwindow\*(C'\fR or 1258single font). I recommend starting the X\-server in \f(CW\*(C`\-multiwindow\*(C'\fR or
779\&\f(CW\*(C`\-rootless\*(C'\fR mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the 1259\&\f(CW\*(C`\-rootless\*(C'\fR mode instead, which will result in similar look&feel as the
780old libW11 emulation. 1260old libW11 emulation.
781.PP 1261.PP
782At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any multi-byte 1262At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any multi-byte
783encodings (you might try \f(CW\*(C`LC_CTYPE=C\-UTF\-8\*(C'\fR), so you are likely limited 1263encodings (you might try \f(CW\*(C`LC_CTYPE=C\-UTF\-8\*(C'\fR), so you are likely limited
784to 8\-bit encodings. 1264to 8\-bit encodings.
785.Sh "How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?"
786.IX Subsection "How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?"
787See next entry.
788.Sh "Is there an option to switch encodings?"
789.IX Subsection "Is there an option to switch encodings?"
790Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
791specific \*(L"utf\-8\*(R" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know about
792\&\s-1UTF\-8\s0 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
793.PP
794The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for selecting
795the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating this to all
796applications so everybody agrees on character properties such as width
797and code number. This mechanism is the \fIlocale\fR. Applications not using
798that info will have problems (for example, \f(CW\*(C`xterm\*(C'\fR gets the width of
799characters wrong as it uses it's own, locale-independent table under all
800locales).
801.PP
802Rxvt-unicode uses the \f(CW\*(C`LC_CTYPE\*(C'\fR locale category to select encoding. All
803programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
804interpretation of characters.
805.PP
806Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
807is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
808.PP
809On most systems, the content of the \f(CW\*(C`LC_CTYPE\*(C'\fR environment variable
810contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
811locale. Common names for locales are \f(CW\*(C`en_US.UTF\-8\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`de_DE.ISO\-8859\-15\*(C'\fR,
812\&\f(CW\*(C`ja_JP.EUC\-JP\*(C'\fR, i.e. \f(CW\*(C`language_country.encoding\*(C'\fR, but other forms
813(i.e. \f(CW\*(C`de\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`german\*(C'\fR) are also common.
814.PP
815Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for
816the encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings,
817i.e. \f(CW\*(C`de_DE.UTF\-8\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`ja_JP.UTF\-8\*(C'\fR are the normally same to
818rxvt\-unicode.
819.PP
820If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
821rxvt-unicode with the correct \f(CW\*(C`LC_CTYPE\*(C'\fR category.
822.Sh "Can I switch locales at runtime?"
823.IX Subsection "Can I switch locales at runtime?"
824Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
825rxvt\-unicode's idea of \f(CW\*(C`LC_CTYPE\*(C'\fR.
826.PP
827.Vb 1
828\& printf '\ee]701;%s\e007' ja_JP.SJIS
829.Ve
830.PP
831See also the previous answer.
832.PP
833Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in
834one locale (e.g. \f(CW\*(C`de_DE.UTF\-8\*(C'\fR) but some programs don't support it
835(e.g. \s-1UTF\-8\s0). For example, I use this script to start \f(CW\*(C`xjdic\*(C'\fR, which
836first switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
837.PP
838.Vb 3
839\& printf '\ee]701;%s\e007' ja_JP.SJIS
840\& xjdic -js
841\& printf '\ee]701;%s\e007' de_DE.UTF-8
842.Ve
843.PP
844You can also use xterm's \f(CW\*(C`luit\*(C'\fR program, which usually works fine, except
845for some locales where character width differs between program\- and
846rxvt\-unicode\-locales.
847.Sh "Can I switch the fonts at runtime?"
848.IX Subsection "Can I switch the fonts at runtime?"
849Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the same
850effect as using the \f(CW\*(C`\-fn\*(C'\fR switch, and takes effect immediately:
851.PP
852.Vb 1
853\& printf '\ee]50;%s\e007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
854.Ve
855.PP
856This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
857japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
858japanese fonts would only be in your way.
859.PP
860You can think of this as a kind of manual \s-1ISO\-2022\s0 switching.
861.Sh "Why do italic characters look as if clipped?"
862.IX Subsection "Why do italic characters look as if clipped?"
863Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
864example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font \f(CW\*(C`xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
865Mono\*(C'\fR completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might be to
866enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
867.PP
868.Vb 2
869\& URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
870\& URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
871.Ve
872.Sh "My input method wants <some encoding> but I want \s-1UTF\-8\s0, what can I do?"
873.IX Subsection "My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?"
874You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of the
875terminal, using the resource \f(CW\*(C`imlocale\*(C'\fR:
876.PP
877.Vb 1
878\& URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
879.Ve
880.PP
881Now you can start your terminal with \f(CW\*(C`LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF\-8\*(C'\fR and still
882use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not be able to
883input characters outside \f(CW\*(C`EUC\-JP\*(C'\fR in a normal way then, as your input
884method limits you.
885.Sh "Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits."
886.IX Subsection "Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits."
887Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the \s-1XIM\s0 protocol is racy by
888design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
889leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
890exit time. \fBkinput2\fR (and derived input methods) generally succeeds,
891while \fB\s-1SCIM\s0\fR (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however,
892crashes cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
893.PP
894So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
895.Sh "Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?"
896.IX Subsection "Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?"
897Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something you
898don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings that
899you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by design,
900when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be loaded
901accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your characters.
902.PP
903Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
904scrollback buffers: Without \f(CW\*(C`\-\-enable\-unicode3\*(C'\fR, rxvt-unicode will use
9056 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
906kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if full)
907use 10 Megabytes of memory. With \f(CW\*(C`\-\-enable\-unicode3\*(C'\fR it gets worse, as
908rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
909.Sh "Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?"
910.IX Subsection "Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?"
911Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as
912it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
913antialiasing (by appending \f(CW\*(C`:antialias=false\*(C'\fR), which saves lots of
914memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
915.Sh "Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?"
916.IX Subsection "Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?"
917Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
918fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
919fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
920antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
921look best that way.
922.PP
923If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
924.Sh "Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works."
925.IX Subsection "Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works."
926Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
927some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've
928heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A
929quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
930depressed.
931.Sh "What's with this bold/blink stuff?"
932.IX Subsection "What's with this bold/blink stuff?"
933If no bold colour is set via \f(CW\*(C`colorBD:\*(C'\fR, bold will invert text using the
934standard foreground colour.
935.PP
936For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the
937text blink when compiled with \f(CW\*(C`\-\-enable\-blinking\*(C'\fR. with standard
938colours. Without \f(CW\*(C`\-\-enable\-blinking\*(C'\fR, the blink attribute will be
939ignored.
940.PP
941On \s-1ANSI\s0 colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
942foreground/background colors.
943.PP
944color0\-7 are the low-intensity colors.
945.PP
946color8\-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
947.Sh "I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?"
948.IX Subsection "I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?"
949You can change the screen colors at run-time using \fI~/.Xdefaults\fR
950resources (or as long\-options).
951.PP
952Here are values that are supposed to resemble a \s-1VGA\s0 screen,
953including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
954.PP
955.Vb 8
956\& URxvt.color0: #000000
957\& URxvt.color1: #A80000
958\& URxvt.color2: #00A800
959\& URxvt.color3: #A8A800
960\& URxvt.color4: #0000A8
961\& URxvt.color5: #A800A8
962\& URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
963\& URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
964.Ve
965.PP
966.Vb 8
967\& URxvt.color8: #000054
968\& URxvt.color9: #FF0054
969\& URxvt.color10: #00FF54
970\& URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
971\& URxvt.color12: #0000FF
972\& URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
973\& URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
974\& URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
975.Ve
976.PP
977And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described (not by
978me) as \*(L"pretty girly\*(R".
979.PP
980.Vb 18
981\& URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
982\& URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
983\& URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
984\& URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
985\& URxvt.color0: #000000
986\& URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
987\& URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
988\& URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
989\& URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
990\& URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
991\& URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
992\& URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
993\& URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
994\& URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
995\& URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
996\& URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
997\& URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
998\& URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
999.Ve
1000.Sh "How can I start @@RXVT_NAME@@d in a race-free way?"
1001.IX Subsection "How can I start @@RXVT_NAME@@d in a race-free way?"
1002Try \f(CW\*(C`@@RXVT_NAME@@d \-f \-o\*(C'\fR, which tells @@RXVT_NAME@@d to open the
1003display, create the listening socket and then fork.
1004.Sh "What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?"
1005.IX Subsection "What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?"
1006Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
1007BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
1008question) there are two standard values that can be used for
1009Backspace: \f(CW\*(C`^H\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`^?\*(C'\fR.
1010.PP
1011Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the debian
1012policy of using \f(CW\*(C`^?\*(C'\fR when unsure, because it's the one only only correct
1013choice :).
1014.PP
1015Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the value
1016of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode wasn't
1017started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), then the
1018system value of `erase', which corresponds to \s-1CERASE\s0 in <termios.h>, will
1019be used (which may not be the same as your stty setting).
1020.PP
1021For starting a new rxvt\-unicode:
1022.PP
1023.Vb 3
1024\& # use Backspace = ^H
1025\& $ stty erase ^H
1026\& $ @@RXVT_NAME@@
1027.Ve
1028.PP
1029.Vb 3
1030\& # use Backspace = ^?
1031\& $ stty erase ^?
1032\& $ @@RXVT_NAME@@
1033.Ve
1034.PP
1035Toggle with \f(CW\*(C`ESC [ 36 h\*(C'\fR / \f(CW\*(C`ESC [ 36 l\*(C'\fR.
1036.PP
1037For an existing rxvt\-unicode:
1038.PP
1039.Vb 3
1040\& # use Backspace = ^H
1041\& $ stty erase ^H
1042\& $ echo -n "^[[36h"
1043.Ve
1044.PP
1045.Vb 3
1046\& # use Backspace = ^?
1047\& $ stty erase ^?
1048\& $ echo -n "^[[36l"
1049.Ve
1050.PP
1051This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
1052if you use Backspace = \f(CW\*(C`^H\*(C'\fR, make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
1053properly reflects that.
1054.PP
1055The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace problem.
1056To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the Delete
1057key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for Execute
1058(\f(CW\*(C`ESC [ 3 ~\*(C'\fR) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
1059.PP
1060Some other Backspace problems:
1061.PP
1062some editors use termcap/terminfo,
1063some editors (vim I'm told) expect Backspace = ^H,
1064\&\s-1GNU\s0 Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
1065.PP
1066Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
1067.Sh "I don't like the key\-bindings. How do I change them?"
1068.IX Subsection "I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?"
1069There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
1070you have run \*(L"configure\*(R" with the \f(CW\*(C`\-\-disable\-resources\*(C'\fR option you can
1071use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with keysyms.
1072.PP
1073Here's an example for a URxvt session started using \f(CW\*(C`@@RXVT_NAME@@ \-name URxvt\*(C'\fR
1074.PP
1075.Vb 20
1076\& URxvt.keysym.Home: \e033[1~
1077\& URxvt.keysym.End: \e033[4~
1078\& URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \e033<C-'>
1079\& URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \e033<C-/>
1080\& URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \e033<C-;>
1081\& URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \e033<C-`>
1082\& URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \e033<C-,>
1083\& URxvt.keysym.C-period: \e033<C-.>
1084\& URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \e033<C-`>
1085\& URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \e033<C-Tab>
1086\& URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \e033<C-Return>
1087\& URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \e033<S-Return>
1088\& URxvt.keysym.S-space: \e033<S-Space>
1089\& URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \e033<M-Up>
1090\& URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \e033<M-Down>
1091\& URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \e033<M-Left>
1092\& URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \e033<M-Right>
1093\& URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \e033<M-C- 0123456789 >
1094\& URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \e033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
1095\& URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\e033]701;zh_CN.GBK\e007
1096.Ve
1097.PP
1098See some more examples in the documentation for the \fBkeysym\fR resource.
1099.Sh "I'm using keyboard model \s-1XXX\s0 that has extra Prior/Next/Insert keys. How do I make use of them? For example, the Sun Keyboard type 4 has the following mappings that rxvt-unicode doesn't recognize."
1100.IX Subsection "I'm using keyboard model XXX that has extra Prior/Next/Insert keys. How do I make use of them? For example, the Sun Keyboard type 4 has the following mappings that rxvt-unicode doesn't recognize."
1101.Vb 6
1102\& KP_Insert == Insert
1103\& F22 == Print
1104\& F27 == Home
1105\& F29 == Prior
1106\& F33 == End
1107\& F35 == Next
1108.Ve
1109.PP
1110Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various possible
1111keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the keys as
1112required for your particular machine.
1113.Sh "How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc."
1114.IX Subsection "How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc."
1115rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable \*(L"\s-1COLORTERM\s0\*(R", so you can
1116check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, \s-1JED\s0, slrn,
1117Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide whether or
1118not to use color.
1119.Sh "How do I set the correct, full \s-1IP\s0 address for the \s-1DISPLAY\s0 variable?"
1120.IX Subsection "How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?"
1121If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with \s-1DISPLAY_IS_IP\s0 and have enabled
1122insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
1123snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
1124wasn't also compiled with \s-1ESCZ_ANSWER\s0 (as assumed in these snippets) then
1125the \s-1COLORTERM\s0 variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from a
1126regular xterm.
1127.PP
1128Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
1129snippets:
1130.PP
1131.Vb 12
1132\& # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
1133\& [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
1134\& if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
1135\& stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
1136\& echo -n '^[Z'
1137\& read term_id
1138\& stty icanon echo
1139\& if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
1140\& echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
1141\& read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
1142\& fi
1143\& fi
1144.Ve
1145.Sh "How do I compile the manual pages for myself?"
1146.IX Subsection "How do I compile the manual pages for myself?"
1147You need to have a recent version of perl installed as \fI/usr/bin/perl\fR,
1148one that comes with \fIpod2man\fR, \fIpod2text\fR and \fIpod2html\fR. Then go to
1149the doc subdirectory and enter \f(CW\*(C`make alldoc\*(C'\fR.
1150.Sh "My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?"
1151.IX Subsection "My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?"
1152Before sending me mail, you could go to \s-1IRC:\s0 \f(CW\*(C`irc.freenode.net\*(C'\fR,
1153channel \f(CW\*(C`#rxvt\-unicode\*(C'\fR has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
1154interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
1155.SH "RXVT TECHNICAL REFERENCE" 1265.SH "RXVT-UNICODE TECHNICAL REFERENCE"
1156.IX Header "RXVT TECHNICAL REFERENCE" 1266.IX Header "RXVT-UNICODE TECHNICAL REFERENCE"
1157.SH "DESCRIPTION" 1267.SH "DESCRIPTION"
1158.IX Header "DESCRIPTION" 1268.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
1159The rest of this document describes various technical aspects of 1269The rest of this document describes various technical aspects of
1160\&\fBrxvt-unicode\fR. First the description of supported command sequences, 1270\&\fBrxvt-unicode\fR. First the description of supported command sequences,
1161followed by pixmap support and last by a description of all features 1271followed by pixmap support and last by a description of all features
… …
2012.TS 2122.TS
2013l l . 2123l l .
20144 Shift 21244 Shift
20158 Meta 21258 Meta
201616 Control 212616 Control
201732 Double Click (Rxvt extension) 212732 Double Click (rxvt extension)
2018.TE 2128.TE
2019 2129
2020Col = \fB\f(CB\*(C`<x> \- SPACE\*(C'\fB\fR 2130Col = \fB\f(CB\*(C`<x> \- SPACE\*(C'\fB\fR
2021.Sp 2131.Sp
2022Row = \fB\f(CB\*(C`<y> \- SPACE\*(C'\fB\fR 2132Row = \fB\f(CB\*(C`<y> \- SPACE\*(C'\fB\fR

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