[ViewVC] Diff of: cvs/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.pod

Comparing rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.pod (file contents):
Revision 1.101 by root, Tue Jan 31 01:02:19 2006 UTC vs.
Revision 1.106 by root, Tue Jan 31 21:01:36 2006 UTC

 all escape sequences, and other background information.
 The newest version of this document is also available on the World Wide Web at
 L<http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/*checkout*/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.html>.
-=head1 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
+=head1 RXVT-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
-=head2 The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
-If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
+=head2 Meta, Features & Commandline Issues
-setting:
-   URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
+=head3 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
-If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended
+Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: C<irc.freenode.net>,
-more and more.
+channel C<#rxvt-unicode> has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
+interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
-To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this pattern:
+=head3 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
-   URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
+Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a
+simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these should
+give you tabs:
-Please also note that the I<LeftClick Shift-LeftClik> combination also
+   @@URXVT_NAME@@ -pe tabbed
-selects words like the old code.
-=head2 I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
-You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
-B<perl-ext-common> resource to the empty string, which also keeps
-rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
-If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
-identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
-B<PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS> in the @@RXVT_NAME@@perl(3) manpage. For
-example, to disable the B<selection-popup> and B<option-popup>, specify
-this B<perl-ext-common> resource:
-   URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
-This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
-extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
-scrollback search mode is triggered by B<M-s>. You can move it to any
-other combination either by setting the B<searchable-scrollback> resource:
-   URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
-=head2 The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
-See next entry.
-=head2 During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
-These are caused by the C<readline> perl extension. Under normal
-circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
-line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
-but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in some
-cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
-You can permamently switch this feature off by disabling the C<readline>
-extension:
-   URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
+   URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
-=head2 Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
+It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window managers
+or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be
+embedded into other programs, as witnessed by F<doc/rxvt-tabbed> or
+the upcoming C<Gtk2::URxvt> perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
+(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
-Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
+=head3 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
-applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
-resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
-ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
-F<$HOME/.Xdefaults> when no resources are attached to the display.
-If you have or use an F<$HOME/.Xresources> file, chances are that
+The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
-resources are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to
+sequence C<ESC [ 8 n> sets the window title to the version number. When
-re-login after every change (or run F<xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources>).
+using the @@URXVT_NAME@@c client, the version displayed is that of the
+daemon.
-Also consider the form resources have to use:
+=head3 Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
-  URxvt.resource: value
+Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something you
+don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings that
+you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by design,
+when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be loaded
+accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your characters.
-If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
+Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
-specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it
+scrollback buffers: Without C<--enable-unicode3>, rxvt-unicode will use
-works. If unsure, use the form above.
+6 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
+kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if full)
+use 10 Megabytes of memory. With C<--enable-unicode3> it gets worse, as
+rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
-=head2 I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
+=head3 How can I start @@URXVT_NAME@@d in a race-free way?
-First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode, so
+Try C<@@URXVT_NAME@@d -f -o>, which tells @@URXVT_NAME@@d to open the
-you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you may
+display, create the listening socket and then fork.
-bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a rite
-of passage: ... and you failed.
-Here are four ways to get transparency. B<Do> read the manpage and option
+=head3 How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
-descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
-1. Use inheritPixmap:
+The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM",
+so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED,
+slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide
+whether or not to use color.
-   Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
+=head3 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
-   @@RXVT_NAME@@ -ip -tint red -sh 40
-That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
+If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
-support, or you are unable to read.
+insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
+snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
+wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets) then
+the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from a
+regular xterm.
-2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
+Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
-to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
+snippets:
-your picture with gimp:
-   convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm
+   # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
-   @@RXVT_NAME@@ -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background
+   [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
+   if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
+      stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
+      echo -n '^[Z'
+      read term_id
+      stty icanon echo
+      if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
+         echo -n '^[[7n'        # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
+         read DISPLAY           # set it in our local shell
+      fi
+   fi
-That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or you
+=head3 How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
-are unable to read.
-3. Use an ARGB visual:
+You need to have a recent version of perl installed as F</usr/bin/perl>,
+one that comes with F<pod2man>, F<pod2text> and F<pod2html>. Then go to
+the doc subdirectory and enter C<make alldoc>.
-   @@RXVT_NAME@@ -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
-This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
-doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
-there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the neccessary
-bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but that
-doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
-4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
-  xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
-        -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
-Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace C<0xc0000000>
-by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
-your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
-=head2 Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
+=head3 Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
 I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra
 bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see
 that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always being
 compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after startup. Even
     text    data     bss     drs     rss filename
    98398    1664      24   15695    1824 rxvt --disable-everything
   188985    9048   66616   18222    1788 urxvt --disable-everything
-When you C<--enable-everything> (which _is_ unfair, as this involves xft
+When you C<--enable-everything> (which I<is> unfair, as this involves xft
 and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my
 libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so.
     text    data     bss     drs     rss filename
   163431    2152      24   20123    2060 rxvt --enable-everything
 (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole (22200k + extra
 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half a minute of
 startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits out), it fares
 extremely well *g*.
-=head2 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
+=head3 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
 Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I had
 to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a fraction
 of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put even
 shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
    /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
 No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
 except maybe libX11 :)
-=head2 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
-Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a
+=head2 Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues
-simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these should
-give you tabs:
-   @@RXVT_NAME@@ -pe tabbed
+=head3 I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
+First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode, so
+you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you may
+bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a rite
+of passage: ... and you failed.
+Here are four ways to get transparency. B<Do> read the manpage and option
+descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
+1. Use inheritPixmap:
+   Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
+   @@URXVT_NAME@@ -ip -tint red -sh 40
+That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
+support, or you are unable to read.
+2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
+to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
+your picture with gimp or any other tool:
+   convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm
+   @@URXVT_NAME@@ -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background
+That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or you
+are unable to read.
+3. Use an ARGB visual:
+   @@URXVT_NAME@@ -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
+This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
+doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
+there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the neccessary
+bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but that
+doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
+4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
+  xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
+        -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
+Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace C<0xc0000000>
+by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
+your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
+=head3 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
+This is because there is a difference between script and language --
+rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is,
+as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first
+sees a japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for
+display. Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many
+chinese characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
+non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese font
+-- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font for
+chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
+The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
+list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as
+a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
+first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
+In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
+runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
+fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
+has been designed yet).
+Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see L<Can
+I switch the fonts at runtime?> later in this document).
+=head3 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
+Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that character
+size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal use might
+contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode will avoid
+these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too wide a special
+"careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent characters.
+All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
+however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed bounding
+box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct way is to
+ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is wrong in these
+cases).
+It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
+or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try using
+the C<-lsp> option to give the font more height. If that doesn't work, you
+might be forced to use a different font.
+All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their bounding
+box data is correct.
+=head3 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
+First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
+(C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
+make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
+rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
+   URxvt.colorBD:  white
+   URxvt.colorIT:  green
+=head3 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
+For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
+colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the standard
+8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of course, to fix
+these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very good reasons.
+In the meantime, you can either edit your C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
+definition to only claim 8 colour support or use C<TERM=rxvt>, which will
+fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
+=head3 Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
+Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the same
+effect as using the C<-fn> switch, and takes effect immediately:
+   printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
+This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
+japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
+japanese fonts would only be in your way.
+You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
+=head3 Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
+Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
+example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font C<xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
+Mono> completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might be to
+enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
+   URxvt.italicFont:        xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
+   URxvt.boldItalicFont:    xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
+=head3 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
+Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as
+it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
+antialiasing (by appending C<:antialias=false>), which saves lots of
+memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
+=head3 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
+Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
+fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
+fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
+antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
+look best that way.
+If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
+=head3 What's with this bold/blink stuff?
+If no bold colour is set via C<colorBD:>, bold will invert text using the
+standard foreground colour.
+For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the
+text blink when compiled with C<--enable-blinking>. with standard
+colours. Without C<--enable-blinking>, the blink attribute will be
+ignored.
+On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
+foreground/background colors.
+color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
+color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
+=head3 I don't like the screen colors.  How do I change them?
+You can change the screen colors at run-time using F<~/.Xdefaults>
+resources (or as long-options).
+Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen,
+including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
+   URxvt.color0:   #000000
+   URxvt.color1:   #A80000
+   URxvt.color2:   #00A800
+   URxvt.color3:   #A8A800
+   URxvt.color4:   #0000A8
+   URxvt.color5:   #A800A8
+   URxvt.color6:   #00A8A8
+   URxvt.color7:   #A8A8A8
+   URxvt.color8:   #000054
+   URxvt.color9:   #FF0054
+   URxvt.color10:  #00FF54
+   URxvt.color11:  #FFFF54
+   URxvt.color12:  #0000FF
+   URxvt.color13:  #FF00FF
+   URxvt.color14:  #00FFFF
+   URxvt.color15:  #FFFFFF
+And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described (not by
+me) as "pretty girly".
+   URxvt.cursorColor:  #dc74d1
+   URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
+   URxvt.background:   #0e0e0e
+   URxvt.foreground:   #4ad5e1
+   URxvt.color0:       #000000
+   URxvt.color8:       #8b8f93
+   URxvt.color1:       #dc74d1
+   URxvt.color9:       #dc74d1
+   URxvt.color2:       #0eb8c7
+   URxvt.color10:      #0eb8c7
+   URxvt.color3:       #dfe37e
+   URxvt.color11:      #dfe37e
+   URxvt.color5:       #9e88f0
+   URxvt.color13:      #9e88f0
+   URxvt.color6:       #73f7ff
+   URxvt.color14:      #73f7ff
+   URxvt.color7:       #e1dddd
+   URxvt.color15:      #e1dddd
+=head3 Why do some characters look so much different than others?
+See next entry.
+=head3 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
+Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is
+fine. Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
+your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want
+to display.
+B<rxvt-unicode> makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement
+font. Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
+bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
+resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
+intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
+the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
+In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
+e.g.:
+   @@URXVT_NAME@@ -fn basefont,font2,font3...
+When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
+font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the
+next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
+search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
+The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the base
+font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size, which
+must be the same due to the way terminals work.
+=head2 Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
+=head3 The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
+If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
+setting:
+   URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
+If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended
+more and more.
+To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this pattern:
+   URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
+Please also note that the I<LeftClick Shift-LeftClik> combination also
+selects words like the old code.
+=head3 I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
+You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
+B<perl-ext-common> resource to the empty string, which also keeps
+rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
+If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
+identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
+B<PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS> in the @@URXVT_NAME@@perl(3) manpage. For
+example, to disable the B<selection-popup> and B<option-popup>, specify
+this B<perl-ext-common> resource:
+   URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
+This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
+extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
+scrollback search mode is triggered by B<M-s>. You can move it to any
+other combination either by setting the B<searchable-scrollback> resource:
+   URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
+=head3 The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
+See next entry.
+=head3 During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
+These are caused by the C<readline> perl extension. Under normal
+circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
+line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
+but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in some
+cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
+You can permamently switch this feature off by disabling the C<readline>
+extension:
-   URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
+   URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
-It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window managers
+=head3 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
-or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be
-embedded into other programs, as witnessed by F<doc/rxvt-tabbed> or
-the upcoming C<Gtk2::URxvt> perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
-(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
-=head2 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
+Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
+specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is caused
+by the wrong C<TERM> setting, although the details of wether and how
+this can happen are unknown, as C<TERM=rxvt> should offer a compatible
+keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please report if that
+helped.
-The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
+=head3 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
-sequence C<ESC [ 8 n> sets the window title to the version number. When
-using the @@RXVT_NAME@@c client, the version displayed is that of the
-daemon.
-=head2 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
+The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
+correctly, or you specified a B<preeditStyle> that is not supported by
+your input method. For example, if you specified B<OverTheSpot> and
+your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys)
+does not support this (for instance because it is not visual), then
+rxvt-unicode will continue without an input method.
-The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
+In this case either do not specify a B<preeditStyle> or specify more than
-patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
+one pre-edit style, such as B<OverTheSpot,Root,None>.
-unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
-the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
-version (L<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
-the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific to
-Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian Bug
-Tracking System (use C<reportbug> to report the bug).
-For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
+=head3 I cannot type C<Ctrl-Shift-2> to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
-probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
-bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users that
-might encounter the same issue.
-=head2 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
+Either try C<Ctrl-2> alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
+international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
+advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for other
+codes, too, such as C<Ctrl-Shift-1-d> to type the default telnet escape
+character and so on.
-You should build one binary with the default options. F<configure>
+=head3 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
-now enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
-runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling them,
-except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter should
-be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely more in
-the future) depends on it.
-You should not overwrite the C<perl-ext-common> snd C<perl-ext> resources
+Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
-system-wide (except maybe with C<defaults>). This will result in useful
+some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've
-behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
+heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A
-C<perl-ext-common> resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
+quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
-perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
+depressed.
-If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal
+=head3 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
-one with C<--disable-everything> (very useful) and a maximal one with
-C<--enable-everything> (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
-encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
-=head2 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
+Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
+BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
+question) there are two standard values that can be used for
+Backspace: C<^H> and C<^?>.
-It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
+Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the debian
-install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
+policy of using C<^?> when unsure, because it's the one only only correct
+choice :).
-When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
+Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the value
-into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
+of `erase' to guess the value for backspace.  If rxvt-unicode wasn't
-systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
+started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), then the
-immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
+system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in <termios.h>, will
-privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
+be used (which may not be the same as your stty setting).
-things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
-This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very early
+For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
-and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before main(), or
-things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should result in very
-little risk.
+   # use Backspace = ^H
+   $ stty erase ^H
+   $ @@URXVT_NAME@@
+   # use Backspace = ^?
+   $ stty erase ^?
+   $ @@URXVT_NAME@@
+Toggle with C<ESC [ 36 h> / C<ESC [ 36 l>.
+For an existing rxvt-unicode:
+   # use Backspace = ^H
+   $ stty erase ^H
+   $ echo -n "^[[36h"
+   # use Backspace = ^?
+   $ stty erase ^?
+   $ echo -n "^[[36l"
+This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
+if you use Backspace = C<^H>, make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
+properly reflects that.
+The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace problem.
+To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the Delete
+key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for Execute
+(C<ESC [ 3 ~>) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
+Some other Backspace problems:
+some editors use termcap/terminfo,
+some editors (vim I'm told) expect Backspace = ^H,
+GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
+Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
+=head3 I don't like the key-bindings.  How do I change them?
+There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
+you have run "configure" with the C<--disable-resources> option you can
+use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with keysyms.
+Here's an example for a URxvt session started using C<@@URXVT_NAME@@ -name URxvt>
+   URxvt.keysym.Home:          \033[1~
+   URxvt.keysym.End:           \033[4~
+   URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe:  \033<C-'>
+   URxvt.keysym.C-slash:       \033<C-/>
+   URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon:   \033<C-;>
+   URxvt.keysym.C-grave:       \033<C-`>
+   URxvt.keysym.C-comma:       \033<C-,>
+   URxvt.keysym.C-period:      \033<C-.>
+   URxvt.keysym.C-0x60:        \033<C-`>
+   URxvt.keysym.C-Tab:         \033<C-Tab>
+   URxvt.keysym.C-Return:      \033<C-Return>
+   URxvt.keysym.S-Return:      \033<S-Return>
+   URxvt.keysym.S-space:       \033<S-Space>
+   URxvt.keysym.M-Up:          \033<M-Up>
+   URxvt.keysym.M-Down:        \033<M-Down>
+   URxvt.keysym.M-Left:        \033<M-Left>
+   URxvt.keysym.M-Right:       \033<M-Right>
+   URxvt.keysym.M-C-0:         list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
+   URxvt.keysym.M-C-a:         list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
+   URxvt.keysym.F12:           command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
+See some more examples in the documentation for the B<keysym> resource.
+=head3 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
+   KP_Insert == Insert
+   F22 == Print
+   F27 == Home
+   F29 == Prior
+   F33 == End
+   F35 == Next
+Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various possible
+keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the keys as
+required for your particular machine.
+=head2 Terminal Configuration
+=head3 Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
+Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
+applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
+resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
+ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
+F<$HOME/.Xdefaults> when no resources are attached to the display.
+If you have or use an F<$HOME/.Xresources> file, chances are that
+resources are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to
+re-login after every change (or run F<xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources>).
+Also consider the form resources have to use:
+  URxvt.resource: value
+If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
+specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it
+works. If unsure, use the form above.
-=head2 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
+=head3 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
 The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
 as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often arises).
 The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this can
 resource to set it:
    URxvt.termName: rxvt
 If you don't plan to use B<rxvt> (quite common...) you could also replace
-the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one.
+the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use C<TERM=rxvt>.
-=head2 C<tic> outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
+=head3 C<tic> outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
 Most likely it's the empty definition for C<enacs=>. Just replace it by
 C<enacs=\E[0@> and try again.
-=head2 C<bash>'s readline does not work correctly under @@RXVT_NAME@@.
+=head3 C<bash>'s readline does not work correctly under @@URXVT_NAME@@.
 See next entry.
-=head2 I need a termcap file entry.
+=head3 I need a termcap file entry.
 One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
 systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
 library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
 for C<rxvt-unicode>.
            :sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\
            :te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\
            :us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
            :vs=\E[?25h:
-=head2 Why does C<ls> no longer have coloured output?
+=head3 Why does C<ls> no longer have coloured output?
 The C<ls> in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
 decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration
 file. Needless to say, C<rxvt-unicode> is not in it's default file (among
 with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
    alias ls='ls --color=auto'
 to your C<.profile> or C<.bashrc>.
-=head2 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
+=head3 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
 See next entry.
-=head2 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
+=head3 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
 See next entry.
-=head2 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
+=head3 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
 Make sure you are using C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>. Some pre-packaged
 distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode
 by setting C<TERM> to C<rxvt>, which doesn't have these extra
 features. Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian
 GNU/Linux) furthermore fail to even install the C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
 file, so you will need to install it on your own (See the question B<When
 I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?> on
 how to do this).
-=head2 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
-Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
+=head2 Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues
-specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is caused
-by the wrong C<TERM> setting, although the details of wether and how
-this can happen are unknown, as C<TERM=rxvt> should offer a compatible
-keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please report if that
-helped.
-=head2 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
+=head3 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
 See next entry.
-=head2 Unicode does not seem to work?
+=head3 Unicode does not seem to work?
 If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
 getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output is
 subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
 If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
 you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
 support locales :(
-=head2 Why do some characters look so much different than others?
+=head3 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
 See next entry.
-=head2 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
+=head3 Is there an option to switch encodings?
-Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is
+Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
-fine. Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
+specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know about
-your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want
+UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
-to display.
-B<rxvt-unicode> makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement
+The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for selecting
-font. Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
+the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating this to all
-bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
+applications so everybody agrees on character properties such as width
-resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
+and code number. This mechanism is the I<locale>. Applications not using
-intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
+that info will have problems (for example, C<xterm> gets the width of
-the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
+characters wrong as it uses it's own, locale-independent table under all
-In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
-e.g.:
-   @@RXVT_NAME@@ -fn basefont,font2,font3...
-When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
-font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the
-next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
-search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
-The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the base
-font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size, which
-must be the same due to the way terminals work.
-=head2 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
-This is because there is a difference between script and language --
-rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is,
-as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first
-sees a japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for
-display. Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many
-chinese characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
-non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese font
--- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font for
-chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
-The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
-list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as
-a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
-first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
-In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
-runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
-fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
-has been designed yet).
-Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see L<Can
-I switch the fonts at runtime?> later in this document).
-=head2 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
-Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that character
-size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal use might
-contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode will avoid
-these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too wide a special
-"careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent characters.
-All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
-however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed bounding
-box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct way is to
-ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is wrong in these
-cases).
+locales).
-It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
+Rxvt-unicode uses the C<LC_CTYPE> locale category to select encoding. All
-or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try using
+programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
-the C<-lsp> option to give the font more height. If that doesn't work, you
+interpretation of characters.
-might be forced to use a different font.
-All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their bounding
+Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
-box data is correct.
+is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
+On most systems, the content of the C<LC_CTYPE> environment variable
+contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
+locale. Common names for locales are C<en_US.UTF-8>, C<de_DE.ISO-8859-15>,
+C<ja_JP.EUC-JP>, i.e. C<language_country.encoding>, but other forms
+(i.e. C<de> or C<german>) are also common.
+Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for
+the encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings,
+i.e. C<de_DE.UTF-8> and C<ja_JP.UTF-8> are the normally same to
+rxvt-unicode.
+If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
+rxvt-unicode with the correct C<LC_CTYPE> category.
+=head3 Can I switch locales at runtime?
+Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
+rxvt-unicode's idea of C<LC_CTYPE>.
+  printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
+See also the previous answer.
+Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in
+one locale (e.g. C<de_DE.UTF-8>) but some programs don't support it
+(e.g. UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start C<xjdic>, which
+first switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
+   printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
+   xjdic -js
+   printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
+You can also use xterm's C<luit> program, which usually works fine, except
+for some locales where character width differs between program- and
+rxvt-unicode-locales.
+=head3 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
+You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of the
+terminal, using the resource C<imlocale>:
+   URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
+Now you can start your terminal with C<LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8> and still
+use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not be able to
+input characters outside C<EUC-JP> in a normal way then, as your input
+method limits you.
+=head3 Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
+Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
+design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
+leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
+exit time. B<kinput2> (and derived input methods) generally succeeds,
+while B<SCIM> (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however,
+crashes cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
+So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
+=head2 Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
+=head3 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
+The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
+patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
+unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
+the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
+version (L<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
+the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific to
+Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian Bug
+Tracking System (use C<reportbug> to report the bug).
+For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
+probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
+bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users that
+might encounter the same issue.
+=head3 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
+You should build one binary with the default options. F<configure>
+now enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
+runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling them,
+except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter should
+be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely more in
+the future) depends on it.
+You should not overwrite the C<perl-ext-common> snd C<perl-ext> resources
+system-wide (except maybe with C<defaults>). This will result in useful
+behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
+C<perl-ext-common> resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
+perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
+If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal
+one with C<--disable-everything> (very useful) and a maximal one with
+C<--enable-everything> (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
+encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
+=head3 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
+It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
+install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
+When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
+into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
+systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
+immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
+privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
+things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
+This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very early
+and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before main(), or
+things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should result in very
+little risk.
-=head2 On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.
+=head3 On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.
 Seems to be a known bug, read
 L<http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the
 following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
    #define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)
-=head2 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
-The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
-correctly, or you specified a B<preeditStyle> that is not supported by
-your input method. For example, if you specified B<OverTheSpot> and
-your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys)
-does not support this (for instance because it is not visual), then
-rxvt-unicode will continue without an input method.
-In this case either do not specify a B<preeditStyle> or specify more than
-one pre-edit style, such as B<OverTheSpot,Root,None>.
-=head2 I cannot type C<Ctrl-Shift-2> to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
-Either try C<Ctrl-2> alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
-international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
-advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for other
-codes, too, such as C<Ctrl-Shift-1-d> to type the default telnet escape
-character and so on.
-=head2 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
-First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
-(C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
-make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
-rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
-   URxvt.colorBD:  white
-   URxvt.colorIT:  green
-=head2 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
-For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
-colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the standard
-8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of course, to fix
-these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very good reasons.
-In the meantime, you can either edit your C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
-definition to only claim 8 colour support or use C<TERM=rxvt>, which will
-fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
-=head2 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
+=head3 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
 Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> to be defined
 in your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
 wether it defines the symbol or not. C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> requires that
 B<wchar_t> is represented as unicode.
 The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
 system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
 complete replacements for them :)
-=head2 I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.
+=head3 I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.
 Try the diff in F<doc/solaris9.patch> as a base. It fixes the worst
 problems with C<wcwidth> and a compile problem.
-=head2 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
+=head3 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
 rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using
 the X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no
 longer supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a
 single font). I recommend starting the X-server in C<-multiwindow> or
 At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any multi-byte
 encodings (you might try C<LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8>), so you are likely limited
 to 8-bit encodings.
-=head2 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
-See next entry.
-=head2 Is there an option to switch encodings?
-Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
-specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know about
-UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
-The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for selecting
-the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating this to all
-applications so everybody agrees on character properties such as width
-and code number. This mechanism is the I<locale>. Applications not using
-that info will have problems (for example, C<xterm> gets the width of
-characters wrong as it uses it's own, locale-independent table under all
-locales).
-Rxvt-unicode uses the C<LC_CTYPE> locale category to select encoding. All
-programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
-interpretation of characters.
-Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
-is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
-On most systems, the content of the C<LC_CTYPE> environment variable
-contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
-locale. Common names for locales are C<en_US.UTF-8>, C<de_DE.ISO-8859-15>,
-C<ja_JP.EUC-JP>, i.e. C<language_country.encoding>, but other forms
-(i.e. C<de> or C<german>) are also common.
-Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for
-the encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings,
-i.e. C<de_DE.UTF-8> and C<ja_JP.UTF-8> are the normally same to
-rxvt-unicode.
-If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
-rxvt-unicode with the correct C<LC_CTYPE> category.
-=head2 Can I switch locales at runtime?
-Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
-rxvt-unicode's idea of C<LC_CTYPE>.
-  printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
-See also the previous answer.
-Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in
-one locale (e.g. C<de_DE.UTF-8>) but some programs don't support it
-(e.g. UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start C<xjdic>, which
-first switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
-   printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
-   xjdic -js
-   printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
-You can also use xterm's C<luit> program, which usually works fine, except
-for some locales where character width differs between program- and
-rxvt-unicode-locales.
-=head2 Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
-Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the same
-effect as using the C<-fn> switch, and takes effect immediately:
-   printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
-This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
-japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
-japanese fonts would only be in your way.
-You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
-=head2 Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
-Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
-example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font C<xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
-Mono> completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might be to
-enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
-   URxvt.italicFont:        xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
-   URxvt.boldItalicFont:    xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
-=head2 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
-You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of the
-terminal, using the resource C<imlocale>:
-   URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
-Now you can start your terminal with C<LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8> and still
-use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not be able to
-input characters outside C<EUC-JP> in a normal way then, as your input
-method limits you.
-=head2 Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
-Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
-design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
-leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
-exit time. B<kinput2> (and derived input methods) generally succeeds,
-while B<SCIM> (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however,
-crashes cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
-So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
-=head2 Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
-Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something you
-don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings that
-you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by design,
-when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be loaded
-accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your characters.
-Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
-scrollback buffers: Without C<--enable-unicode3>, rxvt-unicode will use
-6 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
-kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if full)
-use 10 Megabytes of memory. With C<--enable-unicode3> it gets worse, as
-rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
-=head2 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
-Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as
-it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
-antialiasing (by appending C<:antialias=false>), which saves lots of
-memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
-=head2 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
-Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
-fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
-fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
-antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
-look best that way.
-If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
-=head2 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
-Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
-some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've
-heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A
-quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
-depressed.
-=head2 What's with this bold/blink stuff?
-If no bold colour is set via C<colorBD:>, bold will invert text using the
-standard foreground colour.
-For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the
-text blink when compiled with C<--enable-blinking>. with standard
-colours. Without C<--enable-blinking>, the blink attribute will be
-ignored.
-On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
-foreground/background colors.
-color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
-color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
-=head2 I don't like the screen colors.  How do I change them?
-You can change the screen colors at run-time using F<~/.Xdefaults>
-resources (or as long-options).
-Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen,
-including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
-   URxvt.color0:   #000000
-   URxvt.color1:   #A80000
-   URxvt.color2:   #00A800
-   URxvt.color3:   #A8A800
-   URxvt.color4:   #0000A8
-   URxvt.color5:   #A800A8
-   URxvt.color6:   #00A8A8
-   URxvt.color7:   #A8A8A8
-   URxvt.color8:   #000054
-   URxvt.color9:   #FF0054
-   URxvt.color10:  #00FF54
-   URxvt.color11:  #FFFF54
-   URxvt.color12:  #0000FF
-   URxvt.color13:  #FF00FF
-   URxvt.color14:  #00FFFF
-   URxvt.color15:  #FFFFFF
-And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described (not by
-me) as "pretty girly".
-   URxvt.cursorColor:  #dc74d1
-   URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
-   URxvt.background:   #0e0e0e
-   URxvt.foreground:   #4ad5e1
-   URxvt.color0:       #000000
-   URxvt.color8:       #8b8f93
-   URxvt.color1:       #dc74d1
-   URxvt.color9:       #dc74d1
-   URxvt.color2:       #0eb8c7
-   URxvt.color10:      #0eb8c7
-   URxvt.color3:       #dfe37e
-   URxvt.color11:      #dfe37e
-   URxvt.color5:       #9e88f0
-   URxvt.color13:      #9e88f0
-   URxvt.color6:       #73f7ff
-   URxvt.color14:      #73f7ff
-   URxvt.color7:       #e1dddd
-   URxvt.color15:      #e1dddd
-=head2 How can I start @@RXVT_NAME@@d in a race-free way?
-Try C<@@RXVT_NAME@@d -f -o>, which tells @@RXVT_NAME@@d to open the
-display, create the listening socket and then fork.
-=head2 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
-Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
-BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
-question) there are two standard values that can be used for
-Backspace: C<^H> and C<^?>.
-Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the debian
-policy of using C<^?> when unsure, because it's the one only only correct
-choice :).
-Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the value
-of `erase' to guess the value for backspace.  If rxvt-unicode wasn't
-started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), then the
-system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in <termios.h>, will
-be used (which may not be the same as your stty setting).
-For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
-   # use Backspace = ^H
-   $ stty erase ^H
-   $ @@RXVT_NAME@@
-   # use Backspace = ^?
-   $ stty erase ^?
-   $ @@RXVT_NAME@@
-Toggle with C<ESC [ 36 h> / C<ESC [ 36 l>.
-For an existing rxvt-unicode:
-   # use Backspace = ^H
-   $ stty erase ^H
-   $ echo -n "^[[36h"
-   # use Backspace = ^?
-   $ stty erase ^?
-   $ echo -n "^[[36l"
-This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
-if you use Backspace = C<^H>, make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
-properly reflects that.
-The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace problem.
-To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the Delete
-key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for Execute
-(C<ESC [ 3 ~>) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
-Some other Backspace problems:
-some editors use termcap/terminfo,
-some editors (vim I'm told) expect Backspace = ^H,
-GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
-Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
-=head2 I don't like the key-bindings.  How do I change them?
-There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
-you have run "configure" with the C<--disable-resources> option you can
-use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with keysyms.
-Here's an example for a URxvt session started using C<@@RXVT_NAME@@ -name URxvt>
-   URxvt.keysym.Home:          \033[1~
-   URxvt.keysym.End:           \033[4~
-   URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe:  \033<C-'>
-   URxvt.keysym.C-slash:       \033<C-/>
-   URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon:   \033<C-;>
-   URxvt.keysym.C-grave:       \033<C-`>
-   URxvt.keysym.C-comma:       \033<C-,>
-   URxvt.keysym.C-period:      \033<C-.>
-   URxvt.keysym.C-0x60:        \033<C-`>
-   URxvt.keysym.C-Tab:         \033<C-Tab>
-   URxvt.keysym.C-Return:      \033<C-Return>
-   URxvt.keysym.S-Return:      \033<S-Return>
-   URxvt.keysym.S-space:       \033<S-Space>
-   URxvt.keysym.M-Up:          \033<M-Up>
-   URxvt.keysym.M-Down:        \033<M-Down>
-   URxvt.keysym.M-Left:        \033<M-Left>
-   URxvt.keysym.M-Right:       \033<M-Right>
-   URxvt.keysym.M-C-0:         list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
-   URxvt.keysym.M-C-a:         list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
-   URxvt.keysym.F12:           command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
-See some more examples in the documentation for the B<keysym> resource.
-=head2 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.
-   KP_Insert == Insert
-   F22 == Print
-   F27 == Home
-   F29 == Prior
-   F33 == End
-   F35 == Next
-Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various possible
-keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the keys as
-required for your particular machine.
-=head2 How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
-rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you can
-check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED, slrn,
-Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide whether or
-not to use color.
-=head2 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
-If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
-insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
-snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
-wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets) then
-the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from a
-regular xterm.
-Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
-snippets:
-   # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
-   [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
-   if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
-      stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
-      echo -n '^[Z'
-      read term_id
-      stty icanon echo
-      if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
-         echo -n '^[[7n'     	# query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
-         read DISPLAY     	# set it in our local shell
-      fi
-   fi
-=head2 How do I compile the manual pages for myself?
-You need to have a recent version of perl installed as F</usr/bin/perl>,
-one that comes with F<pod2man>, F<pod2text> and F<pod2html>. Then go to
-the doc subdirectory and enter C<make alldoc>.
-=head2 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
-Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: C<irc.freenode.net>,
-channel C<#rxvt-unicode> has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
-interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
-=head1 RXVT TECHNICAL REFERENCE
+=head1 RXVT-UNICODE TECHNICAL REFERENCE
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 The rest of this document describes various technical aspects of
 B<rxvt-unicode>. First the description of supported command sequences,
 =begin table
 	4	Shift
 	8	Meta
 	16	Control
-	32	Double Click I<(Rxvt extension)>
+	32	Double Click I<(rxvt extension)>
 =end table
 Col = B<< C<< <x> - SPACE >> >>

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Comparing rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.pod (file contents):
Revision 1.101 by root, Tue Jan 31 01:02:19 2006 UTC vs.
Revision 1.106 by root, Tue Jan 31 21:01:36 2006 UTC