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19all escape sequences, and other background information. 19all escape sequences, and other background information.
20 20
21The newest version of this document is also available on the World Wide Web at 21The newest version of this document is also available on the World Wide Web at
22L<http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/*checkout*/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.html>. 22L<http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/*checkout*/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.html>.
23 23
24=head1 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 24=head1 RXVT-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
25 25
26=head2 The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select
27single words?
28 26
29If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following 27=head2 Meta, Features & Commandline Issues
30setting:
31 28
32 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+) 29=head3 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
33 30
34If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended 31Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: C<irc.freenode.net>,
35more and more. 32channel C<#rxvt-unicode> has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
33interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
36 34
37To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this pattern: 35=head3 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
38 36
39 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+) 37Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a
38simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these should
39give you tabs:
40 40
41Please also note that the I<LeftClick Shift-LeftClik> combination also 41 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -pe tabbed
42selects words like the old code.
43 42
44=head2 I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I
45change/disable it?
46
47You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
48B<perl-ext-common> resource to the empty string, which also keeps
49rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
50
51If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
52identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
53B<PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS> in the @@RXVT_NAME@@perl(3) manpage. For
54example, to disable the B<selection-popup> and B<option-popup>, specify
55this B<perl-ext-common> resource:
56
57 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
58
59This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
60extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
61scrollback search mode is triggered by B<M-s>. You can move it to any
62other combination either by setting the B<searchable-scrollback> resource:
63
64 URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
65
66=head3 The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how
67do I switch this off?
68
69See next entry.
70
71=head2 During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor
72outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
73
74These are caused by the C<readline> perl extension. Under normal
75circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
76line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
77but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in some
78cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
79
80You can permamently switch this feature off by disabling the C<readline>
81extension:
82
83 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline 43 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
84 44
85=head2 Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources? 45It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window managers
46or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be
47embedded into other programs, as witnessed by F<doc/rxvt-tabbed> or
48the upcoming C<Gtk2::URxvt> perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
49(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
86 50
87Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X 51=head3 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
88applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
89resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
90ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
91F<$HOME/.Xdefaults> when no resources are attached to the display.
92 52
93If you have or use an F<$HOME/.Xresources> file, chances are that 53The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
94resources are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to 54sequence C<ESC [ 8 n> sets the window title to the version number. When
95re-login after every change (or run F<xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources>). 55using the @@URXVT_NAME@@c client, the version displayed is that of the
56daemon.
96 57
97Also consider the form resources have to use: 58=head3 Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
98 59
99 URxvt.resource: value 60Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something you
61don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings that
62you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by design,
63when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be loaded
64accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your characters.
100 65
101If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of 66Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
102specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it 67scrollback buffers: Without C<--enable-unicode3>, rxvt-unicode will use
103works. If unsure, use the form above. 686 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
69kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if full)
70use 10 Megabytes of memory. With C<--enable-unicode3> it gets worse, as
71rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
104 72
105=head2 I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong? 73=head3 How can I start @@URXVT_NAME@@d in a race-free way?
106 74
107First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode, so 75Try C<@@URXVT_NAME@@d -f -o>, which tells @@URXVT_NAME@@d to open the
108you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you may 76display, create the listening socket and then fork.
109bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a rite
110of passage: ... and you failed.
111 77
112Here are four ways to get transparency. B<Do> read the manpage and option 78=head3 How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
113descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
114 79
1151. Use inheritPixmap: 80The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM",
81so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED,
82slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide
83whether or not to use color.
116 84
117 Esetroot wallpaper.jpg 85=head3 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
118 @@RXVT_NAME@@ -ip -tint red -sh 40
119 86
120That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting 87If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
121support, or you are unable to read. 88insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
89snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
90wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets) then
91the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from a
92regular xterm.
122 93
1232. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you 94Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
124to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever 95snippets:
125your picture with gimp:
126 96
127 convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm 97 # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
128 @@RXVT_NAME@@ -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background 98 [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
99 if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
100 stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
101 echo -n '^[Z'
102 read term_id
103 stty icanon echo
104 if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
105 echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
106 read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
107 fi
108 fi
129 109
130That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or you 110=head3 How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
131are unable to read.
132 111
1333. Use an ARGB visual: 112You need to have a recent version of perl installed as F</usr/bin/perl>,
113one that comes with F<pod2man>, F<pod2text> and F<pod2html>. Then go to
114the doc subdirectory and enter C<make alldoc>.
134 115
135 @@RXVT_NAME@@ -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
136
137This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
138doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
139there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the neccessary
140bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but that
141doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
142
1434. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
144
145 xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
146 -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
147
148Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace C<0xc0000000>
149by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
150your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
151
152=head2 Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat? 116=head3 Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
153 117
154I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra 118I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra
155bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see 119bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see
156that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always being 120that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always being
157compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after startup. Even 121compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after startup. Even
189(21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole (22200k + extra 153(21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole (22200k + extra
19043180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half a minute of 15443180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half a minute of
191startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits out), it fares 155startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits out), it fares
192extremely well *g*. 156extremely well *g*.
193 157
194=head2 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool? 158=head3 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
195 159
196Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I had 160Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I had
197to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a fraction 161to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a fraction
198of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put even 162of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put even
199shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++. 163shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
223 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000) 187 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
224 188
225No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically), 189No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
226except maybe libX11 :) 190except maybe libX11 :)
227 191
228=head2 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
229 192
230Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a 193=head2 Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues
231simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these should
232give you tabs:
233 194
234 @@RXVT_NAME@@ -pe tabbed 195=head3 I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
235 196
197First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode, so
198you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you may
199bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a rite
200of passage: ... and you failed.
201
202Here are four ways to get transparency. B<Do> read the manpage and option
203descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
204
2051. Use inheritPixmap:
206
207 Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
208 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -ip -tint red -sh 40
209
210That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
211support, or you are unable to read.
212
2132. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
214to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
215your picture with gimp or any other tool:
216
217 convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm
218 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background
219
220That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or you
221are unable to read.
222
2233. Use an ARGB visual:
224
225 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
226
227This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
228doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
229there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the neccessary
230bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but that
231doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
232
2334. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
234
235 xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
236 -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
237
238Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace C<0xc0000000>
239by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
240your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
241
242=head3 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
243
244This is because there is a difference between script and language --
245rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is,
246as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first
247sees a japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for
248display. Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many
249chinese characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
250non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese font
251-- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font for
252chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
253
254The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
255list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as
256a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
257first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
258
259In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
260runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
261fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
262has been designed yet).
263
264Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see L<Can
265I switch the fonts at runtime?> later in this document).
266
267=head3 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
268
269Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that character
270size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal use might
271contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode will avoid
272these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too wide a special
273"careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent characters.
274
275All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
276however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed bounding
277box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct way is to
278ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is wrong in these
279cases).
280
281It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
282or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try using
283the C<-lsp> option to give the font more height. If that doesn't work, you
284might be forced to use a different font.
285
286All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their bounding
287box data is correct.
288
289=head3 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
290
291First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
292(C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
293make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
294rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
295
296 URxvt.colorBD: white
297 URxvt.colorIT: green
298
299=head3 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
300
301For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
302colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the standard
3038 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of course, to fix
304these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very good reasons.
305
306In the meantime, you can either edit your C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
307definition to only claim 8 colour support or use C<TERM=rxvt>, which will
308fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
309
310=head3 Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
311
312Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the same
313effect as using the C<-fn> switch, and takes effect immediately:
314
315 printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
316
317This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
318japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
319japanese fonts would only be in your way.
320
321You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
322
323=head3 Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
324
325Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
326example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font C<xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
327Mono> completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might be to
328enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
329
330 URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
331 URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
332
333=head3 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
334
335Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as
336it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
337antialiasing (by appending C<:antialias=false>), which saves lots of
338memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
339
340=head3 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
341
342Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
343fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
344fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
345antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
346look best that way.
347
348If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
349
350=head3 What's with this bold/blink stuff?
351
352If no bold colour is set via C<colorBD:>, bold will invert text using the
353standard foreground colour.
354
355For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the
356text blink when compiled with C<--enable-blinking>. with standard
357colours. Without C<--enable-blinking>, the blink attribute will be
358ignored.
359
360On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
361foreground/background colors.
362
363color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
364
365color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
366
367=head3 I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
368
369You can change the screen colors at run-time using F<~/.Xdefaults>
370resources (or as long-options).
371
372Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen,
373including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
374
375 URxvt.color0: #000000
376 URxvt.color1: #A80000
377 URxvt.color2: #00A800
378 URxvt.color3: #A8A800
379 URxvt.color4: #0000A8
380 URxvt.color5: #A800A8
381 URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
382 URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
383
384 URxvt.color8: #000054
385 URxvt.color9: #FF0054
386 URxvt.color10: #00FF54
387 URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
388 URxvt.color12: #0000FF
389 URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
390 URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
391 URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
392
393And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described (not by
394me) as "pretty girly".
395
396 URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
397 URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
398 URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
399 URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
400 URxvt.color0: #000000
401 URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
402 URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
403 URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
404 URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
405 URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
406 URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
407 URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
408 URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
409 URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
410 URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
411 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
412 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
413 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
414
415=head3 Why do some characters look so much different than others?
416
417See next entry.
418
419=head3 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
420
421Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is
422fine. Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
423your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want
424to display.
425
426B<rxvt-unicode> makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement
427font. Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
428bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
429resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
430intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
431the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
432
433In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
434e.g.:
435
436 @@URXVT_NAME@@ -fn basefont,font2,font3...
437
438When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
439font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the
440next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
441search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
442
443The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the base
444font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size, which
445must be the same due to the way terminals work.
446
447
448=head2 Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
449
450=head3 The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
451
452If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
453setting:
454
455 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
456
457If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended
458more and more.
459
460To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this pattern:
461
462 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
463
464Please also note that the I<LeftClick Shift-LeftClik> combination also
465selects words like the old code.
466
467=head3 I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
468
469You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
470B<perl-ext-common> resource to the empty string, which also keeps
471rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
472
473If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
474identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
475B<PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS> in the @@URXVT_NAME@@perl(3) manpage. For
476example, to disable the B<selection-popup> and B<option-popup>, specify
477this B<perl-ext-common> resource:
478
479 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
480
481This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
482extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
483scrollback search mode is triggered by B<M-s>. You can move it to any
484other combination either by setting the B<searchable-scrollback> resource:
485
486 URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
487
488=head3 The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
489
490See next entry.
491
492=head3 During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
493
494These are caused by the C<readline> perl extension. Under normal
495circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
496line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
497but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in some
498cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
499
500You can permamently switch this feature off by disabling the C<readline>
501extension:
502
236 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed 503 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
237 504
238It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window managers 505=head3 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
239or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be
240embedded into other programs, as witnessed by F<doc/rxvt-tabbed> or
241the upcoming C<Gtk2::URxvt> perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
242(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
243 506
244=head2 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? 507Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
508specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is caused
509by the wrong C<TERM> setting, although the details of wether and how
510this can happen are unknown, as C<TERM=rxvt> should offer a compatible
511keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please report if that
512helped.
245 513
246The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape 514=head3 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
247sequence C<ESC [ 8 n> sets the window title to the version number. When
248using the @@RXVT_NAME@@c client, the version displayed is that of the
249daemon.
250 515
251=head2 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem... 516The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
517correctly, or you specified a B<preeditStyle> that is not supported by
518your input method. For example, if you specified B<OverTheSpot> and
519your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys)
520does not support this (for instance because it is not visual), then
521rxvt-unicode will continue without an input method.
252 522
253The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large 523In this case either do not specify a B<preeditStyle> or specify more than
254patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but 524one pre-edit style, such as B<OverTheSpot,Root,None>.
255unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
256the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
257version (L<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
258the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific to
259Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian Bug
260Tracking System (use C<reportbug> to report the bug).
261 525
262For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and 526=head3 I cannot type C<Ctrl-Shift-2> to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
263probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
264bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users that
265might encounter the same issue.
266 527
267=head2 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any 528Either try C<Ctrl-2> alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
268recommendation? 529international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
530advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for other
531codes, too, such as C<Ctrl-Shift-1-d> to type the default telnet escape
532character and so on.
269 533
270You should build one binary with the default options. F<configure> 534=head3 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
271now enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
272runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling them,
273except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter should
274be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely more in
275the future) depends on it.
276 535
277You should not overwrite the C<perl-ext-common> snd C<perl-ext> resources 536Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
278system-wide (except maybe with C<defaults>). This will result in useful 537some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've
279behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty 538heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A
280C<perl-ext-common> resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the 539quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
281perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it. 540depressed.
282 541
283If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal 542=head3 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
284one with C<--disable-everything> (very useful) and a maximal one with
285C<--enable-everything> (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
286encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
287 543
288=head2 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe? 544Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
545BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
546question) there are two standard values that can be used for
547Backspace: C<^H> and C<^?>.
289 548
290It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly 549Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the debian
291install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now. 550policy of using C<^?> when unsure, because it's the one only only correct
551choice :).
292 552
293When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork 553Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the value
294into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some 554of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode wasn't
295systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges 555started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), then the
296immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep 556system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in <termios.h>, will
297privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains 557be used (which may not be the same as your stty setting).
298things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
299 558
300This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very early 559For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
301and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before main(), or
302things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should result in very
303little risk.
304 560
561 # use Backspace = ^H
562 $ stty erase ^H
563 $ @@URXVT_NAME@@
564
565 # use Backspace = ^?
566 $ stty erase ^?
567 $ @@URXVT_NAME@@
568
569Toggle with C<ESC [ 36 h> / C<ESC [ 36 l>.
570
571For an existing rxvt-unicode:
572
573 # use Backspace = ^H
574 $ stty erase ^H
575 $ echo -n "^[[36h"
576
577 # use Backspace = ^?
578 $ stty erase ^?
579 $ echo -n "^[[36l"
580
581This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
582if you use Backspace = C<^H>, make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
583properly reflects that.
584
585The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace problem.
586To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the Delete
587key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for Execute
588(C<ESC [ 3 ~>) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
589
590Some other Backspace problems:
591
592some editors use termcap/terminfo,
593some editors (vim I'm told) expect Backspace = ^H,
594GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
595
596Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
597
598=head3 I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
599
600There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
601you have run "configure" with the C<--disable-resources> option you can
602use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with keysyms.
603
604Here's an example for a URxvt session started using C<@@URXVT_NAME@@ -name URxvt>
605
606 URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
607 URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
608 URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
609 URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
610 URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
611 URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
612 URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
613 URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
614 URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
615 URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
616 URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
617 URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
618 URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
619 URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
620 URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
621 URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
622 URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
623 URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
624 URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
625 URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
626
627See some more examples in the documentation for the B<keysym> resource.
628
629=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
630
631 KP_Insert == Insert
632 F22 == Print
633 F27 == Home
634 F29 == Prior
635 F33 == End
636 F35 == Next
637
638Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various possible
639keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the keys as
640required for your particular machine.
641
642
643
644=head2 Terminal Configuration
645
646=head3 Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
647
648Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
649applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
650resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
651ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
652F<$HOME/.Xdefaults> when no resources are attached to the display.
653
654If you have or use an F<$HOME/.Xresources> file, chances are that
655resources are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to
656re-login after every change (or run F<xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources>).
657
658Also consider the form resources have to use:
659
660 URxvt.resource: value
661
662If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
663specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it
664works. If unsure, use the form above.
665
305=head2 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? 666=head3 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
306 667
307The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available 668The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
308as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often arises). 669as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often arises).
309 670
310The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this can 671The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this can
326resource to set it: 687resource to set it:
327 688
328 URxvt.termName: rxvt 689 URxvt.termName: rxvt
329 690
330If you don't plan to use B<rxvt> (quite common...) you could also replace 691If you don't plan to use B<rxvt> (quite common...) you could also replace
331the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one. 692the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use C<TERM=rxvt>.
332 693
333=head2 C<tic> outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry. 694=head3 C<tic> outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
334 695
335Most likely it's the empty definition for C<enacs=>. Just replace it by 696Most likely it's the empty definition for C<enacs=>. Just replace it by
336C<enacs=\E[0@> and try again. 697C<enacs=\E[0@> and try again.
337 698
338=head2 C<bash>'s readline does not work correctly under @@RXVT_NAME@@. 699=head3 C<bash>'s readline does not work correctly under @@URXVT_NAME@@.
339 700
340See next entry. 701See next entry.
341 702
342=head2 I need a termcap file entry. 703=head3 I need a termcap file entry.
343 704
344One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating 705One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
345systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap 706systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
346library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry 707library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
347for C<rxvt-unicode>. 708for C<rxvt-unicode>.
373 :sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\ 734 :sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\
374 :te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\ 735 :te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\
375 :us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\ 736 :us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
376 :vs=\E[?25h: 737 :vs=\E[?25h:
377 738
378=head2 Why does C<ls> no longer have coloured output? 739=head3 Why does C<ls> no longer have coloured output?
379 740
380The C<ls> in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to 741The C<ls> in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
381decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration 742decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration
382file. Needless to say, C<rxvt-unicode> is not in it's default file (among 743file. Needless to say, C<rxvt-unicode> is not in it's default file (among
383with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add: 744with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
388 749
389 alias ls='ls --color=auto' 750 alias ls='ls --color=auto'
390 751
391to your C<.profile> or C<.bashrc>. 752to your C<.profile> or C<.bashrc>.
392 753
393=head2 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode? 754=head3 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
394 755
395See next entry. 756See next entry.
396 757
397=head2 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic? 758=head3 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
398 759
399See next entry. 760See next entry.
400 761
401=head2 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly? 762=head3 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
402 763
403Make sure you are using C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>. Some pre-packaged 764Make sure you are using C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>. Some pre-packaged
404distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode 765distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode
405by setting C<TERM> to C<rxvt>, which doesn't have these extra 766by setting C<TERM> to C<rxvt>, which doesn't have these extra
406features. Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian 767features. Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian
407GNU/Linux) furthermore fail to even install the C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo 768GNU/Linux) furthermore fail to even install the C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
408file, so you will need to install it on your own (See the question B<When 769file, so you will need to install it on your own (See the question B<When
409I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?> on 770I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?> on
410how to do this). 771how to do this).
411 772
412=head2 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
413 773
414Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no 774=head2 Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues
415specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is caused
416by the wrong C<TERM> setting, although the details of wether and how
417this can happen are unknown, as C<TERM=rxvt> should offer a compatible
418keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please report if that
419helped.
420 775
421=head2 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding? 776=head3 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
422 777
423See next entry. 778See next entry.
424 779
425=head2 Unicode does not seem to work? 780=head3 Unicode does not seem to work?
426 781
427If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but 782If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
428getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output is 783getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output is
429subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings. 784subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
430 785
450 805
451If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then 806If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
452you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't 807you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
453support locales :( 808support locales :(
454 809
455=head2 Why do some characters look so much different than others? 810=head3 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
456 811
457See next entry. 812See next entry.
458 813
459=head2 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts? 814=head3 Is there an option to switch encodings?
460 815
461Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is 816Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
462fine. Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of 817specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know about
463your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want 818UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
464to display.
465 819
466B<rxvt-unicode> makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement 820The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for selecting
467font. Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks 821the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating this to all
468bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't 822applications so everybody agrees on character properties such as width
469resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial 823and code number. This mechanism is the I<locale>. Applications not using
470intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe 824that info will have problems (for example, C<xterm> gets the width of
471the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct. 825characters wrong as it uses it's own, locale-independent table under all
472
473In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
474e.g.:
475
476 @@RXVT_NAME@@ -fn basefont,font2,font3...
477
478When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
479font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the
480next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
481search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
482
483The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the base
484font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size, which
485must be the same due to the way terminals work.
486
487=head2 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
488
489This is because there is a difference between script and language --
490rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is,
491as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first
492sees a japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for
493display. Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many
494chinese characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
495non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese font
496-- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font for
497chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
498
499The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
500list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as
501a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
502first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
503
504In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
505runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
506fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
507has been designed yet).
508
509Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see L<Can
510I switch the fonts at runtime?> later in this document).
511
512=head2 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
513
514Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that character
515size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal use might
516contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode will avoid
517these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too wide a special
518"careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent characters.
519
520All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
521however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed bounding
522box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct way is to
523ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is wrong in these
524cases). 826locales).
525 827
526It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype, 828Rxvt-unicode uses the C<LC_CTYPE> locale category to select encoding. All
527or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try using 829programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
528the C<-lsp> option to give the font more height. If that doesn't work, you 830interpretation of characters.
529might be forced to use a different font.
530 831
531All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their bounding 832Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
532box data is correct. 833is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
533 834
835On most systems, the content of the C<LC_CTYPE> environment variable
836contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
837locale. Common names for locales are C<en_US.UTF-8>, C<de_DE.ISO-8859-15>,
838C<ja_JP.EUC-JP>, i.e. C<language_country.encoding>, but other forms
839(i.e. C<de> or C<german>) are also common.
840
841Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for
842the encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings,
843i.e. C<de_DE.UTF-8> and C<ja_JP.UTF-8> are the normally same to
844rxvt-unicode.
845
846If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
847rxvt-unicode with the correct C<LC_CTYPE> category.
848
849=head3 Can I switch locales at runtime?
850
851Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
852rxvt-unicode's idea of C<LC_CTYPE>.
853
854 printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
855
856See also the previous answer.
857
858Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in
859one locale (e.g. C<de_DE.UTF-8>) but some programs don't support it
860(e.g. UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start C<xjdic>, which
861first switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
862
863 printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
864 xjdic -js
865 printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
866
867You can also use xterm's C<luit> program, which usually works fine, except
868for some locales where character width differs between program- and
869rxvt-unicode-locales.
870
871=head3 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
872
873You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of the
874terminal, using the resource C<imlocale>:
875
876 URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
877
878Now you can start your terminal with C<LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8> and still
879use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not be able to
880input characters outside C<EUC-JP> in a normal way then, as your input
881method limits you.
882
883=head3 Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
884
885Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
886design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
887leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
888exit time. B<kinput2> (and derived input methods) generally succeeds,
889while B<SCIM> (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however,
890crashes cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
891
892So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
893
894
895=head2 Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
896
897=head3 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
898
899The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
900patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
901unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
902the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
903version (L<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
904the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific to
905Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian Bug
906Tracking System (use C<reportbug> to report the bug).
907
908For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
909probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
910bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users that
911might encounter the same issue.
912
913=head3 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
914
915You should build one binary with the default options. F<configure>
916now enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
917runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling them,
918except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter should
919be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely more in
920the future) depends on it.
921
922You should not overwrite the C<perl-ext-common> snd C<perl-ext> resources
923system-wide (except maybe with C<defaults>). This will result in useful
924behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
925C<perl-ext-common> resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
926perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
927
928If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal
929one with C<--disable-everything> (very useful) and a maximal one with
930C<--enable-everything> (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
931encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
932
933=head3 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
934
935It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
936install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
937
938When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
939into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
940systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
941immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
942privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
943things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
944
945This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very early
946and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before main(), or
947things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should result in very
948little risk.
949
534=head2 On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide. 950=head3 On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.
535 951
536Seems to be a known bug, read 952Seems to be a known bug, read
537L<http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the 953L<http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the
538following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working: 954following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
539 955
540 #define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x) 956 #define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)
541 957
542=head2 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
543
544The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
545correctly, or you specified a B<preeditStyle> that is not supported by
546your input method. For example, if you specified B<OverTheSpot> and
547your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys)
548does not support this (for instance because it is not visual), then
549rxvt-unicode will continue without an input method.
550
551In this case either do not specify a B<preeditStyle> or specify more than
552one pre-edit style, such as B<OverTheSpot,Root,None>.
553
554=head2 I cannot type C<Ctrl-Shift-2> to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
555
556Either try C<Ctrl-2> alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
557international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
558advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for other
559codes, too, such as C<Ctrl-Shift-1-d> to type the default telnet escape
560character and so on.
561
562=head2 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
563
564First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
565(C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
566make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
567rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
568
569 URxvt.colorBD: white
570 URxvt.colorIT: green
571
572=head2 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
573
574For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
575colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the standard
5768 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of course, to fix
577these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very good reasons.
578
579In the meantime, you can either edit your C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
580definition to only claim 8 colour support or use C<TERM=rxvt>, which will
581fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
582
583=head2 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all. 958=head3 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
584 959
585Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> to be defined 960Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> to be defined
586in your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it, 961in your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
587wether it defines the symbol or not. C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> requires that 962wether it defines the symbol or not. C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> requires that
588B<wchar_t> is represented as unicode. 963B<wchar_t> is represented as unicode.
610 985
611The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the 986The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
612system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry 987system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
613complete replacements for them :) 988complete replacements for them :)
614 989
615=head2 I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc. 990=head3 I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.
616 991
617Try the diff in F<doc/solaris9.patch> as a base. It fixes the worst 992Try the diff in F<doc/solaris9.patch> as a base. It fixes the worst
618problems with C<wcwidth> and a compile problem. 993problems with C<wcwidth> and a compile problem.
619 994
620=head2 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin? 995=head3 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
621 996
622rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using 997rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using
623the X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no 998the X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no
624longer supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a 999longer supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a
625single font). I recommend starting the X-server in C<-multiwindow> or 1000single font). I recommend starting the X-server in C<-multiwindow> or
628 1003
629At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any multi-byte 1004At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any multi-byte
630encodings (you might try C<LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8>), so you are likely limited 1005encodings (you might try C<LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8>), so you are likely limited
631to 8-bit encodings. 1006to 8-bit encodings.
632 1007
633=head2 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
634
635See next entry.
636
637=head2 Is there an option to switch encodings?
638
639Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
640specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know about
641UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
642
643The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for selecting
644the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating this to all
645applications so everybody agrees on character properties such as width
646and code number. This mechanism is the I<locale>. Applications not using
647that info will have problems (for example, C<xterm> gets the width of
648characters wrong as it uses it's own, locale-independent table under all
649locales).
650
651Rxvt-unicode uses the C<LC_CTYPE> locale category to select encoding. All
652programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
653interpretation of characters.
654
655Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
656is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
657
658On most systems, the content of the C<LC_CTYPE> environment variable
659contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
660locale. Common names for locales are C<en_US.UTF-8>, C<de_DE.ISO-8859-15>,
661C<ja_JP.EUC-JP>, i.e. C<language_country.encoding>, but other forms
662(i.e. C<de> or C<german>) are also common.
663
664Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for
665the encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings,
666i.e. C<de_DE.UTF-8> and C<ja_JP.UTF-8> are the normally same to
667rxvt-unicode.
668
669If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
670rxvt-unicode with the correct C<LC_CTYPE> category.
671
672=head2 Can I switch locales at runtime?
673
674Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
675rxvt-unicode's idea of C<LC_CTYPE>.
676
677 printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
678
679See also the previous answer.
680
681Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in
682one locale (e.g. C<de_DE.UTF-8>) but some programs don't support it
683(e.g. UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start C<xjdic>, which
684first switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
685
686 printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
687 xjdic -js
688 printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
689
690You can also use xterm's C<luit> program, which usually works fine, except
691for some locales where character width differs between program- and
692rxvt-unicode-locales.
693
694=head2 Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
695
696Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the same
697effect as using the C<-fn> switch, and takes effect immediately:
698
699 printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
700
701This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
702japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
703japanese fonts would only be in your way.
704
705You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
706
707=head2 Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
708
709Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
710example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font C<xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
711Mono> completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might be to
712enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
713
714 URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
715 URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
716
717=head2 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
718
719You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of the
720terminal, using the resource C<imlocale>:
721
722 URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
723
724Now you can start your terminal with C<LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8> and still
725use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not be able to
726input characters outside C<EUC-JP> in a normal way then, as your input
727method limits you.
728
729=head2 Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
730
731Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
732design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
733leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
734exit time. B<kinput2> (and derived input methods) generally succeeds,
735while B<SCIM> (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however,
736crashes cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
737
738So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
739
740=head2 Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
741
742Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something you
743don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings that
744you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by design,
745when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be loaded
746accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your characters.
747
748Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
749scrollback buffers: Without C<--enable-unicode3>, rxvt-unicode will use
7506 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
751kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if full)
752use 10 Megabytes of memory. With C<--enable-unicode3> it gets worse, as
753rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
754
755=head2 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
756
757Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as
758it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
759antialiasing (by appending C<:antialias=false>), which saves lots of
760memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
761
762=head2 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
763
764Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
765fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
766fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
767antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
768look best that way.
769
770If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
771
772=head2 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
773
774Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
775some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've
776heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A
777quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
778depressed.
779
780=head2 What's with this bold/blink stuff?
781
782If no bold colour is set via C<colorBD:>, bold will invert text using the
783standard foreground colour.
784
785For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the
786text blink when compiled with C<--enable-blinking>. with standard
787colours. Without C<--enable-blinking>, the blink attribute will be
788ignored.
789
790On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
791foreground/background colors.
792
793color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
794
795color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
796
797=head2 I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
798
799You can change the screen colors at run-time using F<~/.Xdefaults>
800resources (or as long-options).
801
802Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen,
803including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
804
805 URxvt.color0: #000000
806 URxvt.color1: #A80000
807 URxvt.color2: #00A800
808 URxvt.color3: #A8A800
809 URxvt.color4: #0000A8
810 URxvt.color5: #A800A8
811 URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
812 URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
813
814 URxvt.color8: #000054
815 URxvt.color9: #FF0054
816 URxvt.color10: #00FF54
817 URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
818 URxvt.color12: #0000FF
819 URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
820 URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
821 URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
822
823And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described (not by
824me) as "pretty girly".
825
826 URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
827 URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
828 URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
829 URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
830 URxvt.color0: #000000
831 URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
832 URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
833 URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
834 URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
835 URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
836 URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
837 URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
838 URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
839 URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
840 URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
841 URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
842 URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
843 URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
844
845=head2 How can I start @@RXVT_NAME@@d in a race-free way?
846
847Try C<@@RXVT_NAME@@d -f -o>, which tells @@RXVT_NAME@@d to open the
848display, create the listening socket and then fork.
849
850=head2 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
851
852Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
853BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
854question) there are two standard values that can be used for
855Backspace: C<^H> and C<^?>.
856
857Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the debian
858policy of using C<^?> when unsure, because it's the one only only correct
859choice :).
860
861Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the value
862of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode wasn't
863started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), then the
864system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in <termios.h>, will
865be used (which may not be the same as your stty setting).
866
867For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
868
869 # use Backspace = ^H
870 $ stty erase ^H
871 $ @@RXVT_NAME@@
872
873 # use Backspace = ^?
874 $ stty erase ^?
875 $ @@RXVT_NAME@@
876
877Toggle with C<ESC [ 36 h> / C<ESC [ 36 l>.
878
879For an existing rxvt-unicode:
880
881 # use Backspace = ^H
882 $ stty erase ^H
883 $ echo -n "^[[36h"
884
885 # use Backspace = ^?
886 $ stty erase ^?
887 $ echo -n "^[[36l"
888
889This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
890if you use Backspace = C<^H>, make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
891properly reflects that.
892
893The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace problem.
894To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the Delete
895key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for Execute
896(C<ESC [ 3 ~>) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
897
898Some other Backspace problems:
899
900some editors use termcap/terminfo,
901some editors (vim I'm told) expect Backspace = ^H,
902GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
903
904Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
905
906=head2 I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
907
908There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
909you have run "configure" with the C<--disable-resources> option you can
910use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with keysyms.
911
912Here's an example for a URxvt session started using C<@@RXVT_NAME@@ -name URxvt>
913
914 URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
915 URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
916 URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
917 URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
918 URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
919 URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
920 URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
921 URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
922 URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
923 URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
924 URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
925 URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
926 URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
927 URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
928 URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
929 URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
930 URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
931 URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
932 URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
933 URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
934
935See some more examples in the documentation for the B<keysym> resource.
936
937=head2 I'm using keyboard model XXX that has extra Prior/Next/Insert keys.
938How do I make use of them? For example, the Sun Keyboard type 4
939has the following mappings that rxvt-unicode doesn't recognize.
940
941 KP_Insert == Insert
942 F22 == Print
943 F27 == Home
944 F29 == Prior
945 F33 == End
946 F35 == Next
947
948Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various possible
949keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the keys as
950required for your particular machine.
951
952=head2 How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm?
953I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
954
955rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you can
956check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED, slrn,
957Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide whether or
958not to use color.
959
960=head2 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
961
962If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
963insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
964snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
965wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets) then
966the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from a
967regular xterm.
968
969Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
970snippets:
971
972 # Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
973 [ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
974 if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
975 stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
976 echo -n '^[Z'
977 read term_id
978 stty icanon echo
979 if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
980 echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
981 read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
982 fi
983 fi
984
985=head2 How do I compile the manual pages for myself?
986
987You need to have a recent version of perl installed as F</usr/bin/perl>,
988one that comes with F<pod2man>, F<pod2text> and F<pod2html>. Then go to
989the doc subdirectory and enter C<make alldoc>.
990
991=head2 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
992
993Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: C<irc.freenode.net>,
994channel C<#rxvt-unicode> has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
995interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
996
997=head1 RXVT TECHNICAL REFERENCE 1008=head1 RXVT-UNICODE TECHNICAL REFERENCE
998 1009
999=head1 DESCRIPTION 1010=head1 DESCRIPTION
1000 1011
1001The rest of this document describes various technical aspects of 1012The rest of this document describes various technical aspects of
1002B<rxvt-unicode>. First the description of supported command sequences, 1013B<rxvt-unicode>. First the description of supported command sequences,
1900=begin table 1911=begin table
1901 1912
1902 4 Shift 1913 4 Shift
1903 8 Meta 1914 8 Meta
1904 16 Control 1915 16 Control
1905 32 Double Click I<(Rxvt extension)> 1916 32 Double Click I<(rxvt extension)>
1906 1917
1907=end table 1918=end table
1908 1919
1909Col = B<< C<< <x> - SPACE >> >> 1920Col = B<< C<< <x> - SPACE >> >>
1910 1921

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