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Revision 1.114 by root, Tue Feb 21 00:59:59 2006 UTC

…		…
16	=head1 DESCRIPTION	16	=head1 DESCRIPTION
17		17
18	This document contains the FAQ, the RXVT TECHNICAL REFERENCE documenting	18	This document contains the FAQ, the RXVT TECHNICAL REFERENCE documenting
19	all escape sequences, and other background information.	19	all escape sequences, and other background information.
20		20
21	The newest version of this document is	21	The newest version of this document is also available on the World Wide Web at
22	also available on the World Wide Web at
23	L<http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/*checkout*/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.html>.	22	L<http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/*checkout*/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.html>.
24		23
25	=head1 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS	24	=head1 RXVT-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
26		25
27	=over 4
28		26
29	=item The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select	27	=head2 Meta, Features & Commandline Issues
30	single words?
31		28
32	Yes. For example, if you want to select alphanumeric words, you can use	29	=head3 My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
33	the following resource:
34		30
35	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)	31	Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: C<irc.freenode.net>,
		32	channel C<#rxvt-unicode> has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
		33	interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
36		34
37	If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended	35	=head3 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
38	more and more.
39		36
40	To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this pattern:	37	Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a
		38	simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these should
		39	give you tabs:
41		40
42	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)	41	@@URXVT_NAME@@ -pe tabbed
43		42
44	Please also note that the I<LeftClick Shift-LeftClik> combination also	43	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed
45	selects words like the old code.
46		44
47	=item I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I	45	It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window managers
48	change/disable it?	46	or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be
		47	embedded into other programs, as witnessed by F<doc/rxvt-tabbed> or
		48	the upcoming C<Gtk2::URxvt> perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt
		49	(murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application.
49		50
50	You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the	51	=head3 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
51	B<perl-ext-common> resource to the empty string, which also keeps
52	rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
53		52
54	If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to	53	The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
55	identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section	54	sequence C<ESC [ 8 n> sets the window title to the version number. When
56	B<PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS> in the @@RXVT_NAME@@perl(3) manpage. For	55	using the @@URXVT_NAME@@c client, the version displayed is that of the
57	example, to disable the B<selection-popup> and B<option-popup>, specify	56	daemon.
58	this B<perl-ext-common> resource:
59		57
60	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup	58	=head3 Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
61		59
62	This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup	60	Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something you
63	extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,	61	don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings that
64	scrollback search mode is triggered by B<M-s>. You can move it to any	62	you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by design,
65	other combination either by setting the B<searchable-scrollback> resource:	63	when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be loaded
		64	accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your characters.
66		65
67	URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s	66	Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
		67	scrollback buffers: Without C<--enable-unicode3>, rxvt-unicode will use
		68	6 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
		69	kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if full)
		70	use 10 Megabytes of memory. With C<--enable-unicode3> it gets worse, as
		71	rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
68		72
		73	=head3 How can I start @@URXVT_NAME@@d in a race-free way?
		74
		75	Try C<@@URXVT_NAME@@d -f -o>, which tells @@URXVT_NAME@@d to open the
		76	display, create the listening socket and then fork.
		77
		78	=head3 How can I start @@URXVT_NAME@@d automatically when I run URXVT_NAME@@c?
		79
		80	If you want to start @@URXVT_NAME@@d automatically whenever you run
		81	@@URXVT_NAME@@c and the daemon isn't running yet, use this script:
		82
		83	#!/bin/sh
		84	@@URXVT_NAME@@c "$@"
		85	if [ $? -eq 2 ]; then
		86	@@URXVT_NAME@@d -q -o -f
		87	@@URXVT_NAME@@c "$@"
		88	fi
		89
		90	This tries to create a new terminal, and if fails with exit status 2,
		91	meaning it couldn't connect to the daemon, it will start the daemon and
		92	re-run the command. Subsequent invocations of the script will re-use the
		93	existing daemon.
		94
		95	=head3 How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm? I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
		96
		97	The original rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM",
		98	so you can check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED,
		99	slrn, Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide
		100	whether or not to use color.
		101
		102	=head3 How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
		103
		104	If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
		105	insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
		106	snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
		107	wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets) then
		108	the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from a
		109	regular xterm.
		110
		111	Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
		112	snippets:
		113
		114	# Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
		115	[ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
		116	if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
		117	stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
		118	echo -n '^[Z'
		119	read term_id
		120	stty icanon echo
		121	if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
		122	echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
		123	read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
		124	fi
		125	fi
		126
		127	=head3 How do I compile the manual pages on my own?
		128
		129	You need to have a recent version of perl installed as F</usr/bin/perl>,
		130	one that comes with F<pod2man>, F<pod2text> and F<pod2html>. Then go to
		131	the doc subdirectory and enter C<make alldoc>.
		132
69	=item Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?	133	=head3 Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
70		134
71	I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra	135	I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra
72	bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see	136	bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see
73	that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always being	137	that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always being
74	compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after startup. Even	138	compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after startup. Even
…		…
78		142
79	text data bss drs rss filename	143	text data bss drs rss filename
80	98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything	144	98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything
81	188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything	145	188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything
82		146
83	When you C<--enable-everything> (which _is_ unfair, as this involves xft	147	When you C<--enable-everything> (which I<is> unfair, as this involves xft
84	and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my	148	and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my
85	libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so.	149	libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so.
86		150
87	text data bss drs rss filename	151	text data bss drs rss filename
88	163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything	152	163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything
…		…
106	(21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole (22200k + extra	170	(21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole (22200k + extra
107	43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half a minute of	171	43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half a minute of
108	startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits out), it fares	172	startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits out), it fares
109	extremely well *g*.	173	extremely well *g*.
110		174
111	=item Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?	175	=head3 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
112		176
113	Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I had	177	Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I had
114	to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a fraction	178	to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a fraction
115	of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put even	179	of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put even
116	shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.	180	shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
…		…
140	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)	204	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
141		205
142	No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),	206	No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically),
143	except maybe libX11 :)	207	except maybe libX11 :)
144		208
145	=item Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
146		209
147	rxvt-unicode does not directly support tabs. It will work fine with	210	=head2 Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues
148	tabbing functionality of many window managers or similar tabbing programs,
149	and its embedding-features allow it to be embedded into other programs,
150	as witnessed by F<doc/rxvt-tabbed> or the upcoming C<Gtk2::URxvt> perl
151	module, which features a tabbed urxvt (murxvt) terminal as an example
152	embedding application.
153		211
154	=item How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?	212	=head3 I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong?
155		213
156	The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape	214	First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode, so
157	sequence C<ESC [ 8 n> sets the window title to the version number. When	215	you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you may
158	using the @@RXVT_NAME@@c client, the version displayed is that of the	216	bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a rite
159	daemon.	217	of passage: ... and you failed.
160		218
161	=item I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...	219	Here are four ways to get transparency. B<Do> read the manpage and option
		220	descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it!
162		221
163	The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large	222	1. Use inheritPixmap:
164	patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode. Before
165	reporting a bug to the original rxvt-unicode author please download and
166	install the genuine version (L<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>)
167	and try to reproduce the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the
168	problems are specific to Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be
169	reported via the Debian Bug Tracking System (use C<reportbug> to report
170	the bug).
171		223
172	For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and	224	Esetroot wallpaper.jpg
173	probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a	225	@@URXVT_NAME@@ -ip -tint red -sh 40
174	bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users that
175	might encounter the same issue.
176		226
177	=item I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?	227	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting
		228	support, or you are unable to read.
178		229
179	You should build one binary with the default options. F<configure>	230	2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you
180	now enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them	231	to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever
181	runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling them,	232	your picture with gimp or any other tool:
182	except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter should
183	be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely more in
184	the future) depends on it.
185		233
186	You should not overwrite the C<perl-ext-common> snd C<perl-ext> resources	234	convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.xpm
187	system-wide (except maybe with C<defaults>). This will result in useful	235	@@URXVT_NAME@@ -pixmap background.xpm -pe automove-background
188	behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
189	C<perl-ext-common> resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
190	perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
191		236
192	If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal	237	That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack XPM and Perl support, or you
193	one with C<--disable-everything> (very useful) and a maximal one with	238	are unable to read.
194	C<--enable-everything> (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
195	encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
196		239
197	=item I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?	240	3. Use an ARGB visual:
198		241
199	Likely not. While I honestly try to make it secure, and am probably not	242	@@URXVT_NAME@@ -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc
200	bad at it, I think it is simply unreasonable to expect all of freetype
201	+ fontconfig + xft + xlib + perl + ... + rxvt-unicode itself to all be
202	secure. Also, rxvt-unicode disables some options when it detects that it
203	runs setuid or setgid, which is not nice. Besides, with the embedded perl
204	interpreter the possibility for security problems easily multiplies.
205		243
206	Elevated privileges are only required for utmp and pty operations on some	244	This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that
207	systems (for example, GNU/Linux doesn't need any extra privileges for	245	doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't
208	ptys, but some need it for utmp support). It is planned to mvoe this into	246	there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the neccessary
209	a forked handler process, but this is not yet done.	247	bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but that
		248	doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place.
210		249
211	So, while setuid/setgid operation is supported and not a problem on your	250	4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job:
212	typical single-user-no-other-logins unix desktop, always remember that
213	its an awful lot of code, most of which isn't checked for security issues
214	regularly.
215		251
		252	xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \
		253	-set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000
		254
		255	Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace C<0xc0000000>
		256	by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and
		257	your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces.
		258
		259	=head3 Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
		260
		261	Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that character
		262	size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal use might
		263	contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode will avoid
		264	these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too wide a special
		265	"careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent characters.
		266
		267	All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
		268	however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed bounding
		269	box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct way is to
		270	ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is wrong in these
		271	cases).
		272
		273	It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,
		274	or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try using
		275	the C<-lsp> option to give the font more height. If that doesn't work, you
		276	might be forced to use a different font.
		277
		278	All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their bounding
		279	box data is correct.
		280
		281	=head3 How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
		282
		283	First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
		284	(C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
		285	make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
		286	rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
		287
		288	URxvt.colorBD: white
		289	URxvt.colorIT: green
		290
		291	=head3 Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
		292
		293	For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
		294	colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the standard
		295	8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of course, to fix
		296	these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very good reasons.
		297
		298	In the meantime, you can either edit your C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
		299	definition to only claim 8 colour support or use C<TERM=rxvt>, which will
		300	fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
		301
		302	=head3 Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
		303
		304	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the same
		305	effect as using the C<-fn> switch, and takes effect immediately:
		306
		307	printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
		308
		309	This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
		310	japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
		311	japanese fonts would only be in your way.
		312
		313	You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
		314
		315	=head3 Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
		316
		317	Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
		318	example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font C<xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
		319	Mono> completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might be to
		320	enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
		321
		322	URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
		323	URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
		324
		325	=head3 Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
		326
		327	Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as
		328	it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
		329	antialiasing (by appending C<:antialias=false>), which saves lots of
		330	memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
		331
		332	=head3 Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
		333
		334	Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
		335	fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
		336	fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
		337	antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
		338	look best that way.
		339
		340	If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
		341
		342	=head3 What's with this bold/blink stuff?
		343
		344	If no bold colour is set via C<colorBD:>, bold will invert text using the
		345	standard foreground colour.
		346
		347	For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the
		348	text blink when compiled with C<--enable-blinking>. with standard
		349	colours. Without C<--enable-blinking>, the blink attribute will be
		350	ignored.
		351
		352	On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
		353	foreground/background colors.
		354
		355	color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
		356
		357	color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
		358
		359	=head3 I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
		360
		361	You can change the screen colors at run-time using F<~/.Xdefaults>
		362	resources (or as long-options).
		363
		364	Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen,
		365	including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
		366
		367	URxvt.color0: #000000
		368	URxvt.color1: #A80000
		369	URxvt.color2: #00A800
		370	URxvt.color3: #A8A800
		371	URxvt.color4: #0000A8
		372	URxvt.color5: #A800A8
		373	URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
		374	URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
		375
		376	URxvt.color8: #000054
		377	URxvt.color9: #FF0054
		378	URxvt.color10: #00FF54
		379	URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
		380	URxvt.color12: #0000FF
		381	URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
		382	URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
		383	URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
		384
		385	And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors.
		386
		387	URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
		388	URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
		389	URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
		390	URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
		391	URxvt.color0: #000000
		392	URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
		393	URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
		394	URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
		395	URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
		396	URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
		397	URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
		398	URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
		399	URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
		400	URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
		401	URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
		402	URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
		403	URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
		404	URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
		405
		406	They have been described (not by me) as "pretty girly".
		407
		408	=head3 Why do some characters look so much different than others?
		409
		410	See next entry.
		411
		412	=head3 How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
		413
		414	Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is
		415	fine. Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
		416	your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want
		417	to display.
		418
		419	B<rxvt-unicode> makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement
		420	font. Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
		421	bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't
		422	resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
		423	intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
		424	the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
		425
		426	In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,
		427	e.g.:
		428
		429	@@URXVT_NAME@@ -fn basefont,font2,font3...
		430
		431	When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
		432	font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the
		433	next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
		434	search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
		435
		436	The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the base
		437	font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size, which
		438	must be the same due to the way terminals work.
		439
		440	=head3 Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
		441
		442	This is because there is a difference between script and language --
		443	rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is,
		444	as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first
		445	sees a japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for
		446	display. Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many
		447	chinese characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
		448	non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese font
		449	-- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font for
		450	chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
		451
		452	The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
		453	list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as
		454	a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
		455	first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
		456
		457	In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
		458	runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
		459	fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
		460	has been designed yet).
		461
		462	Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see L<Can
		463	I switch the fonts at runtime?> later in this document).
		464
		465	=head2 Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction
		466
		467	=head3 The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words?
		468
		469	If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following
		470	setting:
		471
		472	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
		473
		474	If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended
		475	more and more.
		476
		477	To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this pattern:
		478
		479	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
		480
		481	Please also note that the I<LeftClick Shift-LeftClik> combination also
		482	selects words like the old code.
		483
		484	=head3 I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it?
		485
		486	You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
		487	B<perl-ext-common> resource to the empty string, which also keeps
		488	rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
		489
		490	If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
		491	identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section
		492	B<PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS> in the @@URXVT_NAME@@perl(3) manpage. For
		493	example, to disable the B<selection-popup> and B<option-popup>, specify
		494	this B<perl-ext-common> resource:
		495
		496	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
		497
		498	This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
		499	extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
		500	scrollback search mode is triggered by B<M-s>. You can move it to any
		501	other combination either by setting the B<searchable-scrollback> resource:
		502
		503	URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
		504
		505	=head3 The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off?
		506
		507	See next entry.
		508
		509	=head3 During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this?
		510
		511	These are caused by the C<readline> perl extension. Under normal
		512	circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the
		513	line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment,
		514	but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in some
		515	cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly.
		516
		517	You can permamently switch this feature off by disabling the C<readline>
		518	extension:
		519
		520	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline
		521
		522	=head3 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
		523
		524	Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no
		525	specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is caused
		526	by the wrong C<TERM> setting, although the details of wether and how
		527	this can happen are unknown, as C<TERM=rxvt> should offer a compatible
		528	keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please report if that
		529	helped.
		530
		531	=head3 My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
		532
		533	The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
		534	correctly, or you specified a B<preeditStyle> that is not supported by
		535	your input method. For example, if you specified B<OverTheSpot> and
		536	your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys)
		537	does not support this (for instance because it is not visual), then
		538	rxvt-unicode will continue without an input method.
		539
		540	In this case either do not specify a B<preeditStyle> or specify more than
		541	one pre-edit style, such as B<OverTheSpot,Root,None>.
		542
		543	=head3 I cannot type C<Ctrl-Shift-2> to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
		544
		545	Either try C<Ctrl-2> alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
		546	international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
		547	advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for other
		548	codes, too, such as C<Ctrl-Shift-1-d> to type the default telnet escape
		549	character and so on.
		550
		551	=head3 Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
		552
		553	Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
		554	some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've
		555	heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A
		556	quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
		557	depressed.
		558
		559	=head3 What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
		560
		561	Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
		562	BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
		563	question) there are two standard values that can be used for
		564	Backspace: C<^H> and C<^?>.
		565
		566	Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the debian
		567	policy of using C<^?> when unsure, because it's the one only only correct
		568	choice :).
		569
		570	Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the value
		571	of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode wasn't
		572	started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), then the
		573	system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in <termios.h>, will
		574	be used (which may not be the same as your stty setting).
		575
		576	For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
		577
		578	# use Backspace = ^H
		579	$ stty erase ^H
		580	$ @@URXVT_NAME@@
		581
		582	# use Backspace = ^?
		583	$ stty erase ^?
		584	$ @@URXVT_NAME@@
		585
		586	Toggle with C<ESC [ 36 h> / C<ESC [ 36 l>.
		587
		588	For an existing rxvt-unicode:
		589
		590	# use Backspace = ^H
		591	$ stty erase ^H
		592	$ echo -n "^[[36h"
		593
		594	# use Backspace = ^?
		595	$ stty erase ^?
		596	$ echo -n "^[[36l"
		597
		598	This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
		599	if you use Backspace = C<^H>, make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
		600	properly reflects that.
		601
		602	The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace problem.
		603	To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the Delete
		604	key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for Execute
		605	(C<ESC [ 3 ~>) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
		606
		607	Some other Backspace problems:
		608
		609	some editors use termcap/terminfo,
		610	some editors (vim I'm told) expect Backspace = ^H,
		611	GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
		612
		613	Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
		614
		615	=head3 I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
		616
		617	There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
		618	you have run "configure" with the C<--disable-resources> option you can
		619	use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with keysyms.
		620
		621	Here's an example for a URxvt session started using C<@@URXVT_NAME@@ -name URxvt>
		622
		623	URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
		624	URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
		625	URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
		626	URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
		627	URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
		628	URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
		629	URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
		630	URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
		631	URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
		632	URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
		633	URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
		634	URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
		635	URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
		636	URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
		637	URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
		638	URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
		639	URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
		640	URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
		641	URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
		642	URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
		643
		644	See some more examples in the documentation for the B<keysym> resource.
		645
		646	=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
		647
		648	KP_Insert == Insert
		649	F22 == Print
		650	F27 == Home
		651	F29 == Prior
		652	F33 == End
		653	F35 == Next
		654
		655	Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various possible
		656	keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the keys as
		657	required for your particular machine.
		658
		659
		660
		661	=head2 Terminal Configuration
		662
		663	=head3 Can I see a typical configuration?
		664
		665	The default configuration tries to be xterm-like, which I don't like that
		666	much, but it's least surprise to regular users.
		667
		668	As a rxvt or rxvt-unicode user, you are practically supposed to invest
		669	time into customising your terminal. To get you started, here is the
		670	author's .Xdefaults entries, with comments on what they do:
		671
		672	URxvt.cutchars: "()*,<>[]{}|'
		673	URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/tmp/xxx
		674
		675	These are just for testing stuff.
		676
		677	URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8
		678	URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None
		679
		680	This tells rxvt-unicode to use a special locale when communicating with
		681	the X Input Method, and also tells it to only use the OnTheSpot pre-edit
		682	type, which requires the C<xim-onthespot> perl extension but rewards me
		683	with correct-looking fonts.
		684
		685	URxvt.perl-lib: /root/lib/urxvt
		686	URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,selection-autotransform,selection-pastebin,xim-onthespot,remote-clipboard
		687	URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ( at .*? line \\d+)
		688	URxvt.selection.pattern-1: ^(/[^:]+):\
		689	URxvt.selection-autotransform.0: s/^([^:[:space:]]+):(\\d+):?$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
		690	URxvt.selection-autotransform.1: s/^ at (.*?) line (\\d+)$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/
		691
		692	This is my perl configuration. The first two set the perl library
		693	directory and also tells urxvt to use a large number of extensions. I
		694	develop for myself mostly, so I actually use most of the extensions I
		695	write.
		696
		697	The selection stuff mainly makes the selection perl-error-message aware
		698	and tells it to convert pelr error mssages into vi-commands to load the
		699	relevant file and go tot he error line number.
		700
		701	URxvt.scrollstyle: plain
		702	URxvt.secondaryScroll: true
		703
		704	As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the
		705	author. The C<secondaryScroll> confgiures urxvt to scroll in full-screen
		706	apps, like screen, so lines scorlled out of screen end up in urxvt's
		707	scrollback buffer.
		708
		709	URxvt.background: #000000
		710	URxvt.foreground: gray90
		711	URxvt.color7: gray90
		712	URxvt.colorBD: #ffffff
		713	URxvt.cursorColor: #e0e080
		714	URxvt.throughColor: #8080f0
		715	URxvt.highlightColor: #f0f0f0
		716
		717	Some colours. Not sure which ones are being used or even non-defaults, but
		718	these are in my .Xdefaults. Most notably, they set foreground/background
		719	to light gray/black, and also make sure that the colour 7 matches the
		720	default foreground colour.
		721
		722	URxvt.underlineColor: yellow
		723
		724	Another colour, makes underline lines look different. Sometimes hurts, but
		725	is mostly a nice effect.
		726
		727	URxvt.geometry: 154x36
		728	URxvt.loginShell: false
		729	URxvt.meta: ignore
		730	URxvt.utmpInhibit: true
		731
		732	Uh, well, should be mostly self-explanatory. By specifying some defaults
		733	manually, I can quickly switch them for testing.
		734
		735	URxvt.saveLines: 8192
		736
		737	A large scrollback buffer is essential. Really.
		738
		739	URxvt.mapAlert: true
		740
		741	The only case I use it is for my IRC window, which I like to keep
		742	iconified till people msg me (which beeps).
		743
		744	URxvt.visualBell: true
		745
		746	The audible bell is often annoying, especially when in a crowd.
		747
		748	URxvt.insecure: true
		749
		750	Please don't hack my mutt! Ooops...
		751
		752	URxvt.pastableTabs: false
		753
		754	I once thought this is a great idea.
		755
		756	urxvt.font: 9x15bold,\
		757	-misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\
		758	-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \
		759	[codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic, \
		760	xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:autohint=true, \
		761	xft:Code2000:antialias=false
		762	urxvt.boldFont: -xos4-terminus-bold-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-15
		763	urxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
		764	urxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
		765
		766	I wrote rxvt-unicode to be able to specify fonts exactly. So don't be
		767	overwhelmed. A special note: the C<9x15bold> mentioend above is actually
		768	the version from XFree-3.3, as XFree-4 replaced it by a totally different
		769	font (different glyphs for C<;> and many other harmless characters),
		770	while the second font is actually the C<9x15bold> from XFree4/XOrg. The
		771	bold version has less chars than the medium version, so I use it for rare
		772	characters, too. Whene ditign sources with vim, I use italic for comments
		773	and other stuff, which looks quite good with Bitstream Vera anti-aliased.
		774
		775	Terminus is a quite bad font (many very wrong glyphs), but for most of my
		776	purposes, it works, and gives a different look, as my normal (Non-bold)
		777	font is already bold, and I want to see a difference between bold and
		778	normal fonts.
		779
		780	Please note that I used the C<urxvt> instance name and not the C<URxvt>
		781	class name. Thats because I use different configs for different purposes,
		782	for example, my IRC window is started with C<-name IRC>, and uses these
		783	defaults:
		784
		785	IRC*title: IRC
		786	IRC*geometry: 87x12+535+542
		787	IRC*saveLines: 0
		788	IRC*mapAlert: true
		789	IRC*font: suxuseuro
		790	IRC*boldFont: suxuseuro
		791	IRC*colorBD: white
		792	IRC*keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]710;suxuseuro\007\033]711;suxuseuro\007
		793	IRC*keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]710;9x15bold\007\033]711;9x15bold\007
		794
		795	C<Alt-Shift-1> and C<Alt-Shift-2> switch between two different font
		796	sizes. C<suxuseuro> allows me to keep an eye (and actually read)
		797	stuff while keeping a very small window. If somebody pastes something
		798	complicated (e.g. japanese), I temporarily switch to a larger font.
		799
		800	The above is all in my C<.Xdefaults> (I don't use C<.Xresources> nor
		801	C<xrdb>). I also have some resources in a separate C<.Xdefaults-hostname>
		802	file for different hosts, for example, on ym main desktop, I use:
		803
		804	URxvt.keysym.C-M-q: command:\033[3;5;5t
		805	URxvt.keysym.C-M-y: command:\033[3;5;606t
		806	URxvt.keysym.C-M-e: command:\033[3;1605;5t
		807	URxvt.keysym.C-M-c: command:\033[3;1605;606t
		808	URxvt.keysym.C-M-p: perl:test
		809
		810	The first for keysym definitions allow me to quickly bring some windows
		811	in the layout I like most. Ion users might start laughing but will stop
		812	immediately when I tell them that I use my own Fvwm2 module for much the
		813	same effect as Ion provides, and I only very rarely use the above key
		814	combinations :->
		815
		816	=head3 Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources?
		817
		818	Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X
		819	applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads
		820	resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will
		821	ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read
		822	F<$HOME/.Xdefaults> when no resources are attached to the display.
		823
		824	If you have or use an F<$HOME/.Xresources> file, chances are that
		825	resources are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to
		826	re-login after every change (or run F<xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources>).
		827
		828	Also consider the form resources have to use:
		829
		830	URxvt.resource: value
		831
		832	If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of
		833	specifying resources), make sure you understand wether and why it
		834	works. If unsure, use the form above.
		835
216	=item When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?	836	=head3 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
217		837
218	The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available	838	The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available
219	as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often arises).	839	as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often arises).
220		840
221	The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this can	841	The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this can
…		…
237	resource to set it:	857	resource to set it:
238		858
239	URxvt.termName: rxvt	859	URxvt.termName: rxvt
240		860
241	If you don't plan to use B<rxvt> (quite common...) you could also replace	861	If you don't plan to use B<rxvt> (quite common...) you could also replace
242	the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one.	862	the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use C<TERM=rxvt>.
243		863
244	=item C<tic> outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.	864	=head3 C<tic> outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry.
245		865
246	Most likely it's the empty definition for C<enacs=>. Just replace it by	866	Most likely it's the empty definition for C<enacs=>. Just replace it by
247	C<enacs=\E[0@> and try again.	867	C<enacs=\E[0@> and try again.
248		868
249	=item C<bash>'s readline does not work correctly under @@RXVT_NAME@@.	869	=head3 C<bash>'s readline does not work correctly under @@URXVT_NAME@@.
250		870
		871	See next entry.
		872
251	=item I need a termcap file entry.	873	=head3 I need a termcap file entry.
252		874
253	One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating	875	One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating
254	systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap	876	systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap
255	library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry	877	library (Fedora Core's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry
256	for C<rxvt-unicode>.	878	for C<rxvt-unicode>.
…		…
282	:sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\	904	:sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:\
283	:te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\	905	:te=\E[r\E[?1049l:ti=\E[?1049h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:\
284	:us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\	906	:us=\E[4m:vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:\
285	:vs=\E[?25h:	907	:vs=\E[?25h:
286		908
287	=item Why does C<ls> no longer have coloured output?	909	=head3 Why does C<ls> no longer have coloured output?
288		910
289	The C<ls> in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to	911	The C<ls> in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to
290	decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration	912	decide wether a terminal has colour, but uses it's own configuration
291	file. Needless to say, C<rxvt-unicode> is not in it's default file (among	913	file. Needless to say, C<rxvt-unicode> is not in it's default file (among
292	with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:	914	with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add:
…		…
297		919
298	alias ls='ls --color=auto'	920	alias ls='ls --color=auto'
299		921
300	to your C<.profile> or C<.bashrc>.	922	to your C<.profile> or C<.bashrc>.
301		923
302	=item Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?	924	=head3 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode?
303		925
		926	See next entry.
		927
304	=item Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?	928	=head3 Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic?
305		929
		930	See next entry.
		931
306	=item Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?	932	=head3 Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly?
307		933
308	Make sure you are using C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>. Some pre-packaged	934	Make sure you are using C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>. Some pre-packaged
309	distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode	935	distributions (most notably Debian GNU/Linux) break rxvt-unicode
310	by setting C<TERM> to C<rxvt>, which doesn't have these extra	936	by setting C<TERM> to C<rxvt>, which doesn't have these extra
311	features. Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian	937	features. Unfortunately, some of these (most notably, again, Debian
312	GNU/Linux) furthermore fail to even install the C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo	938	GNU/Linux) furthermore fail to even install the C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
313	file, so you will need to install it on your own (See the question B<When	939	file, so you will need to install it on your own (See the question B<When
314	I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?> on	940	I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?> on
315	how to do this).	941	how to do this).
316		942
317	=item My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output?
318		943
319	Some Debian GNUL/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no	944	=head2 Encoding / Locale / Input Method Issues
320	specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is caused
321	by the wrong C<TERM> setting, although the details of wether and how
322	this can happen are unknown, as C<TERM=rxvt> should offer a compatible
323	keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please report if that
324	helped.
325		945
326	=item Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?	946	=head3 Rxvt-unicode does not seem to understand the selected encoding?
327		947
		948	See next entry.
		949
328	=item Unicode does not seem to work?	950	=head3 Unicode does not seem to work?
329		951
330	If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but	952	If you encounter strange problems like typing an accented character but
331	getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output is	953	getting two unrelated other characters or similar, or if program output is
332	subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.	954	subtly garbled, then you should check your locale settings.
333		955
…		…
353		975
354	If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then	976	If nothing works and you are sure that everything is set correctly then
355	you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't	977	you will need to remember a little known fact: Some programs just don't
356	support locales :(	978	support locales :(
357		979
358	=item Why do some characters look so much different than others?	980	=head3 How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
359		981
360	=item How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?	982	See next entry.
361		983
362	Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is	984	=head3 Is there an option to switch encodings?
363	fine. Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
364	your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want
365	to display.
366		985
367	B<rxvt-unicode> makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement	986	Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
368	font. Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks	987	specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know about
369	bad/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't	988	UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
370	resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial
371	intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe
372	the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct.
373		989
374	In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list,	990	The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for selecting
375	e.g.:	991	the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating this to all
376		992	applications so everybody agrees on character properties such as width
377	@@RXVT_NAME@@ -fn basefont,font2,font3...	993	and code number. This mechanism is the I<locale>. Applications not using
378		994	that info will have problems (for example, C<xterm> gets the width of
379	When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base	995	characters wrong as it uses it's own, locale-independent table under all
380	font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the
381	next font, and so on. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this
382	search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server.
383
384	The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the base
385	font, as the base font defines the terminal character cell size, which
386	must be the same due to the way terminals work.
387
388	=item Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
389
390	This is because there is a difference between script and language --
391	rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output is,
392	as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode first
393	sees a japanese/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for
394	display. Subsequent japanese characters will use that font. Now, many
395	chinese characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
396	non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese font
397	-- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font for
398	chinese characters that are also in the japanese font.
399
400	The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
401	list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as
402	a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
403	first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
404
405	In the future it might be possible to switch language preferences at
406	runtime (the internal data structure has no problem with using different
407	fonts for the same character at the same time, but no interface for this
408	has been designed yet).
409
410	Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see L<Can
411	I switch the fonts at runtime?> later in this document).
412
413	=item Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings?
414
415	Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that character
416	size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal use might
417	contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode will avoid
418	these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too wide a special
419	"careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent characters.
420
421	All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes,
422	however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed bounding
423	box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct way is to
424	ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is wrong in these
425	cases).	996	locales).
426		997
427	It's not clear (to me at least), wether this is a bug in Xft, freetype,	998	Rxvt-unicode uses the C<LC_CTYPE> locale category to select encoding. All
428	or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try using	999	programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
429	the C<-lsp> option to give the font more height. If that doesn't work, you	1000	interpretation of characters.
430	might be forced to use a different font.
431		1001
432	All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their bounding	1002	Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
433	box data is correct.	1003	is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
434		1004
		1005	On most systems, the content of the C<LC_CTYPE> environment variable
		1006	contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
		1007	locale. Common names for locales are C<en_US.UTF-8>, C<de_DE.ISO-8859-15>,
		1008	C<ja_JP.EUC-JP>, i.e. C<language_country.encoding>, but other forms
		1009	(i.e. C<de> or C<german>) are also common.
		1010
		1011	Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for
		1012	the encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings,
		1013	i.e. C<de_DE.UTF-8> and C<ja_JP.UTF-8> are the normally same to
		1014	rxvt-unicode.
		1015
		1016	If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
		1017	rxvt-unicode with the correct C<LC_CTYPE> category.
		1018
		1019	=head3 Can I switch locales at runtime?
		1020
		1021	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
		1022	rxvt-unicode's idea of C<LC_CTYPE>.
		1023
		1024	printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
		1025
		1026	See also the previous answer.
		1027
		1028	Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in
		1029	one locale (e.g. C<de_DE.UTF-8>) but some programs don't support it
		1030	(e.g. UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start C<xjdic>, which
		1031	first switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
		1032
		1033	printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
		1034	xjdic -js
		1035	printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
		1036
		1037	You can also use xterm's C<luit> program, which usually works fine, except
		1038	for some locales where character width differs between program- and
		1039	rxvt-unicode-locales.
		1040
		1041	=head3 I have problems getting my input method working.
		1042
		1043	Try a search engine, as this is slightly different for every input method server.
		1044
		1045	Here is a checklist:
		1046
		1047	=over 4
		1048
		1049	=item - Make sure your locale I<and> the imLocale are supported on your OS.
		1050
		1051	Try C<locale -a> or check the documentation for your OS.
		1052
		1053	=item - Make sure your locale or imLocale matches a locale supported by your XIM.
		1054
		1055	For example, B<kinput2> does not support UTF-8 locales, you should use
		1056	C<ja_JP.EUC-JP> or equivalent.
		1057
		1058	=item - Make sure your XIM server is actually running.
		1059
		1060	=item - Make sure the C<XMODIFIERS> environment variable is set correctly when I<starting> rxvt-unicode.
		1061
		1062	When you want to use e.g. B<kinput2>, it must be set to
		1063	C<@im=kinput2>. For B<scim>, use C<@im=SCIM>. Youc an see what input
		1064	method servers are running with this command:
		1065
		1066	xprop -root XIM_SERVERS
		1067
		1068	=item
		1069
		1070	=back
		1071
		1072	=head3 My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
		1073
		1074	You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of the
		1075	terminal, using the resource C<imlocale>:
		1076
		1077	URxvt.imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
		1078
		1079	Now you can start your terminal with C<LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8> and still
		1080	use your input method. Please note, however, that, depending on your Xlib
		1081	version, you may not be able to input characters outside C<EUC-JP> in a
		1082	normal way then, as your input method limits you.
		1083
		1084	=head3 Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
		1085
		1086	Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
		1087	design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
		1088	leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
		1089	exit time. B<kinput2> (and derived input methods) generally succeeds,
		1090	while B<SCIM> (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however,
		1091	crashes cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
		1092
		1093	So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
		1094
		1095
		1096	=head2 Operating Systems / Package Maintaining
		1097
		1098	=head3 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
		1099
		1100	The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
		1101	patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode (but
		1102	unfortunately this notice has been removed). Before reporting a bug to
		1103	the original rxvt-unicode author please download and install the genuine
		1104	version (L<http://software.schmorp.de#rxvt-unicode>) and try to reproduce
		1105	the problem. If you cannot, chances are that the problems are specific to
		1106	Debian GNU/Linux, in which case it should be reported via the Debian Bug
		1107	Tracking System (use C<reportbug> to report the bug).
		1108
		1109	For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
		1110	probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's also a
		1111	bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users that
		1112	might encounter the same issue.
		1113
		1114	=head3 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any recommendation?
		1115
		1116	You should build one binary with the default options. F<configure>
		1117	now enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
		1118	runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling them,
		1119	except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl interpreter should
		1120	be enabled, as important functionality (menus, selection, likely more in
		1121	the future) depends on it.
		1122
		1123	You should not overwrite the C<perl-ext-common> snd C<perl-ext> resources
		1124	system-wide (except maybe with C<defaults>). This will result in useful
		1125	behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, add an empty
		1126	C<perl-ext-common> resource to the app-defaults file. This will keep the
		1127	perl interpreter disabled until the user enables it.
		1128
		1129	If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal
		1130	one with C<--disable-everything> (very useful) and a maximal one with
		1131	C<--enable-everything> (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot of
		1132	encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely used).
		1133
		1134	=head3 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this safe?
		1135
		1136	It should be, starting with release 7.1. You are encouraged to properly
		1137	install urxvt with privileges necessary for your OS now.
		1138
		1139	When rxvt-unicode detects that it runs setuid or setgid, it will fork
		1140	into a helper process for privileged operations (pty handling on some
		1141	systems, utmp/wtmp/lastlog handling on others) and drop privileges
		1142	immediately. This is much safer than most other terminals that keep
		1143	privileges while running (but is more relevant to urxvt, as it contains
		1144	things as perl interpreters, which might be "helpful" to attackers).
		1145
		1146	This forking is done as the very first within main(), which is very early
		1147	and reduces possible bugs to initialisation code run before main(), or
		1148	things like the dynamic loader of your system, which should result in very
		1149	little risk.
		1150
435	=item On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.	1151	=head3 On Solaris 9, many line-drawing characters are too wide.
436		1152
437	Seems to be a known bug, read	1153	Seems to be a known bug, read
438	L<http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the	1154	L<http://nixdoc.net/files/forum/about34198.html>. Some people use the
439	following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:	1155	following ugly workaround to get non-double-wide-characters working:
440		1156
441	#define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)	1157	#define wcwidth(x) wcwidth(x) > 1 ? 1 : wcwidth(x)
442		1158
443	=item My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working.
444
445	The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set
446	correctly, or you specified a B<preeditStyle> that is not supported by
447	your input method. For example, if you specified B<OverTheSpot> and
448	your input method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys)
449	does not support this (for instance because it is not visual), then
450	rxvt-unicode will continue without an input method.
451
452	In this case either do not specify a B<preeditStyle> or specify more than
453	one pre-edit style, such as B<OverTheSpot,Root,None>.
454
455	=item I cannot type C<Ctrl-Shift-2> to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755
456
457	Either try C<Ctrl-2> alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on
458	international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your
459	advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for other
460	codes, too, such as C<Ctrl-Shift-1-d> to type the default telnet escape
461	character and so on.
462
463	=item How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much?
464
465	First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings
466	(C<TERM=rxvt-unicode>), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then
467	make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise
468	rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect:
469
470	URxvt.colorBD: white
471	URxvt.colorIT: green
472
473	=item Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that?
474
475	For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird
476	colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the standard
477	8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of course, to fix
478	these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very good reasons.
479
480	In the meantime, you can either edit your C<rxvt-unicode> terminfo
481	definition to only claim 8 colour support or use C<TERM=rxvt>, which will
482	fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features.
483
484	=item I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.	1159	=head3 I am on FreeBSD and rxvt-unicode does not seem to work at all.
485		1160
486	Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> to be defined	1161	Rxvt-unicode requires the symbol C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> to be defined
487	in your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,	1162	in your compile environment, or an implementation that implements it,
488	wether it defines the symbol or not. C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> requires that	1163	wether it defines the symbol or not. C<__STDC_ISO_10646__> requires that
489	B<wchar_t> is represented as unicode.	1164	B<wchar_t> is represented as unicode.
…		…
511		1186
512	The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the	1187	The rxvt-unicode author insists that the right way to fix this is in the
513	system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry	1188	system libraries once and for all, instead of forcing every app to carry
514	complete replacements for them :)	1189	complete replacements for them :)
515		1190
516	=item I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.	1191	=head3 I use Solaris 9 and it doesn't compile/work/etc.
517		1192
518	Try the diff in F<doc/solaris9.patch> as a base. It fixes the worst	1193	Try the diff in F<doc/solaris9.patch> as a base. It fixes the worst
519	problems with C<wcwidth> and a compile problem.	1194	problems with C<wcwidth> and a compile problem.
520		1195
521	=item How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?	1196	=head3 How can I use rxvt-unicode under cygwin?
522		1197
523	rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using	1198	rxvt-unicode should compile and run out of the box on cygwin, using
524	the X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no	1199	the X11 libraries that come with cygwin. libW11 emulation is no
525	longer supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a	1200	longer supported (and makes no sense, either, as it only supported a
526	single font). I recommend starting the X-server in C<-multiwindow> or	1201	single font). I recommend starting the X-server in C<-multiwindow> or
…		…
529		1204
530	At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any multi-byte	1205	At the time of this writing, cygwin didn't seem to support any multi-byte
531	encodings (you might try C<LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8>), so you are likely limited	1206	encodings (you might try C<LC_CTYPE=C-UTF-8>), so you are likely limited
532	to 8-bit encodings.	1207	to 8-bit encodings.
533		1208
534	=item How does rxvt-unicode determine the encoding to use?
535
536	=item Is there an option to switch encodings?
537
538	Unlike some other terminals, rxvt-unicode has no encoding switch, and no
539	specific "utf-8" mode, such as xterm. In fact, it doesn't even know about
540	UTF-8 or any other encodings with respect to terminal I/O.
541
542	The reasons is that there exists a perfectly fine mechanism for selecting
543	the encoding, doing I/O and (most important) communicating this to all
544	applications so everybody agrees on character properties such as width
545	and code number. This mechanism is the I<locale>. Applications not using
546	that info will have problems (for example, C<xterm> gets the width of
547	characters wrong as it uses it's own, locale-independent table under all
548	locales).
549
550	Rxvt-unicode uses the C<LC_CTYPE> locale category to select encoding. All
551	programs doing the same (that is, most) will automatically agree in the
552	interpretation of characters.
553
554	Unfortunately, there is no system-independent way to select locales, nor
555	is there a standard on how locale specifiers will look like.
556
557	On most systems, the content of the C<LC_CTYPE> environment variable
558	contains an arbitrary string which corresponds to an already-installed
559	locale. Common names for locales are C<en_US.UTF-8>, C<de_DE.ISO-8859-15>,
560	C<ja_JP.EUC-JP>, i.e. C<language_country.encoding>, but other forms
561	(i.e. C<de> or C<german>) are also common.
562
563	Rxvt-unicode ignores all other locale categories, and except for
564	the encoding, ignores country or language-specific settings,
565	i.e. C<de_DE.UTF-8> and C<ja_JP.UTF-8> are the normally same to
566	rxvt-unicode.
567
568	If you want to use a specific encoding you have to make sure you start
569	rxvt-unicode with the correct C<LC_CTYPE> category.
570
571	=item Can I switch locales at runtime?
572
573	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which sets
574	rxvt-unicode's idea of C<LC_CTYPE>.
575
576	printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
577
578	See also the previous answer.
579
580	Sometimes this capability is rather handy when you want to work in
581	one locale (e.g. C<de_DE.UTF-8>) but some programs don't support it
582	(e.g. UTF-8). For example, I use this script to start C<xjdic>, which
583	first switches to a locale supported by xjdic and back later:
584
585	printf '\e]701;%s\007' ja_JP.SJIS
586	xjdic -js
587	printf '\e]701;%s\007' de_DE.UTF-8
588
589	You can also use xterm's C<luit> program, which usually works fine, except
590	for some locales where character width differs between program- and
591	rxvt-unicode-locales.
592
593	=item Can I switch the fonts at runtime?
594
595	Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the same
596	effect as using the C<-fn> switch, and takes effect immediately:
597
598	printf '\e]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic"
599
600	This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a
601	japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where
602	japanese fonts would only be in your way.
603
604	You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching.
605
606	=item Why do italic characters look as if clipped?
607
608	Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For
609	example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font C<xft:Bitstream Vera Sans
610	Mono> completely fails in it's italic face. A workaround might be to
611	enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this:
612
613	URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true
614	URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true
615
616	=item My input method wants <some encoding> but I want UTF-8, what can I do?
617
618	You can specify separate locales for the input method and the rest of the
619	terminal, using the resource C<imlocale>:
620
621	URxvt*imlocale: ja_JP.EUC-JP
622
623	Now you can start your terminal with C<LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8> and still
624	use your input method. Please note, however, that you will not be able to
625	input characters outside C<EUC-JP> in a normal way then, as your input
626	method limits you.
627
628	=item Rxvt-unicode crashes when the X Input Method changes or exits.
629
630	Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, as the XIM protocol is racy by
631	design. Applications can avoid some crashes at the expense of memory
632	leaks, and Input Methods can avoid some crashes by careful ordering at
633	exit time. B<kinput2> (and derived input methods) generally succeeds,
634	while B<SCIM> (or similar input methods) fails. In the end, however,
635	crashes cannot be completely avoided even if both sides cooperate.
636
637	So the only workaround is not to kill your Input Method Servers.
638
639	=item Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that?
640
641	Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something you
642	don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings that
643	you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by design,
644	when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be loaded
645	accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your characters.
646
647	Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger
648	scrollback buffers: Without C<--enable-unicode3>, rxvt-unicode will use
649	6 bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a
650	kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if full)
651	use 10 Megabytes of memory. With C<--enable-unicode3> it gets worse, as
652	rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell.
653
654	=item Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow?
655
656	Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as
657	it is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable
658	antialiasing (by appending C<:antialias=false>), which saves lots of
659	memory and also speeds up rendering considerably.
660
661	=item Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong?
662
663	Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to
664	fall back to it's default font search list it will prefer X11 core
665	fonts, because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has
666	antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they
667	look best that way.
668
669	If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually.
670
671	=item Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
672
673	Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
674	some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've
675	heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A
676	quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
677	depressed.
678
679	=item What's with this bold/blink stuff?
680
681	If no bold colour is set via C<colorBD:>, bold will invert text using the
682	standard foreground colour.
683
684	For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the
685	text blink when compiled with C<--enable-blinking>. with standard
686	colours. Without C<--enable-blinking>, the blink attribute will be
687	ignored.
688
689	On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
690	foreground/background colors.
691
692	color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
693
694	color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
695
696	=item I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
697
698	You can change the screen colors at run-time using F<~/.Xdefaults>
699	resources (or as long-options).
700
701	Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen,
702	including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
703
704	URxvt.color0: #000000
705	URxvt.color1: #A80000
706	URxvt.color2: #00A800
707	URxvt.color3: #A8A800
708	URxvt.color4: #0000A8
709	URxvt.color5: #A800A8
710	URxvt.color6: #00A8A8
711	URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8
712
713	URxvt.color8: #000054
714	URxvt.color9: #FF0054
715	URxvt.color10: #00FF54
716	URxvt.color11: #FFFF54
717	URxvt.color12: #0000FF
718	URxvt.color13: #FF00FF
719	URxvt.color14: #00FFFF
720	URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF
721
722	And here is a more complete set of non-standard colors described (not by
723	me) as "pretty girly".
724
725	URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1
726	URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1
727	URxvt.background: #0e0e0e
728	URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1
729	URxvt.color0: #000000
730	URxvt.color8: #8b8f93
731	URxvt.color1: #dc74d1
732	URxvt.color9: #dc74d1
733	URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7
734	URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7
735	URxvt.color3: #dfe37e
736	URxvt.color11: #dfe37e
737	URxvt.color5: #9e88f0
738	URxvt.color13: #9e88f0
739	URxvt.color6: #73f7ff
740	URxvt.color14: #73f7ff
741	URxvt.color7: #e1dddd
742	URxvt.color15: #e1dddd
743
744	=item How can I start @@RXVT_NAME@@d in a race-free way?
745
746	Try C<@@RXVT_NAME@@d -f -o>, which tells @@RXVT_NAME@@d to open the
747	display, create the listening socket and then fork.
748
749	=item What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
750
751	Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
752	BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
753	question) there are two standard values that can be used for
754	Backspace: C<^H> and C<^?>.
755
756	Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the debian
757	policy of using C<^?> when unsure, because it's the one only only correct
758	choice :).
759
760	Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the value
761	of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode wasn't
762	started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), then the
763	system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in <termios.h>, will
764	be used (which may not be the same as your stty setting).
765
766	For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
767
768	# use Backspace = ^H
769	$ stty erase ^H
770	$ @@RXVT_NAME@@
771
772	# use Backspace = ^?
773	$ stty erase ^?
774	$ @@RXVT_NAME@@
775
776	Toggle with C<ESC [ 36 h> / C<ESC [ 36 l>.
777
778	For an existing rxvt-unicode:
779
780	# use Backspace = ^H
781	$ stty erase ^H
782	$ echo -n "^[[36h"
783
784	# use Backspace = ^?
785	$ stty erase ^?
786	$ echo -n "^[[36l"
787
788	This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
789	if you use Backspace = C<^H>, make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
790	properly reflects that.
791
792	The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace problem.
793	To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the Delete
794	key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for Execute
795	(C<ESC [ 3 ~>) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
796
797	Some other Backspace problems:
798
799	some editors use termcap/terminfo,
800	some editors (vim I'm told) expect Backspace = ^H,
801	GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
802
803	Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
804
805	=item I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
806
807	There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
808	you have run "configure" with the C<--disable-resources> option you can
809	use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with keysyms.
810
811	Here's an example for a URxvt session started using C<@@RXVT_NAME@@ -name URxvt>
812
813	URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[1~
814	URxvt.keysym.End: \033[4~
815	URxvt.keysym.C-apostrophe: \033<C-'>
816	URxvt.keysym.C-slash: \033<C-/>
817	URxvt.keysym.C-semicolon: \033<C-;>
818	URxvt.keysym.C-grave: \033<C-`>
819	URxvt.keysym.C-comma: \033<C-,>
820	URxvt.keysym.C-period: \033<C-.>
821	URxvt.keysym.C-0x60: \033<C-`>
822	URxvt.keysym.C-Tab: \033<C-Tab>
823	URxvt.keysym.C-Return: \033<C-Return>
824	URxvt.keysym.S-Return: \033<S-Return>
825	URxvt.keysym.S-space: \033<S-Space>
826	URxvt.keysym.M-Up: \033<M-Up>
827	URxvt.keysym.M-Down: \033<M-Down>
828	URxvt.keysym.M-Left: \033<M-Left>
829	URxvt.keysym.M-Right: \033<M-Right>
830	URxvt.keysym.M-C-0: list \033<M-C- 0123456789 >
831	URxvt.keysym.M-C-a: list \033<M-C- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz >
832	URxvt.keysym.F12: command:\033]701;zh_CN.GBK\007
833
834	See some more examples in the documentation for the B<keysym> resource.
835
836	=item I'm using keyboard model XXX that has extra Prior/Next/Insert keys.
837	How do I make use of them? For example, the Sun Keyboard type 4
838	has the following mappings that rxvt-unicode doesn't recognize.
839
840	KP_Insert == Insert
841	F22 == Print
842	F27 == Home
843	F29 == Prior
844	F33 == End
845	F35 == Next
846
847	Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various possible
848	keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the keys as
849	required for your particular machine.
850
851	=item How do I distinguish wether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm?
852	I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
853
854	rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable "COLORTERM", so you can
855	check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED, slrn,
856	Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide whether or
857	not to use color.
858
859	=item How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
860
861	If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have enabled
862	insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
863	snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
864	wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets) then
865	the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from a
866	regular xterm.
867
868	Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
869	snippets:
870
871	# Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
872	[ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
873	if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
874	stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
875	echo -n '^[Z'
876	read term_id
877	stty icanon echo
878	if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
879	echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
880	read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
881	fi
882	fi
883
884	=item How do I compile the manual pages for myself?
885
886	You need to have a recent version of perl installed as F</usr/bin/perl>,
887	one that comes with F<pod2man>, F<pod2text> and F<pod2html>. Then go to
888	the doc subdirectory and enter C<make alldoc>.
889
890	=item My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human?
891
892	Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: C<irc.freenode.net>,
893	channel C<#rxvt-unicode> has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be
894	interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :).
895
896	=back
897
898	=head1 RXVT TECHNICAL REFERENCE	1209	=head1 RXVT-UNICODE TECHNICAL REFERENCE
899
900	=head1 DESCRIPTION
901		1210
902	The rest of this document describes various technical aspects of	1211	The rest of this document describes various technical aspects of
903	B<rxvt-unicode>. First the description of supported command sequences,	1212	B<rxvt-unicode>. First the description of supported command sequences,
904	followed by menu and pixmap support and last by a description of all	1213	followed by pixmap support and last by a description of all features
905	features selectable at C<configure> time.	1214	selectable at C<configure> time.
906		1215
907	=head1 Definitions	1216	=head2 Definitions
908		1217
909	=over 4	1218	=over 4
910		1219
911	=item B<< C<c> >>	1220	=item B<< C<c> >>
912		1221
…		…
930		1239
931	A text parameter composed of printable characters.	1240	A text parameter composed of printable characters.
932		1241
933	=back	1242	=back
934		1243
935	=head1 Values	1244	=head2 Values
936		1245
937	=over 4	1246	=over 4
938		1247
939	=item B<< C<ENQ> >>	1248	=item B<< C<ENQ> >>
940		1249
…		…
983		1292
984	Space Character	1293	Space Character
985		1294
986	=back	1295	=back
987		1296
988	=head1 Escape Sequences	1297	=head2 Escape Sequences
989		1298
990	=over 4	1299	=over 4
991		1300
992	=item B<< C<ESC # 8> >>	1301	=item B<< C<ESC # 8> >>
993		1302
…		…
1091		1400
1092	=back	1401	=back
1093		1402
1094	X<CSI>	1403	X<CSI>
1095		1404
1096	=head1 CSI (Command Sequence Introducer) Sequences	1405	=head2 CSI (Command Sequence Introducer) Sequences
1097		1406
1098	=over 4	1407	=over 4
1099		1408
1100	=item B<< C<ESC [ Ps @> >>	1409	=item B<< C<ESC [ Ps @> >>
1101		1410
…		…
1371		1680
1372	=back	1681	=back
1373		1682
1374	X<PrivateModes>	1683	X<PrivateModes>
1375		1684
1376	=head1 DEC Private Modes	1685	=head2 DEC Private Modes
1377		1686
1378	=over 4	1687	=over 4
1379		1688
1380	=item B<< C<ESC [ ? Pm h> >>	1689	=item B<< C<ESC [ ? Pm h> >>
1381		1690
…		…
1645		1954
1646	=back	1955	=back
1647		1956
1648	X<XTerm>	1957	X<XTerm>
1649		1958
1650	=head1 XTerm Operating System Commands	1959	=head2 XTerm Operating System Commands
1651		1960
1652	=over 4	1961	=over 4
1653		1962
1654	=item B<< C<ESC ] Ps;Pt ST> >>	1963	=item B<< C<ESC ] Ps;Pt ST> >>
1655		1964
…		…
1669	B<< C<Ps = 12> >> Change colour of text cursor foreground to B<< C<Pt> >>	1978	B<< C<Ps = 12> >> Change colour of text cursor foreground to B<< C<Pt> >>
1670	B<< C<Ps = 13> >> Change colour of mouse foreground to B<< C<Pt> >>	1979	B<< C<Ps = 13> >> Change colour of mouse foreground to B<< C<Pt> >>
1671	B<< C<Ps = 17> >> Change colour of highlight characters to B<< C<Pt> >>	1980	B<< C<Ps = 17> >> Change colour of highlight characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
1672	B<< C<Ps = 18> >> Change colour of bold characters to B<< C<Pt> >> [deprecated, see 706]	1981	B<< C<Ps = 18> >> Change colour of bold characters to B<< C<Pt> >> [deprecated, see 706]
1673	B<< C<Ps = 19> >> Change colour of underlined characters to B<< C<Pt> >> [deprecated, see 707]	1982	B<< C<Ps = 19> >> Change colour of underlined characters to B<< C<Pt> >> [deprecated, see 707]
1674	B<< C<Ps = 20> >> Change default background to B<< C<Pt> >>	1983	B<< C<Ps = 20> >> Change background pixmap parameters (see section XPM) (Compile XPM).
1675	B<< C<Ps = 39> >> Change default foreground colour to B<< C<Pt> >>.	1984	B<< C<Ps = 39> >> Change default foreground colour to B<< C<Pt> >>.
1676	B<< C<Ps = 46> >> Change Log File to B<< C<Pt> >> I<unimplemented>	1985	B<< C<Ps = 46> >> Change Log File to B<< C<Pt> >> I<unimplemented>
1677	B<< C<Ps = 49> >> Change default background colour to B<< C<Pt> >>.	1986	B<< C<Ps = 49> >> Change default background colour to B<< C<Pt> >>.
1678	B<< C<Ps = 50> >> Set fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>, with the following special values of B<< C<Pt> >> (B<rxvt>) B<< C<#+n> >> change up B<< C<n> >> B<< C<#-n> >> change down B<< C<n> >> if B<< C<n> >> is missing of 0, a value of 1 is used I<empty> change to font0 B<< C<n> >> change to font B<< C<n> >>	1987	B<< C<Ps = 50> >> Set fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>, with the following special values of B<< C<Pt> >> (B<rxvt>) B<< C<#+n> >> change up B<< C<n> >> B<< C<#-n> >> change down B<< C<n> >> if B<< C<n> >> is missing of 0, a value of 1 is used I<empty> change to font0 B<< C<n> >> change to font B<< C<n> >>
1679	B<< C<Ps = 55> >> Log all scrollback buffer and all of screen to B<< C<Pt> >>	1988	B<< C<Ps = 55> >> Log all scrollback buffer and all of screen to B<< C<Pt> >>
1680	B<< C<Ps = 701> >> Change current locale to B<< C<Pt> >>, or, if B<< C<Pt> >> is B<< C<?> >>, return the current locale (Compile frills).	1989	B<< C<Ps = 701> >> Change current locale to B<< C<Pt> >>, or, if B<< C<Pt> >> is B<< C<?> >>, return the current locale (Compile frills).
		1990	B<< C<Ps = 702> >> Request version if B<< C<Pt> >> is B<< C<?> >>, returning C<rxvt-unicode>, the resource name, the major and minor version numbers, e.g. C<ESC ] 702 ; rxvt-unicode ; urxvt ; 7 ; 4 ST>.
1681	B<< C<Ps = 704> >> Change colour of italic characters to B<< C<Pt> >>	1991	B<< C<Ps = 704> >> Change colour of italic characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
1682	B<< C<Ps = 705> >> Change background pixmap tint colour to B<< C<Pt> >> (Compile transparency).	1992	B<< C<Ps = 705> >> Change background pixmap tint colour to B<< C<Pt> >> (Compile transparency).
1683	B<< C<Ps = 706> >> Change colour of bold characters to B<< C<Pt> >>	1993	B<< C<Ps = 706> >> Change colour of bold characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
1684	B<< C<Ps = 707> >> Change colour of underlined characters to B<< C<Pt> >>	1994	B<< C<Ps = 707> >> Change colour of underlined characters to B<< C<Pt> >>
1685	B<< C<Ps = 710> >> Set normal fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>. Same as C<Ps = 50>.	1995	B<< C<Ps = 710> >> Set normal fontset to B<< C<Pt> >>. Same as C<Ps = 50>.
…		…
1692		2002
1693	=end table	2003	=end table
1694		2004
1695	=back	2005	=back
1696		2006
1697	X<XPM>
1698
1699	=head1 XPM	2007	=head1 XPM
1700		2008
1701	For the XPM XTerm escape sequence B<< C<ESC ] 20 ; Pt ST> >> then value	2009	For the XPM XTerm escape sequence B<< C<ESC ] 20 ; Pt ST> >> then value
1702	of B<< C<Pt> >> can be the name of the background pixmap followed by a	2010	of B<< C<Pt> >> can be the name of the background pixmap followed by a
1703	sequence of scaling/positioning commands separated by semi-colons. The	2011	sequence of scaling/positioning commands separated by semi-colons. The
…		…
1800	=begin table	2108	=begin table
1801		2109
1802	4 Shift	2110	4 Shift
1803	8 Meta	2111	8 Meta
1804	16 Control	2112	16 Control
1805	32 Double Click I<(Rxvt extension)>	2113	32 Double Click I<(rxvt extension)>
1806		2114
1807	=end table	2115	=end table
1808		2116
1809	Col = B<< C<< <x> - SPACE >> >>	2117	Col = B<< C<< <x> - SPACE >> >>
1810		2118
…		…
1948	alternative input methods (e.g. kinput2) and will also correctly	2256	alternative input methods (e.g. kinput2) and will also correctly
1949	set up the input for people using dead keys or compose keys.	2257	set up the input for people using dead keys or compose keys.
1950		2258
1951	=item --enable-unicode3 (default: off)	2259	=item --enable-unicode3 (default: off)
1952		2260
		2261	Recommended to stay off unless you really need non-BMP characters.
		2262
1953	Enable direct support for displaying unicode codepoints above	2263	Enable direct support for displaying unicode codepoints above
1954	65535 (the basic multilingual page). This increases storage	2264	65535 (the basic multilingual page). This increases storage
1955	requirements per character from 2 to 4 bytes. X11 fonts do not yet	2265	requirements per character from 2 to 4 bytes. X11 fonts do not yet
1956	support these extra characters, but Xft does.	2266	support these extra characters, but Xft does.
1957		2267
…		…
1967	composite characters. This is required for proper viewing of text	2277	composite characters. This is required for proper viewing of text
1968	where accents are encoded as seperate unicode characters. This is	2278	where accents are encoded as seperate unicode characters. This is
1969	done by using precomposited characters when available or creating	2279	done by using precomposited characters when available or creating
1970	new pseudo-characters when no precomposed form exists.	2280	new pseudo-characters when no precomposed form exists.
1971		2281
1972	Without --enable-unicode3, the number of additional precomposed characters	2282	Without --enable-unicode3, the number of additional precomposed
1973	is rather limited (2048, if this is full, rxvt-unicode will use the	2283	characters is somewhat limited (the 6400 private use characters will be
1974	private use area, extending the number of combinations to 8448). With
1975	--enable-unicode3, no practical limit exists.	2284	(ab-)used). With --enable-unicode3, no practical limit exists.
1976		2285
1977	This option will also enable storage (but not display) of characters	2286	This option will also enable storage (but not display) of characters
1978	beyond plane 0 (>65535) when --enable-unicode3 was not specified.	2287	beyond plane 0 (>65535) when --enable-unicode3 was not specified.
1979		2288
1980	The combining table also contains entries for arabic presentation forms,	2289	The combining table also contains entries for arabic presentation forms,
1981	but these are not currently used. Bug me if you want these to be used (and	2290	but these are not currently used. Bug me if you want these to be used (and
1982	tell me how these are to be used...).	2291	tell me how these are to be used...).
1983		2292
1984	=item --enable-fallback(=CLASS) (default: Rxvt)	2293	=item --enable-fallback(=CLASS) (default: Rxvt)
1985		2294
1986	When reading resource settings, also read settings for class CLASS. To disable resource fallback use --disable-fallback.	2295	When reading resource settings, also read settings for class CLASS. To
		2296	disable resource fallback use --disable-fallback.
1987		2297
1988	=item --with-res-name=NAME (default: urxvt)	2298	=item --with-res-name=NAME (default: urxvt)
1989		2299
1990	Use the given name as default application name when	2300	Use the given name as default application name when
1991	reading resources. Specify --with-res-name=rxvt to replace rxvt.	2301	reading resources. Specify --with-res-name=rxvt to replace rxvt.
…		…
2045	=item --enable-plain-scroll (default: on)	2355	=item --enable-plain-scroll (default: on)
2046		2356
2047	Add support for a very unobtrusive, plain-looking scrollbar that	2357	Add support for a very unobtrusive, plain-looking scrollbar that
2048	is the favourite of the rxvt-unicode author, having used it for	2358	is the favourite of the rxvt-unicode author, having used it for
2049	many years.	2359	many years.
2050
2051	=item --enable-half-shadow (default: off)
2052
2053	Make shadows on the scrollbar only half the normal width & height.
2054	only applicable to rxvt scrollbars.
2055		2360
2056	=item --enable-ttygid (default: off)	2361	=item --enable-ttygid (default: off)
2057		2362
2058	Change tty device setting to group "tty" - only use this if	2363	Change tty device setting to group "tty" - only use this if
2059	your system uses this type of security.	2364	your system uses this type of security.
…		…
2086		2391
2087	MWM-hints	2392	MWM-hints
2088	EWMH-hints (pid, utf8 names) and protocols (ping)	2393	EWMH-hints (pid, utf8 names) and protocols (ping)
2089	seperate underline colour (-underlineColor)	2394	seperate underline colour (-underlineColor)
2090	settable border widths and borderless switch (-w, -b, -bl)	2395	settable border widths and borderless switch (-w, -b, -bl)
		2396	visual depth selection (-depth)
2091	settable extra linespacing /-lsp)	2397	settable extra linespacing /-lsp)
2092	iso-14755-2 and -3, and visual feedback	2398	iso-14755-2 and -3, and visual feedback
2093	backindex and forwardindex escape sequence
2094	window op and some xterm/OSC escape sequences
2095	tripleclickwords (-tcw)	2399	tripleclickwords (-tcw)
2096	settable insecure mode (-insecure)	2400	settable insecure mode (-insecure)
2097	keysym remapping support	2401	keysym remapping support
2098	cursor blinking and underline cursor (-cb, -uc)	2402	cursor blinking and underline cursor (-cb, -uc)
2099	XEmbed support (-embed)	2403	XEmbed support (-embed)
2100	user-pty (-pty-fd)	2404	user-pty (-pty-fd)
2101	hold on exit (-hold)	2405	hold on exit (-hold)
2102	skip builtin block graphics (-sbg)	2406	skip builtin block graphics (-sbg)
		2407
		2408	It also enabled some non-essential features otherwise disabled, such as:
		2409
		2410	some round-trip time optimisations
		2411	nearest color allocation on pseudocolor screens
		2412	UTF8_STRING supporr for selection
2103	sgr modes 90..97 and 100..107	2413	sgr modes 90..97 and 100..107
		2414	backindex and forwardindex escape sequences
		2415	view change/zero scorllback esacpe sequences
		2416	locale switching escape sequence
		2417	window op and some xterm/OSC escape sequences
		2418	rectangular selections
		2419	trailing space removal for selections
		2420	verbose X error handling
2104		2421
2105	=item --enable-iso14755 (default: on)	2422	=item --enable-iso14755 (default: on)
2106		2423
2107	Enable extended ISO 14755 support (see @@RXVT_NAME@@(1), or	2424	Enable extended ISO 14755 support (see @@RXVT_NAME@@(1), or
2108	F<doc/rxvt.1.txt>). Basic support (section 5.1) is enabled by	2425	F<doc/rxvt.1.txt>). Basic support (section 5.1) is enabled by
…		…
2129	Remove support for mouse selection style like that of xterm.	2446	Remove support for mouse selection style like that of xterm.
2130		2447
2131	=item --enable-dmalloc (default: off)	2448	=item --enable-dmalloc (default: off)
2132		2449
2133	Use Gray Watson's malloc - which is good for debugging See	2450	Use Gray Watson's malloc - which is good for debugging See
2134	http://www.letters.com/dmalloc/ for details If you use either this or the	2451	L<http://www.letters.com/dmalloc/> for details If you use either this or the
2135	next option, you may need to edit src/Makefile after compiling to point	2452	next option, you may need to edit src/Makefile after compiling to point
2136	DINCLUDE and DLIB to the right places.	2453	DINCLUDE and DLIB to the right places.
2137		2454
2138	You can only use either this option and the following (should	2455	You can only use either this option and the following (should
2139	you use either) .	2456	you use either) .
…		…
2151		2468
2152	=item --enable-pointer-blank (default: on)	2469	=item --enable-pointer-blank (default: on)
2153		2470
2154	Add support to have the pointer disappear when typing or inactive.	2471	Add support to have the pointer disappear when typing or inactive.
2155		2472
2156	=item --enable-perl (default: off)	2473	=item --enable-perl (default: on)
2157		2474
2158	Enable an embedded perl interpreter. See the B<@@RXVT_NAME@@perl(3)>	2475	Enable an embedded perl interpreter. See the B<@@RXVT_NAME@@perl(3)>
2159	manpage (F<doc/rxvtperl.txt>) for more info on this feature, or the files	2476	manpage (F<doc/rxvtperl.txt>) for more info on this feature, or the files
2160	in F<src/perl-ext/> for the extensions that are installed by default. The	2477	in F<src/perl-ext/> for the extensions that are installed by default. The
2161	perl interpreter that is used can be specified via the C<PERL> environment	2478	perl interpreter that is used can be specified via the C<PERL> environment

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