--- rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.txt 2005/10/25 20:04:59 1.24 +++ rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.txt 2006/01/11 05:29:40 1.37 @@ -20,9 +20,94 @@ . FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS + Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat? + I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause + extra bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you + can see that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables + always being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) + after startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is + a bit unfair, as many features unique to urxvt (locale, encoding + conversion, iso14755 etc.) are already in use in this mode. + + text data bss drs rss filename + 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything + 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything + + When you "--enable-everything" (which _is_ unfair, as this involves + xft and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 + and my libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so. + + text data bss drs rss filename + 163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything + 1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything + + The very large size of the text section is explained by the + east-asian encoding tables, which, if unused, take up disk space but + nothing else and can be compiled out unless you rely on X11 core + fonts that use those encodings. The BSS size comes from the 64k + emergency buffer that my c++ compiler allocates (but of course + doesn't use unless you are out of memory). Also, using an xft font + instead of a core font immediately adds a few megabytes of RSS. Xft + indeed is responsible for a lot of RSS even when not used. + + Of course, due to every character using two or four bytes instead of + one, a large scrollback buffer will ultimately make rxvt-unicode use + more memory. + + Compared to e.g. Eterm (5112k), aterm (3132k) and xterm (4680k), + this still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like + gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or + konsole (22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after + exit, plus half a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of + warnings it spits out), it fares extremely well *g*. + + Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool? + Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: + I had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a + fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). + Put even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++. + + My personal stance on this is that C++ is less portable than C, but + in the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability + limits are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale + support and unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than + C++ itself. + + Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write + programs in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to + write programs in C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large + libraries, but this is not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is + what rxvt links against on my system with a minimal config: + + libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000) + libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000) + libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000) + /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000) + + And here is rxvt-unicode: + + libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000) + libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000) + libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000) + libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000) + /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000) + + No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in + statically), except maybe libX11 :) + + Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode? + rxvt-unicode does not directly support tabs. It will work fine with + tabbing functionality of many window managers or similar tabbing + programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be embedded into + other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed or the upcoming + "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt (murxvt) + terminal as an example embedding application. + How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. + When using the rxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the + daemon. I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem... The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large @@ -39,6 +124,47 @@ also a bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for other users that might encounter the same issue. + I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any + recommendation? + You should build one binary with the default options. configure now + enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them + runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling + them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl + interpreter should be enabled, as important functionality (menus, + selection, likely more in the future) depends on it. + + You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext" + resources system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will + result in useful behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory, + add an empty "perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file. + This will keep the perl interpreter disabled until the user enables + it. + + If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal + one with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with + "--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot + of encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely + used). + + I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this + safe? + Likely not. While I honestly try to make it secure, and am probably + not bad at it, I think it is simply unreasonable to expect all of + freetype + fontconfig + xft + xlib + ... + rxvt-unicode itself to + all be secure. Also, rxvt-unicode disables some options when it + detects that it runs setuid or setgid, which is not nice. + + Elevated privileges are only required for utmp and pty operations on + some systems (for example, GNU/Linux doesn't need any extra + privileges for ptys, but some need it for utmp support). If + rxvt-unicode doesn't support the library/setuid helper that your OS + needs I'll be happy to assist you in implementing support for it. + + So, while setuid/setgid operation is supported and not a problem on + your typical single-user-no-other-logins unix desktop, always + remember that its an awful lot of code, most of which isn't checked + for security issues regularly. + When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same @@ -1148,6 +1274,10 @@ h Scroll to bottom when a key is pressed l Don't scroll to bottom when a key is pressed + "Ps = 1021" (rxvt) + h Bold/italic implies high intensity (see option -is) + l Font styles have no effect on intensity (Compile styles) + "Ps = 1047" h Use Alternate Screen Buffer l Use Normal Screen Buffer - clear Alternate Screen Buffer if returning from it @@ -1179,8 +1309,8 @@ Ps = 12 Change colour of text cursor foreground to Pt Ps = 13 Change colour of mouse foreground to Pt Ps = 17 Change colour of highlight characters to Pt - Ps = 18 Change colour of bold characters to Pt - Ps = 19 Change colour of underlined characters to Pt + Ps = 18 Change colour of bold characters to Pt [deprecated, see 706] + Ps = 19 Change colour of underlined characters to Pt [deprecated, see 707] Ps = 20 Change default background to Pt Ps = 39 Change default foreground colour to Pt. Ps = 46 Change Log File to Pt unimplemented @@ -1191,12 +1321,15 @@ Ps = 703 Menubar command Pt (Compile menubar). Ps = 704 Change colour of italic characters to Pt Ps = 705 Change background pixmap tint colour to Pt (Compile transparency). + Ps = 706 Change colour of bold characters to Pt + Ps = 707 Change colour of underlined characters to Pt Ps = 710 Set normal fontset to Pt. Same as Ps = 50. Ps = 711 Set bold fontset to Pt. Similar to Ps = 50 (Compile styles). Ps = 712 Set italic fontset to Pt. Similar to Ps = 50 (Compile styles). Ps = 713 Set bold-italic fontset to Pt. Similar to Ps = 50 (Compile styles). Ps = 720 Move viewing window up by Pt lines, or clear scrollback buffer if Pt = 0 (Compile frills). Ps = 721 Move viewing window down by Pt lines, or clear scrollback buffer if Pt = 0 (Compile frills). + Ps = 777 Call the perl extension with the given string, which should be of the form extension:parameters (Compile perl). @@ -1777,10 +1910,10 @@ at start of rxvt execution. This option requires --enable-utmp to also be specified. - --enable-xpm-background (default: off) + --enable-xpm-background (default: on) Add support for XPM background pixmaps. - --enable-transparency (default: off) + --enable-transparency (default: on) Add support for inheriting parent backgrounds thus giving a fake transparency to the term. @@ -1792,9 +1925,10 @@ Add support for tinting of transparent backgrounds (requires "--enable-transparency"). - --enable-menubar (default: off) + --enable-menubar (default: off) [DEPRECATED] Add support for our menu bar system (this interacts badly with - dynamic locale switching currently). + dynamic locale switching currently). This option is DEPRECATED and + will be removed in the future. --enable-rxvt-scroll (default: on) Add support for the original rxvt scrollbar. @@ -1858,17 +1992,21 @@ MWM-hints EWMH-hints (pid, utf8 names) and protocols (ping) - seperate underline colour - settable border widths and borderless switch - settable extra linespacing + seperate underline colour (-underlineColor) + settable border widths and borderless switch (-w, -b, -bl) + settable extra linespacing /-lsp) iso-14755-2 and -3, and visual feedback backindex and forwardindex escape sequence window op and some xterm/OSC escape sequences - tripleclickwords - settable insecure mode + tripleclickwords (-tcw) + settable insecure mode (-insecure) keysym remapping support - cursor blinking and underline cursor - -embed and -pty-fd options + cursor blinking and underline cursor (-cb, -uc) + XEmbed support (-embed) + user-pty (-pty-fd) + hold on exit (-hold) + skip builtin block graphics (-sbg) + sgr modes 90..97 and 100..107 --enable-iso14755 (default: on) Enable extended ISO 14755 support (see rxvt(1), or doc/rxvt.1.txt). @@ -1904,13 +2042,20 @@ for details. --enable-smart-resize (default: on) - Add smart growth/shrink behaviour when changing font size via from - hot keys. This should keep in a fixed position the rxvt corner which - is closest to a corner of the screen. + Add smart growth/shrink behaviour when changing font size via hot + keys. This should keep the window corner which is closest to a + corner of the screen in a fixed position. --enable-pointer-blank (default: on) Add support to have the pointer disappear when typing or inactive. + --enable-perl (default: off) + Enable an embedded perl interpreter. See the rxvtperl(3) manpage + (doc/rxvtperl.txt) for more info on this feature, or the files in + src/perl-ext/ for the extensions that are installed by default. The + perl interpreter that is used can be specified via the "PERL" + environment variable when running configure. + --with-name=NAME (default: urxvt) Set the basename for the installed binaries, resulting in "urxvt", "urxvtd" etc.). Specify "--with-name=rxvt" to replace with "rxvt".