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Revision 1.26 by root, Sat Dec 17 20:55:45 2005 UTC vs.
Revision 1.41 by root, Thu Jan 12 23:11:23 2006 UTC

… …
18 The newest version of this document is also available on the World Wide 18 The newest version of this document is also available on the World Wide
19 Web at 19 Web at
20 <http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/*checkout*/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.html>. 20 <http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/*checkout*/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.html>.
21 21
22FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 22FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
23 The new selection selects pieces that are too big/too small, can I
24 change this?
25 Yes. For example, if you want to select smaller pieces ("words") you
26 can use the following resource:
27
28 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+)
29
30 If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more
31 and more.
32
33 To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this
34 pattern:
35
36 URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+)
37
38 I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I
39 change/disable it?
40 You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the
41 perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps
42 rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory.
43
44 If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to
45 identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the
46 section PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the rxvtperl(3) manpage. For
47 example, to disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify
48 this perl-ext-common resource:
49
50 URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup
51
52 This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup
53 extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example,
54 scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any
55 other combination either by setting the searchable-scrollback
56 resource:
57
58 URxvt.searchable-scrollback: CM-s
59
60 Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat?
61 I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause
62 extra bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you
63 can see that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables
64 always being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS)
65 after startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is
66 a bit unfair, as many features unique to urxvt (locale, encoding
67 conversion, iso14755 etc.) are already in use in this mode.
68
69 text data bss drs rss filename
70 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything
71 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything
72
73 When you "--enable-everything" (which _is_ unfair, as this involves
74 xft and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11
75 and my libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so.
76
77 text data bss drs rss filename
78 163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything
79 1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything
80
81 The very large size of the text section is explained by the
82 east-asian encoding tables, which, if unused, take up disk space but
83 nothing else and can be compiled out unless you rely on X11 core
84 fonts that use those encodings. The BSS size comes from the 64k
85 emergency buffer that my c++ compiler allocates (but of course
86 doesn't use unless you are out of memory). Also, using an xft font
87 instead of a core font immediately adds a few megabytes of RSS. Xft
88 indeed is responsible for a lot of RSS even when not used.
89
90 Of course, due to every character using two or four bytes instead of
91 one, a large scrollback buffer will ultimately make rxvt-unicode use
92 more memory.
93
94 Compared to e.g. Eterm (5112k), aterm (3132k) and xterm (4680k),
95 this still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like
96 gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or
97 konsole (22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after
98 exit, plus half a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of
99 warnings it spits out), it fares extremely well *g*.
100
101 Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool?
102 Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is:
103 I had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a
104 fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me).
105 Put even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++.
106
107 My personal stance on this is that C++ is less portable than C, but
108 in the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability
109 limits are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale
110 support and unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than
111 C++ itself.
112
113 Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write
114 programs in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to
115 write programs in C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large
116 libraries, but this is not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is
117 what rxvt links against on my system with a minimal config:
118
119 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
120 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000)
121 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000)
122 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
123
124 And here is rxvt-unicode:
125
126 libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000)
127 libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000)
128 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000)
129 libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000)
130 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000)
131
132 No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in
133 statically), except maybe libX11 :)
134
135 Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode?
136 rxvt-unicode does not directly support tabs. It will work fine with
137 tabbing functionality of many window managers or similar tabbing
138 programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be embedded into
139 other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed or the upcoming
140 "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt (murxvt)
141 terminal as an example embedding application.
142
23 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? 143 How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
24 The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape 144 The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape
25 sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. 145 sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number.
146 When using the rxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the
147 daemon.
26 148
27 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem... 149 I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem...
28 The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large 150 The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large
29 patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode. 151 patches that considerably change the behaviour of rxvt-unicode.
30 Before reporting a bug to the original rxvt-unicode author please 152 Before reporting a bug to the original rxvt-unicode author please
… …
36 158
37 For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and 159 For other problems that also affect the Debian package, you can and
38 probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's 160 probably should use the Debian BTS, too, because, after all, it's
39 also a bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for 161 also a bug in the Debian version and it serves as a reminder for
40 other users that might encounter the same issue. 162 other users that might encounter the same issue.
163
164 I am maintaining rxvt-unicode for distribution/OS XXX, any
165 recommendation?
166 You should build one binary with the default options. configure now
167 enables most useful options, and the trend goes to making them
168 runtime-switchable, too, so there is usually no drawback to enbaling
169 them, except higher disk and possibly memory usage. The perl
170 interpreter should be enabled, as important functionality (menus,
171 selection, likely more in the future) depends on it.
172
173 You should not overwrite the "perl-ext-common" snd "perl-ext"
174 resources system-wide (except maybe with "defaults"). This will
175 result in useful behaviour. If your distribution aims at low memory,
176 add an empty "perl-ext-common" resource to the app-defaults file.
177 This will keep the perl interpreter disabled until the user enables
178 it.
179
180 If you can/want build more binaries, I recommend building a minimal
181 one with "--disable-everything" (very useful) and a maximal one with
182 "--enable-everything" (less useful, it will be very big due to a lot
183 of encodings built-in that increase download times and are rarely
184 used).
185
186 I need to make it setuid/setgid to support utmp/ptys on my OS, is this
187 safe?
188 Likely not. While I honestly try to make it secure, and am probably
189 not bad at it, I think it is simply unreasonable to expect all of
190 freetype + fontconfig + xft + xlib + perl + ... + rxvt-unicode
191 itself to all be secure. Also, rxvt-unicode disables some options
192 when it detects that it runs setuid or setgid, which is not nice.
193 Besides, with the embedded perl interpreter the possibility for
194 security problems easily multiplies.
195
196 Elevated privileges are only required for utmp and pty operations on
197 some systems (for example, GNU/Linux doesn't need any extra
198 privileges for ptys, but some need it for utmp support). It is
199 planned to mvoe this into a forked handler process, but this is not
200 yet done.
201
202 So, while setuid/setgid operation is supported and not a problem on
203 your typical single-user-no-other-logins unix desktop, always
204 remember that its an awful lot of code, most of which isn't checked
205 for security issues regularly.
41 206
42 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? 207 When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data?
43 The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely 208 The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely
44 available as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same 209 available as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same
45 problem often arises). 210 problem often arises).
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1146 1311
1147 "Ps = 1011" (rxvt) 1312 "Ps = 1011" (rxvt)
1148 h Scroll to bottom when a key is pressed 1313 h Scroll to bottom when a key is pressed
1149 l Don't scroll to bottom when a key is pressed 1314 l Don't scroll to bottom when a key is pressed
1150 1315
1316 "Ps = 1021" (rxvt)
1317 h Bold/italic implies high intensity (see option -is)
1318 l Font styles have no effect on intensity (Compile styles)
1319
1151 "Ps = 1047" 1320 "Ps = 1047"
1152 h Use Alternate Screen Buffer 1321 h Use Alternate Screen Buffer
1153 l Use Normal Screen Buffer - clear Alternate Screen Buffer if returning from it 1322 l Use Normal Screen Buffer - clear Alternate Screen Buffer if returning from it
1154 1323
1155 "Ps = 1048" 1324 "Ps = 1048"
… …
1177 Ps = 10 Change colour of text foreground to Pt (NB: may change in future) 1346 Ps = 10 Change colour of text foreground to Pt (NB: may change in future)
1178 Ps = 11 Change colour of text background to Pt (NB: may change in future) 1347 Ps = 11 Change colour of text background to Pt (NB: may change in future)
1179 Ps = 12 Change colour of text cursor foreground to Pt 1348 Ps = 12 Change colour of text cursor foreground to Pt
1180 Ps = 13 Change colour of mouse foreground to Pt 1349 Ps = 13 Change colour of mouse foreground to Pt
1181 Ps = 17 Change colour of highlight characters to Pt 1350 Ps = 17 Change colour of highlight characters to Pt
1182 Ps = 18 Change colour of bold characters to Pt 1351 Ps = 18 Change colour of bold characters to Pt [deprecated, see 706]
1183 Ps = 19 Change colour of underlined characters to Pt 1352 Ps = 19 Change colour of underlined characters to Pt [deprecated, see 707]
1184 Ps = 20 Change default background to Pt 1353 Ps = 20 Change default background to Pt
1185 Ps = 39 Change default foreground colour to Pt. 1354 Ps = 39 Change default foreground colour to Pt.
1186 Ps = 46 Change Log File to Pt unimplemented 1355 Ps = 46 Change Log File to Pt unimplemented
1187 Ps = 49 Change default background colour to Pt. 1356 Ps = 49 Change default background colour to Pt.
1188 Ps = 50 Set fontset to Pt, with the following special values of Pt (rxvt) #+n change up n #-n change down n if n is missing of 0, a value of 1 is used empty change to font0 n change to font n 1357 Ps = 50 Set fontset to Pt, with the following special values of Pt (rxvt) #+n change up n #-n change down n if n is missing of 0, a value of 1 is used empty change to font0 n change to font n
1189 Ps = 55 Log all scrollback buffer and all of screen to Pt 1358 Ps = 55 Log all scrollback buffer and all of screen to Pt
1190 Ps = 701 Change current locale to Pt, or, if Pt is ?, return the current locale (Compile frills). 1359 Ps = 701 Change current locale to Pt, or, if Pt is ?, return the current locale (Compile frills).
1191 Ps = 703 Menubar command Pt (Compile menubar). 1360 Ps = 703 Menubar command Pt (Compile menubar).
1192 Ps = 704 Change colour of italic characters to Pt 1361 Ps = 704 Change colour of italic characters to Pt
1193 Ps = 705 Change background pixmap tint colour to Pt (Compile transparency). 1362 Ps = 705 Change background pixmap tint colour to Pt (Compile transparency).
1363 Ps = 706 Change colour of bold characters to Pt
1364 Ps = 707 Change colour of underlined characters to Pt
1194 Ps = 710 Set normal fontset to Pt. Same as Ps = 50. 1365 Ps = 710 Set normal fontset to Pt. Same as Ps = 50.
1195 Ps = 711 Set bold fontset to Pt. Similar to Ps = 50 (Compile styles). 1366 Ps = 711 Set bold fontset to Pt. Similar to Ps = 50 (Compile styles).
1196 Ps = 712 Set italic fontset to Pt. Similar to Ps = 50 (Compile styles). 1367 Ps = 712 Set italic fontset to Pt. Similar to Ps = 50 (Compile styles).
1197 Ps = 713 Set bold-italic fontset to Pt. Similar to Ps = 50 (Compile styles). 1368 Ps = 713 Set bold-italic fontset to Pt. Similar to Ps = 50 (Compile styles).
1198 Ps = 720 Move viewing window up by Pt lines, or clear scrollback buffer if Pt = 0 (Compile frills). 1369 Ps = 720 Move viewing window up by Pt lines, or clear scrollback buffer if Pt = 0 (Compile frills).
1199 Ps = 721 Move viewing window down by Pt lines, or clear scrollback buffer if Pt = 0 (Compile frills). 1370 Ps = 721 Move viewing window down by Pt lines, or clear scrollback buffer if Pt = 0 (Compile frills).
1371 Ps = 777 Call the perl extension with the given string, which should be of the form extension:parameters (Compile perl).
1200 1372
1201 1373
1202 1374
1203menuBar 1375menuBar
1204 The exact syntax used is *almost* solidified. In the menus, DON'T try to 1376 The exact syntax used is *almost* solidified. In the menus, DON'T try to
… …
1775 --enable-lastlog (default: on) 1947 --enable-lastlog (default: on)
1776 Write user and tty to lastlog file (used by programs like lastlogin) 1948 Write user and tty to lastlog file (used by programs like lastlogin)
1777 at start of rxvt execution. This option requires --enable-utmp to 1949 at start of rxvt execution. This option requires --enable-utmp to
1778 also be specified. 1950 also be specified.
1779 1951
1780 --enable-xpm-background (default: off) 1952 --enable-xpm-background (default: on)
1781 Add support for XPM background pixmaps. 1953 Add support for XPM background pixmaps.
1782 1954
1783 --enable-transparency (default: off) 1955 --enable-transparency (default: on)
1784 Add support for inheriting parent backgrounds thus giving a fake 1956 Add support for inheriting parent backgrounds thus giving a fake
1785 transparency to the term. 1957 transparency to the term.
1786 1958
1787 --enable-fading (default: on) 1959 --enable-fading (default: on)
1788 Add support for fading the text when focus is lost (requires 1960 Add support for fading the text when focus is lost (requires
… …
1790 1962
1791 --enable-tinting (default: on) 1963 --enable-tinting (default: on)
1792 Add support for tinting of transparent backgrounds (requires 1964 Add support for tinting of transparent backgrounds (requires
1793 "--enable-transparency"). 1965 "--enable-transparency").
1794 1966
1795 --enable-menubar (default: off) 1967 --enable-menubar (default: off) [DEPRECATED]
1796 Add support for our menu bar system (this interacts badly with 1968 Add support for our menu bar system (this interacts badly with
1797 dynamic locale switching currently). 1969 dynamic locale switching currently). This option is DEPRECATED and
1970 will be removed in the future.
1798 1971
1799 --enable-rxvt-scroll (default: on) 1972 --enable-rxvt-scroll (default: on)
1800 Add support for the original rxvt scrollbar. 1973 Add support for the original rxvt scrollbar.
1801 1974
1802 --enable-next-scroll (default: on) 1975 --enable-next-scroll (default: on)
… …
1826 Removes any handling of the delete key by us - let the X server do 1999 Removes any handling of the delete key by us - let the X server do
1827 it. 2000 it.
1828 2001
1829 --disable-resources 2002 --disable-resources
1830 Removes any support for resource checking. 2003 Removes any support for resource checking.
1831
1832 --enable-xgetdefault
1833 Make resources checking via XGetDefault() instead of our small
1834 version which only checks ~/.Xdefaults, or if that doesn't exist
1835 then ~/.Xresources.
1836
1837 Please note that nowadays, things like XIM will automatically pull
1838 in and use the full X resource manager, so the overhead of using it
1839 might be very small, if nonexistant.
1840 2004
1841 --enable-strings (default: off) 2005 --enable-strings (default: off)
1842 Add support for our possibly faster memset() function and other 2006 Add support for our possibly faster memset() function and other
1843 various routines, overriding your system's versions which may have 2007 various routines, overriding your system's versions which may have
1844 been hand-crafted in assembly or may require extra libraries to link 2008 been hand-crafted in assembly or may require extra libraries to link
… …
1856 A non-exhaustive list of features enabled by "--enable-frills" 2020 A non-exhaustive list of features enabled by "--enable-frills"
1857 (possibly in combination with other switches) is: 2021 (possibly in combination with other switches) is:
1858 2022
1859 MWM-hints 2023 MWM-hints
1860 EWMH-hints (pid, utf8 names) and protocols (ping) 2024 EWMH-hints (pid, utf8 names) and protocols (ping)
1861 seperate underline colour 2025 seperate underline colour (-underlineColor)
1862 settable border widths and borderless switch 2026 settable border widths and borderless switch (-w, -b, -bl)
1863 settable extra linespacing 2027 settable extra linespacing /-lsp)
1864 iso-14755-2 and -3, and visual feedback 2028 iso-14755-2 and -3, and visual feedback
1865 backindex and forwardindex escape sequence 2029 backindex and forwardindex escape sequence
1866 window op and some xterm/OSC escape sequences 2030 window op and some xterm/OSC escape sequences
1867 tripleclickwords 2031 tripleclickwords (-tcw)
1868 settable insecure mode 2032 settable insecure mode (-insecure)
1869 keysym remapping support 2033 keysym remapping support
1870 cursor blinking and underline cursor 2034 cursor blinking and underline cursor (-cb, -uc)
1871 -embed and -pty-fd options 2035 XEmbed support (-embed)
2036 user-pty (-pty-fd)
2037 hold on exit (-hold)
2038 skip builtin block graphics (-sbg)
2039 sgr modes 90..97 and 100..107
1872 2040
1873 --enable-iso14755 (default: on) 2041 --enable-iso14755 (default: on)
1874 Enable extended ISO 14755 support (see rxvt(1), or doc/rxvt.1.txt). 2042 Enable extended ISO 14755 support (see rxvt(1), or doc/rxvt.1.txt).
1875 Basic support (section 5.1) is enabled by "--enable-frills", while 2043 Basic support (section 5.1) is enabled by "--enable-frills", while
1876 support for 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 is enabled with this switch. 2044 support for 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 is enabled with this switch.
… …
1909 corner of the screen in a fixed position. 2077 corner of the screen in a fixed position.
1910 2078
1911 --enable-pointer-blank (default: on) 2079 --enable-pointer-blank (default: on)
1912 Add support to have the pointer disappear when typing or inactive. 2080 Add support to have the pointer disappear when typing or inactive.
1913 2081
2082 --enable-perl (default: off)
2083 Enable an embedded perl interpreter. See the rxvtperl(3) manpage
2084 (doc/rxvtperl.txt) for more info on this feature, or the files in
2085 src/perl-ext/ for the extensions that are installed by default. The
2086 perl interpreter that is used can be specified via the "PERL"
2087 environment variable when running configure.
2088
1914 --with-name=NAME (default: urxvt) 2089 --with-name=NAME (default: urxvt)
1915 Set the basename for the installed binaries, resulting in "urxvt", 2090 Set the basename for the installed binaries, resulting in "urxvt",
1916 "urxvtd" etc.). Specify "--with-name=rxvt" to replace with "rxvt". 2091 "urxvtd" etc.). Specify "--with-name=rxvt" to replace with "rxvt".
1917 2092
1918 --with-term=NAME (default: rxvt-unicode) 2093 --with-term=NAME (default: rxvt-unicode)

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