NAME

rxvtperl - rxvt-unicode's embedded perl interpreter


SYNOPSIS

   # create a file grab_test in $HOME:
   sub on_sel_grab {
      warn "you selected ", $_[0]->selection;
      ()
   }
   # start a rxvt using it:
   rxvt --perl-lib $HOME -pe grab_test


DESCRIPTION

Everytime a terminal object gets created, scripts specified via the perl resource are loaded and associated with it.

Scripts are compiled in a 'use strict' and 'use utf8' environment, and thus must be encoded as UTF-8.

Each script will only ever be loaded once, even in rxvtd, where scripts will be shared (but not enabled) for all terminals.

Prepackaged Extensions

This section describes the extensiosn delivered with this version. You can find them in /opt/rxvt/lib/urxvt/perl/.

You can activate them like this:

  rxvt -pe <extensionname>
selection
Intelligent selection. This extension tries to be more intelligent when the user extends selections (double-click). Right now, it tries to select urls and complete shell-quoted arguments, which is very convenient, too, if your ls supports --quoting-style=shell.

It also offers the following bindable event:

rot13
Rot-13 the selection when activated. Used via keyboard trigger:
   URxvt.keysym.C-M-r: perl:selection:rot13

digital-clock
Displays a digital clock using the built-in overlay.

mark-urls
Uses per-line display filtering (on_line_update) to underline urls.

block-graphics-to-ascii
A not very useful example of filtering all text output to the terminal, by replacing all line-drawing characters (U+2500 .. U+259F) by a similar-looking ascii character.

example-refresh-hooks
Displays a very simple digital clock in the upper right corner of the window. Illustrates overwriting the refresh callbacks to create your own overlays or changes.

General API Considerations

All objects (such as terminals, time watchers etc.) are typical reference-to-hash objects. The hash can be used to store anything you like. All members starting with an underscore (such as _ptr or _hook) are reserved for internal uses and MUST NOT be accessed or modified).

When objects are destroyed on the C++ side, the perl object hashes are emptied, so its best to store related objects such as time watchers and the like inside the terminal object so they get destroyed as soon as the terminal is destroyed.

Argument names also often indicate the type of a parameter. Here are some hints on what they mean:

$text
Rxvt-unicodes special way of encoding text, where one ``unicode'' character always represents one screen cell. See row_t for a discussion of this format.

$string
A perl text string, with an emphasis on text. It can store all unicode characters and is to be distinguished with text encoded in a specific encoding (often locale-specific) and binary data.

$octets
Either binary data or - more common - a text string encoded in a locale-specific way.

Hooks

The following subroutines can be declared in extension files, and will be called whenever the relevant event happens.

The first argument passed to them is an object private to each terminal and extension package. You can call all urxvt::term methods on it, but its not a real urxvt::term object. Instead, the real urxvt::term object that is shared between all packages is stored in the term member.

All of them must return a boolean value. If it is true, then the event counts as being consumed, and the invocation of other hooks is skipped, and the relevant action might not be carried out by the C++ code.

When in doubt, return a false value (preferably ()).

on_init $term
Called after a new terminal object has been initialized, but before windows are created or the command gets run. Most methods are unsafe to call or deliver senseless data, as terminal size and other characteristics have not yet been determined. You can safely query and change resources, though.

on_reset $term
Called after the screen is ``reset'' for any reason, such as resizing or control sequences. Here is where you can react on changes to size-related variables.

on_start $term
Called at the very end of initialisation of a new terminal, just before returning to the mainloop.

on_sel_make $term, $eventtime
Called whenever a selection has been made by the user, but before the selection text is copied, so changes to the beginning, end or type of the selection will be honored.

Returning a true value aborts selection making by urxvt, in which case you have to make a selection yourself by calling $term->selection_grab.

on_sel_grab $term, $eventtime
Called whenever a selection has been copied, but before the selection is requested from the server. The selection text can be queried and changed by calling $term->selection.

Returning a true value aborts selection grabbing. It will still be hilighted.

on_sel_extend $term
Called whenever the user tries to extend the selection (e.g. with a double click) and is either supposed to return false (normal operation), or should extend the selection itelf and return true to suppress the built-in processing.

See the selection example extension.

on_focus_in $term
Called whenever the window gets the keyboard focus, before urxvt does focus in processing.

on_focus_out $term
Called wheneever the window loses keyboard focus, before urxvt does focus out processing.

on_view_change $term, $offset
Called whenever the view offset changes, i..e the user or program scrolls. Offset 0 means display the normal terminal, positive values show this many lines of scrollback.

on_scroll_back $term, $lines, $saved
Called whenever lines scroll out of the terminal area into the scrollback buffer. $lines is the number of lines scrolled out and may be larger than the scroll back buffer or the terminal.

It is called before lines are scrolled out (so rows 0 .. min ($lines - 1, $nrow - 1) represent the lines to be scrolled out). $saved is the total number of lines that will be in the scrollback buffer.

on_tty_activity $term *NYI*
Called whenever the program(s) running in the urxvt window send output.

on_osc_seq $term, $string
Called whenever the ESC ] 777 ; string ST command sequence (OSC = operating system command) is processed. Cursor position and other state information is up-to-date when this happens. For interoperability, the string should start with the extension name and a colon, to distinguish it from commands for other extensions, and this might be enforced in the future.

Be careful not ever to trust (in a security sense) the data you receive, as its source can not easily be controleld (e-mail content, messages from other users on the same system etc.).

on_add_lines $term, $string
Called whenever text is about to be output, with the text as argument. You can filter/change and output the text yourself by returning a true value and calling $term->scr_add_lines yourself. Please note that this might be very slow, however, as your hook is called for all text being output.

on_line_update $term, $row
Called whenever a line was updated or changed. Can be used to filter screen output (e.g. underline urls or other useless stuff). Only lines that are being shown will be filtered, and, due to performance reasons, not always immediately.

The row number is always the topmost row of the line if the line spans multiple rows.

Please note that, if you change the line, then the hook might get called later with the already-modified line (e.g. if unrelated parts change), so you cannot just toggle rendition bits, but only set them.

on_refresh_begin $term
Called just before the screen gets redrawn. Can be used for overlay or similar effects by modify terminal contents in refresh_begin, and restoring them in refresh_end. The built-in overlay and selection display code is run after this hook, and takes precedence.

on_refresh_end $term
Called just after the screen gets redrawn. See on_refresh_begin.

on_keyboard_command $term, $string
Called whenever the user presses a key combination that has a perl:string action bound to it (see description of the keysym resource in the rxvt(1) manpage).

on_key_press $term, $event, $octets
on_key_release $term, $event
on_button_press $term, $event
on_button_release $term, $event
on_motion_notify $term, $event
Called whenever the corresponding X event is received for the terminal If the hook returns true, then the even will be ignored by rxvt-unicode.

The event is a hash with most values as named by Xlib (see the XEvent manpage), with the additional members row and col, which are the row and column under the mouse cursor.

on_key_press additionally receives the string rxvt-unicode would output, if any, in locale-specific encoding.

subwindow.

Variables in the urxvt Package

$urxvt::TERM
The current terminal. This variable stores the current urxvt::term object, whenever a callback/hook is executing.

Functions in the urxvt Package

$term = new urxvt [arg...]
Creates a new terminal, very similar as if you had started it with system $binfile, arg.... Croaks (and probably outputs an error message) if the new instance couldn't be created. Returns undef if the new instance didn't initialise perl, and the terminal object otherwise. The init and start hooks will be called during the call.

urxvt::fatal $errormessage
Fatally aborts execution with the given error message. Avoid at all costs! The only time this is acceptable is when the terminal process starts up.

urxvt::warn $string
Calls rxvt_warn with the given string which should not include a newline. The module also overwrites the warn builtin with a function that calls this function.

Using this function has the advantage that its output ends up in the correct place, e.g. on stderr of the connecting urxvtc client.

$time = urxvt::NOW
Returns the ``current time'' (as per the event loop).

RENDITION

Rendition bitsets contain information about colour, font, font styles and similar information for each screen cell.

The following ``macros'' deal with changes in rendition sets. You should never just create a bitset, you should always modify an existing one, as they contain important information required for correct operation of rxvt-unicode.

$rend = urxvt::DEFAULT_RSTYLE
Returns the default rendition, as used when the terminal is starting up or being reset. Useful as a base to start when creating renditions.

$rend = urxvt::OVERLAY_RSTYLE
Return the rendition mask used for overlays by default.

$rendbit = urxvt::RS_Bold, RS_Italic, RS_Blink, RS_RVid, RS_Uline
Return the bit that enabled bold, italic, blink, reverse-video and underline, respectively. To enable such a style, just logically OR it into the bitset.

$foreground = urxvt::GET_BASEFG $rend
$background = urxvt::GET_BASEBG $rend
Return the foreground/background colour index, respectively.

$rend = urxvt::SET_FGCOLOR ($rend, $new_colour)
$rend = urxvt::SET_BGCOLOR ($rend, $new_colour)
Replace the foreground/background colour in the rendition mask with the specified one.

$value = urxvt::GET_CUSTOM ($rend)
Return the ``custom'' value: Every rendition has 5 bits for use by extensions. They can be set and changed as you like and are initially zero.

$rend = urxvt::SET_CUSTOM ($rend, $new_value)
Change the custom value.

The urxvt::term Class

$term->destroy
Destroy the terminal object (close the window, free resources etc.).

$value = $term->resource ($name[, $newval])
Returns the current resource value associated with a given name and optionally sets a new value. Setting values is most useful in the init hook. Unset resources are returned and accepted as undef.

The new value must be properly encoded to a suitable character encoding before passing it to this method. Similarly, the returned value may need to be converted from the used encoding to text.

Resource names are as defined in src/rsinc.h. Colours can be specified as resource names of the form color+<index>, e.g. color+5. (will likely change).

Please note that resource strings will currently only be freed when the terminal is destroyed, so changing options frequently will eat memory.

Here is a a likely non-exhaustive list of resource names, not all of which are supported in every build, please see the source to see the actual list:

  answerbackstring backgroundPixmap backspace_key boldFont boldItalicFont
  borderLess color cursorBlink cursorUnderline cutchars delete_key
  display_name embed ext_bwidth fade font geometry hold iconName
  imFont imLocale inputMethod insecure int_bwidth intensityStyles
  italicFont jumpScroll lineSpace loginShell mapAlert menu meta8 modifier
  mouseWheelScrollPage name pastableTabs path perl_eval perl_ext_1 perl_ext_2
  perl_lib pointerBlank pointerBlankDelay preeditType print_pipe pty_fd
  reverseVideo saveLines scrollBar scrollBar_align scrollBar_floating
  scrollBar_right scrollBar_thickness scrollTtyKeypress scrollTtyOutput
  scrollWithBuffer scrollstyle secondaryScreen secondaryScroll selectstyle
  shade term_name title transparent transparent_all tripleclickwords
  utmpInhibit visualBell

$rend = $term->rstyle ([$new_rstyle])
Return and optionally change the current rendition. Text that is output by the terminal application will use this style.

($row, $col) = $term->screen_cur ([$row, $col])
Return the current coordinates of the text cursor position and optionally set it (which is usually bad as applications don't expect that).

($row, $col) = $term->selection_mark ([$row, $col])
($row, $col) = $term->selection_beg ([$row, $col])
($row, $col) = $term->selection_end ([$row, $col])
Return the current values of the selection mark, begin or end positions, and optionally set them to new values.

$success = $term->selection_grab ($eventtime)
Try to request the primary selection from the server (for example, as set by the next method).

$oldtext = $term->selection ([$newtext])
Return the current selection text and optionally replace it by $newtext.

#=item $term->overlay ($x, $y, $text) # #Create a simple multi-line overlay box. See the next method for details. # #=cut # #sub urxvt::term::scr_overlay { # my ($self, $x, $y, $text) = @_; # # my @lines = split /\n/, $text; # # my $w = 0; # for (map $self->strwidth ($_), @lines) { # $w = $_ if $w < $_; # } # # $self->scr_overlay_new ($x, $y, $w, scalar @lines); # $self->scr_overlay_set (0, $_, $lines[$_]) for 0.. $#lines; #}

$term->overlay ($x, $y, $width, $height[, $rstyle[, $border]])
Create a new (empty) overlay at the given position with the given width/height. $rstyle defines the initial rendition style (default: OVERLAY_RSTYLE).

If $border is 2 (default), then a decorative border will be put around the box.

If either $x or $y is negative, then this is counted from the right/bottom side, respectively.

This method returns an urxvt::overlay object. The overlay will be visible as long as the perl object is referenced.

The methods currently supported on urxvt::overlay objects are:

$overlay->set ($x, $y, $text, $rend)
Similar to $term->ROW_t and $term->ROW_r in that it puts text in rxvt-unicode's special encoding and an array of rendition values at a specific position inside the overlay.

$overlay->hide
If visible, hide the overlay, but do not destroy it.

$overlay->show
If hidden, display the overlay again.

$cellwidth = $term->strwidth ($string)
Returns the number of screen-cells this string would need. Correctly accounts for wide and combining characters.

$octets = $term->locale_encode ($string)
Convert the given text string into the corresponding locale encoding.

$string = $term->locale_decode ($octets)
Convert the given locale-encoded octets into a perl string.

$term->scr_add_lines ($string)
Write the given text string to the screen, as if output by the application running inside the terminal. It may not contain command sequences (escape codes), but is free to use line feeds, carriage returns and tabs. The string is a normal text string, not in locale-dependent encoding.

Normally its not a good idea to use this function, as programs might be confused by changes in cursor position or scrolling. Its useful inside a on_add_lines hook, though.

$term->cmd_parse ($octets)
Similar to scr_add_lines, but the argument must be in the locale-specific encoding of the terminal and can contain command sequences (escape codes) that will be interpreted.

$term->tt_write ($octets)
Write the octets given in $data to the tty (i.e. as program input). To pass characters instead of octets, you should convert your strings first to the locale-specific encoding using $term->locale_encode.

$windowid = $term->parent
Return the window id of the toplevel window.

$windowid = $term->vt
Return the window id of the terminal window.

$window_width = $term->width
$window_height = $term->height
$font_width = $term->fwidth
$font_height = $term->fheight
$font_ascent = $term->fbase
$terminal_rows = $term->nrow
$terminal_columns = $term->ncol
$has_focus = $term->focus
$is_mapped = $term->mapped
$max_scrollback = $term->saveLines
$nrow_plus_saveLines = $term->total_rows
$lines_in_scrollback = $term->nsaved
Return various integers describing terminal characteristics.

$view_start = $term->view_start ([$newvalue])
Returns the negative row number of the topmost line. Minimum value is 0, which displays the normal terminal contents. Larger values scroll this many lines into the scrollback buffer.

$term->want_refresh
Requests a screen refresh. At the next opportunity, rxvt-unicode will compare the on-screen display with its stored representation. If they differ, it redraws the differences.

Used after changing terminal contents to display them.

$text = $term->ROW_t ($row_number[, $new_text[, $start_col]])
Returns the text of the entire row with number $row_number. Row 0 is the topmost terminal line, row $term->$ncol-1 is the bottommost terminal line. The scrollback buffer starts at line -1 and extends to line -$term->nsaved. Nothing will be returned if a nonexistent line is requested.

If $new_text is specified, it will replace characters in the current line, starting at column $start_col (default 0), which is useful to replace only parts of a line. The font index in the rendition will automatically be updated.

$text is in a special encoding: tabs and wide characters that use more than one cell when displayed are padded with urxvt::NOCHAR characters (chr 65535). Characters with combining characters and other characters that do not fit into the normal tetx encoding will be replaced with characters in the private use area.

You have to obey this encoding when changing text. The advantage is that substr and similar functions work on screen cells and not on characters.

The methods $term->special_encode and $term->special_decode can be used to convert normal strings into this encoding and vice versa.

$rend = $term->ROW_r ($row_number[, $new_rend[, $start_col]])
Like $term->ROW_t, but returns an arrayref with rendition bitsets. Rendition bitsets contain information about colour, font, font styles and similar information. See also $term->ROW_t.

When setting rendition, the font mask will be ignored.

See the section on RENDITION, above.

$length = $term->ROW_l ($row_number[, $new_length])
Returns the number of screen cells that are in use (``the line length''). Unlike the urxvt core, this returns $term->ncol if the line is joined with the following one.

$bool = $term->is_longer ($row_number)
Returns true if the row is part of a multiple-row logical ``line'' (i.e. joined with the following row), which means all characters are in use and it is continued on the next row (and possibly a continuation of the previous row(s)).

$line = $term->line ($row_number)
Create and return a new urxvt::line object that stores information about the logical line that row $row_number is part of. It supports the following methods:
$text = $line->t ([$new_text])
Returns or replaces the full text of the line, similar to ROW_t

$rend = $line->r ([$new_rend])
Returns or replaces the full rendition array of the line, similar to ROW_r

$length = $line->l
Returns the length of the line in cells, similar to ROW_l.

$rownum = $line->beg
$rownum = $line->end
Return the row number of the first/last row of the line, respectively.

$offset = $line->offset_of ($row, $col)
Returns the character offset of the given row|col pair within the logical line.

($row, $col) = $line->coord_of ($offset)
Translates a string offset into terminal coordinates again.

($row, $col) = $line->coord_of ($offset) =item $text = $term->special_encode $string
Converts a perl string into the special encoding used by rxvt-unicode, where one character corresponds to one screen cell. See $term->ROW_t for details.

$string = $term->special_decode $text
Converts rxvt-unicodes text reprsentation into a perl string. See $term->ROW_t for details.

The urxvt::timer Class

This class implements timer watchers/events. Time is represented as a fractional number of seconds since the epoch. Example:

   $term->{overlay} = $term->overlay (-1, 0, 8, 1, urxvt::OVERLAY_RSTYLE, 0);
   $term->{timer} = urxvt::timer
                    ->new
                    ->interval (1)
                    ->cb (sub {
                       $term->{overlay}->set (0, 0,
                          sprintf "%2d:%02d:%02d", (localtime urxvt::NOW)[2,1,0]);
                    });
$timer = new urxvt::timer
Create a new timer object in started state. It is scheduled to fire immediately.

$timer = $timer->cb (sub { my ($timer) = @_; ... })
Set the callback to be called when the timer triggers.

$tstamp = $timer->at
Return the time this watcher will fire next.

$timer = $timer->set ($tstamp)
Set the time the event is generated to $tstamp.

$timer = $timer->interval ($interval)
Normally (and when $interval is 0), the timer will automatically stop after it has fired once. If $interval is non-zero, then the timer is automatically rescheduled at the given intervals.

$timer = $timer->start
Start the timer.

$timer = $timer->start ($tstamp)
Set the event trigger time to $tstamp and start the timer.

$timer = $timer->stop
Stop the timer.

The urxvt::iow Class

This class implements io watchers/events. Example:

  $term->{socket} = ...
  $term->{iow} = urxvt::iow
                 ->new
                 ->fd (fileno $term->{socket})
                 ->events (1) # wait for read data
                 ->start
                 ->cb (sub {
                   my ($iow, $revents) = @_;
                   # $revents must be 1 here, no need to check
                   sysread $term->{socket}, my $buf, 8192
                      or end-of-file;
                 });
$iow = new urxvt::iow
Create a new io watcher object in stopped state.

$iow = $iow->cb (sub { my ($iow, $reventmask) = @_; ... })
Set the callback to be called when io events are triggered. $reventmask is a bitset as described in the events method.

$iow = $iow->fd ($fd)
Set the filedescriptor (not handle) to watch.

$iow = $iow->events ($eventmask)
Set the event mask to watch. Bit #0 (value 1) enables watching for read data, Bit #1 (value 2) enables watching for write data.

$iow = $iow->start
Start watching for requested events on the given handle.

$iow = $iow->stop
Stop watching for events on the given filehandle.


ENVIRONMENT

URXVT_PERL_VERBOSITY

This variable controls the verbosity level of the perl extension. Higher numbers indicate more verbose output.

=0 - only fatal messages
=3 - script loading and management
=10 - all events received


AUTHOR

 Marc Lehmann <pcg@goof.com>
 http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/rxvt-unicode