rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvtperl.3.txt

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

Revision:	1.12
Committed:	Sat Jan 7 04:19:43 2006 UTC (18 years, 5 months ago) by root
Content type:	text/plain
Branch:	MAIN
Changes since 1.11:	+125 -30 lines
Log Message:	* empty log message *