rxvt-unicode (ouR XVT, unicode) - (a VT102 emulator for the X window system)
rxvt [options] [-e command [ args ]]
rxvt-unicode, version 3.5, is a colour vt102 terminal
emulator intended as an xterm(1) replacement for users who do not
require features such as Tektronix 4014 emulation and toolkit-style
configurability. As a result, rxvt-unicode uses much less swap space --
a significant advantage on a machine serving many X sessions.
Unlike the original rxvt, rxvt-unicode stores all text in Unicode
internally. That means it can store and display most scripts in the
world. Being a terminal emulator, however, some things are very difficult,
especially cursive scripts such as arabic, vertically written scripts
like mongolian or scripts requiring extremely complex combining rules,
like tibetan or devenagari. Don't expect pretty output when using these
scripts. Most other scripts, latin, cyrillic, kanji, thai etc. should work
fine, though. A somewhat difficult case are left-to-right scripts, such
as hebrew: rxvt-unicode adopts the view that bidirectional algorithms
belong into the application, not the terminal emulator (too many things --
such as cursor-movement -- break othwerwise).
Another design rationale was the use of multiple fonts to display
characters: The idea of a single unicode font which many other programs
force onto it's users never made sense to me: You should be able to choose
any font for any script.
Apart from that, rxvt-unicode is also much better internationalised than
it's predecessor, supports things such as XFT and ISO 14755 that are handy
in i18n-environments, is faster, and has a lot less bugs than the original
rxvt. This all in addition to dozens of other small improvements.
It is still faithfully following the original rxvt idea of being lean
and nice on resources: for example, you can still configure rxvt-unicode
without most of it's features to get a lean binary. It also comes with
a client/daemon pair that lets you open any number of terminal windows
from within a single process, which makes startup time very fast and
drastically reduces memory usage. See rxvtd(1)
(daemon) and
rxvtc(1)
(client).
It also makes technical information about escape sequences (which have
been extended) easier accessible: see rxvt(7)
for technical
reference documentation (escape sequences etc.) and the FAQ section at the
end of this document.
The rxvt options (mostly a subset of xterm's) are listed
below. In keeping with the smaller-is-better philosophy, options may be
eliminated or default values chosen at compile-time, so options and
defaults listed may not accurately reflect the version installed on
your system. `rxvt -h' gives a list of major compile-time options on
the Options line. Option descriptions may be prefixed with which
compile option each is dependent upon. e.g. `Compile XIM:' requires
XIM on the Options line. Note: `rxvt -help' gives a list of all
command-line options compiled into your version.
Note that rxvt permits the resource name to be used as a
long-option (--/++ option) so the potential command-line options are
far greater than those listed. For example: `rxvt --loginShell --color1
Orange'.
The following options are available:
- -help, --help
-
Print out a message describing available options.
- -display displayname
-
Attempt to open a window on the named X display (-d still
respected). In the absence of this option, the display specified by the
DISPLAY environment variable is used.
- -geometry geom
-
Window geometry (-g still respected); resource geometry.
- -rv|+rv
-
Turn on/off simulated reverse video; resource reverseVideo.
- -j|+j
-
Turn on/off jump scrolling; resource jumpScroll.
- -ip|+ip
-
Turn on/off inheriting parent window's pixmap. Alternative form is
-tr; resource inheritPixmap.
- -fade number
-
Fade the text by the given percentage when focus is lost.
- -tint colour
-
Tint the transparent background pixmap with the given colour when
transparency is enabled with -tr or -ip. See also the -sh
option that can be used to brighten or darken the image in addition to
tinting it.
- -sh
-
number Darken (0 .. 100) or lighten (-1 .. -100) the transparent
background image in addition to tinting it (i.e. -tint must be
specified, too).
- -bg colour
-
Window background colour; resource background.
- -fg colour
-
Window foreground colour; resource foreground.
- -pixmap file[;geom]
-
Compile XPM: Specify XPM file for the background and also optionally
specify its scaling with a geometry string. Note you may need to add
quotes to avoid special shell interpretation of the `;' in the
command-line; resource backgroundPixmap.
- -cr colour
-
The cursor colour; resource cursorColor.
- -pr colour
-
The mouse pointer foreground colour; resource pointerColor.
- -pr2 colour
-
The mouse pointer background colour; resource pointerColor2.
- -bd colour
-
The colour of the border between the xterm scrollbar and the text;
resource borderColor.
- -fn fontname
-
Select the fonts to be used. This is a comma seperated list of font
names that are used in turn when trying to display Unicode characters.
The first font defines the cell size for characters; other fonts might
be smaller, but not larger. A reasonable default font list is always
appended to it. resource font.
-
See also the question ``How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?'' in the FAQ
section.
- -rb|+rb
-
Enable ``real bold'' support. When this option is on, bold text will be
displayed using the first available bold font in the font list. Bold
fonts should thus be specified in the font list after their
corresponding regular fonts. If no bold font can be found, a regular
font will be used. resource realBold.
- -name name
-
Specify the application name under which resources are to be obtained,
rather than the default executable file name. Name should not contain
`.' or `*' characters. Also sets the icon and title name.
- -ls|+ls
-
Start as a login-shell/sub-shell; resource loginShell.
- -ut|+ut
-
Compile utmp: Inhibit/enable writing a utmp entry; resource
utmpInhibit.
- -vb|+vb
-
Turn on/off visual bell on receipt of a bell character; resource
visualBell.
- -sb|+sb
-
Turn on/off scrollbar; resource scrollBar.
- -si|+si
-
Turn on/off scroll-to-bottom on TTY output inhibit; resource
scrollTtyOutput has opposite effect.
- -sk|+sk
-
Turn on/off scroll-to-bottom on keypress; resource
scrollTtyKeypress.
- -sw|+sw
-
Turn on/off scrolling with the scrollback buffer as new lines appear.
This only takes effect if -si is also given; resource
scrollWithBuffer.
- -sr|+sr
-
Put scrollbar on right/left; resource scrollBar_right.
- -st|+st
-
Display normal (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar without/with a trough;
resource scrollBar_floating.
- -bc|+bc
-
Blink the cursor; resource cursorBlink.
- -iconic
-
Start iconified, if the window manager supports that option.
Alternative form is -ic.
- -sl number
-
Save number lines in the scrollback buffer. See resource entry for
limits; resource saveLines.
- -b number
-
Compile frills: Internal border of number pixels. See resource
entry for limits; resource internalBorder.
- -w number
-
Compile frills: External border of number pixels. Also, -bw
and -borderwidth. See resource entry for limits; resource
externalBorder.
- -bl
-
Compile frills: Set MWM hints to request a borderless window, i.e.
if honoured by the WM, the rxvt-unicode window will not have window
decorations; resource borderLess.
- -lsp number
-
Compile linespace: Lines (pixel height) to insert between each row
of the display; resource linespace.
- -tn termname
-
This option specifies the name of the terminal type to be set in the
TERM environment variable. This terminal type must exist in the
termcap(5) database and should have li# and co# entries;
resource termName.
- -e command [arguments]
-
Run the command with its command-line arguments in the rxvt
window; also sets the window title and icon name to be the basename of
the program being executed if neither -title (-T) nor -n are
given on the command line. If this option is used, it must be the last
on the command-line. If there is no -e option then the default is to
run the program specified by the SHELL environment variable or,
failing that, sh(1).
- -title text
-
Window title (-T still respected); the default title is the basename
of the program specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the
application name; resource title.
- -n text
-
Icon name; the default name is the basename of the program specified
after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application name;
resource iconName.
- -C
-
Capture system console messages.
- -pt style
-
Compile XIM: input style for input method; OverTheSpot,
OffTheSpot, Root; resource preeditType.
- -im text
-
Compile XIM: input method name. resource inputMethod.
- -imlocale string
-
The locale to use for opening the IM. You can use an LC_CTYPE of e.g.
de_DE.UTF-8 for normal text processing but ja_JP.EUC-JP for the input
extension to be able to input japanese characters while staying in
another locale.
- -insecure
-
Enable ``insecure'' mode, which currently enables most of the escape
sequences that echo strings. See the resource insecure for more
info.
- -mod modifier
-
Override detection of Meta modifier with specified key: alt,
meta, hyper, super, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4,
mod5; resource modifier.
- -ssc|+ssc
-
Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled); resource
secondaryScreen.
- -ssr|+ssr
-
Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled); resource
secondaryScroll.
- -xrm resourcestring
-
No effect on rxvt-unicode. Simply passes through an argument to be made
available in the instance's argument list. Appears in WM_COMMAND in
some window managers.
Note: `rxvt --help' gives a list of all resources (long
options) compiled into your version.
There are two different methods that rxvt can use to get the
Xresource data: using the X libraries (Xrm*-functions) or internal
Xresources reader (~/.Xdefaults). For the first method (ie.
rxvt -h lists XGetDefaults), you can set and change the
resources using X11 tools like xset. Many distribution do also load
settings from the ~/.Xresources file when X starts.
If compiled with internal Xresources support (i.e. rxvt -h
lists .Xdefaults) then rxvt accepts application defaults
set in XAPPLOADDIR/URxvt (compile-time defined: usually
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/URxvt) and resources set in
~/.Xdefaults, or ~/.Xresources if ~/.Xdefaults does not exist.
Note that when reading X resources, rxvt recognizes two
class names: XTerm and URxvt. The class name Rxvt allows
resources common to both rxvt and the original rxvt to be
easily configured, while the class name URxvt allows resources
unique to rxvt, notably colours and key-handling, to be
shared between different rxvt configurations. If no
resources are specified, suitable defaults will be used. Command-line
arguments can be used to override resource settings. The following
resources are allowed:
- geometry: geom
-
Create the window with the specified X window geometry [default 80x24];
option -geometry.
- background: colour
-
Use the specified colour as the window's background colour [default
White]; option -bg.
- foreground: colour
-
Use the specified colour as the window's foreground colour [default
Black]; option -fg.
- colorn: colour
-
Use the specified colour for the colour value n, where 0-7
corresponds to low-intensity (normal) colours and 8-15 corresponds to
high-intensity (bold = bright foreground, blink = bright background)
colours. The canonical names are as follows: 0=black, 1=red, 2=green,
3=yellow, 4=blue, 5=magenta, 6=cyan, 7=white, but the actual colour
names used are listed in the COLORS AND GRAPHICS section.
- colorBD: colour
-
Use the specified colour to display bold characters when the foreground
colour is the default. This option will be ignored if realBold is
enabled.
- colorUL: colour
-
Use the specified colour to display underlined characters when the
foreground colour is the default.
- colorRV: colour
-
Use the specified colour as the background for reverse video
characters.
- cursorColor: colour
-
Use the specified colour for the cursor. The default is to use the
foreground colour; option -cr.
- cursorColor2: colour
-
Use the specified colour for the colour of the cursor text. For this to
take effect, cursorColor must also be specified. The default is to
use the background colour.
- reverseVideo: boolean
-
True: simulate reverse video by foreground and background colours;
option -rv. False: regular screen colours [default]; option
+rv. See note in COLORS AND GRAPHICS section.
- jumpScroll: boolean
-
True: specify that jump scrolling should be used. When scrolling
quickly, fewer screen updates are performed [default]; option -j.
False: specify that smooth scrolling should be used; option +j.
- inheritPixmap: boolean
-
True: make the background inherit the parent windows' pixmap, giving
artificial transparency. False: do not inherit the parent windows'
pixmap.
- fading: number
-
Fade the text by the given percentage when focus is lost.
- tintColor: colour
-
Tint the transparent background pixmap with the given colour.
- shading: number
-
Darken (0 .. 100) or lighten (-1 .. -100) the transparent background
image in addition to tinting it.
- fading: number
-
Scale the tint colour by the given percentage.
- scrollColor: colour
-
Use the specified colour for the scrollbar [default #B2B2B2].
- troughColor: colour
-
Use the specified colour for the scrollbar's trough area [default
#969696]. Only relevant for normal (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar.
- backgroundPixmap: file[;geom]
-
Use the specified XPM file (note the `.xpm' extension is optional) for
the background and also optionally specify its scaling with a geometry
string WxH+X+Y, in which ``W'' / ``H'' specify the
horizontal/vertical scale (percent) and ``X'' / ``Y'' locate the image
centre (percent). A scale of 0 displays the image with tiling. A scale
of 1 displays the image without any scaling. A scale of 2 to 9
specifies an integer number of images in that direction. No image will
be magnified beyond 10 times its original size. The maximum permitted
scale is 1000. [default 0x0+50+50]
- menu: file[;tag]
-
Read in the specified menu file (note the `.menu' extension is
optional) and also optionally specify a starting tag to find. See the
reference documentation for details on the syntax for the menuBar.
- path: path
-
Specify the colon-delimited search path for finding files (XPM and
menus), in addition to the paths specified by the RXVTPATH and
PATH environment variables.
- font: fontname
-
Select the fonts to be used. This is a comma seperated list of font
names that are used in turn when trying to display Unicode characters.
The first font defines the cell size for characters; other fonts might
be smaller, but not larger. A reasonable default font list is always
appended to it. option -fn.
- realBold: boolean
-
True: Enable ``real bold'' support. When this option is on, bold text
will be displayed using the first available bold font in the font list.
Bold fonts should thus be specified in the font list after their
corresponding regular fonts. If no bold font can be found, a regular
font will be used. option -rb. False: Display bold text in a
regular font, using the color specified with colorBD; option +rb.
- selectstyle: mode
-
Set mouse selection style to old which is 2.20, oldword which is
xterm style with 2.20 old word selection, or anything else which gives
xterm style selection.
- scrollstyle: mode
-
Set scrollbar style to rxvt, plain, next or xterm. plain is
the author's favourite..
- title: string
-
Set window title string, the default title is the command-line
specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application
name; option -title.
- iconName: string
-
Set the name used to label the window's icon or displayed in an icon
manager window, it also sets the window's title unless it is explicitly
set; option -n.
- mapAlert: boolean
-
True: de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character. False: no
de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character [default].
- visualBell: boolean
-
True: use visual bell on receipt of a bell character; option -vb.
False: no visual bell [default]; option +vb.
- loginShell: boolean
-
True: start as a login shell by prepending a `-' to argv[0] of
the shell; option -ls. False: start as a normal sub-shell
[default]; option +ls.
- utmpInhibit: boolean
-
True: inhibit writing record into the system log file utmp;
option -ut. False: write record into the system log file utmp
[default]; option +ut.
- print-pipe: string
-
Specify a command pipe for vt100 printer [default lpr(1)]. Use
Print to initiate a screen dump to the printer and Ctrl-Print or
Shift-Print to include the scrollback as well.
- scrollBar: boolean
-
True: enable the scrollbar [default]; option -sb. False:
disable the scrollbar; option +sb.
- scrollBar_right: boolean
-
True: place the scrollbar on the right of the window; option -sr.
False: place the scrollbar on the left of the window; option +sr.
- scrollBar_floating: boolean
-
True: display an rxvt scrollbar without a trough; option -st.
False: display an rxvt scrollbar with a trough; option +st.
- scrollBar_align: mode
-
Align the top, bottom or centre [default] of the scrollbar
thumb with the pointer on middle button press/drag.
- scrollTtyOutput: boolean
-
True: scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option -si.
False: do not scroll to bottom when tty receives output; option
+si.
- scrollWithBuffer: boolean
-
True: scroll with scrollback buffer when tty recieves new lines (and
scrollTtyOutput is False); option +sw. False: do not scroll
with scrollback buffer when tty recieves new lines; option -sw.
- scrollTtyKeypress: boolean
-
True: scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed. Special keys
are those which are intercepted by rxvt-unicode for special handling and
are not passed onto the shell; option -sk. False: do not scroll to
bottom when a non-special key is pressed; option +sk.
- smallfont_key: keysym
-
If enabled, use @@HOTKEY@@-keysym to toggle to a smaller font
[default @@HOTKEY@@-@@SMALLFONT@@]
- bigfont_key: keysym
-
If enabled, use @@HOTKEY@@-keysym to toggle to a bigger font
[default @@HOTKEY@@-@@BIGFONT@@]
- saveLines: number
-
Save number lines in the scrollback buffer [default 64]. This
resource is limited on most machines to 65535; option -sl.
- internalBorder: number
-
Internal border of number pixels. This resource is limited to 100;
option -b.
- externalBorder: number
-
External border of number pixels. This resource is limited to 100;
option -w, -bw, -borderwidth.
- borderLess: boolean
-
Set MWM hints to request a borderless window, i.e. if honoured by the
WM, the rxvt-unicode window will not have window decorations; option -bl.
- termName: termname
-
Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM environment
variable; option -tn.
- linespace: number
-
Specifies number of lines (pixel height) to insert between each row of
the display [default 0]; option -lsp.
- meta8: boolean
-
True: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress to set the 8th bit. False:
handle Meta (Alt) + keypress as an escape prefix [default].
- mouseWheelScrollPage: boolean
-
True: the mouse wheel scrolls a page full. False: the mouse wheel
scrolls five lines [default].
- cursorBlink: boolean
-
True: blink the cursor. False: do not blink the cursor [default];
option -bc.
- pointerBlank: boolean
-
True: blank the pointer when a key is pressed or after a set number
of seconds of inactivity. False: the pointer is always visible
[default].
- pointerColor: colour
-
Mouse pointer foreground colour.
- pointerColor2: colour
-
Mouse pointer background colour.
- pointerBlankDelay: number
-
Specifies number of seconds before blanking the pointer [default 2].
- backspacekey: string
-
The string to send when the backspace key is pressed. If set to DEC
or unset it will send Delete (code 127) or, if shifted, Backspace
(code 8) - which can be reversed with the appropriate DEC private mode
escape sequence.
- deletekey: string
-
The string to send when the delete key (not the keypad delete key) is
pressed. If unset it will send the sequence traditionally associated
with the Execute key.
- cutchars: string
-
The characters used as delimiters for double-click word selection. The
built-in default:
-
BACKSLASH ```'&()*,;<=?@[]{|} >>
- preeditType: style
-
OverTheSpot, OffTheSpot, Root; option -pt.
- inputMethod: name
-
name of inputMethod to use; option -im.
- imLocale: name
-
The locale to use for opening the IM. You can use an LC_CTYPE of e.g.
de_DE.UTF-8 for normal text processing but ja_JP.EUC-JP for the input
extension to be able to input japanese characters while staying in
another locale. option -imlocale.
- insecure
-
Enables ``insecure'' mode. Rxvt-unicode offers some escape sequences that
echo arbitrary strings like the icon name or the locale. This could be
abused if somebody gets 8-bit-clean access to your display, wether
throuh a mail client displaying mail bodies unfiltered or though
write(1). Therefore, these sequences are disabled by default. (Note
that other terminals, including xterm, have these sequences
enabled by default). You can enable them by setting this boolean
resource or specifying -insecure as an option. At the moment, this
enabled display-answer, locale, findfont, icon label and window title
requests as well as dynamic menubar dispatch.
- modifier: modifier
-
Set the key to be interpreted as the Meta key to: alt, meta,
hyper, super, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, mod5; option
-mod.
- answerbackString: string
-
Specify the reply rxvt-unicode sends to the shell when an ENQ (control-E)
character is passed through. It may contain escape values as described
in the entry on keysym following.
- secondaryScreen: bool
-
Turn on/off secondary screen (default enabled).
- secondaryScroll: bool
-
Turn on/off secondary screen scroll (default enabled). If the this
option is enabled, scrolls on the secondary screen will change the
scrollback buffer and switching to/from the secondary screen will
instead scroll the screen up.
- keysym.sym: string
-
Associate string with keysym sym (0xFF00 - 0xFFFF). It may
contain escape values (\a: bell, \b: backspace, \e, \E: escape, \n:
newline, \r: return, \t:
tab, \000: octal number) or control characters (^?: delete, ^@: null,
^A ...) and may enclosed with double quotes so that it can start or end
with whitespace. The intervening resource name keysym. cannot be
omitted. This resource is only available when compiled with
KEYSYM_RESOURCE.
Lines of text that scroll off the top of the rxvt window
(resource: saveLines) and can be scrolled back using the scrollbar
or by keystrokes. The normal rxvt scrollbar has arrows and
its behaviour is fairly intuitive. The xterm-scrollbar is without
arrows and its behaviour mimics that of xterm
Scroll down with Button1 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Next.
Scroll up with Button3 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Prior.
Continuous scroll with Button2.
To temporarily override mouse reporting, for either the scrollbar or
the normal text selection/insertion, hold either the Shift or the Meta
(Alt) key while performing the desired mouse action.
If mouse reporting mode is active, the normal scrollbar actions are
disabled -- on the assumption that we are using a fullscreen
application. Instead, pressing Button1 and Button3 sends ESC[6~
(Next) and ESC[5~ (Prior), respectively. Similarly, clicking on the
up and down arrows sends ESC[A (Up) and ESC[B (Down),
respectively.
The behaviour of text selection and insertion mechanism is similar to
xterm(1).
- Selection:
-
Left click at the beginning of the region, drag to the end of the
region and release; Right click to extend the marked region; Left
double-click to select a word; Left triple-click to select the entire
line.
- Insertion:
-
Pressing and releasing the Middle mouse button (or Shift-Insert) in
an rxvt window causes the current text selection to be
inserted as if it had been typed on the keyboard.
You can change fonts on-the-fly, which is to say cycle through the
default font and others of various sizes, by using Shift-KP_Add and
Shift-KP_Subtract. Or, alternatively (if enabled) with
@@HOTKEY@@-@@BIGFONT@@ and @@HOTKEY@@-@@SMALLFONT@@, where the
actual key can be selected using resources
smallfont_key/bigfont_key.
Partial ISO 14755-support is implemented. that means that pressing
Section 5.1: Control and Shift together enters unicode input
mode. Entering hex digits composes a Unicode character, pressing space or
releasing the modifiers commits the keycode and every other key cancels
the current input character.
Section 5.2: Pressing and immediately releasing Control and Shift together
enters keycap entry mode for the next key: pressing a function key (tab,
return etc..) will enter the unicode character corresponding to the given
key.
rxvt tries to write an entry into the utmp(5) file so
that it can be seen via the who(1) command, and can accept messages.
To allow this feature, rxvt must be installed setuid root on
some systems.
In addition to the default foreground and background colours,
rxvt can display up to 16 colours (8 ANSI colours plus
high-intensity bold/blink versions of the same). Here is a list of the
colours with their rgb.txt names.
color0 | (black) | = Black |
color1 | (red) | = Red3 |
color2 | (green) | = Green3 |
color3 | (yellow) | = Yellow3 |
color4 | (blue) | = Blue3 |
color5 | (magenta) | = Magenta3 |
color6 | (cyan) | = Cyan3 |
color7 | (white) | = AntiqueWhite |
color8 | (bright black) | = Grey25 |
color9 | (bright red) | = Red |
color10 | (bright green) | = Green |
color11 | (bright yellow) | = Yellow |
color12 | (bright blue) | = Blue |
color13 | (bright magenta) | = Magenta |
color14 | (bright cyan) | = Cyan |
color15 | (bright white) | = White |
foreground | | = Black |
background | | = White |
It is also possible to specify the colour values of foreground,
background, cursorColor, cursorColor2, colorBD, colorUL as
a number 0-15, as a convenient shorthand to reference the colour name of
color0-color15.
Note that -rv (``reverseVideo: True'') simulates reverse video by
always swapping the foreground/background colours. This is in contrast to
xterm(1) where the colours are only swapped if they have not otherwise
been specified. For example,
- rxvt -fg Black -bg White -rv
-
would yield White on Black, while on xterm(1) it would yield Black
on White.
- How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using?
-
The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). For rxvt-unicode
version 2.14 and later, the escape sequence
ESC[8n
sets the window
title to the version number.
- Why do the characters look ugly?
- How does rxvt-unicode choose fonts?
-
Most fonts do not contain the full range of Unicode, which is
fine. Chances are that the font you (or the admin/package maintainer of
your system/os) have specified does not cover all the characters you want
to display.
-
rxvt-unicode makes a best-effort try at finding a replacement
font. Often the result is fine, but sometimes the chosen font looks
bad. In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font
list, e.g.:
-
rxvt -fn basefont,font2,font3...
-
When rxvt-unicode sees a character, it will first look at the base
font. If the base font does not contain the character, it will go to the
next font, and so on.
-
The only limitation is that all the fonts must not be larger than the base
font, as the base font defines the principial cell size, which must be the
same due to the way terminals work.
- Why do some chinese characters look so different than others?
-
This is because there is a difference between script and language --
rxvt-unicode does not know which language the text that is output
is, as it only knows the unicode character codes. If rxvt-unicode
first sees a japanese character, it might choose a japanese font for
it. Subseqzuent japanese characters will take that font. Now, many chinese
characters aren't represented in japanese fonts, so when the first
non-japanese character comes up, rxvt-unicode will look for a chinese font
-- unfortunately at this point, it will still use the japanese font for
japanese characters that are also chinese.
-
The workaround is easy: just tag a chinese font at the end of your font
list (see the previous question). The key is to view the font list as
a preference list: If you expect more japanese, list a japanese font
first. If you expect more chinese, put a chinese font first.
-
In the future it might be possible to switch preferences at runtime (the
internal data structure has no problem with using different fonts for
the same character at the same time, but no interface for this has been
designed yet).
- Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works.
-
Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing
some editors prematurely may leave the mouse in mouse report mode. I've
heard that tcsh may use mouse reporting unless it otherwise specified. A
quick check is to see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are
depressed. See
rxvt(7)
- What's with this bold/blink stuff?
-
If no bold colour is set via
colorBD:
, bold will invert text using the
standard foreground colour.
-
For the standard background colour, blinking will actually make the
text blink when compiled with --enable-blinking
. with standard
colours. Without --enable-blinking
, the blink attribute will be
ignored.
-
On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity
foreground/background colors.
-
color0-7 are the low-intensity colors.
-
color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colors.
- I don't like the screen colors. How do I change them?
-
You can change the screen colors at run-time using ~/.Xdefaults
resources (or as long-options).
-
Here are values that are supposed to resemble a VGA screen,
including the murky brown that passes for low-intensity yellow:
-
Rxvt*color0: #000000
Rxvt*color1: #A80000
Rxvt*color2: #00A800
Rxvt*color3: #A8A800
Rxvt*color4: #0000A8
Rxvt*color5: #A800A8
Rxvt*color6: #00A8A8
Rxvt*color7: #A8A8A8
Rxvt*color8: #000054
Rxvt*color9: #FF0054
Rxvt*color10: #00FF54
Rxvt*color11: #FFFF54
Rxvt*color12: #0000FF
Rxvt*color13: #FF00FF
Rxvt*color14: #00FFFF
Rxvt*color15: #FFFFFF
- What's with the strange Backspace/Delete key behaviour?
-
Assuming that the physical Backspace key corresponds to the
BackSpace keysym (not likely for Linux ... see the following
question) there are two standard values that can be used for
Backspace:
^H
and ^?
.
-
Historically, either value is correct, but rxvt-unicode adopts the debian
policy of using ^?
when unsure, because it's the one only only correct
choice :).
-
Rxvt-unicode tries to inherit the current stty settings and uses the value
of `erase' to guess the value for backspace. If rxvt-unicode wasn't
started from a terminal (say, from a menu or by remote shell), then the
system value of `erase', which corresponds to CERASE in <termios.h>, will
be used (which may not be the same as your stty setting).
-
For starting a new rxvt-unicode:
-
# use Backspace = ^H
$ stty erase ^H
$ rxvt
-
# use Backspace = ^?
$ stty erase ^?
$ rxvt
-
Toggle with ``ESC[36h'' / ``ESC[36l'' as documented in rxvt(7).
-
For an existing rxvt-unicode:
-
# use Backspace = ^H
$ stty erase ^H
$ echo -n "^[[36h"
-
# use Backspace = ^?
$ stty erase ^?
$ echo -n "^[[36l"
-
This helps satisfy some of the Backspace discrepancies that occur, but
if you use Backspace = ^H
, make sure that the termcap/terminfo value
properly reflects that.
-
The Delete key is a another casualty of the ill-defined Backspace problem.
To avoid confusion between the Backspace and Delete keys, the Delete
key has been assigned an escape sequence to match the vt100 for Execute
(ESC[3~) and is in the supplied termcap/terminfo.
-
Some other Backspace problems:
-
some editors use termcap/terminfo,
some editors (vim I'm told) expect Backspace = ^H,
GNU Emacs (and Emacs-like editors) use ^H for help.
-
Perhaps someday this will all be resolved in a consistent manner.
- I don't like the key-bindings. How do I change them?
-
There are some compile-time selections available via configure. Unless
you have run ``configure'' with the
--disable-resources
option you can
use the `keysym' resource to alter the keystrings associated with keysym
0xFF00 - 0xFFFF (function, cursor keys, etc).
-
Here's an example for a tn3270 session started using `rxvt -name tn3270'
-
!# ----- special uses ------:
! tn3270 login, remap function and arrow keys.
tn3270*font: *clean-bold-*-*--15-*
-
! keysym - used by rxvt only
! Delete - ^D
tn3270*keysym.0xFFFF: \004
-
! Home - ^A
tn3270*keysym.0xFF50: \001
! Left - ^B
tn3270*keysym.0xFF51: \002
! Up - ^P
tn3270*keysym.0xFF52: \020
! Right - ^F
tn3270*keysym.0xFF53: \006
! Down - ^N
tn3270*keysym.0xFF54: \016
! End - ^E
tn3270*keysym.0xFF57: \005
-
! F1 - F12
tn3270*keysym.0xFFBE: \e1
tn3270*keysym.0xFFBF: \e2
tn3270*keysym.0xFFC0: \e3
tn3270*keysym.0xFFC1: \e4
tn3270*keysym.0xFFC2: \e5
tn3270*keysym.0xFFC3: \e6
tn3270*keysym.0xFFC4: \e7
tn3270*keysym.0xFFC5: \e8
tn3270*keysym.0xFFC6: \e9
tn3270*keysym.0xFFC7: \e0
tn3270*keysym.0xFFC8: \e-
tn3270*keysym.0xFFC9: \e=
-
! map Prior/Next to F7/F8
tn3270*keysym.0xFF55: \e7
tn3270*keysym.0xFF56: \e8
- 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 mappings that rxvt-unicode doesn't recognize.
-
KP_Insert == Insert
F22 == Print
F27 == Home
F29 == Prior
F33 == End
F35 == Next
-
Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accomodate all the various possible keyboard
mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the keys as required for
your particular machine.
- How do I distinguish if I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular xterm?
I need this to decide about setting colors etc.
-
rxvt and rxvt-unicode always export the variable ``COLORTERM'', so you can
check and see if that is set. Note that several programs, JED, slrn,
Midnight Commander automatically check this variable to decide whether or
not to use color.
- How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable?
-
If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and ahve enabled
insecure mode then it is possible to use the following shell script
snippets to correctly set the display. If your version of rxvt-unicode
wasn't also compiled with ESCZ_ANSWER (as assumed in these snippets) then
the COLORTERM variable can be used to distinguish rxvt-unicode from a
regular xterm.
-
Courtesy of Chuck Blake <cblake@BBN.COM> with the following shell script
snippets:
-
# Bourne/Korn/POSIX family of shells:
[ ${TERM:-foo} = foo ] && TERM=xterm # assume an xterm if we don't know
if [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then
stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not
echo -n '^[Z'
read term_id
stty icanon echo
if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then
echo -n '^[[7n' # query the rxvt we are in for the DISPLAY string
read DISPLAY # set it in our local shell
fi
fi
- How do I compile the manual pages for myself?
-
You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl,
one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2html. Then go to
the doc subdirectory and enter
make alldoc
.
rxvt sets the environment variables TERM, COLORTERM
and COLORFGBG. The environment variable WINDOWID is set to the X
window id number of the rxvt window and it also uses and
sets the environment variable DISPLAY to specify which display
terminal to use. rxvt uses the environment variables
RXVTPATH and PATH to find XPM files.
- /etc/utmp
-
System file for login records.
- /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt
-
Color names.
rxvt(7), xterm(1), sh(1), resize(1), X(1), pty(4), tty(4), utmp(5)
Check the BUGS file for an up-to-date list.
Cursor change support is not yet implemented.
Click-and-drag doesn't work with X11 mouse report overriding.
- Project Coordinator
-
@@RXVTMAINT@@ rxvt@schmorp.de
- Web page maintainter
-
@@RXVTWEBMAINT@@ rxvt@schmorp.de
-
http://software.schmorp.de/
- John Bovey
-
University of Kent, 1992, wrote the original Xvt.
- Rob Nation >
-
very heavily modified Xvt and came up with Rxvt
- Angelo Haritsis >
-
wrote the Greek Keyboard Input (no longer in code)
- mj olesen >
-
Wrote the menu system.
-
Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.11 to 2.21)
- Oezguer Kesim >
-
Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.21a to 2.4.5)
- Geoff Wing >
-
Rewrote screen display and text selection routines. Project Coordinator
(changes.txt 2.4.6 - rxvt-unicode)
- Marc Alexander Lehmann >
-
Forked rxvt-unicode, rewrote most of the display code and internal
character handling to store text in unicode, improve xterm
compatibility and apply numerous other bugfixes and extensions.
-
Project Coordinator (Changes 1.0 -)