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diff --git a/README.FAQ b/README.FAQ new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7be6ffc --- /dev/null +++ b/README.FAQ @@ -0,0 +1,1100 @@ +RXVT-UNICODE/URXVT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS + Meta, Features & Commandline Issues + My question isn't answered here, can I ask a human? + Before sending me mail, you could go to IRC: "irc.freenode.net", channel + "#rxvt-unicode" has some rxvt-unicode enthusiasts that might be + interested in learning about new and exciting problems (but not FAQs :). + + I use Gentoo, and I have a problem... + There are two big problems with Gentoo Linux: first, most if not all + Gentoo systems are completely broken (missing or mismatched header + files, broken compiler etc. are just the tip of the iceberg); secondly, + it should be called Gentoo GNU/Linux. + + For these reasons, it is impossible to support rxvt-unicode on Gentoo. + Problems appearing on Gentoo systems will usually simply be ignored + unless they can be reproduced on non-Gentoo systems. + + Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode? + Beginning with version 7.3, there is a perl extension that implements a + simple tabbed terminal. It is installed by default, so any of these + should give you tabs: + + urxvt -pe tabbed + + URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,tabbed + + It will also work fine with tabbing functionality of many window + managers or similar tabbing programs, and its embedding-features allow + it to be embedded into other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed + or the upcoming "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt + (murxvt) terminal as an example embedding application. + + How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? + The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape + sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. When + using the urxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the daemon. + + Rxvt-unicode uses gobs of memory, how can I reduce that? + Rxvt-unicode tries to obey the rule of not charging you for something + you don't use. One thing you should try is to configure out all settings + that you don't need, for example, Xft support is a resource hog by + design, when used. Compiling it out ensures that no Xft font will be + loaded accidentally when rxvt-unicode tries to find a font for your + characters. + + Also, many people (me included) like large windows and even larger + scrollback buffers: Without "--enable-unicode3", rxvt-unicode will use 6 + bytes per screen cell. For a 160x?? window this amounts to almost a + kilobyte per line. A scrollback buffer of 10000 lines will then (if + full) use 10 Megabytes of memory. With "--enable-unicode3" it gets + worse, as rxvt-unicode then uses 8 bytes per screen cell. + + How can I start urxvtd in a race-free way? + Try "urxvtd -f -o", which tells urxvtd to open the display, create the + listening socket and then fork. + + How can I start urxvtd automatically when I run urxvtc? + If you want to start urxvtd automatically whenever you run urxvtc and + the daemon isn't running yet, use this script: + + #!/bin/sh + urxvtc "$@" + if [ $? -eq 2 ]; then + urxvtd -q -o -f + urxvtc "$@" + fi + + This tries to create a new terminal, and if fails with exit status 2, + meaning it couldn't connect to the daemon, it will start the daemon and + re-run the command. Subsequent invocations of the script will re-use the + existing daemon. + + How do I distinguish whether I'm running rxvt-unicode or a regular +xterm? I need this to decide about setting colours etc. + The original 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 colour. + + How do I set the correct, full IP address for the DISPLAY variable? + If you've compiled rxvt-unicode with DISPLAY_IS_IP and have 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 [ ${TERM:-foo} = xterm ]; then + stty -icanon -echo min 0 time 15 # see if enhanced rxvt or not + printf "\eZ" + read term_id + stty icanon echo + if [ ""${term_id} = '^[[?1;2C' -a ${DISPLAY:-foo} = foo ]; then + printf '\e[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 on my own? + You need to have a recent version of perl installed as /usr/bin/perl, + one that comes with pod2man, pod2text and pod2xhtml (from Pod::Xhtml). + Then go to the doc subdirectory and enter "make alldoc". + + Isn't rxvt-unicode supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat? + I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause extra + bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you can see + that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables always + being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) after + startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is a bit + unfair, as many features unique to urxvt (locale, encoding conversion, + iso14755 etc.) are already in use in this mode. + + text data bss drs rss filename + 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything + 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything + + When you "--enable-everything" (which *is* unfair, as this involves xft + and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 and my + libc), the two diverge, but not unreasonably so. + + text data bss drs rss filename + 163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything + 1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything + + The very large size of the text section is explained by the east-asian + encoding tables, which, if unused, take up disk space but nothing else + and can be compiled out unless you rely on X11 core fonts that use those + encodings. The BSS size comes from the 64k emergency buffer that my c++ + compiler allocates (but of course doesn't use unless you are out of + memory). Also, using an xft font instead of a core font immediately adds + a few megabytes of RSS. Xft indeed is responsible for a lot of RSS even + when not used. + + Of course, due to every character using two or four bytes instead of + one, a large scrollback buffer will ultimately make rxvt-unicode use + more memory. + + Compared to e.g. Eterm (5112k), aterm (3132k) and xterm (4680k), this + still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like + gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or konsole + (22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after exit, plus half + a minute of startup time, including the hundreds of warnings it spits + out), it fares extremely well *g*. + + Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool? + Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: I + had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a + fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). Put + even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++. + + My personal stance on this is that C++ is less portable than C, but in + the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability limits + are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale support and + unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than C++ itself. + + Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write programs + in C that use gobs of memory, and certainly possible to write programs + in C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large libraries, but this + is not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is what rxvt links against on + my system with a minimal config: + + libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000) + libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000) + libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000) + /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000) + + And here is rxvt-unicode: + + libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000) + libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000) + libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000) + libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000) + /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000) + + No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in statically), + except maybe libX11 :) + + Rendering, Font & Look and Feel Issues + I can't get transparency working, what am I doing wrong? + First of all, transparency isn't officially supported in rxvt-unicode, + so you are mostly on your own. Do not bug the author about it (but you + may bug everybody else). Also, if you can't get it working consider it a + rite of passage: ... and you failed. + + Here are four ways to get transparency. Do read the manpage and option + descriptions for the programs mentioned and rxvt-unicode. Really, do it! + + 1. Use transparent mode: + + Esetroot wallpaper.jpg + urxvt -tr -tint red -sh 40 + + That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack transparency and tinting + support, or you are unable to read. This method requires that the + background-setting program sets the _XROOTPMAP_ID or ESETROOT_PMAP_ID + property. Compatible programs are Esetroot, hsetroot and feh. + + 2. Use a simple pixmap and emulate pseudo-transparency. This enables you + to use effects other than tinting and shading: Just shade/tint/whatever + your picture with gimp or any other tool: + + convert wallpaper.jpg -blur 20x20 -modulate 30 background.jpg + urxvt -pixmap "background.jpg;:root" + + That works. If you think it doesn't, you lack GDK-PixBuf support, or you + are unable to read. + + 3. Use an ARGB visual: + + urxvt -depth 32 -fg grey90 -bg rgba:0000/0000/4444/cccc + + This requires XFT support, and the support of your X-server. If that + doesn't work for you, blame Xorg and Keith Packard. ARGB visuals aren't + there yet, no matter what they claim. Rxvt-Unicode contains the + necessary bugfixes and workarounds for Xft and Xlib to make it work, but + that doesn't mean that your WM has the required kludges in place. + + 4. Use xcompmgr and let it do the job: + + xprop -frame -f _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 32c \ + -set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY 0xc0000000 + + Then click on a window you want to make transparent. Replace 0xc0000000 + by other values to change the degree of opacity. If it doesn't work and + your server crashes, you got to keep the pieces. + + Why does rxvt-unicode sometimes leave pixel droppings? + Most fonts were not designed for terminal use, which means that + character size varies a lot. A font that is otherwise fine for terminal + use might contain some characters that are simply too wide. Rxvt-unicode + will avoid these characters. For characters that are just "a bit" too + wide a special "careful" rendering mode is used that redraws adjacent + characters. + + All of this requires that fonts do not lie about character sizes, + however: Xft fonts often draw glyphs larger than their acclaimed + bounding box, and rxvt-unicode has no way of detecting this (the correct + way is to ask for the character bounding box, which unfortunately is + wrong in these cases). + + It's not clear (to me at least), whether this is a bug in Xft, freetype, + or the respective font. If you encounter this problem you might try + using the "-lsp" option to give the font more height. If that doesn't + work, you might be forced to use a different font. + + All of this is not a problem when using X11 core fonts, as their + bounding box data is correct. + + How can I keep rxvt-unicode from using reverse video so much? + First of all, make sure you are running with the right terminal settings + ("TERM=rxvt-unicode"), which will get rid of most of these effects. Then + make sure you have specified colours for italic and bold, as otherwise + rxvt-unicode might use reverse video to simulate the effect: + + URxvt.colorBD: white + URxvt.colorIT: green + + Some programs assume totally weird colours (red instead of blue), how can I fix that? + For some unexplainable reason, some rare programs assume a very weird + colour palette when confronted with a terminal with more than the + standard 8 colours (rxvt-unicode supports 88). The right fix is, of + course, to fix these programs not to assume non-ISO colours without very + good reasons. + + In the meantime, you can either edit your "rxvt-unicode" terminfo + definition to only claim 8 colour support or use "TERM=rxvt", which will + fix colours but keep you from using other rxvt-unicode features. + + Can I switch the fonts at runtime? + Yes, using an escape sequence. Try something like this, which has the + same effect as using the "-fn" switch, and takes effect immediately: + + printf '\33]50;%s\007' "9x15bold,xft:Kochi Gothic" + + This is useful if you e.g. work primarily with japanese (and prefer a + japanese font), but you have to switch to chinese temporarily, where + japanese fonts would only be in your way. + + You can think of this as a kind of manual ISO-2022 switching. + + Why do italic characters look as if clipped? + Many fonts have difficulties with italic characters and hinting. For + example, the otherwise very nicely hinted font "xft:Bitstream Vera Sans + Mono" completely fails in its italic face. A workaround might be to + enable freetype autohinting, i.e. like this: + + URxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true + URxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true + + Can I speed up Xft rendering somehow? + Yes, the most obvious way to speed it up is to avoid Xft entirely, as it + is simply slow. If you still want Xft fonts you might try to disable + antialiasing (by appending ":antialias=false"), which saves lots of + memory and also speeds up rendering considerably. + + Rxvt-unicode doesn't seem to anti-alias its fonts, what is wrong? + Rxvt-unicode will use whatever you specify as a font. If it needs to + fall back to its default font search list it will prefer X11 core fonts, + because they are small and fast, and then use Xft fonts. It has + antialiasing disabled for most of them, because the author thinks they + look best that way. + + If you want antialiasing, you have to specify the fonts manually. + + 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-text-blink". Without + "--enable-text-blink", the blink attribute will be ignored. + + On ANSI colours, bold/blink attributes are used to set high-intensity + foreground/background colours. + + color0-7 are the low-intensity colours. + + color8-15 are the corresponding high-intensity colours. + + I don't like the screen colours. How do I change them? + You can change the screen colours 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: + + URxvt.color0: #000000 + URxvt.color1: #A80000 + URxvt.color2: #00A800 + URxvt.color3: #A8A800 + URxvt.color4: #0000A8 + URxvt.color5: #A800A8 + URxvt.color6: #00A8A8 + URxvt.color7: #A8A8A8 + + URxvt.color8: #000054 + URxvt.color9: #FF0054 + URxvt.color10: #00FF54 + URxvt.color11: #FFFF54 + URxvt.color12: #0000FF + URxvt.color13: #FF00FF + URxvt.color14: #00FFFF + URxvt.color15: #FFFFFF + + And here is a more complete set of non-standard colours. + + URxvt.cursorColor: #dc74d1 + URxvt.pointerColor: #dc74d1 + URxvt.background: #0e0e0e + URxvt.foreground: #4ad5e1 + URxvt.color0: #000000 + URxvt.color8: #8b8f93 + URxvt.color1: #dc74d1 + URxvt.color9: #dc74d1 + URxvt.color2: #0eb8c7 + URxvt.color10: #0eb8c7 + URxvt.color3: #dfe37e + URxvt.color11: #dfe37e + URxvt.color5: #9e88f0 + URxvt.color13: #9e88f0 + URxvt.color6: #73f7ff + URxvt.color14: #73f7ff + URxvt.color7: #e1dddd + URxvt.color15: #e1dddd + + They have been described (not by me) as "pretty girly". + + Why do some characters look so much different than others? + See next entry. + + 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/ugly/wrong. Some fonts have totally strange characters that don't + resemble the correct glyph at all, and rxvt-unicode lacks the artificial + intelligence to detect that a specific glyph is wrong: it has to believe + the font that the characters it claims to contain indeed look correct. + + In that case, select a font of your taste and add it to the font list, + e.g.: + + urxvt -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. Specifying your own fonts will also speed up this + search and use less resources within rxvt-unicode and the X-server. + + The only limitation is that none of the fonts may be larger than the + base font, as the base font defines the terminal character 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/chinese character, it might choose a japanese font for display. + Subsequent japanese characters will use 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 chinese characters that are also in the japanese font. + + 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 language 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). + + Until then, you might get away with switching fonts at runtime (see "Can + I switch the fonts at runtime?" later in this document). + + How can I make mplayer display video correctly? + We are working on it, in the meantime, as a workaround, use something + like: + + urxvt -b 600 -geometry 20x1 -e sh -c 'mplayer -wid $WINDOWID file...' + + Why is the cursor now blinking in emacs/vi/...? + This is likely caused by your editor/program's use of the "cvvis" + terminfo capability. Emacs uses it by default, as well as some versions + of vi and possibly other programs. + + In emacs, you can switch that off by adding this to your ".emacs" file: + + (setq visible-cursor nil) + + For other programs, if they do not have an option, your have to remove + the "cvvis" capability from the terminfo description. + + When urxvt first added the blinking cursor option, it didn't add a + "cvvis" capability, which served no purpose before. Version 9.21 + introduced "cvvis" (and the ability to control blinking independent of + cursor shape) for compatibility with other terminals, which + traditionally use a blinking cursor for "cvvis". This also reflects the + intent of programs such as emacs, who expect "cvvis" to enable a + blinking cursor. + + Keyboard, Mouse & User Interaction + The new selection selects pieces that are too big, how can I select single words? + If you want to select e.g. alphanumeric words, you can use the following + setting: + + URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([[:word:]]+) + + If you click more than twice, the selection will be extended more and + more. + + To get a selection that is very similar to the old code, try this + pattern: + + URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ([^"&'()*,;<=>?@[\\\\]^`{|})]+) + + Please also note that the *LeftClick Shift-LeftClick* combination also + selects words like the old code. + + I don't like the new selection/popups/hotkeys/perl, how do I change/disable it? + You can disable the perl extension completely by setting the + perl-ext-common resource to the empty string, which also keeps + rxvt-unicode from initialising perl, saving memory. + + If you only want to disable specific features, you first have to + identify which perl extension is responsible. For this, read the section + PREPACKAGED EXTENSIONS in the urxvtperl(3) manpage. For example, to + disable the selection-popup and option-popup, specify this + perl-ext-common resource: + + URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-selection-popup,-option-popup + + This will keep the default extensions, but disable the two popup + extensions. Some extensions can also be configured, for example, + scrollback search mode is triggered by M-s. You can move it to any other + combination by adding a keysym resource that binds the desired + combination to the "start" action of "searchable-scrollback" and another + one that binds M-s to the "builtin:" action: + + URxvt.keysym.CM-s: searchable-scrollback:start + URxvt.keysym.M-s: builtin: + + The cursor moves when selecting text in the current input line, how do I switch this off? + See next entry. + + During rlogin/ssh/telnet/etc. sessions, clicking near the cursor outputs strange escape sequences, how do I fix this? + These are caused by the "readline" perl extension. Under normal + circumstances, it will move your cursor around when you click into the + line that contains it. It tries hard not to do this at the wrong moment, + but when running a program that doesn't parse cursor movements or in + some cases during rlogin sessions, it fails to detect this properly. + + You can permanently switch this feature off by disabling the "readline" + extension: + + URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,-readline + + My numeric keypad acts weird and generates differing output? + Some Debian GNU/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no + specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is + caused by the wrong "TERM" setting, although the details of whether and + how this can happen are unknown, as "TERM=rxvt" should offer a + compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please + report if that helped. + + My Compose (Multi_key) key is no longer working. + The most common causes for this are that either your locale is not set + correctly, or you specified a preeditType that is not supported by your + input method. For example, if you specified OverTheSpot and your input + method (e.g. the default input method handling Compose keys) does not + support this (for instance because it is not visual), then rxvt-unicode + will continue without an input method. + + In this case either do not specify a preeditType or specify more than + one pre-edit style, such as OverTheSpot,Root,None. + + If it still doesn't work, then maybe your input method doesn't support + compose sequences - to fall back to the built-in one, make sure you + don't specify an input method via "-im" or "XMODIFIERS". + + I cannot type "Ctrl-Shift-2" to get an ASCII NUL character due to ISO 14755 + Either try "Ctrl-2" alone (it often is mapped to ASCII NUL even on + international keyboards) or simply use ISO 14755 support to your + advantage, typing <Ctrl-Shift-0> to get a ASCII NUL. This works for + other codes, too, such as "Ctrl-Shift-1-d" to type the default telnet + escape character and so on. + + Mouse cut/paste suddenly no longer works. + Make sure that mouse reporting is actually turned off since killing some + editors prematurely may leave it active. I've heard that tcsh may use + mouse reporting unless it is otherwise specified. A quick check is to + see if cut/paste works when the Alt or Shift keys are pressed. + + 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 and only + correct choice :). + + It is possible to toggle between "^H" and "^?" with the DECBKM private + mode: + + # use Backspace = ^H + $ stty erase ^H + $ printf "\e[?67h" + + # use Backspace = ^? + $ stty erase ^? + $ printf "\e[?67l" + + 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 + keysyms. + + Here's an example for a URxvt session started using "urxvt -name URxvt" + + URxvt.keysym.Prior: \033[5~ + URxvt.keysym.Next: \033[6~ + URxvt.keysym.Home: \033[7~ + URxvt.keysym.End: \033[8~ + URxvt.keysym.Up: \033[A + URxvt.keysym.Down: \033[B + URxvt.keysym.Right: \033[C + URxvt.keysym.Left: \033[D + + See some more examples in the documentation for the keysym resource. + + 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 map + KP_Insert == Insert + F22 == Print + F27 == Home + F29 == Prior + F33 == End + F35 == Next + + Rather than have rxvt-unicode try to accommodate all the various + possible keyboard mappings, it is better to use `xmodmap' to remap the + keys as required for your particular machine. + + Terminal Configuration + Can I see a typical configuration? + The default configuration tries to be xterm-like, which I don't like + that much, but it's least surprise to regular users. + + As a rxvt or rxvt-unicode user, you are practically supposed to invest + time into customising your terminal. To get you started, here is the + author's .Xdefaults entries, with comments on what they do. It's + certainly not *typical*, but what's typical... + + URxvt.cutchars: "()*,<>[]{}|' + URxvt.print-pipe: cat >/tmp/xxx + + These are just for testing stuff. + + URxvt.imLocale: ja_JP.UTF-8 + URxvt.preeditType: OnTheSpot,None + + This tells rxvt-unicode to use a special locale when communicating with + the X Input Method, and also tells it to only use the OnTheSpot pre-edit + type, which requires the "xim-onthespot" perl extension but rewards me + with correct-looking fonts. + + URxvt.perl-lib: /root/lib/urxvt + URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,selection-autotransform,selection-pastebin,xim-onthespot,remote-clipboard + URxvt.selection.pattern-0: ( at .*? line \\d+) + URxvt.selection.pattern-1: ^(/[^:]+):\ + URxvt.selection-autotransform.0: s/^([^:[:space:]]+):(\\d+):?$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/ + URxvt.selection-autotransform.1: s/^ at (.*?) line (\\d+)$/:e \\Q$1\\E\\x0d:$2\\x0d/ + + This is my perl configuration. The first two set the perl library + directory and also tells urxvt to use a large number of extensions. I + develop for myself mostly, so I actually use most of the extensions I + write. + + The selection stuff mainly makes the selection perl-error-message aware + and tells it to convert perl error messages into vi-commands to load the + relevant file and go to the error line number. + + URxvt.scrollstyle: plain + URxvt.secondaryScroll: true + + As the documentation says: plain is the preferred scrollbar for the + author. The "secondaryScroll" configures urxvt to scroll in full-screen + apps, like screen, so lines scrolled out of screen end up in urxvt's + scrollback buffer. + + URxvt.background: #000000 + URxvt.foreground: gray90 + URxvt.color7: gray90 + URxvt.colorBD: #ffffff + URxvt.cursorColor: #e0e080 + URxvt.throughColor: #8080f0 + URxvt.highlightColor: #f0f0f0 + + Some colours. Not sure which ones are being used or even non-defaults, + but these are in my .Xdefaults. Most notably, they set + foreground/background to light gray/black, and also make sure that the + colour 7 matches the default foreground colour. + + URxvt.underlineColor: yellow + + Another colour, makes underline lines look different. Sometimes hurts, + but is mostly a nice effect. + + URxvt.geometry: 154x36 + URxvt.loginShell: false + URxvt.meta: ignore + URxvt.utmpInhibit: true + + Uh, well, should be mostly self-explanatory. By specifying some defaults + manually, I can quickly switch them for testing. + + URxvt.saveLines: 8192 + + A large scrollback buffer is essential. Really. + + URxvt.mapAlert: true + + The only case I use it is for my IRC window, which I like to keep + iconified till people msg me (which beeps). + + URxvt.visualBell: true + + The audible bell is often annoying, especially when in a crowd. + + URxvt.insecure: true + + Please don't hack my mutt! Ooops... + + URxvt.pastableTabs: false + + I once thought this is a great idea. + + urxvt.font: 9x15bold,\ + -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1,\ + -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1, \ + [codeset=JISX0208]xft:Kochi Gothic, \ + xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:autohint=true, \ + xft:Code2000:antialias=false + urxvt.boldFont: -xos4-terminus-bold-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-15 + urxvt.italicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:italic:autohint=true + urxvt.boldItalicFont: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:italic:autohint=true + + I wrote rxvt-unicode to be able to specify fonts exactly. So don't be + overwhelmed. A special note: the "9x15bold" mentioned above is actually + the version from XFree-3.3, as XFree-4 replaced it by a totally + different font (different glyphs for ";" and many other harmless + characters), while the second font is actually the "9x15bold" from + XFree4/XOrg. The bold version has less chars than the medium version, so + I use it for rare characters, too. When editing sources with vim, I use + italic for comments and other stuff, which looks quite good with + Bitstream Vera anti-aliased. + + Terminus is a quite bad font (many very wrong glyphs), but for most of + my purposes, it works, and gives a different look, as my normal + (Non-bold) font is already bold, and I want to see a difference between + bold and normal fonts. + + Please note that I used the "urxvt" instance name and not the "URxvt" + class name. That is because I use different configs for different + purposes, for example, my IRC window is started with "-name IRC", and + uses these defaults: + + IRC*title: IRC + IRC*geometry: 87x12+535+542 + IRC*saveLines: 0 + IRC*mapAlert: true + IRC*font: suxuseuro + IRC*boldFont: suxuseuro + IRC*colorBD: white + IRC*keysym.M-C-1: command:\033]710;suxuseuro\007\033]711;suxuseuro\007 + IRC*keysym.M-C-2: command:\033]710;9x15bold\007\033]711;9x15bold\007 + + "Alt-Ctrl-1" and "Alt-Ctrl-2" switch between two different font sizes. + "suxuseuro" allows me to keep an eye (and actually read) stuff while + keeping a very small window. If somebody pastes something complicated + (e.g. japanese), I temporarily switch to a larger font. + + The above is all in my ".Xdefaults" (I don't use ".Xresources" nor + "xrdb"). I also have some resources in a separate ".Xdefaults-hostname" + file for different hosts, for example, on my main desktop, I use: + + URxvt.keysym.C-M-q: command:\033[3;5;5t + URxvt.keysym.C-M-y: command:\033[3;5;606t + URxvt.keysym.C-M-e: command:\033[3;1605;5t + URxvt.keysym.C-M-c: command:\033[3;1605;606t + URxvt.keysym.C-M-p: perl:test + + The first for keysym definitions allow me to quickly bring some windows + in the layout I like most. Ion users might start laughing but will stop + immediately when I tell them that I use my own Fvwm2 module for much the + same effect as Ion provides, and I only very rarely use the above key + combinations :-> + + Why doesn't rxvt-unicode read my resources? + Well, why, indeed? It does, in a way very similar to other X + applications. Most importantly, this means that if you or your OS loads + resources into the X display (the right way to do it), rxvt-unicode will + ignore any resource files in your home directory. It will only read + $HOME/.Xdefaults when no resources are attached to the display. + + If you have or use an $HOME/.Xresources file, chances are that resources + are loaded into your X-server. In this case, you have to re-login after + every change (or run xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources). + + Also consider the form resources have to use: + + URxvt.resource: value + + If you want to use another form (there are lots of different ways of + specifying resources), make sure you understand whether and why it + works. If unsure, use the form above. + + When I log-in to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? + The terminal description used by rxvt-unicode is not as widely available + as that for xterm, or even rxvt (for which the same problem often + arises). + + The correct solution for this problem is to install the terminfo, this + can be done by simply installing rxvt-unicode on the remote system as + well (in case you have a nice package manager ready), or you can install + the terminfo database manually like this (with ncurses infocmp. works as + user and root): + + REMOTE=remotesystem.domain + infocmp rxvt-unicode | ssh $REMOTE "mkdir -p .terminfo && cat >/tmp/ti && tic /tmp/ti" + + One some systems you might need to set $TERMINFO to the full path of + $HOME/.terminfo for this to work. + + If you cannot or do not want to do this, then you can simply set + "TERM=rxvt" or even "TERM=xterm", and live with the small number of + problems arising, which includes wrong keymapping, less and different + colours and some refresh errors in fullscreen applications. It's a nice + quick-and-dirty workaround for rare cases, though. + + If you always want to do this (and are fine with the consequences) you + can either recompile rxvt-unicode with the desired TERM value or use a + resource to set it: + + URxvt.termName: rxvt + + If you don't plan to use rxvt (quite common...) you could also replace + the rxvt terminfo file with the rxvt-unicode one and use "TERM=rxvt". + + nano fails with "Error opening terminal: rxvt-unicode" + This exceptionally confusing and useless error message is printed by + nano when it can't find the terminfo database. Nothing is wrong with + your terminal, read the previous answer for a solution. + + "tic" outputs some error when compiling the terminfo entry. + Most likely it's the empty definition for "enacs=". Just replace it by + "enacs=\E[0@" and try again. + + "bash"'s readline does not work correctly under urxvt. + See next entry. + + I need a termcap file entry. + One reason you might want this is that some distributions or operating + systems still compile some programs using the long-obsoleted termcap + library (Fedora's bash is one example) and rely on a termcap entry for + "rxvt-unicode". + + You could use rxvt's termcap entry with reasonable results in many + cases. You can also create a termcap entry by using terminfo's infocmp + program like this: + + infocmp -C rxvt-unicode + + Or you could use the termcap entry in doc/etc/rxvt-unicode.termcap, + generated by the command above. + + Why does "ls" no longer have coloured output? + The "ls" in the GNU coreutils unfortunately doesn't use terminfo to + decide whether a terminal has colour, but uses its own configuration + file. Needless to say, "rxvt-unicode" is not in its default file (among + with most other terminals supporting colour). Either add: + + TERM rxvt-unicode + + to "/etc/DIR_COLORS" or simply add: + + alias ls='ls --color=auto' + + to your ".profile" or ".bashrc". + + Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. use the 88 colour mode? + See next entry. + + Why doesn't vim/emacs etc. make use of italic? + See next entry. + + Why are the secondary screen-related options not working properly? + Make sure you are using "TERM=rxvt-unicode". Some pre-packaged + distributions break rxvt-unicode by setting "TERM" to "rxvt", which + doesn't have these extra features. Unfortunately, some of these + furthermore fail to even install the "rxvt-unicode" terminfo file, so + you will need to install it on your own (See the question When I log-in + to another system it tells me about missing terminfo data? on how to do + this). + |