NAME¶
rxvt-xterm, rxvt-xpm - a VT102 emulator for the X window system
SYNOPSIS¶
rxvt [options] [-e command [ args ]]
DESCRIPTION¶
rxvt, version
2.6.4, 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 uses much less swap space -- a significant advantage on a machine
serving many X sessions.
OPTIONS¶
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 usage line. Option
descriptions may be prefixed with which compile option each is dependent upon.
e.g. `Compile
XIM:´ requires
XIM on the usage line. Note:
`rxvt -help´ gives a list of all 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´.
- -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.
- -ip|+ip
- Turn on/off inheriting parent window´s pixmap.
Alternative form is -tr; resource inheritPixmap.
- -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 colour; resource
pointerColor.
- -bd colour
- The colour of the border between the xterm scrollbar and
the text; resource borderColor.
- -fn fontname
- Main normal text font; resource font.
- -fb fontname
- Main bold text font; resource boldFont.
- -fm fontname
- Main multicharacter font; resource mfont.
- -km mode
- Multiple-character font-set encoding mode; eucj: EUC
Japanese encoding. sjis: Shift JIS encoding; resource
multichar_encoding.
- -grk mode
- Greek keyboard translation; iso: ISO-8859 mapping.
ibm: IBM-437 mapping; resource greek_keyboard.
- -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.
- -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.
- -iconic
- Start iconified, if the window manager supports that
option. Alternative form is -ic.
- -sl number
- Save number lines in the scrollback buffer; resource
saveLines.
- -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.
- -mod modifier
- Override detection of Meta modifier with specified key:
alt, meta, hyper, super, mod1,
mod2, mod3, mod4, mod5; resource
modifier.
- -xrm resourcestring
- No effect on rxvt. Simply passes through an argument to be
made available in the instance´s argument list. Appears in
WM_COMMAND in some window managers.
RESOURCES (available also as long-options)¶
Note: `rxvt --help´ gives a list of all resources (long options) compiled
into your version. If compiled with internal Xresources support (i.e.
rxvt
-h lists
.Xdefaults) then
rxvt accepts application defaults
set in XAPPLOADDIR/Rxvt (compile-time defined: usually
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt) 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
Rxvt. The class name
XTerm allows
resources common to both
rxvt and
xterm to be easily configured,
while the class name
Rxvt 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.
- colorUL: colour
- Use the specified colour to display underlined characters
when the foreground colour is the default.
- 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.
- inheritPixmap: boolean
- True: make the background inherit the parent
windows´ pixmap, giving artificial transparency. False: do not
inherit the parent windows´ pixmap.
- 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 main text font used [default 7x14]; option
-fn.
- fontn: fontname
- Specify the alternative font n. The default font
values:
-
| font: |
7x14 |
| font1: |
6x10 |
| font2: |
6x13 |
| font3: |
8x13 |
| font4: |
9x15 |
- boldFont: fontname
- Specify the name of the bold font to use if colorBD
has not been specified and it is not possible to map the default
foreground colour to colour 8-15 [default NONE]. This font must be the
same height and width as the normal font; option -fb.
- mfont: fontname
- Select the main multiple-character text font used [default
k14]; option -fk.
- mfontn: fontname
- Specify the alternative multiple-character font n.
If compiled for multiple-character fonts, the Roman and multiple-character
font sizes should match.
- multichar_encoding: mode
- Set the encoding mode to be used when multicharacter
encoding is received; eucj: EUC Japanese encoding [default for
Kanji]. sjis: Shift JIS encoding. big5: BIG5 encoding.
gb: GB encoding; option -km.
- greek_keyboard: mode
- Set the Greek keyboard translation mode to be used;
iso: ISO-8859 mapping (elot-928) [default]. ibm: IBM-437
mapping (DOS codepage 737); option -grk. Use Mode_switch to
toggle keyboard input. For more details, see the distributed file
README.greek.
- selectstyle: text
- 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.
- title: text
- 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: text
- 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.
- scrollTtyOutput: boolean
- True: scroll to bottom when tty receives output;
option(+si). False: do not scroll to bottom when tty receives
output; option(-si).
- scrollTtyKeypress: boolean
- True: scroll to bottom when a non-special key is
pressed. Special keys are those which are intercepted by rxvt 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 Alt-keysym to toggle to a
smaller font [default Alt-<]
- bigfont_key: keysym
- If enabled, use Alt-keysym to toggle to a
bigger font [default Alt->]
- saveLines: number
- Save number lines in the scrollback buffer [default
64]; option -sl.
- termName: termname
- Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the
TERM environment variable; option -tn.
- meta8: boolean
- True: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress to set the 8th
bit. False: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress as an escape prefix
[default].
- 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.
- modifier: modifier
- Set the key to be interpreted as the Meta key to:
alt, meta, hyper, super, mod1,
mod2, mod3, mod4, mod5; option
-mod.
- 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.
MOUSE REPORTING¶
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.
TEXT SELECTION AND INSERTION¶
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.
CHANGING FONTS¶
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
Alt->
and
Alt-<, where the actual key can be selected using resources
smallfont_key/
bigfont_key.
LOGIN STAMP¶
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.
COLORS AND GRAPHICS¶
If graphics support was enabled at compile-time,
rxvt can be queried with
ANSI escape sequences and can address individual pixels instead of text
characters. Note the graphics support is still considered beta code.
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.
ENVIRONMENT¶
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.
FILES¶
- /etc/utmp
- System file for login records.
- /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt
- Color names.
SEE ALSO¶
xterm(1),
sh(1),
resize(1),
X(1),
pty(4),
tty(4),
utmp(5)
See rxvtRef.html rxvtRef.txt for detailed information on recognized escape
sequences and menuBar syntax, etc.
BUGS¶
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.
Graphics support is fairly crude.
FTP LOCATION¶
rxvt-2.6.4.tar.gz can be found at the following ftp sites
ftp://ftp.rxvt.org/pub/rxvt
CURRENT PROJECT COORDINATOR¶
- Project Coordinator
- Geoff Wing <gcw@rxvt.org>
- Web page maintainter
- Oezguer Kesim <oec@rxvt.org>
<http://www.rxvt.org/>
- Mailing list
- The Rxvt Workers <rxvt-workers@rxvt.org> mailing list
has also been established for rxvt development, to subscribe, email to
<rxvt-workers-subscribe@rxvt.org>. There is also a mailing list for
announcements of new releases of rxvt. To subscribe, email to
<rxvt-announce-subscribe@rxvt.org>.
AUTHORS¶
- John Bovey
- University of Kent, 1992, wrote the original Xvt.
- Rob Nation <nation@rocket.sanders.lockheed.com>
- very heavily modified Xvt and came up with Rxvt
- Angelo Haritsis <ah@doc.ic.ac.uk>
- wrote the Greek Keyboard Input
- mj olesen <olesen@me.QueensU.CA>
- Wrote the menu system.
Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.11 to 2.21)
- Oezguer Kesim <kesim@math.fu-berlin.de>
- Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.21a to 2.4.5)
- Geoff Wing <gcw@pobox.com>
- Rewrote screen display and text selection routines.
Project Coordinator (changes.txt 2.4.6 - )
