RXVT(1) X Tools RXVT(1)NAMErxvt (ouR XVT) - a VT102 emulator for the X window system
SYNOPSISrxvt [options] [-e command [ args ]]
DESCRIPTION
rxvt, version 2.7.8, is a colour vt102 terminal emulator intended as an
xterm(1) replacement for users who do not require features such as Tek‐
tronix 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 elimi‐
nated 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´.
Also note that if you do not explictly specify a font (-fn and -fm) or
a multichar encoding method (-km), rxvt will select a font for the
preferable encoding according to your locale. Supported encodings are:
ISO-8859-n (n=1...15), KOI8-R, KOI8-U, EUC-JP, Shift_JIS, EUC-KR, EUC-
CN (aka GB), and Big5.
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 speci‐
fied 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.
-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
Compile multichar_languages: Multiple-character font-set encod‐
ing mode; eucj: EUC Japanese encoding. sjis: Shift JIS encod‐
ing. big5: BIG5 encoding. gb: GB encoding. kr: EUC Korean
encoding. noenc: no encoding; resource multichar_encoding.
-grk mode
Compile Greek: Greek keyboard translation; iso: ISO-8859 map‐
ping. 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 scrollTtyKey‐
press.
-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.
-mcc|+mcc
Compile multichar_languages: treat multibyte glyphs as single
character for backspace, delete and cursor movement keys;
resource multibyte_cursor.
-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 external‐
Border.
-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 win‐
dow; 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 spec‐
ified 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, OffTheS‐
pot, 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 modi‐
fier.
-xrm resourcestring
No effect on rxvt. Simply passes through an argument to be made
available in the instance´s argument list. Appears in WM_COM‐
MAND in some window managers.
RESOURCES (available also as long-options)
Note: `rxvt --help´ gives a list of all resources (long options) com‐
piled 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 set‐
tings. 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 cor‐
responds 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 COL‐
ORS 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.
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 par‐
ent 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" spec‐
ify 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 scal‐
ing. 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:
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 encod‐
ing. kr: EUC Korean encoding. noenc: no 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.
greektoggle_key: keysym
Set the key to toggle keyboard input between no translation and
Greek translation [default Mode_switch]. For more details, see
the distributed file README.greek.
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, next or xterm
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: dis‐
able 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. Spe‐
cial 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]. 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.
termName: termname
Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM environ‐
ment 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].
multibyte_cursor: boolean
True: consider multibyte glyphs as single character for
backspace, delete and cursor movement keys; option -mcc. False:
move through all components of all glyphs; option +mcc.
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 tradition‐
ally associated with the Execute key.
cutchars: string
The characters used as delimiters for double-click word selec‐
tion. 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.
answerbackString: string
Specify the reply rxvt 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.
keysym.sym: string
Associate string with keysym sym (0xFF00 - 0xFFFF). It may con‐
tain 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.
THE SCROLLBAR
Lines of text that scroll off the top of the rxvt window (resource:
saveLines) and can be scrolled back using the scrollbar or by key‐
strokes. The normal rxvt scrollbar has arrows and its behaviour is
fairly intuitive. The xterm-scrollbar is without arrows and its behav‐
iour 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 applica‐
tion. 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 small‐
font_key/bigfont_key.
LOGIN STAMPrxvt 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.
It is also possible to specify the colour values of foreground, back‐
ground, 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.
ENVIRONMENTrxvt 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 ALSOxterm(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-2.7.8.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 - )
X Version 11 29 NOVEMBER 2001 RXVT(1)
