1XTERM(1) X Window System XTERM(1)
2
6 xterm - terminal emulator for X
7
9 xterm [-toolkitoption ...] [-option ...] [shell]
10
12 The xterm program is a terminal emulator for the X Window System. It
13 provides DEC VT102/VT220 and selected features from higher-level termi‐
14 nals such as VT320/VT420/VT520 (VTxxx). It also provides Tektronix
15 4014 emulation for programs that cannot use the window system directly.
16 If the underlying operating system supports terminal resizing capabili‐
17 ties (for example, the SIGWINCH signal in systems derived from 4.3bsd),
18 xterm will use the facilities to notify programs running in the window
19 whenever it is resized.
20 The VTxxx and Tektronix 4014 terminals each have their own window so
22 that you can edit text in one and look at graphics in the other at the
23 same time. To maintain the correct aspect ratio (height/width), Tek‐
24 tronix graphics will be restricted to the largest box with a 4014's
25 aspect ratio that will fit in the window. This box is located in the
26 upper left area of the window.
27 Although both windows may be displayed at the same time, one of them is
29 considered the “active” window for receiving keyboard input and termi‐
30 nal output. This is the window that contains the text cursor. The
31 active window can be chosen through escape sequences, the “VT Options”
32 menu in the VTxxx window, and the “Tek Options” menu in the 4014 win‐
33 dow.
34
36 The VT102 emulation is fairly complete, but does not support autore‐
37 peat. Double-size characters are displayed properly if your font
38 server supports scalable fonts. The VT220 emulation does not support
39 soft fonts, it is otherwise complete. Termcap(5) entries that work
40 with xterm include an optional platform-specific entry (“xterm”),
41 “xterm”, “vt102”, “vt100”, “ansi” and “dumb”. xterm automatically
42 searches the termcap file in this order for these entries and then sets
43 the “TERM” and the “TERMCAP” environment variables. You may also use
44 “vt220”, but must set the terminal emulation level with the decTermi‐
45 nalID resource. (The “TERMCAP” environment variable is not set if
46 xterm is linked against a terminfo library, since the requisite infor‐
47 mation is not provided by the termcap emulation of terminfo libraries).
48 Many of the special xterm features may be modified under program con‐
50 trol through a set of escape sequences different from the standard
51 VT102 escape sequences. (See the Xterm Control Sequences document.)
52 The Tektronix 4014 emulation is also fairly good. It supports 12-bit
54 graphics addressing, scaled to the window size. Four different font
55 sizes and five different lines types are supported. There is no write-
56 through or defocused mode support. The Tektronix text and graphics
57 commands are recorded internally by xterm and may be written to a file
58 by sending the COPY escape sequence (or through the Tektronix menu; see
59 below). The name of the file will be “COPYyyyy-MM-dd.hh:mm:ss”, where
60 yyyy, MM, dd, hh, mm and ss are the year, month, day, hour, minute and
61 second when the COPY was performed (the file is created in the direc‐
62 tory xterm is started in, or the home directory for a login xterm).
63 Not all of the features described in this manual are necessarily avail‐
65 able in this version of xterm. Some (e.g., the non-VT220 extensions)
66 are available only if they were compiled in, though the most commonly-
67 used are in the default configuration.
68
70 Xterm automatically highlights the text cursor when the pointer enters
71 the window (selected) and unhighlights it when the pointer leaves the
72 window (unselected). If the window is the focus window, then the text
73 cursor is highlighted no matter where the pointer is.
74 In VT102 mode, there are escape sequences to activate and deactivate an
76 alternate screen buffer, which is the same size as the display area of
77 the window. When activated, the current screen is saved and replaced
78 with the alternate screen. Saving of lines scrolled off the top of the
79 window is disabled until the normal screen is restored. The termcap(5)
80 entry for xterm allows the visual editor vi(1) to switch to the alter‐
81 nate screen for editing and to restore the screen on exit. A popup
82 menu entry makes it simple to switch between the normal and alternate
83 screens for cut and paste.
84 In either VT102 or Tektronix mode, there are escape sequences to change
86 the name of the windows. Additionally, in VT102 mode, xterm implements
87 the window-manipulation control sequences from dtterm, such as resizing
88 the window, setting its location on the screen.
89 Xterm allows character-based applications to receive mouse events (cur‐
91 rently button-press and release events, and button-motion events) as
92 keyboard control sequences. See Xterm Control Sequences for details.
93
95 The xterm terminal emulator accepts the standard X Toolkit command line
96 options as well as many application-specific options. If the option
97 begins with a `+' instead of a `-', the option is restored to its
98 default value. The -version and -help options are interpreted even if
99 xterm cannot open the display, and are useful for testing and configu‐
100 ration scripts. Along with -class, they are checked before other
101 options.
102 -version
104 This causes xterm to print a version number to the standard
105 output, and then exit.
106 -help This causes xterm to print out a verbose message describing its
108 options, one per line. The message is written to the standard
109 output. After printing the message, xterm exits. Xterm gener‐
110 ates this message, sorting it and noting whether a “-option” or
111 a “+option” turns the feature on or off, since some features
112 historically have been one or the other. Xterm generates a
113 concise help message (multiple options per line) when an
114 unknown option is used, e.g.,
115 xterm -z
117 If the logic for a particular option such as logging is not compiled
119 into xterm, the help text for that option also is not displayed by the
120 -help option.
121 One parameter (after all options) may be given. That overrides xterm's
123 built-in choice of shell program. Normally xterm checks the SHELL
124 variable. If that is not set, xterm tries to use the shell program
125 specified in the password file. If that is not set, xterm uses
126 /bin/sh. If the parameter is not a relative path, i.e., beginning with
127 “./” or “../”, xterm looks for the file in the user's PATH. In either
128 case, it constructs an absolute path. The -e option cannot be used
129 with this parameter since it uses all parameters following the option.
130 The other options are used to control the appearance and behavior. Not
132 all options are necessarily configured into your copy of xterm:
133 -132 Normally, the VT102 DECCOLM escape sequence that switches
135 between 80 and 132 column mode is ignored. This option causes
136 the DECCOLM escape sequence to be recognized, and the xterm
137 window will resize appropriately.
138 -ah This option indicates that xterm should always highlight the
140 text cursor. By default, xterm will display a hollow text cur‐
141 sor whenever the focus is lost or the pointer leaves the win‐
142 dow.
143 +ah This option indicates that xterm should do text cursor high‐
145 lighting based on focus.
146 -ai This option disables active icon support if that feature was
148 compiled into xterm. This is equivalent to setting the vt100
149 resource activeIcon to “false”.
150 +ai This option enables active icon support if that feature was
152 compiled into xterm. This is equivalent to setting the vt100
153 resource activeIcon to “true”.
154 -aw This option indicates that auto-wraparound should be allowed.
156 This allows the cursor to automatically wrap to the beginning
157 of the next line when it is at the rightmost position of a line
158 and text is output.
159 +aw This option indicates that auto-wraparound should not be
161 allowed.
162 -b number
164 This option specifies the size of the inner border (the dis‐
165 tance between the outer edge of the characters and the window
166 border) in pixels. That is the vt100 internalBorder resource.
167 The default is “2”.
168 +bc turn off text cursor blinking. This overrides the cursorBlink
170 resource.
171 -bc turn on text cursor blinking. This overrides the cursorBlink
173 resource.
174 -bcf milliseconds
176 set the amount of time text cursor is off when blinking via the
177 cursorOffTime resource.
178 -bcn milliseconds
180 set the amount of time text cursor is on when blinking via the
181 cursorOffTime resource.
182 -bdc Set the vt100 resource colorBDMode to “false”, disabling the
184 display of characters with bold attribute as color
185 +bdc Set the vt100 resource colorBDMode to “true”, enabling the dis‐
187 play of characters with bold attribute as color rather than
188 bold
189 -cb Set the vt100 resource cutToBeginningOfLine to “false”.
191 +cb Set the vt100 resource cutToBeginningOfLine to “true”.
193 -cc characterclassrange:value[,...]
195 This sets classes indicated by the given ranges for using in
196 selecting by words. See the section specifying character
197 classes. and discussion of the charClass resource.
198 -cjk_width
200 Set the cjkWidth resource to “true”. When turned on, charac‐
201 ters with East Asian Ambiguous (A) category in UTR 11 have a
202 column width of 2. Otherwise, they have a column width of 1.
203 This may be useful for some legacy CJK text terminal-based pro‐
204 grams assuming box drawings and others to have a column width
205 of 2. It also should be turned on when you specify a TrueType
206 CJK double-width (bi-width/monospace) font either with -fa at
207 the command line or faceName resource. The default is “false”
208 +cjk_width
210 Reset the cjkWidth resource.
211 -class string
213 This option allows you to override xterm's resource class.
214 Normally it is “XTerm”, but can be set to another class such as
215 “UXTerm” to override selected resources.
216 -cm This option disables recognition of ANSI color-change escape
218 sequences. It sets the colorMode resource to “false”.
219 +cm This option enables recognition of ANSI color-change escape
221 sequences. This is the same as the vt100 resource colorMode.
222 -cn This option indicates that newlines should not be cut in line-
224 mode selections. It sets the cutNewline resource to “false”.
225 +cn This option indicates that newlines should be cut in line-mode
227 selections. It sets the cutNewline resource to “true”.
228 -cr color
230 This option specifies the color to use for text cursor. The
231 default is to use the same foreground color that is used for
232 text. It sets the cursorColor resource according to the param‐
233 eter.
234 -cu This option indicates that xterm should work around a bug in
236 the more(1) program that causes it to incorrectly display lines
237 that are exactly the width of the window and are followed by a
238 line beginning with a tab (the leading tabs are not displayed).
239 This option is so named because it was originally thought to be
240 a bug in the curses(3x) cursor motion package.
241 +cu This option indicates that xterm should not work around the
243 more(1) bug mentioned above.
244 -dc This option disables the escape sequence to change dynamic col‐
246 ors: the vt100 foreground and background colors, its text cur‐
247 sor color, the pointer cursor foreground and background colors,
248 the Tektronix emulator foreground and background colors, its
249 text cursor color and highlight color. The option sets the
250 dynamicColors option to “false”.
251 +dc This option enables the escape sequence to change dynamic col‐
253 ors. The option sets the dynamicColors option to “true”.
254 -e program [ arguments ... ]
256 This option specifies the program (and its command line argu‐
257 ments) to be run in the xterm window. It also sets the window
258 title and icon name to be the basename of the program being
259 executed if neither -T nor -n are given on the command line.
260 This must be the last option on the command line.
261 -en encoding
263 This option determines the encoding on which xterm runs. It
264 sets the locale resource. Encodings other than UTF-8 are sup‐
265 ported by using luit. The -lc option should be used instead of
266 -en for systems with locale support.
267 -fb font
269 This option specifies a font to be used when displaying bold
270 text. It sets the boldFont resource.
271 This font must be the same height and width as the normal font,
273 otherwise it is ignored. If only one of the normal or bold
274 fonts is specified, it will be used as the normal font and the
275 bold font will be produced by overstriking this font.
276 See also the discussion of boldMode and alwaysBoldMode
278 resources.
279 -fa pattern
281 This option sets the pattern for fonts selected from the
282 FreeType library if support for that library was compiled into
283 xterm. This corresponds to the faceName resource. When a CJK
284 double-width font is specified, you also need to turn on the
285 cjkWidth resource.
286 See also the renderFont resource, which combines with this to
288 determine whether FreeType fonts are initially active.
289 -fbb This option indicates that xterm should compare normal and bold
291 fonts bounding boxes to ensure they are compatible. It sets
292 the freeBoldBox resource to “false”.
293 +fbb This option indicates that xterm should not compare normal and
295 bold fonts bounding boxes to ensure they are compatible. It
296 sets the freeBoldBox resource to “true”.
297 -fbx This option indicates that xterm should not assume that the
299 normal and bold fonts have VT100 line-drawing characters. If
300 any are missing, xterm will draw the characters directly. It
301 sets the forceBoxChars resource to “false”.
302 +fbx This option indicates that xterm should assume that the normal
304 and bold fonts have VT100 line-drawing characters. It sets the
305 forceBoxChars resource to “true”.
306 -fd pattern
308 This option sets the pattern for double-width fonts selected
309 from the FreeType library if support for that library was com‐
310 piled into xterm. This corresponds to the faceNameDoublesize
311 resource.
312 -fi font
314 This option sets the font for active icons if that feature was
315 compiled into xterm.
316 See also the discussion of the iconFont resource.
318 -fs size
320 This option sets the pointsize for fonts selected from the
321 FreeType library if support for that library was compiled into
322 xterm. This corresponds to the faceSize resource.
323 -fullscreen
325 This option indicates that xterm should ask the window manager
326 to let it use the full-screen for display, e.g., without window
327 decorations. It sets the fullscreen resource to “true”.
328 +fullscreen
330 This option indicates that xterm should not ask the window man‐
331 ager to let it use the full-screen for display. It sets the
332 fullscreen resource to “false”.
333 -fw font
335 This option specifies the font to be used for displaying wide
336 text. By default, it will attempt to use a font twice as wide
337 as the font that will be used to draw normal text. If no dou‐
338 ble-width font is found, it will improvise, by stretching the
339 normal font. This corresponds to the wideFont resource.
340 -fwb font
342 This option specifies the font to be used for displaying bold
343 wide text. By default, it will attempt to use a font twice as
344 wide as the font that will be used to draw bold text. If no
345 double-width font is found, it will improvise, by stretching
346 the bold font. This corresponds to the wideBoldFont resource.
347 -fx font
349 This option specifies the font to be used for displaying the
350 preedit string in the “OverTheSpot” input method.
351 See also the discussion of the ximFont resource.
353 -hc color
355 (see -selbg).
356 -hf This option indicates that HP Function Key escape codes should
358 be generated for function keys. It sets the hpFunctionKeys
359 resource to “true”.
360 +hf This option indicates that HP Function Key escape codes should
362 not be generated for function keys. It sets the hpFunctionKeys
363 resource to “false”.
364 -hm Tells xterm to use highlightTextColor and highlightColor to
366 override the reversed foreground/background colors in a selec‐
367 tion. It sets the highlightColorMode resource to “true”.
368 +hm Tells xterm not to use highlightTextColor and highlightColor to
370 override the reversed foreground/background colors in a selec‐
371 tion. It sets the highlightColorMode resource to “false”.
372 -hold Turn on the hold resource, i.e., xterm will not immediately
374 destroy its window when the shell command completes. It will
375 wait until you use the window manager to destroy/kill the win‐
376 dow, or if you use the menu entries that send a signal, e.g.,
377 HUP or KILL.
378 +hold Turn off the hold resource, i.e., xterm will immediately
380 destroy its window when the shell command completes.
381 -ie Turn on the ptyInitialErase resource, i.e., use the pseudo-ter‐
383 minal's sense of the stty erase value.
384 +ie Turn off the ptyInitialErase resource, i.e., set the stty erase
386 value using the kb string from the termcap entry as a refer‐
387 ence, if available.
388 -im Turn on the useInsertMode resource, which forces use of insert
390 mode by adding appropriate entries to the TERMCAP environment
391 variable.
392 +im Turn off the useInsertMode resource.
394 -into windowId
396 Given an X window identifier (an integer, which can be hexadec‐
397 imal, octal or decimal according to whether it begins with
398 "0x", "0" or neither), xterm will reparent its top-level shell
399 widget to that window. This is used to embed xterm within
400 other applications.
401 For instance, there are scripts for Tcl/Tk and Gtk which can be
403 used to demonstrate the feature. When using Gtk, there is a
404 limitation of that toolkit which requires that xterm's
405 allowSendEvents resource is enabled.
406 -j This option indicates that xterm should do jump scrolling. It
408 corresponds to the jumpScroll resource. Normally, text is
409 scrolled one line at a time; this option allows xterm to move
410 multiple lines at a time so that it does not fall as far
411 behind. Its use is strongly recommended since it makes xterm
412 much faster when scanning through large amounts of text. The
413 VT100 escape sequences for enabling and disabling smooth scroll
414 as well as the “VT Options” menu can be used to turn this fea‐
415 ture on or off.
416 +j This option indicates that xterm should not do jump scrolling.
418 -k8 This option sets the allowC1Printable resource. When
420 allowC1Printable is set, xterm overrides the mapping of C1 con‐
421 trol characters (code 128-159) to treat them as printable.
422 +k8 This option resets the allowC1Printable resource.
424 -kt keyboardtype
426 This option sets the keyboardType resource. Possible values
427 include: “unknown”, “default”, “hp”, “sco”, “sun”, “tcap” and
428 “vt220”.
429 The value “unknown”, causes the corresponding resource to be
431 ignored.
432 The value “default”, suppresses the associated resources
434 hpFunctionKeys, scoFunctionKeys, sunFunctionKeys, tcapFunction‐
435 Keys and sunKeyboard, using the Sun/PC keyboard layout.
436 -l Turn logging on. Normally logging is not supported, due to
438 security concerns. Some versions of xterm may have logging
439 enabled. The logfile is written to the directory from which
440 xterm is invoked. The filename is generated, of the form
441 XtermLog.XXXXXX
443 or
445 Xterm.log.hostname.yyyy.mm.dd.hh.mm.ss.XXXXXX
447 depending on how xterm was built.
449 +l Turn logging off.
451 -lc Turn on support of various encodings according to the users'
453 locale setting, i.e., LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, or LANG environment
454 variables. This is achieved by turning on UTF-8 mode and by
455 invoking luit for conversion between locale encodings and
456 UTF-8. (luit is not invoked in UTF-8 locales.) This corre‐
457 sponds to the locale resource.
458 The actual list of encodings which are supported is determined
460 by luit. Consult the luit manual page for further details.
461 See also the discussion of the -u8 option which supports UTF-8
463 locales.
464 +lc Turn off support of automatic selection of locale encodings.
466 Conventional 8bit mode or, in UTF-8 locales or with -u8 option,
467 UTF-8 mode will be used.
468 -lcc path
470 File name for the encoding converter from/to locale encodings
471 and UTF-8 which is used with -lc option or locale resource.
472 This corresponds to the localeFilter resource.
473 -leftbar
475 Force scrollbar to the left side of VT100 screen. This is the
476 default, unless you have set the rightScrollBar resource.
477 -lf filename
479 Specify the log-filename. See the -l option.
480 -ls This option indicates that the shell that is started in the
482 xterm window will be a login shell (i.e., the first character
483 of argv[0] will be a dash, indicating to the shell that it
484 should read the user's .login or .profile).
485 The -ls flag and the loginShell resource are ignored if -e is
487 also given, because xterm does not know how to make the shell
488 start the given command after whatever it does when it is a
489 login shell - the user's shell of choice need not be a Bourne
490 shell after all. Also, xterm -e is supposed to provide a con‐
491 sistent functionality for other applications that need to start
492 text-mode programs in a window, and if loginShell were not
493 ignored, the result of ~/.profile might interfere with that.
494 If you do want the effect of -ls and -e simultaneously, you may
496 get away with something like
497 xterm -e /bin/bash -l -c "my command here"
499 Finally, -ls is not completely ignored, because xterm -ls -e
501 does write a /etc/wtmp entry (if configured to do so), whereas
502 xterm -e does not.
503 -maximized
505 This option indicates that xterm should ask the window manager
506 to maximize its layout on startup. This corresponds to the
507 maximized resource.
508 Maximizing is not the reverse of iconifying; it is possible to
510 do both with certain window managers.
511 +maximized
513 This option indicates that xterm should ask the window manager
514 to not maximize its layout on startup.
515 +ls This option indicates that the shell that is started should not
517 be a login shell (i.e., it will be a normal “subshell”).
518 -mb This option indicates that xterm should ring a margin bell when
520 the user types near the right end of a line.
521 +mb This option indicates that margin bell should not be rung.
523 -mc milliseconds
525 This option specifies the maximum time between multi-click
526 selections.
527 -mesg Turn off the messages resource, i.e., disallow write access to
529 the terminal.
530 +mesg Turn on the messages resource, i.e., allow write access to the
532 terminal.
533 -mk_width
535 Set the mkWidth resource to “true”. This makes xterm use a
536 built-in version of the wide-character width calculation. The
537 default is “false”
538 +mk_width
540 Reset the mkWidth resource.
541 -ms color
543 This option specifies the color to be used for the pointer cur‐
544 sor. The default is to use the foreground color. This sets
545 the pointerColor resource.
546 -nb number
548 This option specifies the number of characters from the right
549 end of a line at which the margin bell, if enabled, will ring.
550 The default is “10”.
551 -nul This option disables the display of underlining.
553 +nul This option enables the display of underlining.
555 -pc This option enables the PC-style use of bold colors (see bold‐
557 Colors resource).
558 +pc This option disables the PC-style use of bold colors.
560 -pob This option indicates that the window should be raised whenever
562 a Control-G is received.
563 +pob This option indicates that the window should not be raised
565 whenever a Control-G is received.
566 -rightbar
568 Force scrollbar to the right side of VT100 screen.
569 -rvc This option disables the display of characters with reverse
571 attribute as color.
572 +rvc This option enables the display of characters with reverse
574 attribute as color.
575 -rw This option indicates that reverse-wraparound should be
577 allowed. This allows the cursor to back up from the leftmost
578 column of one line to the rightmost column of the previous
579 line. This is very useful for editing long shell command lines
580 and is encouraged. This option can be turned on and off from
581 the “VT Options” menu.
582 +rw This option indicates that reverse-wraparound should not be
584 allowed.
585 -s This option indicates that xterm may scroll asynchronously,
587 meaning that the screen does not have to be kept completely up
588 to date while scrolling. This allows xterm to run faster when
589 network latencies are very high and is typically useful when
590 running across a very large internet or many gateways.
591 +s This option indicates that xterm should scroll synchronously.
593 -samename
595 Does not send title and icon name change requests when the
596 request would have no effect: the name is not changed. This
597 has the advantage of preventing flicker and the disadvantage of
598 requiring an extra round trip to the server to find out the
599 previous value. In practice this should never be a problem.
600 +samename
602 Always send title and icon name change requests.
603 -sb This option indicates that some number of lines that are
605 scrolled off the top of the window should be saved and that a
606 scrollbar should be displayed so that those lines can be
607 viewed. This option may be turned on and off from the “VT
608 Options” menu.
609 +sb This option indicates that a scrollbar should not be displayed.
611 -selbg color
613 This option specifies the color to use for the background of
614 selected text. If not specified, reverse video is used. See
615 the discussion of the highlightColor resource.
616 -selfg color
618 This option specifies the color to use for selected text. If
619 not specified, reverse video is used. See the discussion of
620 the highlightTextColor resource.
621 -sf This option indicates that Sun Function Key escape codes should
623 be generated for function keys.
624 +sf This option indicates that the standard escape codes should be
626 generated for function keys.
627 -sh number
629 scale line-height values by the given number. See the discus‐
630 sion of the scaleHeight resource.
631 -si This option indicates that output to a window should not auto‐
633 matically reposition the screen to the bottom of the scrolling
634 region. This option can be turned on and off from the “VT
635 Options” menu.
636 +si This option indicates that output to a window should cause it
638 to scroll to the bottom.
639 -sk This option indicates that pressing a key while using the
641 scrollbar to review previous lines of text should cause the
642 window to be repositioned automatically in the normal position
643 at the bottom of the scroll region.
644 +sk This option indicates that pressing a key while using the
646 scrollbar should not cause the window to be repositioned.
647 -sl number
649 This option specifies the number of lines to save that have
650 been scrolled off the top of the screen. This corresponds to
651 the saveLines resource. The default is “64”.
652 -sm This option, corresponding to the sessionMgt resource, indi‐
654 cates that xterm should set up session manager callbacks.
655 +sm This option indicates that xterm should not set up session man‐
657 ager callbacks.
658 -sp This option indicates that Sun/PC keyboard should be assumed,
660 providing mapping for keypad “+' to “,', and CTRL-F1 to F13,
661 CTRL-F2 to F14, etc.
662 +sp This option indicates that the standard escape codes should be
664 generated for keypad and function keys.
665 -t This option indicates that xterm should start in Tektronix
667 mode, rather than in VT102 mode. Switching between the two
668 windows is done using the “Options” menus. Termcap(5) entries
669 that work with xterm “tek4014”, “tek4015”, “tek4012”,
670 “tek4013”, “tek4010”, and “dumb”. xterm automatically searches
671 the termcap file in this order for these entries and then sets
672 the “TERM” and the “TERMCAP” environment variables.
673 +t This option indicates that xterm should start in VT102 mode.
675 -tb This option, corresponding to the toolBar resource, indicates
677 that xterm should display a toolbar (or menubar) at the top of
678 its window. The buttons in the toolbar correspond to the popup
679 menus, e.g., control/left/mouse for “Main Options”.
680 +tb This option indicates that xterm should not set up a toolbar.
682 -ti term_id
684 Specify the name used by xterm to select the correct response
685 to terminal ID queries. It also specifies the emulation level,
686 used to determine the type of response to a DA control
687 sequence. Valid values include vt52, vt100, vt101, vt102,
688 vt220, and vt240 (the “vt” is optional). The default is
689 “vt420”. The term_id argument specifies the terminal ID to
690 use. (This is the same as the decTerminalID resource).
691 -tm string
693 This option specifies a series of terminal setting keywords
694 followed by the characters that should be bound to those func‐
695 tions, similar to the stty program. The keywords and their
696 values are described in detail in the ttyModes resource.
697 -tn name
699 This option specifies the name of the terminal type to be set
700 in the TERM environment variable. It corresponds to the
701 termName resource. This terminal type must exist in the termi‐
702 nal database (termcap or terminfo, depending on how xterm is
703 built) and should have li# and co# entries. If the terminal
704 type is not found, xterm uses the built-in list “xterm”,
705 “vt102”, etc.
706 -u8 This option sets the utf8 resource. When utf8 is set, xterm
708 interprets incoming data as UTF-8. This sets the wideChars
709 resource as a side-effect, but the UTF-8 mode set by this
710 option prevents it from being turned off. If you must turn it
711 on and off, use the wideChars resource.
712 This option and the utf8 resource are overridden by the -lc and
714 -en options and locale resource. That is, if xterm has been
715 compiled to support luit, and the locale resource is not
716 “false” this option is ignored. We recommend using the -lc
717 option or the “locale: true” resource in UTF-8 locales when
718 your operating system supports locale, or -en UTF-8 option or
719 the “locale: UTF-8” resource when your operating system does
720 not support locale.
721 +u8 This option resets the utf8 resource.
723 -uc This option makes the cursor underlined instead of a box.
725 +uc This option makes the cursor a box instead of underlined.
727 -ulc This option disables the display of characters with underline
729 attribute as color rather than with underlining.
730 +ulc This option enables the display of characters with underline
732 attribute as color rather than with underlining.
733 -ulit This option, corresponding to the italicULMode resource, dis‐
735 ables the display of characters with underline attribute as
736 italics rather than with underlining.
737 +ulit This option, corresponding to the italicULMode resource,
739 enables the display of characters with underline attribute as
740 italics rather than with underlining.
741 -ut This option indicates that xterm should not write a record into
743 the the system utmp log file.
744 +ut This option indicates that xterm should write a record into the
746 system utmp log file.
747 -vb This option indicates that a visual bell is preferred over an
749 audible one. Instead of ringing the terminal bell whenever a
750 Control-G is received, the window will be flashed.
751 +vb This option indicates that a visual bell should not be used.
753 -wc This option sets the wideChars resource. When wideChars is
755 set, xterm maintains internal structures for 16-bit characters.
756 If you do not set this resource to “true”, xterm will ignore
757 the escape sequence which turns UTF-8 mode on and off. The
758 default is “false”.
759 +wc This option resets the wideChars resource.
761 -wf This option indicates that xterm should wait for the window to
763 be mapped the first time before starting the subprocess so that
764 the initial terminal size settings and environment variables
765 are correct. It is the application's responsibility to catch
766 subsequent terminal size changes.
767 +wf This option indicates that xterm should not wait before start‐
769 ing the subprocess.
770 -ziconbeep percent
772 Same as zIconBeep resource. If percent is non-zero, xterms
773 that produce output while iconified will cause an XBell sound
774 at the given volume and have “***” prepended to their icon
775 titles. Most window managers will detect this change immedi‐
776 ately, showing you which window has the output. (A similar
777 feature was in x10 xterm.)
778 -C This option indicates that this window should receive console
780 output. This is not supported on all systems. To obtain con‐
781 sole output, you must be the owner of the console device, and
782 you must have read and write permission for it. If you are
783 running X under xdm on the console screen you may need to have
784 the session startup and reset programs explicitly change the
785 ownership of the console device in order to get this option to
786 work.
787 -Sccn This option allows xterm to be used as an input and output
789 channel for an existing program and is sometimes used in spe‐
790 cialized applications. The option value specifies the last few
791 letters of the name of a pseudo-terminal to use in slave mode,
792 plus the number of the inherited file descriptor. If the
793 option contains a “/” character, that delimits the characters
794 used for the pseudo-terminal name from the file descriptor.
795 Otherwise, exactly two characters are used from the option for
796 the pseudo-terminal name, the remainder is the file descriptor.
797 Examples (the first two are equivalent since the descriptor
798 follows the last “/”):
799 -S/dev/pts/123/45
801 -S123/45
802 -Sab34
803 Note that xterm does not close any file descriptor which it did
805 not open for its own use. It is possible (though probably not
806 portable) to have an application which passes an open file
807 descriptor down to xterm past the initialization or the -S
808 option to a process running in the xterm.
809 OLD OPTIONS
811 The following command line arguments are provided for compatibility
812 with older versions. They may not be supported in the next release as
813 the X Toolkit provides standard options that accomplish the same task.
814 %geom This option specifies the preferred size and position of the
816 Tektronix window. It is shorthand for specifying the “*tekGe‐
817 ometry” resource.
818 #geom This option specifies the preferred position of the icon win‐
820 dow. It is shorthand for specifying the “*iconGeometry”
821 resource.
822 -T string
824 This option specifies the title for xterm's windows. It is
825 equivalent to -title.
826 -n string
828 This option specifies the icon name for xterm's windows. It is
829 shorthand for specifying the “*iconName” resource. Note that
830 this is not the same as the toolkit option -name (see below).
831 The default icon name is the application name.
832 If no suitable icon is found, xterm provides a compiled-in
834 pixmap.
835 -r This option indicates that reverse video should be simulated by
837 swapping the foreground and background colors. It is equiva‐
838 lent to -rv.
839 -w number
841 This option specifies the width in pixels of the border sur‐
842 rounding the window. It is equivalent to -borderwidth or -bw.
843 X TOOLKIT OPTIONS
845 The following standard X Toolkit command line arguments are commonly
846 used with xterm:
847 -bd color
849 This option specifies the color to use for the border of the
850 window. The corresponding resource name is borderColor. xterm
851 uses the X Toolkit default, which is “XtDefaultForeground”.
852 -bg color
854 This option specifies the color to use for the background of
855 the window. The corresponding resource name is background.
856 The default is “XtDefaultBackground”.
857 -bw number
859 This option specifies the width in pixels of the border sur‐
860 rounding the window.
861 This appears to be a legacy of older X releases. It sets the
863 borderWidth resource of the shell widget, and may provide
864 advice to your window manager to set the thickness of the win‐
865 dow frame. Most window managers do not use this information.
866 See the -b option, which controls the inner border of the xterm
867 window.
868 -display display
870 This option specifies the X server to contact; see X(7).
871 -fg color
873 This option specifies the color to use for displaying text.
874 The corresponding resource name is foreground. The default is
875 “XtDefaultForeground”.
876 -fn font
878 This option specifies the font to be used for displaying normal
879 text. The corresponding resource name is font. The resource
880 value default is fixed.
881 -font font
883 This is the same as -fn.
884 -geometry geometry
886 This option specifies the preferred size and position of the
887 VT102 window; see X(7).
888 -iconic This option indicates that xterm should ask the window manager
890 to start it as an icon rather than as the normal window. The
891 corresponding resource name is iconic.
892 -name name
894 This option specifies the application name under which
895 resources are to be obtained, rather than the default exe‐
896 cutable file name. Name should not contain “.” or “*” charac‐
897 ters.
898 -rv This option indicates that reverse video should be simulated by
900 swapping the foreground and background colors. The correspond‐
901 ing resource name is reverseVideo.
902 +rv Disable the simulation of reverse video by swapping foreground
904 and background colors.
905 -title string
907 This option specifies the window title string, which may be
908 displayed by window managers if the user so chooses. The
909 default title is the command line specified after the -e
910 option, if any, otherwise the application name.
911 -xrm resourcestring
913 This option specifies a resource string to be used. This is
914 especially useful for setting resources that do not have sepa‐
915 rate command line options.
916
918 The program understands all of the core X Toolkit resource names and
919 classes. Application specific resources (e.g., “XTerm.NAME”) follow:
920 backarrowKeyIsErase (class BackarrowKeyIsErase)
922 Tie the VTxxx backarrowKey and ptyInitialErase resources
923 together by setting the DECBKM state according to whether the
924 initial value of stty erase is a backspace (8) or delete (127)
925 character. A “false” value disables this feature. The default
926 is “False”.
927 fullscreen (class Fullscreen)
929 Specifies whether or not xterm should ask the window manager to
930 use a fullscreen layout on startup. Xterm accepts either a
931 keyword (ignoring case) or the number shown in parentheses:
932 false (0)
934 Fullscreen layout is not used initially, but may be later
935 via menu-selection or control sequence.
936 true (1)
938 Fullscreen layout is used initially, but may be disabled
939 later via menu-selection or control sequence.
940 always (2)
942 Fullscreen layout is used initially, and cannot be disabled
943 later via menu-selection or control sequence.
944 never (3)
946 Fullscreen layout is not used, and cannot be enabled later
947 via menu-selection or control sequence.
948 The default is “false”.
950 hold (class Hold)
952 If true, xterm will not immediately destroy its window when the
953 shell command completes. It will wait until you use the window
954 manager to destroy/kill the window, or if you use the menu
955 entries that send a signal, e.g., HUP or KILL. You may scroll
956 back, select text, etc., to perform most graphical operations.
957 Resizing the display will lose data, however, since this
958 involves interaction with the shell which is no longer running.
959 hpFunctionKeys (class HpFunctionKeys)
961 Specifies whether or not HP Function Key escape codes should be
962 generated for function keys instead of standard escape
963 sequences.
964 See also the keyboardType resource.
966 iconGeometry (class IconGeometry)
968 Specifies the preferred size and position of the application
969 when iconified. It is not necessarily obeyed by all window
970 managers.
971 iconHint (class IconHint)
973 Specifies a icon which will be added to the window manager
974 hints. xterm provides no default value.
975 Set this resource to “none” to omit the hint entirely, using
977 whatever the window manager may decide.
978 If the iconHint resource is given (or is set via the -n option)
980 xterm searches for a pixmap file with that name, in the current
981 directory as well as in /usr/share/pixmaps. if the resource
982 does not specify an absolute pathname. In each case, xterm
983 adds “_48x48” and/or “.xpm” to the filename after trying with‐
984 out those suffixes. If it is able to load the file, xterm sets
985 the window manager hint for the icon-pixmap. These pixmaps are
986 distributed with xterm, and can optionally be compiled-in:
987 · mini.xterm_16x16, mini.xterm_32x32, mini.xterm_48x48
989 · filled-xterm_16x16 filled-xterm_32x32 filled-xterm_48x48
991 · xterm_16x16 xterm_32x32 xterm_48x48
993 · xterm-color_16x16 xterm-color_32x32 xterm-color_48x48
995 In either case, xterm allows for adding a “_48x48” to specify
997 the largest of the pixmaps as a default. That is, “mini.xterm”
998 is the same as “mini.xterm_48x48”.
999 If no explicit iconHint resource is given (or if none of the
1001 compiled-in names matches), xterm uses “mini.xterm” (which is
1002 always compiled-in).
1003 The iconHint resource has no effect on “desktop” files, includ‐
1005 ing “panel” and “menu”. Those are typically set via a “.desk‐
1006 top” file; xterm provides samples for itself (and the uxterm
1007 script). The more capable desktop systems allow changing the
1008 icon on a per-user basis.
1009 iconName (class IconName)
1011 Specifies a label for xterm when iconified. xterm provides no
1012 default value; some window managers may assume the application
1013 name, e.g., “xterm”.
1014 Setting the iconName resource sets the icon label unless over‐
1016 ridden by zIconBeep or the control sequences which change the
1017 window and icon labels.
1018 keyboardType (class KeyboardType)
1020 Enables one (or none) of the various keyboard-type resources:
1021 hpFunctionKeys, scoFunctionKeys, sunFunctionKeys, tcapFunction‐
1022 Keys and sunKeyboard. The resource's value should be one of
1023 the corresponding strings “hp”, “sco”, “sun”, “tcap” or
1024 “vt220”. The individual resources are provided for legacy sup‐
1025 port; this resource is simpler to use.
1026 The default is “unknown”, i.e., none of the associated
1028 resources are set via this resource.
1029 maxBufSize (class MaxBufSize)
1031 Specify the maximum size of the input buffer. The default is
1032 “32768”. You cannot set this to a value less than the minBuf‐
1033 Size resource. It will be increased as needed to make that
1034 value evenly divide this one.
1035 On some systems you may want to increase one or both of the
1037 maxBufSize and minBufSize resource values to achieve better
1038 performance if the operating system prefers larger buffer
1039 sizes.
1040 maximized (class Maximized)
1042 Specifies whether or not xterm should ask the window manager to
1043 maximize its layout on startup. The default is “false”.
1044 messages (class Messages)
1046 Specifies whether write access to the terminal is allowed ini‐
1047 tially. See mesg(1). The default is “true”.
1048 menuLocale (class MenuLocale)
1050 Specify the locale used for character-set computations when
1051 loading the popup menus. Use this to improve initialization
1052 performance of the Athena popup menus, which may load unneces‐
1053 sary (and very large) fonts, e.g., in a locale having UTF-8
1054 encoding. The default is “C” (POSIX).
1055 To use the current locale (only useful if you have localized
1057 the resource settings for the menu entries), set the resource
1058 to an empty string.
1059 minBufSize (class MinBufSize)
1061 Specify the minimum size of the input buffer, i.e., the amount
1062 of data that xterm requests on each read. The default is
1063 “4096”. You cannot set this to a value less than 64.
1064 omitTranslation (class OmitTranslation)
1066 Selectively omit one or more parts of xterm's default transla‐
1067 tions at startup. The resource value is a comma-separated list
1068 of keywords, which may be abbreviated: “fullscreen”, “scroll-
1069 lock”, “shift-fonts” or “wheel-mouse”. Xterm also recognizes
1070 “default”, but omitting that will make the program unusable
1071 unless you provide a similar definition in your resource set‐
1072 tings.
1073 ptyHandshake (class PtyHandshake)
1075 If “true”, xterm will perform handshaking during initialization
1076 to ensure that the parent and child processes update the utmp
1077 and stty state.
1078 See also waitForMap which waits for the pseudo-terminal's
1080 notion of the screen size, and ptySttySize which resets the
1081 screen size after other terminal initialization is complete.
1082 The default is “true”.
1083 ptyInitialErase (class PtyInitialErase)
1085 If “true”, xterm will use the pseudo-terminal's sense of the
1086 stty erase value. If “false”, xterm will set the stty erase
1087 value to match its own configuration, using the kb string from
1088 the termcap entry as a reference, if available. In either
1089 case, the result is applied to the TERMCAP variable which xterm
1090 sets.
1091 See also the ttyModes resource, which may modify this. The
1093 default is “false”.
1094 ptySttySize (class PtySttySize)
1096 If “true”, xterm will reset the screen size after terminal ini‐
1097 tialization is complete. This is needed for some systems whose
1098 pseudo-terminals cannot propagate terminal characteristics.
1099 Where it is not needed, it can interfere with other methods for
1100 setting the intial screen size, e.g., via window manager inter‐
1101 action.
1102 See also waitForMap which waits for a handshake-message giving
1104 the pseudo-terminal's notion of the screen size. The default
1105 is “false” on Linux and OS X systems, “true” otherwise.
1106 sameName (class SameName)
1108 If the value of this resource is “true”, xterm does not send
1109 title and icon name change requests when the request would have
1110 no effect: the name is not changed. This has the advantage of
1111 preventing flicker and the disadvantage of requiring an extra
1112 round trip to the server to find out the previous value. In
1113 practice this should never be a problem. The default is
1114 “true”.
1115 scaleHeight (class ScaleHeight)
1117 Scale line-height values by the resource value, which is lim‐
1118 ited to “0.9” to “1.5”. The default value is “1.0”,
1119 While this resource applies to either bitmap or TrueType fonts,
1121 its main purpose is to help work around incompatible changes in
1122 the Xft library's font metrics. Xterm checks the font metrics
1123 to find what the library claims are the bounding boxes for each
1124 glyph (character). However, some of Xft's features (such as
1125 the autohinter) can cause the glyphs to be scaled larger than
1126 the bounding boxes, and be partly overwritten by the next row.
1127 See useClipping for a related resource.
1129 scoFunctionKeys (class ScoFunctionKeys)
1131 Specifies whether or not SCO Function Key escape codes should
1132 be generated for function keys instead of standard escape
1133 sequences.
1134 See also the keyboardType resource.
1136 sessionMgt (class SessionMgt)
1138 If the value of this resource is “true”, xterm sets up session
1139 manager callbacks for XtNdieCallback and XtNsaveCallback. The
1140 default is “true”.
1141 sunFunctionKeys (class SunFunctionKeys)
1143 Specifies whether or not Sun Function Key escape codes should
1144 be generated for function keys instead of standard escape
1145 sequences.
1146 See also the keyboardType resource.
1148 sunKeyboard (class SunKeyboard)
1150 Specifies whether or not Sun/PC keyboard layout should be
1151 assumed rather than DEC VT220. This causes the keypad “+' to
1152 be mapped to “,'. and CTRL F1-F12 to F11-F20, depending on the
1153 setting of the ctrlFKeys resource. so xterm emulates a DEC
1154 VT220 more accurately. Otherwise (the default, with sunKey‐
1155 board set to “false”), xterm uses PC-style bindings for the
1156 function keys and keypad.
1157 PC-style bindings use the Shift, Alt, Control and Meta keys as
1159 modifiers for function-keys and keypad (see the document Xterm
1160 Control Sequences for details). The PC-style bindings are
1161 analogous to PCTerm, but not the same thing. Normally these
1162 bindings do not conflict with the use of the Meta key as
1163 described for the eightBitInput resource. If they do, note
1164 that the PC-style bindings are evaluated first.
1165 See also the keyboardType resource.
1167 tcapFunctionKeys (class TcapFunctionKeys)
1169 Specifies whether or not function key escape codes read from
1170 the termcap/terminfo entry should be generated for function
1171 keys instead of standard escape sequences. The default is
1172 “false”, i.e., this feature is disabled.
1173 See also the keyboardType resource.
1175 termName (class TermName)
1177 Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM environ‐
1178 ment variable.
1179 title (class Title)
1181 Specifies a string that may be used by the window manager when
1182 displaying this application.
1183 toolBar (class ToolBar)
1185 Specifies whether or not the toolbar should be displayed. The
1186 default is “true”.
1187 ttyModes (class TtyModes)
1189 Specifies a string containing terminal setting keywords and the
1190 characters to which they may be bound. Allowable keywords
1191 include: brk, dsusp, eof, eol, eol2, erase, erase2, flush,
1192 intr, kill, lnext, quit, rprnt, start, status, stop, susp,
1193 swtch and weras. Control characters may be specified as ^char
1194 (e.g., ^c or ^u) and ^? may be used to indicate delete (127).
1195 Use ^- to denote undef. Use \034 to represent ^\, since a lit‐
1196 eral backslash in an X resource escapes the next character.
1197 This is very useful for overriding the default terminal set‐
1199 tings without having to do an stty every time an xterm is
1200 started. Note, however, that the stty program on a given host
1201 may use different keywords; xterm's table is built-in.
1202 If the ttyModes resource specifies a value for erase, that
1204 overrides the ptyInitialErase resource setting, i.e., xterm
1205 initializes the terminal to match that value.
1206 useInsertMode (class UseInsertMode)
1208 Force use of insert mode by adding appropriate entries to the
1209 TERMCAP environment variable. This is useful if the system
1210 termcap is broken. The default is “false”.
1211 utmpDisplayId (class UtmpDisplayId)
1213 Specifies whether or not xterm should try to record the display
1214 identifier (display number and screen number) as well as the
1215 hostname in the system utmp log file. The default is “true”.
1216 utmpInhibit (class UtmpInhibit)
1218 Specifies whether or not xterm should try to record the user's
1219 terminal in the system utmp log file. If true, xterm will not
1220 try. The default is “false”.
1221 waitForMap (class WaitForMap)
1223 Specifies whether or not xterm should wait for the initial win‐
1224 dow map before starting the subprocess. This is part of the
1225 ptyHandshake logic. When xterm is directed to wait in this
1226 fashion, it passes the terminal size from the display end of
1227 the pseudo-terminal to the terminal I/O connection, e.g.,
1228 according to the window manager. Otherwise, it uses the size
1229 as given in resource values or command-line option -geom. The
1230 default is “false”.
1231 zIconBeep (class ZIconBeep)
1233 Same as -ziconbeep command line argument. If the value of this
1234 resource is non-zero, xterms that produce output while iconi‐
1235 fied will cause an XBell sound at the given volume and have
1236 “*** ” prepended to their icon titles. Most window managers
1237 will detect this change immediately, showing you which window
1238 has the output. (A similar feature was in x10 xterm.) The
1239 default is “false”.
1240 zIconTitleFormat (class ZIconTitleFormat)
1242 Allow customization of the string used in the zIconBeep fea‐
1243 ture. The default value is “*** %s”.
1244 If the resource value contains a “%s”, then xterm inserts the
1246 icon title at that point rather than prepending the string to
1247 the icon title. (Only the first “%s” is used).
1248 VT100 Widget Resources
1250 The following resources are specified as part of the vt100 widget
1251 (class VT100). They are specified by patterns such as
1252 “XTerm.vt100.NAME”.
1253 If your xterm is configured to support the “toolbar”, then those pat‐
1255 terns need an extra level for the form-widget which holds the toolbar
1256 and vt100 widget. A wildcard between the top-level “XTerm” and the
1257 “vt100” widget makes the resource settings work for either, e.g.,
1258 “XTerm*vt100.NAME”.
1259 activeIcon (class ActiveIcon)
1261 Specifies whether or not active icon windows are to be used
1262 when the xterm window is iconified, if this feature is compiled
1263 into xterm. The active icon is a miniature representation of
1264 the content of the window and will update as the content
1265 changes. Not all window managers necessarily support applica‐
1266 tion icon windows. Some window managers will allow you to
1267 enter keystrokes into the active icon window. The default is
1268 “default”.
1269 Xterm accepts either a keyword (ignoring case) or the number
1271 shown in parentheses:
1272 false (0)
1274 No active icon is shown.
1275 true (1)
1277 The active icon is shown. If you are using twm, use
1278 this setting to enable active-icons.
1279 default (2)
1281 xterm checks at startup, and shows an active icon only
1282 for window managers which it can identify and which are
1283 known to support the feature. These are fvwm (full sup‐
1284 port), and window maker (limited). A few other windows
1285 managers (such as twm and ctwm) support active icons,
1286 but do not support the extensions which allow xterm to
1287 identify the window manager.
1288 allowBoldFonts (class AllowBoldFonts)
1290 When set to “false”, xterm will not use bold fonts. This over‐
1291 rides both the alwaysBoldMode and the boldMode resources.
1292 alwaysBoldMode (class AlwaysBoldMode)
1293 allowC1Printable (class AllowC1Printable)
1295 If true, overrides the mapping of C1 controls (codes 128-159)
1296 to make them be treated as if they were printable characters.
1297 Although this corresponds to no particular standard, some users
1298 insist it is a VT100. The default is “false”.
1299 allowColorOps (class AllowColorOps)
1301 Specifies whether control sequences that set/query the dynamic
1302 colors should be allowed. ANSI colors are unaffected by this
1303 resource setting. The default is “true”.
1304 allowFontOps (class AllowFontOps)
1306 Specifies whether control sequences that set/query the font
1307 should be allowed. The default is “true”.
1308 allowPasteControls (class AllowPasteControls)
1310 If true, allow control characters such as BEL and CAN to be
1311 pasted. Formatting characters (tab, newline) are always allowed.
1312 Other C0 control characters are suppressed unless this resource is
1313 enabled. The exact set of control characters (C0 and C1) depends
1314 upon whether UTF-8 encoding is used, as well as the allowC1Print‐
1315 able resource. The default is “false”.
1316 allowScrollLock (class AllowScrollLock)
1318 Specifies whether control sequences that set/query the Scroll
1319 Lock key should be allowed, as well as whether the Scroll Lock
1320 key responds to user's keypress. The default is “false”.
1321 When this feature is enabled, xterm will sense the state of the
1323 Scroll Lock key each time it acquires focus. Pressing the
1324 Scroll Lock key toggles xterm's internal state, as well as tog‐
1325 gling the associated LED. While the Scroll Lock is active,
1326 xterm attempts to keep a viewport on the same set of lines. If
1327 the current viewport is scrolled past the limit set by the
1328 saveLines resource, then Scroll Lock has no further effect.
1329 The reason for setting the default to “false” is to avoid user
1331 surprise. This key is generally unused in keyboard configura‐
1332 tions, and has not acquired a standard meaning even when it is
1333 used in that manner. Consequently, users have assigned it for
1334 ad hoc purposes.
1335 allowSendEvents (class AllowSendEvents)
1337 Specifies whether or not synthetic key and button events (gen‐
1338 erated using the X protocol SendEvent request) should be inter‐
1339 preted or discarded. The default is “false” meaning they are
1340 discarded. Note that allowing such events would create a very
1341 large security hole, therefore enabling this resource force‐
1342 fully disables the allowXXXOps resources. The default is
1343 “false”.
1344 allowTcapOps (class AllowTcapOps)
1346 Specifies whether control sequences that query the terminal's
1347 notion of its function-key strings, as termcap or terminfo
1348 capabilities should be allowed. The default is “true”.
1349 A few programs, e.g., vim, use this feature to get an accurate
1351 description of the terminal's capabilities, independent of the
1352 termcap/terminfo setting:
1353 · xterm can tell the querying program how many colors it sup‐
1355 ports. This is a constant, depending on how it is com‐
1356 piled, typically 16. It does not change if you alter
1357 resource settings, e.g., the boldColors resource.
1358 · xterm can tell the querying program what strings are sent
1360 by modified (shift-, control-, alt-) function- and keypad-
1361 keys. Reporting control- and alt-modifiers is a feature
1362 that relies on the ncurses extended naming.
1363 allowTitleOps (class AllowTitleOps)
1365 Specifies whether control sequences that modify the window
1366 title or icon name should be allowed. The default is “true”.
1367 allowWindowOps (class AllowWindowOps)
1369 Specifies whether extended window control sequences (as used in
1370 dtterm) should be allowed. These include several control
1371 sequences which manipulate the window size or position, as well
1372 as reporting these values and the title or icon name. Each of
1373 these can be abused in a script; curiously enough most terminal
1374 emulators that implement these restrict only a small part of
1375 the repertoire. For fine-tuning, see disallowedWindowOps. The
1376 default is “false”.
1377 altIsNotMeta (class AltIsNotMeta)
1379 If “true”, treat the Alt-key as if it were the Meta-key. Your
1380 keyboard may happen to be configured so they are the same. But
1381 if they are not, this allows you to use the same prefix- and
1382 shifting operations with the Alt-key as with the Meta-key. See
1383 altSendsEscape and metaSendsEscape. The default is “false”.
1384 altSendsEscape (class AltSendsEscape)
1386 This is an additional keyboard operation that may be processed
1387 after the logic for metaSendsEscape. It is only available if
1388 the altIsNotMeta resource is set.
1389 · If “true”, Alt characters (a character combined with the
1391 modifier associated with left/right Alt-keys) are converted
1392 into a two-character sequence with the character itself
1393 preceded by ESC. This applies as well to function key con‐
1394 trol sequences, unless xterm sees that Alt is used in your
1395 key translations.
1396 · If “false”, Alt characters input from the keyboard cause a
1398 shift to 8-bit characters (just like metaSendsEscape). By
1399 combining the Alt- and Meta-modifiers, you can create cor‐
1400 responding combinations of ESC-prefix and 8-bit characters.
1401 The default is “False”. Xterm provides a menu option for tog‐
1403 gling this resource.
1404 alternateScroll (class ScrollCond)
1406 If “true”, the scroll-back and scroll-forw actions send cur‐
1407 sor-up and -down keys when xterm is displaying the alternate
1408 screen. The default is “false”.
1409 The alternateScroll state can also be set using a control
1411 sequence.
1412 alwaysBoldMode (class AlwaysBoldMode)
1414 Specifies whether xterm should check if the normal and bold
1415 fonts are distinct before deciding whether to use overstriking
1416 to simulate bold fonts. If this resource is true, xterm does
1417 not make the check for distinct fonts when deciding how to han‐
1418 dle the boldMode resource. The default is “false”.
1419 boldMode alwaysBoldMode Comparison Action
1421 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1422 false false ignored use font
1423 false true ignored use font
1424 true false same overstrike
1425 true false different use font
1426 true true ignored overstrike
1427 This resource is used only for bitmap fonts:
1429 · When using bitmap fonts, it is possible that the font
1431 server will approximate the bold font by rescaling it from
1432 a different font size than expected. The alwaysBoldMode
1433 resource allows the user to override the (sometimes poor)
1434 resulting bold font with overstriking (which is at least
1435 consistent).
1436 · The problem does not occur with TrueType fonts (though
1438 there can be other unnecessary issues such as different
1439 coverage of the normal and bold fonts).
1440 As an alternative, setting the allowBoldFonts resource to false
1442 overrides both the alwaysBoldMode and the boldMode resources.
1443 alwaysHighlight (class AlwaysHighlight)
1445 Specifies whether or not xterm should always display a high‐
1446 lighted text cursor. By default (if this resource is false), a
1447 hollow text cursor is displayed whenever the pointer moves out
1448 of the window or the window loses the input focus. The default
1449 is “false”.
1450 alwaysUseMods (class AlwaysUseMods)
1452 Override the numLock resource, telling xterm to use the Alt and
1453 Meta modifiers to construct parameters for function key
1454 sequences even if those modifiers appear in the translations
1455 resource. Normally xterm checks if Alt or Meta is used in a
1456 translation that would conflict with function key modifiers,
1457 and will ignore these modifiers in that special case. The
1458 default is “false”.
1459 answerbackString (class AnswerbackString)
1461 Specifies the string that xterm sends in response to an ENQ
1462 (control/E) character from the host. The default is a blank
1463 string, i.e., “”. A hardware VT100 implements this feature as
1464 a setup option.
1465 appcursorDefault (class AppcursorDefault)
1467 If “true”, the cursor keys are initially in application mode.
1468 This is the same as the VT102 private DECCKM mode, The default
1469 is “false”.
1470 appkeypadDefault (class AppkeypadDefault)
1472 If “true”, the keypad keys are initially in application mode.
1473 The default is “false”.
1474 autoWrap (class AutoWrap)
1476 Specifies whether or not auto-wraparound should be enabled.
1477 This is the same as the VT102 DECAWM. The default is “true”.
1478 awaitInput (class AwaitInput)
1480 Specifies whether or not the xterm uses a 50 millisecond time‐
1481 out to await input (i.e., to support the Xaw3d arrow scroll‐
1482 bar). The default is “false”.
1483 backarrowKey (class BackarrowKey)
1485 Specifies whether the backarrow key transmits a backspace (8)
1486 or delete (127) character. This corresponds to the DECBKM con‐
1487 trol sequence. A “true” value specifies backspace. The
1488 default is “False”. Pressing the control key toggles this
1489 behavior.
1490 background (class Background)
1492 Specifies the color to use for the background of the window.
1493 The default is “XtDefaultBackground”.
1494 bellIsUrgent (class BellIsUrgent)
1496 Specifies whether to set the Urgency hint for the window man‐
1497 ager when making a bell sound. The default is “false”.
1498 bellOnReset (class BellOnReset)
1500 Specifies whether to sound a bell when doing a hard reset. The
1501 default is “true”.
1502 bellSuppressTime (class BellSuppressTime)
1504 Number of milliseconds after a bell command is sent during
1505 which additional bells will be suppressed. Default is 200. If
1506 set non-zero, additional bells will also be suppressed until
1507 the server reports that processing of the first bell has been
1508 completed; this feature is most useful with the visible bell.
1509 boldColors (class ColorMode)
1511 Specifies whether to combine bold attribute with colors like
1512 the IBM PC, i.e., map colors 0 through 7 to colors 8 through
1513 15. These normally are the brighter versions of the first 8
1514 colors, hence bold. The default is “true”.
1515 boldFont (class BoldFont)
1517 Specifies the name of the bold font to use instead of over‐
1518 striking. There is no default for this resource.
1519 This font must be the same height and width as the normal font,
1521 otherwise it is ignored. If only one of the normal or bold
1522 fonts is specified, it will be used as the normal font and the
1523 bold font will be produced by overstriking this font.
1524 See also the discussion of boldMode and alwaysBoldMode
1526 resources.
1527 boldMode (class BoldMode)
1529 This specifies whether or not text with the bold attribute
1530 should be overstruck to simulate bold fonts if the resolved
1531 bold font is the same as the normal font. It may be desirable
1532 to disable bold fonts when color is being used for the bold
1533 attribute.
1534 Note that xterm has one bold font which you may set explicitly.
1536 Xterm attempts to derive a bold font for the other font selec‐
1537 tions (font1 through font6). If it cannot find a bold font, it
1538 will use the normal font. In each case (whether the explicit
1539 resource or the derived font), if the normal and bold fonts are
1540 distinct, this resource has no effect. The default is “true”.
1541 See the alwaysBoldMode resource which can modify the behavior
1543 of this resource.
1544 Although xterm attempts to derive a bold font for other font
1546 selections, the font server may not cooperate. Since X11R6,
1547 bitmap fonts have been scaled. The font server claims to pro‐
1548 vide the bold font that xterm requests, but the result is not
1549 always readable. XFree86 introduced a feature which can be
1550 used to suppress the scaling. In the X server's configuration
1551 file (e.g., “/etc/X11/xorg.conf”), you can add “:unscaled” to
1552 the end of the directory specification for the “misc” fonts,
1553 which comprise the fixed-pitch fonts that are used by xterm.
1554 For example
1555 FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc/"
1557 would become
1559 FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc/:unscaled"
1561 Depending on your configuration, the font server may have its
1563 own configuration file. The same “:unscaled” can be added to
1564 its configuration file at the end of the directory specifica‐
1565 tion for “misc”.
1566 The bitmap scaling feature is also used by xterm to implement
1568 VT102 double-width and double-height characters.
1569 brokenLinuxOSC (class BrokenLinuxOSC)
1571 If true, xterm applies a workaround to ignore malformed control
1572 sequences that a Linux script might send. Compare the palette
1573 control sequences documented in console_codes with ECMA-48.
1574 The default is “true”.
1575 brokenSelections (class BrokenSelections)
1577 If true, xterm in 8-bit mode will interpret STRING selections
1578 as carrying text in the current locale's encoding. Normally
1579 STRING selections carry ISO-8859-1 encoded text. Setting this
1580 resource to “true” violates the ICCCM; it may, however, be use‐
1581 ful for interacting with some broken X clients. The default is
1582 “false”.
1583 brokenStringTerm (class BrokenStringTerm)
1585 provides a work-around for some ISDN routers which start an
1586 application control string without completing it. Set this to
1587 “true” if xterm appears to freeze when connecting. The default
1588 is “false”.
1589 Xterm's state parser recognizes several types of control
1591 strings which can contain text, e.g.,
1592 APC (Application Program Command),
1594 DCS (Device Control String),
1595 OSC (Operating System Command),
1596 PM (Privacy Message), and
1597 SOS (Start of String),
1598 Each should end with a string-terminator (a special character
1600 which cannot appear in these strings). Ordinary control char‐
1601 acters found within the string are not ignored; they are pro‐
1602 cessed without interfering with the process of accumulating the
1603 control string's content. Xterm recognizes these controls in
1604 all modes, although some of the functions may be suppressed
1605 after parsing the control.
1606 When enabled, this feature allows the user to exit from an
1608 unterminated control string when any of these ordinary control
1609 characters are found:
1610 control/D (used as an end of file in many shells),
1612 control/H (backspace),
1613 control/I (tab-feed),
1614 control/J (line feed aka newline),
1615 control/K (vertical tab),
1616 control/L (form feed),
1617 control/M (carriage return),
1618 control/N (shift-out),
1619 control/O (shift-in),
1620 control/Q (XOFF),
1621 control/X (cancel)
1622 c132 (class C132)
1624 Specifies whether or not the VT102 DECCOLM escape sequence,
1625 used to switch between 80 and 132 columns, should be honored.
1626 The default is “false”.
1627 cacheDoublesize (class CacheDoublesize)
1629 Tells whether to cache double-sized fonts by xterm. Set this
1630 to zero to disable double-sized fonts altogether.
1631 cdXtraScroll (class CdXtraScroll)
1633 Specifies whether xterm should scroll to a new page when clear‐
1634 ing the whole screen. Like tiXtraScroll, the intent of this
1635 option is to provide a picture of the full-screen application's
1636 display on the scrollback before wiping out the text. The
1637 default for this resource is “false”.
1638 charClass (class CharClass)
1640 Specifies comma-separated lists of character class bindings of
1641 the form [low-]high:value. These are used in determining which
1642 sets of characters should be treated the same when doing cut
1643 and paste. See the CHARACTER CLASSES section.
1644 cjkWidth (class CjkWidth)
1646 Specifies whether xterm should follow the traditional East
1647 Asian width convention. When turned on, characters with East
1648 Asian Ambiguous (A) category in UTR 11 have a column width of
1649 2. You may have to set this option to “true” if you have some
1650 old East Asian terminal based programs that assume that line-
1651 drawing characters have a column width of 2. If this resource
1652 is false, the mkWidth resource controls the choice between the
1653 system's wcwidth and xterm's built-in tables. The default is
1654 “false”.
1655 color0 (class Color0)
1657 color1 (class Color1)
1659 color2 (class Color2)
1661 color3 (class Color3)
1663 color4 (class Color4)
1665 color5 (class Color5)
1667 color6 (class Color6)
1669 color7 (class Color7)
1671 These specify the colors for the ISO-6429 extension. The
1672 defaults are, respectively, black, red3, green3, yellow3, a
1673 customizable dark blue, magenta3, cyan3, and gray90. The
1674 default shades of color are chosen to allow the colors 8-15 to
1675 be used as brighter versions.
1676 color8 (class Color8)
1678 color9 (class Color9)
1680 color10 (class Color10)
1682 color11 (class Color11)
1684 color12 (class Color12)
1686 color13 (class Color13)
1688 color14 (class Color14)
1690 color15 (class Color15)
1692 These specify the colors for the ISO-6429 extension if the bold
1693 attribute is also enabled. The default resource values are
1694 respectively, gray30, red, green, yellow, a customizable light
1695 blue, magenta, cyan, and white.
1696 color16 (class Color16)
1698 through
1700 color255 (class Color255)
1702 These specify the colors for the 256-color extension. The
1703 default resource values are for colors 16 through 231 to make a
1704 6x6x6 color cube, and colors 232 through 255 to make a
1705 grayscale ramp.
1706 Resources past color15 are available as a compile-time option.
1708 Due to a hardcoded limit in the X libraries on the total number
1709 of resources (to 400), the resources for 256-colors are omitted
1710 when wide-character support and luit are enabled. Besides
1711 inconsistent behavior if only part of the resources were
1712 allowed, determining the exact cutoff is difficult, and the X
1713 libraries tend to crash if the number of resources exceeds the
1714 limit. The color palette is still initialized to the same
1715 default values, and can be modified via control sequences.
1716 On the other hand, the resource limit does permit including the
1718 entire range for 88-colors.
1719 colorAttrMode (class ColorAttrMode)
1721 Specifies whether colorBD, colorBL, colorRV, and colorUL should
1722 override ANSI colors. If not, these are displayed only when no
1723 ANSI colors have been set for the corresponding position. The
1724 default is “false”.
1725 colorBD (class ColorBD)
1727 This specifies the color to use to display bold characters if
1728 the “colorBDMode” resource is enabled. The default is “XtDe‐
1729 faultForeground”.
1730 See also the veryBoldColors resource which allows combining
1732 bold and color.
1733 colorBDMode (class ColorAttrMode)
1735 Specifies whether characters with the bold attribute should be
1736 displayed in color or as bold characters. Note that setting
1737 colorMode off disables all colors, including bold. The default
1738 is “false”.
1739 colorBL (class ColorBL)
1741 This specifies the color to use to display blink characters if
1742 the “colorBLMode” resource is enabled. The default is “XtDe‐
1743 faultForeground”.
1744 See also the veryBoldColors resource which allows combining
1746 underline and color.
1747 colorBLMode (class ColorAttrMode)
1749 Specifies whether characters with the blink attribute should be
1750 displayed in color. Note that setting colorMode off disables
1751 all colors, including this. The default is “false”.
1752 colorMode (class ColorMode)
1754 Specifies whether or not recognition of ANSI (ISO-6429) color
1755 change escape sequences should be enabled. The default is
1756 “true”.
1757 colorRV (class ColorRV)
1759 This specifies the color to use to display reverse characters
1760 if the “colorRVMode” resource is enabled. The default is
1761 “XtDefaultForeground”.
1762 See also the veryBoldColors resource which allows combining
1764 reverse and color.
1765 colorRVMode (class ColorAttrMode)
1767 Specifies whether characters with the reverse attribute should
1768 be displayed in color. Note that setting colorMode off dis‐
1769 ables all colors, including this. The default is “false”.
1770 colorUL (class ColorUL)
1772 This specifies the color to use to display underlined charac‐
1773 ters if the “colorULMode” resource is enabled. The default is
1774 “XtDefaultForeground”.
1775 See also the veryBoldColors resource which allows combining
1777 underline and color.
1778 colorULMode (class ColorAttrMode)
1780 Specifies whether characters with the underline attribute
1781 should be displayed in color or as underlined characters. Note
1782 that setting colorMode off disables all colors, including
1783 underlining. The default is “false”.
1784 combiningChars (class CombiningChars)
1786 Specifies the number of wide-characters which can be stored in
1787 a cell to overstrike (combine) with the base character of the
1788 cell. This can be set to values in the range 0 to 4. The
1789 default is “2”.
1790 ctrlFKeys (class CtrlFKeys)
1792 In VT220 keyboard mode (see sunKeyboard resource), specifies
1793 the amount by which to shift F1-F12 given a control modifier
1794 (CTRL). This allows you to generate key symbols for F10-F20 on
1795 a Sun/PC keyboard. The default is “10”, which means that CTRL
1796 F1 generates the key symbol for F11.
1797 curses (class Curses)
1799 Specifies whether or not the last column bug in more(1) should
1800 be worked around. See the -cu option for details. The default
1801 is “false”.
1802 cursorBlink (class CursorBlink)
1804 Specifies whether to make the cursor blink. The default is
1805 “false”.
1806 Xterm uses two variables to determine whether the cursor
1808 blinks. One is set by this resource. The other is set by con‐
1809 trol sequences (private mode 12 and DECSCUSR). Xterm tests the
1810 XOR of the two variables.
1811 cursorColor (class CursorColor)
1813 Specifies the color to use for the text cursor. The default is
1814 “XtDefaultForeground”. By default, xterm attempts to keep this
1815 color from being the same as the background color, since it
1816 draws the cursor by filling the background of a text cell. The
1817 same restriction applies to control sequences which may change
1818 this color.
1819 Setting this resource overrides most of xterm's adjustments to
1821 cursor color. It will still use reverse-video to disallow some
1822 cases, such as a black cursor on a black background.
1823 cursorOffTime (class CursorOffTime)
1825 Specifies the duration of the “off” part of the cursor blink
1826 cycle-time in milliseconds. The same timer is used for text
1827 blinking. The default is “300”.
1828 cursorOnTime (class CursorOnTime)
1830 Specifies the duration of the “on” part of the cursor blink
1831 cycle-time, in milliseconds. The same timer is used for text
1832 blinking. The default is “600”.
1833 cutNewline (class CutNewline)
1835 If “false”, triple clicking to select a line does not include
1836 the Newline at the end of the line. If “true”, the Newline is
1837 selected. The default is “true”.
1838 cursorUnderLine (class CursorUnderLine)
1840 Specifies whether to make the cursor underlined or a box. The
1841 default is “false”.
1842 cutToBeginningOfLine (class CutToBeginningOfLine)
1844 If “false”, triple clicking to select a line selects only from
1845 the current word forward. If “true”, the entire line is
1846 selected. The default is “true”.
1847 decTerminalID (class DecTerminalID)
1849 Specifies the emulation level (100=VT100, 220=VT220, etc.),
1850 used to determine the type of response to a DA control
1851 sequence. Leading non-digit characters are ignored, e.g.,
1852 “vt100” and “100” are the same. The default is “420”.
1853 defaultString (class DefaultString)
1855 Specify the character (or string) which xterm will substitute
1856 when pasted text includes a character which cannot be repre‐
1857 sented in the current encoding. For instance, pasting UTF-8
1858 text into a display of ISO-8859-1 characters will only be able
1859 to display codes 0-255, while UTF-8 text can include Unicode
1860 values above 255. The default is “#” (a single pound sign).
1861 If the undisplayable text would be double-width, xterm will add
1863 a space after the “#” character, to give roughly the same lay‐
1864 out on the screen as the original text.
1865 deleteIsDEL (class DeleteIsDEL)
1867 Specifies whether the Delete key on the editing keypad should
1868 send DEL (127) or the VT220-style Remove escape sequence. A
1869 “false” value enables the latter. The default is “Maybe”.
1870 disallowedColorOps (class DisallowedColorOps)
1872 Specify which features will be disabled if allowColorOps is
1873 false. This is a comma-separated list of names. The default
1874 value is
1875 SetColor,GetColor,GetAnsiColor
1876 The names are listed below. xterm ignores capitalization, but
1878 they are shown in mixed-case for clarity.
1879 SetColor
1881 Set a specific dynamic color.
1882 GetColor
1884 Report the current setting of a given dynamic color.
1885 GetAnsiColor
1887 Report the current setting of a given ANSI color (actually
1888 any of the colors set via ANSI-style controls).
1889 disallowedFontOps (class DisallowedFontOps)
1891 Specify which features will be disabled if allowFontOps is
1892 false. This is a comma-separated list of names. The default
1893 value is
1894 SetFont,GetFont
1895 The names are listed below. xterm ignores capitalization, but
1897 they are shown in mixed-case for clarity.
1898 SetFont
1900 Set the specified font.
1901 GetFont
1903 Report the specified font.
1904 disallowedTcapOps (class DisallowedTcapOps)
1906 Specify which features will be disabled if allowTcapOps is
1907 false. This is a comma-separated list of names. The default
1908 value is
1909 SetTcap,GetTcap
1910 The names are listed below. xterm ignores capitalization, but
1912 they are shown in mixed-case for clarity.
1913 SetTcap
1915 (not implemented)
1916 GetTcap
1918 Report specified function- and other special keys.
1919 disallowedWindowOps (class DisallowedWindowOps)
1921 Specify which features will be disabled if allowWindowOps is
1922 false. This is a comma-separated list of names, or (for the
1923 controls adapted from dtterm the operation number). The
1924 default value is
1925 20,21,SetXprop,SetSelection
1926 The names are listed below. xterm ignores capitalization, but
1928 they are shown in mixed-case for clarity. Where a number can
1929 be used as an alternative, it is given in parentheses after the
1930 name.
1931 GetIconTitle (20)
1933 Report xterm window's icon label as a string.
1934 GetScreenSizeChars (19)
1936 Report the size of the screen in characters as numbers.
1937 GetSelection
1939 Report selection data as a base64 string.
1940 GetWinPosition (13)
1942 Report xterm window position as numbers.
1943 GetWinSizeChars (18)
1945 Report the size of the text area in characters as numbers.
1946 GetWinSizePixels (14)
1948 Report xterm window in pixels as numbers.
1949 GetWinState (11)
1951 Report xterm window state as a number.
1952 GetWinTitle (21)
1954 Report xterm window's title as a string.
1955 LowerWin (6)
1957 Lower the xterm window to the bottom of the stacking
1958 order.
1959 MaximizeWin (9)
1961 Maximize window (i.e., resize to screen size).
1962 FullscreenWin (10)
1964 Use full screen (i.e., resize to screen size, without win‐
1965 dow decorations).
1966 MinimizeWin (2)
1968 Iconify window.
1969 PopTitle (23)
1971 Pop title from internal stack.
1972 PushTitle (22)
1974 Push title to internal stack.
1975 RaiseWin (5)
1977 Raise the xterm window to the front of the stacking order.
1978 RefreshWin (7)
1980 Refresh the xterm window.
1981 RestoreWin (1)
1983 De-iconify window.
1984 SetSelection
1986 Set selection data.
1987 SetWinLines
1989 Resize to a given number of lines, at least 24.
1990 SetWinPosition (3)
1992 Move window to given coordinates.
1993 SetWinSizeChars (8)
1995 Resize the text area to given size in characters.
1996 SetWinSizePixels (4)
1998 Resize the xterm window to given size in pixels.
1999 SetXprop
2001 Set X property on top-level window.
2002 dynamicColors (class DynamicColors)
2004 Specifies whether or not escape sequences to change colors
2005 assigned to different attributes are recognized.
2006 eightBitControl (class EightBitControl)
2008 Specifies whether or not control sequences sent by the terminal
2009 should be eight-bit characters or escape sequences. The
2010 default is “false”.
2011 eightBitInput (class EightBitInput)
2013 If “true”, Meta characters (a single-byte character combined
2014 with the Meta modifier key) input from the keyboard are pre‐
2015 sented as a single character, modified according to the eight‐
2016 BitMeta resource. If “false”, Meta characters are converted
2017 into a two-character sequence with the character itself pre‐
2018 ceded by ESC. The default is “true”.
2019 The metaSendsEscape and altSendsEscape resources may override
2021 this feature. Generally keyboards do not have a key labeled
2022 “Meta”, but “Alt” keys are common, and they are conventionally
2023 used for “Meta”. If they were synonymous, it would have been
2024 reasonable to name this resource “altSendsEscape”, reversing
2025 its sense. For more background on this, see the meta function
2026 in curses.
2027 Note that the Alt key is not necessarily the same as the Meta
2029 modifier. xmodmap lists your key modifiers. X defines modi‐
2030 fiers for shift, (caps) lock and control, as well as 5 addi‐
2031 tional modifiers which are generally used to configure key mod‐
2032 ifiers. xterm inspects the same information to find the modi‐
2033 fier associated with either Meta key (left or right), and uses
2034 that key as the Meta modifier. It also looks for the NumLock
2035 key, to recognize the modifier which is associated with that.
2036 If your xmodmap configuration uses the same keycodes for Alt-
2038 and Meta-keys, xterm will only see the Alt-key definitions,
2039 since those are tested before Meta-keys. NumLock is tested
2040 first. It is important to keep these keys distinct; otherwise
2041 some of xterm's functionality is not available.
2042 The eightBitInput resource is tested at startup time. If
2044 “true”, the xterm tries to put the terminal into 8-bit mode.
2045 If “false”, on startup, xterm tries to put the terminal into
2046 7-bit mode. For some configurations this is unsuccessful;
2047 failure is ignored. After startup, xterm does not change the
2048 terminal between 8-bit and 7-bit mode.
2049 As originally implemented in X11, the resource value did not
2051 change after startup. However (since patch #216 in 2006) xterm
2052 can modify eightBitInput after startup via a control sequence.
2053 The corresponding terminfo capabilities smm (set meta mode) and
2054 rmm (reset meta mode) have been recognized by bash for some
2055 time. Interestingly enough, bash's notion of "meta mode" dif‐
2056 fers from the standard definition (in the terminfo manual),
2057 which describes the change to the eighth bit of a character.
2058 It happens that bash views "meta mode" as the ESC character
2059 that xterm puts before a character when a special meta key is
2060 pressed. bash's early documentation talks about the ESC char‐
2061 acter and ignores the eighth bit.
2062 eightBitMeta (class EightBitMeta)
2064 This controls the way xterm modifies the eighth bit of a sin‐
2065 gle-byte key when the eightBitInput resource is set. The
2066 default is “locale”.
2067 The resource value is a string, evaluated as a boolean after
2069 startup.
2070 false
2072 The key is sent unmodified.
2073 locale
2075 The key is modified only if the locale uses eight-bit
2076 encoding.
2077 true The key is sent modified.
2079 never
2081 The key is always sent unmodified.
2082 Except for the never choice, xterm honors the terminfo capabil‐
2084 ities smm (set meta mode) and rmm (reset meta mode), allowing
2085 the feature to be turned on or off dynamically.
2086 If eightBitMeta is enabled when the locale uses UTF-8, xterm
2088 encodes the value as UTF-8 (since patch #183 in 2003).
2089 eightBitOutput (class EightBitOutput)
2091 Specifies whether or not eight-bit characters sent from the
2092 host should be accepted as is or stripped when printed. The
2093 default is “true”, which means that they are accepted as is.
2094 eightBitSelectTypes (class EightBitSelectTypes)
2096 Override xterm's default selection target list (see
2097 SELECT/PASTE) for selections in normal (ISO-8859-1) mode. The
2098 default is an empty string, i.e., “”, which does not override
2099 anything.
2100 faceName (class FaceName)
2102 Specify the pattern for scalable fonts selected from the
2103 FreeType library if support for that library was compiled into
2104 xterm. There is no default value.
2105 If not specified, or if there is no match for both normal and
2107 bold fonts, xterm uses the bitmap font and related resources.
2108 It is possible to select suitable bitmap fonts using a script
2110 such as this:
2111 #!/bin/sh
2113 FONT=`xfontsel -print`
2114 test -n "$FONT" && xfd -fn "$FONT"
2115 However (even though xfd accepts a “-fa” option to denote
2117 FreeType fonts), xfontsel has not been similarly extended. As
2118 a workaround, you may try
2119 fc-list :scalable=true:spacing=mono: family
2121 to find a list of scalable fixed-pitch fonts which may be used
2123 for the faceName resource value.
2124 faceNameDoublesize (class FaceNameDoublesize)
2126 Specify a double-width scalable font for cases where an appli‐
2127 cation requires this, e.g., in CJK applications. There is no
2128 default value.
2129 If the application uses double-wide characters and this
2131 resource is not given, xterm will use a scaled version of the
2132 font given by faceName.
2133 faceSize (class FaceSize)
2135 Specify the pointsize for fonts selected from the FreeType
2136 library if support for that library was compiled into xterm.
2137 The default is “14.0” On the VT Fonts menu, this corresponds to
2138 the Default entry.
2139 Although the default is “14.0”, this may not be the same as the
2141 pointsize for the default bitmap font, i.e., that assigned with
2142 the -fn option, or the font resource. For example, the “fixed”
2143 font usually has a pointsize of “8.0”. If you set faceSize to
2144 match the size of the bitmap font, then switching between bit‐
2145 map and TrueType fonts via the font menu will give comparable
2146 sizes for the window.
2147 You can specify the pointsize for TrueType fonts selected with
2149 the other size-related menu entries such as Medium, Huge, etc.,
2150 by using one of the following resource values. If you do not
2151 specify a value, they default to “0.0”, which causes xterm to
2152 use the ratio of font sizes from the corresponding bitmap font
2153 resources to obtain a TrueType pointsize.
2154 If all of the faceSize resources are set, then xterm will use
2156 this information to determine the next smaller/larger TrueType
2157 font for the larger-vt-font() and smaller-vt-font() actions.
2158 If any are not set, xterm will use only the areas of the bitmap
2159 fonts.
2160 faceSize1 (class FaceSize1)
2162 Specifies the pointsize of the first alternative font.
2163 faceSize2 (class FaceSize2)
2165 Specifies the pointsize of the second alternative font.
2166 faceSize3 (class FaceSize3)
2168 Specifies the pointsize of the third alternative font.
2169 faceSize4 (class FaceSize4)
2171 Specifies the pointsize of the fourth alternative font.
2172 faceSize5 (class FaceSize5)
2174 Specifies the pointsize of the fifth alternative font.
2175 faceSize6 (class FaceSize6)
2177 Specifies the pointsize of the sixth alternative font.
2178 font (class Font)
2180 Specifies the name of the normal font. The default is “fixed”.
2181 See the discussion of the locale resource, which describes how
2183 this font may be overridden.
2184 NOTE: some resource files use patterns such as
2186 *font: fixed
2188 which are overly broad, affecting both
2190 xterm.vt100.font
2192 and
2194 xterm.vt100.utf8Fonts.font
2196 which is probably not what you intended.
2198 fastScroll (class FastScroll)
2200 Modifies the effect of jump scroll (jumpScroll) by suppressing
2201 screen refreshes for the special case when output to the screen
2202 has completely shifted the contents off-screen. For instance,
2203 cat'ing a large file to the screen does this.
2204 font1 (class Font1)
2206 Specifies the name of the first alternative font, corresponding
2207 to “Unreadable” in the standard menu.
2208 font2 (class Font2)
2210 Specifies the name of the second alternative font, correspond‐
2211 ing to “Tiny” in the standard menu.
2212 font3 (class Font3)
2214 Specifies the name of the third alternative font, corresponding
2215 to “Small” in the standard menu.
2216 font4 (class Font4)
2218 Specifies the name of the fourth alternative font, correspond‐
2219 ing to “Medium” in the standard menu.
2220 font5 (class Font5)
2222 Specifies the name of the fifth alternative font, corresponding
2223 to “Large” in the standard menu.
2224 font6 (class Font6)
2226 Specifies the name of the sixth alternative font, corresponding
2227 to “Huge” in the standard menu.
2228 fontDoublesize (class FontDoublesize)
2230 Specifies whether xterm should attempt to use font scaling to
2231 draw double-sized characters. Some older font servers cannot
2232 do this properly, will return misleading font metrics. The
2233 default is “true”. If disabled, xterm will simulate double-
2234 sized characters by drawing normal characters with spaces
2235 between them.
2236 fontWarnings (class FontWarnings)
2238 Specify whether xterm should report an error if it fails to
2239 load a font:
2240 0 Never report an error (though the X libraries may).
2242 1 Report an error if the font name was given as a resource
2244 setting.
2245 2 Always report an error on failure to load a font.
2247 The default is “1”.
2249 forceBoxChars (class ForceBoxChars)
2251 Specifies whether xterm should assume the normal and bold fonts
2252 have VT100 line-drawing characters:
2253 · The fixed-pitch ISO-8859-*-encoded fonts used by xterm nor‐
2255 mally have the VT100 line-drawing glyphs in cells 1-31.
2256 Other fixed-pitch fonts may be more attractive, but lack
2257 these glyphs.
2258 · When using an ISO-10646-1 font and the wideChars resource
2260 is true, xterm uses the Unicode glyphs which match the
2261 VT100 line-drawing glyphs.
2262 If “false”, xterm checks for missing glyphs in the font and
2264 makes line-drawing characters directly as needed. If “true”,
2265 xterm assumes the font does not contain the line-drawing char‐
2266 acters, and draws them directly. The default is “false”.
2267 forcePackedFont (class ForcePackedFont)
2269 Specifies whether xterm should use the maximum or minimum glyph
2270 width when displaying using a bitmap font. Use the maximum
2271 width to help with proportional fonts. The default is “true”,
2272 denoting the minimum width.
2273 foreground (class Foreground)
2275 Specifies the color to use for displaying text in the window.
2276 Setting the class name instead of the instance name is an easy
2277 way to have everything that would normally appear in the text
2278 color change color. The default is “XtDefaultForeground”.
2279 formatOtherKeys (class FormatOtherKeys)
2281 Overrides the format of the escape sequence used to report mod‐
2282 ified keys with the modifyOtherKeys resource.
2283 0 send modified keys as parameters for function-key 27
2285 (default).
2286 1 send modified keys as parameters for CSI u.
2288 freeBoldBox (class FreeBoldBox)
2290 Specifies whether xterm should assume the bounding boxes for
2291 normal and bold fonts are compatible. If “false”, xterm com‐
2292 pares them and will reject choices of bold fonts that do not
2293 match the size of the normal font. The default is “false”,
2294 which means that the comparison is performed.
2295 geometry (class Geometry)
2297 Specifies the preferred size and position of the VT102 window.
2298 There is no default for this resource.
2299 highlightColor (class HighlightColor)
2301 Specifies the color to use for the background of selected
2302 (highlighted) text. If not specified (i.e., matching the
2303 default foreground), reverse video is used. The default is
2304 “XtDefaultForeground”.
2305 highlightColorMode (class HighlightColorMode)
2307 Specifies whether xterm should use highlightTextColor and high‐
2308 lightColor to override the reversed foreground/background col‐
2309 ors in a selection. The default is unspecified: at startup,
2310 xterm checks if those resources are set to something other than
2311 the default foreground and background colors. Setting this
2312 resource disables the check.
2313 The following table shows the interaction of the highlighting
2315 resources, abbreviated as shown to fit in this page:
2316 HCM
2318 highlightColorMode
2319 HR highlightReverse
2321 HBG
2323 highlightColor
2324 HFG
2326 highlightTextColor
2327 HCM HR HBG HFG Highlight
2329 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2330 false false default default bg/fg
2331 false false default set bg/fg
2332 false false set default fg/HBG
2333 false false set set fg/HBG
2334 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2335 false true default default bg/fg
2336 false true default set bg/fg
2337 false true set default fg/HBG
2338 false true set set fg/HBG
2339 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2340 true false default default bg/fg
2341 true false default set HFG/fg
2342 true false set default bg/HBG
2343 true false set set HFG/HBG
2344 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2345 true true default default fg/fg (useless)
2346 true true default set HFG/fg
2347 true true set default fg/HBG
2348 true true set set HFG/HBG
2349 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2350 default false default default bg/fg
2351 default false default set bg/fg
2352 default false set default fg/HBG
2353 default false set set HFG/HBG
2354 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2355 default true default default bg/fg
2356 default true default set bg/fg
2357 default true set default fg/HBG
2358 default true set set HFG/HBG
2359 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2360 highlightReverse (class HighlightReverse)
2362 Specifies whether xterm should reverse the selection foreground
2363 and background colors when selecting text with reverse-video
2364 attribute. This applies only to the highlightColor and high‐
2365 lightTextColor resources, e.g., to match the color scheme of
2366 xwsh. If “true”, xterm reverses the colors, If “false”, xterm
2367 does not reverse colors, The default is “true”.
2368 highlightSelection (class HighlightSelection)
2370 If “false”, selecting with the mouse highlights all positions
2371 on the screen between the beginning of the selection and the
2372 current position. If “true”, xterm highlights only the posi‐
2373 tions that contain text that can be selected. The default is
2374 “false”.
2375 Depending on the way your applications write to the screen,
2377 there may be trailing blanks on a line. Xterm stores data as
2378 it is shown on the screen. Erasing the display changes the
2379 internal state of each cell so it is not considered a blank for
2380 the purpose of selection. Blanks written since the last erase
2381 are selectable. If you do not wish to have trailing blanks in
2382 a selection, use the trimSelection resource.
2383 highlightTextColor (class HighlightTextColor)
2385 Specifies the color to use for the foreground of selected
2386 (highlighted) text. If not specified (i.e., matching the
2387 default background), reverse video is used. The default is
2388 “XtDefaultBackground”.
2389 hpLowerleftBugCompat (class HpLowerleftBugCompat)
2391 Specifies whether to work around a bug in HP's xdb, which
2392 ignores termcap and always sends ESC F to move to the lower
2393 left corner. “true” causes xterm to interpret ESC F as a
2394 request to move to the lower left corner of the screen. The
2395 default is “false”.
2396 i18nSelections (class I18nSelections)
2398 If false, xterm will not request the targets COMPOUND_TEXT or
2399 TEXT. The default is “true”. It may be set to false in order
2400 to work around ICCCM violations by other X clients.
2401 iconBorderColor (class BorderColor)
2403 Specifies the border color for the active icon window if this
2404 feature is compiled into xterm. Not all window managers will
2405 make the icon border visible.
2406 iconBorderWidth (class BorderWidth)
2408 Specifies the border width for the active icon window if this
2409 feature is compiled into xterm. The default is “2”. Not all
2410 window managers will make the border visible.
2411 iconFont (class IconFont)
2413 Specifies the font for the miniature active icon window, if
2414 this feature is compiled into xterm. The default is “nil2”.
2415 initialFont (class InitialFont)
2417 Specifies which of the VT100 fonts to use initially. Values
2418 are the same as for the set-vt-font action. The default is
2419 “d”, i.e., “default”.
2420 inputMethod (class XtCInputMethod)
2422 Tells xterm which type of input method to use. There is no
2423 default method.
2424 internalBorder (class BorderWidth)
2426 Specifies the number of pixels between the characters and the
2427 window border. The default is “2”.
2428 italicULMode (class ColorAttrMode)
2430 Specifies whether characters with the underline attribute
2431 should be displayed in an italic font or as underlined charac‐
2432 ters. It is implemented only for TrueType fonts.
2433 jumpScroll (class JumpScroll)
2435 Specifies whether or not jump scroll should be used. This cor‐
2436 responds to the VT102 DECSCLM private mode. The default is
2437 “true”. See fastScroll for a variation.
2438 keepSelection (class KeepSelection)
2440 Specifies whether xterm will keep the selection even after the
2441 selected area was touched by some output to the terminal. The
2442 default is “true”.
2443 keyboardDialect (class KeyboardDialect)
2445 Specifies the initial keyboard dialect, as well as the default
2446 value when the terminal is reset. The value given is the same
2447 as the final character in the control sequences which change
2448 character sets. The default is “B”, which corresponds to US
2449 ASCII.
2450 nameKeymap (class NameKeymap)
2452 See the discussion of the keymap() action.
2453 limitResize (class LimitResize)
2455 Limits resizing of the screen via control sequence to a given
2456 multiple of the display dimensions. The default is “1”.
2457 locale (class Locale)
2459 Specifies how to use luit, an encoding converter between UTF-8
2460 and locale encodings. The resource value (ignoring case) may
2461 be:
2462 true
2464 xterm will use the encoding specified by the users'
2465 LC_CTYPE locale (i.e., LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, or LANG variables)
2466 as far as possible. This is realized by always enabling
2467 UTF-8 mode and invoking luit in non-UTF-8 locales.
2468 medium
2470 xterm will follow users' LC_CTYPE locale only for UTF-8,
2471 east Asian, and Thai locales, where the encodings were not
2472 supported by conventional 8bit mode with changing fonts.
2473 For other locales, xterm will use conventional 8bit mode.
2474 checkfont
2476 If mini-luit is compiled-in, xterm will check if a Unicode
2477 font has been specified. If so, it checks if the character
2478 encoding for the current locale is POSIX, Latin-1 or
2479 Latin-9, uses the appropriate mapping to support those with
2480 the Unicode font. For other encodings, xterm assumes that
2481 UTF-8 encoding is required.
2482 false
2484 xterm will use conventional 8bit mode or UTF-8 mode accord‐
2485 ing to utf8 resource or -u8 option.
2486 Any other value, e.g., “UTF-8” or “ISO8859-2”, is assumed to be
2488 an encoding name; luit will be invoked to support the encoding.
2489 The actual list of supported encodings depends on luit. The
2490 default is “medium”.
2491 Regardless of your locale and encoding, you need an ISO-10646-1
2493 font to display the result. Your configuration may not include
2494 this font, or locale-support by xterm may not be needed. At
2495 startup, xterm uses a mechanism equivalent to the load-vt-
2496 fonts(utf8Fonts, Utf8Fonts) action to load font name subre‐
2497 sources of the VT100 widget. That is, resource patterns such
2498 as “*vt100.utf8Fonts.font” will be loaded, and (if this
2499 resource is enabled), override the normal fonts. If no subre‐
2500 sources are found, the normal fonts such as “*vt100.font”,
2501 etc., are used. The resource files distributed with xterm use
2502 ISO-10646-1 fonts, but do not rely on them unless you are using
2503 the locale mechanism.
2504 localeFilter (class LocaleFilter)
2506 Specifies the file name for the encoding converter from/to
2507 locale encodings and UTF-8 which is used with the -lc option or
2508 locale resource. The help message shown by “xterm -help” lists
2509 the default value, which depends on your system configuration.
2510 If the encoding converter requires command-line parameters, you
2512 can add those after the command, e.g.,
2513 *localeFilter: xterm-filter -p
2515 Alternatively, you may put those parameter within a shell
2517 script to execute the converter, and set this resource to point
2518 to the shell script.
2519 When using a locale-filter, e.g., with the -e option, or the
2521 shell, xterm first tries passing control via that filter. If
2522 it fails, xterm will retry without the locale-filter. Xterm
2523 warns about the failure before retrying.
2524 loginShell (class LoginShell)
2526 Specifies whether or not the shell to be run in the window
2527 should be started as a login shell. The default is “false”.
2528 marginBell (class MarginBell)
2530 Specifies whether or not the bell should be rung when the user
2531 types near the right margin. The default is “false”.
2532 metaSendsEscape (class MetaSendsEscape)
2534 If “true”, Meta characters (a character combined with the Meta
2535 modifier key) are converted into a two-character sequence with
2536 the character itself preceded by ESC. This applies as well to
2537 function key control sequences, unless xterm sees that Meta is
2538 used in your key translations. If “false”, Meta characters
2539 input from the keyboard are handled according to the eightBit‐
2540 Input resource. The default is “True”.
2541 mkSamplePass (class MkSamplePass)
2543 If mkSampleSize is nonzero, and mkWidth (and cjkWidth) are
2544 false, on startup xterm compares its built-in tables to the
2545 system's wide character width data to decide if it will use the
2546 system's data. It tests the first mkSampleSize character val‐
2547 ues, and allows up to mkSamplePass mismatches before the test
2548 fails. The default (for the allowed number of mismatches) is
2549 256.
2550 mkSampleSize (class MkSampleSize)
2552 With mkSamplePass, this specifies a startup test used for ini‐
2553 tializing wide character width calculations. The default (num‐
2554 ber of characters to check) is 1024.
2555 mkWidth (class MkWidth)
2557 Specifies whether xterm should use a built-in version of the
2558 wide character width calculation. See also the cjkWidth
2559 resource which can override this. The default is “false”.
2560 Here is a summary of the resources which control the choice of
2562 wide character width calculation:
2563 cjkWidth mkWidth Action
2565 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2566 false false use system tables subject to mkSamplePass
2567 false true use built-in tables
2568 true false use built-in CJK tables
2569 true true use built-in CJK tables
2570 modifyCursorKeys (class ModifyCursorKeys)
2572 Tells how to handle the special case where Control-, Shift-,
2573 Alt- or Meta-modifiers are used to add a parameter to the
2574 escape sequence returned by a cursor-key. The default is “2”:
2575 -1 disables the feature.
2577 0 uses the old/obsolete behavior.
2579 1 prefixes modified sequences with CSI.
2581 2 forces the modifier to be the second parameter if it would
2583 otherwise be the first.
2584 3 marks the sequence with a “>” to hint that it is private.
2586 modifyFunctionKeys (class ModifyFunctionKeys)
2588 Tells how to handle the special case where Control-, Shift-,
2589 Alt- or Meta-modifiers are used to add a parameter to the
2590 escape sequence returned by a (numbered) function-key. The
2591 default is “2”. The resource values are similar to modifyCur‐
2592 sorKeys:
2593 -1 permits the user to use shift- and control-modifiers to
2595 construct function-key strings using the normal encoding
2596 scheme.
2597 0 uses the old/obsolete behavior.
2599 1 prefixes modified sequences with CSI.
2601 2 forces the modifier to be the second parameter if it would
2603 otherwise be the first.
2604 3 marks the sequence with a “>” to hint that it is private.
2606 If modifyFunctionKeys is zero, xterm uses Control- and Shift-
2608 modifiers to allow the user to construct numbered function-keys
2609 beyond the set provided by the keyboard:
2610 Control
2612 adds the value given by the ctrlFKeys resource.
2613 Shift
2615 adds twice the value given by the ctrlFKeys resource.
2616 Control/Shift
2618 adds three times the value given by the ctrlFKeys
2619 resource.
2620 modifyKeyboard (class ModifyKeyboard)
2622 Normally xterm makes a special case regarding modifiers (shift,
2623 control, etc.) to handle special keyboard layouts (legacy and
2624 vt220). This is done to provide compatible keyboards for DEC
2625 VT220 and related terminals that implement user-defined keys
2626 (UDK).
2627 The bits of the resource value selectively enable modification
2629 of the given category when these keyboards are selected. The
2630 default is “0”:
2631 0 The legacy/vt220 keyboards interpret only the Control-mod‐
2633 ifier when constructing numbered function-keys. Other
2634 special keys are not modified.
2635 1 allows modification of the numeric keypad
2637 2 allows modification of the editing keypad
2639 4 allows modification of function-keys, overrides use of
2641 Shift-modifier for UDK.
2642 8 allows modification of other special keys
2644 modifyOtherKeys (class ModifyOtherKeys)
2646 Like modifyCursorKeys, tells xterm to construct an escape
2647 sequence for other keys (such as “2”) when modified by Con‐
2648 trol-, Alt- or Meta-modifiers. This feature does not apply to
2649 function keys and well-defined keys such as ESC or the control
2650 keys. The default is “0”:
2651 0 disables this feature.
2653 1 enables this feature for keys except for those with well-
2655 known behavior, e.g., Tab, Backarrow and some special con‐
2656 trol character cases, e.g., Control-Space to make a NUL.
2657 2 enables this feature for keys including the exceptions
2659 listed.
2660 multiClickTime (class MultiClickTime)
2662 Specifies the maximum time in milliseconds between multi-click
2663 select events. The default is “250” milliseconds.
2664 multiScroll (class MultiScroll)
2666 Specifies whether or not scrolling should be done asyn‐
2667 chronously. The default is “false”.
2668 nMarginBell (class Column)
2670 Specifies the number of characters from the right margin at
2671 which the margin bell should be rung, when enabled by the
2672 marginBell resource. The default is “10”.
2673 numLock (class NumLock)
2675 If “true”, xterm checks if NumLock is used as a modifier (see
2676 xmodmap(1)). If so, this modifier is used to simplify the
2677 logic when implementing special NumLock for the sunKeyboard
2678 resource. Also (when sunKeyboard is false), similar logic is
2679 used to find the modifier associated with the left and right
2680 Alt keys. The default is “true”.
2681 oldXtermFKeys (class OldXtermFKeys)
2683 If “true”, xterm will use old-style control sequences for func‐
2684 tion keys F1 to F4, for compatibility with X Consortium xterm.
2685 Otherwise, it uses the VT100-style codes for PF1 to PF4. The
2686 default is “false”.
2687 on2Clicks (class On2Clicks)
2689 on3Clicks (class On3Clicks)
2691 on4Clicks (class On4Clicks)
2693 on5Clicks (class On5Clicks)
2695 Specify selection behavior in response to multiple mouse
2696 clicks. A single mouse click is always interpreted as
2697 described in the SELECTION section (see POINTER USAGE). Multi‐
2698 ple mouse clicks (using the button which activates the select-
2699 start action) are interpreted according to the resource values
2700 of on2Clicks, etc. The resource value can be one of these:
2701 word
2703 Select a “word” as determined by the charClass resource.
2704 See the CHARACTER CLASSES section.
2705 line
2707 Select a line (counting wrapping).
2708 group
2710 Select a group of adjacent lines (counting wrapping). The
2711 selection stops on a blank line, and does not extend outside
2712 the current page.
2713 page
2715 Select all visible lines, i.e., the page.
2716 all
2718 Select all lines, i.e., including the saved lines.
2719 regex
2721 Select a “word” as determined by the regular expression
2722 which follows in the resource value.
2723 none
2725 No selection action is associated with this resource. xterm
2726 interprets it as the end of the list. For example, you may
2727 use it to disable triple (and higher) clicking by setting
2728 on3Clicks to “none”.
2729 The default values for on2Clicks and on3Clicks are “word” and
2731 “line”, respectively. There is no default value for on4Clicks
2732 or on5Clicks, making those inactive. On startup, xterm deter‐
2733 mines the maximum number of clicks by the onXClicks resource
2734 values which are set.
2735 openIm (class XtCOpenIm)
2737 Tells xterm whether to open the input method at startup. The
2738 default is “true”.
2739 pointerColor (class PointerColor)
2741 Specifies the foreground color of the pointer. The default is
2742 “XtDefaultForeground”.
2743 pointerColorBackground (class PointerColorBackground)
2745 Specifies the background color of the pointer. The default is
2746 “XtDefaultBackground”.
2747 pointerMode (class PointerMode)
2749 Specifies when the pointer may be hidden as the user types. It
2750 will be redisplayed if the user moves the mouse, or clicks one
2751 of its buttons.
2752 0 never
2754 1 the application running in xterm has not activated mouse
2756 mode. This is the default.
2757 2 always.
2759 pointerShape (class Cursor)
2761 Specifies the name of the shape of the pointer. The default is
2762 “xterm”.
2763 popOnBell (class PopOnBell)
2765 Specifies whether the window would be raised when Control-G is
2766 received. The default is “false”.
2767 If the window is iconified, this has no effect. However, the
2769 zIconBeep resource provides you with the ability to see which
2770 iconified windows have sounded a bell.
2771 precompose (class XtCPrecompose)
2773 Tells xterm whether to precompose UTF-8 data into Normalization
2774 Form C, which combines commonly-used accents onto base charac‐
2775 ters. If it does not do this, accents are left as separatate
2776 characters. The default is “true”.
2777 preeditType (class XtCPreeditType)
2779 Tells xterm which types of preedit (preconversion) string to
2780 display. The default is “OverTheSpot,Root”.
2781 printAttributes (class PrintAttributes)
2783 Specifies whether to print graphic attributes along with the
2784 text. A real DEC VTxxx terminal will print the underline,
2785 highlighting codes but your printer may not handle these.
2786 · “0” disables the attributes.
2788 · “1” prints the normal set of attributes (bold, underline,
2790 inverse and blink) as VT100-style control sequences.
2791 · “2” prints ANSI color attributes as well.
2793 The default is “1”.
2795 printFileImmediate (PrintFileImmediate)
2797 When the print-immediate action is invoked, xterm prints the
2798 screen contents directly to a file. Set this resource to the
2799 prefix of the filename (a timestamp will be appended to the
2800 actual name).
2801 The default is an empty string, i.e., “”, However, when the
2803 print-immediate action is invoked, if the string is empty, then
2804 “XTerm” is used.
2805 printFileOnXError (PrintFileOnXError)
2807 If xterm exits with an X error, e.g., your connection is broken
2808 when the server crashes, it can be told to write the contents
2809 of the screen to a file. To enable the feature, set this
2810 resource to the prefix of the filename (a timestamp will be
2811 appended to the actual name).
2812 The default is an empty string, i.e., “”, which disables this
2814 feature. However, when the print-on-error action is invoked,
2815 if the string is empty, then “XTermError” is used.
2816 These error codes are handled: ERROR_XERROR, ERROR_XIOERROR and
2818 ERROR_ICEERROR.
2819 printModeImmediate (PrintModeImmediate)
2821 When the print-immediate action is invoked, xterm prints the
2822 screen contents directly to a file. You can use the printMod‐
2823 eImmediate resource to tell it to use escape sequences to
2824 reconstruct the video attributes and colors. This uses the
2825 same values as the printAttributes resource. The default is
2826 “0”.
2827 printModeOnXError (PrintModeOnXError)
2829 Xterm implements the printFileOnXError feature using the
2830 printer feature, although the output is written directly to a
2831 file. You can use the printModeOnXError resource to tell it to
2832 use escape sequences to reconstruct the video attributes and
2833 colors. This uses the same values as the printAttributes
2834 resource. The default is “0”.
2835 printOptsImmediate (PrintOptsImmediate)
2837 Specify the range of text which is printed to a file when the
2838 print-immediately action is invoked.
2839 · If zero (0), then this selects the current (visible screen)
2841 plus the saved lines, except if the alternate screen is
2842 being used. In that case, only the alternate screen is
2843 selectd.
2844 · If nonzero, the bits of this resource value (checked in
2846 descending order) select the range:
2847 8 selects the saved lines.
2849 4 selects the alternate screen.
2851 2 selects the normal screen.
2853 1 selects the current screen, which can be either the nor‐
2855 mal or alternate screen.
2856 The default is “9”, which selects the current visible screen
2858 plus saved lines, with no special case for the alternated
2859 screen.
2860 printOptsOnXError (PrintOptsOnXError)
2862 Specify the range of text which is printed to a file when the
2863 print-on-error action is invoked. The resource value is inter‐
2864 preted the same as in printOptsImmediate.
2865 The default is “9”, which selects the current visible screen
2867 plus saved lines, with no special case for the alternated
2868 screen.
2869 printerAutoClose (class PrinterAutoClose)
2871 If “true”, xterm will close the printer (a pipe) when the
2872 application switches the printer offline with a Media Copy com‐
2873 mand. The default is “false”.
2874 printerCommand (class PrinterCommand)
2876 Specifies a shell command to which xterm will open a pipe when
2877 the first MC (Media Copy) command is initiated. The default is
2878 an empty string, i.e., “”. If the resource value is given as
2879 an empty string, the printer is disabled.
2880 printerControlMode (class PrinterControlMode)
2882 Specifies the printer control mode. A “1” selects autoprint
2883 mode, which causes xterm to print a line from the screen when
2884 you move the cursor off that line with a line feed, form feed
2885 or vertical tab character, or an autowrap occurs. Autoprint
2886 mode is overridden by printer controller mode (a “2”), which
2887 causes all of the output to be directed to the printer. The
2888 default is “0”.
2889 printerExtent (class PrinterExtent)
2891 Controls whether a print page function will print the entire
2892 page (true), or only the the portion within the scrolling mar‐
2893 gins (false). The default is “false”.
2894 printerFormFeed (class PrinterFormFeed)
2896 Controls whether a form feed is sent to the printer at the end
2897 of a print page function. The default is “false”.
2898 printerNewLine (class PrinterNewLine)
2900 Controls whether a newline is sent to the printer at the end of
2901 a print page function. The default is “true”.
2902 privateColorRegisters (class privateColorRegisters)
2904 If true, allocate separate color registers for each sixel
2905 device control string, e.g., for DECGCI. If not true, color
2906 registers are allocated only once, when the terminal is reset.
2907 The default is “true”.
2908 quietGrab (class QuietGrab)
2910 Controls whether the cursor is repainted when NotifyGrab and
2911 NotifyUngrab event types are received during change of focus.
2912 The default is “false”.
2913 renderFont (class RenderFont)
2915 If xterm is built with the Xft library, this controls whether
2916 the faceName resource is used. The default is “default”.
2917 The resource values are strings, evaluated as booleans after
2919 startup.
2920 false
2922 disable the feature and use the normal (bitmap) font.
2923 true
2925 startup using the TrueType font specified by the faceName
2926 and faceSize resource settings. If there is no value for
2927 faceName, disable the feature and use the normal (bitmap)
2928 font.
2929 After startup, you can still switch to/from the bitmap
2931 font using the “TrueType Fonts” menu entry.
2932 default
2934 startup using the normal (bitmap) font, but enable the
2935 “TrueType Fonts” menu entry to allow runtime switching
2936 to/from TrueType fonts.
2937 If there is no faceName resource set, then runtime switch‐
2939 ing to TrueType fonts is disabled. Xterm has a separate
2940 compiled-in value for faceName for the special case where
2941 renderFont is “default”. That is normally “mono”.
2942 resizeGravity (class ResizeGravity)
2944 Affects the behavior when the window is resized to be taller or
2945 shorter. NorthWest specifies that the top line of text on the
2946 screen stay fixed. If the window is made shorter, lines are
2947 dropped from the bottom; if the window is made taller, blank
2948 lines are added at the bottom. This is compatible with the
2949 behavior in R4. SouthWest (the default) specifies that the
2950 bottom line of text on the screen stay fixed. If the window is
2951 made taller, additional saved lines will be scrolled down onto
2952 the screen; if the window is made shorter, lines will be
2953 scrolled off the top of the screen, and the top saved lines
2954 will be dropped.
2955 retryInputMethod (class XtCRetryInputMethod)
2957 Tells xterm how many times to retry, in case the input-method
2958 server is not responding. This is a different issue than
2959 unsupported preedit type, etc. You may encounter retries if
2960 your X configuration (and its libraries) are missing pieces.
2961 Setting this resource to zero ``0'' will cancel the retrying.
2962 The default is ``3''.
2963 reverseVideo (class ReverseVideo)
2965 Specifies whether or not reverse video should be simulated.
2966 The default is “false”.
2967 There are several aspects to reverse video in xterm:
2969 · The command-line -rv option tells the X libraries to
2971 reverse the foreground and background colors. Xterm's com‐
2972 mand-line options set resource values. In particular, the
2973 X Toolkit sets the reverseVideo resource when the -rv
2974 option is used.
2975 · If the user has also used command-line options -fg or -bg
2977 to set the foreground and background colors, xterm does not
2978 see these options directly. Instead, it examines the
2979 resource values to reconstruct the command-line options,
2980 and determine which of the colors is the user's intended
2981 foreground, etc. Their actual values are irrelevant to the
2982 reverse video function; some users prefer the X defaults
2983 (black text on a white background), others prefer white
2984 text on a black background.
2985 · After startup, the user can toggle the “Enable Reverse
2987 Video” menu entry. This exchanges the current foreground
2988 and background colors of the VT100 widget, and repaints the
2989 screen. Because of the X resource hierarchy, the reverseV‐
2990 ideo resource applies to more than the VT100 widget.
2991 Programs running in an xterm can also use control sequences to
2993 enable the VT100 reverse video mode. These are independent of
2994 the reverseVideo resource and the menu entry. Xterm exchanges
2995 the current foreground and background colors when drawing text
2996 affected by these control sequences.
2997 Other control sequences can alter the foreground and background
2999 colors which are used:
3000 · Programs can also use the ANSI color control sequences to
3002 set the foreground and background colors.
3003 · Extensions to the ANSI color controls (such as 16-, 88- or
3005 256-colors) are treated similarly to the ANSI control.
3006 · Using other control sequences (the “dynamic colors” fea‐
3008 ture), a program can change the foreground and background
3009 colors.
3010 reverseWrap (class ReverseWrap)
3012 Specifies whether or not reverse-wraparound should be enabled.
3013 This corresponds to xterm's private mode 45. The default is
3014 “false”.
3015 rightScrollBar (class RightScrollBar)
3017 Specifies whether or not the scrollbar should be displayed on
3018 the right rather than the left. The default is “false”.
3019 saveLines (class SaveLines)
3021 Specifies the number of lines to save beyond the top of the
3022 screen when a scrollbar is turned on. The default is “64”.
3023 scrollBar (class ScrollBar)
3025 Specifies whether or not the scrollbar should be displayed.
3026 The default is “false”.
3027 scrollBarBorder (class ScrollBarBorder)
3029 Specifies the width of the scrollbar border. Note that this is
3030 drawn to overlap the border of the xterm window. Modifying the
3031 scrollbar's border affects only the line between the VT100 wid‐
3032 get and the scrollbar. The default value is 1.
3033 scrollKey (class ScrollCond)
3035 Specifies whether or not pressing a key should automatically
3036 cause the scrollbar to go to the bottom of the scrolling
3037 region. This corresponds to xterm's private mode 1011. The
3038 default is “false”.
3039 scrollLines (class ScrollLines)
3041 Specifies the number of lines that the scroll-back and scroll-
3042 forw actions should use as a default. The default value is 1.
3043 scrollTtyOutput (class ScrollCond)
3045 Specifies whether or not output to the terminal should automat‐
3046 ically cause the scrollbar to go to the bottom of the scrolling
3047 region. The default is “true”.
3048 selectToClipboard (class SelectToClipboard)
3050 Tells xterm whether to use the PRIMARY or CLIPBOARD for SELECT
3051 tokens in the selection mechanism. The set-select action can
3052 change this at runtime, allowing the user to work with programs
3053 that handle only one of these mechanisms. The default is
3054 “false”, which tells it to use PRIMARY.
3055 shiftFonts (class ShiftFonts)
3057 Specifies whether to enable the actions larger-vt-font() and
3058 smaller-vt-font(), which are normally bound to the shifted
3059 KP_Add and KP_Subtract. The default is “true”.
3060 showBlinkAsBold (class ShowBlinkAsBold)
3062 Tells xterm whether to display text with blink-attribute the
3063 same as bold. If xterm has not been configured to support
3064 blinking text, the default is “true”, which corresponds to
3065 older versions of xterm, otherwise the default is “false”.
3066 showMissingGlyphs (class ShowMissingGlyphs)
3068 Tells xterm whether to display a box outlining places where a
3069 character has been used that the font does not represent. The
3070 default is “false”.
3071 showWrapMarks (class ShowWrapMarks)
3073 For debugging xterm and applications that may manipulate the
3074 wrapped-line flag by writing text at the right margin, show a
3075 mark on the right inner-border of the window. The mark shows
3076 which lines have the flag set.
3077 signalInhibit (class SignalInhibit)
3079 Specifies whether or not the entries in the “Main Options” menu
3080 for sending signals to xterm should be disallowed. The default
3081 is “false”.
3082 sixelScrolling (class SixelScrolling)
3084 If true, graphics scroll up one line at a time when sixels
3085 would be written past the bottom line on the window. The
3086 default is “false”.
3087 tekGeometry (class Geometry)
3089 Specifies the preferred size and position of the Tektronix win‐
3090 dow. There is no default for this resource.
3091 tekInhibit (class TekInhibit)
3093 Specifies whether or not the escape sequence to enter Tektronix
3094 mode should be ignored. The default is “false”.
3095 tekSmall (class TekSmall)
3097 Specifies whether or not the Tektronix mode window should start
3098 in its smallest size if no explicit geometry is given. This is
3099 useful when running xterm on displays with small screens. The
3100 default is “false”.
3101 tekStartup (class TekStartup)
3103 Specifies whether or not xterm should start up in Tektronix
3104 mode. The default is “false”.
3105 tiXtraScroll (class TiXtraScroll)
3107 Specifies whether xterm should scroll to a new page when pro‐
3108 cessing the ti termcap entry, i.e., the private modes 47, 1047
3109 or 1049. This is only in effect if titeInhibit is “true”,
3110 because the intent of this option is to provide a picture of
3111 the full-screen application's display on the scrollback without
3112 wiping out the text that would be shown before the application
3113 was initialized. The default for this resource is “false”.
3114 titeInhibit (class TiteInhibit)
3116 Specifies whether or not xterm should remove ti and te termcap
3117 entries (used to switch between alternate screens on startup of
3118 many screen-oriented programs) from the TERMCAP string. If
3119 set, xterm also ignores the escape sequence to switch to the
3120 alternate screen. Xterm supports terminfo in a different way,
3121 supporting composite control sequences (also known as private
3122 modes) 1047, 1048 and 1049 which have the same effect as the
3123 original 47 control sequence. The default for this resource is
3124 “false”.
3125 titleModes (class TitleModes)
3127 Tells xterm whether to accept or return window- and icon-labels
3128 in ISO-8859-1 (the default) or UTF-8. Either can be encoded in
3129 hexadecimal. The default for this resource is “0”.
3130 Each bit (bit “0” is 1, bit “1” is 2, etc.) corresponds to one
3132 of the parameters set by the title modes control sequence:
3133 0 Set window/icon labels using hexadecimal
3135 1 Query window/icon labels using hexadecimal
3137 2 Set window/icon labels using UTF-8 (overrides utf8Title
3139 resource).
3140 3 Query window/icon labels using UTF-8
3142 translations (class Translations)
3144 Specifies the key and button bindings for menus, selections,
3145 “programmed strings”, etc. The translations resource, which
3146 provides much of xterm's configurability, is a feature of the X
3147 Toolkit Intrinsics library (Xt). See the ACTIONS section.
3148 trimSelection (class TrimSelection)
3150 If you set highlightSelection, you can see the text which is
3151 selected, including any trailing spaces. Clearing the screen
3152 (or a line) resets it to a state containing no spaces. Some
3153 lines may contain trailing spaces when an application writes
3154 them to the screen. However, you may not wish to paste lines
3155 with trailing spaces. If this resource is true, xterm will
3156 trim trailing spaces from text which is selected. It does not
3157 affect spaces which result in a wrapped line, nor will it trim
3158 the trailing newline from your selection. The default is
3159 “false”.
3160 underLine (class UnderLine)
3162 This specifies whether or not text with the underline attribute
3163 should be underlined. It may be desirable to disable underlin‐
3164 ing when color is being used for the underline attribute. The
3165 default is “true”.
3166 useClipping (class UseClipping)
3168 Tell xterm whether to use clipping to keep from producing dots
3169 outside the text drawing area. Originally used to work around
3170 for overstriking effects, this is also needed to work with some
3171 incorrectly-sized fonts. The default is “true”.
3172 utf8 (class Utf8)
3174 This specifies whether xterm will run in UTF-8 mode. If you
3175 set this resource, xterm also sets the wideChars resource as a
3176 side-effect. The resource can be set via the menu entry “UTF-8
3177 Encoding”. The default is “default”.
3178 Xterm accepts either a keyword (ignoring case) or the number
3180 shown in parentheses:
3181 false (0)
3183 UTF-8 mode is initially off. The command-line option +u8
3184 sets the resource to this value. Escape sequences for turn‐
3185 ing UTF-8 mode on/off are allowed.
3186 true (1)
3188 UTF-8 mode is initially on. Escape sequences for turning
3189 UTF-8 mode on/off are allowed.
3190 always (2)
3192 The command-line option -u8 sets the resource to this value.
3193 Escape sequences for turning UTF-8 mode on/off are ignored.
3194 default (3)
3196 This is the default value of the resource. It is changed
3197 during initialization depending on whether the locale
3198 resource was set, to false (0) or always (2). See the
3199 locale resource for additional discussion of non-UTF-8
3200 locales.
3201 If you want to set the value of utf8, it should be in this
3203 range. Other nonzero values are treated the same as “1”, i.e.,
3204 UTF-8 mode is initially on, and escape sequences for turning
3205 UTF-8 mode on/off are allowed.
3206 utf8Fonts (class Utf8Fonts)
3208 See the discussion of the locale resource. This specifies
3209 whether xterm will use UTF-8 fonts specified via resource pat‐
3210 terns such as “*vt100.utf8Fonts.font” or normal (ISO-8859-1)
3211 fonts via patterns such as “*vt100.font”. The resource can be
3212 set via the menu entry “UTF-8 Fonts”. The default is
3213 “default”.
3214 Xterm accepts either a keyword (ignoring case) or the number
3216 shown in parentheses:
3217 false (0)
3219 Use the ISO-8859-1 fonts. The menu entry is enabled,
3220 allowing the choice of fonts to be changed at runtime.
3221 true (1)
3223 Use the UTF-8 fonts. The menu entry is enabled, allow‐
3224 ing the choice of fonts to be changed at runtime.
3225 always (2)
3227 Always use the UTF-8 fonts. This also disables the menu
3228 entry.
3229 default (3)
3231 At startup, the resource is set to true or false,
3232 according to the effective value of the utf8 resource.
3233 utf8Latin1 (class Utf8Latin1)
3235 If true, allow an ISO-8859-1 normal font to be combined with an
3236 ISO-10646 font if the latter is given via the -fw option or its
3237 corresponding resource value. The default is “false”.
3238 utf8SelectTypes (class Utf8SelectTypes)
3240 Override xterm's default selection target list (see
3241 SELECT/PASTE) for selections in wide-character (UTF-8) mode.
3242 The default is an empty string, i.e., “”, which does not over‐
3243 ride anything.
3244 utf8Title (class Utf8Title)
3246 Applications can set xterm's title by writing a control
3247 sequence. Normally this control sequence follows the VT220
3248 convention, which encodes the string in ISO-8859-1 and allows
3249 for an 8-bit string terminator. If xterm is started in a UTF-8
3250 locale, it translates the ISO-8859-1 string to UTF-8 to work
3251 with the X libraries which assume the string is UTF-8.
3252 However, some users may wish to write a title string encoded in
3254 UTF-8. The window manager is responsible for drawing window
3255 titles. Some window managers (not all) support UTF-8 encoding
3256 of window titles. Set this resource to “true” to allow UTF-8
3257 encoded title strings. That cancels the translation to UTF-8,
3258 allowing UTF-8 strings to be displayed as is.
3259 This feature is available as a menu entry, since it is related
3261 to the particular applications you are running within xterm.
3262 You can also use a control sequence (see the discussion of
3263 “Title Modes” in the control sequences document), to set an
3264 equivalent flag. The titleModes resource sets the same value,
3265 which overrides this resource.
3266 The default is “false”.
3268 veryBoldColors (class VeryBoldColors)
3270 Specifies whether to combine video attributes with colors spec‐
3271 ified by colorBD, colorBL, colorRV and colorUL. The resource
3272 value is the sum of values for each attribute:
3273 1 for reverse,
3274 2 for underline,
3275 4 for bold and
3276 8 for blink.
3277 The default is “0”.
3279 visualBell (class VisualBell)
3281 Specifies whether or not a visible bell (i.e., flashing) should
3282 be used instead of an audible bell when Control-G is received.
3283 The default is “false”, which tells xterm to use an audible
3284 bell.
3285 visualBellDelay (class VisualBellDelay)
3287 Number of milliseconds to delay when displaying a visual bell.
3288 Default is 100. If set to zero, no visual bell is displayed.
3289 This is useful for very slow displays, e.g., an LCD display on
3290 a laptop.
3291 visualBellLine (class VisualBellLine)
3293 Specifies whether to flash only the current line when display‐
3294 ing a visual bell. rather than flashing the entire screen: The
3295 default is “false”, which tells xterm to flash the entire
3296 screen.
3297 vt100Graphics (class VT100Graphics)
3299 This specifies whether xterm will interpret VT100 graphic char‐
3300 acter escape sequences while in UTF-8 mode. The default is
3301 “true”, to provide support for various legacy applications.
3302 wideBoldFont (class WideBoldFont)
3304 This option specifies the font to be used for displaying bold
3305 wide text. By default, it will attempt to use a font twice as
3306 wide as the font that will be used to draw bold text. If no
3307 double-width font is found, it will improvise, by stretching
3308 the bold font.
3309 wideChars (class WideChars)
3311 Specifies if xterm should respond to control sequences that
3312 process 16-bit characters. The default is “false”.
3313 wideFont (class WideFont)
3315 This option specifies the font to be used for displaying wide
3316 text. By default, it will attempt to use a font twice as wide
3317 as the font that will be used to draw normal text. If no dou‐
3318 ble-width font is found, it will improvise, by stretching the
3319 normal font.
3320 ximFont (class XimFont)
3322 This option specifies the font to be used for displaying the
3323 preedit string in the “OverTheSpot” input method.
3324 In “OverTheSpot” preedit type, the preedit (preconversion)
3326 string is displayed at the position of the cursor. It is the
3327 XIM server's responsibility to display the preedit string. The
3328 XIM client must inform the XIM server of the cursor position.
3329 For best results, the preedit string must be displayed with a
3330 proper font. Therefore, xterm informs the XIM server of the
3331 proper font. The font is be supplied by a "fontset", whose
3332 default value is “*”. This matches every font, the X library
3333 automatically chooses fonts with proper charsets. The ximFont
3334 resource is provided to override this default font setting.
3335 Tek4014 Widget Resources
3337 The following resources are specified as part of the tek4014 widget
3338 (class Tek4014). These are specified by patterns such as
3339 “XTerm.tek4014.NAME”:
3340 font2 (class Font)
3342 Specifies font number 2 to use in the Tektronix window.
3343 font3 (class Font)
3345 Specifies font number 3 to use in the Tektronix window.
3346 fontLarge (class Font)
3348 Specifies the large font to use in the Tektronix window.
3349 fontSmall (class Font)
3351 Specifies the small font to use in the Tektronix window.
3352 ginTerminator (class GinTerminator)
3354 Specifies what character(s) should follow a GIN report or sta‐
3355 tus report. The possibilities are “none”, which sends no ter‐
3356 minating characters, “CRonly”, which sends CR, and “CR&EOT”,
3357 which sends both CR and EOT. The default is “none”.
3358 height (class Height)
3360 Specifies the height of the Tektronix window in pixels.
3361 initialFont (class InitialFont)
3363 Specifies which of the four Tektronix fonts to use initially.
3364 Values are the same as for the set-tek-text action. The
3365 default is “large”.
3366 width (class Width)
3368 Specifies the width of the Tektronix window in pixels.
3369 Menu Resources
3371 The resources that may be specified for the various menus are described
3372 in the documentation for the Athena SimpleMenu widget. The name and
3373 classes of the entries in each of the menus are listed below.
3374 Resources named “lineN” where N is a number are separators with class
3375 SmeLine.
3376 As with all X resource-based widgets, the labels mentioned are custom‐
3378 ary defaults for the application.
3379 The Main Options menu (widget name mainMenu) has the following entries:
3381 toolbar (class SmeBSB)
3383 This entry invokes the set-toolbar(toggle) action.
3384 securekbd (class SmeBSB)
3386 This entry invokes the secure() action.
3387 allowsends (class SmeBSB)
3389 This entry invokes the allow-send-events(toggle) action.
3390 redraw (class SmeBSB)
3392 This entry invokes the redraw() action.
3393 logging (class SmeBSB)
3395 This entry invokes the logging(toggle) action.
3396 print-immediate (class SmeBSB)
3398 This entry invokes the print-immediate() action.
3399 print-on-error (class SmeBSB)
3401 This entry invokes the print-on-error() action.
3402 print (class SmeBSB)
3404 This entry invokes the print() action.
3405 print-redir (class SmeBSB)
3407 This entry invokes the print-redir() action.
3408 8-bit-control (class SmeBSB)
3410 This entry invokes the set-8-bit-control(toggle) action.
3411 backarrow key (class SmeBSB)
3413 This entry invokes the set-backarrow(toggle) action.
3414 num-lock (class SmeBSB)
3416 This entry invokes the set-num-lock(toggle) action.
3417 alt-esc (class SmeBSB)
3419 This entry invokes the alt-sends-escape(toggle) action.
3420 meta-esc (class SmeBSB)
3422 This entry invokes the meta-sends-escape(toggle) action.
3423 delete-is-del (class SmeBSB)
3425 This entry invokes the delete-is-del(toggle) action.
3426 oldFunctionKeys (class SmeBSB)
3428 This entry invokes the old-function-keys(toggle) action.
3429 hpFunctionKeys (class SmeBSB)
3431 This entry invokes the hp-function-keys(toggle) action.
3432 scoFunctionKeys (class SmeBSB)
3434 This entry invokes the sco-function-keys(toggle) action.
3435 sunFunctionKeys (class SmeBSB)
3437 This entry invokes the sun-function-keys(toggle) action.
3438 sunKeyboard (class SmeBSB)
3440 This entry invokes the sunKeyboard(toggle) action.
3441 suspend (class SmeBSB)
3443 This entry invokes the send-signal(tstp) action on systems that
3444 support job control.
3445 continue (class SmeBSB)
3447 This entry invokes the send-signal(cont) action on systems that
3448 support job control.
3449 interrupt (class SmeBSB)
3451 This entry invokes the send-signal(int) action.
3452 hangup (class SmeBSB)
3454 This entry invokes the send-signal(hup) action.
3455 terminate (class SmeBSB)
3457 This entry invokes the send-signal(term) action.
3458 kill (class SmeBSB)
3460 This entry invokes the send-signal(kill) action.
3461 quit (class SmeBSB)
3463 This entry invokes the quit() action.
3464 The VT Options menu (widget name vtMenu) has the following entries:
3466 scrollbar (class SmeBSB)
3468 This entry invokes the set-scrollbar(toggle) action.
3469 jumpscroll (class SmeBSB)
3471 This entry invokes the set-jumpscroll(toggle) action.
3472 reversevideo (class SmeBSB)
3474 This entry invokes the set-reverse-video(toggle) action.
3475 autowrap (class SmeBSB)
3477 This entry invokes the set-autowrap(toggle) action.
3478 reversewrap (class SmeBSB)
3480 This entry invokes the set-reversewrap(toggle) action.
3481 autolinefeed (class SmeBSB)
3483 This entry invokes the set-autolinefeed(toggle) action.
3484 appcursor (class SmeBSB)
3486 This entry invokes the set-appcursor(toggle) action.
3487 appkeypad (class SmeBSB)
3489 This entry invokes the set-appkeypad(toggle) action.
3490 scrollkey (class SmeBSB)
3492 This entry invokes the set-scroll-on-key(toggle) action.
3493 scrollttyoutput (class SmeBSB)
3495 This entry invokes the set-scroll-on-tty-output(toggle) action.
3496 allow132 (class SmeBSB)
3498 This entry invokes the set-allow132(toggle) action.
3499 cursesemul (class SmeBSB)
3501 This entry invokes the set-cursesemul(toggle) action.
3502 visualbell (class SmeBSB)
3504 This entry invokes the set-visualbell(toggle) action.
3505 bellIsUrgent (class SmeBSB)
3507 This entry invokes the set-bellIsUrgent(toggle) action.
3508 poponbell (class SmeBSB)
3510 This entry invokes the set-poponbell(toggle) action.
3511 cursorblink (class SmeBSB)
3513 This entry invokes the set-cursorblink(toggle) action.
3514 titeInhibit (class SmeBSB)
3516 This entry invokes the set-titeInhibit(toggle) action.
3517 activeicon (class SmeBSB)
3519 This entry toggles active icons on and off if this feature was
3520 compiled into xterm. It is enabled only if xterm was started
3521 with the command line option +ai or the activeIcon resource is
3522 set to “true”.
3523 softreset (class SmeBSB)
3525 This entry invokes the soft-reset() action.
3526 hardreset (class SmeBSB)
3528 This entry invokes the hard-reset() action.
3529 clearsavedlines (class SmeBSB)
3531 This entry invokes the clear-saved-lines() action.
3532 tekshow (class SmeBSB)
3534 This entry invokes the set-visibility(tek,toggle) action.
3535 tekmode (class SmeBSB)
3537 This entry invokes the set-terminal-type(tek) action.
3538 vthide (class SmeBSB)
3540 This entry invokes the set-visibility(vt,off) action.
3541 altscreen (class SmeBSB)
3543 This entry invokes the set-altscreen(toggle) action.
3544 sixelScrolling (class SmeBSB)
3546 This entry invokes the set-sixel-scrolling(toggle) action.
3547 The VT Fonts menu (widget name fontMenu) has the following entries:
3549 fontdefault (class SmeBSB)
3551 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(d) action, setting the font
3552 using the font (default) resource, e.g., “Default” in the menu.
3553 font1 (class SmeBSB)
3555 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(1) action, setting the font
3556 using the font1 resource, e.g., “Unreadable” in the menu.
3557 font2 (class SmeBSB)
3559 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(2) action, setting the font
3560 using the font2 resource, e.g., “Tiny” in the menu.
3561 font3 (class SmeBSB)
3563 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(3) action, setting the font
3564 using the font3 resource, e.g., “Small” in the menu.
3565 font4 (class SmeBSB)
3567 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(4) action, letting the font
3568 using the font4 resource, e.g., “Medium” in the menu.
3569 font5 (class SmeBSB)
3571 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(5) action, letting the font
3572 using the font5 resource, e.g., “Large” in the menu.
3573 font6 (class SmeBSB)
3575 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(6) action, letting the font
3576 using the font6 resource, e.g., “Huge” in the menu.
3577 fontescape (class SmeBSB)
3579 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(e) action.
3580 fontsel (class SmeBSB)
3582 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(s) action.
3583 font-linedrawing (class SmeBSB)
3585 This entry invokes the set-font-linedrawing(s) action.
3586 font-packed (class SmeBSB)
3588 This entry invokes the set-font-packed(s) action.
3589 font-doublesize (class SmeBSB)
3591 This entry invokes the set-font-doublesize(s) action.
3592 render-font (class SmeBSB)
3594 This entry invokes the set-render-font(s) action.
3595 utf8-mode (class SmeBSB)
3597 This entry invokes the set-utf8-mode(s) action.
3598 utf8-title (class SmeBSB)
3600 This entry invokes the set-utf8-title(s) action.
3601 The TEK Options menu (widget name tekMenu) has the following entries:
3603 tektextlarge (class SmeBSB)
3605 This entry invokes the set-tek-text(large) action.
3606 tektext2 (class SmeBSB)
3608 This entry invokes the set-tek-text(2) action.
3609 tektext3 (class SmeBSB)
3611 This entry invokes the set-tek-text(3) action.
3612 tektextsmall (class SmeBSB)
3614 This entry invokes the set-tek-text(small) action.
3615 tekpage (class SmeBSB)
3617 This entry invokes the tek-page() action.
3618 tekreset (class SmeBSB)
3620 This entry invokes the tek-reset() action.
3621 tekcopy (class SmeBSB)
3623 This entry invokes the tek-copy() action.
3624 vtshow (class SmeBSB)
3626 This entry invokes the set-visibility(vt,toggle) action.
3627 vtmode (class SmeBSB)
3629 This entry invokes the set-terminal-type(vt) action.
3630 tekhide (class SmeBSB)
3632 This entry invokes the set-visibility(tek,toggle) action.
3633 Scrollbar Resources
3635 The following resources are useful when specified for the Athena
3636 Scrollbar widget:
3637 thickness (class Thickness)
3639 Specifies the width in pixels of the scrollbar.
3640 background (class Background)
3642 Specifies the color to use for the background of the scrollbar.
3643 foreground (class Foreground)
3645 Specifies the color to use for the foreground of the scrollbar.
3646 The “thumb” of the scrollbar is a simple checkerboard pattern
3647 alternating pixels for foreground and background color.
3648
3650 Once the VT102 window is created, xterm allows you to select text and
3651 copy it within the same or other windows.
3652 SELECTION
3654 The selection functions are invoked when the pointer buttons are used
3655 with no modifiers, and when they are used with the “shift” key. The
3656 assignment of the functions described below to keys and buttons may be
3657 changed through the resource database; see ACTIONS below.
3658 Pointer button one (usually left) is used to save text into the cut
3660 buffer. Move the cursor to beginning of the text, and then hold the
3661 button down while moving the cursor to the end of the region and
3662 releasing the button. The selected text is highlighted and is saved in
3663 the global cut buffer and made the PRIMARY selection when the button is
3664 released. Normally (but see the discussion of on2Clicks, etc):
3665 · Double-clicking selects by words.
3667 · Triple-clicking selects by lines.
3669 · Quadruple-clicking goes back to characters, etc.
3671 Multiple-click is determined by the time from button up to button down,
3673 so you can change the selection unit in the middle of a selection.
3674 Logical words and lines selected by double- or triple-clicking may wrap
3675 across more than one screen line if lines were wrapped by xterm itself
3676 rather than by the application running in the window. If the key/but‐
3677 ton bindings specify that an X selection is to be made, xterm will
3678 leave the selected text highlighted for as long as it is the selection
3679 owner.
3680 Pointer button two (usually middle) “types” (pastes) the text from the
3682 PRIMARY selection, if any, otherwise from the cut buffer, inserting it
3683 as keyboard input.
3684 Pointer button three (usually right) extends the current selection.
3686 (Without loss of generality, you can swap “right” and “left” everywhere
3687 in the rest of this paragraph.) If pressed while closer to the right
3688 edge of the selection than the left, it extends/contracts the right
3689 edge of the selection. If you contract the selection past the left
3690 edge of the selection, xterm assumes you really meant the left edge,
3691 restores the original selection, then extends/contracts the left edge
3692 of the selection. Extension starts in the selection unit mode that the
3693 last selection or extension was performed in; you can multiple-click to
3694 cycle through them.
3695 By cutting and pasting pieces of text without trailing new lines, you
3697 can take text from several places in different windows and form a com‐
3698 mand to the shell, for example, or take output from a program and
3699 insert it into your favorite editor. Since cut buffers are globally
3700 shared among different applications, you may regard each as a “file”
3701 whose contents you know. The terminal emulator and other text programs
3702 should be treating it as if it were a text file, i.e., the text is
3703 delimited by new lines.
3704 SCROLLING
3706 The scroll region displays the position and amount of text currently
3707 showing in the window (highlighted) relative to the amount of text
3708 actually saved. As more text is saved (up to the maximum), the size of
3709 the highlighted area decreases.
3710 Clicking button one with the pointer in the scroll region moves the
3712 adjacent line to the top of the display window.
3713 Clicking button three moves the top line of the display window down to
3715 the pointer position.
3716 Clicking button two moves the display to a position in the saved text
3718 that corresponds to the pointer's position in the scrollbar.
3719 TEKTRONIX POINTER
3721 Unlike the VT102 window, the Tektronix window does not allow the copy‐
3722 ing of text. It does allow Tektronix GIN mode, and in this mode the
3723 cursor will change from an arrow to a cross. Pressing any key will
3724 send that key and the current coordinate of the cross cursor. Pressing
3725 button one, two, or three will return the letters “l”, “m”, and “r”,
3726 respectively. If the “shift” key is pressed when a pointer button is
3727 pressed, the corresponding upper case letter is sent. To distinguish a
3728 pointer button from a key, the high bit of the character is set (but
3729 this is bit is normally stripped unless the terminal mode is RAW; see
3730 tty(4) for details).
3731
3733 X clients provide select and paste support by responding to requests
3734 conveyed by the server.
3735 PRIMARY
3737 When configured to use the primary selection, (the default) xterm can
3738 provide the selection data in ways which help to retain character
3739 encoding information as it is pasted.
3740 A user “selects” text on xterm, which highlights the selected text. A
3742 subsequent “paste” to another client forwards a request to the client
3743 owning the selection. If xterm owns the primary selection, it makes
3744 the data available in the form of one or more “selection targets”. If
3745 it does not own the primary selection, e.g., if it has released it or
3746 another client has asserted ownership, it relies on cut-buffers to pass
3747 the data. But cut-buffers handle only ISO-8859-1 data (officially -
3748 some clients ignore the rules).
3749 CLIPBOARD
3751 When configured to use the clipboard (see resource selectToClipboard),
3752 the problem with persistence of ownership is bypassed. Otherwise,
3753 there is no difference regarding the data which can be passed via
3754 selection.
3755 SELECTION TARGETS
3757 The different types of data which are passed depend on what the receiv‐
3758 ing client asks for. These are termed selection targets.
3759 When asking for the selection data, xterm tries the following types in
3761 this order:
3762 UTF8_STRING
3764 This is an XFree86 extension, which denotes that the data
3765 is encoded in UTF-8. When xterm is built with wide-charac‐
3766 ter support, it both accepts and provides this type.
3767 TEXT the text is in the encoding which corresponds to your cur‐
3769 rent locale.
3770 COMPOUND_TEXT
3772 this is a format for multiple character set data, such as
3773 multi-lingual text. It can store UTF-8 data as a special
3774 case.
3775 STRING
3777 This is Latin 1 (ISO-8859-1) data.
3778 The middle two (TEXT and COMPOUND_TEXT) are added if xterm is config‐
3780 ured with the i18nSelections resource set to “true”.
3781 UTF8_STRING is preferred (therefore first in the list) since xterm
3783 stores text as Unicode data when running in wide-character mode, and no
3784 translation is needed. On the other hand, TEXT and COMPOUND_TEXT may
3785 require translation. If the translation is incomplete, they will
3786 insert X's “defaultString” whose value cannot be set, and may simply be
3787 empty. Xterm's defaultString resource specifies the string to use for
3788 incomplete translations of the UTF8_STRING.
3789 You can alter the types which xterm tries using the eightBitSelectTypes
3791 or utf8SelectTypes resources. For instance, you might have some spe‐
3792 cific locale setting which does not use UTF-8 encoding. The resource
3793 value is a comma-separated list of the selection targets, which consist
3794 of the names shown. You can use the special name I18N to denote the
3795 optional inclusion of TEXT and COMPOUND_TEXT. The names are matched
3796 ignoring case, and can be abbreviated. The default list can be
3797 expressed in several ways, e.g.,
3798 UTF8_STRING,I18N,STRING
3800 utf8,i18n,string
3801 u,i,s
3802
3804 Xterm has four menus, named mainMenu, vtMenu, fontMenu, and tekMenu.
3805 Each menu pops up under the correct combinations of key and button
3806 presses. Each menu is divided into sections, separated by a horizontal
3807 line. Some menu entries correspond to modes that can be altered. A
3808 check mark appears next to a mode that is currently active. Selecting
3809 one of these modes toggles its state. Other menu entries are commands;
3810 selecting one of these performs the indicated function.
3811 All of the menu entries correspond to X actions. In the list below,
3813 the menu label is shown followed by the action's name in parenthesis.
3814 Main Options
3816 The xterm mainMenu pops up when the “control” key and pointer button
3817 one are pressed in a window. This menu contains items that apply to
3818 both the VT102 and Tektronix windows. There are several sections:
3819 Commands for managing X events:
3821 Toolbar
3823 Clicking on the “Toolbar” menu entry hides the toolbar if
3824 it is visible, and shows it if it is not.
3825 Secure Keyboard (securekbd)
3827 The Secure Keyboard mode is helpful when typing in pass‐
3828 words or other sensitive data in an unsecure environment;
3829 see SECURITY below (but read the limitations carefully).
3830 Allow SendEvents (allowsends)
3832 Specifies whether or not synthetic key and button events
3833 generated using the X protocol SendEvent request should
3834 be interpreted or discarded. This corresponds to the
3835 allowSendEvents resource.
3836 Redraw Window (redraw)
3838 Forces the X display to repaint; useful in some environ‐
3839 ments.
3840 Commands for capturing output:
3842 Log to File (logging)
3844 Captures text sent to the screen in a logfile, as in the
3845 -l logging option.
3846 Print-All Immediately
3848 Invokes the print-immediate action, sending the text of
3849 the current window directly to a file, as specified by
3850 the printFileImmediate, printModeImmediate and printOpt‐
3851 sImmediate resources.
3852 Print-All on Error
3854 Invokes the print-on-error action, which toggles a flag
3855 telling xterm that if it exits with an X error, to send
3856 the text of the current window directly to a file, as
3857 specified by the printFileXError, printModeXError and
3858 printOptsXError resources.
3859 Print Window (print)
3861 Sends the text of the current window to the program given
3862 in the printerCommand resource.
3863 Redirect to Printer (print-redir)
3865 This sets the printerControlMode to 0 or 2. You can use
3866 this to turn the printer on as if an application had sent
3867 the appropriate control sequence. It is also useful for
3868 switching the printer off if an application turns it on
3869 without resetting the print control mode.
3870 Modes for setting keyboard style:
3872 8-Bit Controls (8-bit-control)
3874 Enabled for VT220 emulation, this controls whether xterm
3875 will send 8-bit control sequences rather than using 7-bit
3876 (ASCII) controls, e.g., sending a byte in the range
3877 128-159 rather than the escape character followed by a
3878 second byte. Xterm always interprets both 8-bit and
3879 7-bit control sequences (see the document Xterm Control
3880 Sequences). This corresponds to the eightBitControl
3881 resource.
3882 Backarrow Key (BS/DEL) (backarrow key)
3884 Modifies the behavior of the backarrow key, making it
3885 transmit either a backspace (8) or delete (127) charac‐
3886 ter. This corresponds to the backarrowKey resource.
3887 Alt/NumLock Modifiers (num-lock)
3889 Controls the treatment of Alt- and NumLock-key modifiers.
3890 This corresponds to the numLock resource.
3891 Meta Sends Escape (meta-esc)
3893 Controls whether Meta keys are converted into a two-char‐
3894 acter sequence with the character itself preceded by ESC.
3895 This corresponds to the metaSendsEscape resource.
3896 Delete is DEL (delete-is-del)
3898 Controls whether the Delete key on the editing keypad
3899 should send DEL (127) or the VT220-style Remove escape
3900 sequence. This corresponds to the deleteIsDEL resource.
3901 Old Function-Keys (oldFunctionKeys)
3903 HP Function-Keys (hpFunctionKeys)
3905 SCO Function-Keys (scoFunctionKeys)
3907 Sun Function-Keys (sunFunctionKeys)
3909 VT220 Keyboard (sunKeyboard)
3911 These act as a radio-button, selecting one style for the
3912 keyboard layout. It corresponds to more than one
3913 resource setting: sunKeyboard, sunFunctionKeys, scoFunc‐
3914 tionKeys and hpFunctionKeys ."
3915 Commands for process signalling:
3917 Send STOP Signal (suspend)
3919 Send CONT Signal (continue)
3921 Send INT Signal (interrupt)
3923 Send HUP Signal (hangup)
3925 Send TERM Signal (terminate)
3927 Send KILL Signal (kill)
3929 These send the SIGTSTP, SIGCONT, SIGINT, SIGHUP, SIGTERM
3930 and SIGKILL signals respectively, to the process group of
3931 the process running under xterm (usually the shell). The
3932 SIGCONT function is especially useful if the user has
3933 accidentally typed CTRL-Z, suspending the process.
3934 Quit (quit)
3936 Stop processing X events except to support the -hold
3937 option, and then send a SIGHUP signal to the the process
3938 group of the process running under xterm (usually the
3939 shell).
3940 VT Options
3942 The vtMenu sets various modes in the VT102 emulation, and is popped up
3943 when the “control” key and pointer button two are pressed in the VT102
3944 window.
3945 VT102/VT220 Modes:
3947 Enable Scrollbar (scrollbar)
3949 Enable (or disable) the scrollbar. This corresponds to
3950 the -sb option and the scrollBar resource.
3951 Enable Jump Scroll (jumpscroll)
3953 Enable (or disable) jump scrolling. This corresponds to
3954 the -j option and the jumpScroll resource.
3955 Enable Reverse Video (reversevideo)
3957 Enable (or disable) reverse-video. This corresponds to
3958 the -rv option and the reverseVideo resource.
3959 Enable Auto Wraparound (autowrap)
3961 Enable (or disable) auto-wraparound. This corresponds to
3962 the -aw option and the autoWrap resource.
3963 Enable Reverse Wraparound (reversewrap)
3965 Enable (or disable) reverse wraparound. This corresponds
3966 to the -rw option and the reverseWrap resource.
3967 Enable Auto Linefeed (autolinefeed)
3969 Enable (or disable) auto-linefeed. This is the VT102 NEL
3970 function, which causes the emulator to emit a linefeed
3971 after each carriage return. There is no corresponding
3972 command-line option or resource setting.
3973 Enable Application Cursor Keys (appcursor)
3975 Enable (or disable) application cursor keys. This corre‐
3976 sponds to the appcursorDefault resource. There is no
3977 corresponding command-line option.
3978 Enable Application Keypad (appkeypad)
3980 Enable (or disable) application keypad keys. This corre‐
3981 sponds to the appkeypadDefault resource. There is no
3982 corresponding command-line option.
3983 Scroll to Bottom on Key Press (scrollkey)
3985 Enable (or disable) scrolling to the bottom of the
3986 scrolling region on a keypress. This corresponds to the
3987 -sk option and the scrollKey resource.
3988 As a special case, the XON / XOFF keys (control/S and
3990 control/Q) are ignored.
3991 Scroll to Bottom on Tty Output (scrollttyoutput)
3993 Enable (or disable) scrolling to the bottom of the
3994 scrolling region on output to the terminal. This corre‐
3995 sponds to the -si option and the scrollTtyOutput
3996 resource.
3997 Allow 80/132 Column Switching (allow132)
3999 Enable (or disable) switching between 80 and 132 columns.
4000 This corresponds to the -132 option and the c132
4001 resource.
4002 Keep Selection (keepSelection)
4004 Tell xterm whether to disown the selection when it stops
4005 highlighting it, e.g., when an application modifies the
4006 display so that it no longer matches the text which has
4007 been highlighted. As long as xterm continues to own the
4008 selection, it can provide the corresponding text to other
4009 clients via cut/paste. This corresponds to the keepSe‐
4010 lection resource. There is no corresponding command-line
4011 option.
4012 Select to Clipboard (selectToClipboard)
4014 Tell xterm whether to use the PRIMARY or CLIPBOARD for
4015 SELECT tokens in the translations resource which maps
4016 keyboard and mouse actions to select/paste actions. This
4017 corresponds to the selectToClipboard resource. There is
4018 no corresponding command-line option.
4019 Enable Visual Bell (visualbell)
4021 Enable (or disable) visible bell (i.e., flashing) instead
4022 of an audible bell. This corresponds to the -vb option
4023 and the visualBell resource.
4024 Enable Bell Urgency (bellIsUrgent)
4026 Enable (or disable) Urgency window manager hint when Con‐
4027 trol-G is received. This corresponds to the bellIsUrgent
4028 resource.
4029 Enable Pop on Bell (poponbell)
4031 Enable (or disable) raising of the window when Control-G
4032 is received. This corresponds to the -pop option and the
4033 popOnBell resource.
4034 Enable Blinking Cursor (cursorblink)
4036 Enable (or disable) the blinking-cursor feature. This
4037 corresponds to the -bc option and the cursorBlink
4038 resource. There is also an escape sequence (see the doc‐
4039 ument Xterm Control Sequences). The menu entry and the
4040 escape sequence states are XOR'd: if both are enabled,
4041 the cursor will not blink, if only one is enabled, the
4042 cursor will blink.
4043 Enable Alternate Screen Switching (titeInhibit)
4045 Enable (or disable) switching between the normal and
4046 alternate screens. This corresponds to the titeInhibit
4047 resource. There is no corresponding command-line option.
4048 Enable Active Icon (activeicon)
4050 Enable (or disable) the active-icon feature. This corre‐
4051 sponds to the -ai option and the activeIcon resource.
4052 Sixel Scrolling (sixelScrolling)
4054 When enabled, sixel graphics are positioned at the cur‐
4055 rent text cursor location, scroll the image vertically if
4056 larger than the screen, and leave the text cursor after
4057 the image when returning to text mode. When disabled,
4058 sixel graphics are positioned at the upper left of the
4059 screen, are cropped to fit the screen, and do not affect
4060 the text cursor location (this is the default). This
4061 corresponds to the sixelScrolling resource. There is no
4062 corresponding command-line option.
4063 Private Color Registers (privateColorRegisters)
4065 When enabled, each graphic image uses a separate set of
4066 color registers, so that it essentially has a private
4067 palette (this is the default). If it is not set, all
4068 graphics images share a common set of registers which is
4069 how sixel and ReGIS graphics worked on actual hardware.
4070 The default is likely a more useful mode on modern True‐
4071 Color hardware. This corresponds to the privateColorReg‐
4072 isters resource. There is no corresponding command-line
4073 option.
4074 VT102/VT220 Commands:
4076 Do Soft Reset (softreset)
4078 Reset scroll regions. This can be convenient when some
4079 program has left the scroll regions set incorrectly
4080 (often a problem when using VMS or TOPS-20). This corre‐
4081 sponds to the VT220 DECSTR control sequence.
4082 Do Full Reset (hardreset)
4084 The full reset entry will clear the screen, reset tabs to
4085 every eight columns, and reset the terminal modes (such
4086 as wrap and smooth scroll) to their initial states just
4087 after xterm has finished processing the command line
4088 options. This corresponds to the VT102 RIS control
4089 sequence, with a few obvious differences. For example,
4090 your session is not disconnected as a real VT102 would
4091 do.
4092 Reset and Clear Saved Lines (clearsavedlines)
4094 Perform a full reset, and also clear the saved lines.
4095 Commands for setting the current screen:
4097 Show Tek Window (tekshow)
4099 When enabled, pops the Tektronix 4014 window up (makes it
4100 visible). When disabled, hides the Tektronix 4014 win‐
4101 dow.
4102 Switch to Tek Mode (tekmode)
4104 When enabled, pops the Tektronix 4014 window up if it is
4105 not already visible, and switches the input stream to
4106 that window. When disabled, hides the Tektronix 4014
4107 window and switches input back to the VTxxx window.
4108 Hide VT Window (vthide)
4110 When enabled, hides the VTxxx window, shows the Tektronix
4111 4014 window if it was not already visible and switches
4112 the input stream to that window. When disabled, shows
4113 the VTxxx window, and switches the input stream to that
4114 window.
4115 Show Alternate Screen (altscreen)
4117 When enabled, shows the alternate screen. When disabled,
4118 shows the normal screen. Note that the normal screen may
4119 have saved lines; the alternate screen does not.
4120 VT Fonts
4122 The fontMenu pops up when when the “control” key and pointer button
4123 three are pressed in a window. It sets the font used in the VT102 win‐
4124 dow, or modifies the way the font is specified or displayed. There are
4125 several sections.
4126 The first section allows you to select the font from a set of alterna‐
4128 tives:
4129 Default (fontdefault)
4131 Set the font to the default, i.e., that given by the
4132 *VT100.font resource.
4133 Unreadable (font1)
4135 Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font1 resource.
4136 Tiny (font2)
4138 Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font2 resource.
4139 Small (font3)
4141 Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font3 resource.
4142 Medium (font4)
4144 Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font4 resource.
4145 Large (font5)
4147 Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font5 resource.
4148 Huge (font6)
4150 Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font6 resource.
4151 Escape Sequence
4153 This allows you to set the font last specified by the Set
4154 Font escape sequence (see the document Xterm Control
4155 Sequences).
4156 Selection (fontsel)
4158 This allows you to set the font specified the current
4159 selection as a font name (if the PRIMARY selection is
4160 owned).
4161 The second section allows you to modify the way it is displayed:
4163 Bold Fonts
4165 This is normally checked (enabled). When unchecked,
4166 xterm will not use bold fonts. The setting corresponds
4167 to the allowBoldFonts resource.
4168 Line-Drawing Characters (font-linedrawing)
4170 When set, tells xterm to draw its own line-drawing char‐
4171 acters. Otherwise it relies on the font containing
4172 these. Compare to the forceBoxChars resource.
4173 Packed Font (font-packed)
4175 When set, tells xterm to use the minimum glyph-width from
4176 a font when displaying characters. Use the maximum width
4177 (unchecked) to help display proportional fonts. Compare
4178 to the forcePackedFont resource.
4179 Doublesized Characters (font-doublesize)
4181 When set, xterm may ask the font server to produce scaled
4182 versions of the normal font, for VT102 double-size char‐
4183 acters.
4184 The third section allows you to modify the way it is specified:
4186 TrueType Fonts (render-font)
4188 If the renderFont and corresponding resources were set,
4189 this is a further control whether xterm will actually use
4190 the Xft library calls to obtain a font.
4191 UTF-8 Encoding (utf8-mode)
4193 This controls whether xterm uses UTF-8 encoding of
4194 input/output. It is useful for temporarily switching
4195 xterm to display text from an application which does not
4196 follow the locale settings. It corresponds to the utf8
4197 resource.
4198 UTF-8 Fonts (utf8-fonts)
4200 This controls whether xterm uses UTF-8 fonts for display.
4201 It is useful for temporarily switching xterm to display
4202 text from an application which does not follow the locale
4203 settings. It combines the utf8 and utf8Fonts resources.
4204 UTF-8 Titles (utf8-titles)
4206 This controls whether xterm accepts UTF-8 encoding for
4207 title control sequences. It corresponds to the utf8Fonts
4208 resource.
4209 Initially the checkmark is set according to both the utf8
4211 and utf8Fonts resource values. If the latter is set to
4212 “always”, the checkmark is disabled. Likewise, if there
4213 are no fonts given in the utf8Fonts subresources, then
4214 the checkmark also is disabled.
4215 The standard XTerm app-defaults file defines both sets of
4217 fonts, while the UXTerm app-defaults file defines only
4218 one set. assuming the standard app-defaults files, this
4219 command will launch xterm able to switch between UTF-8
4220 and ISO-8859-1 encoded fonts:
4221 uxterm -class XTerm
4223 The fourth section allows you to enable or disable special oper‐
4225 ations which can be controlled by writing escape sequences to
4226 the terminal. These are disabled if the SendEvents feature is
4227 enabled:
4228 Allow Color Ops (allow-font-ops)
4230 This corresponds to the allowColorOps resource. Enable
4231 or disable control sequences that set/query the colors.
4232 Allow Font Ops (allow-font-ops)
4234 This corresponds to the allowFontOps resource. Enable or
4235 disable control sequences that set/query the font.
4236 Allow Tcap Ops (allow-tcap-ops)
4238 Enable or disable control sequences that query the termi‐
4239 nal's notion of its function-key strings, as termcap or
4240 terminfo capabilities. This corresponds to the allowT‐
4241 capOps resource.
4242 Allow Title Ops (allow-title-ops)
4244 Enable or disable control sequences that modify the win‐
4245 dow title or icon name. This corresponds to the allowTi‐
4246 tleOps resource.
4247 Allow Window Ops (allow-window-ops)
4249 Enable or disable extended window control sequences (as
4250 used in dtterm). This corresponds to the allowWindowOps
4251 resource.
4252 TEK Options
4254 The tekMenu sets various modes in the Tektronix emulation, and is
4255 popped up when the “control” key and pointer button two are pressed in
4256 the Tektronix window. The current font size is checked in the modes
4257 section of the menu.
4258 Large Characters (tektextlarge)
4260 #2 Size Characters (tektext2)
4262 #3 Size Characters (tektext3)
4264 Small Characters (tektextsmall)
4266 Commands:
4268 PAGE (tekpage)
4270 Clear the Tektronix window.
4271 RESET (tekreset)
4273 COPY (tekcopy)
4275 Windows:
4277 Show VT Window (vtshow)
4279 Switch to VT Mode (vtmode)
4281 Hide Tek Window (tekhide)
4283
4285 X environments differ in their security consciousness.
4286 · Most servers, run under xdm, are capable of using a “magic cookie”
4288 authorization scheme that can provide a reasonable level of secu‐
4289 rity for many people. If your server is only using a host-based
4290 mechanism to control access to the server (see xhost(1)), then if
4291 you enable access for a host and other users are also permitted to
4292 run clients on that same host, it is possible that someone can run
4293 an application which uses the basic services of the X protocol to
4294 snoop on your activities, potentially capturing a transcript of
4295 everything you type at the keyboard.
4296 · Any process which has access to your X display can manipulate it in
4298 ways that you might not anticipate, even redirecting your keyboard
4299 to itself and sending events to your application's windows. This
4300 is true even with the “magic cookie” authorization scheme. While
4301 the allowSendEvents provides some protection against rogue applica‐
4302 tions tampering with your programs, guarding against a snooper is
4303 harder.
4304 · The X input extension for instance allows an application to bypass
4306 all of the other (limited) authorization and security features,
4307 including the GrabKeyboard protocol.
4308 · The possibility of an application spying on your keystrokes is of
4310 particular concern when you want to type in a password or other
4311 sensitive data. The best solution to this problem is to use a bet‐
4312 ter authorization mechanism than is provided by X.
4313 Subject to all of these caveats, a simple mechanism exists for protect‐
4315 ing keyboard input in xterm.
4316 The xterm menu (see MENUS above) contains a Secure Keyboard entry
4318 which, when enabled, attempts to ensure that all keyboard input is
4319 directed only to xterm (using the GrabKeyboard protocol request). When
4320 an application prompts you for a password (or other sensitive data),
4321 you can enable Secure Keyboard using the menu, type in the data, and
4322 then disable Secure Keyboard using the menu again.
4323 · This ensures that you know which window is accepting your key‐
4325 strokes.
4326 · It cannot ensure that there are no processes which have access to
4328 your X display that might be observing the keystrokes as well.
4329 Only one X client at a time can grab the keyboard, so when you attempt
4331 to enable Secure Keyboard it may fail. In this case, the bell will
4332 sound. If the Secure Keyboard succeeds, the foreground and background
4333 colors will be exchanged (as if you selected the Reverse Video entry in
4334 the Modes menu); they will be exchanged again when you exit secure
4335 mode. If the colors do not switch, then you should be very suspicious
4336 that you are being spoofed. If the application you are running dis‐
4337 plays a prompt before asking for the password, it is safest to enter
4338 secure mode before the prompt gets displayed, and to make sure that the
4339 prompt gets displayed correctly (in the new colors), to minimize the
4340 probability of spoofing. You can also bring up the menu again and make
4341 sure that a check mark appears next to the entry.
4342 Secure Keyboard mode will be disabled automatically if your xterm win‐
4344 dow becomes iconified (or otherwise unmapped), or if you start up a
4345 reparenting window manager (that places a title bar or other decoration
4346 around the window) while in Secure Keyboard mode. (This is a feature
4347 of the X protocol not easily overcome.) When this happens, the fore‐
4348 ground and background colors will be switched back and the bell will
4349 sound in warning.
4350
4352 Clicking the left pointer button twice in rapid succession (double-
4353 clicking) causes all characters of the same class (e.g., letters, white
4354 space, punctuation) to be selected as a “word”. Since different people
4355 have different preferences for what should be selected (for example,
4356 should filenames be selected as a whole or only the separate subnames),
4357 the default mapping can be overridden through the use of the charClass
4358 (class CharClass) resource.
4359 This resource is a series of comma-separated of range:value pairs. The
4361 range is either a single number or low-high in the range of 0 to 65535,
4362 corresponding to the code for the character or characters to be set.
4363 The value is arbitrary, although the default table uses the character
4364 number of the first character occurring in the set. When not in UTF-8
4365 mode, only the first 256 bytes of this table will be used.
4366 The default table starts as follows -
4368 static int charClass[256] = {
4370 /∗ NUL SOH STX ETX EOT ENQ ACK BEL */
4371 32, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
4372 /∗ BS HT NL VT NP CR SO SI */
4373 1, 32, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
4374 /∗ DLE DC1 DC2 DC3 DC4 NAK SYN ETB */
4375 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
4376 /∗ CAN EM SUB ESC FS GS RS US */
4377 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
4378 /∗ SP ! " # $ % & ' */
4379 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39,
4380 /∗ ( ) * + , - . / */
4381 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47,
4382 /∗ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 */
4383 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
4384 /∗ 8 9 : ; < = > ? */
4385 48, 48, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63,
4386 /∗ @ A B C D E F G */
4387 64, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
4388 /∗ H I J K L M N O */
4389 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
4390 /∗ P Q R S T U V W */
4391 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
4392 /∗ X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ */
4393 48, 48, 48, 91, 92, 93, 94, 48,
4394 /∗ ` a b c d e f g */
4395 96, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
4396 /∗ h i j k l m n o */
4397 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
4398 /∗ p q r s t u v w */
4399 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
4400 /∗ x y z { | } ~ DEL */
4401 48, 48, 48, 123, 124, 125, 126, 1,
4402 /∗ x80 x81 x82 x83 IND NEL SSA ESA */
4403 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
4404 /∗ HTS HTJ VTS PLD PLU RI SS2 SS3 */
4405 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
4406 /∗ DCS PU1 PU2 STS CCH MW SPA EPA */
4407 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
4408 /∗ x98 x99 x9A CSI ST OSC PM APC */
4409 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
4410 /∗ - i c/ L ox Y- | So */
4411 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167,
4412 /∗ .. c0 ip << _ R0 - */
4413 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175,
4414 /∗ o +- 2 3 ' u q| . */
4415 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183,
4416 /∗ , 1 2 >> 1/4 1/2 3/4 ? */
4417 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191,
4418 /∗ A` A' A^ A~ A: Ao AE C, */
4419 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
4420 /∗ E` E' E^ E: I` I' I^ I: */
4421 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
4422 /∗ D- N~ O` O' O^ O~ O: X */
4423 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 215,
4424 /∗ O/ U` U' U^ U: Y' P B */
4425 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
4426 /∗ a` a' a^ a~ a: ao ae c, */
4427 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
4428 /∗ e` e' e^ e: i` i' i^ i: */
4429 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
4430 /∗ d n~ o` o' o^ o~ o: -: */
4431 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 247,
4432 /∗ o/ u` u' u^ u: y' P y: */
4433 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48};
4434 For example, the string “33:48,37:48,45-47:48,38:48” indicates
4436 that the exclamation mark, percent sign, dash, period, slash,
4437 and ampersand characters should be treated the same way as char‐
4438 acters and numbers. This is useful for cutting and pasting
4439 electronic mailing addresses and filenames.
4440
4442 It is possible to rebind keys (or sequences of keys) to arbitrary
4443 strings for input, by changing the translations resources for the vt100
4444 or tek4014 widgets. Changing the translations resource for events
4445 other than key and button events is not expected, and will cause unpre‐
4446 dictable behavior.
4447 ACTIONS
4449 The following actions are provided for use within the vt100 or tek4014
4450 translations resources:
4451 allow-color-ops(on/off/toggle)
4453 This action sets, unsets or toggles the allowColorOps resource
4454 and is also invoked by the allow-color-ops entry in fontMenu.
4455 allow-font-ops(on/off/toggle)
4457 This action sets, unsets or toggles the allowFontOps resource
4458 and is also invoked by the allow-font-ops entry in fontMenu.
4459 allow-send-events(on/off/toggle)
4461 This action sets, unsets or toggles the allowSendEvents
4462 resource and is also invoked by the allowsends entry in main‐
4463 Menu.
4464 allow-tcap-ops(on/off/toggle)
4466 This action sets, unsets or toggles the allowTcapOps resource
4467 and is also invoked by the allow-tcap-ops entry in fontMenu.
4468 allow-title-ops(on/off/toggle)
4470 This action sets, unsets or toggles the allowTitleOps resource
4471 and is also invoked by the allow-title-ops entry in fontMenu.
4472 allow-window-ops(on/off/toggle)
4474 This action sets, unsets or toggles the allowWindowOps resource
4475 and is also invoked by the allow-window-ops entry in fontMenu.
4476 alt-sends-escape()
4478 This action toggles the state of the altSendsEscape resource.
4479 bell([percent])
4481 This action rings the keyboard bell at the specified percentage
4482 above or below the base volume.
4483 clear-saved-lines()
4485 This action does hard-reset() (see below) and also clears the
4486 history of lines saved off the top of the screen. It is also
4487 invoked from the clearsavedlines entry in vtMenu. The effect
4488 is identical to a hardware reset (RIS) control sequence.
4489 copy-selection(destname [, ...])
4491 This action puts the currently selected text into all of the
4492 selections or cutbuffers specified by destname. Unlike select-
4493 end, it does not send a mouse position or otherwise modify the
4494 internal selection state.
4495 create-menu(m/v/f/t)
4497 This action creates one of the menus used by xterm, if it has
4498 not been previously created. The parameter values are the menu
4499 names: mainMenu, vtMenu, fontMenu, tekMenu, respectively.
4500 dabbrev-expand()
4502 Expands the word before cursor by searching in the preceding
4503 text on the screen and in the scrollback buffer for words
4504 starting with that abbreviation. Repeating dabbrev-expand()
4505 several times in sequence searches for an alternative expansion
4506 by looking farther back. Lack of more matches is signaled by a
4507 beep(). Attempts to expand an empty word (i.e., when cursor is
4508 preceded by a space) yield successively all previous words.
4509 Consecutive identical expansions are ignored. The word here is
4510 defined as a sequence of non-whitespace characters. This fea‐
4511 ture partially emulates the behavior of “dynamic abbreviation”
4512 expansion in Emacs (bound there to M-/). Here is a resource
4513 setting for xterm which will do the same thing:
4514 *VT100*translations: #override \n\
4516 Meta <KeyPress> /:dabbrev-expand()
4517 deiconify()
4519 Changes the window state back to normal, if it was iconified.
4520 delete-is-del()
4522 This action toggles the state of the deleteIsDEL resource.
4523 dired-button()
4525 Handles a button event (other than press and release) by echo‐
4526 ing the event's position (i.e., character line and column) in
4527 the following format:
4528 ^X ESC G <line+“ ”> <col+“ ”>
4530 fullscreen(on/off/toggle)
4532 This action sets, unsets or toggles the fullscreen resource.
4533 iconify()
4535 Iconifies the window.
4536 hard-reset()
4538 This action resets the scrolling region, tabs, window size, and
4539 cursor keys and clears the screen. It is also invoked from the
4540 hardreset entry in vtMenu.
4541 ignore()
4543 This action ignores the event but checks for special pointer
4544 position escape sequences.
4545 insert()
4547 This action inserts the character or string associated with the
4548 key that was pressed.
4549 insert-eight-bit()
4551 This action inserts an eight-bit (Meta) version of the charac‐
4552 ter or string associated with the key that was pressed. Only
4553 single-byte values are treated specially. The exact action
4554 depends on the value of the altSendsEscape and the metaSend‐
4555 sEscape and the eightBitInput resources. The metaSendsEscape
4556 resource is tested first. See the eightBitInput resource for a
4557 full discussion.
4558 The term “eight-bit” is misleading: xterm checks if the key is
4560 in the range 128 to 255 (the eighth bit is set). If the value
4561 is in that range, depending on the resource values, xterm may
4562 then do one of the following:
4563 · add 128 to the value, setting its eighth bit,
4565 · send an ESC byte before the key, or
4567 · send the key unaltered.
4569 exec-formatted(format, sourcename [, ...])
4571 Execute an external command, using the current selection for
4572 part of the command's parameters. The first parameter, format
4573 gives the basic command. Succeeding parameters specify the
4574 selection source as in insert-selection.
4575 The format parameter allows these substitutions:
4577 %% inserts a "%".
4579 %P the screen-position at the beginning of the highlighted
4581 region, as a semicolon-separated pair of integers using
4582 the values that the CUP control sequence would use.
4583 %p the screen-position after the beginning of the highlighted
4585 region, using the same convention as “%P”.
4586 %S the length of the string that “%s” would insert.
4588 %s the content of the selection, unmodified.
4590 %T the length of the string that “%t” would insert.
4592 %t the selection, trimmed of leading/trailing whitespace, and
4594 newlines changed to single spaces.
4595 %V the video attributes at the beginning of the highlighted
4597 region, as a semicolon-separated list of integers using
4598 the values that the SGR control sequence would use.
4599 %v the video attributes after the end of the highlighted
4601 region, using the same convention as “%V”.
4602 After constructing the command-string, xterm forks a subprocess
4604 and executes the command, which completes independently of
4605 xterm.
4606 exec-selectable(format, onClicks)
4608 Execute an external command, using data copied from the screen
4609 for part of the command's parameters. The first parameter,
4610 format gives the basic command as in exec-formatted. The sec‐
4611 ond parameter specifies the method for copying the data as in
4612 the onClicks resource.
4613 insert-formatted(format, sourcename [, ...])
4615 Insert the current selection or data related to it, formatted.
4616 The first parameter, format gives the template for the data as
4617 in exec-formatted. Succeeding parameters specify the selection
4618 source as in insert-selection.
4619 insert-selectable(format, onClicks)
4621 Insert data copied from the screen, formatted. The first
4622 parameter, format gives the template for the data as in exec-
4623 formatted. The second parameter specifies the method for copy‐
4624 ing the data as in the onClicks resource.
4625 insert-selection(sourcename [, ...])
4627 This action inserts the string found in the selection or cut‐
4628 buffer indicated by sourcename. Sources are checked in the
4629 order given (case is significant) until one is found. Com‐
4630 monly-used selections include: PRIMARY, SECONDARY, and CLIP‐
4631 BOARD. Cut buffers are typically named CUT_BUFFER0 through
4632 CUT_BUFFER7.
4633 insert-seven-bit()
4635 This action is a synonym for insert() The term “seven-bit” is
4636 misleading: it only implies that xterm does not try to add 128
4637 to the key's value as in insert-eight-bit().
4638 interpret(control-sequence)
4640 Interpret the given control sequence locally, i.e., without
4641 passing it to the host. This works by inserting the control
4642 sequence at the front of the input buffer. Use “\” to escape
4643 octal digits in the string. Xt does not allow you to put a
4644 null character (i.e., “\000”) in the string.
4645 keymap(name)
4647 This action dynamically defines a new translation table whose
4648 resource name is name with the suffix Keymap (case is signifi‐
4649 cant). The name None restores the original translation table.
4650 larger-vt-font()
4652 Set the font to the next larger one, based on the font dimen‐
4653 sions. See also set-vt-font().
4654 load-vt-fonts(name[,class])
4656 Load fontnames from the given subresource name and class. That
4657 is, load the “*VT100.name.font”, resource as “*VT100.font” etc.
4658 If no name is given, the original set of fontnames is restored.
4659 Unlike set-vt-font(), this does not affect the escape- and
4661 select-fonts, since those are not based on resource values. It
4662 does affect the fonts loosely organized under the “Default”
4663 menu entry, including font, boldFont, wideFont and wideBold‐
4664 Font.
4665 maximize()
4667 Resizes the window to fill the screen.
4668 meta-sends-escape()
4670 This action toggles the state of the metaSendsEscape resource.
4671 popup-menu(menuname)
4673 This action displays the specified popup menu. Valid names
4674 (case is significant) include: mainMenu, vtMenu, fontMenu, and
4675 tekMenu.
4676 print(printer-flags)
4678 This action prints the window. It is also invoked by the print
4679 entry in mainMenu.
4680 The action accepts optional parameters, which temporarily over‐
4682 ride resource settings. The parameter values are matched
4683 ignoring case:
4684 noFormFeed
4686 no form feed will be sent at the end of the last line
4687 printed (i.e., printerFormFeed is ``false'').
4688 FormFeed
4690 a form feed will be sent at the end of the last line
4691 printed (i.e., printerFormFeed is ``true'').
4692 noNewLine
4694 no newline will be sent at the end of the last line
4695 printed, and wrapped lines will be combined into long
4696 lines (i.e., printerNewLine is ``false'').
4697 NewLine
4699 a newline will be sent at the end of the last line
4700 printed, and each line will be limited (by adding a new‐
4701 line) to the screen width (i.e., printerNewLine is
4702 ``true'').
4703 noAttrs
4705 the page is printed without attributes (i.e., printAt‐
4706 tributes is ``0'').
4707 monoAttrs
4709 the page is printed with monochrome (vt220) attributes
4710 (i.e., printAttributes is ``1'').
4711 colorAttrs
4713 the page is printed with ANSI color attributes (i.e.,
4714 printAttributes is ``2'').
4715 print-everything(printer-flags)
4717 This action sends the entire text history, in addition to the
4718 text currently visible, to the program given in the printerCom‐
4719 mand resource. It allows the same optional parameters as the
4720 print action. With a suitable printer command, the action can
4721 be used to load the text history in an editor.
4722 print-immediate()
4724 Sends the text of the current window directly to a file, as
4725 specified by the printFileImmediate, printModeImmediate and
4726 printOptsImmediate resources.
4727 print-on-error()
4729 Toggles a flag telling xterm that if it exits with an X error,
4730 to send the text of the current window directly to a file, as
4731 specified by the printFileXError, printModeXError and printOpt‐
4732 sXError resources.
4733 print-redir()
4735 This action toggles the printerControlMode between 0 and 2.
4736 The corresponding popup menu entry is useful for switching the
4737 printer off if you happen to change your mind after deciding to
4738 print random binary files on the terminal.
4739 quit() This action sends a SIGHUP to the subprogram and exits. It is
4741 also invoked by the quit entry in mainMenu.
4742 readline-button()
4744 Supports the optional readline feature by echoing repeated cur‐
4745 sor forward or backward control sequences on button release
4746 event, to request that the host application update its notion
4747 of the cursor's position to match the button event.
4748 redraw()
4750 This action redraws the window. It is also invoked by the
4751 redraw entry in mainMenu.
4752 restore()
4754 Restores the window to the size before it was last maximized.
4755 scroll-back(count [,units [,mouse] ])
4757 This action scrolls the text window backward so that text that
4758 had previously scrolled off the top of the screen is now visi‐
4759 ble.
4760 The count argument indicates the number of units (which may be
4762 page, halfpage, pixel, or line) by which to scroll.
4763 An adjustment can be specified for these values by appending a
4765 “+” or “-” sign followed by a number, e.g., page-2 to specify 2
4766 lines less than a page.
4767 If the third parameter mouse is given, the action is ignored
4769 when mouse reporting is enabled.
4770 scroll-forw(count [,units [,mouse] ])
4772 This action is similar to scroll-back except that it scrolls in
4773 the other direction.
4774 secure()
4776 This action toggles the Secure Keyboard mode described in the
4777 section named SECURITY, and is invoked from the securekbd entry
4778 in mainMenu.
4779 scroll-lock(on/off/toggle)
4781 This action sets, unsets or toggles internal state which tells
4782 xterm whether Scroll Lock is active, subject to the allowScrol‐
4783 lLock resource.
4784 select-cursor-end(destname [, ...])
4786 This action is similar to select-end except that it should be
4787 used with select-cursor-start.
4788 select-cursor-extend()
4790 This action is similar to select-extend except that it should
4791 be used with select-cursor-start.
4792 select-cursor-start()
4794 This action is similar to select-start except that it begins
4795 the selection at the current text cursor position.
4796 select-end(destname [, ...])
4798 This action puts the currently selected text into all of the
4799 selections or cutbuffers specified by destname. It also sends
4800 a mouse position and updates the internal selection state to
4801 reflect the end of the selection process.
4802 select-extend()
4804 This action tracks the pointer and extends the selection. It
4805 should only be bound to Motion events.
4806 select-set()
4808 This action stores text that corresponds to the current selec‐
4809 tion, without affecting the selection mode.
4810 select-start()
4812 This action begins text selection at the current pointer loca‐
4813 tion. See the section on POINTER USAGE for information on mak‐
4814 ing selections.
4815 send-signal(signame)
4817 This action sends the signal named by signame to the xterm sub‐
4818 process (the shell or program specified with the -e command
4819 line option). It is also invoked by the suspend, continue,
4820 interrupt, hangup, terminate, and kill entries in mainMenu.
4821 Allowable signal names are (case is not significant): tstp (if
4822 supported by the operating system), suspend (same as tstp),
4823 cont (if supported by the operating system), int, hup, term,
4824 quit, alrm, alarm (same as alrm) and kill.
4825 set-8-bit-control(on/off/toggle)
4827 This action sets, unsets or toggles the eightBitControl
4828 resource. It is also invoked from the 8-bit-control entry in
4829 vtMenu.
4830 set-allow132(on/off/toggle)
4832 This action sets, unsets or toggles the c132 resource. It is
4833 also invoked from the allow132 entry in vtMenu.
4834 set-altscreen(on/off/toggle)
4836 This action sets, unsets or toggles between the alternate and
4837 current screens.
4838 set-appcursor(on/off/toggle)
4840 This action sets, unsets or toggles the handling Application
4841 Cursor Key mode and is also invoked by the appcursor entry in
4842 vtMenu.
4843 set-appkeypad(on/off/toggle)
4845 This action sets, unsets or toggles the handling of Application
4846 Keypad mode and is also invoked by the appkeypad entry in
4847 vtMenu.
4848 set-autolinefeed(on/off/toggle)
4850 This action sets, unsets or toggles automatic insertion of
4851 linefeeds. It is also invoked by the autolinefeed entry in
4852 vtMenu.
4853 set-autowrap(on/off/toggle)
4855 This action sets, unsets or toggles automatic wrapping of long
4856 lines. It is also invoked by the autowrap entry in vtMenu.
4857 set-backarrow(on/off/toggle)
4859 This action sets, unsets or toggles the backarrowKey resource.
4860 It is also invoked from the backarrow key entry in vtMenu.
4861 set-bellIsUrgent(on/off/toggle)
4863 This action sets, unsets or toggles the bellIsUrgent resource.
4864 It is also invoked by the bellIsUrgent entry in vtMenu.
4865 set-cursorblink(on/off/toggle)
4867 This action sets, unsets or toggles the cursorBlink resource.
4868 It is also invoked from the cursorblink entry in vtMenu.
4869 set-cursesemul(on/off/toggle)
4871 This action sets, unsets or toggles the curses resource. It is
4872 also invoked from the cursesemul entry in vtMenu.
4873 set-font-doublesize(on/off/toggle)
4875 This action sets, unsets or toggles the fontDoublesize
4876 resource. It is also invoked by the font-doublesize entry in
4877 fontMenu.
4878 set-hp-function-keys(on/off/toggle)
4880 This action sets, unsets or toggles the hpFunctionKeys
4881 resource. It is also invoked by the hpFunctionKeys entry in
4882 mainMenu.
4883 set-jumpscroll(on/off/toggle)
4885 This action sets, unsets or toggles the jumpscroll resource.
4886 It is also invoked by the jumpscroll entry in vtMenu.
4887 set-font-linedrawing(on/off/toggle)
4889 This action sets, unsets or toggles the xterm's state regarding
4890 whether the current font has line-drawing characters and
4891 whether it should draw them directly. It is also invoked by
4892 the font-linedrawing entry in fontMenu.
4893 set-font-packed(on/off/toggle)
4895 This action sets, unsets or toggles the forcePackedFont's
4896 resource which controls use of the font's minimum or maximum
4897 glyph width. It is also invoked by the font-packed entry in
4898 fontMenu.
4899 set-keep-selection(on/off/toggle)
4901 This action sets, unsets or toggles the keepSelection resource.
4902 It is also invoked by the keepSelection entry in vtMenu.
4903 set-logging(on/off/toggle)
4905 This action sets, unsets or toggles the state of the logging
4906 option.
4907 set-old-function-keys(on/off/toggle)
4909 This action sets, unsets or toggles the state of legacy func‐
4910 tion keys. It is also invoked by the oldFunctionKeys entry in
4911 mainMenu.
4912 set-marginbell(on/off/toggle)
4914 This action sets, unsets or toggles the marginBell resource.
4915 set-num-lock(on/off/toggle)
4917 This action toggles the state of the numLock resource.
4918 set-pop-on-bell(on/off/toggle)
4920 This action sets, unsets or toggles the popOnBell resource. It
4921 is also invoked by the poponbell entry in vtMenu.
4922 set-private-colors(on/off/toggle)
4924 This action sets, unsets or toggles the privateColorRegisters
4925 resource.
4926 set-render-font(on/off/toggle)
4928 This action sets, unsets or toggles the renderFont resource.
4929 It is also invoked by the render-font entry in fontMenu.
4930 set-reverse-video(on/off/toggle)
4932 This action sets, unsets or toggles the reverseVideo resource.
4933 It is also invoked by the reversevideo entry in vtMenu.
4934 set-reversewrap(on/off/toggle)
4936 This action sets, unsets or toggles the reverseWrap resource.
4937 It is also invoked by the reversewrap entry in vtMenu.
4938 set-scroll-on-key(on/off/toggle)
4940 This action sets, unsets or toggles the scrollKey resource. It
4941 is also invoked from the scrollkey entry in vtMenu.
4942 set-scroll-on-tty-output(on/off/toggle)
4944 This action sets, unsets or toggles the scrollTtyOutput
4945 resource. It is also invoked from the scrollttyoutput entry in
4946 vtMenu.
4947 set-scrollbar(on/off/toggle)
4949 This action sets, unsets or toggles the scrollbar resource. It
4950 is also invoked by the scrollbar entry in vtMenu.
4951 set-sco-function-keys(on/off/toggle)
4953 This action sets, unsets or toggles the scoFunctionKeys
4954 resource. It is also invoked by the scoFunctionKeys entry in
4955 mainMenu.
4956 set-select(on/off/toggle)
4958 This action sets, unsets or toggles the selectToClipboard
4959 resource. It is also invoked by the selectToClipboard entry in
4960 vtMenu.
4961 set-sixel-scrolling(on/off/toggle)
4963 This action toggles between inline (sixel scrolling) and abso‐
4964 lute positioning. It can also be controlled via DEC private
4965 mode 80 (DECSDM) or from the sixelScrolling entry in the
4966 btMenu.
4967 set-sun-function-keys(on/off/toggle)
4969 This action sets, unsets or toggles the sunFunctionKeys
4970 resource. It is also invoked by the sunFunctionKeys entry in
4971 mainMenu.
4972 set-sun-keyboard(on/off/toggle)
4974 This action sets, unsets or toggles the sunKeyboard resource.
4975 It is also invoked by the sunKeyboard entry in mainMenu.
4976 set-tek-text(large/2/3/small)
4978 This action sets the font used in the Tektronix window to the
4979 value of the selected resource according to the argument. The
4980 argument can be either a keyword or single-letter alias, as
4981 shown in parentheses:
4982 large (l)
4984 Use resource fontLarge, same as menu entry tektextlarge.
4985 two (2)
4987 Use resource font2, same as menu entry tektext2.
4988 three (3)
4990 Use resource font3, same as menu entry tektext3.
4991 small (s)
4993 Use resource fontSmall, same as menu entry tektextsmall.
4994 set-terminal-type(type)
4996 This action directs output to either the vt or tek windows,
4997 according to the type string. It is also invoked by the tek‐
4998 mode entry in vtMenu and the vtmode entry in tekMenu.
4999 set-titeInhibit(on/off/toggle)
5001 This action sets, unsets or toggles the titeInhibit resource,
5002 which controls switching between the alternate and current
5003 screens.
5004 set-toolbar(on/off/toggle)
5006 This action sets, unsets or toggles the toolbar feature. It is
5007 also invoked by the toolbar entry in mainMenu.
5008 set-utf8-mode(on/off/toggle)
5010 This action sets, unsets or toggles the utf8 resource. It is
5011 also invoked by the utf8-mode entry in fontMenu.
5012 set-utf8-title(on/off/toggle)
5014 This action sets, unsets or toggles the utf8Title resource. It
5015 is also invoked by the utf8-title entry in fontMenu.
5016 set-visibility(vt/tek,on/off/toggle)
5018 This action sets, unsets or toggles whether or not the vt or
5019 tek windows are visible. It is also invoked from the tekshow
5020 and vthide entries in vtMenu and the vtshow and tekhide entries
5021 in tekMenu.
5022 set-visual-bell(on/off/toggle)
5024 This action sets, unsets or toggles the visualBell resource.
5025 It is also invoked by the visualbell entry in vtMenu.
5026 set-vt-font(d/1/2/3/4/5/6/e/s [,normalfont [, boldfont]])
5028 This action sets the font or fonts currently being used in the
5029 VT102 window. The first argument is a single character that
5030 specifies the font to be used:
5031 d or D indicate the default font (the font initially used when
5033 xterm was started),
5034 1 through 6 indicate the fonts specified by the font1 through
5036 font6 resources,
5037 e or E indicate the normal and bold fonts that have been set
5039 through escape codes (or specified as the second and
5040 third action arguments, respectively), and
5041 s or S indicate the font selection (as made by programs such as
5043 xfontsel(1)) indicated by the second action argument.
5044 If xterm is configured to support wide characters, an addi‐
5046 tional two optional parameters are recognized for the e argu‐
5047 ment: wide font and wide bold font.
5048 smaller-vt-font()
5050 Set the font to the next smaller one, based on the font dimen‐
5051 sions. See also set-vt-font().
5052 soft-reset()
5054 This action resets the scrolling region. It is also invoked
5055 from the softreset entry in vtMenu. The effect is identical to
5056 a soft reset (DECSTR) control sequence.
5057 spawn-new-terminal(params)
5059 Spawn a new xterm process. This is available on systems which
5060 have a modern version of the process filesystem, e.g., “/proc”,
5061 which xterm can read.
5062 Use the “cwd” process entry, e.g., /proc/12345/cwd to obtain
5064 the working directory of the process which is running in the
5065 current xterm.
5066 On systems which have the “exe” process entry, e.g.,
5068 /proc/12345/exe, use this to obtain the actual executable.
5069 Otherwise, use the $PATH variable to find xterm.
5070 If parameters are given in the action, pass them to the new
5072 xterm process.
5073 start-extend()
5075 This action is similar to select-start except that the selec‐
5076 tion is extended to the current pointer location.
5077 start-cursor-extend()
5079 This action is similar to select-extend except that the selec‐
5080 tion is extended to the current text cursor position.
5081 string(string)
5083 This action inserts the specified text string as if it had been
5084 typed. Quotation is necessary if the string contains white‐
5085 space or non-alphanumeric characters. If the string argument
5086 begins with the characters “0x”, it is interpreted as a hex
5087 character constant.
5088 tek-copy()
5090 This action copies the escape codes used to generate the cur‐
5091 rent window contents to a file in the current directory begin‐
5092 ning with the name COPY. It is also invoked from the tekcopy
5093 entry in tekMenu.
5094 tek-page()
5096 This action clears the Tektronix window. It is also invoked by
5097 the tekpage entry in tekMenu.
5098 tek-reset()
5100 This action resets the Tektronix window. It is also invoked by
5101 the tekreset entry in tekMenu.
5102 vi-button()
5104 Handles a button event (other than press and release) by echo‐
5105 ing a control sequence computed from the event's line number in
5106 the screen relative to the current line:
5107 ESC ^P
5109 or
5110 ESC ^N
5111 according to whether the event is before, or after the current
5113 line, respectively. The ^N (or ^P) is repeated once for each
5114 line that the event differs from the current line. The control
5115 sequence is omitted altogether if the button event is on the
5116 current line.
5117 visual-bell()
5119 This action flashes the window quickly.
5120 The Tektronix window also has the following action:
5122 gin-press(l/L/m/M/r/R)
5124 This action sends the indicated graphics input code.
5125 DEFAULT KEY BINDINGS
5127 The default bindings in the VT102 window use the SELECT token, which is
5128 set by the selectToClipboard resource:
5129 Shift <KeyPress> Prior:scroll-back(1,halfpage) \n\
5131 Shift <KeyPress> Next:scroll-forw(1,halfpage) \n\
5132 Shift <KeyPress> Select:select-cursor-start() \
5133 select-cursor-end(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
5134 Shift <KeyPress> Insert:insert-selection(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
5135 Alt <Key>Return:fullscreen() \n\
5136 <KeyRelease> Scroll_Lock:scroll-lock() \n\
5137 Shift~Ctrl <KeyPress> KP_Add:larger-vt-font() \n\
5138 Shift Ctrl <KeyPress> KP_Add:smaller-vt-font() \n\
5139 Shift <KeyPress> KP_Subtract:smaller-vt-font() \n\
5140 ~Meta <KeyPress>:insert-seven-bit() \n\
5141 Meta <KeyPress>:insert-eight-bit() \n\
5142 !Ctrl <Btn1Down>:popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
5143 !Lock Ctrl <Btn1Down>:popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
5144 !Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn1Down>:popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
5145 ! @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn1Down>:popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
5146 ~Meta <Btn1Down>:select-start() \n\
5147 ~Meta <Btn1Motion>:select-extend() \n\
5148 !Ctrl <Btn2Down>:popup-menu(vtMenu) \n\
5149 !Lock Ctrl <Btn2Down>:popup-menu(vtMenu) \n\
5150 !Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn2Down>:popup-menu(vtMenu) \n\
5151 ! @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn2Down>:popup-menu(vtMenu) \n\
5152 ~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn2Down>:ignore() \n\
5153 Meta <Btn2Down>:clear-saved-lines() \n\
5154 ~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn2Up>:insert-selection(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
5155 !Ctrl <Btn3Down>:popup-menu(fontMenu) \n\
5156 !Lock Ctrl <Btn3Down>:popup-menu(fontMenu) \n\
5157 !Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn3Down>:popup-menu(fontMenu) \n\
5158 ! @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn3Down>:popup-menu(fontMenu) \n\
5159 ~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn3Down>:start-extend() \n\
5160 ~Meta <Btn3Motion>:select-extend() \n\
5161 Ctrl <Btn4Down>:scroll-back(1,halfpage,m) \n\
5162 Lock Ctrl <Btn4Down>:scroll-back(1,halfpage,m) \n\
5163 Lock @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn4Down>:scroll-back(1,halfpage,m) \n\
5164 @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn4Down>:scroll-back(1,halfpage,m) \n\
5165 <Btn4Down>:scroll-back(5,line,m) \n\
5166 Ctrl <Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(1,halfpage,m) \n\
5167 Lock Ctrl <Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(1,halfpage,m) \n\
5168 Lock @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(1,halfpage,m) \n\
5169 @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(1,halfpage,m) \n\
5170 <Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(5,line,m) \n\
5171 <BtnUp>:select-end(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
5172 <BtnDown>:ignore()
5173 The default bindings for the scrollbar widget are separate from the
5175 VT100 widget:
5176 <Btn5Down>: StartScroll(Forward) \n\
5178 <Btn1Down>: StartScroll(Forward) \n\
5179 <Btn2Down>: StartScroll(Continuous) MoveThumb() NotifyThumb() \n\
5180 <Btn3Down>: StartScroll(Backward) \n\
5181 <Btn4Down>: StartScroll(Backward) \n\
5182 <Btn2Motion>: MoveThumb() NotifyThumb() \n\
5183 <BtnUp>: NotifyScroll(Proportional) EndScroll()
5184 The default bindings in the Tektronix window are:
5186 ~Meta<KeyPress>: insert-seven-bit() \n\
5188 Meta<KeyPress>: insert-eight-bit() \n\
5189 !Ctrl <Btn1Down>: popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
5190 !Lock Ctrl <Btn1Down>: popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
5191 !Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn1Down>: popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
5192 !Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn1Down>: popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
5193 !Ctrl <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(tekMenu) \n\
5194 !Lock Ctrl <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(tekMenu) \n\
5195 !Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(tekMenu) \n\
5196 !Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(tekMenu) \n\
5197 Shift ~Meta<Btn1Down>: gin-press(L) \n\
5198 ~Meta<Btn1Down>: gin-press(l) \n\
5199 Shift ~Meta<Btn2Down>: gin-press(M) \n\
5200 ~Meta<Btn2Down>: gin-press(m) \n\
5201 Shift ~Meta<Btn3Down>: gin-press(R) \n\
5202 ~Meta<Btn3Down>: gin-press(r)
5203 Here is an example which uses shifted select/paste to copy to the clip‐
5205 board, and unshifted select/paste for the primary selection. In each
5206 case, a (different) cut buffer is also a target or source of the
5207 select/paste operation. It is important to remember however, that cut
5208 buffers store data in ISO-8859-1 encoding, while selections can store
5209 data in a variety of formats and encodings. While xterm owns the
5210 selection, it highlights it. When it loses the selection, it removes
5211 the corresponding highlight. But you can still paste from the corre‐
5212 sponding cut buffer.
5213 *VT100*translations: #override \n\
5215 ~Shift~Ctrl<Btn2Up>: insert-selection(PRIMARY, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
5216 Shift~Ctrl<Btn2Up>: insert-selection(CLIPBOARD, CUT_BUFFER1) \n\
5217 ~Shift<BtnUp>: select-end(PRIMARY, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
5218 Shift<BtnUp>: select-end(CLIPBOARD, CUT_BUFFER1)
5219 Below is a sample of how the keymap() action is used to add special
5221 keys for entering commonly-typed works:
5222 *VT100.Translations: #override <Key>F13: keymap(dbx)
5224 *VT100.dbxKeymap.translations: \
5225 <Key>F14: keymap(None) \n\
5226 <Key>F17: string("next") string(0x0d) \n\
5227 <Key>F18: string("step") string(0x0d) \n\
5228 <Key>F19: string("continue") string(0x0d) \n\
5229 <Key>F20: string("print ") insert-selection(PRIMARY, CUT_BUFFER0)
5230 Some people prefer using the left pointer button for dragging the
5232 scrollbar thumb. That can be setup by altering the translations
5233 resource, e.g.,
5234 *VT100.scrollbar.translations: #override \n\
5236 <Btn5Down>: StartScroll(Forward) \n\
5237 <Btn1Down>: StartScroll(Continuous) MoveThumb() NotifyThumb() \n\
5238 <Btn4Down>: StartScroll(Backward) \n\
5239 <Btn1Motion>: MoveThumb() NotifyThumb() \n\
5240 <BtnUp>: NotifyScroll(Proportional) EndScroll()
5241
5243 The Xterm Control Sequences document lists the control sequences which
5244 an application can send xterm to make it perform various operations.
5245 Most of these operations are standardized, from either the DEC or Tek‐
5246 tronix terminals, or from more widely used standards such as ISO-6429.
5247
5249 Xterm sets several environment variables:
5250 DISPLAY
5252 is the display name, pointing to the X server (see DISPLAY NAMES
5253 in X(7)).
5254 TERM is set according to the termcap (or terminfo) entry which it is
5256 using as a reference.
5257 WINDOWID
5259 is set to the X window id number of the xterm window.
5260 XTERM_FILTER
5262 is set if a locale-filter is used. The value is the pathname of
5263 the filter.
5264 XTERM_LOCALE
5266 shows the locale which was used by xterm on startup. Some shell
5267 initialization scripts may set a different locale.
5268 XTERM_SHELL
5270 is set to the pathname of the program which is invoked. Usually
5271 that is a shell program, e.g., /bin/sh. Since it is not necessar‐
5272 ily a shell program however, it is distinct from “SHELL”.
5273 XTERM_VERSION
5275 is set to the string displayed by the -version option. That is
5276 normally an identifier for the X Window libraries used to build
5277 xterm, followed by xterm's patch number in parenthesis. The patch
5278 number is also part of the response to a Secondary Device
5279 Attributes (DA) control sequence (see Xterm Control Sequences).
5280 Depending on your system configuration, xterm may also set the follow‐
5282 ing:
5283 COLUMNS
5285 the width of the xterm in characters (cf: “stty columns”).
5286 HOME when xterm is configured to update utmp.
5288 LINES
5290 the height of the xterm in characters (cf: “stty rows”).
5291 LOGNAME
5293 when xterm is configured to update utmp.
5294 SHELL
5296 when xterm is configured to update utmp. It is also set if you
5297 provide the shell name as the optional parameter.
5298 TERMCAP
5300 the contents of the termcap entry corresponding to $TERM, with
5301 lines and columns values substituted for the actual size window
5302 you have created.
5303 TERMINFO
5305 may be defined to a nonstandard location in the configure script.
5306
5308 The actual pathnames given may differ on your system.
5309 /etc/utmp
5311 the system logfile, which records user logins.
5312 /etc/wtmp
5314 the system logfile, which records user logins and logouts.
5315 /usr/share/X11/app-defaults/XTerm
5317 the xterm default application resources.
5318 /usr/share/X11/app-defaults/XTerm-color
5320 the xterm color application resources. If your display supports
5321 color, use this
5322 *customization: -color
5323 in your .Xdefaults file to automatically use this resource file
5324 rather than /usr/share/X11/app-defaults/XTerm. If you do not do
5325 this, xterm uses its compiled-in default resource settings for
5326 colors.
5327 /usr/share/pixmaps
5329 the directory in which xterm's pixmap icon files are installed.
5330
5332 Most of the fatal error messages from xterm use the following format:
5333 xterm: Error XXX, errno YYY: ZZZ
5334 The XXX codes (which are used by xterm as its exit-code) are listed
5335 below, with a brief explanation.
5336 1 is used for miscellaneous errors, usually accompanied by a spe‐
5338 cific message,
5339 11 ERROR_FIONBIO
5341 main: ioctl() failed on FIONBIO
5342 12 ERROR_F_GETFL
5344 main: ioctl() failed on F_GETFL
5345 13 ERROR_F_SETFL
5347 main: ioctl() failed on F_SETFL
5348 14 ERROR_OPDEVTTY
5350 spawn: open() failed on /dev/tty
5351 15 ERROR_TIOCGETP
5353 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCGETP
5354 17 ERROR_PTSNAME
5356 spawn: ptsname() failed
5357 18 ERROR_OPPTSNAME
5359 spawn: open() failed on ptsname
5360 19 ERROR_PTEM
5362 spawn: ioctl() failed on I_PUSH/"ptem"
5363 20 ERROR_CONSEM
5365 spawn: ioctl() failed on I_PUSH/"consem"
5366 21 ERROR_LDTERM
5368 spawn: ioctl() failed on I_PUSH/"ldterm"
5369 22 ERROR_TTCOMPAT
5371 spawn: ioctl() failed on I_PUSH/"ttcompat"
5372 23 ERROR_TIOCSETP
5374 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCSETP
5375 24 ERROR_TIOCSETC
5377 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCSETC
5378 25 ERROR_TIOCSETD
5380 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCSETD
5381 26 ERROR_TIOCSLTC
5383 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCSLTC
5384 27 ERROR_TIOCLSET
5386 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCLSET
5387 28 ERROR_INIGROUPS
5389 spawn: initgroups() failed
5390 29 ERROR_FORK
5392 spawn: fork() failed
5393 30 ERROR_EXEC
5395 spawn: exec() failed
5396 32 ERROR_PTYS
5398 get_pty: not enough ptys
5399 34 ERROR_PTY_EXEC
5401 waiting for initial map
5402 35 ERROR_SETUID
5404 spawn: setuid() failed
5405 36 ERROR_INIT
5407 spawn: can't initialize window
5408 46 ERROR_TIOCKSET
5410 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCKSET
5411 47 ERROR_TIOCKSETC
5413 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCKSETC
5414 49 ERROR_LUMALLOC
5416 luit: command-line malloc failed
5417 50 ERROR_SELECT
5419 in_put: select() failed
5420 54 ERROR_VINIT
5422 VTInit: can't initialize window
5423 57 ERROR_KMMALLOC1
5425 HandleKeymapChange: malloc failed
5426 60 ERROR_TSELECT
5428 Tinput: select() failed
5429 64 ERROR_TINIT
5431 TekInit: can't initialize window
5432 71 ERROR_BMALLOC2
5434 SaltTextAway: malloc() failed
5435 80 ERROR_LOGEXEC
5437 StartLog: exec() failed
5438 83 ERROR_XERROR
5440 xerror: XError event
5441 84 ERROR_XIOERROR
5443 xioerror: X I/O error
5444 85 ERROR_ICEERROR
5446 ICE I/O error
5447 90 ERROR_SCALLOC
5449 Alloc: calloc() failed on base
5450 91 ERROR_SCALLOC2
5452 Alloc: calloc() failed on rows
5453 102 ERROR_SAVE_PTR
5455 ScrnPointers: malloc/realloc() failed
5456
5458 Large pastes do not work on some systems. This is not a bug in xterm;
5459 it is a bug in the pseudo terminal driver of those systems. xterm
5460 feeds large pastes to the pty only as fast as the pty will accept data,
5461 but some pty drivers do not return enough information to know if the
5462 write has succeeded.
5463 When connected to an input method, it is possible for xterm to hang if
5465 the XIM server is suspended or killed.
5466 Many of the options are not resettable after xterm starts.
5468 This program still needs to be rewritten. It should be split into very
5470 modular sections, with the various emulators being completely separate
5471 widgets that do not know about each other. Ideally, you'd like to be
5472 able to pick and choose emulator widgets and stick them into a single
5473 control widget.
5474 There needs to be a dialog box to allow entry of the Tek COPY file
5476 name.
5477
5479 resize(1), luit(1), uxterm(1), X(7), pty(4), tty(4)
5480 Xterm Control Sequences (this is the file ctlseqs.ms).
5482 http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.html
5484 http://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html
5485
5487 Far too many people, including:
5488 Loretta Guarino Reid (DEC-UEG-WSL), Joel McCormack (DEC-UEG-WSL), Terry
5490 Weissman (DEC-UEG-WSL), Edward Moy (Berkeley), Ralph R. Swick (MIT-
5491 Athena), Mark Vandevoorde (MIT-Athena), Bob McNamara (DEC-MAD), Jim
5492 Gettys (MIT-Athena), Bob Scheifler (MIT X Consortium), Doug Mink (SAO),
5493 Steve Pitschke (Stellar), Ron Newman (MIT-Athena), Jim Fulton (MIT X
5494 Consortium), Dave Serisky (HP), Jonathan Kamens (MIT-Athena), Jason
5495 Bacon, Stephen P. Wall, David Wexelblat, and Thomas Dickey (invisible-
5496 island.net).
5497Patch #295 2013-07-06 XTERM(1)