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
14 terminals such as VT320/VT420/VT520 (VTxxx). It also provides
15 Tektronix 4014 emulation for programs that cannot use the window system
16 directly. If the underlying operating system supports terminal
17 resizing capabilities (for example, the SIGWINCH signal in systems
18 derived from 4.3BSD), xterm will use the facilities to notify programs
19 running in the window 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),
24 Tektronix 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
30 terminal output. This is the window that contains the text cursor.
31 The active window can be chosen through escape sequences, the VT
32 Options menu in the VTxxx window, and the Tek Options menu in the 4014
33 window.
34
36 Xterm provides usable emulations of related DEC terminals:
37 • VT52 emulation is complete.
39 • VT102 emulation is fairly complete, but does not support autorepeat
41 (because that would affect the keyboard used by other X clients).
42 Double-size characters are displayed properly if your font server
44 supports scalable bitmap fonts.
45 • VT220 emulation does not support soft fonts, it is otherwise
47 complete.
48 • VT420 emulation (the default) supports controls for manipulating
50 rectangles of characters as well as left/right margins.
51 Xterm does not support some other features which are not suitable
53 for emulation, e.g., two-sessions.
54 Terminal database (terminfo (5) or termcap (5)) entries that work with
56 xterm include
57 an optional platform-specific entry (“xterm”),
59 “xterm”,
60 “vt102”,
61 “vt100”,
62 “ansi” and
63 “dumb”
64 Xterm automatically searches the terminal database in this order for
66 these entries and then sets the “TERM” variable (and the “TERMCAP”
67 environment variable on a few older systems). The alternatives after
68 “xterm” are very old, from the late 1980s.
69 VT100 and VT102 emulations are commonly equated, though they actually
71 differ. The VT102 provided controls for inserting and deleting lines.
72 Similarly, “ansi” and “vt100” are often equated. These are not really
74 the same. For instance, they use different controls for scrolling (but
75 xterm supports both). These features differ in an “ansi” terminal
76 description from xterm:
77 acsc
79 Pseudo-graphics (line-drawing) uses a different mapping.
80 xenl
82 Xterm wraps text at the right margin using the VT100 “newline
83 glitch” behavior.
84 Because of the wrapping behavior, you would occasionally have to
86 repaint the screen when using a text editor with the “ansi”
87 description.
88 You may also use descriptions corresponding to the various supported
90 emulations such as “vt220” or “vt420”, but should set the terminal
91 emulation level with the decTerminalID resource.
92 On most systems, xterm will use the terminfo database. Some older
94 systems use termcap. (The “TERMCAP” environment variable is not set if
95 xterm is linked against a terminfo library, since the requisite
96 information is not provided by the termcap emulation of terminfo
97 libraries).
98 Many of the special xterm features may be modified under program
100 control through a set of escape sequences different from the standard
101 VTxxx escape sequences (see Xterm Control Sequences).
102 The Tektronix 4014 emulation is also fairly good. It supports 12-bit
104 graphics addressing, scaled to the window size. Four different font
105 sizes and five different lines types are supported. There is no write-
106 through or defocused mode support. The Tektronix text and graphics
107 commands are recorded internally by xterm and may be written to a file
108 by sending the COPY escape sequence (or through the Tektronix menu; see
109 below). The name of the file will be
110 “COPYyyyy-MM-dd.hh:mm:ss”
112 where yyyy, MM, dd, hh, mm and ss are the year, month, day, hour,
114 minute and second when the COPY was performed (the file is created in
115 the directory xterm is started in, or the home directory for a login
116 xterm).
117 Not all of the features described in this manual are necessarily
119 available in this version of xterm. Some (e.g., the non-VT220
120 extensions) are available only if they were compiled in, though the
121 most commonly-used are in the default configuration.
122
124 Xterm automatically highlights the text cursor when the pointer enters
125 the window (selected) and unhighlights it when the pointer leaves the
126 window (unselected). If the window is the focus window, then the text
127 cursor is highlighted no matter where the pointer is.
128 In VTxxx mode, there are escape sequences to activate and deactivate an
130 alternate screen buffer, which is the same size as the display area of
131 the window. When activated, the current screen is saved and replaced
132 with the alternate screen. Saving of lines scrolled off the top of the
133 window is disabled until the normal screen is restored. The usual
134 terminal description for xterm allows the visual editor vi(1) to switch
135 to the alternate screen for editing and to restore the screen on exit.
136 A popup menu entry makes it simple to switch between the normal and
137 alternate screens for cut and paste.
138 In either VTxxx or Tektronix mode, there are escape sequences to change
140 the name of the windows. Additionally, in VTxxx mode, xterm implements
141 the window-manipulation control sequences from dtterm, such as resizing
142 the window, setting its location on the screen.
143 Xterm allows character-based applications to receive mouse events
145 (currently button-press and release events, and button-motion events)
146 as keyboard control sequences. See Xterm Control Sequences for
147 details.
148
150 Because xterm uses the X Toolkit library, it accepts the standard X
151 Toolkit command line options. Xterm also accepts many application-
152 specific options.
153 By convention, if an option begins with a “+” instead of a “-”, the
155 option is restored to its default value.
156 Most of the xterm options are actually parsed by the X Toolkit, which
158 sets resource values, and overrides corresponding resource-settings in
159 your X resource files. Xterm provides the X Toolkit with a table of
160 options. A few of these are marked, telling the X Toolkit to ignore
161 them (-help, -version, -class, -e, and -into). After the X Toolkit has
162 parsed the command-line parameters, it removes those which it handles,
163 leaving the specially-marked parameters for xterm to handle.
164 These options do not set a resource value, and are handled specially:
166 -version
168 This causes xterm to print a version number to the standard
169 output, and then exit.
170 -help This causes xterm to print out a verbose message describing its
172 options, one per line. The message is written to the standard
173 output. After printing the message, xterm exits. Xterm
174 generates this message, sorting it and noting whether a
175 “-option” or a “+option” turns the feature on or off, since
176 some features historically have been one or the other. Xterm
177 generates a concise help message (multiple options per line)
178 when an unknown option is used, e.g.,
179 xterm -z
181 If the logic for a particular option such as logging is not
183 compiled into xterm, the help text for that option also is not
184 displayed by the -help option.
185 The -version and -help options are interpreted even if xterm cannot
187 open the display, and are useful for testing and configuration scripts.
188 Along with -class, they are checked before other options. To do this,
189 xterm has its own (much simpler) argument parser, along with a table of
190 the X Toolkit's built-in list of options.
191 Relying upon the X Toolkit to parse the options and associated values
193 has the advantages of simplicity and good integration with the X
194 resource mechanism. There are a few drawbacks
195 • Xterm cannot tell easily whether a resource value was set by one of
197 the external resource- or application-defaults files, whether it
198 was set using xrdb(1), or if it was set through the -xrm option or
199 via some directly relevant command-line option. Xterm sees only
200 the end-result: a value supplied when creating its widgets.
201 • Xterm does not know the order in which particular options and items
203 in resource files are evaluated. Rather, it sees all of the values
204 for a given widget at the same time. In the design of these
205 options, some are deemed more important, and can override other
206 options.
207 The X Toolkit uses patterns (constants and wildcards) to match
209 resources. Once a particular pattern has been used, it will not
210 modify it. To override a given setting, a more-specific pattern
211 must be used, e.g., replacing “*” with “.”. Some poorly-designed
212 resource files are too specific to allow the command-line options
213 to affect the relevant widget values.
214 • In a few cases, the X Toolkit combines its standard options in ways
216 which do not work well with xterm. This happens with the color
217 (-fg, -bg) and reverse (-rv) options. Xterm makes a special case
218 of these and adjusts its sense of “reverse” to lessen user
219 surprise.
220 One parameter (after all options) may be given. That overrides xterm's
222 built-in choice of shell program:
223 • If the parameter is not a relative path, i.e., beginning with “./”
225 or “../”, xterm looks for the file in the user's PATH. In either
226 case, this check fails if xterm cannot construct an absolute path.
227 • If that check fails (or if no such parameter is given), xterm next
229 checks the “SHELL” variable. If that specifies an executable file,
230 xterm will attempt to start that. However, xterm additionally
231 checks if it is a valid shell, and will unset “SHELL” if it is not.
232 • If “SHELL” is not set to an executable file, xterm tries to use the
234 shell program specified in the user's password file entry. As
235 before, xterm verifies if this is a valid shell.
236 • Finally, if the password file entry does not specify a valid shell,
238 xterm uses /bin/sh.
239 The -e option cannot be used with this parameter since it uses all
241 parameters following the option.
242 Xterm validates shell programs by finding their pathname in the text
244 file /etc/shells. It treats the environment variable “SHELL” specially
245 because (like “TERM”), xterm both reads and updates the variable, and
246 because the program started by xterm is not necessarily a shell.
247 The other options are used to control the appearance and behavior. Not
249 all options are necessarily configured into your copy of xterm:
250 -132 Normally, the VT102 DECCOLM escape sequence that switches
252 between 80 and 132 column mode is ignored. This option causes
253 the DECCOLM escape sequence to be recognized, and the xterm
254 window will resize appropriately.
255 -ah This option indicates that xterm should always highlight the
257 text cursor. By default, xterm will display a hollow text
258 cursor whenever the focus is lost or the pointer leaves the
259 window.
260 +ah This option indicates that xterm should do text cursor
262 highlighting based on focus.
263 -ai This option disables active icon support if that feature was
265 compiled into xterm. This is equivalent to setting the vt100
266 resource activeIcon to “false”.
267 +ai This option enables active icon support if that feature was
269 compiled into xterm. This is equivalent to setting the vt100
270 resource activeIcon to “true”.
271 -aw This option indicates that auto-wraparound should be allowed,
273 and is equivalent to setting the vt100 resource autoWrap to
274 “true”.
275 Auto-wraparound allows the cursor to automatically wrap to the
277 beginning of the next line when it is at the rightmost position
278 of a line and text is output.
279 +aw This option indicates that auto-wraparound should not be
281 allowed, and is equivalent to setting the vt100 resource
282 autoWrap to “false”.
283 -b number
285 This option specifies the size of the inner border (the
286 distance between the outer edge of the characters and the
287 window border) in pixels. That is the vt100 internalBorder
288 resource. The default is “2”.
289 -baudrate number
291 Set the line-speed, used to test the behavior of applications
292 that use the line-speed when optimizing their output to the
293 screen. The default is “38400”.
294 -bc turn on text cursor blinking. This overrides the cursorBlink
296 resource.
297 +bc turn off text cursor blinking. This overrides the cursorBlink
299 resource.
300 -bcf milliseconds
302 set the amount of time text cursor is off when blinking via the
303 cursorOffTime resource.
304 -bcn milliseconds
306 set the amount of time text cursor is on when blinking via the
307 cursorOnTime resource.
308 -bdc Set the vt100 resource colorBDMode to “false”, disabling the
310 display of characters with bold attribute as color.
311 +bdc Set the vt100 resource colorBDMode to “true”, enabling the
313 display of characters with bold attribute as color rather than
314 bold.
315 -cb Set the vt100 resource cutToBeginningOfLine to “false”.
317 +cb Set the vt100 resource cutToBeginningOfLine to “true”.
319 -cc characterclassrange:value[, ...]
321 This sets classes indicated by the given ranges for using in
322 selecting by words (see CHARACTER CLASSES and the charClass
323 resource).
324 -cjk_width
326 Set the cjkWidth resource to “true”. When turned on,
327 characters with East Asian Ambiguous (A) category in UTR 11
328 have a column width of 2. Otherwise, they have a column width
329 of 1. This may be useful for some legacy CJK text terminal-
330 based programs assuming box drawings and others to have a
331 column width of 2. It also should be turned on when you
332 specify a TrueType CJK double-width (bi-width/monospace) font
333 either with -fa at the command line or faceName resource. The
334 default is “false”
335 +cjk_width
337 Reset the cjkWidth resource.
338 -class string
340 This option allows you to override xterm's resource class.
341 Normally it is “XTerm”, but can be set to another class such as
342 “UXTerm” to override selected resources.
343 X Toolkit sets the WM_CLASS property using the instance name
345 and this class value.
346 -cm This option disables recognition of ANSI color-change escape
348 sequences. It sets the colorMode resource to “false”.
349 +cm This option enables recognition of ANSI color-change escape
351 sequences. This is the same as the vt100 resource colorMode.
352 -cn This option indicates that newlines should not be cut in line-
354 mode selections. It sets the cutNewline resource to “false”.
355 +cn This option indicates that newlines should be cut in line-mode
357 selections. It sets the cutNewline resource to “true”.
358 -cr color
360 This option specifies the color to use for text cursor. The
361 default is to use the same foreground color that is used for
362 text. It sets the cursorColor resource according to the
363 parameter.
364 -cu This option indicates that xterm should work around a bug in
366 the more(1) program that causes it to incorrectly display lines
367 that are exactly the width of the window and are followed by a
368 line beginning with a tab (the leading tabs are not displayed).
369 This option is so named because it was originally thought to be
370 a bug in the curses(3x) cursor motion package.
371 +cu This option indicates that xterm should not work around the
373 more(1) bug mentioned above.
374 -dc This option disables the escape sequence to change dynamic
376 colors: the vt100 foreground and background colors, its text
377 cursor color, the pointer cursor foreground and background
378 colors, the Tektronix emulator foreground and background
379 colors, its text cursor color and highlight color. The option
380 sets the dynamicColors option to “false”.
381 +dc This option enables the escape sequence to change dynamic
383 colors. The option sets the dynamicColors option to “true”.
384 -e program [ arguments ... ]
386 This option specifies the program (and its command line
387 arguments) to be run in the xterm window. It also sets the
388 window title and icon name to be the basename of the program
389 being executed if neither -T nor -n are given on the command
390 line.
391 NOTE: This must be the last option on the command line.
393 -en encoding
395 This option determines the encoding on which xterm runs. It
396 sets the locale resource. Encodings other than UTF-8 are
397 supported by using luit. The -lc option should be used instead
398 of -en for systems with locale support.
399 -fa pattern
401 This option sets the pattern for fonts selected from the
402 FreeType library if support for that library was compiled into
403 xterm. This corresponds to the faceName resource. When a CJK
404 double-width font is specified, you also need to turn on the
405 cjkWidth resource.
406 If you specify both -fa and the X Toolkit option -fn, the -fa
408 setting overrides the latter.
409 See also the renderFont resource, which combines with this to
411 determine whether FreeType fonts are initially active.
412 -fb font
414 This option specifies a font to be used when displaying bold
415 text. It sets the boldFont resource.
416 This font must be the same height and width as the normal font,
418 otherwise it is ignored. If only one of the normal or bold
419 fonts is specified, it will be used as the normal font and the
420 bold font will be produced by overstriking this font.
421 See also the discussion of boldMode and alwaysBoldMode
423 resources.
424 -fbb This option indicates that xterm should compare normal and bold
426 fonts bounding boxes to ensure they are compatible. It sets
427 the freeBoldBox resource to “false”.
428 +fbb This option indicates that xterm should not compare normal and
430 bold fonts bounding boxes to ensure they are compatible. It
431 sets the freeBoldBox resource to “true”.
432 -fbx This option indicates that xterm should not assume that the
434 normal and bold fonts have VT100 line-drawing characters. If
435 any are missing, xterm will draw the characters directly. It
436 sets the forceBoxChars resource to “false”.
437 +fbx This option indicates that xterm should assume that the normal
439 and bold fonts have VT100 line-drawing characters. It sets the
440 forceBoxChars resource to “true”.
441 -fc fontchoice
443 Specify the initial font chosen from the font menu. The option
444 value corresponds to the initialFont resource.
445 -fd pattern
447 This option sets the pattern for double-width fonts selected
448 from the FreeType library if support for that library was
449 compiled into xterm. This corresponds to the
450 faceNameDoublesize resource.
451 -fi font
453 This option sets the font for active icons if that feature was
454 compiled into xterm.
455 See also the discussion of the iconFont resource.
457 -fs size
459 This option sets the pointsize for fonts selected from the
460 FreeType library if support for that library was compiled into
461 xterm. This corresponds to the faceSize resource.
462 -fullscreen
464 This option indicates that xterm should ask the window manager
465 to let it use the full-screen for display, e.g., without window
466 decorations. It sets the fullscreen resource to “true”.
467 +fullscreen
469 This option indicates that xterm should not ask the window
470 manager to let it use the full-screen for display. It sets the
471 fullscreen resource to “false”.
472 -fw font
474 This option specifies the font to be used for displaying wide
475 text. By default, it will attempt to use a font twice as wide
476 as the font that will be used to draw normal text. If no
477 double-width font is found, it will improvise, by stretching
478 the normal font. This corresponds to the wideFont resource.
479 -fwb font
481 This option specifies the font to be used for displaying bold
482 wide text. By default, it will attempt to use a font twice as
483 wide as the font that will be used to draw bold text. If no
484 double-width font is found, it will improvise, by stretching
485 the bold font. This corresponds to the wideBoldFont resource.
486 -fx font
488 This option specifies the font to be used for displaying the
489 preedit string in the “OverTheSpot” input method.
490 See also the discussion of the ximFont resource.
492 -hc color
494 (see -selbg).
495 -hf This option indicates that HP function key escape codes should
497 be generated for function keys. It sets the hpFunctionKeys
498 resource to “true”.
499 +hf This option indicates that HP function key escape codes should
501 not be generated for function keys. It sets the hpFunctionKeys
502 resource to “false”.
503 -hm Tells xterm to use highlightTextColor and highlightColor to
505 override the reversed foreground/background colors in a
506 selection. It sets the highlightColorMode resource to “true”.
507 +hm Tells xterm not to use highlightTextColor and highlightColor to
509 override the reversed foreground/background colors in a
510 selection. It sets the highlightColorMode resource to “false”.
511 -hold Turn on the hold resource, i.e., xterm will not immediately
513 destroy its window when the shell command completes. It will
514 wait until you use the window manager to destroy/kill the
515 window, or if you use the menu entries that send a signal,
516 e.g., HUP or KILL.
517 +hold Turn off the hold resource, i.e., xterm will immediately
519 destroy its window when the shell command completes.
520 -ie Turn on the ptyInitialErase resource, i.e., use the pseudo-
522 terminal's sense of the stty erase value.
523 +ie Turn off the ptyInitialErase resource, i.e., set the stty erase
525 value using the kb string from the termcap entry as a
526 reference, if available.
527 -im Turn on the useInsertMode resource, which forces use of insert
529 mode by adding appropriate entries to the TERMCAP environment
530 variable. (This option is ignored on most systems, because
531 TERMCAP is not used).
532 +im Turn off the useInsertMode resource.
534 -into windowId
536 Given an X window identifier (an integer, which can be
537 hexadecimal, octal or decimal according to whether it begins
538 with "0x", "0" or neither), xterm will reparent its top-level
539 shell widget to that window. This is used to embed xterm
540 within other applications.
541 For instance, there are scripts for Tcl/Tk and Gtk which can be
543 used to demonstrate the feature. When using Gtk, there is a
544 limitation of that toolkit which requires that xterm's
545 allowSendEvents resource is enabled.
546 -itc Set the vt100 resource colorITMode to “false”, disabling the
548 display of characters with italic attribute as color.
549 +itc Set the vt100 resource colorITMode to “true”, enabling the
551 display of characters with italic attribute as color rather
552 than italic.
553 -j This option indicates that xterm should do jump scrolling. It
555 corresponds to the jumpScroll resource. Normally, text is
556 scrolled one line at a time; this option allows xterm to move
557 multiple lines at a time so that it does not fall as far
558 behind. Its use is strongly recommended since it makes xterm
559 much faster when scanning through large amounts of text. The
560 VT100 escape sequences for enabling and disabling smooth scroll
561 as well as the VT Options menu can be used to turn this feature
562 on or off.
563 +j This option indicates that xterm should not do jump scrolling.
565 -k8 This option sets the allowC1Printable resource. When
567 allowC1Printable is set, xterm overrides the mapping of C1
568 control characters (code 128–159) to treat them as printable.
569 +k8 This option resets the allowC1Printable resource.
571 -kt keyboardtype
573 This option sets the keyboardType resource. Possible values
574 include: “unknown”, “default”, “legacy”, “hp”, “sco”, “sun”,
575 “tcap” and “vt220”.
576 The value “unknown”, causes the corresponding resource to be
578 ignored.
579 The value “default”, suppresses the associated resources
581 hpFunctionKeys,
583 scoFunctionKeys,
584 sunFunctionKeys,
585 tcapFunctionKeys,
586 oldXtermFKeys and
587 sunKeyboard,
588 using the Sun/PC keyboard layout.
590 -l Turn logging on, unless disabled by the logInhibit resource.
592 Some versions of xterm may have logging enabled. However,
594 normally logging is not supported, due to security concerns in
595 the early 1990s. That was a problem in X11R4 xterm (1989)
596 which was addressed by a patch to X11R5 late in 1993. X11R6
597 included these fixes. The older version (when running with
598 root privilege) would create the log file using root privilege.
599 The reason why xterm ran with root privileges was to open
600 pseudo-terminals. Those privileges are now needed only on very
601 old systems: Unix98 pseudo-terminals made the BSD scheme
602 unnecessary.
603 Unless overridden by the -lf option or the logFile resource:
605 • If the filename is “-”, then logging is sent to the
607 standard output.
608 • Otherwise a filename is generated, and the log file is
610 written to the directory from which xterm is invoked.
611 • The generated filename is of the form
613 XtermLog.XXXXXX
615 or
617 Xterm.log.hostname.yyyy.mm.dd.hh.mm.ss.XXXXXX
619 depending on how xterm was built.
621 +l Turn logging off.
623 -lc Turn on support of various encodings according to the users'
625 locale setting, i.e., LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, or LANG environment
626 variables. This is achieved by turning on UTF-8 mode and by
627 invoking luit for conversion between locale encodings and
628 UTF-8. (luit is not invoked in UTF-8 locales.) This
629 corresponds to the locale resource.
630 The actual list of encodings which are supported is determined
632 by luit. Consult the luit manual page for further details.
633 See also the discussion of the -u8 option which supports UTF-8
635 locales.
636 +lc Turn off support of automatic selection of locale encodings.
638 Conventional 8bit mode or, in UTF-8 locales or with -u8 option,
639 UTF-8 mode will be used.
640 -lcc path
642 File name for the encoding converter from/to locale encodings
643 and UTF-8 which is used with -lc option or locale resource.
644 This corresponds to the localeFilter resource.
645 -leftbar
647 Force scrollbar to the left side of VT100 screen. This is the
648 default, unless you have set the rightScrollBar resource.
649 -lf filename
651 Specify the log filename. This sets the logFile resource. If
652 set to “-”, xterm writes its log to the standard output. See
653 the -l option.
654 -ls This option indicates that the shell that is started in the
656 xterm window will be a login shell (i.e., the first character
657 of argv[0] will be a dash, indicating to the shell that it
658 should read the user's .login or .profile).
659 The -ls flag and the loginShell resource are ignored if -e is
661 also given, because xterm does not know how to make the shell
662 start the given command after whatever it does when it is a
663 login shell - the user's shell of choice need not be a Bourne
664 shell after all. Also, xterm -e is supposed to provide a
665 consistent functionality for other applications that need to
666 start text-mode programs in a window, and if loginShell were
667 not ignored, the result of ~/.profile might interfere with
668 that.
669 If you do want the effect of -ls and -e simultaneously, you may
671 get away with something like
672 xterm -e /bin/bash -l -c "my command here"
674 Finally, -ls is not completely ignored, because xterm -ls -e
676 does write a /etc/wtmp entry (if configured to do so), whereas
677 xterm -e does not.
678 +ls This option indicates that the shell that is started should not
680 be a login shell (i.e., it will be a normal “subshell”).
681 -maximized
683 This option indicates that xterm should ask the window manager
684 to maximize its layout on startup. This corresponds to the
685 maximized resource.
686 Maximizing is not the reverse of iconifying; it is possible to
688 do both with certain window managers.
689 +maximized
691 This option indicates that xterm should ask the window manager
692 to not maximize its layout on startup.
693 -mb This option indicates that xterm should ring a margin bell when
695 the user types near the right end of a line.
696 +mb This option indicates that margin bell should not be rung.
698 -mc milliseconds
700 This option specifies the maximum time between multi-click
701 selections.
702 -mesg Turn off the messages resource, i.e., disallow write access to
704 the terminal.
705 +mesg Turn on the messages resource, i.e., allow write access to the
707 terminal.
708 -mk_width
710 Set the mkWidth resource to “true”. This makes xterm use a
711 built-in version of the wide-character width calculation. The
712 default is “false”
713 +mk_width
715 Reset the mkWidth resource.
716 -ms color
718 This option specifies the color to be used for the pointer
719 cursor. The default is to use the foreground color. This sets
720 the pointerColor resource.
721 -nb number
723 This option specifies the number of characters from the right
724 end of a line at which the margin bell, if enabled, will ring.
725 The default is “10”.
726 -nul This option disables the display of underlining.
728 +nul This option enables the display of underlining.
730 -pc This option enables the PC-style use of bold colors (see
732 boldColors resource).
733 +pc This option disables the PC-style use of bold colors.
735 -pf font
737 This option specifies the font to be used for the pointer. The
738 corresponding resource name is pointerFont. The resource value
739 default is cursor.
740 -pob This option indicates that the window should be raised whenever
742 a Control-G is received.
743 +pob This option indicates that the window should not be raised
745 whenever a Control-G is received.
746 -report-charclass
748 Print a report to the standard output showing information about
749 the character-classes which can be altered using the charClass
750 resource.
751 -report-colors
753 Print a report to the standard output showing information about
754 colors as xterm allocates them. This corresponds to the
755 reportColors resource.
756 -report-fonts
758 Print a report to the standard output showing information about
759 fonts which are loaded. This corresponds to the reportFonts
760 resource.
761 -report-icons
763 Print a report to the standard output showing information about
764 pixmap-icons which are loaded. This corresponds to the
765 reportIcons resource.
766 -report-xres
768 Print a report to the standard output showing the values of
769 boolean, numeric or string X resources for the VT100 widget
770 when initialization is complete. This corresponds to the
771 reportXRes resource.
772 -rightbar
774 Force scrollbar to the right side of VT100 screen.
775 -rvc This option disables the display of characters with reverse
777 attribute as color.
778 +rvc This option enables the display of characters with reverse
780 attribute as color.
781 -rw This option indicates that reverse-wraparound should be
783 allowed. This allows the cursor to back up from the leftmost
784 column of one line to the rightmost column of the previous
785 line. This is very useful for editing long shell command lines
786 and is encouraged. This option can be turned on and off from
787 the VT Options menu.
788 +rw This option indicates that reverse-wraparound should not be
790 allowed.
791 -s This option indicates that xterm may scroll asynchronously,
793 meaning that the screen does not have to be kept completely up
794 to date while scrolling. This allows xterm to run faster when
795 network latencies are very high and is typically useful when
796 running across a very large internet or many gateways.
797 +s This option indicates that xterm should scroll synchronously.
799 -samename
801 Does not send title and icon name change requests when the
802 request would have no effect: the name is not changed. This
803 has the advantage of preventing flicker and the disadvantage of
804 requiring an extra round trip to the server to find out the
805 previous value. In practice this should never be a problem.
806 +samename
808 Always send title and icon name change requests.
809 -sb This option indicates that some number of lines that are
811 scrolled off the top of the window should be saved and that a
812 scrollbar should be displayed so that those lines can be
813 viewed. This option may be turned on and off from the VT
814 Options menu.
815 +sb This option indicates that a scrollbar should not be displayed.
817 -selbg color
819 This option specifies the color to use for the background of
820 selected text. If not specified, reverse video is used. See
821 the discussion of the highlightColor resource.
822 -selfg color
824 This option specifies the color to use for selected text. If
825 not specified, reverse video is used. See the discussion of
826 the highlightTextColor resource.
827 -sf This option indicates that Sun function key escape codes should
829 be generated for function keys.
830 +sf This option indicates that the standard escape codes should be
832 generated for function keys.
833 -sh number
835 scale line-height values by the given number. See the
836 discussion of the scaleHeight resource.
837 -si This option indicates that output to a window should not
839 automatically reposition the screen to the bottom of the
840 scrolling region. This option can be turned on and off from
841 the VT Options menu.
842 +si This option indicates that output to a window should cause it
844 to scroll to the bottom.
845 -sk This option indicates that pressing a key while using the
847 scrollbar to review previous lines of text should cause the
848 window to be repositioned automatically in the normal position
849 at the bottom of the scroll region.
850 +sk This option indicates that pressing a key while using the
852 scrollbar should not cause the window to be repositioned.
853 -sl number
855 This option specifies the number of lines to save that have
856 been scrolled off the top of the screen. This corresponds to
857 the saveLines resource. The default is “1024”.
858 -sm This option, corresponding to the sessionMgt resource,
860 indicates that xterm should set up session manager callbacks.
861 +sm This option indicates that xterm should not set up session
863 manager callbacks.
864 -sp This option indicates that Sun/PC keyboard should be assumed,
866 providing mapping for keypad “+” to “,”, and CTRL-F1 to F13,
867 CTRL-F2 to F14, etc.
868 +sp This option indicates that the standard escape codes should be
870 generated for keypad and function keys.
871 -t This option indicates that xterm should start in Tektronix
873 mode, rather than in VTxxx mode. Switching between the two
874 windows is done using the “Options” menus.
875 Terminal database (terminfo (5) or termcap (5)) entries that
877 work with xterm are:
878 “tek4014”,
880 “tek4015”,
881 “tek4012”,
882 “tek4013”,
883 “tek4010”, and
884 “dumb”.
885 Xterm automatically searches the terminal database in this
887 order for these entries and then sets the “TERM” variable (and
888 the “TERMCAP” environment variable, if relevant).
889 +t This option indicates that xterm should start in VTxxx mode.
891 -tb This option, corresponding to the toolBar resource, indicates
893 that xterm should display a toolbar (or menubar) at the top of
894 its window. The buttons in the toolbar correspond to the popup
895 menus, e.g., control/left/mouse for Main Options.
896 +tb This option indicates that xterm should not set up a toolbar.
898 -ti term_id
900 Specify the name used by xterm to select the correct response
901 to terminal ID queries. It also specifies the emulation level,
902 used to determine the type of response to a DA control
903 sequence. Valid values include vt52, vt100, vt101, vt102,
904 vt220, and vt240 (the “vt” is optional). The default is
905 “vt420”. The term_id argument specifies the terminal ID to
906 use. (This is the same as the decTerminalID resource).
907 -tm string
909 This option specifies a series of terminal setting keywords
910 followed by the characters that should be bound to those
911 functions, similar to the stty program. The keywords and their
912 values are described in detail in the ttyModes resource.
913 -tn name
915 This option specifies the name of the terminal type to be set
916 in the TERM environment variable. It corresponds to the
917 termName resource. This terminal type must exist in the
918 terminal database (termcap or terminfo, depending on how xterm
919 is built) and should have li# and co# entries. If the terminal
920 type is not found, xterm uses the built-in list “xterm”,
921 “vt102”, etc.
922 -u8 This option sets the utf8 resource. When utf8 is set, xterm
924 interprets incoming data as UTF-8. This sets the wideChars
925 resource as a side-effect, but the UTF-8 mode set by this
926 option prevents it from being turned off. If you must turn
927 UTF-8 encoding on and off, use the -wc option or the
928 corresponding wideChars resource, rather than the -u8 option.
929 This option and the utf8 resource are overridden by the -lc and
931 -en options and locale resource. That is, if xterm has been
932 compiled to support luit, and the locale resource is not
933 “false” this option is ignored. We recommend using the -lc
934 option or the “locale: true” resource in UTF-8 locales when
935 your operating system supports locale, or -en UTF-8 option or
936 the “locale: UTF-8” resource when your operating system does
937 not support locale.
938 +u8 This option resets the utf8 resource.
940 -uc This option makes the cursor underlined instead of a box.
942 +uc This option makes the cursor a box instead of underlined.
944 -ulc This option disables the display of characters with underline
946 attribute as color rather than with underlining.
947 +ulc This option enables the display of characters with underline
949 attribute as color rather than with underlining.
950 -ulit This option, corresponding to the italicULMode resource,
952 disables the display of characters with underline attribute as
953 italics rather than with underlining.
954 +ulit This option, corresponding to the italicULMode resource,
956 enables the display of characters with underline attribute as
957 italics rather than with underlining.
958 -ut This option indicates that xterm should not write a record into
960 the system utmp log file.
961 +ut This option indicates that xterm should write a record into the
963 system utmp log file.
964 -vb This option indicates that a visual bell is preferred over an
966 audible one. Instead of ringing the terminal bell whenever a
967 Control-G is received, the window will be flashed.
968 +vb This option indicates that a visual bell should not be used.
970 -wc This option sets the wideChars resource.
972 When wideChars is set, xterm maintains internal structures for
974 16-bit characters. If xterm is not started in UTF-8 mode (or
975 if this resource is not set), initially it maintains those
976 structures to support 8-bit characters. Xterm can later be
977 switched, using a menu entry or control sequence, causing it to
978 reallocate those structures to support 16-bit characters.
979 The default is “false”.
981 +wc This option resets the wideChars resource.
983 -wf This option indicates that xterm should wait for the window to
985 be mapped the first time before starting the subprocess so that
986 the initial terminal size settings and environment variables
987 are correct. It is the application's responsibility to catch
988 subsequent terminal size changes.
989 +wf This option indicates that xterm should not wait before
991 starting the subprocess.
992 -ziconbeep percent
994 Same as zIconBeep resource. If percent is non-zero, xterms
995 that produce output while iconified will cause an XBell sound
996 at the given volume and have “***” prepended to their icon
997 titles. Most window managers will detect this change
998 immediately, showing you which window has the output. (A
999 similar feature was in x10 xterm.)
1000 -C This option indicates that this window should receive console
1002 output. This is not supported on all systems. To obtain
1003 console output, you must be the owner of the console device,
1004 and you must have read and write permission for it. If you are
1005 running X under xdm on the console screen you may need to have
1006 the session startup and reset programs explicitly change the
1007 ownership of the console device in order to get this option to
1008 work.
1009 -Sccn This option allows xterm to be used as an input and output
1011 channel for an existing program and is sometimes used in
1012 specialized applications. The option value specifies the last
1013 few letters of the name of a pseudo-terminal to use in slave
1014 mode, plus the number of the inherited file descriptor. If the
1015 option contains a “/” character, that delimits the characters
1016 used for the pseudo-terminal name from the file descriptor.
1017 Otherwise, exactly two characters are used from the option for
1018 the pseudo-terminal name, the remainder is the file descriptor.
1019 Examples (the first two are equivalent since the descriptor
1020 follows the last “/”):
1021 -S/dev/pts/123/45
1023 -S123/45
1024 -Sab34
1025 Note that xterm does not close any file descriptor which it did
1027 not open for its own use. It is possible (though probably not
1028 portable) to have an application which passes an open file
1029 descriptor down to xterm past the initialization or the -S
1030 option to a process running in the xterm.
1031 Old Options
1033 The following command line arguments are provided for compatibility
1034 with older versions. They may not be supported in the next release as
1035 the X Toolkit provides standard options that accomplish the same task.
1036 %geom This option specifies the preferred size and position of the
1038 Tektronix window. It is shorthand for specifying the
1039 “tekGeometry” resource.
1040 #geom This option specifies the preferred position of the icon
1042 window. It is shorthand for specifying the “iconGeometry”
1043 resource.
1044 -T string
1046 This option specifies the title for xterm's windows. It is
1047 equivalent to -title.
1048 -n string
1050 This option specifies the icon name for xterm's windows. It is
1051 shorthand for specifying the “iconName” resource. Note that
1052 this is not the same as the toolkit option -name. The default
1053 icon name is the application name.
1054 If no suitable icon is found, xterm provides a compiled-in
1056 pixmap.
1057 X Toolkit sets the WM_ICON_NAME property using this value.
1059 -r This option indicates that reverse video should be simulated by
1061 swapping the foreground and background colors. It is
1062 equivalent to -rv.
1063 -w number
1065 This option specifies the width in pixels of the border
1066 surrounding the window. It is equivalent to -borderwidth or
1067 -bw.
1068 X Toolkit Options
1070 The following standard X Toolkit command line arguments are commonly
1071 used with xterm:
1072 -bd color
1074 This option specifies the color to use for the border of the
1075 window. The corresponding resource name is borderColor. Xterm
1076 uses the X Toolkit default, which is “XtDefaultForeground”.
1077 Xterm's VT100 window has two borders: the inner border
1079 internalBorder and the outer border borderWidth, managed by the
1080 X Toolkit.
1081 Normally xterm fills the inner border using the VT100 window's
1083 background color. If the colorInnerBorder resource is enabled,
1084 then xterm may fill the inner border using the borderColor
1085 resource.
1086 -bg color
1088 This option specifies the color to use for the background of
1089 the window. The corresponding resource name is background.
1090 The default is “XtDefaultBackground”.
1091 -bw number
1093 This option specifies the width in pixels of the border
1094 surrounding the window.
1095 This appears to be a legacy of older X releases. It sets the
1097 borderWidth resource of the shell widget, and may provide
1098 advice to your window manager to set the thickness of the
1099 window frame. Most window managers do not use this
1100 information. See the -b option, which controls the inner
1101 border of the xterm window.
1102 -display display
1104 This option specifies the X server to contact; see X(7).
1105 -fg color
1107 This option specifies the color to use for displaying text.
1108 The corresponding resource name is foreground. The default is
1109 “XtDefaultForeground”.
1110 -fn font
1112 This option specifies the font to be used for displaying normal
1113 text. The corresponding resource name is font. The resource
1114 value default is fixed.
1115 -font font
1117 This is the same as -fn.
1118 -geometry geometry
1120 This option specifies the preferred size and position of the
1121 VTxxx window; see X(7).
1122 The normal geometry specification can be suffixed with @
1124 followed by a Xinerama screen specification; it can be either g
1125 for the global screen (default), c for the current screen or a
1126 screen number.
1127 -iconic
1129 This option indicates that xterm should ask the window manager
1130 to start it as an icon rather than as the normal window. The
1131 corresponding resource name is iconic.
1132 -name name
1134 This option specifies the application name under which
1135 resources are to be obtained, rather than the default
1136 executable file name. Name should not contain “.” or “*”
1137 characters.
1138 -rv This option indicates that reverse video should be simulated by
1140 swapping the foreground and background colors. The
1141 corresponding resource name is reverseVideo.
1142 +rv Disable the simulation of reverse video by swapping foreground
1144 and background colors.
1145 -title string
1147 This option specifies the window title string, which may be
1148 displayed by window managers if the user so chooses. It is
1149 shorthand for specifying the “title” resource. The default
1150 title is the command line specified after the -e option, if
1151 any, otherwise the application name.
1152 X Toolkit sets the WM_NAME property using this value.
1154 -xrm resourcestring
1156 This option specifies a resource string to be used. This is
1157 especially useful for setting resources that do not have
1158 separate command line options.
1159 X Toolkit accepts alternate names for a few of these options, e.g.,
1161 • “-background” for “-bg”
1163 • “-font” for “-fn”
1165 • “-foreground” for “-fg”
1167 Abbreviated options also are supported, e.g., “-v” for “-version.”
1169
1171 Xterm understands all of the core X Toolkit resource names and classes.
1172 It also uses the X Toolkit resource types (such as booleans, colors,
1173 fonts, integers, and strings) along with their respective converters.
1174 Those resource types are not always sufficient:
1175 • Xterm's resource values may be lists of names. X Toolkit resource
1177 types do not include lists. Xterm uses a string for the resource,
1178 and parses it.
1179 Comma-separated lists of names ignore case.
1181 • Xterm may defer processing a resource until it is needed. For
1183 example, font2 through font7 are loaded as needed, to start faster.
1184 Again, the actual resource type is a string, parsed and used when
1185 needed.
1186 Application specific resources (e.g., “XTerm.NAME”) follow:
1188 Application Resources
1190 backarrowKeyIsErase (class BackarrowKeyIsErase)
1191 Tie the VTxxx backarrowKey and ptyInitialErase resources
1192 together by setting the DECBKM state according to whether the
1193 initial erase character is a backspace (8) or delete (127)
1194 character. A “false” value disables this feature. The default
1195 is “False”.
1196 Here are tables showing how the initial settings for
1198 • backarrowKeyIsErase (BKIE),
1200 • backarrowKey (BK), and
1202 • ptyInitialErase (PIE), along with the
1204 • stty erase character (^H for backspace, ^? for delete)
1206 will affect DECBKM. First, xterm obtains the initial erase
1208 character:
1209 • xterm's internal value is ^H
1211 • xterm asks the operating system for the value which stty
1213 shows
1214 • the ttyModes resource may override erase
1216 • if ptyInitialErase is false, xterm will look in the
1218 terminal database
1219 Summarizing that as a table:
1221 PIE stty termcap erase
1223 ───────────────────────────────
1225 false ^H ^H ^H
1226 false ^H ^? ^?
1227 false ^? ^H ^H
1228 false ^? ^? ^?
1229 true ^H ^H ^H
1230 true ^H ^? ^H
1231 true ^? ^H ^?
1232 true ^? ^? ^?
1233 Using that erase character, xterm allows further choices:
1235 • if backarrowKeyIsErase is true, xterm uses the erase
1237 character for the initial state of DECBKM
1238 • if backarrowKeyIsErase is false, xterm sets DECBKM to 2
1240 (internal). This ties together backarrowKey and the
1241 control sequence for DECBKM.
1242 • applications can send a control sequence to set/reset
1244 DECBKM control set
1245 • the “Backarrow Key (BS/DEL)” menu entry toggles DECBKM
1247 Summarizing the initialization details:
1249 erase BKIE BK DECBKM result
1251 ────────────────────────────────────────
1252 ^? false false 2 ^H
1253 ^? false true 2 ^?
1254 ^? true false 0 ^?
1255 ^? true true 1 ^?
1256 ^H false false 2 ^H
1257 ^H false true 2 ^?
1258 ^H true false 0 ^H
1259 ^H true true 1 ^H
1260 buffered (class Buffered)
1262 Normally xterm is built with double-buffer support. This
1263 resource can be used to turn it on or off. Setting the
1264 resource to “true” turns double-buffering on. The default
1265 value is “False”.
1266 bufferedFPS (class BufferedFPS)
1268 When xterm is built with double-buffer support, this gives the
1269 maximum number of frames/second. The default is “40” and is
1270 limited to the range 1 through 100.
1271 cursorTheme (class CursorTheme)
1273 The Xcursor(7) library provides a way to change the pointer
1274 shape and size. The X11 library uses this library to extend
1275 the font- and glyph-cursor calls used by applications such as
1276 xterm to substitute external files for the built-in “core”
1277 cursors provided by X.
1278 Xterm uses the pointerShape resource to select the X cursor
1280 shape. Most of the available sets of cursor themes provide an
1281 incomplete set of “core” cursors (while possibly adding other
1282 cursors). Because of this limitation, xterm disables the
1283 feature by default.
1284 The cursor theme feature can be useful because X cursors are
1286 not scalable and on a high-resolution display, the cursors are
1287 hard to find. Some of the cursor themes include larger cursors
1288 to work around this limitation:
1289 • The default core cursors are 8x8 pixels;
1291 • Some cursor themes include cursors up to the X server limit
1293 of 64x64 pixels.
1294 At startup, xterm sets the XCURSOR_THEME environment variable
1296 to enable or disable the cursor theme feature. The default
1297 value is “none”. Other values (including “default”) are passed
1298 to the Xcursor library to select a cursor theme.
1299 fullscreen (class Fullscreen)
1301 Specifies whether or not xterm should ask the window manager to
1302 use a fullscreen layout on startup. Xterm accepts either a
1303 keyword (ignoring case) or the number shown in parentheses:
1304 false (0)
1306 Fullscreen layout is not used initially, but may be later
1307 via menu-selection or control sequence.
1308 true (1)
1310 Fullscreen layout is used initially, but may be disabled
1311 later via menu-selection or control sequence.
1312 always (2)
1314 Fullscreen layout is used initially, and cannot be disabled
1315 later via menu-selection or control sequence.
1316 never (3)
1318 Fullscreen layout is not used, and cannot be enabled later
1319 via menu-selection or control sequence.
1320 The default is “false”.
1322 hold (class Hold)
1324 If true, xterm will not immediately destroy its window when the
1325 shell command completes. It will wait until you use the window
1326 manager to destroy/kill the window, or if you use the menu
1327 entries that send a signal, e.g., HUP or KILL. You may scroll
1328 back, select text, etc., to perform most graphical operations.
1329 Resizing the display will lose data, however, since this
1330 involves interaction with the shell which is no longer running.
1331 hpFunctionKeys (class HpFunctionKeys)
1333 Specifies whether or not HP function key escape codes should be
1334 generated for function keys. The default is “false”, i.e.,
1335 this feature is disabled.
1336 The keyboardType resource is the preferred mechanism for
1338 selecting this mode.
1339 iconGeometry (class IconGeometry)
1341 Specifies the preferred size and position of the application
1342 when iconified. It is not necessarily obeyed by all window
1343 managers.
1344 iconHint (class IconHint)
1346 Specifies an icon which will be added to the window manager
1347 hints. Xterm provides no default value.
1348 Set this resource to “none” to omit the hint entirely, using
1350 whatever the window manager may decide.
1351 If the iconHint resource is given (or is set via the -n option)
1353 xterm searches for a pixmap file with that name, in the current
1354 directory as well as in /usr/share/pixmaps. if the resource
1355 does not specify an absolute pathname. In each case, xterm
1356 adds “_48x48” and/or “.xpm” to the filename after trying
1357 without those suffixes. If it is able to load the file, xterm
1358 sets the window manager hint for the icon-pixmap. These
1359 pixmaps are distributed with xterm, and can optionally be
1360 compiled-in:
1361 • mini.xterm_16x16, mini.xterm_32x32, mini.xterm_48x48
1363 • filled-xterm_16x16, filled-xterm_32x32, filled-xterm_48x48
1365 • xterm_16x16, xterm_32x32, xterm_48x48
1367 • xterm-color_16x16, xterm-color_32x32, xterm-color_48x48
1369 In either case, xterm allows for adding a “_48x48” to specify
1371 the largest of the pixmaps as a default. That is, “mini.xterm”
1372 is the same as “mini.xterm_48x48”.
1373 If no explicit iconHint resource is given (or if none of the
1375 compiled-in names matches), xterm uses “mini.xterm” (which is
1376 always compiled-in).
1377 The iconHint resource has no effect on “desktop” files,
1379 including “panel” and “menu”. Those are typically set via a
1380 “.desktop” file; xterm provides samples for itself (and the
1381 uxterm script). The more capable desktop systems allow
1382 changing the icon on a per-user basis.
1383 iconName (class IconName)
1385 Specifies a label for xterm when iconified. Xterm provides no
1386 default value; some window managers may assume the application
1387 name, e.g., “xterm”.
1388 Setting the iconName resource sets the icon label unless
1390 overridden by zIconBeep or the control sequences which change
1391 the window and icon labels.
1392 keyboardType (class KeyboardType)
1394 Enables one (or none) of the various keyboard-type resources:
1395 hpFunctionKeys, scoFunctionKeys, sunFunctionKeys,
1396 tcapFunctionKeys, oldXtermFKeys and sunKeyboard.
1397 The resource's value should be one of the corresponding strings
1399 “hp”, “sco”, “sun”, “tcap”, “legacy” or “vt220”, respectively.
1400 The individual resources are provided for legacy support; this
1402 resource is simpler to use. Xterm will use only one keyboard-
1403 type, but if multiple resources are set, it warns and uses the
1404 last one it checks.
1405 The default is “unknown”, i.e., none of the associated
1407 resources are set via this resource.
1408 maxBufSize (class MaxBufSize)
1410 Specify the maximum size of the input buffer. The default is
1411 “32768”. You cannot set this to a value less than the
1412 minBufSize resource. It will be increased as needed to make
1413 that value evenly divide this one.
1414 On some systems you may want to increase one or both of the
1416 maxBufSize and minBufSize resource values to achieve better
1417 performance if the operating system prefers larger buffer
1418 sizes.
1419 maximized (class Maximized)
1421 Specifies whether or not xterm should ask the window manager to
1422 maximize its layout on startup. The default is “false”.
1423 menuHeight (class MenuHeight)
1425 Specifies the height of the toolbar, which may be increased by
1426 the X toolkit layout widget depending upon the fontsize used.
1427 The default is “25”.
1428 menuLocale (class MenuLocale)
1430 Specify the locale used for character-set computations when
1431 loading the popup menus. Use this to improve initialization
1432 performance of the Athena popup menus, which may load
1433 unnecessary (and very large) fonts, e.g., in a locale having
1434 UTF-8 encoding. The default is “C” (POSIX).
1435 To use the current locale (only useful if you have localized
1437 the resource settings for the menu entries), set the resource
1438 to an empty string.
1439 messages (class Messages)
1441 Specifies whether write access to the terminal is allowed
1442 initially. See mesg(1). The default is “true”.
1443 minBufSize (class MinBufSize)
1445 Specify the minimum size of the input buffer, i.e., the amount
1446 of data that xterm requests on each read. The default is
1447 “4096”. You cannot set this to a value less than 64.
1448 omitTranslation (class OmitTranslation)
1450 Selectively omit one or more parts of xterm's default
1451 translations at startup. The resource value is a comma-
1452 separated list of keywords, which may be abbreviated:
1453 default
1455 ignore (mouse) button-down events which were not handled
1456 by other translations
1457 fullscreen
1459 assigns a key-binding to the fullscreen() action.
1460 keypress
1462 assigns keypresses by default to the insert-seven-bit()
1463 and insert-eight-bit() actions.
1464 paging assigns key bindings to the scroll-back() and
1466 scroll-forw() actions.
1467 pointer
1469 assigns pointer motion and button events to the
1470 pointer-motion() and pointer-button() actions
1471 respectively.
1472 popup-menu
1474 assigns mouse-buttons with the control modifier to the
1475 popup-menus.
1476 reset assigns mouse-button 2 with the meta modifier to the
1478 clear-saved-lines action.
1479 scroll-lock
1481 assigns a key-binding to the scroll-lock() action.
1482 select assigns mouse- and keypress-combinations to actions
1484 which manipulate the selection.
1485 Xterm also uses these actions to capture mouse button
1487 and motion events which can be manipulated with the
1488 mouse protocol control sequences. If the select
1489 translations are omitted, then the pointer-motion and
1490 pointer-button handle these mouse protocol control
1491 sequences instead.
1492 shift-fonts
1494 assigns key-bindings to larger-vt-font() and
1495 smaller-vt-font() actions.
1496 wheel-mouse
1498 assigns buttons 4 and 5 with different modifiers to the
1499 scroll-back() and scroll-forw() actions.
1500 ptyHandshake (class PtyHandshake)
1502 If “true”, xterm will perform handshaking during initialization
1503 to ensure that the parent and child processes update the utmp
1504 and stty state.
1505 See also waitForMap which waits for the pseudo-terminal's
1507 notion of the screen size, and ptySttySize which resets the
1508 screen size after other terminal initialization is complete.
1509 The default is “true”.
1510 ptyInitialErase (class PtyInitialErase)
1512 If “true”, xterm will use the pseudo-terminal's sense of the
1513 stty erase value. If “false”, xterm will set the stty erase
1514 value to match its own configuration, using the kb string from
1515 the termcap entry as a reference, if available.
1516 In either case, the result is applied to the TERMCAP variable
1518 which xterm sets, if the system uses TERMCAP.
1519 See also the ttyModes resource, which may override this. The
1521 default is “False”.
1522 ptySttySize (class PtySttySize)
1524 If “true”, xterm will reset the screen size after terminal
1525 initialization is complete. This is needed for some systems
1526 whose pseudo-terminals cannot propagate terminal
1527 characteristics. Where it is not needed, it can interfere with
1528 other methods for setting the initial screen size, e.g., via
1529 window manager interaction.
1530 See also waitForMap which waits for a handshake-message giving
1532 the pseudo-terminal's notion of the screen size. The default
1533 is “false” on Linux and macOS systems, “true” otherwise.
1534 reportColors (class ReportColors)
1536 If true, xterm will print to the standard output a summary of
1537 colors as it allocates them. The default is “false”.
1538 reportFonts (class ReportFonts)
1540 If true, xterm will print to the standard output a summary of
1541 each font's metrics (size, number of glyphs, etc.), as it loads
1542 them. The default is “false”.
1543 reportIcons (class ReportIcons)
1545 If true, xterm will print to the standard output a summary of
1546 each pixmap icon as it loads them. The default is “false”.
1547 reportXRes (class ReportXRes)
1549 If true, xterm will print to the standard output a list of the
1550 boolean, numeric and string X resources for the VT100 widget
1551 after initialization. The default is “false”.
1552 sameName (class SameName)
1554 If the value of this resource is “true”, xterm does not send
1555 title and icon name change requests when the request would have
1556 no effect: the name is not changed. This has the advantage of
1557 preventing flicker and the disadvantage of requiring an extra
1558 round trip to the server to find out the previous value. In
1559 practice this should never be a problem. The default is
1560 “true”.
1561 scaleHeight (class ScaleHeight)
1563 Scale line-height values by the resource value, which is
1564 limited to “0.9” to “1.5”. The default value is “1.0”,
1565 While this resource applies to either bitmap or TrueType fonts,
1567 its main purpose is to help work around incompatible changes in
1568 the Xft library's font metrics. Xterm checks the font metrics
1569 to find what the library claims are the bounding boxes for each
1570 glyph (character). However, some of Xft's features (such as
1571 the autohinter) can cause the glyphs to be scaled larger than
1572 the bounding boxes, and be partly overwritten by the next row.
1573 See useClipping for a related resource.
1575 scoFunctionKeys (class ScoFunctionKeys)
1577 Specifies whether or not SCO function key escape codes should
1578 be generated for function keys. The default is “false”, i.e.,
1579 this feature is disabled.
1580 The keyboardType resource is the preferred mechanism for
1582 selecting this mode.
1583 sessionMgt (class SessionMgt)
1585 If the value of this resource is “true”, xterm sets up session
1586 manager callbacks for XtNdieCallback and XtNsaveCallback. The
1587 default is “true”.
1588 sunFunctionKeys (class SunFunctionKeys)
1590 Specifies whether or not Sun function key escape codes should
1591 be generated for function keys. The default is “false”, i.e.,
1592 this feature is disabled.
1593 The keyboardType resource is the preferred mechanism for
1595 selecting this mode.
1596 sunKeyboard (class SunKeyboard)
1598 Xterm translates certain key symbols based on its assumptions
1599 about your keyboard. This resource specifies whether or not
1600 Sun/PC keyboard layout (i.e., the PC keyboard's numeric keypad
1601 together with 12 function keys) should be assumed rather than
1602 DEC VT220. This causes the keypad “+” to be mapped to “,”.
1603 and CTRL F1-F10 to F11-F20, depending on the setting of the
1604 ctrlFKeys resource, so xterm emulates a DEC VT220 more
1605 accurately. Otherwise (the default, with sunKeyboard set to
1606 “false”), xterm uses PC-style bindings for the function keys
1607 and keypad.
1608 PC-style bindings use the Shift, Alt, Control and Meta keys as
1610 modifiers for function-keys and keypad (see Xterm Control
1611 Sequences for details). The PC-style bindings are analogous to
1612 PCTerm, but not the same thing. Normally these bindings do not
1613 conflict with the use of the Meta key as described for the
1614 eightBitInput resource. If they do, note that the PC-style
1615 bindings are evaluated first.
1616 See also the keyboardType resource.
1618 tcapFunctionKeys (class TcapFunctionKeys)
1620 Specifies whether or not function key escape codes read from
1621 the termcap/terminfo entry corresponding to the TERM
1622 environment variable should be generated for function keys
1623 instead of those configured using sunKeyboard and keyboardType.
1624 The default is “false”, i.e., this feature is disabled.
1625 The keyboardType resource is the preferred mechanism for
1627 selecting this mode.
1628 termName (class TermName)
1630 Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM
1631 environment variable.
1632 title (class Title)
1634 Specifies a string that may be used by the window manager when
1635 displaying this application.
1636 toolBar (class ToolBar)
1638 Specifies whether or not the toolbar should be displayed. The
1639 default is “true”.
1640 ttyModes (class TtyModes)
1642 Specifies a string containing terminal setting keywords.
1643 Except where noted, they may be bound to characters. Other
1644 keywords set modes. Not all keywords are supported on a given
1645 system. Allowable keywords include:
1646 Keyword POSIX? Notes
1648 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1649 brk no CHAR may send an “interrupt” signal, as well
1650 as ending the input-line.
1651 dsusp no CHAR will send a terminal “stop” signal
1652 after input is flushed.
1653 eof yes CHAR will terminate input (i.e., an end of
1654 file).
1655 eol yes CHAR will end the line.
1656 eol2 no alternate CHAR for ending the line.
1657 erase yes CHAR will erase the last character typed.
1658 erase2 no alternate CHAR for erasing the last input-
1659 character.
1660 flush no CHAR will cause output to be discarded until
1661 another flush character is typed.
1662 intr yes CHAR will send an “interrupt” signal.
1663 kill yes CHAR will erase the current line.
1664 lnext no CHAR will enter the next character quoted.
1665 quit yes CHAR will send a “quit” signal.
1666 rprnt no CHAR will redraw the current line.
1667 start yes CHAR will restart the output after stopping
1668 it.
1669 status no CHAR will cause a system-generated status
1670 line to be printed.
1671 stop yes CHAR will stop the output.
1672 susp yes CHAR will send a terminal “stop” signal
1673 swtch no CHAR will switch to a different shell layer.
1674 tabs yes Mode disables tab-expansion.
1675 -tabs yes Mode enables tab-expansion.
1676 weras no CHAR will erase the last word typed.
1677 Control characters may be specified as ^char (e.g., ^c or ^u)
1679 and ^? may be used to indicate delete (127). Use ^- to denote
1680 undef. Use \034 to represent ^\, since a literal backslash in
1681 an X resource escapes the next character.
1682 This is very useful for overriding the default terminal
1684 settings without having to run stty every time an xterm is
1685 started. Note, however, that the stty program on a given host
1686 may use different keywords; xterm's table is built in. The
1687 POSIX column in the table indicates which keywords are
1688 supported by a standard stty program.
1689 If the ttyModes resource specifies a value for erase, that
1691 overrides the ptyInitialErase resource setting, i.e., xterm
1692 initializes the terminal to match that value.
1693 useInsertMode (class UseInsertMode)
1695 Force use of insert mode by adding appropriate entries to the
1696 TERMCAP environment variable. This is useful if the system
1697 termcap is broken. (This resource is ignored on most systems,
1698 because TERMCAP is not used). The default is “false”.
1699 utmpDisplayId (class UtmpDisplayId)
1701 Specifies whether or not xterm should try to record the display
1702 identifier (display number and screen number) as well as the
1703 hostname in the system utmp log file. The default is “true”.
1704 utmpInhibit (class UtmpInhibit)
1706 Specifies whether or not xterm should try to record the user's
1707 terminal in the system utmp log file. If true, xterm will not
1708 try. The default is “false”.
1709 validShells (class ValidShells)
1711 Augment (add to) the system's /etc/shells, when determining
1712 whether to set the “SHELL” environment variable when running a
1713 given program.
1714 The resource value is a list of lines (separated by newlines).
1716 Each line holds one pathname. Xterm ignores any line beginning
1717 with “#” after trimming leading/trailing whitespace from each
1718 line.
1719 The default is an empty string.
1721 waitForMap (class WaitForMap)
1723 Specifies whether or not xterm should wait for the initial
1724 window map before starting the subprocess. This is part of the
1725 ptyHandshake logic. When xterm is directed to wait in this
1726 fashion, it passes the terminal size from the display end of
1727 the pseudo-terminal to the terminal I/O connection, e.g., using
1728 the size according to the window manager. Otherwise, it uses
1729 the size as given in resource values or command-line option
1730 -geometry. The default is “false”.
1731 zIconBeep (class ZIconBeep)
1733 Same as -ziconbeep command line argument. If the value of this
1734 resource is non-zero, xterms that produce output while
1735 iconified will cause an XBell sound at the given volume and
1736 have “*** ” prepended to their icon titles. Most window
1737 managers will detect this change immediately, showing you which
1738 window has the output. (A similar feature was in x10 xterm.)
1739 The default is “false”.
1740 zIconTitleFormat (class ZIconTitleFormat)
1742 Allow customization of the string used in the zIconBeep
1743 feature. The default value is “*** %s”.
1744 If the resource value contains a “%s”, then xterm inserts the
1746 icon title at that point rather than prepending the string to
1747 the icon title. (Only the first “%s” is used).
1748 VT100 Widget Resources
1750 The following resources are specified as part of the vt100 widget
1751 (class VT100). They are specified by patterns such as
1752 “XTerm.vt100.NAME”.
1753 If your xterm is configured to support the “toolbar”, then those
1755 patterns need an extra level for the form-widget which holds the
1756 toolbar and vt100 widget. A wildcard between the top-level “XTerm” and
1757 the “vt100” widget makes the resource settings work for either, e.g.,
1758 “XTerm*vt100.NAME”.
1759 activeIcon (class ActiveIcon)
1761 Specifies whether or not active icon windows are to be used
1762 when the xterm window is iconified, if this feature is compiled
1763 into xterm. The active icon is a miniature representation of
1764 the content of the window and will update as the content
1765 changes. Not all window managers necessarily support
1766 application icon windows. Some window managers will allow you
1767 to enter keystrokes into the active icon window. The default
1768 is “default”.
1769 Xterm accepts either a keyword (ignoring case) or the number
1771 shown in parentheses:
1772 false (0)
1774 No active icon is shown.
1775 true (1)
1777 The active icon is shown. If you are using twm, use
1778 this setting to enable active-icons.
1779 default (2)
1781 Xterm checks at startup, and shows an active icon only
1782 for window managers which it can identify and which are
1783 known to support the feature. These are fvwm (full
1784 support), and window maker (limited). A few other
1785 windows managers (such as twm and ctwm) support active
1786 icons, but do not support the extensions which allow
1787 xterm to identify the window manager.
1788 allowBoldFonts (class AllowBoldFonts)
1790 When set to “false”, xterm will not use bold fonts. This
1791 overrides both the alwaysBoldMode and the boldMode resources.
1792 allowC1Printable (class AllowC1Printable)
1794 If true, overrides the mapping of C1 controls (codes 128–159)
1795 to make them be treated as if they were printable characters.
1796 Although this corresponds to no particular standard, some users
1797 insist it is a VT100. The default is “false”.
1798 allowColorOps (class AllowColorOps)
1800 Specifies whether control sequences that set/query the dynamic
1801 colors should be allowed. ANSI colors are unaffected by this
1802 resource setting. The default is “true”.
1803 allowFontOps (class AllowFontOps)
1805 Specifies whether control sequences that set/query the font
1806 should be allowed. The default is “true”.
1807 allowMouseOps (class AllowMouseOps)
1809 Specifies whether control sequences that enable xterm to send
1810 escape sequences to the host on mouse-clicks and movement. The
1811 default is “true”.
1812 allowPasteControls (class AllowPasteControls)
1814 If true, allow control characters such as BEL and CAN to be
1815 pasted. Formatting characters (tab, newline) are always
1816 allowed. Other C0 control characters are suppressed unless
1817 this resource is enabled. The exact set of control characters
1818 (C0 and C1) depends upon whether UTF-8 encoding is used, as
1819 well as the allowC1Printable resource. The default is “false”.
1820 allowScrollLock (class AllowScrollLock)
1822 Specifies whether control sequences that set/query the Scroll
1823 Lock key should be allowed, as well as whether the Scroll Lock
1824 key responds to user's keypress. The default is “false”.
1825 When this feature is enabled, xterm will sense the state of the
1827 Scroll Lock key each time it acquires focus. Pressing the
1828 Scroll Lock key toggles xterm's internal state, as well as
1829 toggling the associated LED. While the Scroll Lock is active,
1830 xterm attempts to keep a viewport on the same set of lines. If
1831 the current viewport is scrolled past the limit set by the
1832 saveLines resource, then Scroll Lock has no further effect.
1833 The reason for setting the default to “false” is to avoid user
1835 surprise. This key is generally unused in keyboard
1836 configurations, and has not acquired a standard meaning even
1837 when it is used in that manner. Consequently, users have
1838 assigned it for ad hoc purposes.
1839 See also the autoScrollLock resource.
1841 allowSendEvents (class AllowSendEvents)
1843 Specifies whether or not synthetic key and button events
1844 (generated using the X protocol SendEvent request) should be
1845 interpreted or discarded. The default is “false” meaning they
1846 are discarded. Note that allowing such events would create a
1847 very large security hole, therefore enabling this resource
1848 forcefully disables the allowXXXOps resources. The default is
1849 “false”.
1850 allowTcapOps (class AllowTcapOps)
1852 Specifies whether control sequences that query the terminal's
1853 notion of its function-key strings, as termcap or terminfo
1854 capabilities should be allowed. The default is “true”.
1855 A few programs, e.g., vim, use this feature to get an accurate
1857 description of the terminal's capabilities, independent of the
1858 termcap/terminfo setting:
1859 • Xterm can tell the querying program how many colors it
1861 supports. This is a constant, depending on how it is
1862 compiled, typically 16. It does not change if you alter
1863 resource settings, e.g., the boldColors resource.
1864 • Xterm can tell the querying program what strings are sent
1866 by modified (shift-, control-, alt-) function- and keypad-
1867 keys. Reporting control- and alt-modifiers is a feature
1868 that relies on the ncurses extended naming.
1869 allowTitleOps (class AllowTitleOps)
1871 Specifies whether control sequences that modify the window
1872 title or icon name should be allowed. The default is “true”.
1873 allowWindowOps (class AllowWindowOps)
1875 Specifies whether extended window control sequences (as used in
1876 dtterm) should be allowed. These include several control
1877 sequences which manipulate the window size or position, as well
1878 as reporting these values and the title or icon name. Each of
1879 these can be abused in a script; curiously enough most terminal
1880 emulators that implement these restrict only a small part of
1881 the repertoire. For fine-tuning, see disallowedWindowOps. The
1882 default is “false”.
1883 altIsNotMeta (class AltIsNotMeta)
1885 If “true”, treat the Alt-key as if it were the Meta-key. Your
1886 keyboard may happen to be configured so they are the same. But
1887 if they are not, this allows you to use the same prefix- and
1888 shifting operations with the Alt-key as with the Meta-key. See
1889 altSendsEscape and metaSendsEscape. The default is “false”.
1890 altSendsEscape (class AltSendsEscape)
1892 This is an additional keyboard operation that may be processed
1893 after the logic for metaSendsEscape. It is only available if
1894 the altIsNotMeta resource is set.
1895 • If “true”, Alt characters (a character combined with the
1897 modifier associated with left/right Alt-keys) are converted
1898 into a two-character sequence with the character itself
1899 preceded by ESC. This applies as well to function key
1900 control sequences, unless xterm sees that Alt is used in
1901 your key translations.
1902 • If “false”, Alt characters input from the keyboard cause a
1904 shift to 8-bit characters (just like metaSendsEscape). By
1905 combining the Alt- and Meta-modifiers, you can create
1906 corresponding combinations of ESC-prefix and 8-bit
1907 characters.
1908 The default is “False”. Xterm provides a menu option for
1910 toggling this resource.
1911 alternateScroll (class ScrollCond)
1913 If “true”, the scroll-back and scroll-forw actions send
1914 cursor-up and -down keys when xterm is displaying the alternate
1915 screen. The default is “false”.
1916 The alternateScroll state can also be set using a control
1918 sequence.
1919 alwaysBoldMode (class AlwaysBoldMode)
1921 Specifies whether xterm should check if the normal and bold
1922 fonts are distinct before deciding whether to use overstriking
1923 to simulate bold fonts. If this resource is true, xterm does
1924 not make the check for distinct fonts when deciding how to
1925 handle the boldMode resource. The default is “false”.
1926 boldMode alwaysBoldMode Comparison Action
1928 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1929 false false ignored use font
1930 false true ignored use font
1931 true false same overstrike
1932 true false different use font
1933 true true ignored overstrike
1934 This resource is used only for bitmap fonts:
1936 • When using bitmap fonts, it is possible that the font
1938 server will approximate the bold font by rescaling it from
1939 a different font size than expected. The alwaysBoldMode
1940 resource allows the user to override the (sometimes poor)
1941 resulting bold font with overstriking (which is at least
1942 consistent).
1943 • The problem does not occur with TrueType fonts (though
1945 there can be other unnecessary issues such as different
1946 coverage of the normal and bold fonts).
1947 As an alternative, setting the allowBoldFonts resource to false
1949 overrides both the alwaysBoldMode and the boldMode resources.
1950 alwaysHighlight (class AlwaysHighlight)
1952 Specifies whether or not xterm should always display a
1953 highlighted text cursor. By default (if this resource is
1954 false), a hollow text cursor is displayed whenever the pointer
1955 moves out of the window or the window loses the input focus.
1956 The default is “false”.
1957 alwaysUseMods (class AlwaysUseMods)
1959 Override the numLock resource, telling xterm to use the Alt and
1960 Meta modifiers to construct parameters for function key
1961 sequences even if those modifiers appear in the translations
1962 resource. Normally xterm checks if Alt or Meta is used in a
1963 translation that would conflict with function key modifiers,
1964 and will ignore these modifiers in that special case. The
1965 default is “false”.
1966 answerbackString (class AnswerbackString)
1968 Specifies the string that xterm sends in response to an ENQ
1969 (control/E) character from the host. The default is a blank
1970 string, i.e., “”. A hardware VT100 implements this feature as
1971 a setup option.
1972 appcursorDefault (class AppcursorDefault)
1974 If “true”, the cursor keys are initially in application mode.
1975 This is the same as the VT102 private DECCKM mode, The default
1976 is “false”.
1977 appkeypadDefault (class AppkeypadDefault)
1979 If “true”, the keypad keys are initially in application mode.
1980 The default is “false”.
1981 assumeAllChars (class AssumeAllChars)
1983 If “true”, this enables a special case in bitmap fonts to allow
1984 the font server to choose how to display missing glyphs. The
1985 default is “true”.
1986 The reason for this resource is to help with certain quasi-
1988 automatically generated fonts (such as the ISO-10646-1 encoding
1989 of Terminus) which have incorrect font-metrics.
1990 autoScrollLock (class AutoScrollLock)
1992 If “true”, xterm will maintain its viewport of displayed lines
1993 whenever displaying scrollback, as if allowScrollLock were
1994 enabled and the Scroll Lock key had been pressed. The default
1995 is “false”. This feature is only useful if the scrollTtyOutput
1996 resource is set to “false”.
1997 autoWrap (class AutoWrap)
1999 Specifies whether or not auto-wraparound should be enabled.
2000 This is the same as the VT102 DECAWM. The default is “true”.
2001 awaitInput (class AwaitInput)
2003 Specifies whether or not xterm uses a 50 millisecond timeout to
2004 await input (i.e., to support the Xaw3d arrow scrollbar). The
2005 default is “false”.
2006 backarrowKey (class BackarrowKey)
2008 Specifies whether the backarrow key transmits a backspace (8)
2009 or delete (127) character. This corresponds to the DECBKM
2010 control sequence. A “true” value specifies backspace. The
2011 default is “False”. Pressing the control key toggles this
2012 behavior.
2013 background (class Background)
2015 Specifies the color to use for the background of the window.
2016 The default is “XtDefaultBackground”.
2017 bellIsUrgent (class BellIsUrgent)
2019 Specifies whether to set the Urgency hint for the window
2020 manager when making a bell sound. The default is “false”.
2021 bellOnReset (class BellOnReset)
2023 Specifies whether to sound a bell when doing a hard reset. The
2024 default is “true”.
2025 bellSuppressTime (class BellSuppressTime)
2027 Number of milliseconds after a bell command is sent during
2028 which additional bells will be suppressed. Default is 200. If
2029 set non-zero, additional bells will also be suppressed until
2030 the server reports that processing of the first bell has been
2031 completed; this feature is most useful with the visible bell.
2032 boldColors (class ColorMode)
2034 Specifies whether to combine bold attribute with colors like
2035 the IBM PC, i.e., map colors 0 through 7 to colors 8 through
2036 15. These normally are the brighter versions of the first 8
2037 colors, hence bold. The default is “true”.
2038 boldFont (class BoldFont)
2040 Specifies the name of the bold font to use instead of
2041 overstriking. There is no default for this resource.
2042 This font must be the same height and width as the normal font,
2044 otherwise it is ignored. If only one of the normal or bold
2045 fonts is specified, it will be used as the normal font and the
2046 bold font will be produced by overstriking this font.
2047 See also the discussion of boldMode and alwaysBoldMode
2049 resources.
2050 boldMode (class BoldMode)
2052 This specifies whether or not text with the bold attribute
2053 should be overstruck to simulate bold fonts if the resolved
2054 bold font is the same as the normal font. It may be desirable
2055 to disable bold fonts when color is being used for the bold
2056 attribute.
2057 Note that xterm has one bold font which you may set explicitly.
2059 Xterm attempts to derive a bold font for the other font
2060 selections (font1 through font7). If it cannot find a bold
2061 font, it will use the normal font. In each case (whether the
2062 explicit resource or the derived font), if the normal and bold
2063 fonts are distinct, this resource has no effect. The default
2064 is “true”.
2065 See the alwaysBoldMode resource which can modify the behavior
2067 of this resource.
2068 Although xterm attempts to derive a bold font for other font
2070 selections, the font server may not cooperate. Since X11R6,
2071 bitmap fonts have been scaled. The font server claims to
2072 provide the bold font that xterm requests, but the result is
2073 not always readable. XFree86 introduced a feature which can be
2074 used to suppress the scaling. In the X server's configuration
2075 file (e.g., “/etc/X11/xorg.conf”), you can add “:unscaled” to
2076 the end of the directory specification for the “misc” fonts,
2077 which comprise the fixed-pitch fonts that are used by xterm.
2078 For example
2079 FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc/"
2081 would become
2083 FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc/:unscaled"
2085 Depending on your configuration, the font server may have its
2087 own configuration file. The same “:unscaled” can be added to
2088 its configuration file at the end of the directory
2089 specification for “misc”.
2090 The bitmap scaling feature is also used by xterm to implement
2092 VT102 double-width and double-height characters.
2093 brokenLinuxOSC (class BrokenLinuxOSC)
2095 If true, xterm applies a workaround to ignore malformed control
2096 sequences that a Linux script might send. Compare the palette
2097 control sequences documented in console_codes with ECMA-48.
2098 The default is “true”.
2099 brokenSelections (class BrokenSelections)
2101 If true, xterm in 8-bit mode will interpret STRING selections
2102 as carrying text in the current locale's encoding. Normally
2103 STRING selections carry ISO-8859-1 encoded text. Setting this
2104 resource to “true” violates the ICCCM; it may, however, be
2105 useful for interacting with some broken X clients. The default
2106 is “false”.
2107 brokenStringTerm (class BrokenStringTerm)
2109 provides a work-around for some ISDN routers which start an
2110 application control string without completing it. Set this to
2111 “true” if xterm appears to freeze when connecting. The default
2112 is “false”.
2113 Xterm's state parser recognizes several types of control
2115 strings which can contain text, e.g.,
2116 APC (Application Program Command),
2118 DCS (Device Control String),
2119 OSC (Operating System Command),
2120 PM (Privacy Message), and
2121 SOS (Start of String),
2122 Each should end with a string-terminator (a special character
2124 which cannot appear in these strings). Ordinary control
2125 characters found within the string are not ignored; they are
2126 processed without interfering with the process of accumulating
2127 the control string's content. Xterm recognizes these controls
2128 in all modes, although some of the functions may be suppressed
2129 after parsing the control.
2130 When enabled, this feature allows the user to exit from an
2132 unterminated control string when any of these ordinary control
2133 characters are found:
2134 control/D (used as an end of file in many shells),
2136 control/H (backspace),
2137 control/I (tab-feed),
2138 control/J (line feed aka newline),
2139 control/K (vertical tab),
2140 control/L (form feed),
2141 control/M (carriage return),
2142 control/N (shift-out),
2143 control/O (shift-in),
2144 control/Q (XOFF),
2145 control/X (cancel)
2146 c132 (class C132)
2148 Specifies whether or not the VT102 DECCOLM escape sequence,
2149 used to switch between 80 and 132 columns, should be honored.
2150 The default is “false”.
2151 cacheDoublesize (class CacheDoublesize)
2153 Tells whether to cache double-sized fonts by xterm. Set this
2154 to zero to disable double-sized fonts altogether.
2155 cdXtraScroll (class CdXtraScroll)
2157 Specifies whether xterm should scroll to a new page when
2158 clearing the whole screen. Like tiXtraScroll, the intent of
2159 this option is to provide a picture of the full-screen
2160 application's display on the scrollback before wiping out the
2161 text. The default for this resource is “false”.
2162 charClass (class CharClass)
2164 Specifies comma-separated lists of character class bindings of
2165 the form
2166 low[-high][:value].
2168 These are used in determining which sets of characters should
2170 be treated the same when doing cut and paste. See the
2171 CHARACTER CLASSES section.
2172 checksumExtension (class ChecksumExtension)
2174 DEC VT420 and up support a control sequence DECRQCRA which
2175 reports the checksum of the characters in a rectangle. Xterm
2176 supports this, with extensions that can be configured with bits
2177 of the checksumExtension:
2178 0 do not negate the result.
2180 1 do not report the VT100 video attributes.
2182 2 do not omit checksum for blanks.
2184 3 omit checksum for cells not explicitly initialized.
2186 4 do not mask cell value to 8 bits or ignore combining
2188 characters.
2189 5 do not mask cell value to 7 bits.
2191 With the default value (0), xterm matches the behavior of DEC's
2193 terminals. To use all extensions, set all bits, “-1” for
2194 example.
2195 cjkWidth (class CjkWidth)
2197 Specifies whether xterm should follow the traditional East
2198 Asian width convention. When turned on, characters with East
2199 Asian Ambiguous (A) category in UTR 11 have a column width of
2200 2. You may have to set this option to “true” if you have some
2201 old East Asian terminal based programs that assume that line-
2202 drawing characters have a column width of 2. If this resource
2203 is false, the mkWidth resource controls the choice between the
2204 system's wcwidth and xterm's built-in tables. The default is
2205 “false”.
2206 color0 (class Color0)
2208 color1 (class Color1)
2210 color2 (class Color2)
2212 color3 (class Color3)
2214 color4 (class Color4)
2216 color5 (class Color5)
2218 color6 (class Color6)
2220 color7 (class Color7)
2222 These specify the colors for the ISO-6429 extension. The
2223 defaults are, respectively, black, red3, green3, yellow3, a
2224 customizable dark blue, magenta3, cyan3, and gray90. The
2225 default shades of color are chosen to allow the colors 8–15 to
2226 be used as brighter versions.
2227 color8 (class Color8)
2229 color9 (class Color9)
2231 color10 (class Color10)
2233 color11 (class Color11)
2235 color12 (class Color12)
2237 color13 (class Color13)
2239 color14 (class Color14)
2241 color15 (class Color15)
2243 These specify the colors for the ISO-6429 extension if the bold
2244 attribute is also enabled. The default resource values are
2245 respectively, gray50, red, green, yellow, a customized light
2246 blue, magenta, cyan, and white.
2247 color16 (class Color16)
2249 through
2251 color255 (class Color255)
2253 These specify the colors for the 256-color extension. The
2254 default resource values are for
2255 • colors 16 through 231 to make a 6x6x6 color cube, and
2257 • colors 232 through 255 to make a grayscale ramp.
2259 Resources past color15 are available as a compile-time option.
2261 Due to a hardcoded limit in the X libraries on the total number
2262 of resources (to 400), the resources for 256-colors are omitted
2263 when wide-character support and luit are enabled. Besides
2264 inconsistent behavior if only part of the resources were
2265 allowed, determining the exact cutoff is difficult, and the X
2266 libraries tend to crash if the number of resources exceeds the
2267 limit. The color palette is still initialized to the same
2268 default values, and can be modified via control sequences.
2269 On the other hand, the resource limit does permit including the
2271 entire range for 88-colors.
2272 colorAttrMode (class ColorAttrMode)
2274 Specifies whether colorBD, colorBL, colorRV, and colorUL should
2275 override ANSI colors. If not, these are displayed only when no
2276 ANSI colors have been set for the corresponding position. The
2277 default is “false”.
2278 colorBD (class ColorBD)
2280 This specifies the color to use to display bold characters if
2281 the “colorBDMode” resource is enabled. The default is
2282 “XtDefaultForeground”.
2283 See also the veryBoldColors resource which allows combining
2285 bold and color.
2286 colorBDMode (class ColorAttrMode)
2288 Specifies whether characters with the bold attribute should be
2289 displayed in color or as bold characters. Note that setting
2290 colorMode off disables all colors, including bold. The default
2291 is “false”.
2292 colorBL (class ColorBL)
2294 This specifies the color to use to display blink characters if
2295 the “colorBLMode” resource is enabled. The default is
2296 “XtDefaultForeground”.
2297 See also the veryBoldColors resource which allows combining
2299 underline and color.
2300 colorBLMode (class ColorAttrMode)
2302 Specifies whether characters with the blink attribute should be
2303 displayed in color. Note that setting colorMode off disables
2304 all colors, including this. The default is “false”.
2305 colorIT (class ColorIT)
2307 This specifies the color to use to display italic characters if
2308 the “colorITMode” resource is enabled. The default is
2309 “XtDefaultForeground”.
2310 See also the veryBoldColors resource which allows combining
2312 attributes and color.
2313 colorITMode (class ColorAttrMode)
2315 Specifies whether characters with the italic attribute should
2316 be displayed in color or as italic characters. The default is
2317 “false”.
2318 Note that:
2320 • Setting colorMode off disables all colors, including
2322 italic.
2323 • The italicULMode resource overrides colorITMode.
2325 colorInnerBorder (class ColorInnerBorder)
2327 Normally, xterm fills the VT100 window's inner border using the
2328 background color.
2329 If the colorInnerBorder resource is enabled, at startup xterm
2331 will compare the borderColor and the window's background color.
2332 If those are different, xterm will use the borderColor resource
2333 to fill the inner border. Otherwise, it will use the window's
2334 background color.
2335 The default is “false”.
2337 colorMode (class ColorMode)
2339 Specifies whether or not recognition of ANSI (ISO-6429) color
2340 change escape sequences should be enabled. The default is
2341 “true”.
2342 colorRV (class ColorRV)
2344 This specifies the color to use to display reverse characters
2345 if the “colorRVMode” resource is enabled. The default is
2346 “XtDefaultForeground”.
2347 See also the veryBoldColors resource which allows combining
2349 reverse and color.
2350 colorRVMode (class ColorAttrMode)
2352 Specifies whether characters with the reverse attribute should
2353 be displayed in color. Note that setting colorMode off
2354 disables all colors, including this. The default is “false”.
2355 colorUL (class ColorUL)
2357 This specifies the color to use to display underlined
2358 characters if the “colorULMode” resource is enabled. The
2359 default is “XtDefaultForeground”.
2360 See also the veryBoldColors resource which allows combining
2362 underline and color.
2363 colorULMode (class ColorAttrMode)
2365 Specifies whether characters with the underline attribute
2366 should be displayed in color or as underlined characters. Note
2367 that setting colorMode off disables all colors, including
2368 underlining. The default is “false”.
2369 combiningChars (class CombiningChars)
2371 Specifies the number of wide-characters which can be stored in
2372 a cell to overstrike (combine) with the base character of the
2373 cell. This can be set to values in the range 0 to 5. The
2374 default is “2”.
2375 ctrlFKeys (class CtrlFKeys)
2377 In VT220 keyboard mode (see sunKeyboard resource), specifies
2378 the amount by which to shift F1-F12 given a control modifier
2379 (CTRL). This allows you to generate key symbols for F10-F20 on
2380 a Sun/PC keyboard. The default is “10”, which means that CTRL
2381 F1 generates the key symbol for F11.
2382 curses (class Curses)
2384 Specifies whether or not the last column bug in more(1) should
2385 be worked around. See the -cu option for details. The default
2386 is “false”.
2387 cursorBlink (class CursorBlink)
2389 Specifies whether to make the cursor blink. Xterm accepts
2390 either a keyword (ignoring case) or the number shown in
2391 parentheses:
2392 false (0)
2394 The cursor will not blink, but may be combined with escape
2395 sequences according to the cursorBlinkXOR resource.
2396 true (1)
2398 The cursor will blink, but may be combined with escape
2399 sequences according to the cursorBlinkXOR resource.
2400 always (2)
2402 The cursor will always blink, ignoring escape sequences.
2403 The menu entry will be disabled.
2404 never (3)
2406 The cursor will never blink, ignoring escape sequences. The
2407 menu entry will be disabled.
2408 The default is “false”.
2410 cursorBlinkXOR (class CursorBlinkXOR)
2412 Xterm uses two inputs to determine whether the cursor blinks:
2413 • The cursorBlink resource (which can be altered with a menu
2415 entry).
2416 • Control sequences (private mode 12 and DECSCUSR).
2418 The cursorBlinkXOR resource determines how those inputs are
2420 combined:
2421 false
2423 Xterm uses the logical-OR of the two variables. If either
2424 is set, xterm makes the cursor blink.
2425 true
2427 Xterm uses the logical-XOR of the two variables. If only
2428 one is set, xterm makes the cursor blink.
2429 The default is “true”.
2431 cursorColor (class CursorColor)
2433 Specifies the color to use for the text cursor. The default is
2434 “XtDefaultForeground”. By default, xterm attempts to keep this
2435 color from being the same as the background color, since it
2436 draws the cursor by filling the background of a text cell. The
2437 same restriction applies to control sequences which may change
2438 this color.
2439 Setting this resource overrides most of xterm's adjustments to
2441 cursor color. It will still use reverse-video to disallow some
2442 cases, such as a black cursor on a black background.
2443 cursorOffTime (class CursorOffTime)
2445 Specifies the duration of the “off” part of the cursor blink
2446 cycle-time in milliseconds. The same timer is used for text
2447 blinking. The default is “300”.
2448 cursorOnTime (class CursorOnTime)
2450 Specifies the duration of the “on” part of the cursor blink
2451 cycle-time, in milliseconds. The same timer is used for text
2452 blinking. The default is “600”.
2453 cursorUnderLine (class CursorUnderLine)
2455 Specifies whether to make the cursor underlined or a box. The
2456 default is “false”.
2457 cutNewline (class CutNewline)
2459 If “false”, triple clicking to select a line does not include
2460 the newline at the end of the line. If “true”, the Newline is
2461 selected. The default is “true”.
2462 cutToBeginningOfLine (class CutToBeginningOfLine)
2464 If “false”, triple clicking to select a line selects only from
2465 the current word forward. If “true”, the entire line is
2466 selected. The default is “true”.
2467 decGraphicsID (class DecGraphicsID)
2469 Allows a way to combine the graphics feature from certain DEC
2470 terminals (125, 240, 241, 330, 340 or 382) with other emulation
2471 levels which did not provide the graphics feature. As in
2472 decTerminalID, leading non-digit characters are ignored, e.g.,
2473 “vt340” and “340” are the same.
2474 If the resource value is nonzero, xterm uses that emulation
2476 level when initializing the drawing region and decoding control
2477 sequences to draw graphics.
2478 The default is “0”.
2480 decTerminalID (class DecTerminalID)
2482 Specifies the emulation level (100=VT100, 220=VT220, etc.),
2483 used to determine the type of response to a DA control
2484 sequence. Leading non-digit characters are ignored, e.g.,
2485 “vt100” and “100” are the same. The default is “420”.
2486 defaultString (class DefaultString)
2488 Specify the character (or string) which xterm will substitute
2489 when pasted text includes a character which cannot be
2490 represented in the current encoding. For instance, pasting
2491 UTF-8 text into a display of ISO-8859-1 characters will only be
2492 able to display codes 0–255, while UTF-8 text can include
2493 Unicode values above 255. The default is “#” (a single pound
2494 sign).
2495 If the undisplayable text would be double-width, xterm will add
2497 a space after the “#” character, to give roughly the same
2498 layout on the screen as the original text.
2499 deleteIsDEL (class DeleteIsDEL)
2501 Specifies what the Delete key on the editing keypad should send
2502 when pressed. The resource value is a string, evaluated as a
2503 boolean after startup. Xterm uses it in conjunction with the
2504 keyboardType resource:
2505 • If the keyboard type is “default”, or “vt220” and the
2507 resource is either “true” or “maybe” send the VT220-style
2508 Remove escape sequence. Otherwise, send DEL (127).
2509 • If the keyboard type is “legacy”, and the resource is
2511 “true” send DEL. Otherwise, send the Remove sequence.
2512 • Otherwise, if the keyboard type is none of these special
2514 cases, send DEL (127).
2515 The default is “Maybe”. The resource is allowed to be a non-
2517 boolean “maybe” so that the popup menu Delete is DEL entry does
2518 not override the keyboard type.
2519 directColor (class DirectColor)
2521 Specifies whether to handle direct-color control sequences
2522 using the X server's available colors, or to approximate those
2523 using a color map with 256 entries. A “true” value enables the
2524 former. The default is “true”.
2525 disallowedColorOps (class DisallowedColorOps)
2527 Specify which features will be disabled if allowColorOps is
2528 false. This is a comma-separated list of names. The default
2529 value is
2530 SetColor,GetColor,GetAnsiColor
2531 The names are listed below. Xterm ignores capitalization, but
2533 they are shown in mixed-case for clarity.
2534 SetColor
2536 Set a specific dynamic color.
2537 GetColor
2539 Report the current setting of a given dynamic color.
2540 GetAnsiColor
2542 Report the current setting of a given ANSI color (actually
2543 any of the colors set via ANSI-style controls).
2544 disallowedFontOps (class DisallowedFontOps)
2546 Specify which features will be disabled if allowFontOps is
2547 false. This is a comma-separated list of names. The default
2548 value is
2549 SetFont,GetFont
2551 The names are listed below. Xterm ignores capitalization, but
2553 they are shown in mixed-case for clarity.
2554 SetFont
2556 Set the specified font.
2557 GetFont
2559 Report the specified font.
2560 disallowedMouseOps (class DisallowedMouseOps)
2562 Specify which features will be disabled if allowMouseOps is
2563 false. This is a comma-separated list of names. The default
2564 value is “*” which matches all names. The names are listed
2565 below. Xterm ignores capitalization, but they are shown in
2566 mixed-case for clarity.
2567 X10 The original X10 mouse protocol.
2569 Locator
2571 DEC locator mode
2572 VT200Click
2574 X11 mouse-clicks only.
2575 VT200Hilite
2577 X11 mouse-clicks and highlighting.
2578 AnyButton
2580 XFree86 xterm any-button mode sends button-clicks as well
2581 as motion events while the button is pressed.
2582 AnyEvent
2584 XFree86 xterm any-event mode sends button-clicks as well
2585 as motion events whether or not a button is pressed.
2586 FocusEvent
2588 Send FocusIn/FocusOut events.
2589 Extended
2591 The first extension beyond X11 mouse protocol, this
2592 encodes the coordinates in UTF-8. It is deprecated in
2593 favor of SGR, but provided for compatibility.
2594 SGR This is the recommended extension for mouse-coordinates
2596 URXVT
2598 Like Extended, this is provided for compatibility.
2599 AlternateScroll
2601 This overrides the alternateScroll resource.
2602 disallowedPasteControls (class DisallowedPasteControls)
2604 The allowPasteControls resource is normally used to prevent
2605 pasting C1 controls, as well as non-formatting C0 controls such
2606 as the ASCII escape character. Those characters are simply
2607 ignored. This resource further extends the set of control
2608 characters which cannot be pasted, converting each into a
2609 space.
2610 The resource value is a comma-separated list of names. Xterm
2612 ignores capitalization. The default value is
2613 BS,DEL,ENQ,EOT,ESC,NUL
2615 The names are listed below:
2617 C0 all ASCII control characters.
2619 Individual C0 characters
2621 NUL, SOH, STX, ETX, EOT, ENQ, ACK, BEL, BS, HT, LF, VT,
2622 FF, CR, SO, SI, DLE, DC1, DC2, DC3, DC4, NAK, SYN, ETB,
2623 CAN, EM, SUB, ESC, FS, GS, RS, US
2624 DEL ASCII delete
2626 NL ASCII line-feed, i.e., “newline” is the same as LF.
2628 disallowedTcapOps (class DisallowedTcapOps)
2630 Specify which features will be disabled if allowTcapOps is
2631 false. This is a comma-separated list of names. The default
2632 value is
2633 SetTcap,GetTcap
2635 The names are listed below. Xterm ignores capitalization, but
2637 they are shown in mixed-case for clarity.
2638 SetTcap
2640 (not implemented)
2641 GetTcap
2643 Report specified function- and other special keys.
2644 disallowedWindowOps (class DisallowedWindowOps)
2646 Specify which features will be disabled if allowWindowOps is
2647 false. This is a comma-separated list of names, or (for the
2648 controls adapted from dtterm the operation number). The
2649 default value is
2650 20,21,SetXprop,SetSelection
2652 (i.e., all except a few “dangerous” operations are allowed).
2653 The names are listed below. Xterm ignores capitalization, but
2655 they are shown in mixed-case for clarity. Where a number can
2656 be used as an alternative, it is given in parentheses after the
2657 name.
2658 GetChecksum
2660 Report checksum of characters in a rectangular region.
2661 GetIconTitle (20)
2663 Report xterm window's icon label as a string.
2664 GetScreenSizeChars (19)
2666 Report the size of the screen in characters as numbers.
2667 GetSelection
2669 Report selection data as a base64 string.
2670 GetWinPosition (13)
2672 Report xterm window position as numbers.
2673 GetWinSizeChars (18)
2675 Report the size of the text area in characters as numbers.
2676 GetWinSizePixels (14)
2678 Report xterm window in pixels as numbers.
2679 GetWinState (11)
2681 Report xterm window state as a number.
2682 GetWinTitle (21)
2684 Report xterm window's title as a string.
2685 LowerWin (6)
2687 Lower the xterm window to the bottom of the stacking
2688 order.
2689 MaximizeWin (9)
2691 Maximize window (i.e., resize to screen size).
2692 FullscreenWin (10)
2694 Use full screen (i.e., resize to screen size, without
2695 window decorations).
2696 MinimizeWin (2)
2698 Iconify window.
2699 PopTitle (23)
2701 Pop title from internal stack.
2702 PushTitle (22)
2704 Push title to internal stack.
2705 RaiseWin (5)
2707 Raise the xterm window to the front of the stacking order.
2708 RefreshWin (7)
2710 Refresh the xterm window.
2711 RestoreWin (1)
2713 De-iconify window.
2714 SetChecksum
2716 Modify algorithm for reporting checksum of characters in a
2717 rectangular region.
2718 SetSelection
2720 Set selection data.
2721 SetWinLines
2723 Resize to a given number of lines, at least 24.
2724 SetWinPosition (3)
2726 Move window to given coordinates.
2727 SetWinSizeChars (8)
2729 Resize the text area to given size in characters.
2730 SetWinSizePixels (4)
2732 Resize the xterm window to given size in pixels.
2733 SetXprop
2735 Set X property on top-level window.
2736 dynamicColors (class DynamicColors)
2738 Specifies whether or not escape sequences to change colors
2739 assigned to different attributes are recognized.
2740 eightBitControl (class EightBitControl)
2742 Specifies whether or not control sequences sent by the terminal
2743 should be eight-bit characters or escape sequences. The
2744 default is “false”.
2745 eightBitInput (class EightBitInput)
2747 If “true”, Meta characters (a single-byte character combined
2748 with the Meta modifier key) input from the keyboard are
2749 presented as a single character, modified according to the
2750 eightBitMeta resource. If “false”, Meta characters are
2751 converted into a two-character sequence with the character
2752 itself preceded by ESC. The default is “true”.
2753 The metaSendsEscape and altSendsEscape resources may override
2755 this feature. Generally keyboards do not have a key labeled
2756 “Meta”, but “Alt” keys are common, and they are conventionally
2757 used for “Meta”. If they were synonymous, it would have been
2758 reasonable to name this resource “altSendsEscape”, reversing
2759 its sense. For more background on this, see the meta(3x)
2760 function in curses.
2761 Note that the Alt key is not necessarily the same as the Meta
2763 modifier. The xmodmap utility lists your key modifiers. X
2764 defines modifiers for shift, (caps) lock and control, as well
2765 as 5 additional modifiers which are generally used to configure
2766 key modifiers. Xterm inspects the same information to find the
2767 modifier associated with either Meta key (left or right), and
2768 uses that key as the Meta modifier. It also looks for the
2769 NumLock key, to recognize the modifier which is associated with
2770 that.
2771 If your xmodmap configuration uses the same keycodes for Alt-
2773 and Meta-keys, xterm will only see the Alt-key definitions,
2774 since those are tested before Meta-keys. NumLock is tested
2775 first. It is important to keep these keys distinct; otherwise
2776 some of xterm's functionality is not available.
2777 The eightBitInput resource is tested at startup time. If
2779 “true”, the xterm tries to put the terminal into 8-bit mode.
2780 If “false”, on startup, xterm tries to put the terminal into
2781 7-bit mode. For some configurations this is unsuccessful;
2782 failure is ignored. After startup, xterm does not change the
2783 terminal between 8-bit and 7-bit mode.
2784 As originally implemented in X11, the resource value did not
2786 change after startup. However (since patch #216 in 2006) xterm
2787 can modify eightBitInput after startup via a control sequence.
2788 The corresponding terminfo capabilities smm (set meta mode) and
2789 rmm (reset meta mode) have been recognized by bash for some
2790 time. Interestingly enough, bash's notion of “meta mode”
2791 differs from the standard definition (in the terminfo manual),
2792 which describes the change to the eighth bit of a character.
2793 It happens that bash views “meta mode” as the ESC character
2794 that xterm puts before a character when a special meta key is
2795 pressed. bash's early documentation talks about the ESC
2796 character and ignores the eighth bit.
2797 eightBitMeta (class EightBitMeta)
2799 This controls the way xterm modifies the eighth bit of a
2800 single-byte key when the eightBitInput resource is set. The
2801 default is “locale”.
2802 The resource value is a string, evaluated as a boolean after
2804 startup.
2805 false
2807 The key is sent unmodified.
2808 locale
2810 The key is modified only if the locale uses eight-bit
2811 encoding.
2812 true The key is sent modified.
2814 never
2816 The key is always sent unmodified.
2817 Except for the never choice, xterm honors the terminfo
2819 capabilities smm (set meta mode) and rmm (reset meta mode),
2820 allowing the feature to be turned on or off dynamically.
2821 If eightBitMeta is enabled when the locale uses UTF-8, xterm
2823 encodes the value as UTF-8 (since patch #183 in 2003).
2824 eightBitOutput (class EightBitOutput)
2826 Specifies whether or not eight-bit characters sent from the
2827 host should be accepted as is or stripped when printed. The
2828 default is “true”, which means that they are accepted as is.
2829 eightBitSelectTypes (class EightBitSelectTypes)
2831 Override xterm's default selection target list (see
2832 SELECT/PASTE) for selections in normal (ISO-8859-1) mode. The
2833 default is an empty string, i.e., “”, which does not override
2834 anything.
2835 eraseSavedLines (class EraseSavedLines)
2837 Specifies whether or not to allow xterm extended ED/DECSED
2838 control sequences to erase the saved-line buffer. The default
2839 is “true”.
2840 faceName (class FaceName)
2842 Specify the pattern for scalable fonts selected from the
2843 FreeType library if support for that library was compiled into
2844 xterm. There is no default value.
2845 One or more fonts can be specified, separated by commas. If
2847 prefixed with “x:” or “x11:” the specification applies to the
2848 XLFD font resource. A “xft:” prefix is accepted but
2849 unnecessary since a missing prefix for faceName means that it
2850 will be used for TrueType. For example,
2851 XTerm*faceName: x:fixed,xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono
2853 If no faceName resource is specified, or if there is no match
2855 for both TrueType normal and bold fonts, xterm uses the XLFD
2856 (bitmap) font and related resources.
2857 It is possible to select suitable bitmap fonts using a script
2859 such as this:
2860 #!/bin/sh
2862 FONT=`xfontsel -print`
2863 test -n "$FONT" && xfd -fn "$FONT"
2864 However (even though xfd accepts a “-fa” option to denote
2866 FreeType fonts), xfontsel has not been similarly extended. As
2867 a workaround, you may try
2868 fc-list :scalable=true:spacing=mono: family
2870 to find a list of scalable fixed-pitch fonts which may be used
2872 for the faceName resource value.
2873 faceNameDoublesize (class FaceNameDoublesize)
2875 Specify a double-width scalable font for cases where an
2876 application requires this, e.g., in CJK applications. There is
2877 no default value.
2878 Like the faceName resource, this allows one or more comma-
2880 separated font specifications to be applied to the wide
2881 TrueType or XLFD fonts.
2882 If the application uses double-wide characters and this
2884 resource is not given, xterm will use a scaled version of the
2885 font given by faceName.
2886 faceSize (class FaceSize)
2888 Specify the pointsize for fonts selected from the FreeType
2889 library if support for that library was compiled into xterm.
2890 The default is “8.0” On the VT Fonts menu, this corresponds to
2891 the Default entry.
2892 Although the default is “8.0”, this may not be the same as the
2894 pointsize for the default bitmap font, i.e., that assigned with
2895 the -fn option, or the font resource. The default value of
2896 faceSize is chosen to match the size of the “fixed” font,
2897 making switching between bitmap and TrueType fonts via the font
2898 menu give comparable sizes for the window. If your -fn option
2899 uses a different pointsize, you might want to adjust the
2900 faceSize resource to match.
2901 You can specify the pointsize for TrueType fonts selected with
2903 the other size-related menu entries such as Medium, Huge, etc.,
2904 by using one of the following resource values. If you do not
2905 specify a value, they default to “0.0”, which causes xterm to
2906 use the ratio of font sizes from the corresponding bitmap font
2907 resources to obtain a TrueType pointsize.
2908 If all of the faceSize resources are set, then xterm will use
2910 this information to determine the next smaller/larger TrueType
2911 font for the larger-vt-font() and smaller-vt-font() actions.
2912 If any are not set, xterm will use only the areas of the bitmap
2913 fonts.
2914 faceSize1 (class FaceSize1)
2916 Specifies the pointsize of the first alternative font.
2917 faceSize2 (class FaceSize2)
2919 Specifies the pointsize of the second alternative font.
2920 faceSize3 (class FaceSize3)
2922 Specifies the pointsize of the third alternative font.
2923 faceSize4 (class FaceSize4)
2925 Specifies the pointsize of the fourth alternative font.
2926 faceSize5 (class FaceSize5)
2928 Specifies the pointsize of the fifth alternative font.
2929 faceSize6 (class FaceSize6)
2931 Specifies the pointsize of the sixth alternative font.
2932 fastScroll (class FastScroll)
2934 Modifies the effect of jump scroll (jumpScroll) by suppressing
2935 screen refreshes for the special case when output to the screen
2936 has completely shifted the contents off-screen. For instance,
2937 cat'ing a large file to the screen does this.
2938 font (class Font)
2940 Specifies the name of the normal font. The default is “fixed”.
2941 See the discussion of the locale resource, which describes how
2943 this font may be overridden.
2944 NOTE: some resource files use patterns such as
2946 *font: fixed
2948 which are overly broad, affecting both
2950 xterm.vt100.font
2952 and
2954 xterm.vt100.utf8Fonts.font
2956 which is probably not what you intended.
2958 font1 (class Font1)
2960 Specifies the name of the first alternative font, corresponding
2961 to “Unreadable” in the standard menu.
2962 font2 (class Font2)
2964 Specifies the name of the second alternative font,
2965 corresponding to “Tiny” in the standard menu.
2966 font3 (class Font3)
2968 Specifies the name of the third alternative font, corresponding
2969 to “Small” in the standard menu.
2970 font4 (class Font4)
2972 Specifies the name of the fourth alternative font,
2973 corresponding to “Medium” in the standard menu.
2974 font5 (class Font5)
2976 Specifies the name of the fifth alternative font, corresponding
2977 to “Large” in the standard menu.
2978 font6 (class Font6)
2980 Specifies the name of the sixth alternative font, corresponding
2981 to “Huge” in the standard menu.
2982 font7 (class Font7)
2984 Specifies the name of the seventh alternative font,
2985 corresponding to “Enormous” in the standard menu.
2986 fontDoublesize (class FontDoublesize)
2988 Specifies whether xterm should attempt to use font scaling to
2989 draw double-sized characters. Some older font servers cannot
2990 do this properly, will return misleading font metrics. The
2991 default is “true”. If disabled, xterm will simulate double-
2992 sized characters by drawing normal characters with spaces
2993 between them.
2994 fontWarnings (class FontWarnings)
2996 Specify whether xterm should report an error if it fails to
2997 load a font:
2998 0 Never report an error (though the X libraries may).
3000 1 Report an error if the font name was given as a resource
3002 setting.
3003 2 Always report an error on failure to load a font.
3005 The default is “1”.
3007 forceBoxChars (class ForceBoxChars)
3009 Specifies whether xterm should assume the normal and bold fonts
3010 have VT100 line-drawing characters:
3011 • The fixed-pitch ISO-8859-*-encoded fonts used by xterm
3013 normally have the VT100 line-drawing glyphs in cells 1–31.
3014 Other fixed-pitch fonts may be more attractive, but lack
3015 these glyphs.
3016 • When using an ISO-10646-1 font and the wideChars resource
3018 is true, xterm uses the Unicode glyphs which match the
3019 VT100 line-drawing glyphs.
3020 If “false”, xterm checks for missing glyphs in the font and
3022 makes line-drawing characters directly as needed. If “true”,
3023 xterm assumes the font does not contain the line-drawing
3024 characters, and draws them directly. The default is “false”.
3025 The VT100 line-drawing character set (also known as the DEC
3027 Special Character and Line Drawing Set) is shown in this table.
3028 It includes a few special characters which are not used for
3029 drawing lines:
3030 Cell Unicode Description
3032 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
3033 0 U+25AE black vertical rectangle
3034 1 U+25C6 black diamond
3035 2 U+2592 medium shade
3036 3 U+2409 symbol for horizontal tabulation
3037 4 U+240C symbol for form feed
3038 5 U+240D symbol for carriage return
3039 6 U+240A symbol for line feed
3040 7 U+00B0 degree sign
3041 8 U+00B1 plus-minus sign
3042 9 U+2424 symbol for newline
3043 10 U+240B symbol for vertical tabulation
3044 11 U+2518 box drawings light up and left
3045 12 U+2510 box drawings light down and left
3046 13 U+250C box drawings light down and right
3047 14 U+2514 box drawings light up and right
3048 15 U+253C box drawings light vertical and horizontal
3049 16 U+23BA box drawings scan 1
3050 17 U+23BB box drawings scan 3
3051 18 U+2500 box drawings light horizontal
3052 19 U+23BC box drawings scan 7
3053 20 U+23BD box drawings scan 9
3054 21 U+251C box drawings light vertical and right
3055 22 U+2524 box drawings light vertical and left
3056 23 U+2534 box drawings light up and horizontal
3057 24 U+252C box drawings light down and horizontal
3058 25 U+2502 box drawings light vertical
3059 26 U+2264 less-than or equal to
3060 27 U+2265 greater-than or equal to
3061 28 U+03C0 greek small letter pi
3062 29 U+2260 not equal to
3063 30 U+00A3 pound sign
3064 31 U+00B7 middle dot
3065 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
3066 forcePackedFont (class ForcePackedFont)
3068 Specifies whether xterm should use the maximum or minimum glyph
3069 width when displaying using a bitmap font. Use the maximum
3070 width to help with proportional fonts. The default is “true”,
3071 denoting the minimum width.
3072 forceXftHeight (class ForceXftHeight)
3074 Specifies whether xterm should use the given font metrics for
3075 TrueType fonts, or amend the ascent/descent to total no more
3076 than the given font-height. This optional feature is used to
3077 work around inconsistencies in FreeType's rounding computation.
3078 The default is “false”, denoting the given metrics.
3079 foreground (class Foreground)
3081 Specifies the color to use for displaying text in the window.
3082 Setting the class name instead of the instance name is an easy
3083 way to have everything that would normally appear in the text
3084 color change color. The default is “XtDefaultForeground”.
3085 formatOtherKeys (class FormatOtherKeys)
3087 Overrides the format of the escape sequence used to report
3088 modified keys with the modifyOtherKeys resource.
3089 0 send modified keys as parameters for function-key 27
3091 (default).
3092 1 send modified keys as parameters for CSI u.
3094 freeBoldBox (class FreeBoldBox)
3096 Specifies whether xterm should assume the bounding boxes for
3097 normal and bold fonts are compatible. If “false”, xterm
3098 compares them and will reject choices of bold fonts that do not
3099 match the size of the normal font. The default is “false”,
3100 which means that the comparison is performed.
3101 geometry (class Geometry)
3103 Specifies the preferred size and position of the VTxxx window.
3104 There is no default for this resource.
3105 highlightColor (class HighlightColor)
3107 Specifies the color to use for the background of selected
3108 (highlighted) text. If not specified (i.e., matching the
3109 default foreground), reverse video is used. The default is
3110 “XtDefaultForeground”.
3111 highlightColorMode (class HighlightColorMode)
3113 Specifies whether xterm should use highlightTextColor and
3114 highlightColor to override the reversed foreground/background
3115 colors in a selection. The default is unspecified: at startup,
3116 xterm checks if those resources are set to something other than
3117 the default foreground and background colors. Setting this
3118 resource disables the check.
3119 The following table shows the interaction of the highlighting
3121 resources, abbreviated as shown to fit in this page:
3122 HCM
3124 highlightColorMode
3125 HR highlightReverse
3127 HBG
3129 highlightColor
3130 HFG
3132 highlightTextColor
3133 HCM HR HBG HFG Highlight
3135 ────────────────────────────────────────────────
3136 false false default default bg/fg
3137 false false default set bg/fg
3138 false false set default fg/HBG
3139 false false set set fg/HBG
3140 ────────────────────────────────────────────────
3141 false true default default bg/fg
3142 false true default set bg/fg
3143 false true set default fg/HBG
3144 false true set set fg/HBG
3145 ────────────────────────────────────────────────
3146 true false default default bg/fg
3147 true false default set HFG/fg
3148 true false set default bg/HBG
3149 true false set set HFG/HBG
3150 ────────────────────────────────────────────────
3151 true true default default bg/fg
3152 true true default set HFG/fg
3153 true true set default fg/HBG
3154 true true set set HFG/HBG
3155 ────────────────────────────────────────────────
3156 default false default default bg/fg
3157 default false default set bg/fg
3158 default false set default fg/HBG
3159 default false set set HFG/HBG
3160 ────────────────────────────────────────────────
3161 default true default default bg/fg
3162 default true default set bg/fg
3163 default true set default fg/HBG
3164 default true set set HFG/HBG
3165 ────────────────────────────────────────────────
3166 highlightReverse (class HighlightReverse)
3168 Specifies whether xterm should reverse the selection foreground
3169 and background colors when selecting text with reverse-video
3170 attribute. This applies only to the highlightColor and
3171 highlightTextColor resources, e.g., to match the color scheme
3172 of xwsh. If “true”, xterm reverses the colors, If “false”,
3173 xterm does not reverse colors, The default is “true”.
3174 highlightSelection (class HighlightSelection)
3176 Tells xterm whether to highlight all of the selected positions,
3177 or only the selected text:
3178 • If “false”, selecting with the mouse highlights all
3180 positions on the screen between the beginning of the
3181 selection and the current position.
3182 • If “true”, xterm highlights only the positions that contain
3184 text that can be selected.
3185 The default is “false”.
3187 Depending on the way your applications write to the screen,
3189 there may be trailing blanks on a line. Xterm stores data as
3190 it is shown on the screen. Erasing the display changes the
3191 internal state of each cell so it is not considered a blank for
3192 the purpose of selection. Blanks written since the last erase
3193 are selectable. If you do not wish to have trailing blanks in
3194 a selection, use the trimSelection resource.
3195 highlightTextColor (class HighlightTextColor)
3197 Specifies the color to use for the foreground of selected
3198 (highlighted) text. If not specified (i.e., matching the
3199 default background), reverse video is used. The default is
3200 “XtDefaultBackground”.
3201 hpLowerleftBugCompat (class HpLowerleftBugCompat)
3203 Specifies whether to work around a bug in HP's xdb, which
3204 ignores termcap and always sends ESC F to move to the lower
3205 left corner. “true” causes xterm to interpret ESC F as a
3206 request to move to the lower left corner of the screen. The
3207 default is “false”.
3208 i18nSelections (class I18nSelections)
3210 If false, xterm will not request the targets COMPOUND_TEXT or
3211 TEXT. The default is “true”. It may be set to false in order
3212 to work around ICCCM violations by other X clients.
3213 iconBorderColor (class BorderColor)
3215 Specifies the border color for the active icon window if this
3216 feature is compiled into xterm. Not all window managers will
3217 make the icon border visible.
3218 iconBorderWidth (class BorderWidth)
3220 Specifies the border width for the active icon window if this
3221 feature is compiled into xterm. The default is “2”. Not all
3222 window managers will make the border visible.
3223 iconFont (class IconFont)
3225 Specifies the font for the miniature active icon window, if
3226 this feature is compiled into xterm. The default is “nil2”.
3227 initialFont (class InitialFont)
3229 Specifies which of the VT100 fonts to use initially. Values
3230 are the same as for the set-vt-font action. The default is
3231 “d”, i.e., “default”.
3232 inputMethod (class InputMethod)
3234 Tells xterm which type of input method to use. There is no
3235 default method.
3236 internalBorder (class BorderWidth)
3238 Specifies the number of pixels between the characters and the
3239 window border. The default is “2”.
3240 italicULMode (class ColorAttrMode)
3242 Specifies whether characters with the underline attribute
3243 should be displayed in an italic font or as underlined
3244 characters. It is implemented only for TrueType fonts.
3245 jumpScroll (class JumpScroll)
3247 Specifies whether or not jump scroll should be used. This
3248 corresponds to the VT102 DECSCLM private mode. The default is
3249 “true”. See fastScroll for a variation.
3250 keepClipboard (class KeepClipboard)
3252 Specifies whether xterm will reuse the selection data which it
3253 copied to the clipboard rather than asking the clipboard for
3254 its current contents when told to provide the selection. The
3255 default is “false”.
3256 If compiled into xterm, the menu entry Keep Clipboard allows
3258 you to change this at runtime.
3259 keepSelection (class KeepSelection)
3261 Specifies whether xterm will keep the selection even after the
3262 selected area was touched by some output to the terminal. The
3263 default is “true”.
3264 The menu entry Keep Selection allows you to change this at
3266 runtime.
3267 keyboardDialect (class KeyboardDialect)
3269 Specifies the initial keyboard dialect, as well as the default
3270 value when the terminal is reset. The value given is the same
3271 as the final character in the control sequences which change
3272 character sets. The default is “B”, which corresponds to US
3273 ASCII.
3274 limitFontsets (class LimitFontsets)
3276 Limits the number of TrueType fallback fonts (i.e., fontset)
3277 which can be used. The default is “50”.
3278 This limits the number of fallback fonts which xterm uses to
3280 display characters. Because TrueType fonts typically are
3281 small, xterm may open several fonts for good coverage, and may
3282 open additional fonts to obtain information. You can see which
3283 font-files xterm opens by setting the environment variable
3284 XFT_DEBUG to 3. The Xft library and xterm write this debugging
3285 trace to the standard output.
3286 Set this to “0” to disable fallbacks entirely.
3288 limitResize (class LimitResize)
3290 Limits resizing of the screen via control sequence to a given
3291 multiple of the display dimensions. The default is “1”.
3292 limitResponse (class LimitResponse)
3294 Limits the buffer-size used when xterm replies to various
3295 control sequences. The default is “1024”. The minimum value
3296 is “256”.
3297 locale (class Locale)
3299 Specifies how to use luit, an encoding converter between UTF-8
3300 and locale encodings. The resource value (ignoring case) may
3301 be:
3302 true
3304 Xterm will use the encoding specified by the users'
3305 LC_CTYPE locale (i.e., LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, or LANG variables)
3306 as far as possible. This is realized by always enabling
3307 UTF-8 mode and invoking luit in non-UTF-8 locales.
3308 medium
3310 Xterm will follow users' LC_CTYPE locale only for UTF-8,
3311 east Asian, and Thai locales, where the encodings were not
3312 supported by conventional 8bit mode with changing fonts.
3313 For other locales, xterm will use conventional 8bit mode.
3314 checkfont
3316 If mini-luit is compiled-in, xterm will check if a Unicode
3317 font has been specified. If so, it checks if the character
3318 encoding for the current locale is POSIX, Latin-1 or
3319 Latin-9, uses the appropriate mapping to support those with
3320 the Unicode font. For other encodings, xterm assumes that
3321 UTF-8 encoding is required.
3322 false
3324 Xterm will use conventional 8bit mode or UTF-8 mode
3325 according to utf8 resource or -u8 option.
3326 Any other value, e.g., “UTF-8” or “ISO8859-2”, is assumed to be
3328 an encoding name; luit will be invoked to support the encoding.
3329 The actual list of supported encodings depends on luit. The
3330 default is “medium”.
3331 Regardless of your locale and encoding, you need an ISO-10646-1
3333 font to display the result. Your configuration may not include
3334 this font, or locale-support by xterm may not be needed.
3335 At startup, xterm uses a mechanism equivalent to the
3337 load-vt-fonts(utf8Fonts, Utf8Fonts) action to load font name
3338 subresources of the VT100 widget. That is, resource patterns
3339 such as “*vt100.utf8Fonts.font” will be loaded, and (if this
3340 resource is enabled), override the normal fonts. If no
3341 subresources are found, the normal fonts such as “*vt100.font”,
3342 etc., are used.
3343 For instance, you could have this in your resource file:
3345 *VT100.font: 12x24
3347 *VT100.utf8Fonts.font:9x15
3348 When started with a UTF-8 locale, xterm would use 9x15, but
3350 allow you to switch to the 12x24 font using the menu entry
3351 “UTF-8 Fonts”.
3352 The resource files distributed with xterm use ISO-10646-1
3354 fonts, but do not rely on them unless you are using the locale
3355 mechanism.
3356 localeFilter (class LocaleFilter)
3358 Specifies the file name for the encoding converter from/to
3359 locale encodings and UTF-8 which is used with the -lc option or
3360 locale resource. The help message shown by “xterm -help” lists
3361 the default value, which depends on your system configuration.
3362 If the encoding converter requires command-line parameters, you
3364 can add those after the command, e.g.,
3365 *localeFilter: xterm-filter -p
3367 Alternatively, you may put those parameter within a shell
3369 script to execute the converter, and set this resource to point
3370 to the shell script.
3371 When using a locale-filter, e.g., with the -e option, or the
3373 shell, xterm first tries passing control via that filter. If
3374 it fails, xterm will retry without the locale-filter. Xterm
3375 warns about the failure before retrying.
3376 logFile (class Logfile)
3378 Specify the name for xterm's log file. If no name is
3379 specified, xterm will generate a name when logging is enabled,
3380 as described in the -l option.
3381 logInhibit (class LogInhibit)
3383 If “true”, prevent the logging feature from being enabled,
3384 whether by the command-line option -l, or the menu entry Log to
3385 File. The default is “false”.
3386 logging (class Logging)
3388 If “true”, (and if logInhibit is not set) enable the logging
3389 feature. This resource is set/updated by the -l option and the
3390 menu entry Log to File. The default is “false”.
3391 loginShell (class LoginShell)
3393 Specifies whether or not the shell to be run in the window
3394 should be started as a login shell. The default is “false”.
3395 marginBell (class MarginBell)
3397 Specifies whether or not the bell should be rung when the user
3398 types near the right margin. The default is “false”.
3399 maxGraphicSize (class MaxGraphicSize)
3401 If xterm is configured to support ReGIS or SIXEL graphics, this
3402 resource controls the maximum size of a graph which can be
3403 displayed.
3404 The default is “1000x1000” (given as width by height).
3406 If the resource is “auto” then xterm will use the decGraphicsID
3408 resource (or decTerminalID if that is not set):
3409 Result decGraphicsID
3411 ────────────────────────
3412 768x400 125
3413 800x460 240
3414 800x460 241
3415 800x480 330
3416 800x480 340
3417 860x750 382
3418 800x480 other
3419 metaSendsEscape (class MetaSendsEscape)
3421 Tells xterm what to do with input-characters modified by Meta:
3422 • If “true”, Meta characters (a character combined with the
3424 Meta modifier key) are converted into a two-character
3425 sequence with the character itself preceded by ESC. This
3426 applies as well to function key control sequences, unless
3427 xterm sees that Meta is used in your key translations.
3428 • If “false”, Meta characters input from the keyboard are
3430 handled according to the eightBitInput resource.
3431 The default is “True”.
3433 mkSamplePass (class MkSamplePass)
3435 If mkSampleSize is nonzero, and mkWidth (and cjkWidth) are
3436 false, on startup xterm compares its built-in tables to the
3437 system's wide character width data to decide if it will use the
3438 system's data. It tests the first mkSampleSize character
3439 values, and allows up to mkSamplePass mismatches before the
3440 test fails. The default (for the allowed number of mismatches)
3441 is 655 (one percent of the default value for mkSampleSize).
3442 mkSampleSize (class MkSampleSize)
3444 With mkSamplePass, this specifies a startup test used for
3445 initializing wide character width calculations. The default
3446 (number of characters to check) is 65536.
3447 mkWidth (class MkWidth)
3449 Specifies whether xterm should use a built-in version of the
3450 wide character width calculation. See also the cjkWidth
3451 resource which can override this. The default is “false”.
3452 Here is a summary of the resources which control the choice of
3454 wide character width calculation:
3455 cjkWidth mkWidth Action
3457 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
3458 false false use system tables subject to mkSamplePass
3459 false true use built-in tables
3460 true false use built-in CJK tables
3461 true true use built-in CJK tables
3462 To disable mkWidth, and use the system's tables, set both
3464 mkSampleSize and mkSamplePass to “0”. Doing that may make
3465 xterm more consistent with applications running in xterm, but
3466 may omit some font glyphs whose width correctly differs from
3467 the system's character tables.
3468 modifyCursorKeys (class ModifyCursorKeys)
3470 Tells how to handle the special case where Control-, Shift-,
3471 Alt- or Meta-modifiers are used to add a parameter to the
3472 escape sequence returned by a cursor-key. The default is “2”:
3473 -1 disables the feature.
3475 0 uses the old/obsolete behavior, i.e., the modifier is the
3477 first parameter.
3478 1 prefixes modified sequences with CSI.
3480 2 forces the modifier to be the second parameter if it would
3482 otherwise be the first.
3483 3 marks the sequence with a “>” to hint that it is private.
3485 modifyFunctionKeys (class ModifyFunctionKeys)
3487 Tells how to handle the special case where Control-, Shift-,
3488 Alt- or Meta-modifiers are used to add a parameter to the
3489 escape sequence returned by a (numbered) function-key. The
3490 default is “2”. The resource values are similar to
3491 modifyCursorKeys:
3492 -1 permits the user to use shift- and control-modifiers to
3494 construct function-key strings using the normal encoding
3495 scheme.
3496 0 uses the old/obsolete behavior, i.e., the modifier is the
3498 first parameter.
3499 1 prefixes modified sequences with CSI.
3501 2 forces the modifier to be the second parameter if it would
3503 otherwise be the first.
3504 3 marks the sequence with a “>” to hint that it is private.
3506 If modifyFunctionKeys is zero, xterm uses Control- and Shift-
3508 modifiers to allow the user to construct numbered function-keys
3509 beyond the set provided by the keyboard:
3510 Control
3512 adds the value given by the ctrlFKeys resource.
3513 Shift
3515 adds twice the value given by the ctrlFKeys resource.
3516 Control/Shift
3518 adds three times the value given by the ctrlFKeys
3519 resource.
3520 modifyKeyboard (class ModifyKeyboard)
3522 Normally xterm makes a special case regarding modifiers (shift,
3523 control, etc.) to handle special keyboard layouts (legacy and
3524 vt220). This is done to provide compatible keyboards for DEC
3525 VT220 and related terminals that implement user-defined keys
3526 (UDK).
3527 The bits of the resource value selectively enable modification
3529 of the given category when these keyboards are selected. The
3530 default is “0”:
3531 0 The legacy/vt220 keyboards interpret only the Control-
3533 modifier when constructing numbered function-keys. Other
3534 special keys are not modified.
3535 1 allows modification of the numeric keypad
3537 2 allows modification of the editing keypad
3539 4 allows modification of function-keys, overrides use of
3541 Shift-modifier for UDK.
3542 8 allows modification of other special keys
3544 modifyOtherKeys (class ModifyOtherKeys)
3546 Like modifyCursorKeys, tells xterm to construct an escape
3547 sequence for ordinary (i.e., “other”) keys (such as “2”) when
3548 modified by Shift-, Control-, Alt- or Meta-modifiers. This
3549 feature does not apply to special keys, i.e., cursor-, keypad-,
3550 function- or control-keys which are labeled on your keyboard.
3551 Those have key symbols which XKB identifies uniquely.
3552 For example, this feature does not apply to special control-
3554 keys (e.g., Escape, Tab, Enter, Backspace) Other control keys
3555 (e.g., Control-I, Control-M, Control-H) may send escape
3556 sequences when this feature is enabled.
3557 The default is “0”:
3559 0 disables this feature.
3561 1 enables this feature for keys except for those with well-
3563 known behavior, e.g., Tab, Backarrow and some special
3564 control character cases which are built into the X11
3565 library, e.g., Control-Space to make a NUL, or Control-3
3566 to make an Escape character.
3567 Except for those special cases built into the X11 library,
3569 the Shift- and Control- modifiers are treated normally.
3570 The Alt- and Meta- modifiers do not cause xterm to send
3571 escape sequences. Those modifier keys are interpreted
3572 according to other resources, e.g., the metaSendsEscape
3573 resource.
3574 2 enables this feature for keys including the exceptions
3576 listed. Xterm ignores the special cases built into the
3577 X11 library. Any shifted (modified) ordinary key sends an
3578 escape sequence. The Alt- and Meta- modifiers cause xterm
3579 to send escape sequences.
3580 The Xterm FAQ has an extended discussion of this feature, with
3582 examples:
3583 https://invisible-island.net/xterm/modified-keys.html
3585 multiClickTime (class MultiClickTime)
3587 Specifies the maximum time in milliseconds between multi-click
3588 select events. The default is “250” milliseconds.
3589 multiScroll (class MultiScroll)
3591 Specifies whether or not scrolling should be done
3592 asynchronously. The default is “false”.
3593 nMarginBell (class Column)
3595 Specifies the number of characters from the right margin at
3596 which the margin bell should be rung, when enabled by the
3597 marginBell resource. The default is “10”.
3598 nameKeymap (class NameKeymap)
3600 See the discussion of the keymap() action.
3601 nextEventDelay (class NextEventDelay)
3603 Specifies a delay time in milliseconds before checking for new
3604 X events. The default is “1”.
3605 numColorRegisters (class NumColorRegisters)
3607 If xterm is configured to support ReGIS or SIXEL graphics, this
3608 specifies the number of color-registers which are available.
3609 If this resource is not specified, xterm uses a value
3611 determined by the decTerminalID resource:
3612 Result decTerminalID
3614 ───────────────────────
3615 4 125
3616 4 240
3617 4 241
3618 4 330
3619 16 340
3620 2 382
3621 1024 other
3622 numLock (class NumLock)
3624 If “true”, xterm checks if NumLock is used as a modifier (see
3625 xmodmap(1)). If so, this modifier is used to simplify the
3626 logic when implementing special NumLock for the sunKeyboard
3627 resource. Also (when sunKeyboard is false), similar logic is
3628 used to find the modifier associated with the left and right
3629 Alt keys. The default is “true”.
3630 oldXtermFKeys (class OldXtermFKeys)
3632 If “true”, xterm will use old-style (X11R5) escape sequences
3633 for function keys F1 to F4, for compatibility with X Consortium
3634 xterm. Otherwise, it uses the VT100 codes for PF1 to PF4. The
3635 default is “false”.
3636 Setting this resource has the same effect as setting the
3638 keyboardType to legacy. The keyboardType resource is the
3639 preferred mechanism for selecting this mode.
3640 The old-style escape sequences resemble VT220 keys, but appear
3642 to have been invented for xterm in X11R4.
3643 on2Clicks (class On2Clicks)
3645 on3Clicks (class On3Clicks)
3647 on4Clicks (class On4Clicks)
3649 on5Clicks (class On5Clicks)
3651 Specify selection behavior in response to multiple mouse
3652 clicks. A single mouse click is always interpreted as
3653 described in the Selection Functions section (see POINTER
3654 USAGE). Multiple mouse clicks (using the button which
3655 activates the select-start action) are interpreted according to
3656 the resource values of on2Clicks, etc. The resource value can
3657 be one of these:
3658 word
3660 Select a “word” as determined by the charClass resource.
3661 See the CHARACTER CLASSES section.
3662 If the pointer is on a “word” then xterm searches back to
3664 the beginning of the word, and then to the end.
3665 If the pointer is not on a “word” then the result depends on
3667 whether it is on whitespace (including a newline), or past
3668 the end of the line. In the latter case xterm may select a
3669 “word” beginning after the newline, if there is no
3670 additional whitespace.
3671 line
3673 Select a line (counting wrapping).
3674 group
3676 Select a group of adjacent lines (counting wrapping). The
3677 selection stops on a blank line, and does not extend outside
3678 the current page.
3679 page
3681 Select all visible lines, i.e., the page.
3682 all
3684 Select all lines, i.e., including the saved lines.
3685 regex
3687 Select the best match for the POSIX extended regular
3688 expression (ERE) which follows in the resource value:
3689 • Xterm matches the regular expression against a byte
3691 array for the entire (possibly wrapped) line. That byte
3692 array may be UTF-8 or ISO-8859-1, depending on the mode
3693 in which xterm is running.
3694 • Xterm steps through each byte-offset in this array,
3696 keeping track of the best (longest) match. If more than
3697 one match ties for the longest length, the first is
3698 used.
3699 Xterm does this to make it convenient to click anywhere
3701 in the area of interest and cause the regular expression
3702 to match the entire word, etc.
3703 • The “^” and “$” anchors in a regular expression denote
3705 the ends of the entire line.
3706 • If the regular expression contains backslashes “\” those
3708 should be escaped “\\” because the X libraries interpret
3709 backslashes in resource strings.
3710 none
3712 No selection action is associated with this resource. Xterm
3713 interprets it as the end of the list. For example, you may
3714 use it to disable triple (and higher) clicking by setting
3715 on3Clicks to “none”.
3716 The default values for on2Clicks and on3Clicks are “word” and
3718 “line”, respectively. There is no default value for on4Clicks
3719 or on5Clicks, making those inactive. On startup, xterm
3720 determines the maximum number of clicks by the onXClicks
3721 resource values which are set.
3722 openIm (class OpenIm)
3724 Tells xterm whether to open the input method at startup. The
3725 default is “true”.
3726 pointerColor (class PointerColor)
3728 Specifies the foreground color of the pointer. The default is
3729 “XtDefaultForeground”.
3730 pointerColorBackground (class PointerColorBackground)
3732 Specifies the background color of the pointer. The default is
3733 “XtDefaultBackground”.
3734 pointerFont (class PointerFont)
3736 Specifies the font to be used for the pointer. The shapes
3737 specified by pointerShape are glyphs in this font. The
3738 resource value default is cursor.
3739 pointerMode (class PointerMode)
3741 Specifies when the pointer may be hidden as the user types. It
3742 will be redisplayed if the user moves the mouse, or clicks one
3743 of its buttons.
3744 0 never
3746 1 the application running in xterm has not activated mouse
3748 mode. This is the default.
3749 2 always.
3751 pointerShape (class Cursor)
3753 Specifies the name of the shape of the pointer. The default is
3754 “xterm”.
3755 Other shapes can be selected. Here is a list of the “core”
3757 (i.e., standard) names extracted from <X11/cursorfont.h>:
3758 X_cursor, arrow, based_arrow_down, based_arrow_up, boat,
3760 bogosity, bottom_left_corner, bottom_right_corner,
3761 bottom_side, bottom_tee, box_spiral, center_ptr, circle,
3762 clock, coffee_mug, cross, cross_reverse, crosshair,
3763 diamond_cross, dot, dotbox, double_arrow, draft_large,
3764 draft_small, draped_box, exchange, fleur, gobbler, gumby,
3765 hand1, hand2, heart, icon, iron_cross, left_ptr, left_side,
3766 left_tee, leftbutton, ll_angle, lr_angle, man,
3767 middlebutton, mouse, pencil, pirate, plus, question_arrow,
3768 right_ptr, right_side, right_tee, rightbutton, rtl_logo,
3769 sailboat, sb_down_arrow, sb_h_double_arrow, sb_left_arrow,
3770 sb_right_arrow, sb_up_arrow, sb_v_double_arrow, shuttle,
3771 sizing, spider, spraycan, star, target, tcross,
3772 top_left_arrow, top_left_corner, top_right_corner,
3773 top_side, top_tee, trek, ul_angle, umbrella, ur_angle,
3774 watch, xterm
3775 If you are using a cursor theme, expect it to provide about a
3777 third of those names, while adding others.
3778 popOnBell (class PopOnBell)
3780 Specifies whether the window would be raised when Control-G is
3781 received. The default is “false”.
3782 If the window is iconified, this has no effect. However, the
3784 zIconBeep resource provides you with the ability to see which
3785 iconified windows have sounded a bell.
3786 precompose (class Precompose)
3788 Tells xterm whether to precompose UTF-8 data into Normalization
3789 Form C, which combines commonly-used accents onto base
3790 characters. If it does not do this, accents are left as
3791 separate characters. The default is “true”.
3792 preeditType (class PreeditType)
3794 Tells xterm which types of preedit (preconversion) string to
3795 display. The default is “OverTheSpot,Root”.
3796 printAttributes (class PrintAttributes)
3798 Specifies whether to print graphic attributes along with the
3799 text. A real DEC VTxxx terminal will print the underline,
3800 highlighting codes but your printer may not handle these.
3801 • “0” disables the attributes.
3803 • “1” prints the normal set of attributes (bold, underline,
3805 inverse and blink) as VT100-style control sequences.
3806 • “2” prints ANSI color attributes as well.
3808 The default is “1”.
3810 printFileImmediate (class PrintFileImmediate)
3812 When the print-immediate action is invoked, xterm prints the
3813 screen contents directly to a file. Set this resource to the
3814 prefix of the filename (a timestamp will be appended to the
3815 actual name).
3816 The default is an empty string, i.e., “”, However, when the
3818 print-immediate action is invoked, if the string is empty, then
3819 “XTerm” is used.
3820 printFileOnXError (class PrintFileOnXError)
3822 If xterm exits with an X error, e.g., your connection is broken
3823 when the server crashes, it can be told to write the contents
3824 of the screen to a file. To enable the feature, set this
3825 resource to the prefix of the filename (a timestamp will be
3826 appended to the actual name).
3827 The default is an empty string, i.e., “”, which disables this
3829 feature. However, when the print-on-error action is invoked,
3830 if the string is empty, then “XTermError” is used.
3831 These error codes are handled: ERROR_XERROR, ERROR_XIOERROR and
3833 ERROR_ICEERROR.
3834 printModeImmediate (class PrintModeImmediate)
3836 When the print-immediate action is invoked, xterm prints the
3837 screen contents directly to a file. You can use the
3838 printModeImmediate resource to tell it to use escape sequences
3839 to reconstruct the video attributes and colors. This uses the
3840 same values as the printAttributes resource. The default is
3841 “0”.
3842 printModeOnXError (class PrintModeOnXError)
3844 Xterm implements the printFileOnXError feature using the
3845 printer feature, although the output is written directly to a
3846 file. You can use the printModeOnXError resource to tell it to
3847 use escape sequences to reconstruct the video attributes and
3848 colors. This uses the same values as the printAttributes
3849 resource. The default is “0”.
3850 printOptsImmediate (class PrintOptsImmediate)
3852 Specify the range of text which is printed to a file when the
3853 print-immediate action is invoked.
3854 • If zero (0), then this selects the current (visible screen)
3856 plus the saved lines, except if the alternate screen is
3857 being used. In that case, only the alternate screen is
3858 selected.
3859 • If nonzero, the bits of this resource value (checked in
3861 descending order) select the range:
3862 8 selects the saved lines.
3864 4 selects the alternate screen.
3866 2 selects the normal screen.
3868 1 selects the current screen, which can be either the
3870 normal or alternate screen.
3871 The default is “9”, which selects the current visible screen
3873 plus saved lines, with no special case for the alternated
3874 screen.
3875 printOptsOnXError (class PrintOptsOnXError)
3877 Specify the range of text which is printed to a file when the
3878 print-on-error action is invoked. The resource value is
3879 interpreted the same as in printOptsImmediate.
3880 The default is “9”, which selects the current visible screen
3882 plus saved lines, with no special case for the alternated
3883 screen.
3884 printerAutoClose (class PrinterAutoClose)
3886 If “true”, xterm will close the printer (a pipe) when the
3887 application switches the printer offline with a Media Copy
3888 command. The default is “false”.
3889 printerCommand (class PrinterCommand)
3891 Specifies a shell command to which xterm will open a pipe when
3892 the first MC (Media Copy) command is initiated. The default is
3893 an empty string, i.e., “”. If the resource value is given as
3894 an empty string, the printer is disabled.
3895 printerControlMode (class PrinterControlMode)
3897 Specifies the printer control mode. A “1” selects autoprint
3898 mode, which causes xterm to print a line from the screen when
3899 • you move the cursor off that line with a line feed, form
3901 feed or vertical tab character, or
3902 • an autowrap occurs.
3904 Autoprint mode is overridden by printer controller mode (a
3906 “2”), which causes all of the output to be directed to the
3907 printer. The default is “0”.
3908 printerExtent (class PrinterExtent)
3910 Controls whether a print page function will print the entire
3911 page (true), or only the portion within the scrolling margins
3912 (false). The default is “false”.
3913 printerFormFeed (class PrinterFormFeed)
3915 Controls whether a form feed is sent to the printer at the end
3916 of a print page function. The default is “false”.
3917 printerNewLine (class PrinterNewLine)
3919 Controls whether a newline is sent to the printer at the end of
3920 a print page function. The default is “true”.
3921 privateColorRegisters (class PrivateColorRegisters)
3923 If xterm is configured to support ReGIS or SIXEL graphics, this
3924 controls whether xterm allocates separate color registers for
3925 each sixel device control string, e.g., for DECGCI. If not
3926 true, color registers are allocated only once, when the
3927 terminal is reset, and color changes in any graphic affect
3928 all graphics. The default is “true”.
3929 quietGrab (class QuietGrab)
3931 Controls whether the cursor is repainted when NotifyGrab and
3932 NotifyUngrab event types are received during change of focus.
3933 The default is “false”.
3934 regisDefaultFont (class RegisDefaultFont)
3936 If xterm is configured to support ReGIS graphics, this resource
3937 tells xterm which font to use if the ReGIS data does not
3938 specify one. No default value is specified; xterm accepts a
3939 TrueType font specification as in the faceName resource.
3940 If no value is specified, xterm draws a bitmap indicating a
3942 missing character.
3943 regisScreenSize (class RegisScreenSize)
3945 If xterm is configured to support ReGIS graphics, this resource
3946 tells xterm the default size (in pixels) for these graphics,
3947 which also sets the default coordinate space to [0,0] (upper-
3948 left) and [width,height] (lower-right).
3949 The application using ReGIS may use the “A” option of the “S”
3951 command to adjust the coordinate space or change the
3952 addressable portion of the screen.
3953 Xterm accepts a special resource value “auto”, which tells
3955 xterm to use the decGraphicsID and decTerminalID resources to
3956 set the default size based on the hardware terminal's limits.
3957 Those limits are the same as for the maxGraphicSize resource.
3958 The default is “auto”.
3960 renderFont (class RenderFont)
3962 If xterm is built with the Xft library, this controls whether
3963 the faceName resource is used. The default is “default”.
3964 The resource values are strings, evaluated as booleans after
3966 startup.
3967 false
3969 disable the feature and use the normal (bitmap) font.
3970 true
3972 startup using the TrueType font specified by the faceName
3973 and faceSize resource settings. If there is no value for
3974 faceName, disable the feature and use the normal (bitmap)
3975 font.
3976 After startup, you can still switch to/from the bitmap
3978 font using the “TrueType Fonts” menu entry.
3979 default
3981 Enable the “TrueType Fonts” menu entry to allow runtime
3982 switching to/from TrueType fonts. The initial font used
3983 depends upon whether the faceName resource is set:
3984 • If the faceName resource is not set, start by using
3986 the normal (bitmap) font. Xterm has a separate
3987 compiled-in value for faceName for this special case.
3988 That is normally “mono”.
3989 • If the faceName resource is set, then start by using
3991 the TrueType font rather than the bitmap font.
3992 defaultOff
3994 Enable the “TrueType Fonts” menu entry to allow runtime
3995 switching to/from TrueType fonts, but allow it to be
3996 initially unselected if no faceName resource was given.
3997 resizeByPixel (class ResizeByPixel)
3999 Set this “true” to disable hints to the window manager that
4000 request resizing by character rather than pixels.
4001 Most window managers provide visual feedback showing the size
4003 of a window as you resize it, using these hints. When you
4004 maximize xterm, it disables those hints to allow the window
4005 manager to make better use of fractional rows or columns.
4006 Setting this resource disables the hints all the time.
4007 The default is “false”.
4009 resizeGravity (class ResizeGravity)
4011 Affects the behavior when the window is resized to be taller or
4012 shorter. NorthWest specifies that the top line of text on the
4013 screen stay fixed. If the window is made shorter, lines are
4014 dropped from the bottom; if the window is made taller, blank
4015 lines are added at the bottom. This is compatible with the
4016 behavior in X11R4. SouthWest (the default) specifies that the
4017 bottom line of text on the screen stay fixed. If the window is
4018 made taller, additional saved lines will be scrolled down onto
4019 the screen; if the window is made shorter, lines will be
4020 scrolled off the top of the screen, and the top saved lines
4021 will be dropped.
4022 retryInputMethod (class RetryInputMethod)
4024 Tells xterm how many times to retry, in case the input-method
4025 server is not responding. This is a different issue than
4026 unsupported preedit type, etc. You may encounter retries if
4027 your X configuration (and its libraries) are missing pieces.
4028 Setting this resource to zero “0” will cancel the retrying.
4029 The default is “3”.
4030 reverseVideo (class ReverseVideo)
4032 Specifies whether or not reverse video should be simulated.
4033 The default is “false”.
4034 There are several aspects to reverse video in xterm:
4036 • The command-line -rv option tells the X libraries to
4038 reverse the foreground and background colors. Xterm's
4039 command-line options set resource values. In particular,
4040 the X Toolkit sets the reverseVideo resource when the -rv
4041 option is used.
4042 • If the user has also used command-line options -fg or -bg
4044 to set the foreground and background colors, xterm does not
4045 see these options directly. Instead, it examines the
4046 resource values to reconstruct the command-line options,
4047 and determine which of the colors is the user's intended
4048 foreground, etc. Their actual values are irrelevant to the
4049 reverse video function; some users prefer the X defaults
4050 (black text on a white background), others prefer white
4051 text on a black background.
4052 • After startup, the user can toggle the “Enable Reverse
4054 Video” menu entry. This exchanges the current foreground
4055 and background colors of the VT100 widget, and repaints the
4056 screen. Because of the X resource hierarchy, the
4057 reverseVideo resource applies to more than the VT100
4058 widget.
4059 Programs running in an xterm can also use control sequences to
4061 enable the VT100 reverse video mode. These are independent of
4062 the reverseVideo resource and the menu entry. Xterm exchanges
4063 the current foreground and background colors when drawing text
4064 affected by these control sequences.
4065 Other control sequences can alter the foreground and background
4067 colors which are used:
4068 • Programs can also use the ANSI color control sequences to
4070 set the foreground and background colors.
4071 • Extensions to the ANSI color controls (such as 16-, 88- or
4073 256-colors) are treated similarly to the ANSI control.
4074 • Using other control sequences (the “dynamic colors”
4076 feature), a program can change the foreground and
4077 background colors.
4078 reverseWrap (class ReverseWrap)
4080 Specifies whether or not reverse-wraparound should be enabled.
4081 This corresponds to xterm's private mode 45. The default is
4082 “false”.
4083 rightScrollBar (class RightScrollBar)
4085 Specifies whether or not the scrollbar should be displayed on
4086 the right rather than the left. The default is “false”.
4087 saveLines (class SaveLines)
4089 Specifies the number of lines to save beyond the top of the
4090 screen when a scrollbar is turned on. The default is “1024”.
4091 scrollBar (class ScrollBar)
4093 Specifies whether or not the scrollbar should be displayed.
4094 The default is “false”.
4095 scrollBarBorder (class ScrollBarBorder)
4097 Specifies the width of the scrollbar border. Note that this is
4098 drawn to overlap the border of the xterm window. Modifying the
4099 scrollbar's border affects only the line between the VT100
4100 widget and the scrollbar. The default value is 1.
4101 scrollKey (class ScrollCond)
4103 Specifies whether or not pressing a key should automatically
4104 cause the scrollbar to go to the bottom of the scrolling
4105 region. This corresponds to xterm's private mode 1011. The
4106 default is “false”.
4107 scrollLines (class ScrollLines)
4109 Specifies the number of lines that the scroll-back and
4110 scroll-forw actions should use as a default. The default value
4111 is 1.
4112 scrollTtyOutput (class ScrollCond)
4114 Specifies whether or not output to the terminal should
4115 automatically cause the scrollbar to go to the bottom of the
4116 scrolling region. The default is “true”.
4117 selectToClipboard (class SelectToClipboard)
4119 Tells xterm whether to use the PRIMARY or CLIPBOARD for SELECT
4120 tokens in the selection mechanism. The set-select action can
4121 change this at runtime, allowing the user to work with programs
4122 that handle only one of these mechanisms. The default is
4123 “false”, which tells it to use PRIMARY.
4124 shiftEscape (class ShiftEscape)
4126 Xterm uses the translations resource to determine how to invoke
4127 actions for selecting and copying text using the pointer (e.g.,
4128 a mouse). It also provides a mouse protocol which can be used
4129 by applications running in an xterm to detect mouse button
4130 clicks.
4131 The mouse protocol causes xterm to send special escape
4133 sequences which allow an application to determine if modifiers
4134 (i.e., one or more of shift, control, alt, and meta) were used.
4135 Xterm provides this mouse protocol by interpreting button- and
4137 motion-events in the functions which the translations resource
4138 calls for selecting and copying text:
4139 insert-selection
4141 select-end
4142 select-extend
4143 select-start
4144 start-extend
4145 While the mouse protocol is active, xterm reserves most of the
4147 mouse button events for sending special escape sequences to the
4148 application. Xterm normally allows you to use the shift-key to
4149 temporarily override this mouse protocol, permitting the
4150 selection and copying actions to be used.
4151 The shiftEscape resource setting allows you to tell xterm
4153 whether to use the shift-key in this way (i.e., overriding the
4154 mouse protocol). Xterm accepts either a keyword (ignoring
4155 case) or the number shown in parentheses:
4156 false (0)
4158 Mouse protocol does not send special escapes when shift-key
4159 is used.
4160 true (1)
4162 Mouse protocol may send special escapes when shift-key is
4163 used.
4164 At startup, xterm analyzes the translations to see which
4166 buttons are used in the (mouse) button-related bindings for
4167 selection and copying text. If the shift-key is not
4168 mentioned explicitly in a button's binding, xterm allows
4169 that button with shift-key for overriding the mouse
4170 protocol.
4171 always (2)
4173 Mouse protocol can always send special escapes when shift-
4174 key is used.
4175 never (3)
4177 Mouse protocol will never send special escapes when shift-
4178 key is used.
4179 Xterm interprets a control sequence which can change this
4181 setting between “true” and “false”. The default is “false”.
4182 shiftFonts (class ShiftFonts)
4184 Specifies whether to enable the actions larger-vt-font() and
4185 smaller-vt-font(), which are normally bound to the shifted
4186 KP_Add and KP_Subtract. The default is “true”.
4187 showBlinkAsBold (class ShowBlinkAsBold)
4189 Tells xterm whether to display text with blink-attribute the
4190 same as bold. If xterm has not been configured to support
4191 blinking text, the default is “true”, which corresponds to
4192 older versions of xterm, otherwise the default is “false”.
4193 showMissingGlyphs (class ShowMissingGlyphs)
4195 Tells xterm whether to display a box outlining places where a
4196 character has been used that the font does not represent. The
4197 default is “false”.
4198 showWrapMarks (class ShowWrapMarks)
4200 For debugging xterm and applications that may manipulate the
4201 wrapped-line flag by writing text at the right margin, show a
4202 mark on the right inner-border of the window. The mark shows
4203 which lines have the flag set.
4204 signalInhibit (class SignalInhibit)
4206 Specifies whether or not the entries in the Main Options menu
4207 for sending signals to xterm should be disallowed. The default
4208 is “false”.
4209 sixelScrolling (class SixelScrolling)
4211 If xterm is configured to support SIXEL graphics, this resource
4212 tells it whether to scroll up one line at a time when sixels
4213 would be written past the bottom line on the window. The
4214 default is “false”.
4215 sixelScrollsRight (class SixelScrollsRight)
4217 If xterm is configured to support SIXEL graphics, this resource
4218 tells it whether to scroll to the right as needed to keep the
4219 current position visible rather than truncate the plot on the
4220 on the right. The default is “false”.
4221 tekGeometry (class Geometry)
4223 Specifies the preferred size and position of the Tektronix
4224 window. There is no default for this resource.
4225 tekInhibit (class TekInhibit)
4227 Specifies whether or not the escape sequence to enter Tektronix
4228 mode should be ignored. The default is “false”.
4229 tekSmall (class TekSmall)
4231 Specifies whether or not the Tektronix mode window should start
4232 in its smallest size if no explicit geometry is given. This is
4233 useful when running xterm on displays with small screens. The
4234 default is “false”.
4235 tekStartup (class TekStartup)
4237 Specifies whether or not xterm should start up in Tektronix
4238 mode. The default is “false”.
4239 tiXtraScroll (class TiXtraScroll)
4241 Specifies whether xterm should scroll to a new page when
4242 processing the ti termcap entry, i.e., the private modes 47,
4243 1047 or 1049. This is only in effect if titeInhibit is “true”,
4244 because the intent of this option is to provide a picture of
4245 the full-screen application's display on the scrollback without
4246 wiping out the text that would be shown before the application
4247 was initialized. The default for this resource is “false”.
4248 titeInhibit (class TiteInhibit)
4250 Originally specified whether or not xterm should remove ti and
4251 te termcap entries (used to switch between alternate screens on
4252 startup of many screen-oriented programs) from the TERMCAP
4253 string.
4254 TERMCAP is used rarely now, but xterm supports the feature on
4256 modern systems:
4257 • If set, xterm also ignores the escape sequence to switch to
4259 the alternate screen.
4260 • Xterm supports terminfo in a different way, supporting
4262 composite control sequences (also known as private modes)
4263 1047, 1048 and 1049 which have the same effect as the
4264 original 47 control sequence.
4265 The default for this resource is “false”.
4267 titleModes (class TitleModes)
4269 Tells xterm whether to accept or return window- and icon-labels
4270 in ISO-8859-1 (the default) or UTF-8. Either can be encoded in
4271 hexadecimal:
4272 • UTF-8 titles require special treatment, because they may
4274 contain bytes which can be mistaken for control characters.
4275 Hexadecimal-encoding is supported to eliminate that
4276 possibility.
4277 • As an alternative, you could use the allowC1Printable
4279 resource, which suppresses xterm's parsing of the relevant
4280 control characters (and as a result, treats those bytes as
4281 data).
4282 The default for this resource is “0”.
4284 Each bit (bit “0” is 1, bit “1” is 2, etc.) corresponds to one
4286 of the parameters set by the title modes control sequence:
4287 0 Set window/icon labels using hexadecimal
4289 1 Query window/icon labels using hexadecimal
4291 2 Set window/icon labels using UTF-8 (gives the same effect
4293 as the utf8Title resource).
4294 3 Query window/icon labels using UTF-8
4296 translations (class Translations)
4298 Specifies the key and button bindings for menus, selections,
4299 “programmed strings”, etc. The translations resource, which
4300 provides much of xterm's configurability, is a feature of the X
4301 Toolkit Intrinsics library (Xt). See the Actions section.
4302 trimSelection (class TrimSelection)
4304 If you set highlightSelection, you can see the text which is
4305 selected, including any trailing spaces. Clearing the screen
4306 (or a line) resets it to a state containing no spaces. Some
4307 lines may contain trailing spaces when an application writes
4308 them to the screen. However, you may not wish to paste lines
4309 with trailing spaces. If this resource is true, xterm will
4310 trim trailing spaces from text which is selected. It does not
4311 affect spaces which result in a wrapped line, nor will it trim
4312 the trailing newline from your selection. The default is
4313 “false”.
4314 underLine (class UnderLine)
4316 This specifies whether or not text with the underline attribute
4317 should be underlined. It may be desirable to disable
4318 underlining when color is being used for the underline
4319 attribute. The default is “true”.
4320 useBorderClipping (class UseBorderClipping)
4322 Tell xterm whether to apply clipping when useClipping is false.
4323 Unlike useClipping, this simply limits text to keep it within
4324 the window borders, e.g., as a refinement to the scaleHeight
4325 workaround. The default is “false”.
4326 useClipping (class UseClipping)
4328 Tell xterm whether to use clipping to keep from producing dots
4329 outside the text drawing area. Originally used to work around
4330 for overstriking effects, this is also needed to work with some
4331 incorrectly-sized fonts. The default is “true”.
4332 utf8 (class Utf8)
4334 This specifies whether xterm will run in UTF-8 mode. If you
4335 set this resource, xterm also sets the wideChars resource as a
4336 side-effect. The resource can be set via the menu entry “UTF-8
4337 Encoding”. The default is “default”.
4338 Xterm accepts either a keyword (ignoring case) or the number
4340 shown in parentheses:
4341 false (0)
4343 UTF-8 mode is initially off. The command-line option +u8
4344 sets the resource to this value. Escape sequences for
4345 turning UTF-8 mode on/off are allowed.
4346 true (1)
4348 UTF-8 mode is initially on. Escape sequences for turning
4349 UTF-8 mode on/off are allowed.
4350 always (2)
4352 The command-line option -u8 sets the resource to this value.
4353 Escape sequences for turning UTF-8 mode on/off are ignored.
4354 default (3)
4356 This is the default value of the resource. It is changed
4357 during initialization depending on whether the locale
4358 resource was set, to false (0) or always (2). See the
4359 locale resource for additional discussion of non-UTF-8
4360 locales.
4361 If you want to set the value of utf8, it should be in this
4363 range. Other nonzero values are treated the same as “1”, i.e.,
4364 UTF-8 mode is initially on, and escape sequences for turning
4365 UTF-8 mode on/off are allowed.
4366 utf8Fonts (class Utf8Fonts)
4368 See the discussion of the locale resource. This specifies
4369 whether xterm will use UTF-8 fonts specified via resource
4370 patterns such as “*vt100.utf8Fonts.font” or normal (ISO-8859-1)
4371 fonts via patterns such as “*vt100.font”. The resource can be
4372 set via the menu entry “UTF-8 Fonts”. The default is
4373 “default”.
4374 Xterm accepts either a keyword (ignoring case) or the number
4376 shown in parentheses:
4377 false (0)
4379 Use the ISO-8859-1 fonts. The menu entry is enabled,
4380 allowing the choice of fonts to be changed at runtime.
4381 true (1)
4383 Use the UTF-8 fonts. The menu entry is enabled,
4384 allowing the choice of fonts to be changed at runtime.
4385 always (2)
4387 Always use the UTF-8 fonts. This also disables the menu
4388 entry.
4389 default (3)
4391 At startup, the resource is set to true or false,
4392 according to the effective value of the utf8 resource.
4393 utf8Latin1 (class Utf8Latin1)
4395 If true, allow an ISO-8859-1 normal font to be combined with an
4396 ISO-10646-1 font if the latter is given via the -fw option or
4397 its corresponding resource value. The default is “false”.
4398 utf8SelectTypes (class Utf8SelectTypes)
4400 Override xterm's default selection target list (see
4401 SELECT/PASTE) for selections in wide-character (UTF-8) mode.
4402 The default is an empty string, i.e., “”, which does not
4403 override anything.
4404 utf8Title (class Utf8Title)
4406 Applications can set xterm's title by writing a control
4407 sequence. Normally this control sequence follows the VT220
4408 convention, which encodes the string in ISO-8859-1 and allows
4409 for an 8-bit string terminator. If xterm is started in a UTF-8
4410 locale, it translates the ISO-8859-1 string to UTF-8 to work
4411 with the X libraries which assume the string is UTF-8.
4412 However, some users may wish to write a title string encoded in
4414 UTF-8. The window manager is responsible for drawing window
4415 titles. Some window managers (not all) support UTF-8 encoding
4416 of window titles. Set this resource to “true” to also set
4417 UTF-8 encoded title strings using the EWMH properties.
4418 This feature is available as a menu entry, since it is related
4420 to the particular applications you are running within xterm.
4421 You can also use a control sequence (see the discussion of
4422 “Title Modes” in Xterm Control Sequences), to set an equivalent
4423 flag (which can also be set using the titleModes resource).
4424 Xterm accepts either a keyword (ignoring case) or the number
4426 shown in parentheses:
4427 false (0)
4429 Set only ISO-8859-1 title strings, e.g., using the ICCCM
4430 WM_NAME STRING property. The menu entry is enabled,
4431 allowing the choice of title-strings to be changed at
4432 runtime.
4433 true (1)
4435 Set both the EWMH (UTF-8 strings) and the ICCCM WM_NAME,
4436 etc. The menu entry is enabled, allowing the choice to
4437 be changed at runtime.
4438 always (2)
4440 Always set both the EWMH (UTF-8 strings) and the ICCCM
4441 WM_NAME, etc. This also disables the menu entry.
4442 default (3)
4444 At startup, the resource is set to true or false,
4445 according to the effective value of the utf8 resource.
4446 The default is “default”.
4448 utf8Weblike (class Utf8Weblike)
4450 Provide an alternate error-handling scheme for ill-formed UTF-8
4451 as recommended in a W3C document. The Unicode standard does
4452 not require this for conformance. Some additional information
4453 can be found here:
4454 https://invisible-island.net/xterm/bad-utf8/
4456 The default is “false”.
4458 veryBoldColors (class VeryBoldColors)
4460 Specifies whether to combine video attributes with colors
4461 specified by colorBD, colorBL, colorIT, colorRV, and colorUL.
4462 The resource value is the sum of values for each attribute:
4463 1 for reverse,
4464 2 for underline,
4465 4 for bold,
4466 8 for blink, and
4467 512 for italic
4468 The default is “0”.
4470 visualBell (class VisualBell)
4472 Specifies whether or not a visible bell (i.e., flashing) should
4473 be used instead of an audible bell when Control-G is received.
4474 The default is “false”, which tells xterm to use an audible
4475 bell.
4476 visualBellDelay (class VisualBellDelay)
4478 Number of milliseconds to delay when displaying a visual bell.
4479 Default is 100. If set to zero, no visual bell is displayed.
4480 This is useful for very slow displays, e.g., an LCD display on
4481 a laptop.
4482 visualBellLine (class VisualBellLine)
4484 Specifies whether to flash only the current line when
4485 displaying a visual bell rather than flashing the entire
4486 screen: The default is “false”, which tells xterm to flash the
4487 entire screen.
4488 vt100Graphics (class VT100Graphics)
4490 This specifies whether xterm will interpret VT100 graphic
4491 character escape sequences while in UTF-8 mode. This feature
4492 also applies to code-pages (e.g., for VT320 and VT520) and
4493 National Replacement Character Sets (VT220 and up), but not US-
4494 ASCII (the initially selected character set), to avoid conflict
4495 with UTF-8. The default is “true”, to provide support for
4496 various legacy applications.
4497 wideBoldFont (class WideBoldFont)
4499 This option specifies the font to be used for displaying bold
4500 wide text. By default, it will attempt to use a font twice as
4501 wide as the font that will be used to draw bold text. If no
4502 double-width font is found, it will improvise, by stretching
4503 the bold font.
4504 wideChars (class WideChars)
4506 Specifies if xterm should respond to control sequences that
4507 process 16-bit characters. The default is “false”.
4508 wideFont (class WideFont)
4510 This option specifies the font to be used for displaying wide
4511 text. By default, it will attempt to use a font twice as wide
4512 as the font that will be used to draw normal text. If no
4513 double-width font is found, it will improvise, by stretching
4514 the normal font.
4515 ximFont (class XimFont)
4517 This option specifies the font to be used for displaying the
4518 preedit string in the “OverTheSpot” input method.
4519 In “OverTheSpot” preedit type, the preedit (preconversion)
4521 string is displayed at the position of the cursor. It is the
4522 XIM server's responsibility to display the preedit string. The
4523 XIM client must inform the XIM server of the cursor position.
4524 For best results, the preedit string must be displayed with a
4525 proper font. Therefore, xterm informs the XIM server of the
4526 proper font. The font is be supplied by a "fontset", whose
4527 default value is “*”. This matches every font, the X library
4528 automatically chooses fonts with proper charsets. The ximFont
4529 resource is provided to override this default font setting.
4530 Tek4014 Widget Resources
4532 The following resources are specified as part of the tek4014 widget
4533 (class Tek4014). These are specified by patterns such as
4534 “XTerm.tek4014.NAME”:
4535 font2 (class Font)
4537 Specifies font number 2 to use in the Tektronix window.
4538 font3 (class Font)
4540 Specifies font number 3 to use in the Tektronix window.
4541 fontLarge (class Font)
4543 Specifies the large font to use in the Tektronix window.
4544 fontSmall (class Font)
4546 Specifies the small font to use in the Tektronix window.
4547 ginTerminator (class GinTerminator)
4549 Specifies what character(s) should follow a GIN report or
4550 status report. The possibilities are “none”, which sends no
4551 terminating characters, “CRonly”, which sends CR, and “CR&EOT”,
4552 which sends both CR and EOT. The default is “none”.
4553 height (class Height)
4555 Specifies the height of the Tektronix window in pixels.
4556 initialFont (class InitialFont)
4558 Specifies which of the four Tektronix fonts to use initially.
4559 Values are the same as for the set-tek-text action. The
4560 default is “large”.
4561 width (class Width)
4563 Specifies the width of the Tektronix window in pixels.
4564 Menu Resources
4566 The resources that may be specified for the various menus are described
4567 in the documentation for the Athena SimpleMenu widget. The name and
4568 classes of the entries in each of the menus are listed below.
4569 Resources named “lineN” where N is a number are separators with class
4570 SmeLine.
4571 As with all X resource-based widgets, the labels mentioned are
4573 customary defaults for the application.
4574 The Main Options menu (widget name mainMenu) has the following entries:
4576 toolbar (class SmeBSB)
4578 This entry invokes the set-toolbar(toggle) action.
4579 securekbd (class SmeBSB)
4581 This entry invokes the secure() action.
4582 allowsends (class SmeBSB)
4584 This entry invokes the allow-send-events(toggle) action.
4585 redraw (class SmeBSB)
4587 This entry invokes the redraw() action.
4588 logging (class SmeBSB)
4590 This entry invokes the logging(toggle) action.
4591 print-immediate (class SmeBSB)
4593 This entry invokes the print-immediate() action.
4594 print-on-error (class SmeBSB)
4596 This entry invokes the print-on-error() action.
4597 print (class SmeBSB)
4599 This entry invokes the print() action.
4600 print-redir (class SmeBSB)
4602 This entry invokes the print-redir() action.
4603 dump-html (class SmeBSB)
4605 This entry invokes the dump-html() action.
4606 dump-svg (class SmeBSB)
4608 This entry invokes the dump-svg() action.
4609 8-bit-control (class SmeBSB)
4611 This entry invokes the set-8-bit-control(toggle) action.
4612 backarrow key (class SmeBSB)
4614 This entry invokes the set-backarrow(toggle) action.
4615 num-lock (class SmeBSB)
4617 This entry invokes the set-num-lock(toggle) action.
4618 alt-esc (class SmeBSB)
4620 This entry invokes the alt-sends-escape(toggle) action.
4621 meta-esc (class SmeBSB)
4623 This entry invokes the meta-sends-escape(toggle) action.
4624 delete-is-del (class SmeBSB)
4626 This entry invokes the delete-is-del(toggle) action.
4627 oldFunctionKeys (class SmeBSB)
4629 This entry invokes the set-old-function-keys(toggle) action.
4630 hpFunctionKeys (class SmeBSB)
4632 This entry invokes the set-hp-function-keys(toggle) action.
4633 scoFunctionKeys (class SmeBSB)
4635 This entry invokes the set-sco-function-keys(toggle) action.
4636 sunFunctionKeys (class SmeBSB)
4638 This entry invokes the set-sun-function-keys(toggle) action.
4639 sunKeyboard (class SmeBSB)
4641 This entry invokes the sunKeyboard(toggle) action.
4642 suspend (class SmeBSB)
4644 This entry invokes the send-signal(tstp) action on systems that
4645 support job control.
4646 continue (class SmeBSB)
4648 This entry invokes the send-signal(cont) action on systems that
4649 support job control.
4650 interrupt (class SmeBSB)
4652 This entry invokes the send-signal(int) action.
4653 hangup (class SmeBSB)
4655 This entry invokes the send-signal(hup) action.
4656 terminate (class SmeBSB)
4658 This entry invokes the send-signal(term) action.
4659 kill (class SmeBSB)
4661 This entry invokes the send-signal(kill) action.
4662 quit (class SmeBSB)
4664 This entry invokes the quit() action.
4665 The VT Options menu (widget name vtMenu) has the following entries:
4667 scrollbar (class SmeBSB)
4669 This entry invokes the set-scrollbar(toggle) action.
4670 jumpscroll (class SmeBSB)
4672 This entry invokes the set-jumpscroll(toggle) action.
4673 reversevideo (class SmeBSB)
4675 This entry invokes the set-reverse-video(toggle) action.
4676 autowrap (class SmeBSB)
4678 This entry invokes the set-autowrap(toggle) action.
4679 reversewrap (class SmeBSB)
4681 This entry invokes the set-reversewrap(toggle) action.
4682 autolinefeed (class SmeBSB)
4684 This entry invokes the set-autolinefeed(toggle) action.
4685 appcursor (class SmeBSB)
4687 This entry invokes the set-appcursor(toggle) action.
4688 appkeypad (class SmeBSB)
4690 This entry invokes the set-appkeypad(toggle) action.
4691 scrollkey (class SmeBSB)
4693 This entry invokes the set-scroll-on-key(toggle) action.
4694 scrollttyoutput (class SmeBSB)
4696 This entry invokes the set-scroll-on-tty-output(toggle) action.
4697 allow132 (class SmeBSB)
4699 This entry invokes the set-allow132(toggle) action.
4700 cursesemul (class SmeBSB)
4702 This entry invokes the set-cursesemul(toggle) action.
4703 keepSelection (class SmeBSB)
4705 This entry invokes the set-keep-selection(toggle) action.
4706 selectToClipboard (class SmeBSB)
4708 This entry invokes the set-keep-clipboard(toggle) action.
4709 visualbell (class SmeBSB)
4711 This entry invokes the set-visual-bell(toggle) action.
4712 bellIsUrgent (class SmeBSB)
4714 This entry invokes the set-bellIsUrgent(toggle) action.
4715 poponbell (class SmeBSB)
4717 This entry invokes the set-pop-on-bell(toggle) action.
4718 cursorblink (class SmeBSB)
4720 This entry invokes the set-cursorblink(toggle) action.
4721 titeInhibit (class SmeBSB)
4723 This entry invokes the set-titeInhibit(toggle) action.
4724 activeicon (class SmeBSB)
4726 This entry toggles active icons on and off if this feature was
4727 compiled into xterm. It is enabled only if xterm was started
4728 with the command line option +ai or the activeIcon resource is
4729 set to “true”.
4730 softreset (class SmeBSB)
4732 This entry invokes the soft-reset() action.
4733 hardreset (class SmeBSB)
4735 This entry invokes the hard-reset() action.
4736 clearsavedlines (class SmeBSB)
4738 This entry invokes the clear-saved-lines() action.
4739 tekshow (class SmeBSB)
4741 This entry invokes the set-visibility(tek,toggle) action.
4742 tekmode (class SmeBSB)
4744 This entry invokes the set-terminal-type(tek) action.
4745 vthide (class SmeBSB)
4747 This entry invokes the set-visibility(vt,off) action.
4748 altscreen (class SmeBSB)
4750 This entry invokes the set-altscreen(toggle) action.
4751 sixelScrolling (class SmeBSB)
4753 This entry invokes the set-sixel-scrolling(toggle) action.
4754 privateColorRegisters (class SmeBSB)
4756 This entry invokes the set-private-colors(toggle) action.
4757 The VT Fonts menu (widget name fontMenu) has the following entries:
4759 fontdefault (class SmeBSB)
4761 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(d) action, setting the font
4762 using the font (default) resource, e.g., “Default” in the menu.
4763 font1 (class SmeBSB)
4765 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(1) action, setting the font
4766 using the font1 resource, e.g., “Unreadable” in the menu.
4767 font2 (class SmeBSB)
4769 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(2) action, setting the font
4770 using the font2 resource, e.g., “Tiny” in the menu.
4771 font3 (class SmeBSB)
4773 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(3) action, setting the font
4774 using the font3 resource, e.g., “Small” in the menu.
4775 font4 (class SmeBSB)
4777 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(4) action, letting the font
4778 using the font4 resource, e.g., “Medium” in the menu.
4779 font5 (class SmeBSB)
4781 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(5) action, letting the font
4782 using the font5 resource, e.g., “Large” in the menu.
4783 font6 (class SmeBSB)
4785 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(6) action, letting the font
4786 using the font6 resource, e.g., “Huge” in the menu.
4787 font7 (class SmeBSB)
4789 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(7) action, letting the font
4790 using the font7 resource, e.g., “Enormous” in the menu.
4791 fontescape (class SmeBSB)
4793 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(e) action.
4794 fontsel (class SmeBSB)
4796 This entry invokes the set-vt-font(s) action.
4797 allow-bold-fonts (class SmeBSB)
4799 This entry invokes the allow-bold-fonts(toggle) action.
4800 font-linedrawing (class SmeBSB)
4802 This entry invokes the set-font-linedrawing(s) action.
4803 font-packed (class SmeBSB)
4805 This entry invokes the set-font-packed(s) action.
4806 font-doublesize (class SmeBSB)
4808 This entry invokes the set-font-doublesize(s) action.
4809 render-font (class SmeBSB)
4811 This entry invokes the set-render-font(s) action.
4812 utf8-fonts (class SmeBSB)
4814 This entry invokes the set-utf8-fonts(s) action.
4815 utf8-mode (class SmeBSB)
4817 This entry invokes the set-utf8-mode(s) action.
4818 utf8-title (class SmeBSB)
4820 This entry invokes the set-utf8-title(s) action.
4821 allow-color-ops (class SmeBSB)
4823 This entry invokes the allow-color-ops(toggle) action.
4824 allow-font-ops (class SmeBSB)
4826 This entry invokes the allow-fonts-ops(toggle) action.
4827 allow-tcap-ops (class SmeBSB)
4829 This entry invokes the allow-tcap-ops(toggle) action.
4830 allow-title-ops (class SmeBSB)
4832 This entry invokes the allow-title-ops(toggle) action.
4833 allow-window-ops (class SmeBSB)
4835 This entry invokes the allow-window-ops(toggle) action.
4836 The Tek Options menu (widget name tekMenu) has the following entries:
4838 tektextlarge (class SmeBSB)
4840 This entry invokes the set-tek-text(large) action.
4841 tektext2 (class SmeBSB)
4843 This entry invokes the set-tek-text(2) action.
4844 tektext3 (class SmeBSB)
4846 This entry invokes the set-tek-text(3) action.
4847 tektextsmall (class SmeBSB)
4849 This entry invokes the set-tek-text(small) action.
4850 tekpage (class SmeBSB)
4852 This entry invokes the tek-page() action.
4853 tekreset (class SmeBSB)
4855 This entry invokes the tek-reset() action.
4856 tekcopy (class SmeBSB)
4858 This entry invokes the tek-copy() action.
4859 vtshow (class SmeBSB)
4861 This entry invokes the set-visibility(vt,toggle) action.
4862 vtmode (class SmeBSB)
4864 This entry invokes the set-terminal-type(vt) action.
4865 tekhide (class SmeBSB)
4867 This entry invokes the set-visibility(tek,toggle) action.
4868 Scrollbar Resources
4870 The following resources are useful when specified for the Athena
4871 Scrollbar widget:
4872 background (class Background)
4874 Specifies the color to use for the background of the scrollbar.
4875 foreground (class Foreground)
4877 Specifies the color to use for the foreground of the scrollbar.
4878 thickness (class Thickness)
4880 Specifies the width in pixels of the scrollbar (default: 14).
4881 This may be overridden by the width resource.
4883 thumb (class Thumb)
4885 The default “thumb” pixmap used for the scrollbar is a simple
4886 checkerboard pattern alternating pixels for foreground and
4887 background color.
4888 width (class Width)
4890 Specifies the width in pixels of the scrollbar (default: 0).
4891 The widget checks the width resource first, using the thickness
4893 value if the width is zero.
4894
4896 Once the VTxxx window is created, xterm allows you to select text and
4897 copy it within the same or other windows using the pointer or the
4898 keyboard.
4899 A “pointer” could be a mouse, touchpad or similar device. X
4901 applications generally do not care, since they see only button events
4902 which have
4903 • position and
4905 • button up/down state
4907 Xterm can see these events as long as it has focus.
4909 The keyboard also supplies events, but it is less flexible than the
4911 pointer for selecting/copying text.
4912 Events are applied to actions using the translations resource. See
4914 Actions for a complete list, and Default Key Bindings for the built-in
4915 set of translations resources.
4916 Selection Functions
4918 By default, the selection functions are invoked when the pointer
4919 buttons are used with no modifiers, and when they are used with the
4920 “shift” key. The “shift” key is special, because xterm uses that to
4921 ensure that selection functions are still available when it is
4922 programmed to send escape sequences in one of the mouse modes (see
4923 Xterm Control Sequences, as well as the resource disallowedMouseOps).
4924 At startup, xterm inspects the translations resource to see which
4926 pointer buttons may be used in this way, and remembers these buttons
4927 when deciding whether to send escape sequences or perform selection
4928 when those buttons are used with the “shift” modifier. Other pointer
4929 buttons, e.g., typically those sent for wheel mouse events, are not
4930 affected.
4931 The assignment of the functions described below to keys and buttons may
4933 be changed through the resource database; see Actions below.
4934 Pointer button one (usually left)
4936 is used to save text into the cut buffer:
4937 ~Meta <Btn1Down>:select-start()
4939 Move the cursor to beginning of the text, and then hold the button
4941 down while moving the cursor to the end of the region and
4942 releasing the button. The selected text is highlighted and is
4943 saved in the global cut buffer and made the selection when the
4944 button is released:
4945 <BtnUp>:select-end(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n
4947 Normally (but see the discussion of on2Clicks, etc):
4949 • Double-clicking selects by words.
4951 • Triple-clicking selects by lines.
4953 • Quadruple-clicking goes back to characters, etc.
4955 Multiple-click is determined by the time from button up to button
4957 down, so you can change the selection unit in the middle of a
4958 selection. Logical words and lines selected by double- or triple-
4959 clicking may wrap across more than one screen line if lines were
4960 wrapped by xterm itself rather than by the application running in
4961 the window. If the key/button bindings specify that an X
4962 selection is to be made, xterm will leave the selected text
4963 highlighted for as long as it is the selection owner.
4964 Pointer button two (usually middle)
4966 “types” (pastes) the text from the given selection, if any,
4967 otherwise from the cut buffer, inserting it as keyboard input:
4968 ~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn2Up>:insert-selection(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0)
4970 Pointer button three (usually right)
4972 extends the current selection.
4973 ~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn3Down>:start-extend()
4975 (Without loss of generality, you can swap “right” and “left”
4977 everywhere in the rest of this paragraph.) If pressed while
4978 closer to the right edge of the selection than the left, it
4979 extends/contracts the right edge of the selection. If you
4980 contract the selection past the left edge of the selection, xterm
4981 assumes you really meant the left edge, restores the original
4982 selection, then extends/contracts the left edge of the selection.
4983 Extension starts in the selection unit mode that the last
4984 selection or extension was performed in; you can multiple-click to
4985 cycle through them.
4986 By cutting and pasting pieces of text without trailing new lines, you
4988 can take text from several places in different windows and form a
4989 command to the shell, for example, or take output from a program and
4990 insert it into your favorite editor. Since cut buffers are globally
4991 shared among different applications, you may regard each as a “file”
4992 whose contents you know. The terminal emulator and other text programs
4993 should be treating it as if it were a text file, i.e., the text is
4994 delimited by new lines.
4995 Scrolling
4997 The scroll region displays the position and amount of text currently
4998 showing in the window (highlighted) relative to the amount of text
4999 actually saved. As more text is saved (up to the maximum), the size of
5000 the highlighted area decreases.
5001 Clicking button one with the pointer in the scroll region moves the
5003 adjacent line to the top of the display window.
5004 Clicking button three moves the top line of the display window down to
5006 the pointer position.
5007 Clicking button two moves the display to a position in the saved text
5009 that corresponds to the pointer's position in the scrollbar.
5010 Tektronix Pointer
5012 Unlike the VTxxx window, the Tektronix window does not allow the
5013 copying of text. It does allow Tektronix GIN mode, and in this mode
5014 the cursor will change from an arrow to a cross. Pressing any key will
5015 send that key and the current coordinate of the cross cursor. Pressing
5016 button one, two, or three will return the letters “l”, “m”, and “r”,
5017 respectively. If the “shift” key is pressed when a pointer button is
5018 pressed, the corresponding upper case letter is sent. To distinguish a
5019 pointer button from a key, the high bit of the character is set (but
5020 this is bit is normally stripped unless the terminal mode is RAW; see
5021 tty(4) for details).
5022
5024 X clients provide select and paste support by responding to requests
5025 conveyed by the X server. The X server holds data in “atoms” which
5026 correspond to the different types of selection (PRIMARY, SECONDARY,
5027 CLIPBOARD) as well as the similar cut buffer mechanism (CUT_BUFFER0 to
5028 CUT_BUFFER7). Those are documented in the ICCCM.
5029 The ICCCM deals with the underlying mechanism for select/paste. It
5031 does not mention highlighting. The selection is not the same as
5032 highlighting. Xterm (like many applications) uses highlighting to show
5033 you the currently selected text. An X application may own a selection,
5034 which allows it to be the source of data copied using a given selection
5035 atom Xterm may continue owning a selection after it stops highlighting
5036 (see keepSelection).
5037 PRIMARY
5039 When configured to use the primary selection (the default), xterm can
5040 provide the selection data in ways which help to retain character
5041 encoding information as it is pasted.
5042 The PRIMARY token is a standard X feature, documented in the ICCCM
5044 (Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual), which states
5045 The selection named by the atom PRIMARY is used for all commands
5047 that take only a single argument and is the principal means of
5048 communication between clients that use the selection mechanism.
5049 A user “selects” text on xterm, which highlights the selected text. A
5051 subsequent “paste” to another client forwards a request to the client
5052 owning the selection. If xterm owns the primary selection, it makes
5053 the data available in the form of one or more “selection targets”. If
5054 it does not own the primary selection, e.g., if it has released it or
5055 another client has asserted ownership, it relies on cut-buffers to pass
5056 the data. But cut-buffers handle only ISO-8859-1 data (officially -
5057 some clients ignore the rules).
5058 CLIPBOARD
5060 When configured to use the clipboard (using the selectToClipboard
5061 resource), the problem with persistence of ownership is bypassed.
5062 Otherwise, there is no difference regarding the data which can be
5063 passed via selection.
5064 The selectToClipboard resource is a compromise, allowing CLIPBOARD to
5066 be treated almost like PRIMARY, unlike the ICCCM, which describes
5067 CLIPBOARD in different terms than PRIMARY or SECONDARY. Its lengthy
5068 explanation begins with the essential points:
5069 The selection named by the atom CLIPBOARD is used to hold data that
5071 is being transferred between clients, that is, data that usually is
5072 being cut and then pasted or copied and then pasted. Whenever a
5073 client wants to transfer data to the clipboard:
5074 • It should assert ownership of the CLIPBOARD.
5076 • If it succeeds in acquiring ownership, it should be prepared to
5078 respond to a request for the contents of the CLIPBOARD in the
5079 usual way (retaining the data to be able to return it). The
5080 request may be generated by the clipboard client described
5081 below.
5082 SELECT
5084 However, many applications use CLIPBOARD in imitation of other
5085 windowing systems. The selectToClipboard resource (and corresponding
5086 menu entry Select to Clipboard) introduce the SELECT token (known only
5087 to xterm) which chooses between the PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD tokens.
5088 Without using this feature, one can use workarounds such as the xclip
5090 program to show the contents of the X clipboard within an xterm window.
5091 SECONDARY
5093 This is used less often than PRIMARY or CLIPBOARD. According to the
5094 ICCCM, it is used
5095 • As the second argument to commands taking two arguments (for
5097 example, “exchange primary and secondary selections”)
5098 • As a means of obtaining data when there is a primary selection and
5100 the user does not want to disturb it
5101 Selection Targets
5103 The different types of data which are passed depend on what the
5104 receiving client asks for. These are termed selection targets.
5105 When asking for the selection data, xterm tries the following types in
5107 this order:
5108 UTF8_STRING
5110 This is an XFree86 extension, which denotes that the data is
5111 encoded in UTF-8. When xterm is built with wide-character
5112 support, it both accepts and provides this type.
5113 TEXT the text is in the encoding which corresponds to your current
5115 locale.
5116 COMPOUND_TEXT
5118 this is a format for multiple character set data, such as
5119 multi-lingual text. It can store UTF-8 data as a special
5120 case.
5121 STRING
5123 This is Latin 1 (ISO-8859-1) data.
5124 The middle two (TEXT and COMPOUND_TEXT) are added if xterm is
5126 configured with the i18nSelections resource set to “true”.
5127 UTF8_STRING is preferred (therefore first in the list) since xterm
5129 stores text as Unicode data when running in wide-character mode, and no
5130 translation is needed. On the other hand, TEXT and COMPOUND_TEXT may
5131 require translation. If the translation is incomplete, they will
5132 insert X's “defaultString” whose value cannot be set, and may simply be
5133 empty. Xterm's defaultString resource specifies the string to use for
5134 incomplete translations of the UTF8_STRING.
5135 You can alter the types which xterm tries using the eightBitSelectTypes
5137 or utf8SelectTypes resources. For instance, you might have some
5138 specific locale setting which does not use UTF-8 encoding. The
5139 resource value is a comma-separated list of the selection targets,
5140 which consist of the names shown. You can use the special name I18N to
5141 denote the optional inclusion of TEXT and COMPOUND_TEXT. The names are
5142 matched ignoring case, and can be abbreviated. The default list can be
5143 expressed in several ways, e.g.,
5144 UTF8_STRING,I18N,STRING
5146 utf8,i18n,string
5147 u,i,s
5148 Mouse Protocol
5150 Applications can send escape sequences to xterm to cause it to send
5151 escape sequences back to the computer when you press a pointer button,
5152 or even (depending on which escape sequence) send escape sequences back
5153 to the computer as you move the pointer.
5154 These escape sequences and the responses, called the mouse protocol,
5156 are documented in XTerm Control Sequences. They do not appear in the
5157 actions invoked by the translations resource because the resource does
5158 not change while you run xterm, whereas applications can change the
5159 mouse prototol (i.e., enable, disable, use different modes).
5160 However, the mouse protocol is interpreted within the actions that are
5162 usually associated with the pointer buttons. Xterm ignores the mouse
5163 protocol in the insert-selection action if the shift-key is pressed at
5164 the same time. It also modifies a few other actions if the shift-key
5165 is pressed, e.g., suppressing the response with the pointer position,
5166 though not eliminating changes to the selected text.
5167
5169 Xterm has four menus, named mainMenu, vtMenu, fontMenu, and tekMenu.
5170 Each menu pops up under the correct combinations of key and button
5171 presses. Each menu is divided into sections, separated by a horizontal
5172 line. Some menu entries correspond to modes that can be altered. A
5173 check mark appears next to a mode that is currently active. Selecting
5174 one of these modes toggles its state. Other menu entries are commands;
5175 selecting one of these performs the indicated function.
5176 All of the menu entries correspond to X actions. In the list below,
5178 the menu label is shown followed by the action's name in parenthesis.
5179 Main Options
5181 The xterm mainMenu pops up when the “control” key and pointer button
5182 one are pressed in a window. This menu contains items that apply to
5183 both the VTxxx and Tektronix windows. There are several sections:
5184 Commands for managing X events:
5186 Toolbar (resource toolbar)
5188 Clicking on the “Toolbar” menu entry hides the toolbar if
5189 it is visible, and shows it if it is not.
5190 Secure Keyboard (resource securekbd)
5192 The Secure Keyboard mode is helpful when typing in
5193 passwords or other sensitive data in an unsecure
5194 environment (see SECURITY below, but read the limitations
5195 carefully).
5196 Allow SendEvents (resource allowsends)
5198 Specifies whether or not synthetic key and button events
5199 generated using the X protocol SendEvent request should
5200 be interpreted or discarded. This corresponds to the
5201 allowSendEvents resource.
5202 Redraw Window (resource redraw)
5204 Forces the X display to repaint; useful in some
5205 environments.
5206 Commands for capturing output:
5208 Log to File (resource logging)
5210 Captures text sent to the screen in a log file, as in the
5211 -l logging option.
5212 Print-All Immediately (resource print-immediate)
5214 Invokes the print-immediate action, sending the text of
5215 the current window directly to a file, as specified by
5216 the printFileImmediate, printModeImmediate and
5217 printOptsImmediate resources.
5218 Print-All on Error (resource print-on-error)
5220 Invokes the print-on-error action, which toggles a flag
5221 telling xterm that if it exits with an X error, to send
5222 the text of the current window directly to a file, as
5223 specified by the printFileOnXError, printModeOnXError and
5224 printOptsOnXError resources.
5225 Print Window (resource print)
5227 Sends the text of the current window to the program given
5228 in the printerCommand resource.
5229 Redirect to Printer (resource print-redir)
5231 This sets the printerControlMode to 0 or 2. You can use
5232 this to turn the printer on as if an application had sent
5233 the appropriate control sequence. It is also useful for
5234 switching the printer off if an application turns it on
5235 without resetting the print control mode.
5236 XHTML Screen Dump (resource dump-html)
5238 Available only when compiled with screen dump support.
5239 Invokes the dump-html action. This creates an XHTML file
5240 matching the contents of the current screen, including
5241 the border, internal border, colors and most attributes:
5242 bold, italic, underline, faint, strikeout, reverse; blink
5243 is rendered as white-on-red; double underline is rendered
5244 the same as underline since there is no portable
5245 equivalent in CSS 2.2.
5246 The font is whatever your browser uses for preformatted
5248 (<pre>) elements. The XHTML file references a cascading
5249 style sheet (CSS) named “xterm.css” that you can create
5250 to select a font or override properties.
5251 The following CSS selectors are used with the expected
5253 default behavior in the XHTML file:
5254 .ul for underline,
5256 .bd for bold,
5257 .it for italic,
5258 .st for strikeout,
5259 .lu for strikeout combined with underline.
5260 In addition you may use
5262 .ev to affect even numbered lines and
5264 .od to affect odd numbered lines.
5265 Attributes faint, reverse and blink are implemented as
5267 style attributes setting color properties. All colors
5268 are specified as RGB percentages in order to support
5269 displays with 10 bits per RGB.
5270 The name of the file will be
5272 xterm.yyyy.MM.dd.hh.mm.ss.xhtml
5274 where yyyy, MM, dd, hh, mm and ss are the year, month,
5276 day, hour, minute and second when the screen dump was
5277 performed (the file is created in the directory xterm is
5278 started in, or the home directory for a login xterm).
5279 The dump-html action can also be triggered using the
5281 Media Copy control sequence CSI 1 0 i, for example from a
5282 shell script with
5283 printf '\033[10i'
5285 Only the UTF-8 encoding is supported.
5287 SVG Screen Dump (resource dump-svg)
5289 Available only when compiled with screen dump support.
5290 Invokes the dump-svg action. This creates a Scalable
5291 Vector Graphics (SVG) file matching the contents of the
5292 current screen, including the border, internal border,
5293 colors and most attributes: bold, italic, underline,
5294 double underline, faint, strikeout, reverse; blink is
5295 rendered as white-on-red. The font is whatever your
5296 renderer uses for the monospace font-family. All colors
5297 are specified as RGB percentages in order to support
5298 displays with 10 bits per RGB.
5299 The name of the file will be
5301 xterm.yyyy.MM.dd.hh.mm.ss.svg
5303 where yyyy, MM, dd, hh, mm and ss are the year, month,
5305 day, hour, minute and second when the screen dump was
5306 performed (the file is created in the directory xterm is
5307 started in, or the home directory for a login xterm).
5308 The dump-svg action can also be triggered using the Media
5310 Copy control sequence CSI 1 1 i, for example from a shell
5311 script with
5312 printf '\033[11i'
5314 Only the UTF-8 encoding is supported.
5316 Modes for setting keyboard style:
5318 8-Bit Controls (resource 8-bit-control)
5320 Enabled for VT220 emulation, this controls whether xterm
5321 will send 8-bit control sequences rather than using 7-bit
5322 (ASCII) controls, e.g., sending a byte in the range
5323 128–159 rather than the escape character followed by a
5324 second byte. Xterm always interprets both 8-bit and
5325 7-bit control sequences (see Xterm Control Sequences).
5326 This corresponds to the eightBitControl resource.
5327 Backarrow Key (BS/DEL) (resource backarrow key)
5329 Modifies the behavior of the backarrow key, making it
5330 transmit either a backspace (8) or delete (127)
5331 character. This corresponds to the backarrowKey
5332 resource.
5333 Alt/NumLock Modifiers (resource num-lock)
5335 Controls the treatment of Alt- and NumLock-key modifiers.
5336 This corresponds to the numLock resource.
5337 Meta Sends Escape (resource meta-esc)
5339 Controls whether Meta keys are converted into a two-
5340 character sequence with the character itself preceded by
5341 ESC. This corresponds to the metaSendsEscape resource.
5342 Delete is DEL (resource delete-is-del)
5344 Controls whether the Delete key on the editing keypad
5345 should send DEL (127) or the VT220-style Remove escape
5346 sequence. This corresponds to the deleteIsDEL resource.
5347 Old Function-Keys (resource oldFunctionKeys)
5349 HP Function-Keys (resource hpFunctionKeys)
5351 SCO Function-Keys (resource scoFunctionKeys)
5353 Sun Function-Keys (resource sunFunctionKeys)
5355 VT220 Keyboard (resource sunKeyboard)
5357 These act as a radio-button, selecting one style for the
5358 keyboard layout. The layout corresponds to more than one
5359 resource setting: sunKeyboard, sunFunctionKeys,
5360 scoFunctionKeys and hpFunctionKeys.
5361 Commands for process signalling:
5363 Send STOP Signal (resource suspend)
5365 Send CONT Signal (resource continue)
5367 Send INT Signal (resource interrupt)
5369 Send HUP Signal (resource hangup)
5371 Send TERM Signal (resource terminate)
5373 Send KILL Signal (resource kill)
5375 These send the SIGTSTP, SIGCONT, SIGINT, SIGHUP, SIGTERM
5376 and SIGKILL signals respectively, to the process group of
5377 the process running under xterm (usually the shell). The
5378 SIGCONT function is especially useful if the user has
5379 accidentally typed CTRL-Z, suspending the process.
5380 Quit (resource quit)
5382 Stop processing X events except to support the -hold
5383 option, and then send a SIGHUP signal to the process
5384 group of the process running under xterm (usually the
5385 shell).
5386 VT Options
5388 The xterm vtMenu sets various modes in the VTxxx emulation, and is
5389 popped up when the “control” key and pointer button two are pressed in
5390 the VTxxx window.
5391 VTxxx Modes:
5393 Enable Scrollbar (resource scrollbar)
5395 Enable (or disable) the scrollbar. This corresponds to
5396 the -sb option and the scrollBar resource.
5397 Enable Jump Scroll (resource jumpscroll)
5399 Enable (or disable) jump scrolling. This corresponds to
5400 the -j option and the jumpScroll resource.
5401 Enable Reverse Video (resource reversevideo)
5403 Enable (or disable) reverse-video. This corresponds to
5404 the -rv option and the reverseVideo resource.
5405 Enable Auto Wraparound (resource autowrap)
5407 Enable (or disable) auto-wraparound. This corresponds to
5408 the -aw option and the autoWrap resource.
5409 Enable Reverse Wraparound (resource reversewrap)
5411 Enable (or disable) reverse wraparound. This corresponds
5412 to the -rw option and the reverseWrap resource.
5413 Enable Auto Linefeed (resource autolinefeed)
5415 Enable (or disable) auto-linefeed. This is the VT102 NEL
5416 function, which causes the emulator to emit a line feed
5417 after each carriage return. There is no corresponding
5418 command-line option or resource setting.
5419 Enable Application Cursor Keys (resource appcursor)
5421 Enable (or disable) application cursor keys. This
5422 corresponds to the appcursorDefault resource. There is
5423 no corresponding command-line option.
5424 Enable Application Keypad (resource appkeypad)
5426 Enable (or disable) application keypad keys. This
5427 corresponds to the appkeypadDefault resource. There is
5428 no corresponding command-line option.
5429 Scroll to Bottom on Key Press (resource scrollkey)
5431 Enable (or disable) scrolling to the bottom of the
5432 scrolling region on a keypress. This corresponds to the
5433 -sk option and the scrollKey resource.
5434 As a special case, the XON / XOFF keys (control/S and
5436 control/Q) are ignored.
5437 Scroll to Bottom on Tty Output (resource scrollttyoutput)
5439 Enable (or disable) scrolling to the bottom of the
5440 scrolling region on output to the terminal. This
5441 corresponds to the -si option and the scrollTtyOutput
5442 resource.
5443 Allow 80/132 Column Switching (resource allow132)
5445 Enable (or disable) switching between 80 and 132 columns.
5446 This corresponds to the -132 option and the c132
5447 resource.
5448 Keep Selection (resource keepSelection)
5450 Tell xterm whether to disown the selection when it stops
5451 highlighting it, e.g., when an application modifies the
5452 display so that it no longer matches the text which has
5453 been highlighted. As long as xterm continues to own the
5454 selection for a given atom, it can provide the
5455 corresponding text to other clients which request the
5456 selection using that atom.
5457 This corresponds to the keepSelection resource. There is
5459 no corresponding command-line option.
5460 Telling xterm to not disown the selection does not
5462 prevent other applications from taking ownership of the
5463 selection. When that happens, xterm receives
5464 notification that this has happened, and removes its
5465 highlighting.
5466 See SELECT/PASTE for more information.
5468 Select to Clipboard (resource selectToClipboard)
5470 Tell xterm whether to use the PRIMARY or CLIPBOARD for
5471 SELECT tokens in the translations resource which maps
5472 keyboard and mouse actions to select/paste actions.
5473 This corresponds to the selectToClipboard resource.
5475 There is no corresponding command-line option.
5476 The keepSelection resource setting applies to CLIPBOARD
5478 selections just as it does for PRIMARY selections.
5479 However some window managers treat the clipboard
5480 specially. For instance, XQuartz's synchronization
5481 between the OSX pasteboard and the X11 clipboard causes
5482 applications to lose the selection ownership for that
5483 atom when a selection is copied to the clipboard.
5484 See SELECT/PASTE for more information.
5486 Enable Visual Bell (resource visualbell)
5488 Enable (or disable) visible bell (i.e., flashing) instead
5489 of an audible bell. This corresponds to the -vb option
5490 and the visualBell resource.
5491 Enable Bell Urgency (resource bellIsUrgent)
5493 Enable (or disable) Urgency window manager hint when
5494 Control-G is received. This corresponds to the
5495 bellIsUrgent resource.
5496 Enable Pop on Bell (resource poponbell)
5498 Enable (or disable) raising of the window when Control-G
5499 is received. This corresponds to the -pop option and the
5500 popOnBell resource.
5501 Enable Blinking Cursor (resource cursorblink)
5503 Enable (or disable) the blinking-cursor feature. This
5504 corresponds to the -bc option and the cursorBlink
5505 resource. There are also escape sequences (see Xterm
5506 Control Sequences):
5507 • If the cursorBlinkXOR resource is set, the menu entry
5509 and the escape sequence states will be XOR'd: if both
5510 are enabled, the cursor will not blink, if only one
5511 is enabled, the cursor will blink.
5512 • If the cursorBlinkXOR is not set; if either the menu
5514 entry or the escape sequence states are set, the
5515 cursor will blink.
5516 In either case, the checkbox for the menu shows the state
5518 of the cursorBlink resource, which may not correspond to
5519 what the cursor is actually doing.
5520 Enable Alternate Screen Switching (resource titeInhibit)
5522 Enable (or disable) switching between the normal and
5523 alternate screens. This corresponds to the titeInhibit
5524 resource. There is no corresponding command-line option.
5525 Enable Active Icon (resource activeicon)
5527 Enable (or disable) the active-icon feature. This
5528 corresponds to the -ai option and the activeIcon
5529 resource.
5530 Sixel Scrolling (resource sixelScrolling)
5532 When enabled, sixel graphics are positioned at the
5533 current text cursor location, scroll the image vertically
5534 if larger than the screen, and leave the text cursor at
5535 the start of the next complete line after the image when
5536 returning to text mode (this is the default). When
5537 disabled, sixel graphics are positioned at the upper left
5538 of the screen, are cropped to fit the screen, and do not
5539 affect the text cursor location. This corresponds to the
5540 sixelScrolling resource. There is no corresponding
5541 command-line option.
5542 Private Color Registers (resource privateColorRegisters)
5544 If xterm is configured to support ReGIS graphics, this
5545 controls whether a private color palette can be used.
5546 When enabled, each graphic image uses a separate set of
5548 color registers, so that it essentially has a private
5549 palette (this is the default). If it is not set, all
5550 graphics images share a common set of registers which is
5551 how sixel and ReGIS graphics worked on actual hardware.
5552 The default is likely a more useful mode on modern
5553 TrueColor hardware.
5554 This corresponds to the privateColorRegisters resource.
5556 There is no corresponding command-line option.
5557 VTxxx Commands:
5559 Do Soft Reset (resource softreset)
5561 Reset scroll regions. This can be convenient when some
5562 program has left the scroll regions set incorrectly
5563 (often a problem when using VMS or TOPS-20). This
5564 corresponds to the VT220 DECSTR control sequence.
5565 Do Full Reset (resource hardreset)
5567 The full reset entry will clear the screen, reset tabs to
5568 every eight columns, and reset the terminal modes (such
5569 as wrap and smooth scroll) to their initial states just
5570 after xterm has finished processing the command line
5571 options. This corresponds to the VT102 RIS control
5572 sequence, with a few obvious differences. For example,
5573 your session is not disconnected as a real VT102 would
5574 do.
5575 Reset and Clear Saved Lines (resource clearsavedlines)
5577 Perform a full reset, and also clear the saved lines.
5578 Commands for setting the current screen:
5580 Show Tek Window (resource tekshow)
5582 When enabled, pops the Tektronix 4014 window up (makes it
5583 visible). When disabled, hides the Tektronix 4014
5584 window.
5585 Switch to Tek Mode (resource tekmode)
5587 When enabled, pops the Tektronix 4014 window up if it is
5588 not already visible, and switches the input stream to
5589 that window. When disabled, hides the Tektronix 4014
5590 window and switches input back to the VTxxx window.
5591 Hide VT Window (resource vthide)
5593 When enabled, hides the VTxxx window, shows the Tektronix
5594 4014 window if it was not already visible and switches
5595 the input stream to that window. When disabled, shows
5596 the VTxxx window, and switches the input stream to that
5597 window.
5598 Show Alternate Screen (resource altscreen)
5600 When enabled, shows the alternate screen. When disabled,
5601 shows the normal screen. Note that the normal screen may
5602 have saved lines; the alternate screen does not.
5603 VT Fonts
5605 The xterm fontMenu pops up when the “control” key and pointer button
5606 three are pressed in a window. It sets the font used in the VTxxx
5607 window, or modifies the way the font is specified or displayed. There
5608 are several sections.
5609 The first section allows you to select the font from a set of
5611 alternatives:
5612 Default (resource fontdefault)
5614 Set the font to the default, i.e., that given by the
5615 *VT100.font resource.
5616 Unreadable (resource font1)
5618 Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font1 resource.
5619 Tiny (resource font2)
5621 Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font2 resource.
5622 Small (resource font3)
5624 Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font3 resource.
5625 Medium (resource font4)
5627 Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font4 resource.
5628 Large (resource font5)
5630 Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font5 resource.
5631 Huge (resource font6)
5633 Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font6 resource.
5634 Enormous (resource font7)
5636 Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font7 resource.
5637 Escape Sequence (resource fontescape)
5639 This allows you to set the font last specified by the Set
5640 Font escape sequence (see Xterm Control Sequences).
5641 Selection (resource fontsel)
5643 This allows you to set the font specified the current
5644 selection as a font name (if the PRIMARY selection is
5645 owned).
5646 The second section allows you to modify the way it is displayed:
5648 Bold Fonts (resource allow-bold-fonts)
5650 This is normally checked (enabled). When unchecked,
5651 xterm will not use bold fonts. The setting corresponds
5652 to the allowBoldFonts resource.
5653 Line-Drawing Characters (resource font-linedrawing)
5655 When set, tells xterm to draw its own line-drawing
5656 characters. Otherwise it relies on the font containing
5657 these. Compare to the forceBoxChars resource.
5658 Packed Font (resource font-packed)
5660 When set, tells xterm to use the minimum glyph-width from
5661 a font when displaying characters. Use the maximum width
5662 (unchecked) to help display proportional fonts. Compare
5663 to the forcePackedFont resource.
5664 Doublesized Characters (resource font-doublesize)
5666 When set, xterm may ask the font server to produce scaled
5667 versions of the normal font, for VT102 double-size
5668 characters.
5669 The third section allows you to modify the way it is specified:
5671 TrueType Fonts (resource render-font)
5673 If the renderFont and corresponding resources were set,
5674 this is a further control whether xterm will actually use
5675 the Xft library calls to obtain a font.
5676 UTF-8 Encoding (resource utf8-mode)
5678 This controls whether xterm uses UTF-8 encoding of
5679 input/output. It is useful for temporarily switching
5680 xterm to display text from an application which does not
5681 follow the locale settings. It corresponds to the utf8
5682 resource.
5683 UTF-8 Fonts (resource utf8-fonts)
5685 This controls whether xterm uses UTF-8 fonts for display.
5686 It is useful for temporarily switching xterm to display
5687 text from an application which does not follow the locale
5688 settings. It combines the utf8 and utf8Fonts resources,
5689 subject to the locale resource.
5690 UTF-8 Titles (resource utf8-title)
5692 This controls whether xterm accepts UTF-8 encoding for
5693 title control sequences. It corresponds to the utf8Fonts
5694 resource.
5695 Initially the checkmark is set according to both the utf8
5697 and utf8Fonts resource values. If the latter is set to
5698 “always”, the checkmark is disabled. Likewise, if there
5699 are no fonts given in the utf8Fonts subresources, then
5700 the checkmark also is disabled.
5701 The standard XTerm app-defaults file defines both sets of
5703 fonts, while the UXTerm app-defaults file defines only
5704 one set. Assuming the standard app-defaults files, this
5705 command will launch xterm able to switch between UTF-8
5706 and ISO-8859-1 encoded fonts:
5707 uxterm -class XTerm
5709 The fourth section allows you to enable or disable special operations
5711 which can be controlled by writing escape sequences to the terminal.
5712 These are disabled if the SendEvents feature is enabled:
5713 Allow Color Ops (resource allow-font-ops)
5715 This corresponds to the allowColorOps resource. Enable
5716 or disable control sequences that set/query the colors.
5717 Allow Font Ops (resource allow-font-ops)
5719 This corresponds to the allowFontOps resource. Enable or
5720 disable control sequences that set/query the font.
5721 Allow Mouse Ops (resource allow-mouse-ops)
5723 Enable or disable control sequences that cause the
5724 terminal to send escape sequences on pointer-clicks and
5725 movement. This corresponds to the allowMouseOps
5726 resource.
5727 Allow Tcap Ops (resource allow-tcap-ops)
5729 Enable or disable control sequences that query the
5730 terminal's notion of its function-key strings, as termcap
5731 or terminfo capabilities. This corresponds to the
5732 allowTcapOps resource.
5733 Allow Title Ops (resource allow-title-ops)
5735 Enable or disable control sequences that modify the
5736 window title or icon name. This corresponds to the
5737 allowTitleOps resource.
5738 Allow Window Ops (resource allow-window-ops)
5740 Enable or disable extended window control sequences (as
5741 used in dtterm). This corresponds to the allowWindowOps
5742 resource.
5743 Tek Options
5745 The xterm tekMenu sets various modes in the Tektronix emulation, and is
5746 popped up when the “control” key and pointer button two are pressed in
5747 the Tektronix window. The current font size is checked in the modes
5748 section of the menu.
5749 Large Characters (resource tektextlarge)
5751 #2 Size Characters (resource tektext2)
5753 #3 Size Characters (resource tektext3)
5755 Small Characters (resource tektextsmall)
5757 Commands:
5759 PAGE (resource tekpage)
5761 Simulates the Tektronix “PAGE” button by
5762 • clearing the window,
5764 • cancelling the graphics input-mode, and
5766 • moving the cursor to the home position.
5768 RESET (resource tekreset)
5770 Unlike the similarly-named Tektronix “RESET” button, this
5771 does everything that PAGE does as well as resetting the
5772 line-type and font-size to their default values.
5773 COPY (resource tekcopy)
5775 Simulates the Tektronix “COPY” button (which makes a
5776 hard-copy of the screen) by writing the information to a
5777 text file.
5778 Windows:
5780 Show VT Window (resource vtshow)
5782 Switch to VT Mode (resource vtmode)
5784 Hide Tek Window (resource tekhide)
5786
5788 X environments differ in their security consciousness.
5789 • Most servers, run under xdm, are capable of using a “magic cookie”
5791 authorization scheme that can provide a reasonable level of
5792 security for many people. If your server is only using a host-
5793 based mechanism to control access to the server (see xhost(1)),
5794 then if you enable access for a host and other users are also
5795 permitted to run clients on that same host, it is possible that
5796 someone can run an application which uses the basic services of the
5797 X protocol to snoop on your activities, potentially capturing a
5798 transcript of everything you type at the keyboard.
5799 • Any process which has access to your X display can manipulate it in
5801 ways that you might not anticipate, even redirecting your keyboard
5802 to itself and sending events to your application's windows. This
5803 is true even with the “magic cookie” authorization scheme. While
5804 the allowSendEvents provides some protection against rogue
5805 applications tampering with your programs, guarding against a
5806 snooper is harder.
5807 • The X input extension for instance allows an application to bypass
5809 all of the other (limited) authorization and security features,
5810 including the GrabKeyboard protocol.
5811 • The possibility of an application spying on your keystrokes is of
5813 particular concern when you want to type in a password or other
5814 sensitive data. The best solution to this problem is to use a
5815 better authorization mechanism than is provided by X.
5816 Subject to all of these caveats, a simple mechanism exists for
5818 protecting keyboard input in xterm.
5819 The xterm menu (see MENUS above) contains a Secure Keyboard entry
5821 which, when enabled, attempts to ensure that all keyboard input is
5822 directed only to xterm (using the GrabKeyboard protocol request). When
5823 an application prompts you for a password (or other sensitive data),
5824 you can enable Secure Keyboard using the menu, type in the data, and
5825 then disable Secure Keyboard using the menu again.
5826 • This ensures that you know which window is accepting your
5828 keystrokes.
5829 • It cannot ensure that there are no processes which have access to
5831 your X display that might be observing the keystrokes as well.
5832 Only one X client at a time can grab the keyboard, so when you attempt
5834 to enable Secure Keyboard it may fail. In this case, the bell will
5835 sound. If the Secure Keyboard succeeds, the foreground and background
5836 colors will be exchanged (as if you selected the Enable Reverse Video
5837 entry in the Modes menu); they will be exchanged again when you exit
5838 secure mode. If the colors do not switch, then you should be very
5839 suspicious that you are being spoofed. If the application you are
5840 running displays a prompt before asking for the password, it is safest
5841 to enter secure mode before the prompt gets displayed, and to make sure
5842 that the prompt gets displayed correctly (in the new colors), to
5843 minimize the probability of spoofing. You can also bring up the menu
5844 again and make sure that a check mark appears next to the entry.
5845 Secure Keyboard mode will be disabled automatically if your xterm
5847 window becomes iconified (or otherwise unmapped), or if you start up a
5848 reparenting window manager (that places a title bar or other decoration
5849 around the window) while in Secure Keyboard mode. (This is a feature
5850 of the X protocol not easily overcome.) When this happens, the
5851 foreground and background colors will be switched back and the bell
5852 will sound in warning.
5853
5855 Clicking the left pointer button twice in rapid succession (double-
5856 clicking) causes all characters of the same class (e.g., letters, white
5857 space, punctuation) to be selected as a “word”. Since different people
5858 have different preferences for what should be selected (for example,
5859 should filenames be selected as a whole or only the separate subnames),
5860 the default mapping can be overridden through the use of the charClass
5861 (class CharClass) resource.
5862 This resource is a series of comma-separated range:value pairs.
5864 • The range is either a single number or low-high in the range of 0
5866 to 65535, corresponding to the code for the character or characters
5867 to be set.
5868 • The value is arbitrary. For example, the default table uses the
5870 character number of the first character occurring in the set. When
5871 not in UTF-8 mode, only the first 256 entries of this table will be
5872 used.
5873 The default table starts as follows -
5875 static int charClass[256] = {
5877 /* NUL SOH STX ETX EOT ENQ ACK BEL */
5878 32, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
5879 /* BS HT NL VT NP CR SO SI */
5880 1, 32, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
5881 /* DLE DC1 DC2 DC3 DC4 NAK SYN ETB */
5882 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
5883 /* CAN EM SUB ESC FS GS RS US */
5884 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
5885 /* SP ! " # $ % & ' */
5886 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39,
5887 /* ( ) * + , - . / */
5888 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47,
5889 /* 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 */
5890 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
5891 /* 8 9 : ; < = > ? */
5892 48, 48, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63,
5893 /* @ A B C D E F G */
5894 64, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
5895 /* H I J K L M N O */
5896 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
5897 /* P Q R S T U V W */
5898 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
5899 /* X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ */
5900 48, 48, 48, 91, 92, 93, 94, 48,
5901 /* ` a b c d e f g */
5902 96, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
5903 /* h i j k l m n o */
5904 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
5905 /* p q r s t u v w */
5906 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
5907 /* x y z { | } ~ DEL */
5908 48, 48, 48, 123, 124, 125, 126, 1,
5909 /* x80 x81 x82 x83 IND NEL SSA ESA */
5910 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
5911 /* HTS HTJ VTS PLD PLU RI SS2 SS3 */
5912 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
5913 /* DCS PU1 PU2 STS CCH MW SPA EPA */
5914 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
5915 /* x98 x99 x9A CSI ST OSC PM APC */
5916 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
5917 /* - i c/ L ox Y- | So */
5918 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167,
5919 /* .. c0 ip << _ R0 - */
5920 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175,
5921 /* o +- 2 3 ' u q| . */
5922 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183,
5923 /* , 1 2 >> 1/4 1/2 3/4 ? */
5924 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191,
5925 /* A` A' A^ A~ A: Ao AE C, */
5926 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
5927 /* E` E' E^ E: I` I' I^ I: */
5928 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
5929 /* D- N~ O` O' O^ O~ O: X */
5930 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 215,
5931 /* O/ U` U' U^ U: Y' P B */
5932 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
5933 /* a` a' a^ a~ a: ao ae c, */
5934 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
5935 /* e` e' e^ e: i` i' i^ i: */
5936 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
5937 /* d n~ o` o' o^ o~ o: -: */
5938 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 247,
5939 /* o/ u` u' u^ u: y' P y: */
5940 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48};
5941 For example, the string “33:48,37:48,45-47:48,38:48” indicates
5943 that the exclamation mark, percent sign, dash, period, slash,
5944 and ampersand characters should be treated the same way as
5945 characters and numbers. This is useful for cutting and pasting
5946 electronic mailing addresses and filenames.
5947
5949 It is possible to rebind keys (or sequences of keys) to arbitrary
5950 strings for input, by changing the translations resources for the vt100
5951 or tek4014 widgets. Changing the translations resource for events
5952 other than key and button events is not expected, and will cause
5953 unpredictable behavior.
5954 Actions
5956 The following actions are provided for use within the vt100 or tek4014
5957 translations resources:
5958 allow-bold-fonts(on/off/toggle)
5960 This action sets, unsets or toggles the allowBoldFonts resource
5961 and is also invoked by the allow-bold-fonts entry in fontMenu.
5962 allow-color-ops(on/off/toggle)
5964 This action sets, unsets or toggles the allowColorOps resource
5965 and is also invoked by the allow-color-ops entry in fontMenu.
5966 allow-font-ops(on/off/toggle)
5968 This action sets, unsets or toggles the allowFontOps resource
5969 and is also invoked by the allow-font-ops entry in fontMenu.
5970 allow-mouse-ops(on/off/toggle)
5972 This action sets, unsets or toggles the allowMousepOps resource
5973 and is also invoked by the allow-mouse-ops entry in fontMenu.
5974 allow-send-events(on/off/toggle)
5976 This action sets, unsets or toggles the allowSendEvents
5977 resource and is also invoked by the allowsends entry in
5978 mainMenu.
5979 allow-tcap-ops(on/off/toggle)
5981 This action sets, unsets or toggles the allowTcapOps resource
5982 and is also invoked by the allow-tcap-ops entry in fontMenu.
5983 allow-title-ops(on/off/toggle)
5985 This action sets, unsets or toggles the allowTitleOps resource
5986 and is also invoked by the allow-title-ops entry in fontMenu.
5987 allow-window-ops(on/off/toggle)
5989 This action sets, unsets or toggles the allowWindowOps resource
5990 and is also invoked by the allow-window-ops entry in fontMenu.
5991 alt-sends-escape()
5993 This action toggles the state of the altSendsEscape resource.
5994 bell([percent])
5996 This action rings the keyboard bell at the specified percentage
5997 above or below the base volume.
5998 clear-saved-lines()
6000 This action does hard-reset() and also clears the history of
6001 lines saved off the top of the screen. It is also invoked from
6002 the clearsavedlines entry in vtMenu. The effect is identical
6003 to a hardware reset (RIS) control sequence.
6004 copy-selection(destname [, ...])
6006 This action puts the currently selected text into all of the
6007 selections or cutbuffers specified by destname. Unlike
6008 select-end, it does not send a mouse position or otherwise
6009 modify the internal selection state.
6010 create-menu(m/v/f/t)
6012 This action creates one of the menus used by xterm, if it has
6013 not been previously created. The parameter values are the menu
6014 names: mainMenu, vtMenu, fontMenu, tekMenu, respectively.
6015 dabbrev-expand()
6017 Expands the word before cursor by searching in the preceding
6018 text on the screen and in the scrollback buffer for words
6019 starting with that abbreviation. Repeating dabbrev-expand()
6020 several times in sequence searches for an alternative expansion
6021 by looking farther back. Lack of more matches is signaled by a
6022 bell. Attempts to expand an empty word (i.e., when cursor is
6023 preceded by a space) yield successively all previous words.
6024 Consecutive identical expansions are ignored. The word here is
6025 defined as a sequence of non-whitespace characters. This
6026 feature partially emulates the behavior of “dynamic
6027 abbreviation” expansion in Emacs (bound there to M-/). Here is
6028 a resource setting for xterm which will do the same thing:
6029 *VT100*translations: #override \n\
6031 Meta <KeyPress> /:dabbrev-expand()
6032 deiconify()
6034 Changes the window state back to normal, if it was iconified.
6035 delete-is-del()
6037 This action toggles the state of the deleteIsDEL resource.
6038 dired-button()
6040 Handles a button event (other than press and release) by
6041 echoing the event's position (i.e., character line and column)
6042 in the following format:
6043 ^X ESC G <line+“ ”> <col+“ ”>
6045 dump-html()
6047 Invokes the XHTML Screen Dump feature.
6048 dump-svg()
6050 Invokes the SVG Screen Dump feature.
6051 exec-formatted(format, sourcename [, ...])
6053 Execute an external command, using the current selection for
6054 part of the command's parameters. The first parameter, format
6055 gives the basic command. Succeeding parameters specify the
6056 selection source as in insert-selection.
6057 The format parameter allows these substitutions:
6059 %% inserts a "%".
6061 %P the screen-position at the beginning of the highlighted
6063 region, as a semicolon-separated pair of integers using
6064 the values that the CUP control sequence would use.
6065 %p the screen-position after the beginning of the highlighted
6067 region, using the same convention as “%P”.
6068 %S the length of the string that “%s” would insert.
6070 %s the content of the selection, unmodified.
6072 %T the length of the string that “%t” would insert.
6074 %t the selection, trimmed of leading/trailing whitespace.
6076 Embedded spaces (and newlines) are copied as is.
6077 %R the length of the string that “%r” would insert.
6079 %r the selection, trimmed of trailing whitespace.
6081 %V the video attributes at the beginning of the highlighted
6083 region, as a semicolon-separated list of integers using
6084 the values that the SGR control sequence would use.
6085 %v the video attributes after the end of the highlighted
6087 region, using the same convention as “%V”.
6088 After constructing the command-string, xterm forks a subprocess
6090 and executes the command, which completes independently of
6091 xterm.
6092 For example, this translation would invoke a new xterm process
6094 to view a file whose name is selected while holding the shift
6095 key down. The new process is started when the mouse button is
6096 released:
6097 *VT100*translations: #override Shift \
6099 <Btn1Up>:exec-formatted("xterm -e view '%t'", SELECT)
6100 exec-selectable(format, onClicks)
6102 Execute an external command, using data copied from the screen
6103 for part of the command's parameters. The first parameter,
6104 format gives the basic command as in exec-formatted. The
6105 second parameter specifies the method for copying the data as
6106 in the on2Clicks resource.
6107 fullscreen(on/off/toggle)
6109 This action sets, unsets or toggles the fullscreen resource.
6110 hard-reset()
6112 This action resets the scrolling region, tabs, window size, and
6113 cursor keys and clears the screen. It is also invoked from the
6114 hardreset entry in vtMenu.
6115 iconify()
6117 Iconifies the window.
6118 ignore()
6120 This action ignores the event but checks for special pointer
6121 position escape sequences.
6122 insert()
6124 This action inserts the character or string associated with the
6125 key that was pressed.
6126 insert-eight-bit()
6128 This action inserts an eight-bit (Meta) version of the
6129 character or string associated with the key that was pressed.
6130 Only single-byte values are treated specially. The exact
6131 action depends on the value of the altSendsEscape and the
6132 metaSendsEscape and the eightBitInput resources. The
6133 metaSendsEscape resource is tested first. See the
6134 eightBitInput resource for a full discussion.
6135 The term “eight-bit” is misleading: xterm checks if the key is
6137 in the range 128 to 255 (the eighth bit is set). If the value
6138 is in that range, depending on the resource values, xterm may
6139 then do one of the following:
6140 • add 128 to the value, setting its eighth bit,
6142 • send an ESC byte before the key, or
6144 • send the key unaltered.
6146 insert-formatted(format, sourcename [, ...])
6148 Insert the current selection or data related to it, formatted.
6149 The first parameter, format gives the template for the data as
6150 in exec-formatted. Succeeding parameters specify the selection
6151 source as in insert-selection.
6152 insert-selectable(format, onClicks)
6154 Insert data copied from the screen, formatted. The first
6155 parameter, format gives the template for the data as in
6156 exec-formatted. The second parameter specifies the method for
6157 copying the data as in the on2Clicks resource.
6158 insert-selection(sourcename [, ...])
6160 This action inserts the string found in the selection or
6161 cutbuffer indicated by sourcename. Sources are checked in the
6162 order given (case is significant) until one is found.
6163 Commonly-used selections include: PRIMARY, SECONDARY, and
6164 CLIPBOARD. Cut buffers are typically named CUT_BUFFER0 through
6165 CUT_BUFFER7.
6166 insert-seven-bit()
6168 This action is a synonym for insert(). The term “seven-bit” is
6169 misleading: it only implies that xterm does not try to add 128
6170 to the key's value as in insert-eight-bit().
6171 interpret(control-sequence)
6173 Interpret the given control sequence locally, i.e., without
6174 passing it to the host. This works by inserting the control
6175 sequence at the front of the input buffer. Use “\” to escape
6176 octal digits in the string. Xt does not allow you to put a
6177 null character (i.e., “\000”) in the string.
6178 keymap(name)
6180 This action dynamically defines a new translation table whose
6181 resource name is name with the suffix “Keymap” (i.e.,
6182 nameKeymap, where case is significant). The name None restores
6183 the original translation table.
6184 larger-vt-font()
6186 Set the font to the next larger one, based on the font
6187 dimensions. See also set-vt-font().
6188 load-vt-fonts(name[,class])
6190 Load fontnames from the given subresource name and class. That
6191 is, load the “*VT100.name.font”, resource as “*VT100.font” etc.
6192 If no name is given, the original set of fontnames is restored.
6193 Unlike set-vt-font(), this does not affect the escape- and
6195 select-fonts, since those are not based on resource values. It
6196 does affect the fonts loosely organized under the “Default”
6197 menu entry, including font, boldFont, wideFont and
6198 wideBoldFont.
6199 maximize()
6201 Resizes the window to fill the screen.
6202 meta-sends-escape()
6204 This action toggles the state of the metaSendsEscape resource.
6205 pointer-button()
6207 Use this action as a fall-back to handle button press- and
6208 release-events for the mouse control sequence protocol when the
6209 selection-related translations are suppressed with the
6210 omitTranslation resource.
6211 pointer-motion()
6213 Use this action as a fall-back to handle motion-events for the
6214 mouse control sequence protocol when the selection-related
6215 translations are suppressed with the omitTranslation resource.
6216 popup-menu(menuname)
6218 This action displays the specified popup menu. Valid names
6219 (case is significant) include: mainMenu, vtMenu, fontMenu, and
6220 tekMenu.
6221 print(printer-flags)
6223 This action prints the window. It is also invoked by the print
6224 entry in mainMenu.
6225 The action accepts optional parameters, which temporarily
6227 override resource settings. The parameter values are matched
6228 ignoring case:
6229 noFormFeed
6231 no form feed will be sent at the end of the last line
6232 printed (i.e., printerFormFeed is “false”).
6233 FormFeed
6235 a form feed will be sent at the end of the last line
6236 printed (i.e., printerFormFeed is “true”).
6237 noNewLine
6239 no newline will be sent at the end of the last line
6240 printed, and wrapped lines will be combined into long
6241 lines (i.e., printerNewLine is “false”).
6242 NewLine
6244 a newline will be sent at the end of the last line
6245 printed, and each line will be limited (by adding a
6246 newline) to the screen width (i.e., printerNewLine is
6247 “true”).
6248 noAttrs
6250 the page is printed without attributes (i.e.,
6251 printAttributes is “0”).
6252 monoAttrs
6254 the page is printed with monochrome (vt220) attributes
6255 (i.e., printAttributes is “1”).
6256 colorAttrs
6258 the page is printed with ANSI color attributes (i.e.,
6259 printAttributes is “2”).
6260 print-everything(printer-flags)
6262 This action sends the entire text history, in addition to the
6263 text currently visible, to the program given in the
6264 printerCommand resource. It allows the same optional
6265 parameters as the print action. With a suitable printer
6266 command, the action can be used to load the text history in an
6267 editor.
6268 print-immediate()
6270 Sends the text of the current window directly to a file, as
6271 specified by the printFileImmediate, printModeImmediate and
6272 printOptsImmediate resources.
6273 print-on-error()
6275 Toggles a flag telling xterm that if it exits with an X error,
6276 to send the text of the current window directly to a file, as
6277 specified by the printFileOnXError, printModeOnXError and
6278 printOptsOnXError resources.
6279 print-redir()
6281 This action toggles the printerControlMode between 0 and 2.
6282 The corresponding popup menu entry is useful for switching the
6283 printer off if you happen to change your mind after deciding to
6284 print random binary files on the terminal.
6285 quit()
6287 This action sends a SIGHUP to the subprogram and exits. It is
6288 also invoked by the quit entry in mainMenu.
6289 readline-button()
6291 Supports the optional readline feature by echoing repeated
6292 cursor forward or backward control sequences on button release
6293 event, to request that the host application update its notion
6294 of the cursor's position to match the button event.
6295 redraw()
6297 This action redraws the window. It is also invoked by the
6298 redraw entry in mainMenu.
6299 restore()
6301 Restores the window to the size before it was last maximized.
6302 scroll-back(count [,units [,mouse] ])
6304 This action scrolls the text window backward so that text that
6305 had previously scrolled off the top of the screen is now
6306 visible.
6307 The count argument indicates the number of units (which may be
6309 page, halfpage, pixel, or line) by which to scroll. If no
6310 count parameter is given, xterm uses the number of lines given
6311 by the scrollLines resource.
6312 An adjustment can be specified for the page or halfpage units
6314 by appending a “+” or “-” sign followed by a number, e.g.,
6315 page-2 to specify 2 lines less than a page.
6316 If the second parameter is omitted “lines” is used.
6318 If the third parameter mouse is given, the action is ignored
6320 when mouse reporting is enabled.
6321 scroll-forw(count [,units [,mouse] ])
6323 This action is similar to scroll-back except that it scrolls in
6324 the other direction.
6325 scroll-lock(on/off/toggle)
6327 This action sets, unsets or toggles internal state which tells
6328 xterm whether Scroll Lock is active, subject to the
6329 allowScrollLock resource.
6330 scroll-to(count)
6332 Scroll to the given line relative to the beginning of the
6333 saved-lines. For instance, “scroll-to(0)” would scroll to the
6334 beginning. Two special nonnumeric parameters are recognized:
6335 scroll-to(begin)
6337 Scroll to the beginning of the saved lines.
6338 scroll-to(end)
6340 Scroll to the end of the saved lines, i.e., to the
6341 currently active page.
6342 secure()
6344 This action toggles the Secure Keyboard mode (see SECURITY),
6345 and is invoked from the securekbd entry in mainMenu.
6346 select-cursor-end(destname [, ...])
6348 This action is similar to select-end except that it should be
6349 used with select-cursor-start.
6350 select-cursor-extend()
6352 This action is similar to select-extend except that it should
6353 be used with select-cursor-start.
6354 select-cursor-start()
6356 This action is similar to select-start except that it begins
6357 the selection at the current text cursor position.
6358 select-end(destname [, ...])
6360 This action puts the currently selected text into all of the
6361 selections or cutbuffers specified by destname. It also sends
6362 a mouse position and updates the internal selection state to
6363 reflect the end of the selection process.
6364 select-extend()
6366 This action tracks the pointer and extends the selection. It
6367 should only be bound to Motion events.
6368 select-set()
6370 This action stores text that corresponds to the current
6371 selection, without affecting the selection mode.
6372 select-start()
6374 This action begins text selection at the current pointer
6375 location. See the section on POINTER USAGE for information on
6376 making selections.
6377 send-signal(signame)
6379 This action sends the signal named by signame to the xterm
6380 subprocess (the shell or program specified with the -e command
6381 line option). It is also invoked by the suspend, continue,
6382 interrupt, hangup, terminate, and kill entries in mainMenu.
6383 Allowable signal names are (case is not significant): tstp (if
6384 supported by the operating system), suspend (same as tstp),
6385 cont (if supported by the operating system), int, hup, term,
6386 quit, alrm, alarm (same as alrm) and kill.
6387 set-8-bit-control(on/off/toggle)
6389 This action sets, unsets or toggles the eightBitControl
6390 resource. It is also invoked from the 8-bit-control entry in
6391 vtMenu.
6392 set-allow132(on/off/toggle)
6394 This action sets, unsets or toggles the c132 resource. It is
6395 also invoked from the allow132 entry in vtMenu.
6396 set-altscreen(on/off/toggle)
6398 This action sets, unsets or toggles between the alternate and
6399 current screens.
6400 set-appcursor(on/off/toggle)
6402 This action sets, unsets or toggles the handling Application
6403 Cursor Key mode and is also invoked by the appcursor entry in
6404 vtMenu.
6405 set-appkeypad(on/off/toggle)
6407 This action sets, unsets or toggles the handling of Application
6408 Keypad mode and is also invoked by the appkeypad entry in
6409 vtMenu.
6410 set-autolinefeed(on/off/toggle)
6412 This action sets, unsets or toggles automatic insertion of line
6413 feeds. It is also invoked by the autolinefeed entry in vtMenu.
6414 set-autowrap(on/off/toggle)
6416 This action sets, unsets or toggles automatic wrapping of long
6417 lines. It is also invoked by the autowrap entry in vtMenu.
6418 set-backarrow(on/off/toggle)
6420 This action sets, unsets or toggles the backarrowKey resource.
6421 It is also invoked from the backarrow key entry in vtMenu.
6422 set-bellIsUrgent(on/off/toggle)
6424 This action sets, unsets or toggles the bellIsUrgent resource.
6425 It is also invoked by the bellIsUrgent entry in vtMenu.
6426 set-cursesemul(on/off/toggle)
6428 This action sets, unsets or toggles the curses resource. It is
6429 also invoked from the cursesemul entry in vtMenu.
6430 set-cursorblink(on/off/toggle)
6432 This action sets, unsets or toggles the cursorBlink resource.
6433 It is also invoked from the cursorblink entry in vtMenu.
6434 set-font-doublesize(on/off/toggle)
6436 This action sets, unsets or toggles the fontDoublesize
6437 resource. It is also invoked by the font-doublesize entry in
6438 fontMenu.
6439 set-font-linedrawing(on/off/toggle)
6441 This action sets, unsets or toggles the xterm's state regarding
6442 whether the current font has line-drawing characters and
6443 whether it should draw them directly. It is also invoked by
6444 the font-linedrawing entry in fontMenu.
6445 set-font-packed(on/off/toggle)
6447 This action sets, unsets or toggles the forcePackedFont
6448 resource which controls use of the font's minimum or maximum
6449 glyph width. It is also invoked by the font-packed entry in
6450 fontMenu.
6451 set-hp-function-keys(on/off/toggle)
6453 This action sets, unsets or toggles the hpFunctionKeys
6454 resource. It is also invoked by the hpFunctionKeys entry in
6455 mainMenu.
6456 set-jumpscroll(on/off/toggle)
6458 This action sets, unsets or toggles the jumpscroll resource.
6459 It is also invoked by the jumpscroll entry in vtMenu.
6460 set-keep-clipboard(on/off/toggle)
6462 This action sets, unsets or toggles the keepClipboard resource.
6463 set-keep-selection(on/off/toggle)
6465 This action sets, unsets or toggles the keepSelection resource.
6466 It is also invoked by the keepSelection entry in vtMenu.
6467 set-logging(on/off/toggle)
6469 This action sets, unsets or toggles the state of the logging
6470 option.
6471 set-marginbell(on/off/toggle)
6473 This action sets, unsets or toggles the marginBell resource.
6474 set-num-lock(on/off/toggle)
6476 This action toggles the state of the numLock resource.
6477 set-old-function-keys(on/off/toggle)
6479 This action sets, unsets or toggles the state of legacy
6480 function keys. It is also invoked by the oldFunctionKeys entry
6481 in mainMenu.
6482 set-pop-on-bell(on/off/toggle)
6484 This action sets, unsets or toggles the popOnBell resource. It
6485 is also invoked by the poponbell entry in vtMenu.
6486 set-private-colors(on/off/toggle)
6488 This action sets, unsets or toggles the privateColorRegisters
6489 resource.
6490 set-render-font(on/off/toggle)
6492 This action sets, unsets or toggles the renderFont resource.
6493 It is also invoked by the render-font entry in fontMenu.
6494 set-reverse-video(on/off/toggle)
6496 This action sets, unsets or toggles the reverseVideo resource.
6497 It is also invoked by the reversevideo entry in vtMenu.
6498 set-reversewrap(on/off/toggle)
6500 This action sets, unsets or toggles the reverseWrap resource.
6501 It is also invoked by the reversewrap entry in vtMenu.
6502 set-sco-function-keys(on/off/toggle)
6504 This action sets, unsets or toggles the scoFunctionKeys
6505 resource. It is also invoked by the scoFunctionKeys entry in
6506 mainMenu.
6507 set-scroll-on-key(on/off/toggle)
6509 This action sets, unsets or toggles the scrollKey resource. It
6510 is also invoked from the scrollkey entry in vtMenu.
6511 set-scroll-on-tty-output(on/off/toggle)
6513 This action sets, unsets or toggles the scrollTtyOutput
6514 resource. It is also invoked from the scrollttyoutput entry in
6515 vtMenu.
6516 set-scrollbar(on/off/toggle)
6518 This action sets, unsets or toggles the scrollbar resource. It
6519 is also invoked by the scrollbar entry in vtMenu.
6520 set-select(on/off/toggle)
6522 This action sets, unsets or toggles the selectToClipboard
6523 resource. It is also invoked by the selectToClipboard entry in
6524 vtMenu.
6525 set-sixel-scrolling(on/off/toggle)
6527 This action toggles between inline (sixel scrolling) and
6528 absolute positioning. It can also be controlled via DEC
6529 private mode 80 (DECSDM) or from the sixelScrolling entry in
6530 the btMenu.
6531 set-sun-function-keys(on/off/toggle)
6533 This action sets, unsets or toggles the sunFunctionKeys
6534 resource. It is also invoked by the sunFunctionKeys entry in
6535 mainMenu.
6536 set-sun-keyboard(on/off/toggle)
6538 This action sets, unsets or toggles the sunKeyboard resource.
6539 It is also invoked by the sunKeyboard entry in mainMenu.
6540 set-tek-text(large/2/3/small)
6542 This action sets the font used in the Tektronix window to the
6543 value of the selected resource according to the argument. The
6544 argument can be either a keyword or single-letter alias, as
6545 shown in parentheses:
6546 large (l)
6548 Use resource fontLarge, same as menu entry tektextlarge.
6549 two (2)
6551 Use resource font2, same as menu entry tektext2.
6552 three (3)
6554 Use resource font3, same as menu entry tektext3.
6555 small (s)
6557 Use resource fontSmall, same as menu entry tektextsmall.
6558 set-terminal-type(type)
6560 This action directs output to either the vt or tek windows,
6561 according to the type string. It is also invoked by the
6562 tekmode entry in vtMenu and the vtmode entry in tekMenu.
6563 set-titeInhibit(on/off/toggle)
6565 This action sets, unsets or toggles the titeInhibit resource,
6566 which controls switching between the alternate and current
6567 screens.
6568 set-toolbar(on/off/toggle)
6570 This action sets, unsets or toggles the toolbar feature. It is
6571 also invoked by the toolbar entry in mainMenu.
6572 set-utf8-fonts(on/off/toggle)
6574 This action sets, unsets or toggles the utf8Fonts resource. It
6575 is also invoked by the utf8-fonts entry in fontMenu.
6576 set-utf8-mode(on/off/toggle)
6578 This action sets, unsets or toggles the utf8 resource. It is
6579 also invoked by the utf8-mode entry in fontMenu.
6580 set-utf8-title(on/off/toggle)
6582 This action sets, unsets or toggles the utf8Title resource. It
6583 is also invoked by the utf8-title entry in fontMenu.
6584 set-visibility(vt/tek,on/off/toggle)
6586 This action sets, unsets or toggles whether or not the vt or
6587 tek windows are visible. It is also invoked from the tekshow
6588 and vthide entries in vtMenu and the vtshow and tekhide entries
6589 in tekMenu.
6590 set-visual-bell(on/off/toggle)
6592 This action sets, unsets or toggles the visualBell resource.
6593 It is also invoked by the visualbell entry in vtMenu.
6594 set-vt-font(d/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/e/s [,normalfont [, boldfont]])
6596 This action sets the font or fonts currently being used in the
6597 VTxxx window. The first argument is a single character that
6598 specifies the font to be used:
6599 d or D indicate the default font (the font initially used when
6601 xterm was started),
6602 1 through 7 indicate the fonts specified by the font1 through
6604 font7 resources,
6605 e or E indicate the normal and bold fonts that have been set
6607 through escape codes (or specified as the second and
6608 third action arguments, respectively), and
6609 s or S indicate the font selection (as made by programs such as
6611 xfontsel(1)) indicated by the second action argument.
6612 If xterm is configured to support wide characters, an
6614 additional two optional parameters are recognized for the e
6615 argument: wide font and wide bold font.
6616 smaller-vt-font()
6618 Set the font to the next smaller one, based on the font
6619 dimensions. See also set-vt-font().
6620 soft-reset()
6622 This action resets the scrolling region. It is also invoked
6623 from the softreset entry in vtMenu. The effect is identical to
6624 a soft reset (DECSTR) control sequence.
6625 spawn-new-terminal(params)
6627 Spawn a new xterm process. This is available on systems which
6628 have a modern version of the process filesystem, e.g., “/proc”,
6629 which xterm can read.
6630 Use the “cwd” process entry, e.g., /proc/12345/cwd to obtain
6632 the working directory of the process which is running in the
6633 current xterm.
6634 On systems which have the “exe” process entry, e.g.,
6636 /proc/12345/exe, use this to obtain the actual executable.
6637 Otherwise, use the $PATH variable to find xterm.
6638 If parameters are given in the action, pass them to the new
6640 xterm process.
6641 start-cursor-extend()
6643 This action is similar to select-extend except that the
6644 selection is extended to the current text cursor position.
6645 start-extend()
6647 This action is similar to select-start except that the
6648 selection is extended to the current pointer location.
6649 string(string)
6651 This action inserts the specified text string as if it had been
6652 typed. Quotation is necessary if the string contains
6653 whitespace or non-alphanumeric characters. If the string
6654 argument begins with the characters “0x”, it is interpreted as
6655 a hex character constant.
6656 tek-copy()
6658 This action copies the escape codes used to generate the
6659 current window contents to a file in the current directory
6660 beginning with the name COPY. It is also invoked from the
6661 tekcopy entry in tekMenu.
6662 tek-page()
6664 This action clears the Tektronix window. It is also invoked by
6665 the tekpage entry in tekMenu.
6666 tek-reset()
6668 This action resets the Tektronix window. It is also invoked by
6669 the tekreset entry in tekMenu.
6670 vi-button()
6672 Handles a button event (other than press and release) by
6673 echoing a control sequence computed from the event's line
6674 number in the screen relative to the current line:
6675 ESC ^P
6677 or
6679 ESC ^N
6681 according to whether the event is before, or after the current
6683 line, respectively. The ^N (or ^P) is repeated once for each
6684 line that the event differs from the current line. The control
6685 sequence is omitted altogether if the button event is on the
6686 current line.
6687 visual-bell()
6689 This action flashes the window quickly.
6690 The Tektronix window also has the following action:
6692 gin-press(l/L/m/M/r/R)
6694 This action sends the indicated graphics input code.
6695 Default Key Bindings
6697 The default bindings in the VTxxx window use the SELECT token, which is
6698 set by the selectToClipboard resource. These are for the vt100 widget:
6699 Shift <KeyPress> Prior:scroll-back(1,halfpage) \n\
6701 Shift <KeyPress> Next:scroll-forw(1,halfpage) \n\
6702 Shift <KeyPress> Select:select-cursor-start() \
6703 select-cursor-end(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
6704 Shift <KeyPress> Insert:insert-selection(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
6705 Alt <Key>Return:fullscreen() \n\
6706 <KeyRelease> Scroll_Lock:scroll-lock() \n\
6707 Shift~Ctrl <KeyPress> KP_Add:larger-vt-font() \n\
6708 Shift Ctrl <KeyPress> KP_Add:smaller-vt-font() \n\
6709 Shift <KeyPress> KP_Subtract:smaller-vt-font() \n\
6710 ~Meta <KeyPress>:insert-seven-bit() \n\
6711 Meta <KeyPress>:insert-eight-bit() \n\
6712 !Ctrl <Btn1Down>:popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
6713 !Lock Ctrl <Btn1Down>:popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
6714 !Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn1Down>:popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
6715 ! @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn1Down>:popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
6716 ~Meta <Btn1Down>:select-start() \n\
6717 ~Meta <Btn1Motion>:select-extend() \n\
6718 !Ctrl <Btn2Down>:popup-menu(vtMenu) \n\
6719 !Lock Ctrl <Btn2Down>:popup-menu(vtMenu) \n\
6720 !Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn2Down>:popup-menu(vtMenu) \n\
6721 ! @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn2Down>:popup-menu(vtMenu) \n\
6722 ~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn2Down>:ignore() \n\
6723 Meta <Btn2Down>:clear-saved-lines() \n\
6724 ~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn2Up>:insert-selection(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
6725 !Ctrl <Btn3Down>:popup-menu(fontMenu) \n\
6726 !Lock Ctrl <Btn3Down>:popup-menu(fontMenu) \n\
6727 !Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn3Down>:popup-menu(fontMenu) \n\
6728 ! @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn3Down>:popup-menu(fontMenu) \n\
6729 ~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn3Down>:start-extend() \n\
6730 ~Meta <Btn3Motion>:select-extend() \n\
6731 Ctrl <Btn4Down>:scroll-back(1,halfpage,m) \n\
6732 Lock Ctrl <Btn4Down>:scroll-back(1,halfpage,m) \n\
6733 Lock @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn4Down>:scroll-back(1,halfpage,m) \n\
6734 @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn4Down>:scroll-back(1,halfpage,m) \n\
6735 <Btn4Down>:scroll-back(5,line,m) \n\
6736 Ctrl <Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(1,halfpage,m) \n\
6737 Lock Ctrl <Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(1,halfpage,m) \n\
6738 Lock @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(1,halfpage,m) \n\
6739 @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(1,halfpage,m) \n\
6740 <Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(5,line,m) \n\
6741 <BtnUp>:select-end(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
6742 <BtnMotion>:pointer-motion() \n\
6743 <BtnDown>:pointer-button() \n\
6744 <BtnUp>:pointer-button() \n\
6745 <BtnDown>:ignore()
6746 The default bindings in the Tektronix window are analogous but less
6748 extensive. These are for the tek4014 widget:
6749 ~Meta<KeyPress>: insert-seven-bit() \n\
6751 Meta<KeyPress>: insert-eight-bit() \n\
6752 !Ctrl <Btn1Down>: popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
6753 !Lock Ctrl <Btn1Down>: popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
6754 !Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn1Down>: popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
6755 !Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn1Down>: popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
6756 !Ctrl <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(tekMenu) \n\
6757 !Lock Ctrl <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(tekMenu) \n\
6758 !Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(tekMenu) \n\
6759 !Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(tekMenu) \n\
6760 Shift ~Meta<Btn1Down>: gin-press(L) \n\
6761 ~Meta<Btn1Down>: gin-press(l) \n\
6762 Shift ~Meta<Btn2Down>: gin-press(M) \n\
6763 ~Meta<Btn2Down>: gin-press(m) \n\
6764 Shift ~Meta<Btn3Down>: gin-press(R) \n\
6765 ~Meta<Btn3Down>: gin-press(r)
6766 Custom Key Bindings
6768 You can modify the translations resource by overriding parts of it, or
6769 merging your resources with it.
6770 Here is an example which uses shifted select/paste to copy to the
6772 clipboard, and unshifted select/paste for the primary selection. In
6773 each case, a (different) cut buffer is also a target or source of the
6774 select/paste operation. It is important to remember however, that cut
6775 buffers store data in ISO-8859-1 encoding, while selections can store
6776 data in a variety of formats and encodings. While xterm owns the
6777 selection, it highlights it. When it loses the selection, it removes
6778 the corresponding highlight. But you can still paste from the
6779 corresponding cut buffer.
6780 *VT100*translations: #override \n\
6782 ~Shift~Ctrl<Btn2Up>: insert-selection(PRIMARY, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
6783 Shift~Ctrl<Btn2Up>: insert-selection(CLIPBOARD, CUT_BUFFER1) \n\
6784 ~Shift <BtnUp> : select-end(PRIMARY, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
6785 Shift <BtnUp> : select-end(CLIPBOARD, CUT_BUFFER1)
6786 In the example, the class name VT100 is used rather than the widget
6788 name. These are different; a class name could apply to more than one
6789 widget. A leading “*” is used because the widget hierarchy above the
6790 vt100 widget depends on whether the toolbar support is compiled into
6791 xterm.
6792 Most of the predefined translations are related to the mouse, with a
6794 few that use some of the special keys on the keyboard. Applications
6795 use special keys (function-keys, cursor-keys, keypad-keys) with
6796 modifiers (shift, control, alt). If xterm defines a translation for a
6797 given combination of special key and modifier, that makes it
6798 unavailable for use by applications within the terminal. For instance,
6799 one might extend the use of Page Up and Page Down keys seen here:
6800 Shift <KeyPress> Prior : scroll-back(1,halfpage) \n\
6802 Shift <KeyPress> Next : scroll-forw(1,halfpage) \n\
6803 to the Home and End keys:
6805 Shift <KeyPress> Home : scroll-to(begin) \n\
6807 Shift <KeyPress> End : scroll-to(end)
6808 but then shift-Home and shift-End would then be unavailable to
6810 applications.
6811 Not everyone finds the three-button mouse bindings easy to use. In a
6813 wheel mouse, the middle button might be the wheel. As an alternative,
6814 you could add a binding using shifted keys:
6815 *VT100*translations: #override \n\
6817 Shift <Key>Home: copy-selection(SELECT) \n\
6818 Shift <Key>Insert: copy-selection(SELECT) \n\
6819 Ctrl Shift <Key>C: copy-selection(SELECT) \n\
6820 Ctrl Shift <Key>V: insert-selection(SELECT)
6821 You would still use the left- and right-mouse buttons (typically 1 and
6823 3) for beginning and extending selections.
6824 Besides mouse problems, there are also keyboards with inconvenient
6826 layouts. Some lack a numeric keypad, making it hard to use the shifted
6827 keypad plus and minus bindings for switching between font sizes. You
6828 can work around that by assigning the actions to more readily accessed
6829 keys:
6830 *VT100*translations: #override \n\
6832 Ctrl <Key> +: larger-vt-font() \n\
6833 Ctrl <Key> -: smaller-vt-font()
6834 The keymap feature allows you to switch between sets of translations.
6836 The sample below shows how the keymap() action may be used to add
6837 special keys for entering commonly-typed words:
6838 *VT100.Translations: #override <Key>F13: keymap(dbx)
6840 *VT100.dbxKeymap.translations: \
6841 <Key>F14: keymap(None) \n\
6842 <Key>F17: string("next") \n\
6843 string(0x0d) \n\
6844 <Key>F18: string("step") \n\
6845 string(0x0d) \n\
6846 <Key>F19: string("continue") \n\
6847 string(0x0d) \n\
6848 <Key>F20: string("print ") \n\
6849 insert-selection(PRIMARY, CUT_BUFFER0)
6850 Default Scrollbar Bindings
6852 Key bindings are normally associated with the vt100 or tek4014 widgets
6853 which act as terminal emulators. Xterm's scrollbar (and toolbar if it
6854 is configured) are separate widgets. Because all of these use the X
6855 Toolkit, they have corresponding translations resources. Those
6856 resources are distinct, and match different patterns, e.g., the
6857 differences in widget-name and number of levels of widgets which they
6858 may contain.
6859 The scrollbar widget is a child of the vt100 widget. It is positioned
6861 on top of the vt100 widget. Toggling the scrollbar on and off causes
6862 the vt100 widget to resize.
6863 The default bindings for the scrollbar widget use only mouse-button
6865 events:
6866 <Btn5Down>: StartScroll(Forward) \n\
6868 <Btn1Down>: StartScroll(Forward) \n\
6869 <Btn2Down>: StartScroll(Continuous) MoveThumb() NotifyThumb() \n\
6870 <Btn3Down>: StartScroll(Backward) \n\
6871 <Btn4Down>: StartScroll(Backward) \n\
6872 <Btn2Motion>: MoveThumb() NotifyThumb() \n\
6873 <BtnUp>: NotifyScroll(Proportional) EndScroll()
6874 Events which the scrollbar widget does not recognize at all are lost.
6876 However, at startup, xterm augments these translations with the default
6878 translations used for the vt100 widget, together with the resource
6879 “actions” which those translations use. Because the scrollbar (or
6880 menubar) widgets do not recognize these actions (but because it has a
6881 corresponding translation), they are passed on to the vt100 widget.
6882 This augmenting of the scrollbar's translations has a few limitations:
6884 • Xterm knows what the default translations are, but there is no
6886 suitable library interface for determining what customizations a
6887 user may have added to the vt100 widget. All that xterm can do is
6888 augment the scrollbar widget to give it the same starting point for
6889 further customization by the user.
6890 • Events in the gap between the widgets may be lost.
6892 • Compose sequences begun in one widget cannot be completed in the
6894 other, because the input methods for each widget do not share
6895 context information.
6896 Most customizations of the scrollbar translations do not concern key
6898 bindings. Rather, users are generally more interested in changing the
6899 bindings of the mouse buttons. For example, some people prefer using
6900 the left pointer button for dragging the scrollbar thumb. That can be
6901 set up by altering the translations resource, e.g.,
6902 *VT100.scrollbar.translations: #override \n\
6904 <Btn5Down>: StartScroll(Forward) \n\
6905 <Btn1Down>: StartScroll(Continuous) MoveThumb() NotifyThumb() \n\
6906 <Btn4Down>: StartScroll(Backward) \n\
6907 <Btn1Motion>: MoveThumb() NotifyThumb() \n\
6908 <BtnUp>: NotifyScroll(Proportional) EndScroll()
6909
6911 Applications can send sequences of characters to the terminal to change
6912 its behavior. Often they are referred to as “ANSI escape sequences” or
6913 just plain “escape sequences” but both terms are misleading:
6914 • ANSI x3.64 (obsolete) which was replaced by ISO 6429 (ECMA-48) gave
6916 rules for the format of these sequences of characters.
6917 • While the original VT100 was claimed to be ANSI-compatible (against
6919 x3.64), there is no freely available version of the ANSI standard
6920 to show where the VT100 differs. Most of the documents which
6921 mention the ANSI standard have additions not found in the original
6922 (such as those based on ansi.sys). So this discussion focuses on
6923 the ISO standards.
6924 • The standard describes only sequences sent from the host to the
6926 terminal. There is no standard for sequences sent by special keys
6927 from the terminal to the host. By convention (and referring to
6928 existing terminals), the format of those sequences usually conforms
6929 to the host-to-terminal standard.
6930 • Some of xterm's sequences do not fit into the standard scheme.
6932 Technically those are “unspecified”. As an example, DEC Screen
6933 Alignment Test (DECALN) is this three-character sequence:
6934 ESC # 8
6936 • Some sequences fit into the standard format, but are not listed in
6938 the standard. These include the sequences used for setting up
6939 scrolling margins and doing forward/reverse scrolling.
6940 • Some of the sequences (in particular, the single-character
6942 functions such as tab and backspace) do not include the escape
6943 character.
6944 With all of that in mind, the standard refers to these sequences of
6946 characters as “control sequences”.
6947 Xterm Control Sequences lists the control sequences which an
6949 application can send xterm to make it perform various operations. Most
6950 of these operations are standardized, from either the DEC or Tektronix
6951 terminals, or from more widely used standards such as ISO-6429.
6952 A few examples of usage are given in this section.
6954 Window and Icon Titles
6956 Some scripts use echo with options -e and -n to tell the shell to
6957 interpret the string “\e” as the escape character and to suppress a
6958 trailing newline on output. Those are not portable, nor recommended.
6959 Instead, use printf (POSIX).
6960 For example, to set the window title to “Hello world!”, you could use
6962 one of these commands in a script:
6963 printf '\033]2;Hello world!\033\'
6965 printf '\033]2;Hello world!\007'
6966 printf '\033]2;%s\033\' "Hello world!"
6967 printf '\033]2;%s\007' "Hello world!"
6968 The printf command interprets the octal value “\033” for escape, and
6970 (since it was not given in the format) omits a trailing newline from
6971 the output.
6972 Some programs (such as screen(1)) set both window- and icon-titles at
6974 the same time, using a slightly different control sequence:
6975 printf '\033]0;Hello world!\033\'
6977 printf '\033]0;Hello world!\007'
6978 printf '\033]0;%s\033\' "Hello world!"
6979 printf '\033]0;%s\007' "Hello world!"
6980 The difference is the parameter “0” in each command. Most window
6982 managers will honor either window title or icon title. Some will make
6983 a distinction and allow you to set just the icon title. You can tell
6984 xterm to ask for this with a different parameter in the control
6985 sequence:
6986 printf '\033]1;Hello world!\033\'
6988 printf '\033]1;Hello world!\007'
6989 printf '\033]1;%s\033\' "Hello world!"
6990 printf '\033]1;%s\007' "Hello world!"
6991 Special Keys
6993 Xterm, like any VT100-compatible terminal emulator, has two modes for
6994 the special keys (cursor-keys, numeric keypad, and certain function-
6995 keys):
6996 • normal mode, which makes the special keys transmit “useful”
6998 sequences such as the control sequence for cursor-up when pressing
6999 the up-arrow, and
7000 • application mode, which uses a different control sequence that
7002 cannot be mistaken for the “useful” sequences.
7003 The main difference between the two modes is that normal mode sequences
7005 start with CSI (escape [) and application mode sequences start with SS3
7006 (escape O).
7007 The terminal is initialized into one of these two modes (usually the
7009 normal mode), based on the terminal description (termcap or terminfo).
7010 The terminal description also has capabilities (strings) defined for
7011 the keypad mode used in curses applications.
7012 There is a problem in using the terminal description for applications
7014 that are not intended to be full-screen curses applications: the
7015 definitions of special keys are only correct for this keypad mode. For
7016 example, some shells (unlike ksh(1), which appears to be hard-coded,
7017 not even using termcap) allow their users to customize key-bindings,
7018 assigning shell actions to special keys.
7019 • bash(1) allows constant strings to be assigned to functions. This
7021 is only successful if the terminal is initialized to application
7022 mode by default, because bash lacks flexibility in this area. It
7023 uses a (less expressive than bash's) readline scripting language
7024 for setting up key bindings, which relies upon the user to
7025 statically enumerate the possible bindings for given values of
7026 $TERM.
7027 • zsh(1) provides an analogous feature, but it accepts runtime
7029 expressions, as well as providing a $terminfo array for scripts.
7030 In particular, one can use the terminal database, transforming when
7031 defining a key-binding. By transforming the output so that CSI and
7032 SS3 are equated, zsh can use the terminal database to obtain useful
7033 definitions for its command-line use regardless of whether the
7034 terminal uses normal or application mode initially. Here is an
7035 example:
7036 [[ "$terminfo[kcuu1]" == "^[O"* ]] && \
7038 bindkey -M viins "${terminfo[kcuu1]/O/[}" \
7039 vi-up-line-or-history
7040 Changing Colors
7042 A few shell programs provide the ability for users to add color and
7043 other video attributes to the shell prompt strings. Users can do this
7044 by setting $PS1 (the primary prompt string). Again, bash and zsh have
7045 provided features not found in ksh. There is a problem, however: the
7046 prompt's width on the screen will not necessarily be the same as the
7047 number of characters. Because there is no guidance in the POSIX
7048 standard, each shell addresses the problem in a different way:
7049 • bash treats characters within “\[” and “\]” as nonprinting (using
7051 no width on the screen).
7052 • zsh treats characters within “%{” and “%}” as nonprinting.
7054 In addition to the difference in syntax, the shells provide different
7056 methods for obtaining useful escape sequences:
7057 • As noted in Special Keys, zsh initializes the $terminfo array with
7059 the terminal capabilities.
7060 It also provides a function echoti which works like tput(1) to
7062 convert a terminal capability with its parameters into a string
7063 that can be written to the terminal.
7064 • Shells lacking a comparable feature (such as bash) can always use
7066 the program tput to do this transformation.
7067 Hard-coded escape sequences are supported by each shell, but are not
7069 recommended because those rely upon particular configurations and
7070 cannot be easily moved between different user environments.
7071
7073 Xterm sets several environment variables.
7074 System Independent
7076 Some variables are used on every system:
7077 DISPLAY
7079 is the display name, pointing to the X server (see DISPLAY NAMES
7080 in X(7)).
7081 TERM
7083 is set according to the terminfo (or termcap) entry which it is
7084 using as a reference.
7085 On some systems, you may encounter situations where the shell
7087 which you use and xterm are built using libraries with different
7088 terminal databases. In that situation, xterm may choose a
7089 terminal description not known to the shell.
7090 WINDOWID
7092 is set to the X window id number of the xterm window.
7093 XTERM_FILTER
7095 is set if a locale-filter is used. The value is the pathname of
7096 the filter.
7097 XTERM_LOCALE
7099 shows the locale which was used by xterm on startup. Some shell
7100 initialization scripts may set a different locale.
7101 XTERM_SHELL
7103 is set to the pathname of the program which is invoked. Usually
7104 that is a shell program, e.g., /bin/sh. Since it is not
7105 necessarily a shell program however, it is distinct from “SHELL”.
7106 XTERM_VERSION
7108 is set to the string displayed by the -version option. That is
7109 normally an identifier for the X Window libraries used to build
7110 xterm, followed by xterm's patch number in parenthesis. The patch
7111 number is also part of the response to a Secondary Device
7112 Attributes (DA) control sequence (see Xterm Control Sequences).
7113 System Dependent
7115 Depending on your system configuration, xterm may also set the
7116 following:
7117 COLUMNS
7119 the width of the xterm in characters (cf: “stty columns”).
7120 When this variable is set, curses applications (and most terminal
7122 programs) will assume that the terminal has this many columns.
7123 Xterm would do this for systems which have no ability to tell the
7125 size of the terminal. Those are very rare, none newer than the
7126 mid 1990s when SVR4 became prevalent.
7127 HOME
7129 when xterm is configured (at build-time) to update utmp.
7130 LINES
7132 the height of the xterm in characters (cf: “stty rows”).
7133 When this variable is set, curses applications (and most terminal
7135 programs) will assume that the terminal has this many lines
7136 (rows).
7137 Xterm would do this for systems which have no ability to tell the
7139 size of the terminal. Those are very rare, none newer than the
7140 mid 1990s when SVR4 became prevalent.
7141 LOGNAME
7143 when xterm is configured (at build-time) to update utmp.
7144 Your configuration may have set LOGNAME; xterm does not modify
7146 that. If it is unset, xterm will use USER if it is set. Finally,
7147 if neither is set, xterm will use the getlogin(3) function.
7148 SHELL
7150 when xterm is configured (at build-time) to update utmp. It is
7151 also set if you provide a valid shell name as the optional
7152 parameter.
7153 Xterm sets this to an absolute pathname. If you have set the
7155 variable to a relative pathname, xterm may set it to a different
7156 shell pathname.
7157 If you have set this to an pathname which does not correspond to a
7159 valid shell, xterm may unset it, to avoid confusion.
7160 TERMCAP
7162 the contents of the termcap entry corresponding to $TERM, with
7163 lines and columns values substituted for the actual size window
7164 you have created.
7165 This feature is, like LINES and COLUMNS, used rarely. It
7167 addresses the same limitation of a few older systems by providing
7168 a way for termcap-based applications to get the initial screen
7169 size.
7170 TERMINFO
7172 may be defined to a nonstandard location using the configure
7173 script.
7174
7176 In the output from xprop(1), there are several properties.
7177 Properties set by X Toolkit
7179 WM_CLASS
7180 This shows the instance name and the X resource class, passed to X
7181 Toolkit during initialization of xterm, e.g.,
7182 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "xterm", "UXTerm"
7184 WM_CLIENT_LEADER
7186 This shows the window-id which xterm provides with an environment
7187 variable (WINDOWID), e.g.,
7188 WM_CLIENT_LEADER(WINDOW): window id # 0x800023
7190 WM_COMMAND
7192 This shows the command-line arguments for xterm which are passed
7193 to X Toolkit during initialization, e.g.,
7194 WM_COMMAND(STRING) = { "xterm", "-class", "UXTerm", "-title", "uxterm", "-u8" }
7196 WM_ICON_NAME
7198 This holds the icon title, which different window managers handle
7199 in various ways. It is set via the iconName resource.
7200 Applications can change this using control sequences.
7201 WM_LOCALE_NAME
7203 This shows the result from the setlocale(3) function for the
7204 LC_CTYPE category, e.g.,
7205 WM_LOCALE_NAME(STRING) = "en_US.UTF-8"
7207 WM_NAME
7209 This holds the window title, normally at the top of xterm's
7210 window. It is set via the title resource. Applications can
7211 change this using control sequences.
7212 Properties set by Xterm
7214 X Toolkit does not manage EWMH properties. Xterm does this directly.
7215 _NET_WM_ICON_NAME
7217 stores the icon name.
7218 _NET_WM_NAME
7220 stores the title string.
7221 _NET_WM_PID
7223 stores the process identifier for xterm's display.
7224 Properties used by Xterm
7226 _NET_SUPPORTED
7227 Xterm checks this property on the supporting window to decide if
7228 the window manager supports specific maximizing styles. That may
7229 include other window manager hints; xterm uses the X library calls
7230 to manage those.
7231 _NET_SUPPORTING_WM_CHECK
7233 Xterm checks this to ensure that it will only update the EWMH
7234 properties for a window manager which claims EWMH compliance.
7235 _NET_WM_STATE
7237 This tells xterm whether its window has been maximized by the
7238 window manager, and if so, what type of maximizing:
7239 _NET_WM_STATE_FULLSCREEN
7241 _NET_WM_STATE_MAXIMIZED_HORZ
7243 _NET_WM_STATE_MAXIMIZED_VERT
7245
7247 The actual pathnames given may differ on your system.
7248 /etc/shells
7250 contains a list of valid shell programs, used by xterm to decide
7251 if the “SHELL” environment variable should be set for the process
7252 started by xterm.
7253 On systems which have the getusershell function, xterm will use
7255 that function rather than directly reading the file, since the
7256 file may not be present if the system uses default settings.
7257 /etc/utmp
7259 the system log file, which records user logins.
7260 /etc/wtmp
7262 the system log file, which records user logins and logouts.
7263 /usr/share/X11/app-defaults/XTerm
7265 the xterm default application resources.
7266 /usr/share/X11/app-defaults/XTerm-color
7268 the xterm color application resources. If your display supports
7269 color, use this
7270 *customization: -color
7272 in your .Xdefaults file to automatically use this resource file
7274 rather than /usr/share/X11/app-defaults/XTerm. If you do not do
7275 this, xterm uses its compiled-in default resource settings for
7276 colors.
7277 /usr/share/pixmaps
7279 the directory in which xterm's pixmap icon files are installed.
7280
7282 Most of the fatal error messages from xterm use the following format:
7283 xterm: Error XXX, errno YYY: ZZZ
7285 The XXX codes (which are used by xterm as its exit-code) are listed
7287 below, with a brief explanation.
7288 1 is used for miscellaneous errors, usually accompanied by a
7290 specific message,
7291 11 ERROR_FIONBIO
7293 main: ioctl() failed on FIONBIO
7294 12 ERROR_F_GETFL
7296 main: ioctl() failed on F_GETFL
7297 13 ERROR_F_SETFL
7299 main: ioctl() failed on F_SETFL
7300 14 ERROR_OPDEVTTY
7302 spawn: open() failed on /dev/tty
7303 15 ERROR_TIOCGETP
7305 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCGETP
7306 17 ERROR_PTSNAME
7308 spawn: ptsname() failed
7309 18 ERROR_OPPTSNAME
7311 spawn: open() failed on ptsname
7312 19 ERROR_PTEM
7314 spawn: ioctl() failed on I_PUSH/"ptem"
7315 20 ERROR_CONSEM
7317 spawn: ioctl() failed on I_PUSH/"consem"
7318 21 ERROR_LDTERM
7320 spawn: ioctl() failed on I_PUSH/"ldterm"
7321 22 ERROR_TTCOMPAT
7323 spawn: ioctl() failed on I_PUSH/"ttcompat"
7324 23 ERROR_TIOCSETP
7326 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCSETP
7327 24 ERROR_TIOCSETC
7329 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCSETC
7330 25 ERROR_TIOCSETD
7332 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCSETD
7333 26 ERROR_TIOCSLTC
7335 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCSLTC
7336 27 ERROR_TIOCLSET
7338 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCLSET
7339 28 ERROR_INIGROUPS
7341 spawn: initgroups() failed
7342 29 ERROR_FORK
7344 spawn: fork() failed
7345 30 ERROR_EXEC
7347 spawn: exec() failed
7348 32 ERROR_PTYS
7350 get_pty: not enough ptys
7351 34 ERROR_PTY_EXEC
7353 waiting for initial map
7354 35 ERROR_SETUID
7356 spawn: setuid() failed
7357 36 ERROR_INIT
7359 spawn: can't initialize window
7360 46 ERROR_TIOCKSET
7362 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCKSET
7363 47 ERROR_TIOCKSETC
7365 spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCKSETC
7366 49 ERROR_LUMALLOC
7368 luit: command-line malloc failed
7369 50 ERROR_SELECT
7371 in_put: select() failed
7372 54 ERROR_VINIT
7374 VTInit: can't initialize window
7375 57 ERROR_KMMALLOC1
7377 HandleKeymapChange: malloc failed
7378 60 ERROR_TSELECT
7380 Tinput: select() failed
7381 64 ERROR_TINIT
7383 TekInit: can't initialize window
7384 71 ERROR_BMALLOC2
7386 SaltTextAway: malloc() failed
7387 80 ERROR_LOGEXEC
7389 StartLog: exec() failed
7390 83 ERROR_XERROR
7392 xerror: XError event
7393 84 ERROR_XIOERROR
7395 xioerror: X I/O error
7396 85 ERROR_ICEERROR
7398 ICE I/O error
7399 90 ERROR_SCALLOC
7401 Alloc: calloc() failed on base
7402 91 ERROR_SCALLOC2
7404 Alloc: calloc() failed on rows
7405 102 ERROR_SAVE_PTR
7407 ScrnPointers: malloc/realloc() failed
7408
7410 Large pastes do not work on some systems. This is not a bug in xterm;
7411 it is a bug in the pseudo terminal driver of those systems. Xterm
7412 feeds large pastes to the pty only as fast as the pty will accept data,
7413 but some pty drivers do not return enough information to know if the
7414 write has succeeded.
7415 When connected to an input method, it is possible for xterm to hang if
7417 the XIM server is suspended or killed.
7418 Many of the options are not resettable after xterm starts.
7420 This program still needs to be rewritten. It should be split into very
7422 modular sections, with the various emulators being completely separate
7423 widgets that do not know about each other. Ideally, you'd like to be
7424 able to pick and choose emulator widgets and stick them into a single
7425 control widget.
7426 There needs to be a dialog box to allow entry of the Tek COPY file
7428 name.
7429
7431 resize(1), luit(1), uxterm(1), X(7), Xcursor(7), pty(4), tty(4)
7432 Xterm Control Sequences (this is the file ctlseqs.ms).
7434 https://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.html
7436 https://invisible-island.net/xterm/manpage/xterm.html
7437 https://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html
7438 https://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.faq.html
7439 https://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html
7440 X Toolkit Intrinsics – C Language Interface (Xt),
7442 Joel McCormack, Paul Asente, Ralph R. Swick (1994),
7443 Thomas E. Dickey (2019).
7444 Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual (ICCCM),
7446 David Rosenthal and Stuart W. Marks (version 2.0, 1994).
7447 Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH),
7449 X Desktop Group (version 1.3, 2005).
7450 EWMH uses UTF8_STRING pervasively without defining it, but does mention
7452 the ICCCM. Version 2.0 of the ICCCM does not address UTF-8. That is
7453 an extension added in XFree86.
7454 • Markus Kuhn summarized this in UTF-8 and Unicode FAQ for Unix/Linux
7456 (2001), in the section “Is X11 ready for Unicode?”
7457 https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html
7459 • Juliusz Chroboczek proposed the UTF8_STRING selection atom in
7461 1999/2000, which became part of the ICCCM in XFree86.
7462 https://www.irif.fr/~jch/software/UTF8_STRING/
7464 An Xorg developer removed that part of the documentation in 2004
7466 when incorporating other work from XFree86 into Xorg. The feature
7467 is still supported in Xorg, though undocumented as of 2019.
7468
7470 Far too many people.
7471 These contributed to the X Consortium: Loretta Guarino Reid (DEC-UEG-
7473 WSL), Joel McCormack (DEC-UEG-WSL), Terry Weissman (DEC-UEG-WSL),
7474 Edward Moy (Berkeley), Ralph R. Swick (MIT-Athena), Mark Vandevoorde
7475 (MIT-Athena), Bob McNamara (DEC-MAD), Jim Gettys (MIT-Athena), Bob
7476 Scheifler (MIT X Consortium), Doug Mink (SAO), Steve Pitschke
7477 (Stellar), Ron Newman (MIT-Athena), Jim Fulton (MIT X Consortium), Dave
7478 Serisky (HP), Jonathan Kamens (MIT-Athena).
7479 Beginning with XFree86, there were far more identifiable contributors.
7481 The THANKS file in xterm's source lists 228 in September 2020. Keep in
7482 mind these: Jason Bacon, Jens Schweikhardt, Ross Combs, Stephen P.
7483 Wall, David Wexelblat, and Thomas Dickey (invisible-island.net).
7484Patch #368 2021-06-07 XTERM(1)