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XTERM(1) XTERM(1)
NAME
xterm - terminal emulator for X
SYNOPSIS
xterm [-toolkitoption ...] [-option ...]
DESCRIPTION
The xterm program is a terminal emulator for the X Window System. It
provides DEC VT102/VT220 (VTxxx) and Tektronix 4014 compatible termi-
nals for programs that cannot use the window system directly. If the
underlying operating system supports terminal resizing capabilities
(for example, the SIGWINCH signal in systems derived from 4.3bsd),
xterm will use the facilities to notify programs running in the window
whenever it is resized.
The VTxxx and Tektronix 4014 terminals each have their own window so
that you can edit text in one and look at graphics in the other at the
same time. To maintain the correct aspect ratio (height/width), Tek-
tronix graphics will be restricted to the largest box with a 4014's
aspect ratio that will fit in the window. This box is located in the
upper left area of the window.
Although both windows may be displayed at the same time, one of them
is considered the ''active'' window for receiving keyboard input and
terminal output. This is the window that contains the text cursor.
The active window can be chosen through escape sequences, the ''VT
Options'' menu in the VTxxx window, and the ''Tek Options'' menu in
the 4014 window.
EMULATIONS
The VT102 emulation is fairly complete, but does not support autore-
peat. Double-size characters are displayed properly if your font
server supports scalable fonts. The VT220 emulation does not support
soft fonts, it is otherwise complete. Termcap(5) entries that work
with xterm include an optional platform-specific entry, ''xterm,''
''vt102,'' ''vt100'' and ''ansi,'' and ''dumb.'' xterm automatically
searches the termcap file in this order for these entries and then
sets the ''TERM'' and the ''TERMCAP'' environment variables. You may
also use ''vt220,'' but must set the terminal emulation level with
the decTerminalID resource. (The ''TERMCAP'' environment variable is
not set if xterm is linked against a terminfo library, since the req-
uisite information is not provided by the termcap emulation of ter-
minfo libraries).
Many of the special xterm features may be modified under program con-
trol through a set of escape sequences different from the standard
VT102 escape sequences. (See the Xterm Control Sequences document.)
The Tektronix 4014 emulation is also fairly good. It supports 12-bit
graphics addressing, scaled to the window size. Four different font
sizes and five different lines types are supported. There is no
write-through or defocused mode support. The Tektronix text and
graphics commands are recorded internally by xterm and may be written
to a file by sending the COPY escape sequence (or through the Tek-
tronix menu; see below). The name of the file will be ''COPYyyyy-MM-
dd.hh:mm:ss'', where yyyy, MM, dd, hh, mm and ss are the year, month,
day, hour, minute and second when the COPY was performed (the file is
created in the directory xterm is started in, or the home directory
for a login xterm).
Not all of the features described in this manual are necessarily
available in this version of xterm. Some (e.g., the non-VT220
extensions) are available only if they were compiled in, though the
most commonly-used are in the default configuration.
OTHER FEATURES
Xterm automatically highlights the text cursor when the pointer enters
the window (selected) and unhighlights it when the pointer leaves the
window (unselected). If the window is the focus window, then the text
cursor is highlighted no matter where the pointer is.
In VT102 mode, there are escape sequences to activate and deactivate
an alternate screen buffer, which is the same size as the display area
of the window. When activated, the current screen is saved and
replaced with the alternate screen. Saving of lines scrolled off the
top of the window is disabled until the normal screen is restored.
The termcap(5) entry for xterm allows the visual editor vi(1) to
switch to the alternate screen for editing and to restore the screen
on exit. A popup menu entry makes it simple to switch between the
normal and alternate screens for cut and paste.
In either VT102 or Tektronix mode, there are escape sequences to
change the name of the windows. Additionally, in VT102 mode, xterm
implements the window-manipulation control sequences from dtterm, such
as resizing the window, setting its location on the screen.
Xterm allows character-based applications to receive mouse events
(currently button-press and release events, and button-motion events)
as keyboard control sequences. See Xterm Control Sequences for
details.
OPTIONS
The xterm terminal emulator accepts all of the standard X Toolkit com-
mand line options as well as the following (if the option begins with
a '+' instead of a '-', the option is restored to its default value).
The -version and -help options are interpreted even if xterm cannot
open the display, and are useful for testing and configuration
scripts:
-version
This causes xterm to print a version number to the standard
output.
-help This causes xterm to print out a verbose message describing
its options. The message is written to the standard error.
The other options are used to control the appearance and behavior.
Not all options are necessarily configured into your copy of xterm.
-132 Normally, the VT102 DECCOLM escape sequence that switches
between 80 and 132 column mode is ignored. This option causes
the DECCOLM escape sequence to be recognized, and the xterm
window will resize appropriately.
-ah This option indicates that xterm should always highlight the
text cursor. By default, xterm will display a hollow text
cursor whenever the focus is lost or the pointer leaves the
window.
+ah This option indicates that xterm should do text cursor high-
lighting based on focus.
-ai This option disables active icon support if that feature was
compiled into xterm. This is equivalent to setting the vt100
resource activeIcon to FALSE.
+ai This option enables active icon support if that feature was
compiled into xterm. This is equivalent to setting the vt100
resource activeIcon to TRUE.
-aw This option indicates that auto-wraparound should be allowed.
This allows the cursor to automatically wrap to the beginning
of the next line when when it is at the rightmost position of
a line and text is output.
+aw This option indicates that auto-wraparound should not be
allowed.
-b number
This option specifies the size of the inner border (the dis-
tance between the outer edge of the characters and the window
border) in pixels. The default is 2.
+bc turn off text cursor blinking. This overrides the cursorBlink
resource.
-bc turn on text cursor blinking. This overrides the cursorBlink
resource.
-bcf milliseconds
time text cursor is off when blinking
-bcn milliseconds
time text cursor is on when blinking
-bdc Set the vt100 resource colorBDMode to FALSE, disabling the
display of characters with bold attribute as color
+bdc Set the vt100 resource colorBDMode to TRUE, enabling the dis-
play of characters with bold attribute as color rather than
bold
-cb Set the vt100 resource cutToBeginningOfLine to FALSE.
+cb Set the vt100 resource cutToBeginningOfLine to TRUE.
-cc characterclassrange:value[,...]
This sets classes indicated by the given ranges for using in
selecting by words. See the section specifying character
classes.
-cjk_width
Set the cjkWidth resource to ''true''. When turned on, char-
acters with East Asian Ambiguous (A) category in UTR 11 have a
column width of 2. Othrwise, they have a column width of 1.
This may be useful for some legacy CJK text terminal-based
programs assuming box drawings and others to have a column
width of 2. It also has to be turned on when you specify a
truetype CJK double-width (bi-width/monospace) font either
with -fa at the command line or faceName resource. The
default is ''false''
+cjk_width
Reset the cjkWidth resource.
-class string
This option allows you to override xterm's resource class.
Normally it is ''XTerm'', but can be set to another class such
as ''UXTerm'' to override selected resources.
-cm This option disables recognition of ANSI color-change escape
sequences.
+cm This option enables recognition of ANSI color-change escape
sequences. This is the same as the vt100 resource colorMode.
-cn This option indicates that newlines should not be cut in line-
mode selections.
+cn This option indicates that newlines should be cut in line-mode
selections.
-cr color
This option specifies the color to use for text cursor. The
default is to use the same foreground color that is used for
text.
-cu This option indicates that xterm should work around a bug in
the more(1) program that causes it to incorrectly display
lines that are exactly the width of the window and are fol-
lowed by a line beginning with a tab (the leading tabs are not
displayed). This option is so named because it was originally
thought to be a bug in the curses(3x) cursor motion package.
+cu This option indicates that xterm should not work around the
more(1) bug mentioned above.
-dc This option disables the escape sequence to change dynamic
colors: the vt100 foreground and background colors, its text
cursor color, the pointer cursor foreground and background
colors, the Tektronix emulator foreground and background col-
ors, its text cursor color and highlight color.
+dc This option enables the escape sequence to change dynamic col-
ors.
-e program [ arguments ... ]
This option specifies the program (and its command line argu-
ments) to be run in the xterm window. It also sets the window
title and icon name to be the basename of the program being
executed if neither -T nor -n are given on the command line.
This must be the last option on the command line.
-en encoding
This option determines the encoding on which xterm runs. It
corresponds to the locale resource. Encodings other than
UTF-8 are supported by using luit. The -lc option should be
used instead of -en for systems with locale support.
-fb font
This option specifies a font to be used when displaying bold
text. This font must be the same height and width as the nor-
mal font. If only one of the normal or bold fonts is speci-
fied, it will be used as the normal font and the bold font
will be produced by overstriking this font. The default is to
do overstriking of the normal font. See also the discussion
of boldFont and boldMode resources.
-fa pattern
This option sets the pattern for fonts selected from the
FreeType library if support for that library was compiled into
xterm. This corresponds to the faceName resource. When a CJK
double-width font is specified, you also need to turn on the
cjkWidth resource.
-fbb This option indicates that xterm should compare normal and
bold fonts bounding boxes to ensure they are compatible.
+fbb This option indicates that xterm should not compare normal and
bold fonts bounding boxes to ensure they are compatible.
-fbx This option indicates that xterm should not assume that the
normal and bold fonts have VT100 line-drawing characters. If
any are missing, xterm will draw the characters directly.
+fbx This option indicates that xterm should assume that the normal
and bold fonts have VT100 line-drawing characters.
-fd pattern
This option sets the pattern for double-width fonts selected
from the FreeType library if support for that library was com-
piled into xterm. This corresponds to the faceNameDoublesize
resource.
-fi font
This option sets the font for active icons if that feature was
compiled into xterm. See also the discussion of the iconFont
resource.
-fs size
This option sets the pointsize for fonts selected from the
FreeType library if support for that library was compiled into
xterm. This corresponds to the faceSize resource.
-fw font
This option specifies the font to be used for displaying wide
text. By default, it will attempt to use a font twice as wide
as the font that will be used to draw normal text. If no dou-
blewidth font is found, it will improvise, by stretching the
normal font. This corresponds to the wideFont resource.
-fwb font
This option specifies the font to be used for displaying bold
wide text. By default, it will attempt to use a font twice as
wide as the font that will be used to draw bold text. If no
doublewidth font is found, it will improvise, by stretching
the bold font. This corresponds to the wideBoldFont resource.
-fx font
This option specifies the font to be used for displaying the
preedit string in the "OverTheSpot" input method. See also
the discussion of the ximFont resource.
-hc color
This option specifies the color to use for the background of
selected or otherwise highlighted text. If not specified,
reverse video is used.
-hf This option indicates that HP Function Key escape codes should
be generated for function keys.
+hf This option indicates that HP Function Key escape codes should
not be generated for function keys.
-hold Turn on the hold resource, i.e., xterm will not immediately
destroy its window when the shell command completes. It will
wait until you use the window manager to destroy/kill the win-
dow, or if you use the menu entries that send a signal, e.g.,
HUP or KILL.
+hold Turn off the hold resource, i.e., xterm will immediately
destroy its window when the shell command completes.
-ie Turn on the ptyInitialErase resource, i.e., use the pseudo-
terminal's sense of the stty erase value.
+ie Turn off the ptyInitialErase resource, i.e., set the stty
erase value using the kb string from the termcap entry as a
reference, if available.
-im Turn on the useInsertMode resource.
+im Turn off the useInsertMode resource.
-into windowId
Given an X window identifier (a decimal integer), xterm will
reparent its top-level shell widget to that window. This is
used to embed xterm within other applications.
-j This option indicates that xterm should do jump scrolling.
Normally, text is scrolled one line at a time; this option
allows xterm to move multiple lines at a time so that it does
not fall as far behind. Its use is strongly recommended since
it makes xterm much faster when scanning through large amounts
of text. The VT100 escape sequences for enabling and dis-
abling smooth scroll as well as the ''VT Options'' menu can be
used to turn this feature on or off.
+j This option indicates that xterm should not do jump scrolling.
-k8 This option sets the allowC1Printable resource. When
allowC1Printable is set, xterm overrides the mapping of C1
control characters (code 128-159) to treat them as printable.
+k8 This option resets the allowC1Printable resource.
-lc Turn on support of various encodings according to the users'
locale setting, i.e., LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, or LANG environment
variables. This is achieved by turning on UTF-8 mode and by
invoking luit for conversion between locale encodings and
UTF-8. (luit is not invoked in UTF-8 locales.) This corre-
sponds to the locale resource.
The actual list of encodings which are supported is determined
by luit. Consult the luit manual page for further details.
See also the discussion of the -u8 option which supports UTF-8
locales.
+lc Turn off support of automatic selection of locale encodings.
Conventional 8bit mode or, in UTF-8 locales or with -u8
option, UTF-8 mode will be used.
-lcc path
File name for the encoding converter from/to locale encodings
and UTF-8 which is used with -lc option or locale resource.
This corresponds to the localeFilter resource.
-leftbar
Force scrollbar to the left side of VT100 screen. This is the
default, unless you have set the rightScrollBar resource.
-lf filename
Specify the log-filename. See the -l option.
-ls This option indicates that the shell that is started in the
xterm window will be a login shell (i.e., the first character
of argv[0] will be a dash, indicating to the shell that it
should read the user's .login or .profile).
The -ls flag and the loginShell resource are ignored if -e is
also given, because xterm does not know how to make the shell
start the given command after whatever it does when it is a
login shell - the user's shell of choice need not be a Bourne
shell after all. Also, xterm -e is supposed to provide a con-
sistent functionality for other applications that need to
start text-mode programs in a window, and if loginShell were
not ignored, the result of ~/.profile might interfere with
that.
If you do want the effect of -ls and -a simultaneously, you
may get away with something like
xterm -e /bin/bash -l -c "my command here"
Finally, -ls is not completely ignored, because xterm -ls -e
does write a /etc/wtmp entry (if configured to do so), whereas
xterm -e does not.
+ls This option indicates that the shell that is started should
not be a login shell (i.e., it will be a normal ''subshell'').
-mb This option indicates that xterm should ring a margin bell
when the user types near the right end of a line. This option
can be turned on and off from the ''VT Options'' menu.
+mb This option indicates that margin bell should not be rung.
-mc milliseconds
This option specifies the maximum time between multi-click
selections.
-mesg Turn off the messages resource, i.e., disallow write access to
the terminal.
+mesg Turn on the messages resource, i.e., allow write access to the
terminal.
-ms color
This option specifies the color to be used for the pointer
cursor. The default is to use the foreground color.
-nb number
This option specifies the number of characters from the right
end of a line at which the margin bell, if enabled, will ring.
The default is 10.
-nul This option disables the display of underlining.
+nul This option enables the display of underlining.
-pc This option enables the PC-style use of bold colors (see bold-
Colors resource).
+pc This option disables the PC-style use of bold colors.
-pob This option indicates that the window should be raised when-
ever a Control-G is received.
+pob This option indicates that the window should not be raised
whenever a Control-G is received.
-rightbar
Force scrollbar to the right side of VT100 screen.
-rvc This option disables the display of characters with reverse
attribute as color.
+rvc This option enables the display of characters with reverse
attribute as color.
-rw This option indicates that reverse-wraparound should be
allowed. This allows the cursor to back up from the leftmost
column of one line to the rightmost column of the previous
line. This is very useful for editing long shell command
lines and is encouraged. This option can be turned on and off
from the ''VT Options'' menu.
+rw This option indicates that reverse-wraparound should not be
allowed.
-s This option indicates that xterm may scroll asynchronously,
meaning that the screen does not have to be kept completely up
to date while scrolling. This allows xterm to run faster when
network latencies are very high and is typically useful when
running across a very large internet or many gateways.
+s This option indicates that xterm should scroll synchronously.
-samename
Does not send title and icon name change requests when the
request would have no effect: the name is not changed. This
has the advantage of preventing flicker and the disadvantage
of requiring an extra round trip to the server to find out the
previous value. In practice this should never be a problem.
+samename
Always send title and icon name change requests.
-sb This option indicates that some number of lines that are
scrolled off the top of the window should be saved and that a
scrollbar should be displayed so that those lines can be
viewed. This option may be turned on and off from the ''VT
Options'' menu.
+sb This option indicates that a scrollbar should not be dis-
played.
-sf This option indicates that Sun Function Key escape codes
should be generated for function keys.
+sf This option indicates that the standard escape codes should be
generated for function keys.
-si This option indicates that output to a window should not auto-
matically reposition the screen to the bottom of the scrolling
region. This option can be turned on and off from the ''VT
Options'' menu.
+si This option indicates that output to a window should cause it
to scroll to the bottom.
-sk This option indicates that pressing a key while using the
scrollbar to review previous lines of text should cause the
window to be repositioned automatically in the normal position
at the bottom of the scroll region.
+sk This option indicates that pressing a key while using the
scrollbar should not cause the window to be repositioned.
-sl number
This option specifies the number of lines to save that have
been scrolled off the top of the screen. This corresponds to
the saveLines resource. The default is 64.
-sm This option, corresponding to the sessionMgt resource, indi-
cates that xterm should set up session manager callbacks.
+sm This option indicates that xterm should not set up session
manager callbacks.
-sp This option indicates that Sun/PC keyboard should be assumed,
providing mapping for keypad '+' to ',', and CTRL-F1 to F13,
CTRL-F2 to F14, etc.
+sp This option indicates that the standard escape codes should be
generated for keypad and function keys.
-t This option indicates that xterm should start in Tektronix
mode, rather than in VT102 mode. Switching between the two
windows is done using the ''Options'' menus. Termcap(5)
entries that work with xterm ''tek4014,'' ''tek4015,''
''tek4012'', ''tek4013'' and ''tek4010,'' and ''dumb.'' xterm
automatically searches the termcap file in this order for
these entries and then sets the ''TERM'' and the ''TERMCAP''
environment variables.
+t This option indicates that xterm should start in VT102 mode.
-ti term_id
Specify the name used by xterm to select the correct response
to terminal ID queries. It also specifies the emulation
level, used to determine the type of response to a DA control
sequence. Valid values include vt52, vt100, vt101, vt102, and
vt220 (the "vt" is optional). The default is vt100. The
term_id argument specifies the terminal ID to use. (This is
the same as the decTerminalID resource).
-tm string
This option specifies a series of terminal setting keywords
followed by the characters that should be bound to those func-
tions, similar to the stty program. The keywords and their
values are described in detail in the ttyModes resource.
-tn name
This option specifies the name of the terminal type to be set
in the TERM environment variable. This terminal type must
exist in the termcap(5) database and should have li# and co#
entries.
-u8 This option sets the utf8 resource. When utf8 is set, xterm
interprets incoming data as UTF-8. This sets the wideChars
resource as a side-effect, but the UTF-8 mode set by this
option prevents it from being turned off. If you must turn it
on and off, use the wideChars resource.
This option and the utf8 resource are overridden by the -lc
and -en options and locale resource. That is, if xterm has
been compiled to support luit, and the locale resource is not
''false'' this option is ignored. We recommend using the -lc
option or the ''locale: true'' resource in UTF-8 locales when
your operating system supports locale, or -en UTF-8 option or
the ''locale: UTF-8'' resource when your operating system does
not support locale.
+u8 This option resets the utf8 resource.
-ulc This option disables the display of characters with underline
attribute as color rather than with underlining.
+ulc This option enables the display of characters with underline
attribute as color rather than with underlining.
-ut This option indicates that xterm should not write a record
into the the system utmp log file.
+ut This option indicates that xterm should write a record into
the system utmp log file.
-vb This option indicates that a visual bell is preferred over an
audible one. Instead of ringing the terminal bell whenever a
Control-G is received, the window will be flashed.
+vb This option indicates that a visual bell should not be used.
-wc This option sets the wideChars resource. When wideChars is
set, xterm maintains internal structures for 16-bit charac-
ters. If you do not set this resource to ''true'', xterm will
ignore the escape sequence which turns UTF-8 mode on and off.
The default is ''false''.
+wc This option resets the wideChars resource.
-wf This option indicates that xterm should wait for the window to
be mapped the first time before starting the subprocess so
that the initial terminal size settings and environment vari-
ables are correct. It is the application's responsibility to
catch subsequent terminal size changes.
+wf This option indicates that xterm show not wait before starting
the subprocess.
-ziconbeep percent
Same as zIconBeep resource. If percent is non-zero, xterms
that produce output while iconified will cause an XBell sound
at the given volume and have "***" prepended to their icon
titles. Most window managers will detect this change immedi-
ately, showing you which window has the output. (A similar
feature was in x10 xterm.)
-C This option indicates that this window should receive console
output. This is not supported on all systems. To obtain con-
sole output, you must be the owner of the console device, and
you must have read and write permission for it. If you are
running X under xdm on the console screen you may need to have
the session startup and reset programs explicitly change the
ownership of the console device in order to get this option to
work.
-Sccn This option allows xterm to be used as an input and output
channel for an existing program and is sometimes used in spe-
cialized applications. The option value specifies the last
few letters of the name of a pseudo-terminal to use in slave
mode, plus the number of the inherited file descriptor. If
the option contains a ''/'' character, that delimits the char-
acters used for the pseudo-terminal name from the file
descriptor. Otherwise, exactly two characters are used from
the option for the pseudo-terminal name, the remainder is the
file descriptor. Examples:
-S123/45
-Sab34
Note that xterm does not close any file descriptor which it
did not open for its own use. It is possible (though probably
not portable) to have an application which passes an open file
descriptor down to xterm past the initialization or the -S
option to a process running in the xterm.
The following command line arguments are provided for compatibility
with older versions. They may not be supported in the next release as
the X Toolkit provides standard options that accomplish the same task.
%geom This option specifies the preferred size and position of the
Tektronix window. It is shorthand for specifying the ''*tek-
Geometry'' resource.
#geom This option specifies the preferred position of the icon win-
dow. It is shorthand for specifying the ''*iconGeometry''
resource.
-T string
This option specifies the title for xterm's windows. It is
equivalent to -title.
-n string
This option specifies the icon name for xterm's windows. It
is shorthand for specifying the ''*iconName'' resource. Note
that this is not the same as the toolkit option -name (see
below). The default icon name is the application name.
-r This option indicates that reverse video should be simulated
by swapping the foreground and background colors. It is
equivalent to -rv.
-w number
This option specifies the width in pixels of the border sur-
rounding the window. It is equivalent to -borderwidth or -bw.
The following standard X Toolkit command line arguments are commonly
used with xterm:
-bd color
This option specifies the color to use for the border of the
window. The default is ''black.''
-bg color
This option specifies the color to use for the background of
the window. The default is ''white.''
-bw number
This option specifies the width in pixels of the border sur-
rounding the window.
-display display
This option specifies the X server to contact; see X(1).
-fg color
This option specifies the color to use for displaying text.
The default is ''black.''
-fn font
This option specifies the font to be used for displaying nor-
mal text. The default is fixed.
-font font
This is the same as -fn.
-geometry geometry
This option specifies the preferred size and position of the
VT102 window; see X(1).
-iconic This option indicates that xterm should ask the window manager
to start it as an icon rather than as the normal window.
-name name
This option specifies the application name under which
resources are to be obtained, rather than the default exe-
cutable file name. Name should not contain ''.'' or ''*''
characters.
-rv This option indicates that reverse video should be simulated
by swapping the foreground and background colors.
+rv Disable the simulation of reverse video by swapping foreground
and background colors.
-title string
This option specifies the window title string, which may be
displayed by window managers if the user so chooses. The
default title is the command line specified after the -e
option, if any, otherwise the application name.
-xrm resourcestring
This option specifies a resource string to be used. This is
especially useful for setting resources that do not have sepa-
rate command line options.
RESOURCES
The program understands all of the core X Toolkit resource names and
classes. Application specific resources (e.g., "XTerm.NAME") follow:
backarrowKeyIsErase (class BackarrowKeyIsErase)
Tie the VTxxx backarrowKey and ptyInitialErase resources
together by setting the DECBKM state according to whether the
initial value of stty erase is a backspace (8) or delete (127)
character. The default is ''false'', which disables this fea-
ture.
hold (class Hold)
If true, xterm will not immediately destroy its window when
the shell command completes. It will wait until you use the
window manager to destroy/kill the window, or if you use the
menu entries that send a signal, e.g., HUP or KILL. You may
scroll back, select text, etc., to perform most graphical
operations. Resizing the display will lose data, however,
since this involves interaction with the shell which is no
longer running.
hpFunctionKeys (class HpFunctionKeys)
Specifies whether or not HP Function Key escape codes should
be generated for function keys instead of standard escape
sequences.
iconGeometry (class IconGeometry)
Specifies the preferred size and position of the application
when iconified. It is not necessarily obeyed by all window
managers.
iconName (class IconName)
Specifies the icon name. The default is the application name.
messages (class Messages)
Specifies whether write access to the terminal is allowed ini-
tially. See mesg(1). The default is ''true''.
ptyHandshake (classPtyHandshake)
If ''true'', xterm will perform handshaking during initializa-
tion to ensure that the parent and child processes update the
utmp and stty state. Platforms with newer pseudo-terminal
interfaces do not require this feature; normally it is not
configured. The default is ''true''.
ptyInitialErase (class PtyInitialErase)
If ''true'', xterm will use the pseudo-terminal's sense of the
stty erase value. If ''false'', xterm will set the stty erase
value to match its own configuration, using the kb string from
the termcap entry as a reference, if available. In either
case, the result is applied to the TERMCAP variable which
xterm sets. The default is ''false''.
sameName (class SameName)
If the value of this resource is ''true'', xterm does not send
title and icon name change requests when the request would
have no effect: the name is not changed. This has the advan-
tage of preventing flicker and the disadvantage of requiring
an extra round trip to the server to find out the previous
value. In practice this should never be a problem. The
default is ''true''.
scoFunctionKeys (class ScoFunctionKeys)
Specifies whether or not SCP Function Key escape codes should
be generated for function keys instead of standard escape
sequences.
sessionMgt (class SessionMgt)
If the value of this resource is ''true'', xterm sets up ses-
sion manager callbacks for XtNdieCallback and XtNsaveCallback.
The default is ''true''.
sunFunctionKeys (class SunFunctionKeys)
Specifies whether or not Sun Function Key escape codes should
be generated for function keys instead of standard escape
sequences.
sunKeyboard (class SunKeyboard)
Specifies whether or not Sun/PC keyboard layout should be
assumed rather than DEC VT220. This causes the keypad '+' to
be mapped to ','. and CTRL F1-F12 to F11-F20, depending on
the setting of the ctrlFKeys resource. so xterm emulates a
DEC VT220 more accurately. Otherwise (the default, with
sunKeyboard set to ''false''), xterm uses PC-style bindings
for the function keys and keypad.
PC-style bindings use the Shift, Alt, Control and Meta keys as
modifiers for function-keys and keypad (see the document Xterm
Control Sequences for details). The PC-style bindings are
analogous to PCTerm, but not the same thing. Normally these
bindings do not conflict with the use of the Meta key as
described for the eightBitInput resource. If they do, note
that the PC-style bindings are evaluated first.
termName (class TermName)
Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM envi-
ronment variable.
title (class Title)
Specifies a string that may be used by the window manager when
displaying this application.
ttyModes (class TtyModes)
Specifies a string containing terminal setting keywords and
the characters to which they may be bound. Allowable keywords
include: brk, dsusp, eof, eol, eol2, erase, erase2, flush,
intr, kill, lnext, quit, rprnt, start, status, stop, susp,
swtch and weras. Control characters may be specified as ^char
(e.g., ^c or ^u) and ^? may be used to indicate delete (127).
Use ^- to denote undef. Use \034 to represent ^\, since a
literal backslash in an X resource escapes the next character.
This is very useful for overriding the default terminal set-
tings without having to do an stty every time an xterm is
started. Note, however, that the stty program on a given host
may use different keywords; xterm's table is built-in.
useInsertMode (class UseInsertMode)
Force use of insert mode by adding appropriate entries to the
TERMCAP environment variable. This is useful if the system
termcap is broken. The default is ''false.''
utmpInhibit (class UtmpInhibit)
Specifies whether or not xterm should try to record the user's
terminal in the system utmp log file.
waitForMap (class WaitForMap)
Specifies whether or not xterm should wait for the initial
window map before starting the subprocess. The default is
''false.''
zIconBeep (class ZIconBeep)
Same as -ziconbeep command line argument. If the value of
this resource is non-zero, xterms that produce output while
iconified will cause an XBell sound at the given volume and
have "***" prepended to their icon titles. Most window man-
agers will detect this change immediately, showing you which
window has the output. (A similar feature was in x10 xterm.)
The default is ''false.''
The following resources are specified as part of the vt100 widget
(class VT100): These are specified by patterns such as
"XTerm.vt100.NAME":
activeIcon (class ActiveIcon)
Specifies whether or not active icon windows are to be used
when the xterm window is iconified, if this feature is com-
piled into xterm. The active icon is a miniature representa-
tion of the content of the window and will update as the con-
tent changes. Not all window managers necessarily support
application icon windows. Some window managers will allow you
to enter keystrokes into the active icon window. The default
is ''false.''
allowC1Printable (class AllowC1Printable)
If true, overrides the mapping of C1 controls (codes 128-159)
to make them be treated as if they were printable characters.
Although this corresponds to no particular standard, some
users insist it is a VT100. The default is ''false.''
allowSendEvents (class AllowSendEvents)
Specifies whether or not synthetic key and button events (gen-
erated using the X protocol SendEvent request) should be
interpreted or discarded. The default is ''false'' meaning
they are discarded. Note that allowing such events creates a
very large security hole. The default is ''false.''
allowWindowOps (class AllowWindowOps)
Specifies whether extended window control sequences (as used
in dtterm) for should be allowed. The default is ''true.''
alwaysHighlight (class AlwaysHighlight)
Specifies whether or not xterm should always display a high-
lighted text cursor. By default (if this resource is false),
a hollow text cursor is displayed whenever the pointer moves
out of the window or the window loses the input focus. The
default is ''false.''
alwaysUseMods (class AlwaysUseMods)
Override the numLock resource, telling xterm to use the Alt
and Meta modifiers to construct parameters for function key
sequences even if those modifiers appear in the translations
resource. The default is ''false.''
answerbackString (class AnswerbackString)
Specifies the string that xterm sends in response to an ENQ
(control/E) character from the host. The default is a blank
string, i.e., ''''. A hardware VT100 implements this feature
as a setup option.
appcursorDefault (class AppcursorDefault)
If ''true,'' the cursor keys are initially in application
mode. This is the same as the VT102 private DECCKM mode, The
default is ''false.''
appkeypadDefault (class AppkeypadDefault)
If ''true,'' the keypad keys are initially in application
mode. The default is ''false.''
autoWrap (class AutoWrap)
Specifies whether or not auto-wraparound should be enabled.
This is the same as the VT102 DECAWM. The default is
''true.''
awaitInput (class AwaitInput)
Specifies whether or not the xterm uses a 50 millisecond time-
out to await input (i.e., to support the Xaw3d arrow scroll-
bar). The default is ''false.''
backarrowKey (class BackarrowKey)
Specifies whether the backarrow key transmits a backspace (8)
or delete (127) character. This corresponds to the DECBKM
control sequence. The default (backspace) is ''true.''
Pressing the control key toggles this behavior.
background (class Background)
Specifies the color to use for the background of the window.
The default is ''white.''
bellSuppressTime (class BellSuppressTime)
Number of milliseconds after a bell command is sent during
which additional bells will be suppressed. Default is 200.
If set non-zero, additional bells will also be suppressed
until the server reports that processing of the first bell has
been completed; this feature is most useful with the visible
bell.
boldColors (class ColorMode)
Specifies whether to combine bold attribute with colors like
the IBM PC, i.e., map colors 0 through 7 to colors 8 through
15. These normally are the brighter versions of the first 8
colors, hence bold. The default is ''true.''
boldFont (class BoldFont)
Specifies the name of the bold font to use instead of over-
striking. There is no default for this resource.
boldMode (class BoldMode)
This specifies whether or not text with the bold attribute
should be overstruck to simulate bold fonts if the resolved
bold font is the same as the normal font. It may be desirable
to disable bold fonts when color is being used for the bold
attribute. Note that xterm has one bold font which you may
set explicitly. It attempts to match a bold font for the
other font selections (font1 through font6). If the normal
and bold fonts are distinct, this resource has no effect. The
default is ''true.''
Although xterm attempts to match a bold font for other font
selections, the font server may not cooperate. Since X11R6,
bitmap fonts have been scaled. The font server claims to pro-
vide the bold font that xterm requests, but the result is not
always readable. XFree86 provides a feature which can be used
to suppress the scaling. In the X server's configuration file
(e.g., "/etc/X11/XFree86"), you can add ":unscaled" to the end
of the directory specification for the "misc" fonts, which
comprise the fixed-pitch fonts that are used by xterm. For
example
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
would become
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/:unscaled"
Depending on your configuration, the font server may have its
own configuration file. The same ":unscaled" can be added to
its configuration file at the end of the directory specifica-
tion for "misc".
brokenLinuxOSC (class BrokenLinuxOSC)
If true, xterm applies a workaround to ignore malformed con-
trol sequences that a Linux script might send. Compare the
palette control sequences documented in console_codes with
ECMA-48. The default is ''true.''
brokenSelections (class BrokenSelections)
If true, xterm in 8-bit mode will interpret STRING selections
as carrying text in the current locale's encoding. Normally
STRING selections carry ISO-8859-1 encoded text. Setting this
resource to ''true'' violates the ICCCM; it may, however, be
useful for interacting with some broken X clients. The
default is ''false.''
brokenStringTerm (class BrokenStringTerm)
provides a work-around for some ISDN routers which start an
application control string without completing it. Set this to
''true'' if xterm appears to freeze when connecting. The
default is ''false.''
c132 (class C132)
Specifies whether or not the VT102 DECCOLM escape sequence,
used to switch between 80 and 132 columns, should be honored.
The default is ''false.''
cacheDoublesize (class CacheDoublesize)
Specifies the maximum number of double-sized fonts which are
cached by xterm. The default (8) may be too large for some X
terminals with limited memory. Set this to zero to disable
doublesize fonts altogether.
charClass (class CharClass)
Specifies comma-separated lists of character class bindings of
the form [low-]high:value. These are used in determining
which sets of characters should be treated the same when doing
cut and paste. See the CHARACTER CLASSES section.
cjkWidth (class CjkWidth)
Specifies whether xterm should follow the traditional East
Asian width convention. When turned on, characters with East
Asian Ambiguous (A) category in UTR 11 have a column width of
2. You may have to set this option to ''true'' if you have
some old East Asian terminal based programs that assume that
line-drawing characters have a column width of 2. The default
is ''false.''
color0 (class Color0)
color1 (class Color1)
color2 (class Color2)
color3 (class Color3)
color4 (class Color4)
color5 (class Color5)
color6 (class Color6)
color7 (class Color7)
These specify the colors for the ISO 6429 extension. The
defaults are, respectively, black, red3, green3, yellow3, a
customizable dark blue, magenta3, cyan3, and gray90. The
default shades of color are chosen to allow the colors 8-15 to
be used as brighter versions.
color8 (class Color8)
color9 (class Color9)
color10 (class Color10)
color11 (class Color11)
color12 (class Color12)
color13 (class Color13)
color14 (class Color14)
color15 (class Color15)
These specify the colors for the ISO 6429 extension if the
bold attribute is also enabled. The default resource values
are respectively, gray30, red, green, yellow, a customizable
light blue, magenta, cyan, and white.
color16 (class Color16)
through
color255 (class Color255)
These specify the colors for the 256-color extension. The
default resource values are for colors 16 through 231 to make
a 6x6x6 color cube, and colors 232 through 255 to make a
grayscale ramp.
colorAttrMode (class ColorAttrMode)
Specifies whether ''colorBD'', ''colorBL'', ''colorUL'', and
''colorRV'' should override ANSI colors. If not, these are
displayed only when no ANSI colors have been set for the cor-
responding position. The default is ''false.''
colorBD (class ColorBD)
This specifies the color to use to display bold characters if
the ''colorBDMode'' resource is enabled. The default is
''XtDefaultForeground.''
colorBDMode (class ColorAttrMode)
Specifies whether characters with the bold attribute should be
displayed in color or as bold characters. Note that setting
colorMode off disables all colors, including bold. The
default is ''false.''
colorBL (class ColorBL)
This specifies the color to use to display blink characters if
the ''colorBLMode'' resource is enabled. The default is
''XtDefaultForeground.''
colorBLMode (class ColorAttrMode)
Specifies whether characters with the blink attribute should
be displayed in color. Note that setting colorMode off dis-
ables all colors, including this. The default is ''false.''
colorMode (class ColorMode)
Specifies whether or not recognition of ANSI (ISO 6429) color
change escape sequences should be enabled. The default is
''true.''
colorRV (class ColorRV)
This specifies the color to use to display reverse characters
if the ''colorRVMode'' resource is enabled. The default is
''XtDefaultForeground.''
colorRVMode (class ColorAttrMode)
Specifies whether characters with the reverse attribute should
be displayed in color. Note that setting colorMode off dis-
ables all colors, including this. The default is ''false.''
colorUL (class ColorUL)
This specifies the color to use to display underlined charac-
ters if the ''colorULMode'' resource is enabled. The default
is ''XtDefaultForeground.''
colorULMode (class ColorAttrMode)
Specifies whether characters with the underline attribute
should be displayed in color or as underlined characters.
Note that setting colorMode off disables all colors, including
underlining. The default is ''false.''
ctrlFKeys (class CtrlFKeys)
In VT220 keyboard mode (see sunKeyboard resource), specifies
the amount by which to shift F1-F12 given a control modifier
(CTRL). This allows you to generate key symbols for F10-F20
on a Sun/PC keyboard. The default is ''10'', which means that
CTRL F1 generates the key symbol for F11.
curses (class Curses)
Specifies whether or not the last column bug in more(1) should
be worked around. See the -cu option for details. The
default is ''false.''
cursorBlink (class CursorBlink)
Specifies whether to make the cursor blink. The default is
''false.''
cursorColor (class CursorColor)
Specifies the color to use for the text cursor. The default
is ''black.''
cursorOffTime (class CursorOffTime)
Specifies the duration of the "off" part of the cursor blink
cycle-time in milliseconds. The same timer is used for text
blinking. The default is 300.
cursorOnTime (class CursorOnTime)
Specifies the duration of the "on" part of the cursor blink
cycle-time, in milliseconds. The same timer is used for text
blinking. The default is 600.
cutNewline (class CutNewline)
If ''false'', triple clicking to select a line does not
include the Newline at the end of the line. If ''true'', the
Newline is selected. The default is ''true.''
cutToBeginningOfLine (class CutToBeginningOfLine)
If ''false'', triple clicking to select a line selects only
from the current word forward. If ''true'', the entire line
is selected. The default is ''true.''
decTerminalID (class DecTerminalID)
Specifies the emulation level (100=VT100, 220=VT220, etc.),
used to determine the type of response to a DA control
sequence. The default is 100.
deleteIsDEL (class DeleteIsDEL)
Specifies whether the Delete key on the editing keypad should
send DEL (127) or the VT220-style Remove escape sequence. The
default is ''false,'' for the latter.
dynamicColors (class DynamicColors)
Specifies whether or not escape sequences to change colors
assigned to different attributes are recognized.
eightBitControl (class EightBitControl)
Specifies whether or not control sequences sent by the termi-
nal should be eight-bit characters or escape sequences. The
default is ''false.''
eightBitInput (class EightBitInput)
If ''true'', Meta characters (a character combined with the
keys modifier key) input from the keyboard are presented as a
single character with the eighth bit turned on. The terminal
is put into 8-bit mode. If ''false'', Meta characters are
converted into a two-character sequence with the character
itself preceded by ESC. The terminal is put into 7-bit mode.
The metaSendsEscape resource may override this. The default
is ''true.''
Note that the Alt key is not necessarily the same as the Meta
modifier. xmodmap lists your key modifiers. X defines modi-
fiers for shift, (caps) lock and control, as well as 5 addi-
tional modifiers which are generally used to configure key
modifiers. xterm inspects the same information to find the
modifier associated with either Meta key (left or right), and
uses that key as the Meta modifier. It also looks for the
NumLock key, to recognize the modifier which is associated
with that.
If your xmodmap configuration uses the same keycodes for Alt-
and Meta-keys, xterm will only see the Alt-key definitions,
since those are tested before Meta-keys. NumLock is tested
first. It is important to keep these keys distinct; otherwise
some of xterm's functionality is not available.
eightBitOutput (class EightBitOutput)
Specifies whether or not eight-bit characters sent from the
host should be accepted as is or stripped when printed. The
default is ''true,'' which means that they are accepted as is.
faceName (class FaceName)
Specify the pattern for fonts selected from the FreeType
library if support for that library was compiled into xterm.
There is no default. If not specified, or if there is no
match for both normal and bold fonts, xterm uses the font and
related resources.
faceNameDoublesize (class FaceNameDoublesize)
Specify an double-width font for cases where an application
requires this, e.g., in CJK applications. There is no
default. If the application uses double-wide characters and
this resource is not given, xterm will use a scaled version
of the font given by faceName.
faceSize (class FaceSize)
Specify the pointsize for fonts selected from the FreeType
library if support for that library was compiled into xterm.
The default is ''14.''
font (class Font)
Specifies the name of the normal font. The default is
''fixed.''
See the discussion of the locale resource, which describes how
this font may be overridden.
NOTE: some resource files use patterns such as
*font: fixed
which are overly broad, affecting both
xterm.vt100.font
and
xterm.vt100..utf8fonts.font
which is probably not what you intended.
font1 (class Font1)
Specifies the name of the first alternative font.
font2 (class Font2)
Specifies the name of the second alternative font.
font3 (class Font3)
Specifies the name of the third alternative font.
font4 (class Font4)
Specifies the name of the fourth alternative font.
font5 (class Font5)
Specifies the name of the fifth alternative font.
font6 (class Font6)
Specifies the name of the sixth alternative font.
fontDoublesize (class FontDoublesize)
Specifies whether xterm should attempt to use font scaling to
draw doublesize characters. Some older font servers cannot do
this properly, will return misleading font metrics. The
default is ''true''. If disabled, xterm will simulate double-
size characters by drawing normal characters with spaces
between them.
forceBoxChars (class ForceBoxChars)
Specifies whether xterm should assume the normal and bold
fonts have VT100 line-drawing characters. If ''false'', xterm
will check for missing characters in the 1-31 cells and make
line-drawing characters directly. The default is ''false.''
foreground (class Foreground)
Specifies the color to use for displaying text in the window.
Setting the class name instead of the instance name is an easy
way to have everything that would normally appear in the text
color change color. The default is ''black.''
freeBoldBox (class freeBoldBox)
Specifies whether xterm should assume the bounding boxes for
normal and bold fonts are compatible. If ''false'', xterm
compares them and will reject choices of bold fonts that do
not match the size of the normal font. The default is
''false'', which means that the comparison is performed.
geometry (class Geometry)
Specifies the preferred size and position of the VT102 window.
There is no default for this resource.
highlightColor (class HighlightColor)
Specifies the color to use for the background of selected or
otherwise highlighted text. If not specified, reverse video
is used. The default is ''XtDefaultForeground.''
highlightSelection (class HighlightSelection)
If ''false'', selecting with the mouse highlights all posi-
tions on the screen between the beginning of the selection and
the current position. If ''true'', xterm highlights only the
positions that contain text that can be selected. The default
is ''false.''
Depending on the way your applications write to the screen,
there may be trailing blanks on a line. Xterm stores data as
it is shown on the screen. Erasing the display changes the
internal state of each cell so it is not considered a blank
for the purpose of selection. Blanks written since the last
erase are selectable. If you do not wish to have trailing
blanks in a selection, use the trimSelection resource.
hpLowerleftBugCompat (class HpLowerleftBugCompat)
Specifies whether to work around a bug in HP's xdb, which
ignores termcap and always sends ESC F to move to the lower
left corner. ''true'' causes xterm to interpret ESC F as a
request to move to the lower left corner of the screen. The
default is ''false.''
i18nSelections (class I18nSelections)
If false, xterm will never request the targets COMPOUND_TEXT
or TEXT. The default is ''true.'' It may be set to false in
order to work around ICCCM violations by other X clients.
iconBorderColor (class BorderColor)
Specifies the border color for the active icon window if this
feature is compiled into xterm. Not all window managers will
make the icon border visible.
iconBorderWidth (class BorderWidth)
Specifies the border width for the active icon window if this
feature is compiled into xterm. The default is 0 (no border).
Not all window managers will make the border visible.
iconFont (class IconFont)
Specifies the font for the miniature active icon window, if
this feature is compiled into xterm. The default is "nil2".
internalBorder (class BorderWidth)
Specifies the number of pixels between the characters and the
window border. The default is 2.
jumpScroll (class JumpScroll)
Specifies whether or not jump scroll should be used. This
corresponds to the VT102 DECSCLM private mode. The default is
''true.''
keyboardDialect (class KeyboardDialect)
Specifies the initial keyboard dialect, as well as the default
value when the terminal is reset. The value given is the same
as the final character in the control sequences which change
character sets. The default is ''B'', which corresponds to US
ASCII.
keymapNAME (class KeymapNAME)
See the discussion of the keymap() action.
limitResize (class LimitResize)
Limits resizing of the screen via control sequence to a given
multiple of the display dimensions. The default is ''1''.
locale (class Locale)
Specifies how to use luit, an encoding converter between UTF-8
and locale encodings. The resource value (ignoring case) may
be:
true
xterm will use the encoding specified by the users'
LC_CTYPE locale (i.e., LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, or LANG vari-
ables) as far as possible. This is realized by always
enabling UTF-8 mode and invoking luit in non-UTF-8
locales.
medium
xterm will follow users' LC_CTYPE locale only for UTF-8,
east Asian, and Thai locales, where the encodings were not
supported by conventional 8bit mode with changing fonts.
For other locales, xterm will use conventional 8bit mode.
no xterm will use conventional 8bit mode or UTF-8 mode
according to utf8 resource or -u8 option.
Any other value, e.g., ''UTF-8'' or ''ISO8859-2'', is assumed
to be an encoding name; luit will be invoked to support the
encoding. The actual list of supported encodings depends on
luit. The default is ''medium''.
Regardless of your locale and encoding, you need an
ISO-10646-1 font to display the result. Your configuration
may not include this font, or locale-support by xterm may not
be needed. At startup, xterm uses a mechanism equivalent to
the load-vt-fonts(utf8Fonts, Utf8Fonts) action to load font
name subresources of the VT100 widget. That is, resource pat-
terns such as "*vt100.utf8Fonts.font" will be loaded, and (if
this resource is enabled), override the normal fonts. If no
subresources are found, the normal fonts such as
"*vt100.font", etc., are used. The resource files distributed
with xterm use ISO-10646-1 fonts, but do not rely on them
unless you are using the locale mechanism.
localeFilter (class LocaleFilter)
Specifies the file name for the encoding converter from/to
locale encodings and UTF-8 which is used with the -lc option
or locale resource. The help message shown by ''xterm -help''
lists the default value, which depends on your system configu-
ration.
loginShell (class LoginShell)
Specifies whether or not the shell to be run in the window
should be started as a login shell. The default is ''false.''
marginBell (class MarginBell)
Specifies whether or not the bell should be rung when the user
types near the right margin. The default is ''false.''
metaSendsEscape (class MetaSendsEscape)
If ''true'', Meta characters (a character combined with the
Meta modifier key) are converted into a two-character sequence
with the character itself preceded by ESC. This applies as
well to function key control sequences, unless xterm sees that
Meta is used in your key translations. If ''false'', Meta
characters input from the keyboard are handled according to
the eightBitInput resource. The default is ''false.''
modifyCursorKeys (class ModifyCursorKeys)
Tells how to handle the special case where Control-, Shift-,
Alt- or Meta-modifiers are used to add a parameter to the
escape sequence returned by a cursor-key. Set it to 0 to use
the old/obsolete behavior. Set it to 1 to prefix modified
sequences with CSI. Set it to 2 to force the modifier to be
the second parameter. Set it to 3 to mark the sequence with a
'>' to hint that it is private. The default is ''2''.
multiClickTime (class MultiClickTime)
Specifies the maximum time in milliseconds between multi-click
select events. The default is 250 milliseconds.
multiScroll (class MultiScroll)
Specifies whether or not scrolling should be done asyn-
chronously. The default is ''false.''
nMarginBell (class Column)
Specifies the number of characters from the right margin at
which the margin bell should be rung, when enabled.
numLock (class NumLock)
If ''true'', xterm checks if NumLock is used as a modifier
(see xmodmap(1)). If so, this modifier is used to simplify
the logic when implementing special NumLock for the sunKey-
board resource. Also (when sunKeyboard is false), similar
logic is used to find the modifier associated with the left
and right Alt keys. The default is ''true.''
oldXtermFKeys (class OldXtermFKeys)
If ''true'', xterm will use old-style control sequences for
function keys F1 to F4, for compatibility with X Consortium
xterm. Otherwise, it uses the VT100-style codes for PF1 to
PF4. The default is ''false.''
pointerColor (class PointerColor)
Specifies the foreground color of the pointer. The default is
''XtDefaultForeground.''
pointerColorBackground (class PointerColorBackground)
Specifies the background color of the pointer. The default is
''XtDefaultBackground.''
pointerShape (class Cursor)
Specifies the name of the shape of the pointer. The default
is ''xterm.''
popOnBell (class PopOnBell)
Specifies whether the window whould be raised when Control-G
is received. The default is ''false.''
printAttributes (class PrintAttributes)
Specifies whether to print graphic attributes along with the
text. A real DEC VTxxx terminal will print the underline,
highlighting codes but your printer may not handle these. A
''0'' disables the attributes. A ''1'' prints the normal set
of attributes (bold, underline, inverse and blink) as
VT100-style control sequences. A ''2'' prints ANSI color
attributes as well. The default is ''1.''
printerAutoClose (class PrinterAutoClose)
If ''true'', xterm will close the printer (a pipe) when the
application switches the printer offline with a Media Copy
command. The default is ''false.''
printerCommand (class PrinterCommand)
Specifies a shell command to which xterm will open a pipe when
the first MC (Media Copy) command is initiated. The default
is ''lpr.'' If the resource value is given as a blank string,
the printer is disabled.
printerControlMode (class PrinterControlMode)
Specifies the printer control mode. A ''1'' selects autoprint
mode, which causes xterm to print a line from the screen when
you move the cursor off that line with a line feed, form feed
or vertical tab character, or an autowrap occurs. Autoprint
mode is overridden by printer controller mode (a ''2''), which
causes all of the output to be directed to the printer. The
default is ''0.''
printerExtent (class PrinterExtent)
Controls whether a print page function will print the entire
page (true), or only the the portion within the scrolling mar-
gins (false). The default is ''false.''
printerFormFeed (class PrinterFormFeed)
Controls whether a form feed is sent to the printer at the end
of a print page function. The default is ''false.''
renderFont (class RenderFont)
If xterm is built with the Xft library, this controls whether
the faceName resource is used. The default is ''true.''
resizeGravity (class ResizeGravity)
Affects the behavior when the window is resized to be taller
or shorter. NorthWest specifies that the top line of text on
the screen stay fixed. If the window is made shorter, lines
are dropped from the bottom; if the window is made taller,
blank lines are added at the bottom. This is compatible with
the behavior in R4. SouthWest (the default) specifies that
the bottom line of text on the screen stay fixed. If the win-
dow is made taller, additional saved lines will be scrolled
down onto the screen; if the window is made shorter, lines
will be scrolled off the top of the screen, and the top saved
lines will be dropped.
reverseVideo (class ReverseVideo)
Specifies whether or not reverse video should be simulated.
The default is ''false.''
reverseWrap (class ReverseWrap)
Specifies whether or not reverse-wraparound should be enabled.
This corresponds to xterm's private mode 45. The default is
''false.''
rightScrollBar (class RightScrollBar)
Specifies whether or not the scrollbar should be displayed on
the right rather than the left. The default is ''false.''
saveLines (class SaveLines)
Specifies the number of lines to save beyond the top of the
screen when a scrollbar is turned on. The default is 64.
scrollBar (class ScrollBar)
Specifies whether or not the scrollbar should be displayed.
The default is ''false.''
scrollKey (class ScrollCond)
Specifies whether or not pressing a key should automatically
cause the scrollbar to go to the bottom of the scrolling
region. This corresponds to xterm's private mode 1011. The
default is ''false.''
scrollLines (class ScrollLines)
Specifies the number of lines that the scroll-back and scroll-
forw actions should use as a default. The default value is 1.
scrollTtyOutput (class ScrollCond)
Specifies whether or not output to the terminal should auto-
matically cause the scrollbar to go to the bottom of the
scrolling region. The default is ''true.''
shiftFonts (class ShiftFonts)
Specifies whether to enable the actions larger-vt-font() and
smaller-vt-font(), which are normally bound to the shifted
KP_Add and KP_Subtract. The default is ''true.''
showBlinkAsBold (class ShowBlinkAsBold)
Tells xterm whether to display text with blink-attribute the
same as bold. If xterm has not been configured to support
blinking text, the default is ''true.'', which corresponds to
older versions of xterm, otherwise the default is ''false.''
showMissingGlyphs (class ShowMissingGlyphs)
Tells xterm whether to display a box outlining places where a
character has been used that the font does not represent. The
default is ''false.''
signalInhibit (class SignalInhibit)
Specifies whether or not the entries in the ''Main Options''
menu for sending signals to xterm should be disallowed. The
default is ''false.''
tekGeometry (class Geometry)
Specifies the preferred size and position of the Tektronix
window. There is no default for this resource.
tekInhibit (class TekInhibit)
Specifies whether or not the escape sequence to enter Tek-
tronix mode should be ignored. The default is ''false.''
tekSmall (class TekSmall)
Specifies whether or not the Tektronix mode window should
start in its smallest size if no explicit geometry is given.
This is useful when running xterm on displays with small
screens. The default is ''false.''
tekStartup (class TekStartup)
Specifies whether or not xterm should start up in Tektronix
mode. The default is ''false.''
tiXtraScroll (class TiXtraScroll)
Specifies whether xterm should scroll to a new page when pro-
cessing the ti termcap entry, i.e., the private modes 47, 1047
or 1049. This is only in effect if titeInhibit is ''true'',
because the intent of this option is to provide a picture of
the full-screen application's display on the scrollback with-
out wiping out the text that would be shown before the appli-
cation was initialized. The default for this resource is
''false.''
titeInhibit (class TiteInhibit)
Specifies whether or not xterm should remove ti and te termcap
entries (used to switch between alternate screens on startup
of many screen-oriented programs) from the TERMCAP string. If
set, xterm also ignores the escape sequence to switch to the
alternate screen. Xterm supports terminfo in a different way,
supporting composite control sequences (also known as private
modes) 1047, 1048 and 1049 which have the same effect as the
original 47 control sequence. The default for this resource
is ''false.''
translations (class Translations)
Specifies the key and button bindings for menus, selections,
''programmed strings,'' etc. See the ACTIONS section.
trimSelection (class TrimSelection)
If you set highlightSelection, you can see the text which is
selected, including any trailing spaces. Clearing the screen
(or a line) resets it to a state containing no spaces. Some
lines may contain trailing spaces when an application writes
them to the screen. However, you may not wish to paste lines
with trailing spaces. If this resource is true, xterm will
trim trailing spaces from text which is selected. It does not
affect spaces which result in a wrapped line, nor will it trim
the trailing newline from your selection. The default is
''false.''
underLine (class UnderLine)
This specifies whether or not text with the underline
attribute should be underlined. It may be desirable to dis-
able underlining when color is being used for the underline
attribute. The default is ''true.''
utf8 (class Utf8)
This specifies whether xterm will run in UTF-8 mode. If you
set this resource, xterm also sets the wideChars resource as a
side-effect. The resource is an integer, expected to range
from 0 to 3:
0 UTF-8 mode is initially off. Escape sequences for
turning UTF-8 mode on/off are allowed.
1 UTF-8 mode is initially on. Escape sequences for turn-
ing UTF-8 mode on/off are allowed.
2 The command-line option -u8 sets the resource to this
value. Escape sequences for turning UTF-8 mode on/off
are ignored.
3 This is the default value of the resource. It is
changed during initialization depending on whether the
locale resource was set, to 0 or 2. See the locale
resource for additional discussion of non-UTF-8
locales.
If you want to set the value of utf8, it should be in this
range. Other nonzero values are treated the same a ''1'',
i.e., UTF-8 mode is initially on, and escape sequences for
turning UTF-8 mode on/off are allowed.
utf8Fonts (class Utf8Fonts)
See the discussion of the locale resource.
veryBoldColors (class VeryBoldColors)
Specifies whether to combine video attributes with colors
specified by colorBD, colorBL and colorUL. The resource value
is the sum of values for each attribute: 2 for underline, 4
for bold and 8 for blink. The default is ''0.''
visualBell (class VisualBell)
Specifies whether or not a visible bell (i.e., flashing)
should be used instead of an audible bell when Control-G is
received. The default is ''false.''
visualBellDelay (class VisualBellDelay)
Number of milliseconds to delay when displaying a visual bell.
Default is 100. If set to zero, no visual bell is displayed.
This is useful for very slow displays, e.g., an LCD display on
a laptop.
vt100Graphics (class VT100Graphics)
This specifies whether xterm will interpret VT100 graphic
character escape sequences while in UTF-8 mode. The default
is ''true'', to provide support for various legacy applica-
tions.
wideBoldFont (class WideBoldFont)
This option specifies the font to be used for displaying bold
wide text. By default, it will attempt to use a font twice as
wide as the font that will be used to draw bold text. If no
doublewidth font is found, it will improvise, by stretching
the bold font.
wideChars (class WideChars)
Specifies if xterm should respond to control sequences that
process 16-bit characters. The default is ''false.''
wideFont (class WideFont)
This option specifies the font to be used for displaying wide
text. By default, it will attempt to use a font twice as wide
as the font that will be used to draw normal text. If no dou-
blewidth font is found, it will improvise, by stretching the
normal font.
ximFont (class XimFont)
This option specifies the font to be used for displaying the
preedit string in the "OverTheSpot" input method.
In "OverTheSpot" preedit type, the preedit (preconversion)
string is displayed at the position of the cursor. It is the
XIM server's responsibility to display the preedit string.
The XIM client must inform the XIM server of the cursor posi-
tion. For best results, the preedit string must be displayed
with a proper font. Therefore, xterm informs the XIM server
of the proper font. The font is be supplied by a "fontset",
whose default value is "*". This matches every font, the X
library automatically chooses fonts with proper charsets. The
ximFont resource is provided to override this default font
setting.
The following resources are specified as part of the tek4014 widget
(class Tek4014). These are specified by patterns such as
"XTerm.tek4014.NAME":
font2 (class Font)
Specifies font number 2 to use in the Tektronix window.
font3 (class Font)
Specifies font number 3 to use in the Tektronix window.
fontLarge (class Font)
Specifies the large font to use in the Tektronix window.
fontSmall (class Font)
Specifies the small font to use in the Tektronix window.
ginTerminator (class GinTerminator)
Specifies what character(s) should follow a GIN report or sta-
tus report. The possibilities are ''none,'' which sends no
terminating characters, ''CRonly,'' which sends CR, and
''CR&EOT,'' which sends both CR and EOT. The default is
''none.''
height (class Height)
Specifies the height of the Tektronix window in pixels.
initialFont (class InitialFont)
Specifies which of the four Tektronix fonts to use initially.
Values are the same as for the set-tek-text action. The
default is ''large.''
width (class Width)
Specifies the width of the Tektronix window in pixels.
The resources that may be specified for the various menus are
described in the documentation for the Athena SimpleMenu widget. The
name and classes of the entries in each of the menus are listed below.
Resources named "lineN" where N is a number are separators with class
SmeLine.
The mainMenu has the following entries:
securekbd (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the secure() action.
allowsends (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the allow-send-events(toggle) action.
redraw (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the redraw() action.
print (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the print() action.
print-redir (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the print-redir() action.
8-bit-control (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-8-bit-control(toggle) action.
backarrow key (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-backarrow(toggle) action.
num-lock (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-num-lock(toggle) action.
meta-esc (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the meta-sends-escape(toggle) action.
delete-is-del (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the delete-is-del(toggle) action.
oldFunctionKeys (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the old-function-keys(toggle) action.
hpFunctionKeys (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the hp-function-keys(toggle) action.
scoFunctionKeys (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the sco-function-keys(toggle) action.
sunFunctionKeys (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the sun-function-keys(toggle) action.
sunKeyboard (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the sunKeyboard(toggle) action.
suspend (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the send-signal(tstp) action on systems
that support job control.
continue (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the send-signal(cont) action on systems
that support job control.
interrupt (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the send-signal(int) action.
hangup (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the send-signal(hup) action.
terminate (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the send-signal(term) action.
kill (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the send-signal(kill) action.
quit (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the quit() action.
The vtMenu has the following entries:
scrollbar (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-scrollbar(toggle) action.
jumpscroll (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-jumpscroll(toggle) action.
reversevideo (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-reverse-video(toggle) action.
autowrap (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-autowrap(toggle) action.
reversewrap (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-reversewrap(toggle) action.
autolinefeed (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-autolinefeed(toggle) action.
appcursor (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-appcursor(toggle) action.
appkeypad (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-appkeypad(toggle) action.
scrollkey (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-scroll-on-key(toggle) action.
scrollttyoutput (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-scroll-on-tty-output(toggle)
action.
allow132 (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-allow132(toggle) action.
cursesemul (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-cursesemul(toggle) action.
visualbell (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-visualbell(toggle) action.
poponbell (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-poponbell(toggle) action.
marginbell (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-marginbell(toggle) action.
cursorblink (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-cursorblink(toggle) action.
titeInhibit (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-titeInhibit(toggle) action.
activeicon (class SmeBSB)
This entry toggles active icons on and off if this feature was
compiled into xterm. It is enabled only if xterm was started
with the command line option +ai or the activeIcon resource is
set to ''True.''
softreset (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the soft-reset() action.
hardreset (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the hard-reset() action.
clearsavedlines (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the clear-saved-lines() action.
tekshow (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-visibility(tek,toggle) action.
tekmode (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-terminal-type(tek) action.
vthide (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-visibility(vt,off) action.
altscreen (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-altscreen(toggle) action.
The fontMenu has the following entries:
fontdefault (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-vt-font(d) action.
font1 (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-vt-font(1) action.
font2 (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-vt-font(2) action.
font3 (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-vt-font(3) action.
font4 (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-vt-font(4) action.
font5 (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-vt-font(5) action.
font6 (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-vt-font(6) action.
fontescape (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-vt-font(e) action.
fontsel (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-vt-font(s) action.
font-linedrawing (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-font-linedrawing(s) action.
font-doublesize (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-font-doublesize(s) action.
render-font (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-render-font(s) action.
utf8-mode (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-utf8-mode(s) action.
The tekMenu has the following entries:
tektextlarge (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-tek-text(l) action.
tektext2 (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-tek-text(2) action.
tektext3 (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-tek-text(3) action.
tektextsmall (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-tek-text(s) action.
tekpage (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the tek-page() action.
tekreset (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the tek-reset() action.
tekcopy (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the tek-copy() action.
vtshow (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-visibility(vt,toggle) action.
vtmode (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-terminal-type(vt) action.
tekhide (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-visibility(tek,toggle) action.
The following resources are useful when specified for the Athena
Scrollbar widget:
thickness (class Thickness)
Specifies the width in pixels of the scrollbar.
background (class Background)
Specifies the color to use for the background of the scroll-
bar.
foreground (class Foreground)
Specifies the color to use for the foreground of the scroll-
bar. The ''thumb'' of the scrollbar is a simple checkerboard
pattern alternating pixels for foreground and background
color.
POINTER USAGE
Once the VT102 window is created, xterm allows you to select text and
copy it within the same or other windows.
The selection functions are invoked when the pointer buttons are used
with no modifiers, and when they are used with the ''shift'' key. The
assignment of the functions described below to keys and buttons may be
changed through the resource database; see ACTIONS below.
Pointer button one (usually left) is used to save text into the cut
buffer. Move the cursor to beginning of the text, and then hold the
button down while moving the cursor to the end of the region and
releasing the button. The selected text is highlighted and is saved
in the global cut buffer and made the PRIMARY selection when the but-
ton is released. Double-clicking selects by words. Triple-clicking
selects by lines. Quadruple-clicking goes back to characters, etc.
Multiple-click is determined by the time from button up to button
down, so you can change the selection unit in the middle of a selec-
tion. Logical words and lines selected by double- or triple-clicking
may wrap across more than one screen line if lines were wrapped by
xterm itself rather than by the application running in the window. If
the key/button bindings specify that an X selection is to be made,
xterm will leave the selected text highlighted for as long as it is
the selection owner.
Pointer button two (usually middle) 'types' (pastes) the text from the
PRIMARY selection, if any, otherwise from the cut buffer, inserting it
as keyboard input.
Pointer button three (usually right) extends the current selection.
(Without loss of generality, you can swap ''right'' and ''left''
everywhere in the rest of this paragraph.) If pressed while closer to
the right edge of the selection than the left, it extends/contracts
the right edge of the selection. If you contract the selection past
the left edge of the selection, xterm assumes you really meant the
left edge, restores the original selection, then extends/contracts the
left edge of the selection. Extension starts in the selection unit
mode that the last selection or extension was performed in; you can
multiple-click to cycle through them.
By cutting and pasting pieces of text without trailing new lines, you
can take text from several places in different windows and form a com-
mand to the shell, for example, or take output from a program and
insert it into your favorite editor. Since the cut buffer is globally
shared among different applications, you should regard it as a 'file'
whose contents you know. The terminal emulator and other text pro-
grams should be treating it as if it were a text file, i.e., the text
is delimited by new lines.
The scroll region displays the position and amount of text currently
showing in the window (highlighted) relative to the amount of text
actually saved. As more text is saved (up to the maximum), the size
of the highlighted area decreases.
Clicking button one with the pointer in the scroll region moves the
adjacent line to the top of the display window.
Clicking button three moves the top line of the display window down to
the pointer position.
Clicking button two moves the display to a position in the saved text
that corresponds to the pointer's position in the scrollbar.
Unlike the VT102 window, the Tektronix window does not allow the copy-
ing of text. It does allow Tektronix GIN mode, and in this mode the
cursor will change from an arrow to a cross. Pressing any key will
send that key and the current coordinate of the cross cursor. Press-
ing button one, two, or three will return the letters 'l', 'm', and
'r', respectively. If the 'shift' key is pressed when a pointer but-
ton is pressed, the corresponding upper case letter is sent. To dis-
tinguish a pointer button from a key, the high bit of the character is
set (but this is bit is normally stripped unless the terminal mode is
RAW; see tty(4) for details).
MENUS
Xterm has four menus, named mainMenu, vtMenu, fontMenu, and tekMenu.
Each menu pops up under the correct combinations of key and button
presses. Each menu is divided into sections, separated by a horizon-
tal line. Some menu entries correspond to modes that can be altered.
A check mark appears next to a mode that is currently active. Select-
ing one of these modes toggles its state. Other menu entries are com-
mands; selecting one of these performs the indicated function.
All of the menu entries correspond to X actions. In the list below,
the menu label is shown followed by the action's name in parenthesis.
The xterm mainMenu pops up when the ''control'' key and pointer button
one are pressed in a window. This menu contains items that apply to
both the VT102 and Tektronix windows. There are several sections:
Commands for managing X events:
Secure Keyboard (securekbd)
The Secure Keyboard mode is helpful when typing in pass-
words or other sensitive data in an unsecure environ-
ment; see SECURITY below (but read the limitations care-
fully).
Allow SendEvents (allowsends )
Specifies whether or not synthetic key and button events
generated using the X protocol SendEvent request should
be interpreted or discarded. This corresponds to the
allowSendEvents resource.
Redraw Window (redraw)
Forces the X display to repaint; useful in some environ-
ments.
Commands for capturing output:
Print Window (print)
Sends the text of the current window to the program
given in the printerCommand resource.
Redirect to Printer (print-redir)
This sets the printerControlMode to 0 or 2. You can use
this to turn the printer on as if an application had
sent the appropriate control sequence. It is also use-
ful for switching the printer off if an application
turns it on without resetting the print control mode.
Modes for setting keyboard style:
8-Bit Controls (8-bit-control)
Enabled for VT220 emulation, this controls whether xterm
will send 8-bit control sequences rather than using
7-bit (ASCII) controls, e.g., sending a byte in the
range 128-159 rather than the escape character followed
by a second byte. Xterm always interprets both 8-bit
and 7-bit control sequences (see the document Xterm Con-
trol Sequences). This corresponds to the eightBitCon-
trol resource.
Backarrow Key (BS/DEL) (backarrow key)
Modifies the behavior of the backarrow key, making it
transmit either a backspace (8) or delete (127) charac-
ter. This corresponds to the backarrowKey resource.
Alt/NumLock Modifiers (num-lock)
Controls the treatment of Alt- and NumLock-key modi-
fiers. This corresponds to the numLock resource.
Meta Sends Escape (meta-esc)
Controls whether Meta keys are converted into a two-
character sequence with the character itself preceded by
ESC. This corresponds to the metaSendsEscape resource.
Delete is DEL (delete-is-del)
Controls whether the Delete key on the editing keypad
should send DEL (127) or the VT220-style Remove escape
sequence. This corresponds to the deleteIsDEL resource.
Old Function-Keys (oldFunctionKeys)
HP Function-Keys (hpFunctionKeys)
SCO Function-Keys (scoFunctionKeys)
Sun Function-Keys (sunFunctionKeys)
VT220 Keyboard (sunKeyboard)
These act as a radio-button, selecting one style for the
keyboard layout. It corresponds to more than one
resource setting: sunKeyboard, sunFunctionKeys, scoFunc-
tionKeys and hpFunctionKeys ."
Commands for process signalling:
Send STOP Signal (suspend)
Send CONT Signal (continue)
Send INT Signal (interrupt)
Send HUP Signal (hangup)
Send TERM Signal (terminate)
Send KILL Signal (kill)
These send the SIGTSTP, SIGCONT, SIGINT, SIGHUP, SIGTERM
and SIGKILL signals respectively, to the process group
of the process running under xterm (usually the shell).
The SIGCONT function is especially useful if the user
has accidentally typed CTRL-Z, suspending the process.
Quit (quit)
Stop processing X events except to support the -hold
option, and then send a SIGHUP signal to the the process
group of the process running under xterm (usually the
shell).
The vtMenu sets various modes in the VT102 emulation, and is popped up
when the ''control'' key and pointer button two are pressed in the
VT102 window.
VT102/VT220 Modes:
Enable Scrollbar (scrollbar)
Enable (or disable) the scrollbar. This corresponds to
the -sb option and the scrollBar resource.
Enable Jump Scroll (jumpscroll)
Enable (or disable) jump scrolling. This corresponds to
the -j option and the jumpScroll resource.
Enable Reverse Video (reversevideo)
Enable (or disable) reverse-video. This corresponds to
the -rv option and the reverseVideo resource.
Enable Auto Wraparound (autowrap)
Enable (or disable) auto-wraparound. This corresponds
to the -aw option and the autoWrap resource.
Enable Reverse Wraparound (reversewrap)
Enable (or disable) reverse wraparound. This corre-
sponds to the -rw option and the reverseWrap resource.
Enable Auto Linefeed (autolinefeed)
Enable (or disable) auto-linefeed. This is the VT102
NEL function, which causes the emulator to emit a line-
feed after each carriage return. There is no corre-
sponding command-line option or resource setting.
Enable Application Cursor Keys (appcursor)
Enable (or disable) application cursor keys. This cor-
responds to the appcursorDefault resource. There is no
corresponding command-line option.
Enable Application Keypad (appkeypad)
Enable (or disable) application keypad keys. This cor-
responds to the appkeypadDefault resource. There is no
corresponding command-line option.
Scroll to Bottom on Key Press (scrollkey)
Enable (or disable) scrolling to the bottom of the
scrolling region on a keypress. This corresponds to the
-sk option and the scrollKey resource.
Scroll to Bottom on Tty Output (scrollttyoutput)
Enable (or disable) scrolling to the bottom of the
scrolling region on output to the terminal.. This cor-
responds to the -si option and the scrollTtyOutput
resource.
Allow 80/132 Column Switching (allow132)
Enable (or disable) switching between 80 and 132
columns. This corresponds to the -132 option and the
c132 resource.
Enable Curses Emulation (cursesemul)
Enable (or disable) a workaround for the so-called
"curses bug". This corresponds to the -cu option and
the curses resource.
Enable Visual Bell (visualbell)
Enable (or disable) visible bell (i.e., flashing)
instead of an audible bell. This corresponds to the -vb
option and the visualBell resource.
Enable Pop on Bell (poponbell)
Enable (or disable) raising of the window when Control-G
is received. This corresponds to the -pop option and
the popOnBell resource.
Enable Margin Bell (marginbell)
Enable (or disable) a bell when the user types near the
right margin. This corresponds to the -mb option and
the marginBell resource.
Enable Blinking Cursor (cursorblink)
Enable (or disable) the blinking-cursor feature. This
corresponds to the -bc option and the cursorBlink
resource.
Enable Alternate Screen Switching (titeInhibit)
Enable (or disable) switching between the normal and
alternate screens. This corresponds to the titeInhibit
resource. There is no corresponding command-line
option.
Enable Active Icon (activeicon)
Enable (or disable) the active-icon feature. This cor-
responds to the -ai option and the activeIcon resource.
VT102/VT220 Commands:
Do Soft Reset (softreset)
Reset scroll regions. This can be convenient when some
program has left the scroll regions set incorrectly
(often a problem when using VMS or TOPS-20). This cor-
responds to the VT220 DECSTR control sequence.
Do Full Reset (hardreset)
The full reset entry will clear the screen, reset tabs
to every eight columns, and reset the terminal modes
(such as wrap and smooth scroll) to their initial states
just after xterm has finished processing the command
line options. This corresponds to the VT102 RIS control
sequence, with a few obvious differences. For example,
your session is not disconnected as a real VT102 would
do.
Reset and Clear Saved Lines (clearsavedlines)
Perform a full reset, and also clear the saved lines.
Commands for setting the current screen:
Show Tek Window (tekshow)
When enabled, pops the Tektronix 4014 window up (makes
it visible). When disabled, hides the Tektronix 4014
window.
Switch to Tek Mode (tekmode)
When enabled, pops the Tektronix 4014 window up if it is
not already visible, and switches the input stream to
that window. When disabled, hides the Tektronix 4014
window and switches input back to the VTxxx window.
Hide VT Window (vthide)
When enabled, hides the VTxxx window, shows the Tek-
tronix 4014 window if it was not already visible and
switches the input stream to that window. When dis-
abled, shows the VTxxx window, and switches the input
stream to that window.
Show Alternate Screen (altscreen)
When enabled, shows the alternate screen. When dis-
abled, shows the normal screen. Note that the normal
screen may have saved lines; the alternate screen does
not.
The fontMenu sets the font used in the VT102 window, or modifies the
way the font is specified or displayed. There are three sections.
The first section allows you to select the font from a set of alterna-
tives:
Default (fontdefault)
Set the font to the default, i.e., that given by the
*VT100.font resource.
Unreadable (font1)
Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font1 resource.
Tiny (font2)
Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font2 resource.
Small (font3)
Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font3 resource.
Medium (font4)
Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font4 resource.
Large (font5)
Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font5 resource.
Huge (font6)
Set the font to that given by the *VT100.font6 resource.
Escape Sequence
This allows you to set the font last specified by the
Set Font escape sequence (see the document Xterm Control
Sequences).
Selection (fontsel)
This allows you to set the font specified the current
selection as a font name (if the PRIMARY selection is
owned).
The second section allows you to modify the way it is displayed:
Line-Drawing Characters (font-linedrawing)
When set, tells xterm to draw its own line-drawing char-
acters. Otherwise it relies on the font containing
these.
Doublesized Characters (font-doublesize)
When set, xterm may ask the font server to produce
scaled versions of the normal font, for VT102 double-
size characters.
The third section allows you to modify the way it is specified:
TrueType Fonts (render-font)
If the renderFont and corresponding resources were set,
this is a further control whether xterm will actually
use the Xft library calls to obtain a font.
UTF-8 (utf8-mode)
This controls whether xterm uses UTF-8 encoding of
input/output. It is useful for temporarily switching
xterm to display text from an application which does not
follow the locale settings.
The tekMenu sets various modes in the Tektronix emulation, and is
popped up when the ''control'' key and pointer button two are pressed
in the Tektronix window. The current font size is checked in the
modes section of the menu.
Large Characters (tektextlarge)
#2 Size Characters (tektext2)
#3 Size Characters (tektext3)
Small Characters (tektextsmall)
Commands:
PAGE (tekpage)
Clear the Tektronix window.
RESET (tekreset)
COPY (tekcopy)
Windows:
Show VT Window (vtshow)
Switch to VT Mode (vtmode)
Hide Tek Window (tekhide)
SECURITY
X environments differ in their security consciousness. Most servers,
run under xdm, are capable of using a ''magic cookie'' authorization
scheme that can provide a reasonable level of security for many peo-
ple. If your server is only using a host-based mechanism to control
access to the server (see xhost(1)), then if you enable access for a
host and other users are also permitted to run clients on that same
host, it is possible that someone can run an application which uses
the basic services of the X protocol to snoop on your activities,
potentially capturing a transcript of everything you type at the key-
board. Any process which has access to your X display can manipulate
it in ways that you might not anticipate, even redirecting your key-
board to itself and sending events to your application's windows.
This is true even with the ''magic cookie'' authorization scheme.
While the allowSendEvents provides some protection against rogue
applications tampering with your programs, guarding against a snooper
is harder.
The possibility of an application spying on your keystrokes is of par-
ticular concern when you want to type in a password or other sensitive
data. The best solution to this problem is to use a better authoriza-
tion mechanism than is provided by X. Given all of these caveats, a
simple mechanism exists for protecting keyboard input in xterm.
The xterm menu (see MENUS above) contains a Secure Keyboard entry
which, when enabled, attempts to ensure that all keyboard input is
directed only to xterm (using the GrabKeyboard protocol request).
When an application prompts you for a password (or other sensitive
data), you can enable Secure Keyboard using the menu, type in the
data, and then disable Secure Keyboard using the menu again. This
ensures that you know which window is accepting your keystrokes. It
cannot ensure that there are no processes which have access to your X
display that might be observing the keystrokes as well.
Only one X client at a time can grab the keyboard, so when you attempt
to enable Secure Keyboard it may fail. In this case, the bell will
sound. If the Secure Keyboard succeeds, the foreground and background
colors will be exchanged (as if you selected the Reverse Video entry
in the Modes menu); they will be exchanged again when you exit secure
mode. If the colors do not switch, then you should be very suspicious
that you are being spoofed. If the application you are running dis-
plays a prompt before asking for the password, it is safest to enter
secure mode before the prompt gets displayed, and to make sure that
the prompt gets displayed correctly (in the new colors), to minimize
the probability of spoofing. You can also bring up the menu again and
make sure that a check mark appears next to the entry.
Secure Keyboard mode will be disabled automatically if your xterm win-
dow becomes iconified (or otherwise unmapped), or if you start up a
reparenting window manager (that places a title bar or other decora-
tion around the window) while in Secure Keyboard mode. (This is a
feature of the X protocol not easily overcome.) When this happens,
the foreground and background colors will be switched back and the
bell will sound in warning.
CHARACTER CLASSES
Clicking the left mouse button twice in rapid succession will cause
all characters of the same class (e.g., letters, white space, punctua-
tion) to be selected. Since different people have different prefer-
ences for what should be selected (for example, should filenames be
selected as a whole or only the separate subnames), the default map-
ping can be overridden through the use of the charClass (class Char-
Class) resource.
This resource is a series of comma-separated of range:value pairs.
The range is either a single number or low-high in the range of 0 to
65535, corresponding to the code for the character or characters to be
set. The value is arbitrary, although the default table uses the
character number of the first character occurring in the set. When
not in UTF-8 mode, only the first 256 bytes of this table will be
used.
The default table starts as follows -
static int charClass[256] = {
/* NUL SOH STX ETX EOT ENQ ACK BEL */
32, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
/* BS HT NL VT NP CR SO SI */
1, 32, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
/* DLE DC1 DC2 DC3 DC4 NAK SYN ETB */
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
/* CAN EM SUB ESC FS GS RS US */
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
/* SP ! " # $ % & ' */
32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39,
/* ( ) * + , - . / */
40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47,
/* 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 */
48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
/* 8 9 : ; < = > ? */
48, 48, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63,
/* @ A B C D E F G */
64, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
/* H I J K L M N O */
48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
/* P Q R S T U V W */
48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
/* X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ */
48, 48, 48, 91, 92, 93, 94, 48,
/* ' a b c d e f g */
96, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
/* h i j k l m n o */
48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
/* p q r s t u v w */
48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
/* x y z { | } ~ DEL */
48, 48, 48, 123, 124, 125, 126, 1,
/* x80 x81 x82 x83 IND NEL SSA ESA */
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
/* HTS HTJ VTS PLD PLU RI SS2 SS3 */
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
/* DCS PU1 PU2 STS CCH MW SPA EPA */
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
/* x98 x99 x9A CSI ST OSC PM APC */
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
/* - i c/ L ox Y- | So */
160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167,
/* .. c0 ip << _ R0 - */
168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175,
/* o +- 2 3 ' u q| . */
176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183,
/* , 1 2 >> 1/4 1/2 3/4 ? */
184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191,
/* A' A' A^ A~ A: Ao AE C, */
48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
/* E' E' E^ E: I' I' I^ I: */
48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
/* D- N~ O' O' O^ O~ O: X */
48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 215,
/* O/ U' U' U^ U: Y' P B */
48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
/* a' a' a^ a~ a: ao ae c, */
48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
/*