rxvt-unicode
rxvt-unicode is a customizable terminal emulator forked from rxvt. Features of rxvt-unicode include international language support through Unicode, the ability to display multiple font types and support for Perl extensions.
Contents
1 Installation
Install the rxvt-unicode package.
2 Configuration
See urxvt(1) and urxvt(7) for available settings and values.
2.1 Xresources
Rxvt-unicode is controlled by command-line arguments or Xresources. Command-line arguments override, and take precedence over resource settings See the X resources article for details.
urxvt --help prints all available rxvt resources to standard error. The man page has full explanations of each resource.
2.2 Scrollback position
By default, when shell output appears the scrollback view will automatically jump to the bottom of the buffer to display new output. If in cases where you want to see previous output (e.g., compiler messages), set the following options in ~/.Xresources:
! do not scroll with output URxvt*scrollTtyOutput: false ! scroll in relation to buffer (with mouse scroll or Shift+Page Up) URxvt*scrollWithBuffer: true ! scroll back to the bottom on keypress URxvt*scrollTtyKeypress: true
2.3 Scrollback buffer in secondary screen
When you scroll a pager in a secondary screen (e.g. less without the -X option), it may be a good idea to disable the scrollback buffer to be able to scroll in the pager itself, instead of the terminal's buffer: this is default and unchangeable behaviour in konsole and vte-based terminals.
In urxvt, to disable the scrollback buffer for the secondary screen:
URxvt.secondaryScreen: 1 URxvt.secondaryScroll: 0
The above configuration works as expected except when scrolling with a mouse wheel. When you scroll a pager in the secondary screen with the mouse wheel - and there has been something in the scrollback buffer, instead of the pager itself - the scrollback buffer will be scrolled by the mouse wheel.
2.4 Font declaration methods
URxvt.font: 9x15
is the same as:
URxvt.font: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso8859-1
And, for the same font in bold:
URxvt.font: 9x15bold
is the same as:
URxvt.font: -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso8859-1
The complete list of short names for X core fonts can be found in /usr/share/fonts/misc/fonts.alias (there is also some fonts.alias files in some of the other subdirectories of /usr/share/fonts/, but as they are packaged separately from the actual fonts, they may list fonts you do not actually have installed). It is worth noting that these short aliases select for ISO-8859-1 versions of the fonts rather than ISO-10646-1 (Unicode) versions, and 75 DPI rather than 100 DPI versions, so you are probably better off avoiding them and choosing fonts by their full long names instead.
URxvt.font: xft:monaco:size=10
Or
URxvt.font: xft:monaco:bold:size=10
A nice method for testing out fonts in a live terminal before committing to the config is by printing escape codes in the terminal, for example:
$ printf '\e]710;%s\007' "xft:Terminus:pixelsize=12"
2.5 Font spacing
By default the distance between characters can feel too wide. The spacing can be reduced by one pixel as such:
~/.Xresources
URxvt.letterSpace: -1
There is some debate [1][2] over how urxvt calculates character widths.
2.6 Colors
By default, rxvt-unicode is compiled with color support. In addition to the default foreground and background colors, rxvt can display up to 256 colors (plus high-intensity bold/blinking/underlined and any mix of these).
It is also possible to specify the color values of foreground, background, cursorColor, cursorColor2, colorBD, colorUL as a number 0-15, as a convenient shorthand to reference the color name of color0-color15. See #Xresources for details.
3 Cut and paste
You can use CTRL-ALT-C and CTRL-ALT-V for copy and paste.
Rxvt-unicode uses cut buffers which are loaded into the current PRIMARY selection by default. See Selecting and pasting text for details.
See also Clipboard#List of clipboard managers
4 Perl extensions
We can enable URxvt perl extensions by including the following line:
URxvt.perl-ext-common: extension_name_1,extension_name_2,...
Please take note that there should not be any spacing between extension names.
4.1 Clickable URLs
You can make URLs in the terminal clickable using the matcher extension. For example, to open links in the default web browser with the left mouse button, add the following to .Xresources:
URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,matcher URxvt.url-launcher: /usr/bin/xdg-open URxvt.matcher.button: 1
Since rxvt-unicode 9.14, it's also possible to use matcher to open and list recent (currently limited to 10) URLs via keyboard:
URxvt.keysym.C-Delete: perl:matcher:last URxvt.keysym.M-Delete: perl:matcher:list
Matching links can be colored with a chosen foreground or background color, for example blue:
URxvt.matcher.rend.0: Uline Bold fg5
Alternatively, use colorUL for a #RRGGBB color. This will however color all underlined text, instead of only link matches:
URxvt.colorUL: #4682B4
4.2 Yankable URLs (no mouse)
In addition, you can select and open URLs in your web browser without using the mouse. Install the urxvt-perls package and adjust your .Xresources as necessary. An example is shown below:
URxvt.perl-ext: default,url-select URxvt.keysym.M-u: perl:url-select:select_next URxvt.url-select.launcher: /usr/bin/xdg-open URxvt.url-select.underline: true
Key commands:
Key | Description |
---|---|
Alt+u | Enter selection mode. The last URL on your screen will be selected. You can repeat Alt+u to select the next upward URL. |
k | Select next upward URL |
j | Select next downward URL |
Return | Open selected URL in browser and quit selection mode |
o | Open selected URL in browser without quitting selection mode |
y | Copy (yank) selected URL and quit selection mode |
Esc | Cancel URL selection mode |
4.3 Simple tabs
To add tabs to urxvt, add the following to your ~/.Xresources:
URxvt.perl-ext-common: ...,tabbed,...
To control tabs use:
Key | Description |
---|---|
Shift+Down | New tab |
Shift+Left | Go to left tab |
Shift+Right | Go to right tab |
Ctrl+Left | Move tab to the left |
Ctrl+Right | Move tab to the right |
Ctrl+d | Close tab |
You can change the colors of tabs with the following:
URxvt.tabbed.tabbar-fg: 2 URxvt.tabbed.tabbar-bg: 0 URxvt.tabbed.tab-fg: 3 URxvt.tabbed.tab-bg: 0
4.4 Disabling Perl extensions
If you do not use the Perl extension features, you can improve the security and speed by disabling Perl extensions completely.
URxvt.perl-ext: URxvt.perl-ext-common:
5 Troubleshooting
5.1 Transparency not working after upgrade to v9.09
The rxvt-unicode developers removed compatibility code for a lot of non standard wallpaper setters with this update. Using a non compatible wallpaper setter will break transparency support. Recommended wallpaper setters:
- feh
- hsetroot
- esetroot
To make true transparency work, make sure to comment URxvt.tintColor and URxvt.inheritPixmap.
5.2 Remote hosts
If you are logging into a remote host, you may encounter problems when running text-mode programs under rxvt-unicode. This can be fixed by installing rxvt-unicode-terminfo on the remote host or by copying /usr/share/terminfo/r/rxvt-unicode from your local machine to your host at ~/.terminfo/r/rxvt-unicode; same for rxvt-unicode-256color.
Some remote systems do not change title automatically unless you specify TERM=xterm. To fix the issue add this line to .bashrc on the remote machine:
PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${USER}@${HOSTNAME}:${PWD}\007"'
5.3 Using rxvt-unicode as gmrun terminal
Unlike some other terminals, urxvt expects the arguments to -e to be given separately, rather than grouped together with quotes. This causes trouble with gmrun, which assumes the opposite behavior. This can be worked around by putting an "eval" in front of gmrun's "Terminal" variable in .gmrunrc:
Terminal = eval urxvt TermExec = ${Terminal} -e
(gmrun uses /bin/sh to execute commands, so the "eval" is understood here.) The "eval" has the side-effect of "breaking up" the argument to -e in the same way that $@ does in Bash, making the command intelligible to urxvt.
5.4 My numerical keypad acts weird and generates differing output? (e.g. in vim)
Some Debian GNU/Linux users seem to have this problem, although no specific details were reported so far. It is possible that this is caused by the wrong TERM setting, although the details of whether and how this can happen are unknown, as TERM=rxvt should offer a compatible keymap. See the answer to the previous question, and please report if that helped.
However, using the xmodmap program (xorg-xmodmap), you can re-map your number pad keys back.
1. Check the keycode that your numerical keypad (numpad) generates using xev program.
- Start the xev program
- Press your number pad keys and look for ... keycode xxx ... in xev's output. For example, numpad 1 in my keyboard is also "End" key, that have a 'keycode 87'.
2. Create or modify your xmodmap file, usually ~/.Xmodmap, with the content representing your keycode.
Example of xmodmap file with number pad keycode:
keycode 63 = KP_Multiply keycode 79 = Home KP_7 keycode 80 = Up KP_8 keycode 81 = Prior KP_9 keycode 82 = KP_Subtract keycode 83 = Left KP_4 keycode 84 = KP_5 keycode 85 = Right KP_6 keycode 86 = KP_Add keycode 87 = End KP_1 keycode 88 = Down KP_2 keycode 89 = Next KP_3 keycode 90 = Insert KP_0 keycode 91 = Delete KP_Decimal keycode 112 = Prior keycode 117 = Next
3. Load your xmodmap file at X session start-up.
For example, in ~/.xinitrc file add:
... xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap ...
5.5 Key combinations do not work
See Get Alt key to work in terminal.
5.6 Slow performance when drawing glyphs
Some programs like alsamixer and xprop do not perform well with some graphics drivers and in consequence redraw very slowly. The option "skipBuiltinGlyphs" for ~/.Xresources or the command line option -sbg may fix this. One possible solution is to add the following to ~/.Xresources:
URxvt*skipBuiltinGlyphs: true
5.7 Very long lines cause slowdown
The matcher plugin may be the culprit here. It must match a regex against a line every time the line updates, and if you have a large saveLines value this can exacerbate the problem by allowing a very large maximum line length.
There are some simple workarounds:
- Reduce saveLines
- Disable the matcher plugin
If neither of those are palatable options, you can compromise by disabling URL matching past a certain cutoff point:
- Copy /usr/lib/urxvt/perl/matcher to ~/.urxvt/ext/ (creating the directory if necessary)
- Edit ~/.urxvt/ext/matcher, and find the my ($self, $row) = @_; line in the on_line_update sub. It should be line 270.
- After that line, insert the line return () if $row < -100;. This disables URL matching on any line that starts more than 100 rows behind the top of the terminal.
6 See also
- rxvt-unicode - Official site
- Source Code - Browseable CVS
- rxvt-unicode FAQ - Official FAQ
- rxvt-unicode Reference - Official manual page
- urxvtperl - Official Perl extension reference