Provided by:
xterm_229-1_i386 
NAME
xterm - terminal emulator for X
SYNOPSIS
xterm [-toolkitoption ...] [-option ...] [shell]
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 ter‐
minal 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 requisite
information is not provided by the termcap emulation of terminfo
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 Tektronix 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 avail‐
able 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.
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 alter‐
nate 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 (cur‐
rently 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 the standard X Toolkit command line
options as well as many application-specific options. 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 configu‐
ration 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, one per line. The message is written to the standard
output. Xterm generates this message, sorting it and noting
whether a "-option" or a "+option" turns the feature on or off,
since some features historically have been one or the other.
Xterm generates a concise help message (multiple options per
line) when an unknown option is used, e.g.,
xterm -z
If the logic for a particular option such as logging is not
compiled into xterm, the help text for that option also is not
displayed by the -help option.
One parameter (after all options) may be given. That overrides xterm’s
built-in choice of shell program. Normally xterm checks the SHELL
variable. If that is not set, xterm tries to use the shell program
specified in the password file. If that is not set, xterm uses
/bin/sh. If the parameter names an executable file, xterm uses that
instead. The parameter must be an absolute path, or name a file found
on the user’s PATH (and thereby construct an absolute path). The -e
option cannot be used with this parameter since it uses all parameters
following the option.
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 cur‐
sor whenever the focus is lost or the pointer leaves the win‐
dow.
+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. That is the vt100 internalBorder resource.
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
set the amount of time text cursor is off when blinking via the
cursorOffTime resource.
-bcn milliseconds
set the amount of time text cursor is on when blinking via the
cursorOffTime resource.
-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
display 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. and discussion of the charClass resource.
-cjk_width
Set the cjkWidth resource to ‘‘true’’. When turned on, charac‐
ters with East Asian Ambiguous (A) category in UTR 11 have a
column width of 2. Otherwise, they have a column width of 1.
This may be useful for some legacy CJK text terminal-based pro‐
grams assuming box drawings and others to have a column width
of 2. It also should 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. It sets the colorMode resource to ‘‘false’’.
+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. It sets the cutNewline resource to ‘‘false’’.
+cn This option indicates that newlines should be cut in line-mode
selections. It sets the cutNewline resource to ‘‘true’’.
-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. It sets the cursorColor resource according to the param‐
eter.
-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 followed 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 col‐
ors: the vt100 foreground and background colors, its text cur‐
sor color, the pointer cursor foreground and background colors,
the Tektronix emulator foreground and background colors, its
text cursor color and highlight color. The option sets the
dynamicColors option to ‘‘false’’.
+dc This option enables the escape sequence to change dynamic col‐
ors. The option sets the dynamicColors option to ‘‘true’’.
-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
sets the locale resource. Encodings other than UTF-8 are sup‐
ported 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
normal 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, boldMode and alwaysBoldMode 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. See also the renderFont resource, which
combines with this to determine whether FreeType fonts are ini‐
tially active.
-fbb This option indicates that xterm should compare normal and bold
fonts bounding boxes to ensure they are compatible. It sets
the freeBoldBox resource to ‘‘false’’.
+fbb This option indicates that xterm should not compare normal and
bold fonts bounding boxes to ensure they are compatible. It
sets the freeBoldBox resource to ‘‘true’’.
-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. It
sets the forceBoxChars resource to ‘‘false’’.
+fbx This option indicates that xterm should assume that the normal
and bold fonts have VT100 line-drawing characters. It sets the
forceBoxChars resource to ‘‘true’’.
-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
(see -selbg).
-hf This option indicates that HP Function Key escape codes should
be generated for function keys. It sets the hpFunctionKeys
resource to ‘‘true’’.
+hf This option indicates that HP Function Key escape codes should
not be generated for function keys. It sets the hpFunctionKeys
resource to ‘‘false’’.
-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-ter‐
minal’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 refer‐
ence, if available.
-im Turn on the useInsertMode resource, which forces use of insert
mode by adding appropriate entries to the TERMCAP environment
variable.
+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. It
corresponds to the jumpScroll resource. 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 disabling 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 con‐
trol characters (code 128-159) to treat them as printable.
+k8 This option resets the allowC1Printable resource.
-kt keyboardtype
This option sets the keyboardType resource. Possible values
include: ‘‘unknown’’, ‘‘default’’, ‘‘hp’’, ‘‘sco’’, ‘‘sun’’,
‘‘tcap’’ and ‘‘vt220’’.
The value ‘‘unknown’’, causes the corresponding resource to be
ignored.
The value ‘‘default’’, suppresses the associated resources
hpFunctionKeys, scoFunctionKeys, sunFunctionKeys, tcapFunction
Keys and sunKeyboard, using the Sun/PC keyboard layout.
-l Turn logging on. Normally logging is not supported, due to
security concerns. Some versions of xterm may have logging
enabled. The logfile is written to the directory from which
xterm is invoked. The filename is generated, of the form
XtermLog.XXXXXX
or
Xterm.log.hostname.yyyy.mm.dd.hh.mm.ss.XXXXXX
depending on how xterm was built.
+l Turn logging off.
-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 -e 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.
-mk_width
Set the mkWidth resource to ‘‘true’’. This makes xterm use a
built-in version of the wide-character width calculation. The
default is ‘‘false’’
+mk_width
Reset the mkWidth resource.
-ms color
This option specifies the color to be used for the pointer cur‐
sor. The default is to use the foreground color. This sets
the pointerColor resource.
-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 whenever
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 displayed.
-selbg color
This option specifies the color to use for the background of
selected text. If not specified, reverse video is used. See
the discussion of the highlightColor resource.
-selfg color
This option specifies the color to use for selected text. If
not specified, reverse video is used. See the discussion of
the highlightTextColor resource.
-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 man‐
ager 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’’ environ‐
ment variables.
+t This option indicates that xterm should start in VT102 mode.
-tb This option, corresponding to the toolBar resource, indicates
that xterm should display a toolbar (or menubar) at the top of
its window. The buttons in the toolbar correspond to the popup
menus, e.g., control/left/mouse for "Main Options".
+tb This option indicates that xterm should not set up a toolbar.
-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. It corresponds to the
termName resource. This terminal type must exist in the termi‐
nal database (termcap or terminfo, depending on how xterm is
built) and should have li# and co# entries. If the terminal
type is not found, xterm uses the built-in list ‘‘xterm’’,
‘‘vt102’’, etc.
-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.
-ulit This option, corresponding to the italicULMode resource, dis‐
ables the display of characters with underline attribute as
italics rather than with underlining.
+ulit This option, corresponding to the italicULMode resource,
enables the display of characters with underline attribute as
italics 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 characters.
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 variables
are correct. It is the application’s responsibility to catch
subsequent terminal size changes.
+wf This option indicates that xterm should not wait before start‐
ing 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 characters
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 ‘‘*tekGe‐
ometry’’ 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 equiva‐
lent 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. xterm uses the X Toolkit default, which is ‘‘XtDe‐
faultForeground’’.
-bg color
This option specifies the color to use for the background of
the window. The default is ‘‘XtDefaultBackground.’’
-bw number
This option specifies the width in pixels of the border sur‐
rounding the window.
This appears to be a legacy of older X releases. It sets the
borderWidth resource of the shell widget, and may provide
advice to your window manager to set the thickness of the win‐
dow frame. Most window managers do not use this information.
See the -b option, which controls the inner border of the xterm
window.
-display display
This option specifies the X server to contact; see X(33:).
-fg color
This option specifies the color to use for displaying text.
The default is ‘‘XtDefaultForeground.’’
-fn font
This option specifies the font to be used for displaying normal
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(33:).
-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. See also the keyboardType resource.
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.
keyboardType (class KeyboardType)
Enables one (or none) of the various keyboard-type resources:
hpFunctionKeys, scoFunctionKeys, sunFunctionKeys, tcapFunction
Keys and sunKeyboard. The resource’s value should be one of
the corresponding strings ‘‘hp’’, ‘‘sco’’, ‘‘sun’’, ‘‘tcap’’ or
‘‘vt220’’. The individual resources are provided for legacy
support; this resource is simpler to use.
maxBufSize (class MaxBufSize)
Specify the maximum size of the input buffer. The default is
32768. You cannot set this to a value less than the minBufSize
resource. It will be increased as needed to make that value
evenly divide this one.
On some systems you may want to increase one or both of the
maxBufSize and minBufSize resource values to achieve better
performance if the operating system prefers larger buffer
sizes.
messages (class Messages)
Specifies whether write access to the terminal is allowed ini‐
tially. See mesg(1). The default is ‘‘true’’.
menuLocale (class MenuLocale)
Specify the locale used for character-set computations when
loading the popup menus. Use this to improve initialization
performance of the Athena popup menus, which may load unneces‐
sary (and very large) fonts, e.g., in a locale having UTF-8
encoding. The default is an empty string, which uses the cur‐
rent locale setting.
Set it to ‘‘C’’ to achieve the best performance using the
default menu resource settings. If you happen to be using
localized menu resources, set the resource accordingly.
minBufSize (class MinBufSize)
Specify the minimum size of the input buffer, i.e., the amount
of data that xterm requests on each read. The default is 4096.
You cannot set this to a value less than 64.
ptyHandshake (class PtyHandshake)
If ‘‘true’’, xterm will perform handshaking during initializa‐
tion to ensure that the parent and child processes update the
utmp and stty state. See also waitForMap which waits for the
pseudo-terminal’s notion of the screen size, and ptySttySize
which resets the screen size after other terminal initializa‐
tion is complete. 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. See also the ttyModes resource, which may modify this.
The default is ‘‘false’’.
ptySttySize (class PtySttySize)
If ‘‘true’’, xterm will reset the screen size after terminal
initialization is complete. This is needed for some systems
whose pseudo-terminals cannot propagate terminal characteris‐
tics. Where it is not needed, it can interfere with other
methods for setting the intial screen size, e.g., via window
manager interaction. See also waitForMap which waits for a
handshake-message giving the pseudo-terminal’s notion of the
screen size. The default is ‘‘false’’ on Linux and OS X sys‐
tems, ‘‘true’’ otherwise.
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 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. 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. See also the keyboardType resource.
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. See also the keyboardType resource.
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 sunKey
board 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. See also the
keyboardType resource.
tcapFunctionKeys (class TcapFunctionKeys)
Specifies whether or not function key escape codes read from
the termcap/terminfo entry should be generated for function
keys instead of standard escape sequences. See also the key
boardType resource.
termName (class TermName)
Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM environ‐
ment variable.
title (class Title)
Specifies a string that may be used by the window manager when
displaying this application.
toolBar (class ToolBar)
Specifies whether or not the toolbar should be displayed. The
default is ‘‘true.’’
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 lit‐
eral 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.
If the ttyModes resource specifies a value for erase, that
overrides the ptyInitialErase resource setting, i.e., xterm
initializes the terminal to match that value.
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.’’
utmpDisplayId (class UtmpDisplayId)
Specifies whether or not xterm should try to record the display
identifier (display number and screen number) as well as the
hostname in the system utmp log file. The default is ‘‘true.’’
utmpInhibit (class UtmpInhibit)
Specifies whether or not xterm should try to record the user’s
terminal in the system utmp log file. If true, xterm will not
try. The default is ‘‘false.’’
waitForMap (class WaitForMap)
Specifies whether or not xterm should wait for the initial win‐
dow map before starting the subprocess. This is part of the
ptyHandshake logic. When xterm is directed to wait in this
fashion, it passes the terminal size from the display end of
the pseudo-terminal to the terminal I/O connection, e.g.,
according to the window manager. Otherwise, it uses the size
as given in resource values or command-line option -geom. 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 iconi‐
fied will cause an XBell sound at the given volume and have
"***" prepended to their icon titles. Most window managers
will detect this change immediately, showing you which window
has the output. (A similar feature was in x10 xterm.) The
default is ‘‘false.’’
VT100 Widget Resources
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 compiled
into xterm. The active icon is a miniature representation of
the content of the window and will update as the content
changes. Not all window managers necessarily support applica‐
tion 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 inter‐
preted 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.’’
allowTitleOps (class AllowTitleOps)
Specifies whether control sequences that modify the window
title or icon name should be allowed. The default is ‘‘true.’’
allowWindowOps (class AllowWindowOps)
Specifies whether extended window control sequences (as used in
dtterm) should be allowed. The default is ‘‘true.’’
altIsNotMeta (class AltIsNotMeta)
If ‘‘true’’, treat the Alt-key as if it were the Meta-key.
Your keyboard may happen to be configured so they are the same.
But if they are not, this allows you to use the same prefix-
and shifting operations with the Alt-key as with the Meta-key.
See altSendsEscape and metaSendsEscape. The default is
‘‘false.’’
altSendsEscape (class AltSendsEscape)
This is an additional keyboard operation that may be processed
after the logic for metaSendsEscape. It is only available if
the altIsNotMeta resource is set.
If ‘‘true’’, Alt characters (a character combined with the mod‐
ifier associated with left/right Alt-keys) 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 Alt is used in your key translations.
If ‘‘false’’, Alt characters input from the keyboard cause a
shift to 8-bit characters (just like metaSendsEscape). By com‐
bining the Alt- and Meta-modifiers, you can create correspond‐
ing combinations of ESC-prefix and 8-bit characters. The
default is ‘‘false.’’
alwaysBoldMode (class AlwaysBoldMode)
Specifies whether xterm should check if the normal and bold
fonts are distinct before deciding whether to use overstriking
to simulate bold fonts. If this resource is true, xterm does
not make the check for distinct fonts when deciding how to han‐
dle the boldMode resource. The default is ‘‘false.’’
boldMode alwaysBoldMode Comparison Action
----------------------------------------------------
false false ignored use font
false true ignored use font
true false same overstrike
true false different use font
true true ignored overstrike
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 con‐
trol 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 ‘‘XtDefaultBackground.’’
bellIsUrgent (class BellIsUrgent)
Specifies whether to set the Urgency hint for the window man‐
ager when making a bell sound. The default is ‘‘false.’’
bellOnReset (class BellOnReset)
Specifies whether to sound a bell when doing a hard reset. The
default is ‘‘true.’’
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.
Xterm attempts to derive a bold font for the other font selec‐
tions (font1 through font6). If it cannot find a bold font, it
will use the normal font. In each case (whether the explicit
resource or the derived font), if the normal and bold fonts are
distinct, this resource has no effect. The default is
‘‘true.’’
See the alwaysBoldMode resource which can modify the behavior
of this resource.
Although xterm attempts to derive 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 com‐
prise the fixed-pitch fonts that are used by xterm. For exam‐
ple
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 control
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)
Tells whether to cache double-sized fonts by xterm. 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. If this
resource is false, the mkWidth resource controls the choice
between the system’s wcwidth and xterm’s built-in tables. 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, colorRV, and colorUL should
override ANSI colors. If not, these are displayed only when no
ANSI colors have been set for the corresponding 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 disables
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.’’
combiningChars (class CombiningChars)
Specifies the number of wide-characters which can be stored in
a cell to overstrike (combine) with the base character of the
cell. This can be set to values in the range 0 to 4. The
default is ‘‘2’’.
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
‘‘XtDefaultForeground.’’ Xterm attempts to keep this color
from being the same as the background color, since it draws the
cursor by filling the background of a text cell. The same
restriction applies to control sequences which may change this
color.
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. Leading non-digit characters are ignored, e.g.,
"vt100" and "100" are the same. 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 terminal
should be eight-bit characters or escape sequences. The
default is ‘‘false.’’
eightBitInput (class EightBitInput)
If ‘‘true’’, Meta characters (a single-byte character combined
with the Meta modifier key) input from the keyboard are pre‐
sented as a single character with the eighth bit turned on.
The terminal is put into 8-bit mode. If ‘‘false’’, Meta char‐
acters are converted into a two-character sequence with the
character itself preceded by ESC. On startup, xterm tries to
put the terminal into 7-bit mode. The metaSendsEscape and alt
SendsEscape resources may override this. The default is
‘‘true.’’
Generally keyboards do not have a key labeled "Meta", but "Alt"
keys are common, and they are conventionally used for "Meta".
If they were synonymous, it would have been reasonable to name
this resource "altSendsEscape", reversing its sense. For more
background on this, see the meta function in curses.
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 mod‐
ifiers. xterm inspects the same information to find the modi‐
fier 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.’’ On the VT Fonts menu, this corresponds
to the Default entry. You can specify the pointsize for True‐
Type fonts selected with the other size-related menu entries
such as Medium, Huge, etc., by using one of the following
resource values. If you do not specify a value, they default
to ‘‘0.0’’, which causes xterm to use the ratio of font sizes
from the bitmap font resources to obtain a TrueType pointsize.
faceSize1 (class FaceSize1)
Specifies the pointsize of the first alternative font.
faceSize2 (class FaceSize2)
Specifies the pointsize of the second alternative font.
faceSize3 (class FaceSize3)
Specifies the pointsize of the third alternative font.
faceSize4 (class FaceSize4)
Specifies the pointsize of the fourth alternative font.
faceSize5 (class FaceSize5)
Specifies the pointsize of the fifth alternative font.
faceSize6 (class FaceSize6)
Specifies the pointsize of the sixth alternative font.
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:
- The fixed-pitch ISO-8859-*-encoded fonts used by xterm
normally have the VT100 line-drawing glyphs in cells 1-31.
Other fixed-pitch fonts may be more attractive, but lack
these glyphs.
- When using an ISO-10646-1 font and the wideChars resource
is true, xterm uses the Unicode glyphs which match the
VT100 line-drawing glyphs.
If ‘‘false’’, xterm checks for missing glyphs in the font and
makes line-drawing characters directly as needed. If ‘‘true’’,
xterm uses whatever is in the font without checking. 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 ‘‘XtDefaultForeground.’’
freeBoldBox (class freeBoldBox)
Specifies whether xterm should assume the bounding boxes for
normal and bold fonts are compatible. If ‘‘false’’, xterm com‐
pares 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
(highlighted) text. If not specified (i.e., matching the
default foreground), reverse video is used. The default is
‘‘XtDefaultForeground.’’
highlightReverse (class HighlightReverse)
Specifies whether xterm should reverse the selection foreground
and background colors when selecting text with reverse-video
attribute. This applies only to the highlightColor and high
lightTextColor resources, e.g., to match the color scheme of
xwsh. If ‘‘true’’, xterm reverses the colors, The default is
‘‘true.’’
highlightSelection (class HighlightSelection)
If ‘‘false’’, selecting with the mouse highlights all positions
on the screen between the beginning of the selection and the
current position. If ‘‘true’’, xterm highlights only the posi‐
tions 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.
highlightTextColor (class HighlightTextColor)
Specifies the color to use for the foreground of selected
(highlighted) text. If not specified (i.e., matching the
default background), reverse video is used. The default is
‘‘XtDefaultBackground.’’
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 2. 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".
initialFont (class InitialFont)
Specifies which of the VT100 fonts to use initially. Values
are the same as for the set-vt-font action. The default is
‘‘d’’, i.e., "default".
internalBorder (class BorderWidth)
Specifies the number of pixels between the characters and the
window border. The default is 2.
italicULMode (class ColorAttrMode)
Specifies whether characters with the underline attribute
should be displayed in an italic font or as underlined charac‐
ters. It is implemented only for TrueType fonts.
jumpScroll (class JumpScroll)
Specifies whether or not jump scroll should be used. This cor‐
responds 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.
nameKeymap (class NameKeymap)
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 variables)
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.
checkfont
If mini-luit is compiled-in, xterm will check if a Unicode
font has been specified. If so, it checks if the character
encoding for the current locale is POSIX, Latin-1 or
Latin-9, uses the appropriate mapping to support those with
the Unicode font. For other encodings, xterm assumes that
UTF-8 encoding is required.
false
xterm will use conventional 8bit mode or UTF-8 mode accord‐
ing 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 subre‐
sources of the VT100 widget. That is, resource patterns such
as "*vt100.utf8Fonts.font" will be loaded, and (if this
resource is enabled), override the normal fonts. If no subre‐
sources 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.’’
mkSamplePass (class MkSamplePass)
If mkSampleSize is nonzero, and mkWidth (and cjkWidth) are
false, on startup xterm compares its built-in tables to the
system’s wide character width data to decide if it will use the
system’s data. It tests the first mkSampleSize character val‐
ues, and allows up to mkSamplePass mismatches before the test
fails. The default (for the allowed number of mismatches) is
256.
mkSampleSize (class MkSampleSize)
With mkSamplePass, this specifies a startup test used for ini‐
tializing wide character width calculations. The default (num‐
ber of characters to check) is 1024.
mkWidth (class MkWidth)
Specifies whether xterm should use a built-in version of the
wide character width calculation. See also the cjkWidth
resource which can override this. The default is ‘‘false.’’
Here is a summary of the resources which control the choice of
wide character width calculation:
cjkWidth mkWidth Action
---------------------------------------------------------------
false false use system tables subject to mkSamplePass
false true use built-in tables
true false use built-in CJK tables
true true use built-in CJK tables
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. The default is
‘‘2’’:
Set it to -1 to disable it.
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 if
it would otherwise be the first.
Set it to 3 to mark the sequence with a ’>’ to hint that it is
private.
modifyFunctionKeys (class ModifyFunctionKeys)
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 (numbered) function-key. The
default is ‘‘2’’. The resource values are similar to modify
CursorKeys:
Set it to -1 to permit the user to use shift- and control-modi‐
fiers to construct function-key strings using the normal encod‐
ing scheme.
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 if
it would otherwise be the first.
Set it to 3 to mark the sequence with a ’>’ to hint that it is
private.
If modifyFunctionKeys is zero, xterm uses Control- and Shift-
modifiers to allow the user to construct numbered function-keys
beyond the set provided by the keyboard:
Control
adds the value given by the ctrlFKeys resource.
Shift
adds twice the value given by the ctrlFKeys resource.
Control/Shift
adds three times the value given by the ctrlFKeys
resource.
As a special case, legacy (when oldFunctionKeys is true) or
vt220 (when sunKeyboard is true) keyboards interpret only the
Control-modifier when constructing numbered function-keys.
This is done to provide compatible keyboards for DEC VT220 and
related terminals that implement user-defined keys (UDK).
modifyOtherKeys (class ModifyOtherKeys)
Like modifyCursorKeys, tells xterm to construct an escape
sequence for other keys (such as "2") when modified by Con‐
trol-, Alt- or Meta-modifiers. This feature does not apply to
function keys and well-defined keys such as ESC or the control
keys. The default is ‘‘0’’:
0 disables this feature.
1 enables this feature for keys except for those with well-
known behavior, e.g., Tab, Backarrow and some special con‐
trol character cases, e.g., Control-Space to make a NUL.
2 enables this feature for keys including the exceptions
listed.
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 by the
marginBell resource. The default is 10.
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 sunKeyboard
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.’’
on2Clicks (class On2Clicks)
on3Clicks (class On3Clicks)
on4Clicks (class On4Clicks)
on5Clicks (class On5Clicks)
Specify selection behavior in response to multiple mouse
clicks. A single mouse click is always interpreted as
described in the SELECTION section (see POINTER USAGE). Multi‐
ple mouse clicks (using the button which activates the select-
start action) are interpreted according to the resource values
of on2Clicks, etc. The resource value can be one of these:
word
Select a ‘‘word’’ as determined by the charClass resource.
See the CHARACTER CLASSES section.
line
Select a line (counting wrapping).
group
Select a group of adjacent lines (counting wrapping). The
selection stops on a blank line.
page
Select all visible lines, i.e., the page.
all
Select all lines, i.e., including the saved lines.
regex
Select a ‘‘word’’ as determined by the regular expression
which follows in the resource value.
none
No selection action is associated with this resource. xterm
interprets it as the end of the list. For example, you may
use it to disable triple (and higher) clicking by setting
on3Clicks to ‘‘none’’.
The default values for on2Clicks and on3Clicks are ‘‘word’’ and
‘‘line’’, respectively. There is no default value for
on4Clicks or on5Clicks, making those inactive. On startup,
xterm determines the maximum number of clicks by the onXClicks
resource values which are set.
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 would 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 com‐
mand. 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
a blank string. 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 window 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.’’
scrollBarBorder (class ScrollBarBorder)
Specifies the width of the scrollbar border. Note that this is
drawn to overlap the border of the xterm window. Modifying the
scrollbar’s border affects only the line between the VT100 wid‐
get and the scrollbar. The default value is 1.
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 automat‐
ically cause the scrollbar to go to the bottom of the scrolling
region. The default is ‘‘true.’’
selectToClipboard (class SelectToClipboard)
Tells xterm whether to use the PRIMARY or CLIPBOARD for SELECT
tokens in the selection mechanism. The set-select action can
change this at runtime, allowing the user to work with programs
that handle only one of these mechanisms. The default is
‘‘false’’, which tells it to use PRIMARY.
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 win‐
dow. There is no default for this resource.
tekInhibit (class TekInhibit)
Specifies whether or not the escape sequence to enter Tektronix
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 without
wiping out the text that would be shown before the application
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. The translations resource, which
provides much of xterm’s configurability, is a feature of the X
Toolkit Intrinsics library (Xt). 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 disable underlin‐
ing when color is being used for the underline attribute. The
default is ‘‘true.’’
useClipping (class UseClipping)
Tell xterm whether to use clipping to keep from producing dots
outside the text drawing area. Originally used to work around
for overstriking effects, this is also needed to work with some
incorrectly-sized fonts. 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. The command-line option +u8
sets the resource to this value. Escape sequences for turn‐
ing UTF-8 mode on/off are allowed.
1 UTF-8 mode is initially on. Escape sequences for turning
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 as ‘‘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.
utf8Latin1 (class Utf8Latin1)
If true, allow an ISO-8859-1 normal font to be combined with an
ISO-10646 font if the latter is given via the -fw option or its
corresponding resource value. The default is ‘‘false.’’
utf8Title (class Utf8Title)
Applications can set xterm’s title by writing a control
sequence. Normally this control sequence follows the VT220
convention, which encodes the string in ISO-8859-1 and allows
for an 8-bit string terminator. If xterm is started in a UTF-8
locale, it translates the ISO-8859-1 string to UTF-8 to work
with the X libraries which assume the string is UTF-8.
However, some users may wish to write a title string encoded in
UTF-8. Set this resource to ‘‘true’’ to allow UTF-8 encoded
title strings. That cancels the translation to UTF-8, allowing
UTF-8 strings to be displayed as is.
The default is ‘‘false.’’
veryBoldColors (class VeryBoldColors)
Specifies whether to combine video attributes with colors spec‐
ified by colorBD, colorBL, colorRV and colorUL. The resource
value is the sum of values for each attribute:
1 for reverse,
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 char‐
acter escape sequences while in UTF-8 mode. The default is
‘‘true’’, to provide support for various legacy applications.
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 position.
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.
Tek4014 Widget Resources
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.
Menu Resources
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:
toolbar (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-toolbar(toggle) action.
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.
logging (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the logging(toggle) 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.
alt-esc (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the alt-sends-escape(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.
bellIsUrgent (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-bellIsUrgent(toggle) action.
poponbell (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-poponbell(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.
utf8-title (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-utf8-title(s) action.
The tekMenu has the following entries:
tektextlarge (class SmeBSB)
This entry invokes the set-tek-text(large) 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(small) 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.
Scrollbar Resources
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 scrollbar.
foreground (class Foreground)
Specifies the color to use for the foreground of the scrollbar.
The ‘‘thumb’’ of the scrollbar is a simple checkerboard pattern
alternating pixels for foreground and background color.
Once the VT102 window is created, xterm allows you to select text and
copy it within the same or other windows.
SELECTION
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 button is
released. Normally (but see the discussion of on2Clicks, etc):
- 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 selection.
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/but‐
ton 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’’ every‐
where 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 multi‐
ple-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 cut buffers are globally
shared among different applications, you may regard each as a ‘file’
whose contents you know. The terminal emulator and other text programs
should be treating it as if it were a text file, i.e., the text is
delimited by new lines.
SCROLLING
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.
TEKTRONIX POINTER
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. Pressing
button one, two, or three will return the letters ‘l’, ‘m’, and ‘r’,
respectively. If the ‘shift’ key is pressed when a pointer button is
pressed, the corresponding upper case letter is sent. To distinguish 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 horizontal
line. Some menu entries correspond to modes that can be altered. A
check mark appears next to a mode that is currently active. Selecting
one of these modes toggles its state. Other menu entries are commands;
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.
Main Options
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:
Toolbar
Clicking on the "Toolbar" menu entry hides the toolbar if
it is visible, and shows it if it is not.
Secure Keyboard (securekbd)
The Secure Keyboard mode is helpful when typing in pass‐
words or other sensitive data in an unsecure environment;
see SECURITY below (but read the limitations carefully).
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:
Log to File (logging)
Captures text sent to the screen in a logfile, as in the
-l logging option.
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 useful 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 Control
Sequences). This corresponds to the eightBitControl
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 modifiers.
This corresponds to the numLock resource.
Meta Sends Escape (meta-esc)
Controls whether Meta keys are converted into a two-char‐
acter 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).
VT Options
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 corresponds
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 linefeed
after each carriage return. There is no corresponding
command-line option or resource setting.
Enable Application Cursor Keys (appcursor)
Enable (or disable) application cursor keys. This corre‐
sponds to the appcursorDefault resource. There is no
corresponding command-line option.
Enable Application Keypad (appkeypad)
Enable (or disable) application keypad keys. This corre‐
sponds 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 corre‐
sponds 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.
Select to Clipboard (selectToClipboard)
Tell xterm whether to use the PRIMARY or CLIPBOARD for
SELECT tokens in the translations resource which maps
keyboard and mouse actions to select/paste actions. This
corresponds to the selectToClipboard resource. There is
no corresponding command-line option.
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 Bell Urgency (bellIsUrgent)
Enable (or disable) Urgency window manager hint when Con‐
trol-G is received. This corresponds to the bellIsUrgent
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 Blinking Cursor (cursorblink)
Enable (or disable) the blinking-cursor feature. This
corresponds to the -bc option and the cursorBlink
resource. There is also an escape sequence (see the doc‐
ument Xterm Control Sequences). The menu entry and the
escape sequence states are XOR’d: if both are enabled,
the cursor will not blink, if only one is enabled, the
cursor will blink.
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 corre‐
sponds 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 corre‐
sponds 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 win‐
dow.
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 Tektronix
4014 window if it was not already visible and switches
the input stream to that window. When disabled, shows
the VTxxx window, and switches the input stream to that
window.
Show Alternate Screen (altscreen)
When enabled, shows the alternate screen. When disabled,
shows the normal screen. Note that the normal screen may
have saved lines; the alternate screen does not.
VT Fonts
The fontMenu pops up when when the ‘‘control’’ key and pointer button
three are pressed in a window. It sets the font used in the VT102 win‐
dow, 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. Compare to the forceBoxChars resource.
Doublesized Characters (font-doublesize)
When set, xterm may ask the font server to produce scaled
versions of the normal font, for VT102 double-size char‐
acters.
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.
TEK Options
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 people.
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 ser‐
vices of the X protocol to snoop on your activities, potentially cap‐
turing a transcript of everything you type at the keyboard. Any pro‐
cess which has access to your X display can manipulate it in ways that
you might not anticipate, even redirecting your keyboard 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 decoration
around the window) while in Secure Keyboard mode. (This is a feature
of the X protocol not easily overcome.) When this happens, the fore‐
ground and background colors will be switched back and the bell will
sound in warning.
Clicking the left pointer button twice in rapid succession (double-
clicking) causes all characters of the same class (e.g., letters, white
space, punctuation) to be selected as a ‘‘word’’. Since different peo‐
ple have different preferences for what should be selected (for exam‐
ple, should filenames be selected as a whole or only the separate sub‐
names), the default mapping can be overridden through the use of the
charClass (class CharClass) 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,
/∗ e‘ e’ e^ e: i‘ i’ i^ i: */
48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
/∗ d n~ o‘ o’ o^ o~ o: -: */
48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 247,
/∗ o/ u‘ u’ u^ u: y’ P y: */
48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48};
For example, the string ‘‘33:48,37:48,45-47:48,38:48’’ indicates that
the exclamation mark, percent sign, dash, period, slash, and ampersand
characters should be treated the same way as characters and numbers.
This is useful for cutting and pasting electronic mailing addresses and
filenames.
ACTIONS
It is possible to rebind keys (or sequences of keys) to arbitrary
strings for input, by changing the translations resources for the vt100
or tek4014 widgets. Changing the translations resource for events
other than key and button events is not expected, and will cause unpre‐
dictable behavior. The following actions are provided for use within
the vt100 or tek4014 translations resources:
allow-send-events(on/off/toggle)
This action set or toggles the allowSendEvents resource and is
also invoked by the allowsends entry in mainMenu.
alt-sends-escape()
This action toggles the state of the eightBitInput resource.
bell([percent])
This action rings the keyboard bell at the specified percentage
above or below the base volume.
clear-saved-lines()
This action does hard-reset() (see below) and also clears the
history of lines saved off the top of the screen. It is also
invoked from the clearsavedlines entry in vtMenu. The effect
is identical to a hardware reset (RIS) control sequence.
create-menu(m/v/f/t)
This action creates one of the menus used by xterm, if it has
not been previously created. The parameter values are the menu
names: mainMenu, vtMenu, fontMenu, tekMenu, respectively.
dabbrev-expand()
Expands the word before cursor by searching in the preceding
text on the screen and in the scrollback buffer for words
starting with that abbreviation. Repeating dabbrev-expand()
several times in sequence searches for an alternative expansion
by looking farther back. Lack of more matches is signaled by a
beep(). Attempts to expand an empty word (i.e., when cursor is
preceded by a space) yield successively all previous words.
Consecutive identical expansions are ignored. The word here is
defined as a sequence of non-whitespace characters. This fea‐
ture partially emulates the behavior of ‘dynamic abbreviation’
expansion in Emacs (bound there to M-/). Here is a resource
setting for xterm which will do the same thing:
*VT100*translations: #override \n\
Meta <KeyPress> /:dabbrev-expand()
deiconify()
Changes the window state back to normal, if it was iconified.
delete-is-del()
This action toggles the state of the deleteIsDEL resource.
dired-button()
Handles a button event (other than press and release) by echo‐
ing the event’s position (i.e., character line and column) in
the following format:
^X ESC G <line+’ ’> <col+’ ’>
iconify()
Iconifies the window.
hard-reset()
This action resets the scrolling region, tabs, window size, and
cursor keys and clears the screen. It is also invoked from the
hardreset entry in vtMenu.
ignore()
This action ignores the event but checks for special pointer
position escape sequences.
insert()
This action inserts the character or string associated with the
key that was pressed.
insert-eight-bit()
This action inserts an eight-bit (Meta) version of the charac‐
ter or string associated with the key that was pressed. This
only applies to single-byte values. The exact action depends
on the value of the metaSendsEscape and the eightBitInput
resources. The metaSendsEscape resource is tested first.
The term "eight-bit" is misleading: xterm checks if the key’s
value is less than 128. If so, xterm adds 128 to the value,
setting its eighth bit. Otherwise xterm sends an ESC byte
before the key. In other applications’ documentation, that is
referred to as a "meta key".
insert-selection(sourcename [, ...])
This action inserts the string found in the selection or cut‐
buffer indicated by sourcename. Sources are checked in the
order given (case is significant) until one is found. Com‐
monly-used selections include: PRIMARY, SECONDARY, and CLIP‐
BOARD. Cut buffers are typically named CUT_BUFFER0 through
CUT_BUFFER7.
insert-seven-bit()
This action is a synonym for insert() The term "seven-bit" is
misleading: it only implies that xterm does not try to add 128
to the key’s value as in insert-eight-bit().
interpret(control-sequence)
Interpret the given control sequence locally, i.e., without
passing it to the host. This works by inserting the control
sequence at the front of the input buffer. Use "\" to escape
octal digits in the string. Xt does not allow you to put a
null character (i.e., "\000") in the string.
keymap(name)
This action dynamically defines a new translation table whose
resource name is name with the suffix Keymap (case is signifi‐
cant). The name None restores the original translation table.
larger-vt-font()
Set the font to the next larger one, based on the font dimen‐
sions. See also set-vt-font().
load-vt-fonts(name[,class])
Load fontnames from the given subresource name and class. That
is, load the "*VT100.name.font", resource as "*VT100.font" etc.
If no name is given, the original set of fontnames is restored.
Unlike set-vt-font(), this does not affect the escape- and
select-fonts, since those are not based on resource values. It
does affect the fonts loosely organized under the ‘‘Default’’
menu entry: font, boldFont, wideFont and wideBoldFont.
maximize()
Resizes the window to fill the screen.
meta-sends-escape()
This action toggles the state of the metaSendsEscape resource.
popup-menu(menuname)
This action displays the specified popup menu. Valid names
(case is significant) include: mainMenu, vtMenu, fontMenu, and
tekMenu.
print() This action prints the window and is also invoked by the print
entry in mainMenu.
print-redir()
This action toggles the printerControlMode between 0 and 2.
The corresponding popup menu entry is useful for switching the
printer off if you happen to change your mind after deciding to
print random binary files on the terminal.
quit() This action sends a SIGHUP to the subprogram and exits. It is
also invoked by the quit entry in mainMenu.
redraw()
This action redraws the window and is also invoked by the
redraw entry in mainMenu.
restore()
Restores the window to the size before it was last maximized.
scroll-back(count [,units [,mouse] ])
This action scrolls the text window backward so that text that
had previously scrolled off the top of the screen is now visi‐
ble.
The count argument indicates the number of units (which may be
page, halfpage, pixel, or line) by which to scroll.
An adjustment can be specified for these values by appending a
"+" or "-" sign followed by a number, e.g., page-2 to specify 2
lines less than a page.
If the third parameter mouse is given, the action is ignored
when mouse reporting is enabled.
scroll-forw(count [,units [,mouse] ])
This action is similar to scroll-back except that it scrolls in
the other direction.
secure()
This action toggles the Secure Keyboard mode described in the
section named SECURITY, and is invoked from the securekbd entry
in mainMenu.
select-cursor-end(destname [, ...])
This action is similar to select-end except that it should be
used with select-cursor-start.
select-cursor-extend()
This action is similar to select-extend except that it should
be used with select-cursor-start.
select-cursor-start()
This action is similar to select-start except that it begins
the selection at the current text cursor position.
select-end(destname [, ...])
This action puts the currently selected text into all of the
selections or cutbuffers specified by destname.
select-extend()
This action tracks the pointer and extends the selection. It
should only be bound to Motion events.
select-set()
This action stores text that corresponds to the current selec‐
tion, without affecting the selection mode.
select-start()
This action begins text selection at the current pointer loca‐
tion. See the section on POINTER USAGE for information on mak‐
ing selections.
send-signal(signame)
This action sends the signal named by signame to the xterm sub‐
process (the shell or program specified with the -e command
line option) and is also invoked by the suspend, continue,
interrupt, hangup, terminate, and kill entries in mainMenu.
Allowable signal names are (case is not significant): tstp (if
supported by the operating system), suspend (same as tstp),
cont (if supported by the operating system), int, hup, term,
quit, alrm, alarm (same as alrm) and kill.
set-allow132(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the c132 resource and is also invoked from
the allow132 entry in vtMenu.
set-altscreen(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles between the alternate and current screens.
set-appcursor(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the handling Application Cursor Key mode
and is also invoked by the appcursor entry in vtMenu.
set-appkeypad(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the handling of Application Keypad mode and
is also invoked by the appkeypad entry in vtMenu.
set-autolinefeed(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles automatic insertion of linefeeds and is
also invoked by the autolinefeed entry in vtMenu.
set-autowrap(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles automatic wrapping of long lines and is
also invoked by the autowrap entry in vtMenu.
set-backarrow(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the backarrowKey resource and is also
invoked from the backarrow key entry in vtMenu.
set-bellIsUrgent(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the bellIsUrgent resource and is also
invoked by the bellIsUrgent entry in vtMenu.
set-cursorblink(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the cursorBlink resource and is also
invoked from the cursorblink entry in vtMenu.
set-cursesemul(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the curses resource and is also invoked
from the cursesemul entry in vtMenu.
set-font-doublesize(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the fontDoublesize resource and is also
invoked by the font-doublesize entry in fontMenu.
set-hp-function-keys(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the hpFunctionKeys resource and is also
invoked by the hpFunctionKeys entry in mainMenu.
set-jumpscroll(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the jumpscroll resource and is also invoked
by the jumpscroll entry in vtMenu.
set-font-linedrawing(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the xterm’s state regarding whether the
current font has line-drawing characters and whether it should
draw them directly. It is also invoked by the font-linedrawing
entry in fontMenu.
set-logging()
This action toggles the state of the logging option.
set-old-function-keys(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the state of legacy function keys and is
also invoked by the oldFunctionKeys entry in mainMenu.
set-marginbell(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the marginBell resource.
set-num-lock()
This action toggles the state of the numLock resource.
set-pop-on-bell(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the popOnBell resource and is also invoked
by the poponbell entry in vtMenu.
set-render-font(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the renderFont resource and is also invoked
by the render-font entry in fontMenu.
set-reverse-video(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the reverseVideo resource and is also
invoked by the reversevideo entry in vtMenu.
set-reversewrap(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the reverseWrap resource and is also
invoked by the reversewrap entry in vtMenu.
set-scroll-on-key(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the scrollKey resource and is also invoked
from the scrollkey entry in vtMenu.
set-scroll-on-tty-output(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the scrollTtyOutput resource and is also
invoked from the scrollttyoutput entry in vtMenu.
set-scrollbar(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the scrollbar resource and is also invoked
by the scrollbar entry in vtMenu.
set-select(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the selectToClipboard resource and is also
invoked by the selectToClipboard entry in vtMenu.
set-sco-function-keys(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the scoFunctionKeys resource and is also
invoked by the scoFunctionKeys entry in mainMenu.
set-sun-function-keys(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the sunFunctionKeys resource and is also
invoked by the sunFunctionKeys entry in mainMenu.
set-sun-keyboard(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the sunKeyboard resource and is also
invoked by the sunKeyboard entry in mainMenu.
set-tek-text(large/2/3/small)
This action sets font used in the Tektronix window to the value
of the resources tektextlarge, tektext2, tektext3, and
tektextsmall according to the argument. It is also invoked by
the entries of the same names as the resources in tekMenu.
set-terminal-type(type)
This action directs output to either the vt or tek windows,
according to the type string. It is also invoked by the tek
mode entry in vtMenu and the vtmode entry in tekMenu.
set-titeInhibit(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the titeInhibit resource, which controls
switching between the alternate and current screens.
set-toolbar(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the toolbar feature and is also invoked by
the toolbar entry in mainMenu.
set-utf8-mode(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the utf8 resource and is also invoked by
the utf8-mode entry in fontMenu.
set-utf8-title(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the utf8Title resource and is also invoked
by the utf8-title entry in fontMenu.
set-visibility(vt/tek,on/off/toggle)
This action controls whether or not the vt or tek windows are
visible. It is also invoked from the tekshow and vthide
entries in vtMenu and the vtshow and tekhide entries in tek‐
Menu.
set-visual-bell(on/off/toggle)
This action toggles the visualBell resource and is also invoked
by the visualbell entry in vtMenu.
set-vt-font(d/1/2/3/4/5/6/e/s [,normalfont [, boldfont]])
This action sets the font or fonts currently being used in the
VT102 window. The first argument is a single character that
specifies the font to be used:
d or D indicate the default font (the font initially used when
xterm was started),
1 through 6 indicate the fonts specified by the font1 through
font6 resources,
e or E indicate the normal and bold fonts that have been set
through escape codes (or specified as the second and
third action arguments, respectively), and
s or S indicate the font selection (as made by programs such as
xfontsel(1)) indicated by the second action argument.
If xterm is configured to support wide characters, an addi‐
tional two optional parameters are recognized for the e argu‐
ment: wide font and wide bold font.
smaller-vt-font()
Set the font to the next smaller one, based on the font dimen‐
sions. See also set-vt-font().
soft-reset()
This action resets the scrolling region and is also invoked
from the softreset entry in vtMenu. The effect is identical to
a soft reset (DECSTR) control sequence.
spawn-new-terminal(params)
Spawn a new xterm process. This is available on systems which
have a modern version of the process filesystem, e.g., "/proc",
which xterm can read.
Use the "cwd" process entry, e.g., /proc/12345/cwd to obtain
the working directory of the process which is running in the
current xterm.
On systems which have the "exe" process entry, e.g.,
/proc/12345/exe, use this to obtain the actual executable.
Otherwise, use the $PATH variable to find xterm.
If parameters are given in the action, pass them to the new
xterm process.
start-extend()
This action is similar to select-start except that the selec‐
tion is extended to the current pointer location.
start-cursor-extend()
This action is similar to select-extend except that the selec‐
tion is extended to the current text cursor position.
string(string)
This action inserts the specified text string as if it had been
typed. Quotation is necessary if the string contains
whitespace or non-alphanumeric characters. If the string argu‐
ment begins with the characters ‘‘0x’’, it is interpreted as a
hex character constant.
tek-copy()
This action copies the escape codes used to generate the cur‐
rent window contents to a file in the current directory begin‐
ning with the name COPY. It is also invoked from the tekcopy
entry in tekMenu.
tek-page()
This action clears the Tektronix window and is also invoked by
the tekpage entry in tekMenu.
tek-reset()
This action resets the Tektronix window and is also invoked by
the tekreset entry in tekMenu.
vi-button()
Handles a button event (other than press and release) by echo‐
ing a control sequence computed from the event’s line number in
the screen relative to the current line:
ESC ^P
or
ESC ^N
according to whether the event is before, or after the current
line, respectively. The ^N (or ^P) is repeated once for each
line that the event differs from the current line. The control
sequence is omitted altogether if the button event is on the
current line.
visual-bell()
This action flashes the window quickly.
The Tektronix window also has the following action:
gin-press(l/L/m/M/r/R)
This action sends the indicated graphics input code.
The default bindings in the VT102 window use the SELECT token, which is
set by the selectToClipboard resource:
Shift <KeyPress> Prior:scroll-back(1,halfpage) \n\
Shift <KeyPress> Next:scroll-forw(1,halfpage) \n\
Shift <KeyPress> Select:select-cursor-start() \
select-cursor-end(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
Shift <KeyPress> Insert:insert-selection(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
<KeyPress> XF86Paste:insert-selection(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
<KeyPress> SunPaste:insert-selection(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
Shift~Ctrl <KeyPress> KP_Add:larger-vt-font() \n\
Shift Ctrl <KeyPress> KP_Add:smaller-vt-font() \n\
Shift <KeyPress> KP_Subtract:smaller-vt-font() \n\
~Meta <KeyPress>:insert-seven-bit() \n\
Meta <KeyPress>:insert-eight-bit() \n\
!Ctrl <Btn1Down>:popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
!Lock Ctrl <Btn1Down>:popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
!Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn1Down>:popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
! @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn1Down>:popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
~Meta <Btn1Down>:select-start() \n\
~Meta <Btn1Motion>:select-extend() \n\
!Ctrl <Btn2Down>:popup-menu(vtMenu) \n\
!Lock Ctrl <Btn2Down>:popup-menu(vtMenu) \n\
!Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn2Down>:popup-menu(vtMenu) \n\
! @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn2Down>:popup-menu(vtMenu) \n\
~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn2Down>:ignore() \n\
Meta <Btn2Down>:clear-saved-lines() \n\
~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn2Up>:insert-selection(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
!Ctrl <Btn3Down>:popup-menu(fontMenu) \n\
!Lock Ctrl <Btn3Down>:popup-menu(fontMenu) \n\
!Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn3Down>:popup-menu(fontMenu) \n\
! @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn3Down>:popup-menu(fontMenu) \n\
~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn3Down>:start-extend() \n\
~Meta <Btn3Motion>:select-extend() \n\
Ctrl <Btn4Down>:scroll-back(1,halfpage,m) \n\
Lock Ctrl <Btn4Down>:scroll-back(1,halfpage,m) \n\
Lock @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn4Down>:scroll-back(1,halfpage,m) \n\
@Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn4Down>:scroll-back(1,halfpage,m) \n\
<Btn4Down>:scroll-back(5,line,m) \n\
Ctrl <Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(1,halfpage,m) \n\
Lock Ctrl <Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(1,halfpage,m) \n\
Lock @Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(1,halfpage,m) \n\
@Num_Lock Ctrl <Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(1,halfpage,m) \n\
<Btn5Down>:scroll-forw(5,line,m) \n\
<BtnUp>:select-end(SELECT, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
<BtnDown>:ignore()
The default bindings for the scrollbar widget are separate from the
VT100 widget:
<Btn5Down>: StartScroll(Forward) \n\
<Btn1Down>: StartScroll(Forward) \n\
<Btn2Down>: StartScroll(Continuous) MoveThumb() NotifyThumb() \n\
<Btn3Down>: StartScroll(Backward) \n\
<Btn4Down>: StartScroll(Backward) \n\
<Btn2Motion>: MoveThumb() NotifyThumb() \n\
<BtnUp>: NotifyScroll(Proportional) EndScroll()
The default bindings in the Tektronix window are:
~Meta<KeyPress>: insert-seven-bit() \n\
Meta<KeyPress>: insert-eight-bit() \n\
!Ctrl <Btn1Down>: popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
!Lock Ctrl <Btn1Down>: popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
!Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn1Down>: popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
!Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn1Down>: popup-menu(mainMenu) \n\
!Ctrl <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(tekMenu) \n\
!Lock Ctrl <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(tekMenu) \n\
!Lock Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(tekMenu) \n\
!Ctrl @Num_Lock <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(tekMenu) \n\
Shift ~Meta<Btn1Down>: gin-press(L) \n\
~Meta<Btn1Down>: gin-press(l) \n\
Shift ~Meta<Btn2Down>: gin-press(M) \n\
~Meta<Btn2Down>: gin-press(m) \n\
Shift ~Meta<Btn3Down>: gin-press(R) \n\
~Meta<Btn3Down>: gin-press(r)
Here is an example which uses shifted select/paste to copy to the clip‐
board, and unshifted select/paste for the primary selection. In each
case, a (different) cut buffer is also a target or source of the
select/paste operation. It is important to remember however, that cut
buffers store data in ISO-8859-1 encoding, while selections can store
data in a variety of formats and encodings. While xterm owns the
selection, it highlights it. When it loses the selection, it removes
the corresponding highlight. But you can still paste from the corre‐
sponding cut buffer.
*VT100*translations: #override \n\
~Shift~Ctrl<Btn2Up>: insert-selection(PRIMARY, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
Shift~Ctrl<Btn2Up>: insert-selection(CLIPBOARD, CUT_BUFFER1) \n\
~Shift<BtnUp>: select-end(PRIMARY, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
Shift<BtnUp>: select-end(CLIPBOARD, CUT_BUFFER1)
Below is a sample how of the keymap() action is used to add special
keys for entering commonly-typed works:
*VT100.Translations: #override <Key>F13: keymap(dbx)
*VT100.dbxKeymap.translations: \
<Key>F14: keymap(None) \n\
<Key>F17: string("next") string(0x0d) \n\
<Key>F18: string("step") string(0x0d) \n\
<Key>F19: string("continue") string(0x0d) \n\
<Key>F20: string("print ") insert-selection(PRIMARY, CUT_BUFFER0)
Some people prefer using the left pointer button for dragging the
scrollbar thumb. That can be setup by altering the translations
resource, e.g.,
*VT100.scrollbar.translations:#override \n\
<Btn5Down>:StartScroll(Forward) \n\
<Btn1Down>:StartScroll(Continuous) MoveThumb() NotifyThumb() \n\
<Btn4Down>:StartScroll(Backward) \n\
<Btn1Motion>:MoveThumb() NotifyThumb() \n\
<BtnUp>: NotifyScroll(Proportional) EndScroll()
The Xterm Control Sequences document lists the control sequences which
an application can send xterm to make it perform various operations.
Most of these operations are standardized, from either the DEC or Tek‐
tronix terminals, or from more widely used standards such as ISO-6429.
ENVIRONMENT
Xterm sets several environment variables:
DISPLAY
is the display name, pointing to the X server (see DISPLAY NAMES
in X(33:)).
TERM is set according to the termcap (or terminfo) entry which it is
using as a reference.
WINDOWID
is set to the X window id number of the xterm window.
XTERM_LOCALE
shows the locale which was used by xterm on startup. Some shell
initialization scripts may set a different locale.
XTERM_SHELL
is set to the pathname of the program which is invoked. Usually
that is a shell program, e.g., /bin/sh. Since it is not necessar‐
ily a shell program however, it is distinct from ‘‘SHELL’’.
XTERM_VERSION
is set to the string displayed by the -version option. That is
normally an identifier for the X Window libraries used to build
xterm, followed by xterm’s patch number in parenthesis. The patch
number is also part of the response to a Secondary Device
Attributes (DA) control sequence (see Xterm Control Sequences).
Depending on your system configuration, xterm may also set the follow‐
ing:
COLUMNS
the width of the xterm in characters (cf: "stty columns").
HOME when xterm is configured to update utmp.
LINES
the height of the xterm in characters (cf: "stty rows").
LOGNAME
when xterm is configured to update utmp.
SHELL
when xterm is configured to update utmp. It is also set if you
provide the shell name as the optional parameter.
TERMCAP
the contents of the termcap entry corresponding to $TERM, with
lines and columns values substituted for the actual size window
you have created.
TERMINFO
may be defined to a nonstandard location in the configure script.
FILES
The actual pathnames given may differ on your system.
/var/run/utmp
the system logfile, which records user logins.
/var/log/wtmp
the system logfile, which records user logins and logouts.
/etc/X11/app-defaults/XTerm
the xterm default application resources.
/etc/X11/app-defaults/XTerm-color
the xterm color application resources. If your display supports
color, use this
*customization: -color
in your .Xdefaults file to automatically use this resource file
rather than /etc/X11/app-defaults/XTerm. If you do not do this,
xterm uses its compiled-in default resource settings for colors.
Most of the fatal error messages from xterm use the following format:
xterm: Error XXX, errno YYY: ZZZ
The XXX codes (which are used by xterm as its exit-code) are listed
below, with a brief explanation.
1 is used for miscellaneous errors, usually accompanied by a spe‐
cific message,
11 ERROR_FIONBIO
main: ioctl() failed on FIONBIO
12 ERROR_F_GETFL
main: ioctl() failed on F_GETFL
13 ERROR_F_SETFL
main: ioctl() failed on F_SETFL
14 ERROR_OPDEVTTY
spawn: open() failed on /dev/tty
15 ERROR_TIOCGETP
spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCGETP
17 ERROR_PTSNAME
spawn: ptsname() failed
18 ERROR_OPPTSNAME
spawn: open() failed on ptsname
19 ERROR_PTEM
spawn: ioctl() failed on I_PUSH/"ptem"
20 ERROR_CONSEM
spawn: ioctl() failed on I_PUSH/"consem"
21 ERROR_LDTERM
spawn: ioctl() failed on I_PUSH/"ldterm"
22 ERROR_TTCOMPAT
spawn: ioctl() failed on I_PUSH/"ttcompat"
23 ERROR_TIOCSETP
spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCSETP
24 ERROR_TIOCSETC
spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCSETC
25 ERROR_TIOCSETD
spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCSETD
26 ERROR_TIOCSLTC
spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCSLTC
27 ERROR_TIOCLSET
spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCLSET
28 ERROR_INIGROUPS
spawn: initgroups() failed
29 ERROR_FORK
spawn: fork() failed
30 ERROR_EXEC
spawn: exec() failed
32 ERROR_PTYS
get_pty: not enough ptys
34 ERROR_PTY_EXEC
waiting for initial map
35 ERROR_SETUID
spawn: setuid() failed
36 ERROR_INIT
spawn: can’t initialize window
46 ERROR_TIOCKSET
spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCKSET
47 ERROR_TIOCKSETC
spawn: ioctl() failed on TIOCKSETC
48 ERROR_SPREALLOC
spawn: realloc of ttydev failed
49 ERROR_LUMALLOC
luit: command-line malloc failed
50 ERROR_SELECT
in_put: select() failed
54 ERROR_VINIT
VTInit: can’t initialize window
57 ERROR_KMMALLOC1
HandleKeymapChange: malloc failed
60 ERROR_TSELECT
Tinput: select() failed
64 ERROR_TINIT
TekInit: can’t initialize window
71 ERROR_BMALLOC2
SaltTextAway: malloc() failed
80 ERROR_LOGEXEC
StartLog: exec() failed
83 ERROR_XERROR
xerror: XError event
84 ERROR_XIOERROR
xioerror: X I/O error
90 ERROR_SCALLOC
Alloc: calloc() failed on base
91 ERROR_SCALLOC2
Alloc: calloc() failed on rows
92 ERROR_SREALLOC
ScreenResize: realloc() failed on alt base
96 ERROR_RESIZE
ScreenResize: malloc() or realloc() failed
102 ERROR_SAVE_PTR
ScrnPointers: malloc/realloc() failed
110 ERROR_SBRALLOC
ScrollBarOn: realloc() failed on base
111 ERROR_SBRALLOC2
ScrollBarOn: realloc() failed on rows
121 ERROR_MMALLOC
my_memmove: malloc/realloc failed
BUGS
Large pastes do not work on some systems. This is not a bug in xterm;
it is a bug in the pseudo terminal driver of those systems. xterm
feeds large pastes to the pty only as fast as the pty will accept data,
but some pty drivers do not return enough information to know if the
write has succeeded.
Many of the options are not resettable after xterm starts.
This program still needs to be rewritten. It should be split into very
modular sections, with the various emulators being completely separate
widgets that do not know about each other. Ideally, you’d like to be
able to pick and choose emulator widgets and stick them into a single
control widget.
There needs to be a dialog box to allow entry of the Tek COPY file
name.
resize(1), luit(1), X(33:), pty(4), tty(4)
Xterm Control Sequences (this is the file ctlseqs.ms).
http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.html
http://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html
AUTHORS
Far too many people, including:
Loretta Guarino Reid (DEC-UEG-WSL), Joel McCormack (DEC-UEG-WSL), Terry
Weissman (DEC-UEG-WSL), Edward Moy (Berkeley), Ralph R. Swick (MIT-
Athena), Mark Vandevoorde (MIT-Athena), Bob McNamara (DEC-MAD), Jim
Gettys (MIT-Athena), Bob Scheifler (MIT X Consortium), Doug Mink (SAO),
Steve Pitschke (Stellar), Ron Newman (MIT-Athena), Jim Fulton (MIT X
Consortium), Dave Serisky (HP), Jonathan Kamens (MIT-Athena), Jason
Bacon, Stephen P. Wall, David Wexelblat, and Thomas Dickey (invisible-
island.net).
X Window System XTERM(1)