Provided by: xvt_2.1-20.1ubuntu1_amd64 bug

NAME

       xvt - VT100 emulator for the X window system

SYNOPSIS

       xvt [ options ]

DESCRIPTION

       Xvt  is a VT100 terminal emulator for X.  It is intended as a replacement for xterm(1) for
       users who do not require the more esoteric features of xterm.  Specifically xvt  does  not
       implement the Tektronix 4014 emulation, session logging and toolkit style configurability.
       As a result, xvt uses much less swap space than xterm  -  a  significant  advantage  on  a
       machine serving many X sessions.

OPTIONS

       The  options  supported  by  xvt (which, with the exception of -msg, are a subset of those
       supported by xterm) are listed  below.   Most  command  line  arguments  have  X  resource
       equivalents and these are listed in the following table.

       -e command [ arguments ]
              Run  the command with its command line arguments in the xvt window.  If this option
              is used, it must be the last on the command line.  If there is no  -e  option  then
              the  default  is to run the program specified by the SHELL environment variable or,
              failing that, sh(1).  This option also causes the window title and icon name to  be
              set  to the name of the program being executed if the are not overwritten by a more
              specific option.

       -display display-name
              Attempt to open the xvt window on the named X display.   In  the  absence  if  this
              option, the display specified by the DISPLAY environment variable is used.

       -geometry window-geometry
              Create the window with the specified X window geometry.

       -background color
              Use the specified color as the window's background color.

       -bg color
              Same as -background.

       -foreground color
              Use the specified colour as the window's foreground color.

       -fg color
              Same as -foreground.

       -cr color
              Set the color used for the text cursor.

       -bw number
              Set the window border width to number pixels.  Many window managers ignore existing
              window borders and construct their own and so, if  you  are  using  such  a  window
              manager, this option will be ignored.

       -bd color
              Set  the  border  color.   As  with  border  width,  this  option  will  usually be
              disregarded with respect to the window's outer border.  It does, however,  set  the
              color of the line separating the scroll bar from the main part of the window.

       -font fontname
              Set the main text font used by xvt.

       -fn fontname
              Same as -font.

       -fb fontname
              Set  the  font  used for the vt100 bold rendition style.  If this option is not set
              then xvt will render in bold by overprinting the normal font.

       -name name
              Set the name that is used when looking up X resource values for  this  instance  of
              xvt.   This  option  also  sets  the icon name and window title unless they are set
              explicitly.

       -title text
              Set the string that is displayed in the window's title bar if it has one.

       -T text
              Same as -title

       -n text
              Set the name that will be used to label the window's icon or displayed in  an  icon
              manager  window.   This  option  also  sets  the  window's  title  unless it is set
              explicitly.

       -sl number
              Set an upper bound for the number of lines  that  will  be  saved  when  they  have
              scrolled off the top of the window.

       -sb    Start  up  with the scrollbar visible.  The scrollbar can be displayed or hidden at
              any time simply by holding down the CONTROL key on the keyboard  and  pressing  any
              mouse  button.  The visibility of the scrollbar does not determine whether scrolled
              text is saved or not - as with xterm, text scrolled off the top of  the  window  is
              always saved up to the current maximum number of lines.

       -rw    Enable  reverse wrapping of the cursor so that, for example, lines typed to a shell
              that are longer than the width of the screen can be edited.  This is  the  same  as
              the xterm reverse wrap option.

       -cc string
              Input  or  modify  the  character classes that are used to determine what is a word
              when a double click is used to select a word of displayed text.  This is  identical
              to  the  same  option in xterm - see the xterm manual page for a description of the
              syntax of string.

       -iconic
              Start up with the window already iconized.

       -msg   Enable messages to the terminal window from programs like  write(1).   By  default,
              xvt  windows have messages disabled.  Executing an xvt with the -msg option has the
              same effect as running it normally and then executing the command mesg y to  enable
              messages.

       -8     Treat  characters  as  having  eight bits - this is the default.  When in eight bit
              mode, xvt displays eight bit characters and pressing a keyboard key with  the  Meta
              key held down generates the character code with the MSB set.

       -7     Treat characters as having seven bits.  In this mode, each character is stripped to
              seven bits before it is displayed and pressing a keybaord key  with  the  Meta  key
              held down causes the normal character to be preceded by the Escape character.

       -ls    Run  a  login  shell.   This  option  causes  xvt  to execute its shell with a name
              beginning with `-'.  In the case of csh(1) this results in the .login  and  .logout
              files being interpreted at the start and end of the session.

       -sf    Enable  Sun  function  key  escape codes.  The default is standard xterm compatible
              function codes.

       -rv    Run in reverse video - that is, exchange  the  foreground  and  background  colors.
              This  option  has  no  effect  if  either the foreground or background color is set
              explicitly.

       -C     Connect this terminal to the system console.  This option is only  implemented  for
              SunOS 4 and for a user who has read and write access to /dev/console.

       -console
              Same as -C.

X RESOURCES

       Almost  all  the command line options have X resource counterparts and these are listed in
       the following table.  Like xterm, xvt uses the class name XTerm and  so  resource  options
       set for XTerm will work for both xterm and xvt windows.

                                  Command line options and X resources
                        ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                                                          X resource
                            Command line          Instance            Class
                        ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                        -background or -bg     background        Background
                        -bd                    borderColor       BorderColor
                        -bw                    borderWidth       BorderWidth
                        -C or -console         -                 -
                        -cc                    charClass         CharClass
                        -cr                    cursorColor       CursorColor
                        -display               -                 -
                        -e                     -                 -
                        -fb                    boldFont          BoldFont
                        -font or -fn           font              Font
                        -foreground or -fg     foreground        Foreground
                        -geometry              geometry          Geometry
                        -iconic                iconic            Iconic
                        -ls                    loginShell        LoginShell
                        -msg                   messages          Messages
                        -n                     iconName          IconName
                        -name                  -                 -
                        -rv                    reverseVideo      ReverseVideo
                        -rw                    reverseWrap       ReverseWrap
                        -sb                    scrollBar         ScrollBar
                        -sf                    sunFunctionKeys   SunFunctionKeys
                        -sl                    saveLines         SaveLines
                        -title or -T           title             Title
                        -8 (on) and -7 (off)   eightBitInput     EightBitInput

NAMES TITLES AND ICON NAMES

       One  occasionally  confusing  aspect  of xvt and other X applications is the collection of
       names that an application window can have and the relationship between the names  and  the
       command  line options used to set them.  This section attempts to make the situation a bit
       clearer in the case of xvt.

       In fact, each terminal window has three names, its resource name, its title and  its  icon
       name.   These three names are distinct and have different functions, although they usually
       have the same value.  The resource name is the command name used to  identify  X  resource
       options  in  the  resources database, The title is the text that is displayed in the title
       bar, if there is one, and the icon name is the name that appears in the window's  icon  or
       represents it in the icon manager window.

       The  rule  about  which option sets which name is that -name and -e set both the title and
       the icon name in addition to their main function and -n sets the title as well as the icon
       name.   Conflicts  are  resolved by giving the options priorities which are, in increasing
       order, -e, -name, -n and -title.  Hence, for example, -e only sets the title  if  none  of
       the other options is used.

THE SCROLL BAR

       Lines  of  text that scroll off the top of the xvt window are saved automatically (up to a
       preset maximum number) and can be viewed by scrolling them back into the window  with  the
       scrollbar.   The  scrollbar itself can be displayed or hidden by clicking any mouse button
       in the window while holding down  the  CONTROL  key  on  the  keyboard.   When  using  the
       scrollbar,  the  left  and  right mouse buttons are used for scrolling by a few lines at a
       time and the middle button is used for continuous scrolling.  To use  the  middle  button,
       press  it  in  the  scroll bar and hold it down.  the central shaded part of the scrollbar
       will then attach itself to the cursor and can be slid up or down to show  different  parts
       of  the sequence of saved lines.  When scrolling with the left and right buttons, the left
       button is used to scroll up and the right is used to scroll down.  Assuming that there are
       enough  hidden  lines,  the distance scrolled with either button is equal to the number of
       lines between the cursor and the top of the  window.   Hence,  pressing  the  left  cursor
       opposite  a  line of text will result in that line being moved to be the top of the window
       and pressing the right button will cause the top line to be  moved  down  so  that  it  is
       opposite the cursor.

TEXT SELECTION AND INSERTION

       Xvt  uses  the same kind of text selection and insertion mechanism as xterm.  Pressing and
       releasing the middle mouse button in an xvt window causes the current text selection to be
       inserted  as  if it had been typed on the keyboard.  For the insertion to take place, both
       the button press and the button release need to be done with the cursor in the xvt window.

       The left and right mouse buttons are used to select text, with the left button being  used
       to start a selection and the right button being used to modify an existing selection.  Any
       continuous block of displayed text can be selected.  If both ends of the  text  block  are
       visible  in  the window then the easiest way to select it is to position the cursor at one
       end and press the left mouse button, then drag the cursor to the other end with the button
       held  down  before  releasing the button.  If the block is larger than the window then you
       must first use the left mouse button to select one end, then use the scroll bar to  scroll
       the  other  end  into view and finally use the right mouse button to extend the selection.
       The effect of pressing the right mouse button is to move the nearest end  of  the  current
       selection to the current cursor position.

       The  other  way  to  make selections in xvt is to use double and triple clicks of the left
       mouse button with a double click selecting a word and a triple  click  selecting  a  whole
       line.   For  this  purpose,  a  word  is  a sequence of characters in the same class.  The
       default character classes are:

       +  the upper and lower case letters, digits and '_' (underscore) all in one class;

       +  the white space characters all in one class;

       +  each of the remaining punctuation characters in a class by itself.

       If you want to change the character classes so that, for example, you can  select  a  UNIX
       pathname  or  a  mail  address  in  one  double click, then you can do so by using the -cc
       command line option or the charClass X resource.  Multiple clicking can be  combined  with
       dragging to select a sequence of consecutive words or lines.

       Although  xvt  essentially  mimics the behaviour of xterm in its support of text selection
       and insertion, there are a couple of minor differences:

       +  xvt respects TAB characters in selected text and does not  automatically  convert  them
          into spaces as does xterm;

       +  xvt  will  let you abort a text insertion if you realise you have made a mistake before
          releasing the middle mouse button.

BUGS

       Pasting very large quantities of text does not work.

AUTHOR

       John Bovey, University of Kent, 1992 and 1993.