XTERM

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 terminals 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), Tektronix graphics will be restricted to the largest box with a 4014’s aspect ratio that will fit in the window. This box is located in the upper left area of the window.

Although both windows may be displayed at the same time, one of them is considered the ‘‘active’’ window for receiving keyboard input and terminal output. This is the window that contains the text cursor. The active window can be chosen through escape sequences, the ‘‘VT Options’’ menu in the VTxxx window, and the ‘‘Tek Options’’ menu in the 4014 window.

EMULATIONS

The VT102 emulation is fairly complete, but does not support autorepeat. 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 control 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 available in this version of xterm. Some (e.g., the non-VT220 extensions) are available only if they were compiled in, though the most commonly-used are in the default configuration.

OTHER FEATURES

Xterm automatically highlights the text cursor when the pointer enters the window (selected) and unhighlights it when the pointer leaves the window (unselected). If the window is the focus window, then the text cursor is highlighted no matter where the pointer is.

In VT102 mode, there are escape sequences to activate and deactivate an alternate screen buffer, which is the same size as the display area of the window. When activated, the current screen is saved and replaced with the alternate screen. Saving of lines scrolled off the top of the window is disabled until the normal screen is restored. The termcap(5) entry for xterm allows the visual editor vi(1) to switch to the alternate screen for editing and to restore the screen on exit. A popup menu entry makes it simple to switch between the normal and alternate screens for cut and paste.

In either VT102 or Tektronix mode, there are escape sequences to change the name of the windows. Additionally, in VT102 mode, xterm implements the window-manipulation control sequences from dtterm, such as resizing the window, setting its location on the screen.

Xterm allows character-based applications to receive mouse events (currently button-press and release events, and button-motion events) as keyboard control sequences. See Xterm Control Sequences for details.

OPTIONS

The xterm terminal emulator accepts 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 configuration scripts:
-version

This causes xterm to print a version number to the standard output.

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:

-b number

This option specifies the size of the inner border (the distance between the outer edge of the characters and the window border) in pixels. That is the vt100 internalBorder resource. The default is 2.

-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.

-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, characters 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 programs 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.

-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 parameter.

-e program [ arguments ... ]

This option specifies the program (and its command line arguments) 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 supported by using luit. The -lc option should be used instead of -en for systems with locale support.

-fb font

This option specifies a font to be used when displaying bold text. This font must be the same height and width as the normal font. If only one of the normal or bold fonts is specified, 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 initially active.

-fd pattern

This option sets the pattern for double-width fonts selected from the FreeType library if support for that library was compiled 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 doublewidth 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).

-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.

-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, tcapFunctionKeys and sunKeyboard, using the Sun/PC keyboard layout.

or

depending on how xterm was built.

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.

-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.

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 consistent 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.

-mc milliseconds

This option specifies the maximum time between multi-click selections.

-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 cursor. 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.

-rightbar

Force scrollbar to the right side of VT100 screen.

-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.

-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.

-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.

-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 functions, 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 terminal 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.

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.

-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 immediately, showing you which window has the output. (A similar feature was in x10 xterm.)

-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.

-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.

-w number

This option specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding 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 ‘‘XtDefaultForeground’’.

-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 surrounding 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 window 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(7).

-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(7).

-name name

This option specifies the application name under which resources are to be obtained, rather than the default executable file name. Name should not contain ‘‘.’’ or ‘‘*’’ characters.

-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 separate 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 feature.

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, tcapFunctionKeys 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 initially. 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 unnecessary (and very large) fonts, e.g., in a locale having UTF-8 encoding. The default is an empty string, which uses the current 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 initialization 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 initialization 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 characteristics. 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 systems, ‘‘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 session 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 sunKeyboard set to ‘‘false’’), xterm uses PC-style bindings for the function keys and keypad.

PC-style bindings use the Shift, Alt, Control and Meta keys as modifiers for function-keys and keypad (see the document Xterm Control Sequences for details). The PC-style bindings are analogous to PCTerm, but not the same thing. Normally these bindings do not conflict with the use of the Meta key as described for the eightBitInput resource. If they do, note that the PC-style bindings are evaluated first. 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 keyboardType resource.

termName (class TermName)

Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM environment 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 literal backslash in an X resource escapes the next character.

This is very useful for overriding the default terminal settings 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 window 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 iconified 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 application icon windows. Some window managers will allow you to enter keystrokes into the active icon window. The default is ‘‘false.’’

allowC1Printable (class AllowC1Printable)

If true, overrides the mapping of C1 controls (codes 128-159) to make them be treated as if they were printable characters. Although this corresponds to no particular standard, some users insist it is a VT100. The default is ‘‘false.’’

allowSendEvents (class AllowSendEvents)

Specifies whether or not synthetic key and button events (generated using the X protocol SendEvent request) should be interpreted or discarded. The default is ‘‘false’’ meaning they are discarded. Note that allowing such events creates a very large security hole. The default is ‘‘false.’’

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 modifier 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 combining the Alt- and Meta-modifiers, you can create corresponding 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 handle the boldMode resource. The default is ‘‘false.’’

alwaysHighlight (class AlwaysHighlight)

Specifies whether or not xterm should always display a highlighted 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 timeout to await input (i.e., to support the Xaw3d arrow scrollbar). The default is ‘‘false.’’

backarrowKey (class BackarrowKey)

Specifies whether the backarrow key transmits a backspace (8) or delete (127) character. This corresponds to the DECBKM control sequence. The default (backspace) is ‘‘true.’’ Pressing the control key toggles this behavior.

background (class Background)

Specifies the color to use for the background of the window. The default is ‘‘XtDefaultBackground.’’

bellIsUrgent (class BellIsUrgent)

Specifies whether to set the Urgency hint for the window manager 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 overstriking. 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 selections (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 provide the bold font that xterm requests, but the result is not always readable. XFree86 provides a feature which can be used to suppress the scaling. In the X server’s configuration file (e.g., "/etc/X11/XFree86"), you can add ":unscaled" to the end of the directory specification for the "misc" fonts, which comprise the fixed-pitch fonts that are used by xterm. For example
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"

would become
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/:unscaled"

Depending on your configuration, the font server may have its own configuration file. The same ":unscaled" can be added to its configuration file at the end of the directory specification 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)

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 disables all colors, including this. The default is ‘‘false.’’

colorUL (class ColorUL)

This specifies the color to use to display underlined characters 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.’’ By default, 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.

Setting this resource overrides most of xterm’s adjustments to cursor color. It will still use reverse-video to disallow some cases, such as a black cursor on a black background.

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 presented as a single character with the eighth bit turned on. The terminal is put into 8-bit mode. If ‘‘false’’, Meta characters are converted into a two-character sequence with the character itself preceded by ESC. On startup, xterm tries to put the terminal into 7-bit mode. The metaSendsEscape and altSendsEscape 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 modifiers for shift, (caps) lock and control, as well as 5 additional modifiers which are generally used to configure key modifiers. xterm inspects the same information to find the modifier associated with either Meta key (left or right), and uses that key as the Meta modifier. It also looks for the NumLock key, to recognize the modifier which is associated with that.

If your xmodmap configuration uses the same keycodes for Alt- and Meta-keys, xterm will only see the Alt-key definitions, since those are tested before Meta-keys. NumLock is tested first. It is important to keep these keys distinct; otherwise some of xterm’s functionality is not available.

eightBitOutput (class EightBitOutput)

Specifies whether or not eight-bit characters sent from the host should be accepted as is or stripped when printed. The default is ‘‘true,’’ which means that they are accepted as is.

faceName (class FaceName)

Specify the pattern for fonts selected from the FreeType library if support for that library was compiled into xterm. There is no default. If not specified, or if there is no match for both normal and bold fonts, xterm uses the font and related resources.

faceNameDoublesize (class FaceNameDoublesize)

Specify an double-width font for cases where an application requires this, e.g., in CJK applications. There is no default. If the application uses double-wide characters and this resource is not given, xterm will use a scaled version of the font given by faceName.

faceSize (class FaceSize)

Specify the pointsize for fonts selected from the FreeType library if support for that library was compiled into xterm. The default is ‘‘14.’’ On the VT Fonts menu, this corresponds to the Default entry. You can specify the pointsize for TrueType 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 doublesize characters by drawing normal characters with spaces between them.

forceBoxChars (class ForceBoxChars)

Specifies whether xterm should assume the normal and bold fonts have VT100 line-drawing characters:

If ‘‘false’’, xterm checks for missing glyphs in the font and makes line-drawing characters directly as needed. If ‘‘true’’, xterm assumes the font does not contain the line-drawing characters, and draws them directly. The default is ‘‘false.’’

foreground (class Foreground)

Specifies the color to use for displaying text in the window. Setting the class name instead of the instance name is an easy way to have everything that would normally appear in the text color change color. The default is ‘‘XtDefaultForeground.’’

formatOtherKeys (class FormatOtherKeys)

Overrides the format of the escape sequence used to report modified keys with the modifyOtherKeys resource.

freeBoldBox (class FreeBoldBox)

Specifies whether xterm should assume the bounding boxes for normal and bold fonts are compatible. If ‘‘false’’, xterm compares them and will reject choices of bold fonts that do not match the size of the normal font. The default is ‘‘false’’, which means that the comparison is performed.

geometry (class Geometry)

Specifies the preferred size and position of the VT102 window. There is no default for this resource.

highlightColor (class HighlightColor)

Specifies the color to use for the background of selected (highlighted) text. If not specified (i.e., matching the default foreground), reverse video is used. The default is ‘‘XtDefaultForeground.’’

highlightColorMode (class HighlightColorMode)

Specifies whether xterm should use highlightTextColor and highlightColor to override the reversed foreground/background colors in a selection. The default is unspecified: at startup, xterm checks if those resources are set to something other than the default foreground and background colors. Setting this resource disables the check.

The following table shows the interaction of the highlighting resources, abbreviated as shown to fit in this page:
HCM

highlightColorMode

HBG

highlightColor

HFG

highlightTextColor

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 highlightTextColor resources, e.g., to match the color scheme of xwsh. If ‘‘true’’, xterm reverses the colors, If ‘‘false’’, xterm does not reverse 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 positions that contain text that can be selected. The default is ‘‘false.’’

Depending on the way your applications write to the screen, there may be trailing blanks on a line. Xterm stores data as it is shown on the screen. Erasing the display changes the internal state of each cell so it is not considered a blank for the purpose of selection. Blanks written since the last erase are selectable. If you do not wish to have trailing blanks in a selection, use the trimSelection resource.

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 characters. It is implemented only for TrueType fonts.

jumpScroll (class JumpScroll)

Specifies whether or not jump scroll should be used. This corresponds to the VT102 DECSCLM private mode. The default is ‘‘true.’’

keepSelection (class KeepSelection)

Specifies whether xterm will keep the selection even after the selected area was touched by some output to the terminal. The default is ‘‘false’’.

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 according to utf8 resource or -u8 option.

Any other value, e.g., ‘‘UTF-8’’ or ‘‘ISO8859-2’’, is assumed to be an encoding name; luit will be invoked to support the encoding. The actual list of supported encodings depends on luit. The default is ‘‘medium’’.

Regardless of your locale and encoding, you need an ISO-10646-1 font to display the result. Your configuration may not include this font, or locale-support by xterm may not be needed. At startup, xterm uses a mechanism equivalent to the load-vt-fonts(utf8Fonts, Utf8Fonts) action to load font name subresources of the VT100 widget. That is, resource patterns such as "*vt100.utf8Fonts.font" will be loaded, and (if this resource is enabled), override the normal fonts. If no subresources are found, the normal fonts such as "*vt100.font", etc., are used. The resource files distributed with xterm use ISO-10646-1 fonts, but do not rely on them unless you are using the locale mechanism.

localeFilter (class LocaleFilter)

Specifies the file name for the encoding converter from/to locale encodings and UTF-8 which is used with the -lc option or locale resource. The help message shown by ‘‘xterm -help’’ lists the default value, which depends on your system configuration.

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 values, 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 initializing wide character width calculations. The default (number 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:

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 modifyCursorKeys:

Set it to -1 to permit the user to use shift- a