xterm(1X)xterm(1X)NAMExterm - terminal emulator for X
SYNOPSISxterm [-toolkitoption...] [-option...]
OPTIONS
The xterm terminal emulator accepts all of the standard X Toolkit com‐
mand line options as well as the following (if the option begins with a
`+' instead of a `-', the option is restored to its default value):
This causes xterm to print out a verbose message describing its
options. Normally, the VT102 DECCOLM escape sequence that switches
between 80 and 132 column mode is ignored. This option causes the DEC‐
COLM escape sequence to be recognized, and the xterm window will resize
appropriately. This option indicates that xterm should always high‐
light the text cursor. By default, xterm will display a hollow text
cursor whenever the focus is lost or the pointer leaves the window.
This option indicates that xterm should do text cursor highlighting
based on focus. This option specifies the size of the inner border
(the distance between the outer edge of the characters and the window
border) in pixels. The default is 2. Set the vt100 resource cutToBe‐
ginningOfLine to FALSE. Set the vt100 resource cutToBeginningOfLine to
TRUE. This sets classes indicated by the given ranges for using in
selecting by words. See the section specifying character classes.
This option indicates that newlines should not be cut in line-mode
selections. This option indicates that newlines should be cut in line-
mode selections. This option specifies the color to use for text cur‐
sor. The default is to use the same foreground color that is used for
text. 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(3)
cursor motion package. This option indicates that xterm should not
work around the more(1) bug mentioned above. 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. 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. Disables mouse high‐
light tracking. When the hiliteTrackInhibit option of -hi is set, the
escape sequence causes a message to be written to stderr, but has no
effect on the xterm. By default, the XTerm app-defaults file sets the
corresponding hiliteTrackInhibit resource to True. Enables mouse high‐
light tracking. Turn on the useInsertMode resource. Turn off the
useInsertMode resource. This option indicates that xterm should do
jump scrolling. Normally, text is scrolled one line at a time; this
option allows xterm to move multiple lines at a time so that it does
not fall as far behind. Its use is strongly recommended since it make
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.
This option indicates that xterm should not do jump scrolling. This
option indicates that the shell that is started in the xterm window
will be a login shell (that is, the first character of argv[0] will be
a dash, indicating to the shell that it should read the user's .login
or .profile). This option indicates that the shell that is started
should not be a login shell (that is, it will be a normal “subshell”).
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. This option indicates that margin
bell should not be rung. This option specifies the maximum time
between multi-click selections. This option specifies the color to be
used for the pointer cursor. The default is to use the foreground
color. 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. 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. This
option indicates that reverse-wraparound should not be allowed. This
option indicates that auto-wraparound should be allowed. This allows
the cursor to automatically wrap to the beginning of the next line when
it is at the rightmost position of a line and text is output. This
option indicates that auto-wraparound should not be allowed. 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. This option indicates that xterm should scroll syn‐
chronously. 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. This option indicates
that a scrollbar should not be displayed. This option indicates that
Sun Function Key escape codes should be generated for function keys.
This option indicates that the standard escape codes should be gener‐
ated for function keys. This option indicates that output to a window
should not automatically reposition the screen to the bottom of the
scrolling region. This option can be turned on and off from the “VT
Options” menu. This option indicates that output to a window should
cause it to scroll to the bottom. 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 posi‐
tion at the bottom of the scroll region. This option indicates that
pressing a key while using the scrollbar should not cause the window to
be repositioned. This option specifies the number of lines to save
that have been scrolled off the top of the screen. The default is 64.
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. This option indicates that xterm should start in
VT102 mode. This option specifies a series of terminal setting key‐
words followed by the characters that should be bound to those func‐
tions, similar to the stty program. Allowable keywords include: intr,
quit, erase, kill, eof, eol, swtch, start, stop, brk, susp, dsusp,
rprnt, flush, weras, and lnext. Control characters may be specified as
^char (for example, ^c or ^u) and ^? may be used to indicate delete.
This option specifies the name of the terminal type to be set in the
TERM environment variable. This terminal type must exist in the term‐
cap(3x) database and should have li# and co# entries. This option
indicates that xterm should always log to the system log file
/var/adm/utmp unless the -ut option is specified, regardless of whether
the -ls option is specified. The -ue option is the default. This
option indicates that xterm will only log to the system log file
/var/adm/utmp when the -ls option is specified. This option indicates
that xterm should not write a record into the system log file
/var/adm/utmp. This option indicates that xterm should write a record
into the system log file /var/adm/utmp. This option is enabled only
when either the -ls option is specified or the +ue option is not speci‐
fied. 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. This option indicates that a
visual bell should not be used. 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 environ‐
ment variables are correct. It is the application's responsibility to
catch subsequent terminal size changes. This option indicates that
xterm show not wait before starting the subprocess. This option indi‐
cates that this window should receive console output. This is not sup‐
ported on all systems. To obtain console 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.
This option specifies the last two letters of the name of a pseudoter‐
minal to use in slave mode, plus the number of the inherited file
descriptor. The option is parsed “%c%c%d”. This allows xterm to be used
as an input and output channel for an existing program and is sometimes
used in specialized applications.
Although the two characters representing the pseudoterminal name
are required for parsing the option's argument, the actual char‐
acters are irrelevant; only the integer representing the file
descriptor is really used.
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.
This option specifies the preferred size and position of the Tektronix
window. It is shorthand for specifying the “*tekGeometry” resource.
This option specifies the preferred position of the icon window. It is
shorthand for specifying the “*iconGeometry” resource. This option
specifies the title for xterm's windows. It is equivalent to -title.
This option specifies the icon name for xterm's windows. It is short‐
hand 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. This option indicates that reverse video should
be simulated by swapping the foreground and background colors. It is
equivalent to -rv. 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: This option specifies the color to use for the back‐
ground of the window. The default is “white.” This option specifies
the color to use for the border of the window. The default is “black.”
This option specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding the
window. This option specifies the color to use for displaying text.
The default is “black.” This option specifies the font to be used for
displaying normal text. The default is fixed. 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. 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. This option indicates that
reverse video should be simulated by swapping the foreground and back‐
ground colors. This option specifies the preferred size and position
of the VT102 window; see X(1X). This option specifies the X server to
contact; see X(1X). This option specifies a resource string to be
used. This is especially useful for setting resources that do not have
separate command line options. This option indicates that xterm should
ask the window manager to start it as an icon rather than as the normal
window.
DESCRIPTION
The xterm program is a terminal emulator for the X Window System. It
provides DEC VT102 and Tektronix 4014 compatible terminals for programs
that cannot use the window system directly. If the underlying operat‐
ing 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 VT102 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 termi‐
nal 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 VT102 window, and the “Tek Options” menu in the 4014 win‐
dow.
EMULATIONS
The VT102 emulation is fairly complete, but does not support smooth
scrolling, VT52 mode, the blinking character attribute nor the double-
wide and double-size character sets. termcap(3x) entries that work
with xterm include “xterm,” “vt102,” “vt100” and “ansi,” and xterm
automatically searches the termcap file in this order for these entries
and then sets the “TERM” and the “TERMCAP” environment variables.
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 com‐
mands 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 “COPYyy-MM-dd.hh:mm:ss”, where yy,
MM, dd, hh, mm,/*O and ss are the year, month, day, hour, minute and
second when the COPY was performed (the file is created in the direc‐
tory xterm is started in, or the home directory for a login xterm).
OTHER FEATURESxterm 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(3x)
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.
In either VT102 or Tektronix mode, there are escape sequences to change
the name of the windows. See Xterm Control Sequences for details.
RESOURCES
The program understands all of the core X Toolkit resource names and
classes as well as: Specifies the preferred size and position of the
application when iconified. It is not necessarily obeyed by all window
managers. Specifies the icon name. The default is the application
name. Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM environ‐
ment variable. Specifies a string that may be used by the window man‐
ager when displaying this application. Specifies a string containing
terminal setting keywords and the characters to which they may be
bound. Allowable keywords include: intr, quit, erase, kill, eof, eol,
swtch, start, stop, brk, susp, dsusp, rprnt, flush, weras, and lnext.
Control characters may be specified as ^char (for example, ^c or ^u)
and ^? may be used to indicate Delete. This is very useful for over‐
riding the default terminal settings without having to do an stty every
time an xterm is started. Force use of insert mode by adding appropri‐
ate entries to the TERMCAP environment variable. This is useful if the
system termcap is broken. The default is “false.” If set to “true”,
xterm will record the user's terminal in /var/adm/utmp unless utmpIn‐
hibit is also set to “true”. The default is “true”. Specifies whether
or not xterm should try to record the user's terminal in var/adm/utmp.
If set to “false”, recording in utmp is enabled only if the loginShell
resource or the utmpEnable resource is set to “true”. The default is
“false”. (The loginShell resource is described in the list of
resources associated with the vt100 widget that follows this list.)
Specifies whether or not Sun Function Key escape codes should be gener‐
ated for function keys instead of standard escape sequences. Specifies
whether or not xterm should wait for the initial window map before
starting the subprocess. The default is “false.”
The following resources are specified as part of the vt100 widget
(class VT100): Specifies whether or not synthetic key and button events
(generated using the X protocol SendEvent request) should be inter‐
preted or discarded. The default is “false” meaning they are dis‐
carded. Note that allowing such events creates a very large security
hole. Specifies whether or not xterm should always display a high‐
lighted text cursor. By default, a hollow text cursor is displayed
whenever the pointer moves out of the window or the window loses the
input focus. If “true,” the cursor keys are initially in application
mode. The default is “false.” If “true,” the keypad keys are initially
in application mode. The default is “false.” Specifies whether or not
auto-wraparound should be enabled. The default is “true.” 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. Specifies the name of the bold font to use instead of
overstriking. Specifies whether or not the VT102 DECCOLM escape
sequence should be honored. The default is “false.” 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.” 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.” 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
section on specifying character classes. 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.” Specifies the color to use for
the background of the window. The default is “white.” Specifies the
color to use for displaying text in the window. Setting the class name
instead of the instance name is an easy way to have everything that
would normally appear in the text color change color. The default is
“black.” Specifies the color to use for the text cursor. The default
is “black.” If true, Meta characters input from the keyboard are pre‐
sented as a single character with the eighth bit turned on. If false,
Meta characters are converted into a two-character sequence with the
character itself preceded by ESC. The default is “true.” Specifies
whether or not eight-bit characters sent from the host should be
accepted as is or stripped when printed. The default is “true.” Spec‐
ifies the name of the normal font. The default is “fixed.” Specifies
the name of the first alternative font. Specifies the name of the sec‐
ond alternative font. Specifies the name of the third alternative
font. Specifies the name of the fourth alternative font. Specifies
the name of the fifth alternative font. Specifies the name of the
sixth alternative font. Specifies the preferred size and position of
the VT102 window. 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.” Speci‐
fies the number of pixels between the characters and the window border.
The default is 2. Specifies whether or not jump scroll should be used.
The default is “true.” Specifies whether or not the shell to be run in
the window should be started as a login shell. The default is “false.”
Specifies whether or not the bell should be run when the user types
near the right margin. The default is “false.” Specifies the maximum
time in milliseconds between multi-click select events. The default is
250 milliseconds. Specifies whether or not scrolling should be done
asynchronously. The default is “false.” Specifies the number of char‐
acters from the right margin at which the margin bell should be rung,
when enabled. Specifies the foreground color of the pointer. The
default is “XtDefaultForeground.” Specifies the background color of
the pointer. The default is “XtDefaultBackground.” Specifies the name
of the shape of the pointer. The default is “xterm.” 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 win‐
dow is made taller, blank lines are added at the bottom. This is com‐
patible 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. Specifies
whether or not reverse video should be simulated. The default is
“false.” Specifies whether or not reverse-wraparound should be
enabled. The default is “false.” Specifies the number of lines to
save beyond the top of the screen when a scrollbar is turned on. The
default is 64. The maximum value you can specify is 32768. Specifies
whether or not the scrollbar should be displayed. The default is
“false.” Specifies whether or not output to the terminal should auto‐
matically cause the scrollbar to go to the bottom of the scrolling
region. The default is “true.” Specifies whether or not pressing a
key should automatically cause the scrollbar to go to the bottom of the
scrolling region. The default is “false.” Specifies the number of
lines that the scroll-back and scroll-forw actions should use as a
default. The default value is 1. Specifies whether or not the entries
in the “Main Options” menu for sending signals to xterm should be dis‐
allowed. The default is “false.” Specifies the preferred size and
position of the Tektronix window. Specifies whether or not the escape
sequence to enter Tektronix mode should be ignored. The default is
“false.” 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.” Specifies whether or not xterm should start up in Tek‐
tronix mode. The default is “false.” Specifies whether or not xterm
should remove ti and te termcap entries (used to switch between alter‐
nate 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. Specifies the key and button bindings
for menus, selections, “programmed strings,” and so forth. See ACTIONS
below. Specifies whether or not a visible bell (that is, flashing)
should be used instead of an audible bell when Control-G is received.
The default is “false.”
The following resources are specified as part of the tek4014 widget
(class Tek4014): Specifies the width of the Tektronix window in pixels.
Specifies the height of the Tektronix window in pixels. Specifies the
large font to use in the Tektronix window. Specifies font number 2 to
use in the Tektronix window. Specifies font number 3 to use in the
Tektronix window. Specifies the small font to use in the Tektronix
window. 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.” Specifies what character(s) should follow a GIN report or
status 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.”
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.
The mainMenu has the following entries: This entry invokes the secure()
action. This entry invokes the allow-send-events(toggle) action. This
entry invokes the redraw() action. This is a separator. This entry
invokes the send-signal(tstp) action on systems that support job con‐
trol. This entry invokes the send-signal(cont) action on systems that
support job control. This entry invokes the send-signal(int) action.
This entry invokes the send-signal(hup) action. This entry invokes the
send-signal(term) action. This entry invokes the send-signal(kill)
action. This is a separator. This entry invokes the quit() action.
The vtMenu has the following entries: This entry invokes the set-
scrollbar(toggle) action. This entry invokes the set-jumpscroll(tog‐
gle) action. This entry invokes the set-reverse-video(toggle) action.
This entry invokes the set-autowrap(toggle) action. This entry invokes
the set-reversewrap(toggle) action. This entry invokes the set-auto‐
linefeed(toggle) action. This entry invokes the set-appcursor(toggle)
action. This entry invokes the set-appkeypad(toggle) action. This
entry invokes the set-scroll-on-key(toggle) action. This entry invokes
the set-scroll-on-tty-output(toggle) action. This entry invokes the
set-allow132(toggle) action. This entry invokes the set-curs‐
esemul(toggle) action. This entry invokes the set-visualbell(toggle)
action. This entry invokes the set-marginbell(toggle) action. This
entry is currently disabled. This is a separator. This entry invokes
the soft-reset() action. This entry invokes the hard-reset() action.
This entry invokes the clear-saved-lines() action. This is a separa‐
tor. This entry invokes the set-visibility(tek,toggle) action. This
entry invokes the set-terminal-type(tek) action. This entry invokes
the set-visibility(vt,off) action.
The fontMenu has the following entries: This entry invokes the set-vt-
font(d) action. This entry invokes the set-vt-font(1) action. This
entry invokes the set-vt-font(2) action. This entry invokes the set-
vt-font(3) action. This entry invokes the set-vt-font(4) action. This
entry invokes the set-vt-font(5) action. This entry invokes the set-
vt-font(6) action. This entry invokes the set-vt-font(e) action. This
entry invokes the set-vt-font(s) action.
The tekMenu has the following entries: This entry invokes the set-tek-
text(l) action. This entry invokes the set-tek-text(2) action. This
entry invokes the set-tek-text(3) action. This entry invokes the set-
tek-text(s) action. This is a separator. This entry invokes the tek-
page() action. This entry invokes the tek-reset() action. This entry
invokes the tek-copy() action. This is a separator. This entry
invokes the set-visibility(vt,toggle) action. This entry invokes the
set-terminal-type(vt) action. This entry invokes the set-visibil‐
ity(tek,toggle) action.
The following resources are useful when specified for the Athena
Scrollbar widget: Specifies the width in pixels of the scrollbar.
Specifies the color to use for the background of the scrollbar. Speci‐
fies 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.
POINTER USAGE
Once the VT102 window is created, xterm allows you to select text and
copy it within the same or other windows.
The selection functions are invoked when the pointer buttons are used
with no modifiers, and when they are used with the “shift” key. The
assignment of the functions described below to keys and buttons may be
changed through the resource database; see ACTIONS below.
Pointer button one (usually left) is used to save text into the cut
buffer. Move the cursor to beginning of the text, and then hold the
button down while moving the cursor to the end of the region and
releasing the button. The selected text is highlighted and is saved in
the global cut buffer and made the primary selection when the button is
released. Double-clicking selects by words. Triple-clicking selects
by lines. Quadruple-clicking goes back to characters, and so forth.
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. If
the key/button bindings specify that an X selection is to be made,
xterm will leave the selected text highlighted for as long as it is the
selection owner.
Pointer button two (usually middle) `types' (pastes) the text from the
primary selection, if any, otherwise from the cut buffer, inserting it
as keyboard input.
Pointer button three (usually right) extends the current selection.
(Without loss of generality, you can swap “right” and “left” everywhere
in the rest of this paragraph.) If pressed while closer to the right
edge of the selection than the left, it extends/contracts the right
edge of the selection. If you contract the selection past the left
edge of the selection, xterm assumes you really meant the left edge,
restores the original selection, then extends/contracts the left edge
of the selection. Extension starts in the selection unit mode that the
last selection or extension was performed in; you can multiple-click to
cycle through them.
By cutting and pasting pieces of text without trailing new lines, you
can take text from several places in different windows and form a com‐
mand to the shell, for example, or take output from a program and
insert it into your favorite editor. Since the cut buffer is globally
shared among different applications, you should regard it as a `file'
whose contents you know. The terminal emulator and other text programs
should be treating it as if it were a text file, that is, the text is
delimited by new lines.
The scroll region displays the position and amount of text currently
showing in the window (highlighted) relative to the amount of text
actually saved. As more text is saved (up to the maximum), the size of
the highlighted area decreases.
Clicking button one with the pointer in the scroll region moves the
adjacent line to the top of the display window.
Clicking button three moves the top line of the display window down to
the pointer position.
Clicking button two moves the display to a position in the saved text
that corresponds to the pointer's position in the scrollbar.
Unlike the VT102 window, the Tektronix window dows 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 but‐
ton 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(1) for details).
MENUSxterm has four menus, named mainMenu, vtMenu, fontMenu, and tekMenu.
Each menu pops up under the correct combinations of key and button
presses. Most menus are divided into two section, separated by a hori‐
zontal line. The top portion contains various 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. The bottom portion of
the menu are command entries; selecting one of these performs the indi‐
cated function.
The xterm menu pops up when the “control” key and pointer button one
are pressed in a window. The mainMenu contains items that apply to both
the VT102 and Tektronix windows. The Secure Keyboard mode is be used
when typing in passwords or other sensitive data in an unsecure envi‐
ronment; see SECURITY below. Notable entries in the command section of
the menu are the Continue, Suspend, Interrupt, Hangup, Terminate and
Kill which sends the SIGCONT, SIGTSTP, SIGINT, SIGHUP, SIGTERM and
SIGKILL signals, respectively, to the process group of the process run‐
ning under xterm (usually the shell). The Continue function is espe‐
cially useful if the user has accidentally typed CTRL-Z, suspending the
process.
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. In the command section of this menu, the soft reset entry will
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). 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.
The fontMenu sets the font used in the VT102 window. In addition to
the default font and a number of alternatives that are set with
resources, the menu offers the font last specified by the Set Font
escape sequence (see the document Xterm Control Sequences) and the cur‐
rent selection as a font name (if the PRIMARY selection is owned).
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. The PAGE entry in the command section clears the
Tektronix window.
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(1X)), then if you enable access for a host and
other users are also permitted to run clients on that same host, there
is every possibility that someone can run an application that will use
the basic services of the X protocol to snoop on your activities,
potentially capturing a transcript of everything you type at the key‐
board. This is of particular concern when you want to type in a pass‐
word or other sensitive data. The best solution to this problem is to
use a better authorization mechanism that host-based control, but a
simple mechanism exists for protecting keyboard input in xterm.
The xterm menu (see MENUS above) contains a Secure Keyboard entry
which, when enabled, ensures 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. Only one X client at a time can
secure 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 displays 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.
CHARACTER CLASSES
Clicking the middle mouse button twice in rapid succession will cause
all characters of the same class (for example, letters, white space,
punctuation) to be selected. Since different people have different
preferences for what should be selected (for example, should filenames
be selected as a whole or only the separate subnames), the default map‐
ping can be overridden through the use of the charClass (class Char‐
Class) resource.
This resource is a series of comma-separated of range:value pairs. The
range is either a single number or low-high in the range of 0 to 127,
corresponding to the ASCII code for the character or characters to be
set. The value is arbitrary, although the default table uses the char‐
acter number of the first character occurring in the set.
The default table is
static int charClass[128] = { /* 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};
For example, the string “33:48,37:48,45-47:48,64:48” 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 for the vt100 or
tek4014 widgets. Changing the translations for events other than key
and button events is not expected, and will cause unpredictable behav‐
ior. The following actions are provided for using within the vt100 or
tek4014 translations resources: This action rings the keyboard bell at
the specified percentage above or below the base volume. This action
ignores the event but checks for special pointer position escape
sequences. This action inserts the character or string associated with
the key that was pressed. This action is a synonym for insert() This
action inserts an eight-bit (Meta) version of the character or string
associated with the key that was pressed. The exact action depends on
the value of the eightBitInput resource. This action inserts the
string found in the selection or cutbuffer indicated by sourcename.
Sources are checked in the order given (case is significant) until one
is found. Commonly-used selections include: PRIMARY, SECONDARY, and
CLIPBOARD. Cut buffers are typically named CUT_BUFFER0 through
CUT_BUFFER7. 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. This
action displays the specified popup menu. Valid names (case is signif‐
icant) include: mainMenu, vtMenu, fontMenu, and tekMenu. This action
toggles the Secure Keyboard mode described in the section named SECU‐
RITY, and is invoked from the securekbd entry in mainMenu. This action
begins text selection at the current pointer location. See the section
on POINTER USAGE for information on making selections. This action
tracks the pointer and extends the selection. It should only be bound
to Motion events. This action puts the currently selected text into
all of the selections or cutbuffers specified by destname. This action
is similar to select-start except that it begins the selection at the
current text cursor position. This action is similar to select-end
except that it should be used with select-cursor-start. 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 sec‐
ond and third action arguments, respectively), and s or S indicate the
font selection (as made by programs such as xfontsel(1X)) indicated by
the second action argument. This action is similar to select-start
except that the selection is extended to the current pointer location.
This action is similar to select-extend except that the selection is
extended to the current text cursor position. 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 argument begins with the characters “0x”, it is interpreted
as a hex character constant. This action scrolls the text window back‐
ward so that text that had previously scrolled off the top of the
screen is now visible. The count argument indicates the number of
units (which may be page, halfpage, pixel, or line) by which to scroll.
This action scrolls is similar to scroll-back except that it scrolls
the other direction. This action set or toggles the allowSendEvents
resource and is also invoked by the allowsends entry in mainMenu. This
action redraws the window and is also invoked by the redraw entry in
mainMenu. This action sends the signal named by signame to the xterm
subprocess (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 operat‐
ing system), suspend (same as tstp), cont (if supported by the operat‐
ing system), int, hup, term, quit, alrm, alarm (same as alrm) and kill.
This action sends a SIGHUP to the subprogram and exits. It is also
invoked by the quit entry in mainMenu. This action toggles the scroll‐
bar resource and is also invoked by the scrollbar entry in vtMenu.
This action toggles the jumpscroll resource and is also invoked by the
jumpscroll entry in vtMenu. This action toggles the reverseVideo
resource and is also invoked by the reversevideo entry in vtMenu. This
action toggles automatic wrapping of long lines and is also invoked by
the autowrap entry in vtMenu. This action toggles the reverseWrap
resource and is also invoked by the reversewrap entry in vtMenu. This
action toggles automatic insertion of linefeeds and is also invoked by
the autolinefeed entry in vtMenu. This action toggles the handling
Application Cursor Key mode and is also invoked by the appcursor entry
in vtMenu. This action toggles the handling of Application Keypad mode
and is also invoked by the appkeypad entry in vtMenu. This action tog‐
gles the scrollKey resource and is also invoked from the scrollkey
entry in vtMenu. This action toggles the scrollTtyOutput resource and
is also invoked from the scrollttyoutput entry in vtMenu. This action
toggles the c132 resource and is also invoked from the allow132 entry
in vtMenu. This action toggles the curses resource and is also invoked
from the cursesemul entry in vtMenu. This action toggles the visual‐
Bell resource and is also invoked by the visualbell entry in vtMenu.
This action toggles the marginBell resource and is also invoked from
the marginbell entry in vtMenu. This action toggles between the alter‐
nate and current screens. This action resets the scrolling region and
is also invoked from the softreset entry in vtMenu. 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. This
action does hard-reset() (see above) and also clears the history of
lines saved off the top of the screen. It is also invoked from the
clearsavedlines entry in vtMenu. This action directs output to either
the vt or tek windows, according to the type string. It is also
invoked by the tekmode entry in vtMenu and the vtmode entry in tekMenu.
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 tekMenu. 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 by the entries of the same names as the resources in tekMenu.
This action clears the Tektronix window and is also invoked by the tek‐
page entry in tekMenu. This action resets the Tektronix window and is
also invoked by the tekreset entry in tekMenu. This action copies the
escape codes used to generate the current window contents to a file in
the current directory beginning with the name COPY. It is also invoked
from the tekcopy entry in tekMenu. This action flashes the window
quickly.
The Tektronix window also has the following action: This action sends
the indicated graphics input code.
The default bindings in the VT102 window are:
Shift <KeyPress> Prior: scroll-back(1,halfpage) \n\
Shift <KeyPress> Next: scroll-forw(1,halfpage) \n\ Shift <Key‐
Press> Select: select-cursor-start() \ select-cursor-end(PRI‐
MARY, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\ Shift <KeyPress> Insert: insert-selec‐
tion(PRIMARY, CUT_BUFFER0) \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\
~Meta <Btn1Down>: select-start() \n\
~Meta <Btn1Motion>: select-extend() \n\
!Ctrl <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(vtMenu) \n\
!Lock Ctrl <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(vtMenu) \n\
~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn2Down>: ignore() \n\
~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn2Up>: insert-selection(PRIMARY, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
!Ctrl <Btn3Down>: popup-menu(fontMenu) \n\
!Lock Ctrl <Btn3Down>: popup-menu(fontMenu) \n\
~Ctrl ~Meta <Btn3Down>: start-extend() \n\
~Meta <Btn3Motion>: select-extend() \n\
<BtnUp>: select-end(PRIMARY, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
<BtnDown>: bell(0)
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\
!Ctrl <Btn2Down>: popup-menu(tekMenu) \n\ !Lock Ctrl
<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)
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)
ENVIRONMENTxterm sets the environment variables TERM and TERMCAP properly for the
size window you have created. It also uses and sets the environment
variable DISPLAY to specify which bit map display terminal to use. The
environment variable WINDOWID is set to the X window id number of the
xterm window.
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.
Only fixed-width, character-cell fonts are supported.
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.
SEE ALSOresize(1X), X(1X), pty(7), tty(7)
Xterm Control Sequences
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)
xterm(1X)