faq

multi-tabed terminal based on rxvt

    Then make sure you have correctly setup and started the XIM server, like
    SCIM, Chinput, fcitx, etc. 

    Next, set the correct locale for mrxvt. You only need to set the environment
    variable LC_CTYPE. But after you set it, make sure that the environment
    variable LC_ALL is not set.

    Finally, set the correct X resources in ~/.mrxvtrc file as the followling.
    Remember the value of inputMethod is case sensitive.

	mrxvt*multichar_encoding: GB
	mrxvt*inputMethod:        SCIM

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Q:  I execute mrxvt with CJK encoding and X11 fonts. But sometimes CJK
    characters are not display completely, or there are some extra pixels left
    after the CJK characters.

A:  This is a known issue for displaying CJK characters using X11 fonts. Mrxvt
    requires that the width of each CJK character (mfont) be twice as the width
    of each english character (font). If this condition is not met, mrxvt may
    display CJK characters with some problems. For example, if you choose 6x12
    as the font, and the SimSun font as the mfont, but the width of the SimSun
    font is 13, you will get in trouble. In particular, let us assume that you
    want to display a string "XXabc", where "XX" represents a single Chinese
    character. With SimSun font, the width of "XX" is 13, but mrxvt thinks it is
    12 (= 2 * 6)!!! Thus, when "abc" is displayed, two pixels of "XX" will be
    overwritten by "a"! There are two solutions to this issue. One is to
    carefully choose the font and mfont such that the width of mfont is twice of
    the font. The other is to use freetype font, where we have a special
    handling to avoid this problem.

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Q:  Does mrxvt support UTF-8 locale/encoding method?

A:  Not now. This is a planned work and hopefully will be supported in the next
    development branch (0.5.x).

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Q:  I use UTF-8 as default encoding method, but mrxvt does not support it. So
    can I start mrxvt with other encoding method, e.g., zh_CN.GB2312 without
    changing the default encoding method?

A:  No problem! You can start mrxvt like the following if you use bash/ksh/sh:

	LC_CTYPE=zh_CN.GB2312 mrxvt &

    If you use csh, try the following

	env LC_CTYPE=zh_CN.GB2312 mrxvt &

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Q:  I run mrxvt with `-o 25' option, but the window is not translucent!

A:  First make sure your X server support translucent, such as Xorg 6.8.1. Next,
    make sure the translucent extension is enabled in the X server. You can use
    command `xdpyinfo' to check whether the Composite extension is in the
    extension list. Then make sure you have run the program `xcompmgr' to enable
    translucent.

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Q:  When I run mrxvt in transparent mode or background image mode, can I make
    the background a little darker?

A:  Yes, you can. Just tint the background to black using the --shading and
    --tintColor options:

	Mrxvt.transparent:		True
	Mrxvt.transparentScrollbar:	True
	Mrxvt.transparentTabbar:	True
	Mrxvt.tintColor:		#000000
	Mrxvt.shading:		85
    
    You can use Ctrl+Shift+J / K to change the shading amount when mrxvt is
    running.

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Q:  Why the tinting does not work after I set the tint color in command line or
    ~/.mrxvtrc?

A:  First, tinting only works for user supplied background image or transparent
    background. Secondly, you have to set the shade option as well.

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Q:  I am tired with the current tinting color, can I change the color without
    restart mrxvt?

A:  Yes, you can. Control-RightClick on the terminal window. Select the
    "Transparency / Tint Background / <favourite color>" menu options.
    Alternately you can run use an escape sequence as follows:

	$ echo "\e]66;red\a"

    You can have macros / menu entries to do the same. See also the program
    settitle.c and mrxvtset.pl supplied with the source, and mrxvt_seq.txt.bz2
    for a complete list of escape sequences supplied by mrxvt.

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Q:  How to start mrxvt with multiple tabs initially?

A   You can set the number of tabs you want in ~/.mrxvtrc as the following
    example:

	mrxvt.initProfileList:  0,0,0

    Alternatively, you can set it using command line option -ip.

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Q:  How do I let each tab execute different applications when mrxvt starts?

A:  You can set command for each tab in ~/.mrxvtrc as the following example:

	Mrxvt.profile1.background:	#000040
	Mrxvt.profile1.command:	!mc
	Mrxvt.profile1.tabTitle:	"Midnight Commander"

	Mrxvt.profile2.command: 	telnet www.mitbbs.com
	Mrxvt.initProfileList:  	0,1,2

    This will open three tabs on startup containing the shell, mc and telnet.
    See /etc/mrxvt/mrxvtrc.sample for a more complete example.

    If you only want to change the tab command in other tabs (and not the
    background / saveLines etc), then you can use the NewTab macro as follows:

	Mrxvt.macro.Ctrl+Shift+F1:	NewTab "man mrxvt" man mrxvt
	Mrxvt.macro.Ctrl+Shift+b:	NewTab bash
	Mrxvt.macro.Ctrl+Shift+v:	NewTab "Vim" !vim

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Q:  How to change the title of a tab after mrxvt starts?

A:  You can select some text in the mrxvt terminal and press the hot key
    combinations: Ctrl+Shift+s, Shift+Delete or middle click with the mouse. The
    tab title will be changed to the selected text. Currently, the selected text
    must be in the same mrxvt terminal.

    You can also change the tab title through escape sequence.
    
	$ echo -ne "\e]62;New tab title\a"

    Alternately use compile settitle.c, or use the perl script mrxvtset.pl.
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Q:  My Control-Left / Right and Home / End keys do not work properly in some
    applications.

A:  To get your modified cursor keys working properly in Vim, just upgrade to
    Vim 7. The new behaviour in mrxvt is designed to work "out of the box" with
    Vim 7.

    To get your modified cursor keys working in bash / readline based
    applications put the following in your ~/.inputrc:

	# Cursor movement for mrxvt-0.5.x / xterm
	"\e[1;5C": forward-word
	"\e[1;5D": backward-word

	"\e[7~": beginning-of-line
	"\e[8~": end-of-line

    As of 0.5.0 the escape sequences mrxvt produces for modified cursor keys is
    the same as those produced by Xterm. If you do not like this behaviour,
    undefine the XTERM_KEYS macro in src/feature.h.

    Alternately you can use the macro feature of mrxvt to make the cursor keys
    produce the string that is expected by your application (explained later on
    in this FAQ)

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Q:  How do I set the tab title to the current command?

A:  Bash users add the following to your ~/.bashrc:

    # Change the window title of X terminals 
    if [[ $TERM =~ "xterm|rxvt" ]]; then
	# set -o functrace
	if [[ -n $MRXVT_TABTITLE ]]; then
	    trap 'echo -ne "\e]61;${BASH_COMMAND//\"/} (${PWD/$HOME/~})\a"' DEBUG
	else
	    trap 'echo -ne "\e]0;${BASH_COMMAND//\"/} (${PWD/$HOME/~})\a"' DEBUG
	fi
    fi

    Alternately (for tcsh), if you want your current command displayed in
    your tab title, add the following lines to your ~/.tcshrc

	# Change the window title of X terminals 
	set backslash_quote
	if( $?DISPLAY && $?TERM ) then
	    if( $?MRXVT_TABTITLE ) then
		# Set the tab title for mrxvt
		alias jobcmd 'echo -n \\\\033]61\;\!#:q  \($cwd\) \\\\007 > /dev/stderr'
		alias cwdcmd 'echo -n \\\\033]61\;\!#:q  \($cwd\) \\\\007 > /dev/stderr'
	    else
		# Set the window title for xterm
		alias jobcmd 'echo -n \\\\033]0\;\!#:q  \($cwd\) \\\\007 > /dev/stderr'
		alias cwdcmd 'echo -n \\\\033]0\;\!#:q  \($cwd\) \\\\007 > /dev/stderr'
	    endif
	endif
	unset backslash_quote

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Q:  How to dynamically change the title of the mrxvt window so that it is the
    same as the current active tab when I switch to a new tab?

A:  You can set X resources `syncTabTitle' to true or run mrxvt with -stt
    option.

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Q:  Why cannot I close a tab? The close button is grey!

A:  Most probably, you have enabled the protectSecondary resource and you are
    running an application, like vi and mc that is using the secondary screen in
    the current tab. Mrxvt considers this tab being protected and disallows you
    to close it. To close the tab, please exit the application first. To disable
    this option, you can modify the ~/.mrxvtrc file or run mrxvt with +ps
    option.

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Q:  Is there any keyboard combination to manipulate the tabs?

A:  Yes. Please read the man page. Mrxvt currently support the default
    gnome-terminal and konsole combinations. If you prefer your own
    combinations, you can define them in the configuration file as well. Please
    refer to the man page for details.

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Q:  Mrxvt default hotkey ctrl+shift+minus conflicts with Emacs. How can I
    disable this mrxvt default hotkey?

A:  Put the following two lines into your mrxvt configuration file, usually
    ~/.mrxvtrc:

	Mrxvt.macro.Ctrl+Shift+underscore:	Dummy
	Mrxvt.macro.Ctrl+Shift+plus:	Dummy

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Q:  How to enable freetype font, or, say the XFT support?

A:  You can either use the -xft command line option or the `xft' X resource
    option in the ~/.mrxvtrc file. Check the sample configuration file
    doc/xdefaults-sample.txt and man page for more details.

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Q:  After I use freetype font, the text rendering speed seems to slow down a
    lot! How to improve the speed?

A:  Yes, this is a known problem with XFT support. One way to fix it is to
    disable antialias (and autohinting or hinting). But it may make the font
    look ugly. If you do not like it, disable XFT support and use X11 font
    instead.

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Q:  After I use freetype font, the line space seems too large. Is there any way
    to narrow down the line space?

A:  This is probably because you have enabled the multichar support when you
    configure mrxvt. In this case, mrxvt loads two fonts, one the normal font,
    and one the multichar font. But due to some problems with XFT library, the
    font loading function does not follow our instructions to load the two fonts
    at specified size. Thus, the size of two fonts are often different. To get a
    better rendering result, mrxvt picks the large size, which is usually the
    multichar font. But normal text are usually displayed using normal font at a
    smaller size. So it appears that the line space is too large. To solve this
    problem, you can specify the multichar font be the same as the normal font
    since mrxvt 0.3.9, or specify the -xftnfm option to not to load multichar
    font, or build mrxvt without multichar support.

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Q:  Can I change the color of tab background and text?

A:  Yes you can. You can use command line option to set foreground and
    background color of active or inactive tabs like this:

	$ mrxvt -tabfg blue -tabbg grey -itabfg black -itabbg dark
	
    Or you can set them in ~/.mrxvtrc like this:

	! text color of active tab
	Mrxvt.tabForeground:  blue
	! background color of active tab
	Mrxvt.tabBackground:  grey
	! text color of inactive tab
	Mrxvt.itabForeground: black
	! background color of inactive tab
	Mrxvt.itabBackground: dark

    Or you can use an escape sequence to change it dynamically (see the man
    page).

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Q:  I notice that sometimes there is a dash-dot frame around the title of
    inactive tabs. What has happened? Is it a bug?

A:  This is a new feature introduced from 0.3.9. This indicates that something
    has happened in the inactive tab, and you probably should check it.

    You can try using the -htb option to ensure that inactive tabs are
    highlighted only when a bell is sounded by that tab.

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Q:  I notice that the inactive tab is highlighted by the dash-dot frame, but
    after I switch to it, I see nothing happened. What is wrong with it?

A:  This is because you might be running some programs in the inactive tab, like
    pine. These programs have some features to refresh the screen periodically,
    though the content of the screen has not changed. Mrxvt detects the refresh
    and thinks the screen has changed. It is difficult to tell whether the
    content of the screen is truly changed in this case.

    You can try using the -htb option to ensure that inactive tabs are
    highlighted only when a bell is sounded by that tab.

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Q:  I like to use command line options to create a new tab in the current mrxvt
    terminal and execute some commands. For example, if I run command `mrxvt
    --new-tab -e pine' in a mrxvt terminal, the current terminal will open a new
    tab and run pine in it. Can you implement it for me?

A:  Unfortunately, no. This is a dangerous feature that can cause serious
    security problems. For details about the security problem, consult to the
    following link:

	http://www.digitaldefense.net/labs/papers/Termulation.txt

    As of mrxvt-0.5.0, you can have macros (or menu items) that open a new tab
    and execute your favourite program in it (but you have to press a key or
    select from a menu in your mrxvt window). Multiple window support is planned
    in the near future, and maybe then something will be done about this issue