XITERM(1)
NAME
xiterm -- VT102 emulator for the X window system
SYNOPSIS
xiterm [options] [-e command [args]]
DESCRIPTION
xiterm -- version 1.4 -- is a color vt102 terminal emula-
tor intended as an xterm(1) replacement for users who do
not require features such as Tektronix 4014 emulation and
toolkit-style configurability. As a result, xiterm uses
much less swap space -- a significant advantage on a
machine serving many X sessions.
OPTIONS
The xiterm options (mostly a subset of xterm's) are listed
below. In keeping with the smaller-is-better philosophy,
options may be eliminated or default values chosen at com-
pile-time, so options and defaults listed may not accu-
rately reflect the version installed on your system.
Note that xiterm permits the resource name to be used as a
long-option (--/++ option) so the potential command-line
options are far greater than those listed.
For example: `xiterm --loginShell --color1 Orange'.
-help,--help
Print out a message describing available options.
-display displayname
Attempt to open a window on the named X display (-d
still respected). In the absence of this option,
the display specified by the DISPLAY environment
variable is used.
-geometry geom
Window geometry (-g still respected); resource
geometry.
-rv|+rv
Turn on/off simulated reverse video; resource
reverseVideo.
-bg color
Window background color; resource background.
-fg color
Window foreground color; resource foreground.
-pixmap: file[;geom]
Specify XPM file for the background and also
optionally specify its scaling with a geometry
string; resource backgroundPixmap.
-cr color
The cursor color; resource cursorColor.
-fn fontname
Main normal text font; resource font.
-fb fontname
Main bold text font; resource boldFont.
-fk fontname
Main Kanji font; resource kfont.
-km mode
Kanji encoding mode; eucj: EUC Japanese encoding.
sjis: Shift JIS encoding; resource kanji_encoding.
-grk mode
Greek keyboard translation; iso: ISO-8859 mapping.
ibm: IBM-437 mapping; resource greek_keyboard.
-name name
Specify the application name under which resources
are to be obtained, rather than the default exe-
cutable file name. Name should not contain `.' or
`*' characters. Also sets the icon and title name.
-ls|+ls
Start as a login-shell/sub-shell; resource login-
Shell.
-ut|+ut
Inhibit/enable writing a utmp entry; resource utmp-
Inhibit.
-vb|+vb
Turn on/off visual bell on receipt of a bell char-
acter; resource visualBell.
-sb|+sb
Turn on/off scrollbar; resource scrollBar.
-iconic
Start iconified, if the window manager supports
that option.
-sl number
Save number lines in the scrollback buffer;
resource saveLines.
-e command [arguments]
Run the command with its command-line arguments in
the xiterm window. If this option is used, it must
be the last on the command-line. If there is no -e
option then the default is to run the program
specified by the SHELL environment variable or,
failing that, sh(1).
-title text
Window title (-T still respected); resource title.
-n text
Icon name; resource iconName.
-C Capture system console messages.
RESOURCES (available also as long-options)
xiterm accepts application defaults set in XAPPLOAD-
DIR/Xiterm (compile-time defined: usually
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Xiterm) and resources set in
~/.Xdefaults or ~/.Xresources. Note that when reading X
resources, xiterm recognizes two class names: XTerm and
Xiterm. The class name XTerm allows resources common to
both xiterm and xterm to be easily configured, while the
class name Xiterm allows resources unique to xiterm,
notably colors and key-handling, to be shared between dif-
ferent xiterm configurations. If no resources are speci-
fied, suitable defaults will be used. Command-line argu-
ments can be used to override resource settings. The fol-
lowing resources are allowed:
geometry: geom
Create the window with the specified X window geom-
etry [default 80x24]; option -geometry.
background: color
Use the specified color as the window's background
color [default White]; option -bg.
foreground: color
Use the specified color as the window's foreground
color [default Black]; option -fg.
colorn: color
Use the specified color for the color value n,
where 0-7 corresponds to low-intensity (normal)
colors and 8-15 corresponds to high-intensity (bold
= bright foreground, blink = bright background)
colors. The canonical names are as follows:
0=black, 1=red, 2=green, 3=yellow, 4=blue,
5=magenta, 6=cyan, 7=white, but the actual color
names used are listed in the COLORS AND GRAPHICS
section.
colorBD: color
Use the specified color to display bold characters
when the foreground color is the default.
colorUL: color
Use the specified color to display underlined char-
acters when the foreground color is the default.
cursorColor: color
Use the specified color for the cursor. The
default is to use the foreground color; option -cr.
cursorColor2: color
Use the specified color for the color of the cursor
text. For this to take effect, cursorColor must
also be specified. The default is to use the back-
ground color.
reverseVideo: boolean
True: simulate reverse video by foreground and
background colors; option -rv, False: regular
screen colors [default]; option +rv. See note in
COLORS AND GRAPHICS section.
scrollColor: color
Use the specified color for the scrollbar [default
#B2B2B2].
backgroundPixmap: file[;geom]
Use the specified XPM file (note the `.xpm' exten-
sion is optional) for the background and also
optionally specify its scaling with a geometry
string WxH+X+Y, in which W/H specify the horizon-
tal/vertical scale (percent) and X/Y locate the
image centre (percent). A scale of 0 displays the
image with tiling. A scale of 1 displays the image
without any scaling. A scale of 2 to 9 specifies
the number of images in that direction. No image
will be magnified beyond 10 times its original
size. The maximum permitted scale is 1000.
[default 100x100+50+50]
path: path
Specify the colon-delimited search path for finding
XPM files, in addition to the paths specified by
the XITERMPATH and PATH environment variables.
font: fontname
Select the main text font used [default 7x14];
option -fn.
fontn: fontname
Specify the alternative font n. The default font
values:
font: 7x14
font1: 6x10
font2: 6x13
font3: 8x13
font4: 9x15
boldFont: fontname
Specify the name of the bold font to use if colorBD
has not been specified and it is not possible to
map the default foreground color to color 8-15
[default NONE]. This font must be the same height
and width as the normal font; option -fb.
kfont: fontname
Select the main Kanji text font used [default k14];
option -fk.
kfontn: fontname
Specify the alternative Kanji font n. If compiled
for Kanji, the Roman and Kanji font sizes should
match. The default font values:
font: 7x14
font1: 8x16
font2: 9x18
font3: 12x24
font4: 13x26
kfont: k14
kfont1: jiskan16
kfont2: jiskan18
kfont3: jiskan24
kfont4: jiskan26
kanji_encoding: mode
Set the Kanji encoding mode to be used; eucj: EUC
Japanese encoding [default]. sjis: Shift JIS
encoding; option -km.
greek_keyboard: mode
Set the Greek keyboard translation mode to be used;
iso: ISO-8859 mapping (elot-928) [default]. ibm:
IBM-437 mapping (DOS codepage 737); option -grk.
Use Mode_switch to toggle keyboard input. For more
details, see the distributed file README.greek.
title: text
Set window title string, the default title is the
command-line specified after the -e option, if any,
otherwise the application name; option -title.
iconName: text
Set the name used to label the window's icon or
displayed in an icon manager window, it also sets
the window's title unless it is explicitly set;
option -n.
mapAlert: boolean
True: de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell charac-
ter. False: no de-iconify (map) on receipt of a
bell character [default].
visualBell: boolean
True: use visual bell on receipt of a bell charac-
ter; option -vb. False: no visual bell [default];
option +vb.
loginShell: boolean
True: start as a login shell by prepending a `-' to
argv[0] of the shell; option -ls. False: start as
a normal sub-shell [default]; option +ls.
utmpInhibit: boolean
True: inhibit writing record into the system log
file utmp; option -ut. False: write record into
the system log file utmp [default]; option +ut.
print-pipe: string
Specify a command pipe for vt100 printer [default
lpr(1)]. Use Print to initiate a screen dump to
the printer and Ctrl-Print or Shift-Print to
include the scrollback as well.
scrollBar: boolean
True: enable the scrollbar [default]; option -sb.
False: disable the scrollbar; option +sb. Note
that the scrollbar position (left/right) and its
type (with/without arrows) is compile-time
selected.
smallfont_key: keysym
If enabled, use Alt-keysym to toggle to a smaller
font [default Alt-<<].
bigfont_key: keysym
If enabled, use Alt-keysym to toggle to a bigger
font [default Alt->>].
saveLines: number
Save number lines in the scrollback buffer [default
64]; option -sl.
meta8: boolean
True: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress to set the 8th
bit. False: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress as an
escape prefix [default].
cutchars: string
The characters used as delimiters for double-click
word selection. The built-in default:
TAB SPACE BACKSLASH `"'&()*,;<<=>>?@[]{|}
keysym.sym: string
Associate string with keysym sym (0xFF00 - 0xFFFF).
It may contain escape values (\a: bell, \b:
backspace, \e, \E: escape, \n: newline, \r: return,
\t: tab, \000: octal number) or control characters
^?: delete, ^@: null, ^A ... and may enclosed
with double quotes so that it can start or end with
whitespace. The intervening resource name keysym.
cannot be omitted. This resource is only available
when compiled with FAKE_RESOURCES.
THE SCROLLBAR
Lines of text that scroll off the top of the xiterm window
(resource: saveLines) and can be scrolled back using the
scrollbar or by keystrokes. The normal xiterm scrollbar
has arrows and its behaviour is fairly intuitive. The
xterm-scrollbar is without arrows and its behaviour mimics
that of xterm.
Scroll down with Button1 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Next.
Scroll up with Button3 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Prior.
Continuous scroll with Button2.
MOUSE REPORTING
To temporarily override mouse reporting, for either the
scrollbar or the normal text selection/insertion, hold
either the Shift or the Meta (Alt) key while performing
the desired mouse action.
If mouse reporting mode is active, the normal scrollbar
actions are disabled -- on the assumption that we are
using a fullscreen application. Instead, pressing Button1
and Button3 sends ESC[6~ (Next) and ESC[5~ (Prior),
respectively. Similarly, clicking on the up and down
arrows sends ESC[A (Up) and ESC[B (Down), respectively.
TEXT SELECTION AND INSERTION
The behaviour of text selection and insertion mechanism is
similar to xterm.
Selection:
Left click at the beginning of the region, drag to
the end of the region and release; Right click to
extend the marked region; Left double-click to
select a word; Left triple-click to select the
entire line.
Insertion:
Pressing and releasing the Middle mouse button (or
Shift-Insert) in an xiterm window causes the cur-
rent text selection to be inserted as if it had
been typed on the keyboard.
CHANGING FONTS
You can change fonts on-the-fly, which is to say cycle
through the default font and others of various sizes, by
using Shift-KP_Add and Shift-KP_Subtract. Or, alterna-
tively (if enabled) with Alt->> and Alt-<<, where the actual
key can be selected using resources smallfont_key/big-
font_key.
LOGIN STAMP
xiterm tries to write an entry into the utmp file (usually
/etc/utmp), so that it can be seen via the who(1) command,
and can accept messages. To allow this feature, xiterm
must be installed setuid root.
COLORS AND GRAPHICS
If graphics support was enabled at compile-time, xiterm
can be queried with ANSI escape sequences and can address
individual pixels instead of text characters. Note the
graphics support is still considered beta code.
In addition to the default foreground and background col-
ors, xiterm can display up to 16 colors (8 ANSI colors
plus high-intensity bold/blink versions of the same).
Here is a list of the colors with their rgb.txt names.
color0 (black) = Black
color1 (red) = Red3
color2 (green) = Green3
color3 (yellow) = Yellow3
color4 (blue) = Blue3
color5 (magenta) = Magenta3
color6 (cyan) = Cyan3
color7 (white) = AntiqueWhite
color8 (bright black) = Grey25
color9 (bright red) = Red
color10 (bright green) = Green
color11 (bright yellow) = Yellow
color12 (bright blue) = Blue
color13 (bright magenta) = Magenta
color14 (bright cyan) = Cyan
color15 (bright white) = White
foreground = Black
background = White
It is also possible to specify the color values of fore-
ground, background, cursorColor, cursorColor2, colorBD,
colorUL as a number 0-15, as a convenient shorthand to
reference the color name of color0-color15.
Note that -rv (reverseVideo: True) simulates reverse video
by always swapping the foreground/background colors. This
is in contrast to xterm where the colors are only swapped
if they have not otherwise been specified. For example,
xiterm -fg Black -bg White -rv
would yield White on Black, while on xterm it would
yield Black on White.
ENVIRONMENT
xiterm sets the environment variables TERM, COLORTERM and
COLORFGBG. The environment variable WINDOWID is set to
the X window id number of the xiterm window and it also
uses and sets the environment variable DISPLAY to specify
which display terminal to use. xiterm uses the environ-
ment variables XITERMPATH and PATH to find XPM files.
FILES
/etc/utmp System file for login records.
/usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt
Color names.
SEE ALSO
xterm(1) sh(1) resize(1) X(1) pty(4) tty(4) utmp(5)
BUGS
Selecting/pasting very large chunks of text is a problem.
But as is the case for xterm, it is a bug of the pseudo
terminal driver of those systems.
xiterm 1.0 has the utmp support cleaned-up and supports
utmpx (i.e. Solaris 2.x) but there are still some prob-
lems. Please inform the maintainer of the correct solu-
tions to utmp problems since he doesn't have root access
of his own to test utmp.
Cursor change support is not yet implemented.
Click-and-drag doesn't work with X11 mouse report overrid-
ing.
Graphics support is fairly crude.
For some fonts there are problems with pixel-droppings
being left behind when simulated bold (overstrike) pre-
cedes a space character. Fixing xiterm to handle these
cases requires a lot of energy. So the easiest course by
far is to specify a boldFont, specify colorBD or, if it
was compiled without NO_BRIGHTCOLOR, to select a fore-
ground color that matches the pixel values of color 0-7 so
that overstrike bold won't be used.
Like xterm, xiterm handles mono-space fonts only.
AUTHOR
John Bovey, University of Kent, 1992.
Very very very heavily modified by Rob Nation
lt;nation@rocket.sanders.lockheed.com
Greek keyboard input: Angelo Haritsis lt;ah@doc.ic.ac.uk
Utmpx addition (Solaris 2.x) and extensive reworking of
pseudo-tty handling and addition of BSD sgtty terminal
handling support by Raul Garcia Garcia lt;rgg@tid.es
16/10/95.
mj olesen lt;olesen@me.QueensU.CA (changes.txt 2.11 to
2.20)
CURRENT MAINTAINER
"Guylhem Aznar lt;guylhem@danmark.linux.eu.org"
LOCATION
<www.linux-france.com>