Rxvt
Encyclopedia
rxvt is a terminal emulator
for the X Window System
(and, in the form of a Cygwin
port, for Windows
), originally written by Rob Nation and later extensively modified by Mark Olesen, who took over maintenance for several years. It is intended to be a slimmed-down replacement for xterm
, omitting some of its little-used features, like Tektronix 4014
emulation and toolkit-style configurability. The latter refers to the Xt resource mechanism, e.g., for binding keys. rxvt is an extended version of the older xvt terminal emulator by John Bovey of the University of Kent
. The name originally stood for "Robert's xvt", but was later re-dubbed "our xvt" .
Aside from features such as those controlled by resource files, rxvt's terminal emulation differs from xterm
in two important ways:
Newer versions of rxvt have primitive support for pseudo-transparency.
The rxvt distribution also includes an analog clock program called rclock. Very old distributions included a copy of vttest
, but dropped that in 1996 with version 2.18.
Terminal emulator
A terminal emulator, terminal application, term, or tty for short, is a program that emulates a video terminal within some other display architecture....
for the X Window System
X Window System
The X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...
(and, in the form of a Cygwin
Cygwin
Cygwin is a Unix-like environment and command-line interface for Microsoft Windows. Cygwin provides native integration of Windows-based applications, data, and other system resources with applications, software tools, and data of the Unix-like environment...
port, for Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
), originally written by Rob Nation and later extensively modified by Mark Olesen, who took over maintenance for several years. It is intended to be a slimmed-down replacement for xterm
Xterm
In computing, xterm is the standard terminal emulator for the X Window System. A user can have many different invocations of xterm running at once on the same display, each of which provides independent input/output for the process running in it .xterm originated prior to the X Window System...
, omitting some of its little-used features, like Tektronix 4014
Tektronix 4014
The Tektronix 4000 series was a family of text and graphics computer terminals based on the company's storage tube technology. No additional electronics were needed to maintain the display, so the 4000 series were less expensive than earlier graphics terminals and became widely used in the CAD...
emulation and toolkit-style configurability. The latter refers to the Xt resource mechanism, e.g., for binding keys. rxvt is an extended version of the older xvt terminal emulator by John Bovey of the University of Kent
University of Kent
The University of Kent, previously the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom...
. The name originally stood for "Robert's xvt", but was later re-dubbed "our xvt" .
Aside from features such as those controlled by resource files, rxvt's terminal emulation differs from xterm
Xterm
In computing, xterm is the standard terminal emulator for the X Window System. A user can have many different invocations of xterm running at once on the same display, each of which provides independent input/output for the process running in it .xterm originated prior to the X Window System...
in two important ways:
- it emulates a VT102VT100The VT100 is a video terminal that was made by Digital Equipment Corporation . Its detailed attributes became the de facto standard for terminal emulators.-History:...
, rather than a VT220VT220The VT220 was a terminal produced by Digital Equipment Corporation from 1983 to 1987.-Hardware:The VT220 improved on the earlier VT100 series of terminals with a redesigned keyboard, much smaller physical packaging, and a much faster microprocessor...
. That means that it handles 8-bit data differently, does not implement the C1C0 and C1 control codesMost character encodings, in addition to representing printable characters, may also represent additional information about the text, such as the position of a cursor, an instruction to start a new line, or a message that the text has been received...
controls that xterm does. xterm does implement a switch "-k8" to suppress that functionality; rxvt does not provide an option to emulate a VT220. - the strings sent for function keys are different. xterm sends strings that are encoded using the same rules as the ANSI/ISOANSI escape codeANSI escape sequences are characters embedded in the text used to control formatting, color, and other output options on video text terminals. Almost all terminal emulators designed to show text output from a remote computer, and to show text output from local software, interpret at least some of...
escape sequences. Rxvt's do not, though they provide comparable flexibility in this area.
Newer versions of rxvt have primitive support for pseudo-transparency.
The rxvt distribution also includes an analog clock program called rclock. Very old distributions included a copy of vttest
Vttest
Vttest is an application which is used to demonstrate features of VT100 and related terminals, or emulations thereof, such as xterm. The program was originally written in 1986 by Per Lindberg...
, but dropped that in 1996 with version 2.18.
Derived programs
- atermAtermaterm is the AfterStep terminal emulator for the X Window System. Based on rxvt 2.4.8 , aterm is a color VT100 terminal emulator that supports basic pseudo-transparency....
(from rxvt 2.4.8) - Eterm (from rxvt 2.21)
- mrxvtMrxvtThe mrxvt program is a terminal emulator for X Window System. It provides DEC VT102 compatible terminals.mrxvt is based on rxvt version 2.7.11 CVS , and features most of functionality of rxvt, with a few major enhancements...
(from rxvt 2.7.11) - rxvt-unicodeRxvt-unicoderxvt-unicode, commonly known as urxvt, is a color VT102 terminal emulator for the X Window System. It was written by Marc Lehmann, who forked it from rxvt in November 2003...
(from rxvt 2.7.11)
See also
- Comparison of terminal emulatorsComparison of terminal emulators- Operating systems :-Capabilities:...
- List of terminal emulators