Win32 enabled rxvt README

rxvt is a color vt102 terminal emulator intended as a replacement
for xterm(1) and cmd.com.


Quick start, from a bash shell try running:

rxvt -e /usr/bin/bash --login -i

If this doesn't work, you may not have cygwin 1.1 or better 
installed on your PC.  Visit: 
   http://www.cygwin.com/

If rxvt complains that it can't open the display, check that
you are using the Win32 enabled rxvt, and that DISPLAY is either
not set, or set to:
  :0

Setting DISPLAY to anything else causes the Win32 enabled rxvt 
to revert to its traditional X behavior.

You may set DISPLAY from the command line like so:

  rxvt -display :0


Shortcut:

If you create a shortcut to the rxvt app, you should be able to 
use it to launch a terminal.  A black console window may appear
and quickly disappear when you run rxvt this way, this is ok.

 rxvt -tn xterm -e /usr/bin/bash --login -i



Fonts:

You can experiment with different fonts with the -fn switch. 
However, the font parsing code is pretty primitive.  These
should work if you have the fonts installed:
  rxvt -fn "Courier-bold-13" -e ...
  rxvt -fn "-*-Courier-medium-r-*-13-*" -e ...
  rxvt -fn "Lucida Console-10" -e ...

You can also put the font definitions in your .Xdefaults to avoid
cluttering up the command line.  An example:

cat >> $HOME/.Xdefaults
*font: -*-lucidatypewriter-medium-r-*-*-16-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
^D

If you like the DOS look, Dan Kaminsky suggests:
  rxvt -fn fixedsys -bg black -fg grey 
Or
  rxvt -fn fixedsys -rv 



Coloring:

To make your bash prompt colorful try putting this in your .profile:
  export PS1="\e[34m\]\w\[\e[0m\]> "

File listing can be in color with the following alias:
  alias ls=ls\ -F\ --color

vi will color your source code if you set your TERM to linux
or patch the xterm /etc/termcap entry.  As Dan recommends,
add: 
   xn@:op=\E[39;49m:Km=\E[M:tc=linux:
after the line:
   xterm-r6|xterm|xterm X11R6 version:\



General Unix Shell:

If you're new to bash or color xterm, try putting this in your
.profile:

 stty intr ^c susp ^z start ^q stop ^s quit ^\\ erase ^?

Also, rxvt/bash uses some environmental variables which are 
commonplace in Unix, but rare in Windows.   These are:
  USER  set to your username
  SHELL set to /bin/bash 
  HOME  set to /home/username
If you set these variables either in the autoexec.bat or 
by right clicking "My Computer", you'll find that things
work better.



How to Insert/Paste:

If you have a two button mouse and wish to paste, you may
use Sh-Insert, or use a windows mouse program to simulate
the middle mouse button when both buttons are pressed. 



Display, or "how can I get rxvt to connect to my X-server at :0"

Here's some options:
1) run your X-server as :1 (it is, after all, the second display)
2) set DISPLAY to localhost:0
3) set W11_LIBRARY to libX11


Recent fixes:

- added icon
- reverted to building as a console app.  Windows treats console
  apps differently somehow as far as childern inheriting the console.
- put a special case in the event code to better handle selections
- added switching between Win32 and X libraries
- trying -mwindows to see if console is no longer necessary
- Mousewheel support
- Ctrl-Space now works (thanks to Patrick Doyle for the bug report)
- Ctrl-S doesn't hang the program (thanks to cygwin improvements)
- Builds with cygwin-1.1.8 (thanks to Axel Kowald for the alert)
- Fixes for supporting Japanese Fonts (thanks to Genzoo.A)



Building:

 1) apply patch
 2) configure

      ./configure --x-includes="../W11 -IW11" \
       --x-libraries="../W11/lib -mwindows ../W11/wrap/rxvt_res.o -Wl,--subsystem,console" \
       --with-xpm-includes=../W11 \
       --with-xpm-library=../W11/lib \
       --enable-menubar \
       --enable-xpm-background 

 3) run make, you should get a couple warnings and no errors.


Credits, bugs, updates:

rxvt is used out-of-the-box from http://www.rxvt.org/
and linked with a fake X-library that uses the Windows API.  

The fake X-library is a heavily modified version of:
 ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/drg/UNIX-to-Windows/Ports/Xlib/ntxlib.zip

xpm-3.4k is used out of the box and statically linked to rxvt.

bugs in windows support:
- large pastes can cause the window to hang.
- pixmaps are experimental, must be multiple of 8 pixels wide.
- locales are not supported.
- native-console accesses (ReadConsole(), WriteConsole()) are not supported.
    This is particularly true when non-cygwin programs ask for passwords.
- expose events get lost under certain circumstances.
- if rxvt doesn't allocate a console occasionally an unexpected
    console will pop up while running non-cygwin apps.

Check http://www.io.com/~bub/rxvt.html for updates and source.
If you fix something, please let me know (Steve O <bub@io.com>).
Thanks.