pterm ‐ yet another X terminal emulator

Bugs

       Most of the X resources have silly names. (Historical reasons from PuTTY, mostly.)

PuTTY tool suite                                   2004‐03‐24                                           pterm(1)

Description

pterm is a terminal emulator for X. It is based on a port of the terminal emulation engine in the Windows
       SSH client PuTTY.

Name

       pterm ‐ yet another X terminal emulator

Options

The command-line options supported by pterm are:

-ecommand [ arguments ]
Specify a command to be executed in the new terminal. Everything on the command line after this
option will be passed straight to the execvp system call; so if you need the command to redirect
its input or output, you will have to use sh:

pterm -e sh -c 'mycommand < inputfile'

--displaydisplay-name
Specify the X display on which to open pterm. (Note this option has a double minus sign, even
though none of the others do. This is because this option is supplied automatically by GTK.
Sorry.)

-namename
Specify the name under which pterm looks up X resources. Normally it will look them up as (for
example) pterm.Font. If you specify `-namexyz', it will look them up as xyz.Font instead. This
allows you to set up several different sets of defaults and choose between them.

-fnfont-name
Specify the font to use for normal text displayed in the terminal. For example, -fnfixed,
-fn"Monospace12".

-fbfont-name
Specify the font to use for bold text displayed in the terminal. If the BoldAsColour resource is
set to 1 (the default), bold text will be displayed in different colours instead of a different
font, so this option will be ignored. If BoldAsColour is set to 0 or 2 and you do not specify a
bold font, pterm will overprint the normal font to make it look bolder.

-fwfont-name
Specify the font to use for double-width characters (typically Chinese, Japanese and Korean text)
displayed in the terminal.

-fwbfont-name
Specify the font to use for bold double-width characters (typically Chinese, Japanese and Korean
text). Like -fb, this will be ignored unless the BoldAsColour resource is set to 0 or 2.

-geometrygeometry
Specify the size of the terminal, in rows and columns of text. See X(7) for more information on
the syntax of geometry specifications.

-sllines
Specify the number of lines of scrollback to save off the top of the terminal.

-fgcolour
Specify the foreground colour to use for normal text.

-bgcolour
Specify the background colour to use for normal text.

-bfgcolour
Specify the foreground colour to use for bold text, if the BoldAsColour resource is set to 1 (the
default) or 2.

-bbgcolour
Specify the foreground colour to use for bold reverse-video text, if the BoldAsColour resource is
set to 1 (the default) or 2. (This colour is best thought of as the bold version of the background
colour; so it only appears when text is displayed in the background colour.)

-cfgcolour
Specify the foreground colour to use for text covered by the cursor.

-cbgcolour
Specify the background colour to use for text covered by the cursor. In other words, this is the
main colour of the cursor.

-titletitle
Specify the initial title of the terminal window. (This can be changed under control of the
server.)

-ut- or +ut
Tells pterm not to record your login in the utmp, wtmp and lastlog system log files; so you will
not show up on finger or who listings, for example.

-ut Tells pterm to record your login in utmp, wtmp and lastlog: this is the opposite of -ut-. This is
the default option: you will probably only need to specify it explicitly if you have changed the
default using the StampUtmp resource.

-ls- or +ls
Tells pterm not to execute your shell as a login shell.

-ls Tells pterm to execute your shell as a login shell: this is the opposite of -ls-. This is the
default option: you will probably only need to specify it explicitly if you have changed the
default using the LoginShell resource.

-sb- or +sb
Tells pterm not to display a scroll bar.

-sb Tells pterm to display a scroll bar: this is the opposite of -sb-. This is the default option: you
will probably only need to specify it explicitly if you have changed the default using the
ScrollBar resource.

-loglogfile, -sessionloglogfile
This option makes pterm log all the terminal output to a file as well as displaying it in the
terminal.

-cscharset
This option specifies the character set in which pterm should assume the session is operating.
This character set will be used to interpret all the data received from the session, and all input
you type or paste into pterm will be converted into this character set before being sent to the
session.

Any character set name which is valid in a MIME header (and supported by pterm) should be valid
here (examples are `ISO-8859-1', `windows-1252' or `UTF-8'). Also, any character encoding which is
valid in an X logical font description should be valid (`ibm-cp437', for example).

pterm's default behaviour is to use the same character encoding as its primary font. If you supply
a Unicode (iso10646-1) font, it will default to the UTF-8 character set.

Character set names are case-insensitive.

-nethack
Tells pterm to enable NetHack keypad mode, in which the numeric keypad generates the NetHack
hjklyubn direction keys. This enables you to play NetHack with the numeric keypad without having
to use the NetHack number_pad option (which requires you to press `n' before any repeat count). So
you can move with the numeric keypad, and enter repeat counts with the normal number keys.

-xrmresource-string
This option specifies an X resource string. Useful for setting resources which do not have their
own command-line options. For example:

pterm -xrm 'ScrollbarOnLeft: 1'

-help, --help
Display a message summarizing the available options.

-pgpfp Display the fingerprints of the PuTTY PGP Master Keys, to aid in verifying new files released by
the PuTTY team.

Synopsis

pterm [ options ]

X Resources

pterm can be more completely configured by means of X resources. All of these resources are of the form
pterm.FOO for some FOO; you can make pterm look them up under another name, such as xyz.FOO, by
specifying the command-line option `-namexyz'.

pterm.CloseOnExit
This option should be set to 0, 1 or 2; the default is 2. It controls what pterm does when the
process running inside it terminates. When set to 2 (the default), pterm will close its window as
soon as the process inside it terminates. When set to 0, pterm will print the process's exit
status, and the window will remain present until a key is pressed (allowing you to inspect the
scrollback, and copy and paste text out of it).

When this setting is set to 1, pterm will close immediately if the process exits cleanly (with an
exit status of zero), but the window will stay around if the process exits with a non-zero code or
on a signal. This enables you to see what went wrong if the process suffers an error, but not to
have to bother closing the window in normal circumstances.

pterm.WarnOnClose
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 1. When set to 1, pterm will ask for
confirmation before closing its window when you press the close button.

pterm.TerminalType
This controls the value set in the TERM environment variable inside the new terminal. The default
is `xterm'.

pterm.BackspaceIsDelete
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 1. When set to 0, the ordinary
Backspace key generates the Backspace character (^H); when set to 1, it generates the Delete
character (^?). Whichever one you set, the terminal device inside pterm will be set up to expect
it.

pterm.RXVTHomeEnd
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When it is set to 1, the Home and
End keys generate the control sequences they would generate in the rxvt terminal emulator, instead
of the more usual ones generated by other emulators.

pterm.LinuxFunctionKeys
This option can be set to any number between 0 and 5 inclusive; the default is 0. The modes vary
the control sequences sent by the function keys; for more complete documentation, it is probably
simplest to try each option in `pterm-ecat', and press the keys to see what they generate.

pterm.NoApplicationKeys
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 1, it stops the server
from ever switching the numeric keypad into application mode (where the keys send function-key-
like sequences instead of numbers or arrow keys). You probably only need this if some application
is making a nuisance of itself.

pterm.NoApplicationCursors
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 1, it stops the server
from ever switching the cursor keys into application mode (where the keys send slightly different
sequences). You probably only need this if some application is making a nuisance of itself.

pterm.NoMouseReporting
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 1, it stops the server
from ever enabling mouse reporting mode (where mouse clicks are sent to the application instead of
controlling cut and paste).

pterm.NoRemoteResize
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 1, it stops the server
from being able to remotely control the size of the pterm window.

pterm.NoAltScreen
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 1, it stops the server
from using the `alternate screen' terminal feature, which lets full-screen applications leave the
screen exactly the way they found it.

pterm.NoRemoteWinTitle
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 1, it stops the server
from remotely controlling the title of the pterm window.

pterm.NoRemoteQTitle
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 1. When set to 1, it stops the server
from remotely requesting the title of the pterm window.

This feature is a POTENTIALSECURITYHAZARD. If a malicious application can write data to your
terminal (for example, if you merely cat a file owned by someone else on the server machine), it
can change your window title (unless you have disabled this using the NoRemoteWinTitle resource)
and then use this service to have the new window title sent back to the server as if typed at the
keyboard. This allows an attacker to fake keypresses and potentially cause your server-side
applications to do things you didn't want. Therefore this feature is disabled by default, and we
recommend you do not turn it on unless you really know what you are doing.

pterm.NoDBackspace
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 1, it disables the
normal action of the Delete (^?) character when sent from the server to the terminal, which is to
move the cursor left by one space and erase the character now under it.

pterm.ApplicationCursorKeys
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 1, the default initial
state of the cursor keys are application mode (where the keys send function-key-like sequences
instead of numbers or arrow keys). When set to 0, the default state is the normal one.

pterm.ApplicationKeypad
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 1, the default initial
state of the numeric keypad is application mode (where the keys send function-key-like sequences
instead of numbers or arrow keys). When set to 0, the default state is the normal one.

pterm.NetHackKeypad
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 1, the numeric keypad
operates in NetHack mode. This is equivalent to the -nethack command-line option.

pterm.Answerback
This option controls the string which the terminal sends in response to receiving the ^E character
(`tell me about yourself'). By default this string is `PuTTY'.

pterm.HideMousePtr
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When it is set to 1, the mouse
pointer will disappear if it is over the pterm window and you press a key. It will reappear as
soon as you move it.

pterm.WindowBorder
This option controls the number of pixels of space between the text in the pterm window and the
window frame. The default is 1. You can increase this value, but decreasing it to 0 is not
recommended because it can cause the window manager's size hints to work incorrectly.

pterm.CurType
This option should be set to either 0, 1 or 2; the default is 0. When set to 0, the text cursor
displayed in the window is a rectangular block. When set to 1, the cursor is an underline; when
set to 2, it is a vertical line.

pterm.BlinkCur
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When it is set to 1, the text cursor
will blink when the window is active.

pterm.Beep
This option should be set to either 0 or 2 (yes, 2); the default is 0. When it is set to 2, pterm
will respond to a bell character (^G) by flashing the window instead of beeping.

pterm.BellOverload
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When it is set to 1, pterm will
watch out for large numbers of bells arriving in a short time and will temporarily disable the
bell until they stop. The idea is that if you cat a binary file, the frantic beeping will mostly
be silenced by this feature and will not drive you crazy.

The bell overload mode is activated by receiving N bells in time T; after a further time S without
any bells, overload mode will turn itself off again.

Bell overload mode is always deactivated by any keypress in the terminal. This means it can
respond to large unexpected streams of data, but does not interfere with ordinary command-line
activities that generate beeps (such as filename completion).

pterm.BellOverloadN
This option counts the number of bell characters which will activate bell overload if they are
received within a length of time T. The default is 5.

pterm.BellOverloadT
This option specifies the time period in which receiving N or more bells will activate bell
overload mode. It is measured in microseconds, so (for example) set it to 1000000 for one second.
The default is 2000000 (two seconds).

pterm.BellOverloadS
This option specifies the time period of silence required to turn off bell overload mode. It is
measured in microseconds, so (for example) set it to 1000000 for one second. The default is
5000000 (five seconds of silence).

pterm.ScrollbackLines
This option specifies how many lines of scrollback to save above the visible terminal screen. The
default is 200. This resource is equivalent to the -sl command-line option.

pterm.DECOriginMode
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. It specifies the default state of
DEC Origin Mode. (If you don't know what that means, you probably don't need to mess with it.)

pterm.AutoWrapMode
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 1. It specifies the default state of
auto wrap mode. When set to 1, very long lines will wrap over to the next line on the terminal;
when set to 0, long lines will be squashed against the right-hand edge of the screen.

pterm.LFImpliesCR
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 1, the terminal will
return the cursor to the left side of the screen when it receives a line feed character.

pterm.WinTitle
This resource is the same as the -T command-line option: it controls the initial title of the
window. The default is `pterm'.

pterm.TermWidth
This resource is the same as the width part of the -geometry command-line option: it controls the
number of columns of text in the window. The default is 80.

pterm.TermHeight
This resource is the same as the width part of the -geometry command-line option: it controls the
number of columns of text in the window. The defaults is 24.

pterm.Font
This resource is the same as the -fn command-line option: it controls the font used to display
normal text. The default is `fixed'.

pterm.BoldFont
This resource is the same as the -fb command-line option: it controls the font used to display
bold text when BoldAsColour is set to 0 or 2. The default is unset (the font will be bolded by
printing it twice at a one-pixel offset).

pterm.WideFont
This resource is the same as the -fw command-line option: it controls the font used to display
double-width characters. The default is unset (double-width characters cannot be displayed).

pterm.WideBoldFont
This resource is the same as the -fwb command-line option: it controls the font used to display
double-width characters in bold, when BoldAsColour is set to 0 or 2. The default is unset (double-
width characters are displayed in bold by printing them twice at a one-pixel offset).

pterm.ShadowBoldOffset
This resource can be set to an integer; the default is ‐1. It specifies the offset at which text
is overprinted when using `shadow bold' mode. The default (1) means that the text will be printed
in the normal place, and also one character to the right; this seems to work well for most X
bitmap fonts, which have a blank line of pixels down the right-hand side. For some fonts, you may
need to set this to ‐1, so that the text is overprinted one pixel to the left; for really large
fonts, you may want to set it higher than 1 (in one direction or the other).

pterm.BoldAsColour
This option should be set to either 0, 1, or 2; the default is 1. It specifies how bold text
should be displayed. When set to 1, bold text is shown by displaying it in a brighter colour; when
set to 0, bold text is shown by displaying it in a heavier font; when set to 2, both effects
happen at once (a heavy font and a brighter colour).

pterm.Colour0, pterm.Colour1, ..., pterm.Colour21
These options control the various colours used to display text in the pterm window. Each one
should be specified as a triple of decimal numbers giving red, green and blue values: so that
black is `0,0,0', white is `255,255,255', red is `255,0,0' and so on.

Colours 0 and 1 specify the foreground colour and its bold equivalent (the -fg and -bfg command-
line options). Colours 2 and 3 specify the background colour and its bold equivalent (the -bg and
-bbg command-line options). Colours 4 and 5 specify the text and block colours used for the cursor
(the -cfg and -cbg command-line options). Each even number from 6 to 20 inclusive specifies the
colour to be used for one of the ANSI primary colour specifications (black, red, green, yellow,
blue, magenta, cyan, white, in that order); the odd numbers from 7 to 21 inclusive specify the
bold version of each colour, in the same order. The defaults are:

pterm.Colour0: 187,187,187
pterm.Colour1: 255,255,255
pterm.Colour2: 0,0,0
pterm.Colour3: 85,85,85
pterm.Colour4: 0,0,0
pterm.Colour5: 0,255,0
pterm.Colour6: 0,0,0
pterm.Colour7: 85,85,85
pterm.Colour8: 187,0,0
pterm.Colour9: 255,85,85
pterm.Colour10: 0,187,0
pterm.Colour11: 85,255,85
pterm.Colour12: 187,187,0
pterm.Colour13: 255,255,85
pterm.Colour14: 0,0,187
pterm.Colour15: 85,85,255
pterm.Colour16: 187,0,187
pterm.Colour17: 255,85,255
pterm.Colour18: 0,187,187
pterm.Colour19: 85,255,255
pterm.Colour20: 187,187,187
pterm.Colour21: 255,255,255

pterm.RectSelect
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 0, dragging the mouse
over several lines selects to the end of each line and from the beginning of the next; when set to
1, dragging the mouse over several lines selects a rectangular region. In each case, holding down
Alt while dragging gives the other behaviour.

pterm.MouseOverride
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 1. When set to 1, if the application
requests mouse tracking (so that mouse clicks are sent to it instead of doing selection), holding
down Shift will revert the mouse to normal selection. When set to 0, mouse tracking completely
disables selection.

pterm.Printer
This option is unset by default. If you set it, then server-controlled printing is enabled: the
server can send control sequences to request data to be sent to a printer. That data will be piped
into the command you specify here; so you might want to set it to `lpr', for example, or `lpr-Pmyprinter'.

pterm.ScrollBar
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 1. When set to 0, the scrollbar is
hidden (although Shift-PageUp and Shift-PageDown still work). This is the same as the -sb command-
line option.

pterm.ScrollbarOnLeft
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 1, the scrollbar will be
displayed on the left of the terminal instead of on the right.

pterm.ScrollOnKey
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 1, any keypress causes
the position of the scrollback to be reset to the very bottom.

pterm.ScrollOnDisp
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 1. When set to 1, any activity in the
display causes the position of the scrollback to be reset to the very bottom.

pterm.LineCodePage
This option specifies the character set to be used for the session. This is the same as the -cs
command-line option.

pterm.NoRemoteCharset
This option disables the terminal's ability to change its character set when it receives escape
sequences telling it to. You might need to do this to interoperate with programs which incorrectly
change the character set to something they think is sensible.

pterm.BCE
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 1. When set to 1, the various control
sequences that erase parts of the terminal display will erase in whatever the current background
colour is; when set to 0, they will erase in black always.

pterm.BlinkText
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 0. When set to 1, text specified as
blinking by the server will actually blink on and off; when set to 0, pterm will use the less
distracting approach of making the text's background colour bold.

pterm.StampUtmp
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 1. When set to 1, pterm will log the
login in the various system log files. This resource is equivalent to the -ut command-line option.

pterm.LoginShell
This option should be set to either 0 or 1; the default is 1. When set to 1, pterm will execute
your shell as a login shell. This resource is equivalent to the -ls command-line option.