Command-line options¶
xterm's command-line options are almost all shorthand for resources: -sl
5000 and -xrm 'XTerm*saveLines: 5000' do the same thing, and a value
given on the command line beats any resource file. This page lists the
options Revenant implements today. The status of every option xterm defines is
in the command-line feasibility study.
xterm's convention: -opt turns a boolean on and +opt turns it off. A few
options (-si, -fbb) are named for the inhibit, so -si disables the
behaviour; the table gives the resource value each form sets.
Unknown options and missing values fail before Revenant opens an X display,
using xterm-style error and usage output. Run revenant -help for the accepted
inventory; an option not shown there is not silently accepted.
Running a command¶
| Option | Meaning |
|---|---|
-e command [args…] |
Run command instead of $SHELL. Must be last; everything after it is the command |
Fonts¶
| Option | Resource | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
-fn font |
vt100.font |
Bitmap font for the Default slot |
-fb font |
vt100.boldFont |
Bold fallback for the Xft path; bitmap bold remains incomplete |
-fwb font |
vt100.wideBoldFont |
Wide-bold fallback for the Xft path; bitmap wide-bold remains incomplete |
-fa pattern |
vt100.faceName |
Xft face (fontconfig pattern) |
-fs size |
vt100.faceSize |
Xft point size |
-fd pattern |
vt100.faceNameDoublesize |
Xft face for wide text and emoji fallback |
-fe pattern |
vt100.faceNameEmoji |
Preferred Xft face for emoji presentation |
+fbx / -fbx |
vt100.forceBoxChars true / false |
Draw box, block, braille and Powerline characters from the cell geometry instead of the font (xterm's polarity: +fbx turns it on) |
Colours, window, geometry¶
| Option | Resource | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
-bg color |
*background |
Background |
-fg color |
*foreground |
Foreground |
-bd color |
.borderColor |
Shell border color |
-bw pixels / -w pixels |
.borderWidth |
Shell border width |
-rv / +rv, -r / +r |
vt100.reverseVideo true / false |
Swap the configured default foreground and background |
-geometry WxH+X+Y |
vt100.geometry |
Size in characters, position in pixels; negative offsets count from the right and bottom |
-b pixels |
vt100.internalBorder |
Padding inside the window |
-cr color |
vt100.cursorColor |
Text cursor color |
-title string / -T string |
.title |
Window title |
-tn name |
.termName |
TERM for the child and the XTGETTCAP TN reply (default xterm-256color) |
-n string |
.iconName |
Icon name |
#geom |
.iconGeometry |
Icon geometry in xterm's sticky form |
-iconic |
.iconic |
Start iconified |
-name string |
— | Override the application instance; with -e, default title/icon still use the child basename |
-class string |
— | Override the application class |
-display name |
— | X server to connect to |
-xrm 'spec: value' |
any | Any resource, repeatable |
-opacity value |
backgroundOpacity |
Background opacity (0.0–1.0) or disabled |
-bg, -fg, -geometry, -title, -iconic, -display, and -xrm are
parsed by the X Toolkit itself and work in every Xt program.
Scrollback and scrollbar¶
| Option | Resource | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
-sl lines |
vt100.saveLines |
History size |
-sb / +sb |
vt100.scrollBar true / false |
Show the scrollbar |
-rightbar / -leftbar |
vt100.rightScrollBar true / false |
Which side |
-si / +si |
vt100.scrollTtyOutput false / true |
Inhibit scroll-to-bottom on output |
-sk / +sk |
vt100.scrollKey true / false |
Scroll to bottom on keypress |
-mc milliseconds |
vt100.multiClickTime |
Multi-click selection interval |
-cc classrange |
vt100.charClass |
Override double-click character classes |
Cursor¶
| Option | Resource | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
-ah / +ah |
vt100.alwaysHighlight true / false |
Filled cursor even when unfocused |
-uc / +uc |
vt100.cursorUnderLine true / false |
Start with an underline cursor; wins over -barc |
-barc / +barc |
vt100.cursorBar true / false |
Start with a bar cursor |
-bc / +bc |
vt100.cursorBlink true / false |
Configured blink operand; combined with application state by cursorBlinkXOR |
-bcn milliseconds |
vt100.cursorOnTime |
Time the blinking cursor remains visible |
-bcf milliseconds |
vt100.cursorOffTime |
Time the blinking cursor remains hidden |
Use -xrm 'XTerm*cursorBlink: always' or never for a forced blink policy
that ignores application blink requests.
Diagnostics¶
| Option | Resource | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
-log level |
logLevel |
Minimum stderr severity: debug, info, warning (default), or error |
-debug / +debug |
logLevel debug / warning |
xterm-compatible aliases for verbose/default logging |
-welcome |
— | Analyze X resources and installed fonts, print setup recommendations and a support summary, then exit |
-report-config |
reportConfig |
Print the resolved configuration report and exit |
-report-font-routing |
vt100.reportFontRouting |
Collect bounded font-routing records for report-font-routing() snapshots |
-help / --help |
— | Print accepted options and exit without opening a display |
-version / --version |
— | Print the version and exit; the double-dash form is Revenant specific |
-self-test / --self-test |
— | Run the built-in self test and exit; single dash is canonical, the double-dash form is a retained alias (Revenant specific) |
Unsupported means rejected
For example, revenant -ls currently exits with a bad-option diagnostic;
it does not start an ordinary non-login shell. The
feasibility table classifies
every patch-411 option that is not yet accepted.
Single-dash options may use an unambiguous prefix, as in xterm: -geo means
-geometry and -clas means -class. Exact spellings take precedence;
ambiguous prefixes such as -fo are rejected. Revenant's double-dash
extensions require their full spelling.