neulab/tldr huggingface dataset:
-s      This option indicates that xterm may scroll asynchronously, meaning that the screen does not have to be kept completely up to date while scrolling.  This allows xterm to run faster when network latencies are very high and is typically useful when running across a very large internet or many gateways.
+s      This option indicates that xterm should scroll synchronously.
-samename Does not send title and icon name change requests when the request would have no effect: the name is not changed.  This has the advantage of preventing flicker and the disadvantage of requiring an extra round trip to the server to find out the previous value.  In practice this should never be a problem.
+samename Always send title and icon name change requests.
-sb     This option indicates that some number of lines that are scrolled off the top of the window should be saved and that a scrollbar should be displayed so that those lines can be viewed.  This option may be turned on and off from the VT Options menu.
+sb     This option indicates that a scrollbar should not be displayed.
-selbg color This option specifies the color to use for the background of selected text.  If not specified, reverse video is used.  See the discussion of the highlightColor resource.
-selfg color This option specifies the color to use for selected text.  If not specified, reverse video is used.  See the discussion of the highlightTextColor resource.
-sf     This option indicates that Sun function key escape codes should be generated for function keys.
+sf     This option indicates that the standard escape codes should be generated for function keys.
-sh number scale line-height values by the given number.  See the discussion of the scaleHeight resource.
-si     This option indicates that output to a window should not automatically reposition the screen to the bottom of the scrolling region.  This option can be turned on and off from the VT Options menu.
+si     This option indicates that output to a window should cause it to scroll to the bottom.
-sk     This option indicates that pressing a key while using the scrollbar to review previous lines of text should cause the window to be repositioned automatically in the normal position at the bottom of the scroll region.
+sk     This option indicates that pressing a key while using the scrollbar should not cause the window to be repositioned.
-sl number This option specifies the number of lines to save that have been scrolled off the top of the screen.  This corresponds to the saveLines resource.  The default is “1024”.
-sm     This option, corresponding to the sessionMgt resource, indicates that xterm should set up session manager callbacks.
+sm     This option indicates that xterm should not set up session manager callbacks.
-sp     This option indicates that Sun/PC keyboard should be assumed, providing mapping for keypad “+” to “,”, and CTRL-F1 to F13, CTRL-F2 to F14, etc.
+sp     This option indicates that the standard escape codes should be generated for keypad and function keys.
-t      This option indicates that xterm should start in Tektronix mode, rather than in VTxxx mode.  Switching between the two windows is done using the “Options” menus.
Terminal database (terminfo (5) or termcap (5)) entries that work with xterm are:
“tek4014”, “tek4015”, “tek4012”, “tek4013”, “tek4010”, and “dumb”.
Xterm automatically searches the terminal database in this order for these entries and then sets the “TERM” variable (and the “TERMCAP” environment variable, if relevant).
+t      This option indicates that xterm should start in VTxxx mode.
-tb     This option, corresponding to the toolBar resource, indicates that xterm should display a toolbar (or menubar) at the top of its window.  The buttons in the toolbar correspond to the popup menus, e.g., control/left/mouse for Main Options.
+tb     This option indicates that xterm should not set up a toolbar.
-ti term_id Specify the name used by xterm to select the correct response to terminal ID queries.  It also specifies the emulation level, used to determine the type of response to a DA control sequence. Valid values include vt52, vt100, vt101, vt102, vt220, and vt240 (the “vt” is optional).  The default is “vt420”.  The term_id argument specifies the terminal ID to use.  (This is the same as the decTerminalID resource).
-tm string This option specifies a series of terminal setting keywords followed by the characters that should be bound to those functions, similar to the stty program.  The keywords and their values are described in detail in the ttyModes resource.
-tn name This option specifies the name of the terminal type to be set in the TERM environment variable.  It corresponds to the termName resource.  This terminal type must exist in the terminal database (termcap or terminfo, depending on how xterm is built) and should have li# and co# entries.  If the terminal type is not found, xterm uses the built-in list “xterm”, “vt102”, etc.
-u8     This option sets the utf8 resource.  When utf8 is set, xterm interprets incoming data as UTF-8.  This sets the wideChars resource as a side-effect, but the UTF-8 mode set by this option prevents it from being turned off.  If you must turn UTF-8 encoding on and off, use the -wc option or the corresponding wideChars resource, rather than the -u8 option.
This option and the utf8 resource are overridden by the -lc and -en options and locale resource.  That is, if xterm has been compiled to support luit, and the locale resource is not “false” this option is ignored.  We recommend using the -lc option or the “locale: true” resource in UTF-8 locales when your operating system supports locale, or -en UTF-8 option or the “locale: UTF-8” resource when your operating system does not support locale.
+u8     This option resets the utf8 resource.
-uc     This option makes the cursor underlined instead of a box.
+uc     This option makes the cursor a box instead of underlined.
-ulc    This option disables the display of characters with underline attribute as color rather than with underlining.
+ulc    This option enables the display of characters with underline attribute as color rather than with underlining.
-ulit   This option, corresponding to the italicULMode resource, disables the display of characters with underline attribute as italics rather than with underlining.
+ulit   This option, corresponding to the italicULMode resource, enables the display of characters with underline attribute as italics rather than with underlining.
-ut     This option indicates that xterm should not write a record into the system utmp log file.
+ut     This option indicates that xterm should write a record into the system utmp log file.
-vb     This option indicates that a visual bell is preferred over an audible one.  Instead of ringing the terminal bell whenever a Control-G is received, the window will be flashed.
+vb     This option indicates that a visual bell should not be used.
-wc     This option sets the wideChars resource.
When wideChars is set, xterm maintains internal structures for 16-bit characters.  If xterm is not started in UTF-8 mode (or if this resource is not set), initially it maintains those structures to support 8-bit characters.  Xterm can later be switched, using a menu entry or control sequence, causing it to reallocate those structures to support 16-bit characters.
The default is “false”.
+wc     This option resets the wideChars resource.
-wf     This option indicates that xterm should wait for the window to be mapped the first time before starting the subprocess so that the initial terminal size settings and environment variables are correct.  It is the application's responsibility to catch subsequent terminal size changes.
+wf     This option indicates that xterm should not wait before starting the subprocess.
-ziconbeep percent Same as zIconBeep resource.  If percent is non-zero, xterms that produce output while iconified will cause an XBell sound at the given volume and have “***” prepended to their icon titles.  Most window managers will detect this change immediately, showing you which window has the output.  (A similar feature was in x10 xterm.)
-C      This option indicates that this window should receive console output.  This is not supported on all systems.  To obtain console output, you must be the owner of the console device, and you must have read and write permission for it.  If you are running X under xdm on the console screen you may need to have the session startup and reset programs explicitly change the ownership of the console device in order to get this option to work.
-Sccn   This option allows xterm to be used as an input and output channel for an existing program and is sometimes used in specialized applications.  The option value specifies the last few letters of the name of a pseudo-terminal to use in slave mode, plus the number of the inherited file descriptor.  If the option contains a “/” character, that delimits the characters used for the pseudo-terminal name from the file descriptor. Otherwise, exactly two characters are used from the option for the pseudo-terminal name, the remainder is the file descriptor. Examples (the first two are equivalent since the descriptor follows the last “/”):
-S/dev/pts/123/45 -S123/45 -Sab34
Note that xterm does not close any file descriptor which it did not open for its own use.  It is possible (though probably not portable) to have an application which passes an open file descriptor down to xterm past the initialization or the -S option to a process running in the xterm.
Old Options The following command line arguments are provided for compatibility with older versions.  They may not be supported in the next release as the X Toolkit provides standard options that accomplish the same task.
%geom   This option specifies the preferred size and position of the Tektronix window.  It is shorthand for specifying the “tekGeometry” resource.
#geom   This option specifies the preferred position of the icon window. It is shorthand for specifying the “iconGeometry” resource.
-T string This option specifies the title for xterm's windows.  It is equivalent to -title.
-n string This option specifies the icon name for xterm's windows.  It is shorthand for specifying the “iconName” resource.  Note that this is not the same as the toolkit option -name.  The default icon name is the application name.
If no suitable icon is found, xterm provides a compiled-in pixmap.
X Toolkit sets the WM_ICON_NAME property using this value.
-r      This option indicates that reverse video should be simulated by swapping the foreground and background colors.  It is equivalent to -rv.
-w number This option specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding the window.  It is equivalent to -borderwidth or -bw.
X Toolkit Options The following standard X Toolkit command line arguments are commonly used with xterm:
-bd color This option specifies the color to use for the border of the window.  The corresponding resource name is borderColor.  Xterm uses the X Toolkit default, which is “XtDefaultForeground”.
Xterm's VT100 window has two borders: the inner border internalBorder and the outer border borderWidth, managed by the X Toolkit.
Normally xterm fills the inner border using the VT100 window's background color.  If the colorInnerBorder resource is enabled, then xterm may fill the inner border using the borderColor resource.
-bg color This option specifies the color to use for the background of the window.  The corresponding resource name is background.  The default is “XtDefaultBackground”.
-bw number This option specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding the window.
This appears to be a legacy of older X releases.  It sets the borderWidth resource of the shell widget, and may provide advice to your window manager to set the thickness of the window frame. Most window managers do not use this information.  See the -b option, which controls the inner border of the xterm window.
-display display This option specifies the X server to contact; see X(1).
-fg color This option specifies the color to use for displaying text.  The corresponding resource name is foreground.  The default is “XtDefaultForeground”.
-fn font This option specifies the font to be used for displaying normal text.  The corresponding resource name is font.  The resource value default is fixed.
-font font This is the same as -fn.
-geometry geometry This option specifies the preferred size and position of the VTxxx window; see X(1).
The normal geometry specification can be suffixed with @ followed by a Xinerama screen specification; it can be either g for the global screen (default), c for the current screen or a screen number.
-iconic This option indicates that xterm should ask the window manager to start it as an icon rather than as the normal window.  The corresponding resource name is iconic.
-name name This option specifies the application name under which resources are to be obtained, rather than the default executable file name. Name should not contain “.” or “*” characters.
-rv     This option indicates that reverse video should be simulated by swapping the foreground and background colors.  The corresponding resource name is reverseVideo.
+rv     Disable the simulation of reverse video by swapping foreground and background colors.
-title string This option specifies the window title string, which may be displayed by window managers if the user so chooses.  It is shorthand for specifying the “title” resource.  The default title is the command line specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application name.
X Toolkit sets the WM_NAME property using this value.
-xrm resourcestring This option specifies a resource string to be used.  This is especially useful for setting resources that do not have separate command line options.
X Toolkit accepts alternate names for a few of these options, e.g.,
•   “-background” for “-bg”
•   “-font” for “-fn”
•   “-foreground” for “-fg”
Abbreviated options also are supported, e.g., “-v” for “-version.”
Xterm understands all of the core X Toolkit resource names and classes. It also uses the X Toolkit resource types (such as booleans, colors, fonts, integers, and strings) along with their respective converters. Those resource types are not always sufficient:
•   Xterm's resource values may be lists of names.  X Toolkit resource types do not include lists.  Xterm uses a string for the resource, and parses it.
Comma-separated lists of names ignore case.
•   Xterm may defer processing a resource until it is needed.  For example, font2 through font7 are loaded as needed, to start faster. Again, the actual resource type is a string, parsed and used when needed.
Application specific resources (e.g., “XTerm.NAME”) follow:
Application Resources backarrowKeyIsErase (class BackarrowKeyIsErase) Tie the VTxxx backarrowKey and ptyInitialErase resources together by setting the DECBKM state according to whether the initial erase character is a backspace (8) or delete (127) character.  A “false” value disables this feature.  The default is “False”.
Here are tables showing how the initial settings for
•   backarrowKeyIsErase (BKIE),
•   backarrowKey (BK), and
•   ptyInitialErase (PIE), along with the
•   stty erase character (^H for backspace, ^? for delete)
will affect DECBKM.  First, xterm obtains the initial erase character:
•   xterm's internal value is ^H
•   xterm asks the operating system for the value which stty shows
•   the ttyModes resource may override erase
•   if ptyInitialErase is false, xterm will look in the terminal database
Summarizing that as a table:
PIE     stty   termcap   erase ─────────────────────────────── false    ^H      ^H       ^H false    ^H      ^?       ^? false    ^?      ^H       ^H false    ^?      ^?       ^? true     ^H      ^H       ^H true     ^H      ^?       ^H true     ^?      ^H       ^? true     ^?      ^?       ^?
Using that erase character, xterm allows further choices:
•   if backarrowKeyIsErase is true, xterm uses the erase character for the initial state of DECBKM
•   if backarrowKeyIsErase is false, xterm sets DECBKM to 2 (internal).  This ties together backarrowKey and the control sequence for DECBKM.
•   applications can send a control sequence to set/reset DECBKM control set
•   the “Backarrow Key (BS/DEL)” menu entry toggles DECBKM
Summarizing the initialization details:
erase   BKIE    BK      DECBKM   result ──────────────────────────────────────── ^?     false   false     2        ^H ^?     false   true      2        ^? ^?     true    false     0        ^? ^?     true    true      1        ^? ^H     false   false     2        ^H ^H     false   true      2        ^? ^H     true    false     0        ^H ^H     true    true      1        ^H
buffered (class Buffered) Normally xterm is built with double-buffer support.  This resource can be used to turn it on or off.  Setting the resource to “true” turns double-buffering on.  The default value is “False”.
bufferedFPS (class BufferedFPS) When xterm is built with double-buffer support, this gives the maximum number of frames/second.  The default is “40” and is limited to the range 1 through 100.
cursorTheme (class CursorTheme) The Xcursor(1) library provides a way to change the pointer shape and size.  The X11 library uses this library to extend the font- and glyph-cursor calls used by applications such as xterm  to substitute external files for the built-in “core” cursors provided by X.
Xterm uses the pointerShape resource to select the X cursor shape.  Most of the available sets of cursor themes provide an incomplete set of “core” cursors (while possibly adding other cursors).  Because of this limitation, xterm disables the feature by default.
The cursor theme feature can be useful because X cursors are not scalable and on a high-resolution display, the cursors are hard to find.  Some of the cursor themes include larger cursors to work around this limitation:
•   The default core cursors are 8x8 pixels;
•   Some cursor themes include cursors up to the X server limit of 64x64 pixels.
At startup, xterm sets the XCURSOR_THEME environment variable to enable or disable the cursor theme feature.  The default value is “none”.  Other values (including “default”) are passed to the Xcursor library to select a cursor theme.
fullscreen (class Fullscreen) Specifies whether or not xterm should ask the window manager to use a fullscreen layout on startup.  Xterm accepts either a keyword (ignoring case) or the number shown in parentheses:
false (0) Fullscreen layout is not used initially, but may be later via menu-selection or control sequence.
true (1) Fullscreen layout is used initially, but may be disabled later via menu-selection or control sequence.
always (2) Fullscreen layout is used initially, and cannot be disabled later via menu-selection or control sequence.
never (3) Fullscreen layout is not used, and cannot be enabled later via menu-selection or control sequence.
hold (class Hold) If true, xterm will not immediately destroy its window when the shell command completes.  It will wait until you use the window manager to destroy/kill the window, or if you use the menu entries that send a signal, e.g., HUP or KILL.  You may scroll back, select text, etc., to perform most graphical operations. Resizing the display will lose data, however, since this involves interaction with the shell which is no longer running.
hpFunctionKeys (class HpFunctionKeys) Specifies whether or not HP function key escape codes should be generated for function keys.  The default is “false”, i.e., this feature is disabled.
The keyboardType resource is the preferred mechanism for selecting this mode.
iconGeometry (class IconGeometry) Specifies the preferred size and position of the application when iconified.  It is not necessarily obeyed by all window managers.
iconHint (class IconHint) Specifies an icon which will be added to the window manager hints.  Xterm provides no default value.
Set this resource to “none” to omit the hint entirely, using whatever the window manager may decide.
If the iconHint resource is given (or is set via the -n option) xterm searches for a pixmap file with that name, in the current directory as well as in /usr/share/pixmaps.  if the resource does not specify an absolute pathname.  In each case, xterm adds “_48x48” and/or “.xpm” to the filename after trying without those suffixes.  If it is able to load the file, xterm sets the window manager hint for the icon-pixmap.  These pixmaps are distributed with xterm, and can optionally be compiled-in:
•   mini.xterm_16x16, mini.xterm_32x32, mini.xterm_48x48
•   filled-xterm_16x16, filled-xterm_32x32, filled-xterm_48x48
•   xterm_16x16, xterm_32x32, xterm_48x48
•   xterm-color_16x16, xterm-color_32x32, xterm-color_48x48
In either case, xterm allows for adding a “_48x48” to specify the largest of the pixmaps as a default.  That is, “mini.xterm” is the same as “mini.xterm_48x48”.
If no explicit iconHint resource is given (or if none of the compiled-in names matches), xterm uses “mini.xterm” (which is always compiled-in).
The iconHint resource has no effect on “desktop” files, including “panel” and “menu”.  Those are typically set via a “.desktop” file; xterm provides samples for itself (and the uxterm script). The more capable desktop systems allow changing the icon on a per-user basis.
iconName (class IconName) Specifies a label for xterm when iconified.  Xterm provides no default value; some window managers may assume the application name, e.g., “xterm”.
Setting the iconName resource sets the icon label unless overridden by zIconBeep or the control sequences which change the window and icon labels.
keyboardType (class KeyboardType) Enables one (or none) of the various keyboard-type resources: hpFunctionKeys, scoFunctionKeys, sunFunctionKeys, tcapFunctionKeys, oldXtermFKeys and sunKeyboard.
The resource's value should be one of the corresponding strings “hp”, “sco”, “sun”, “tcap”, “legacy” or “vt220”, respectively.
The individual resources are provided for legacy support; this resource is simpler to use.  Xterm will use only one keyboard- type, but if multiple resources are set, it warns and uses the last one it checks.
The default is “unknown”, i.e., none of the associated resources are set via this resource.
maxBufSize (class MaxBufSize) Specify the maximum size of the input buffer.  The default is “32768”.  You cannot set this to a value less than the minBufSize resource.  It will be increased as needed to make that value evenly divide this one.
On some systems you may want to increase one or both of the maxBufSize and minBufSize resource values to achieve better performance if the operating system prefers larger buffer sizes.
maximized (class Maximized) Specifies whether or not xterm should ask the window manager to maximize its layout on startup.  The default is “false”.
menuHeight (class MenuHeight) Specifies the height of the toolbar, which may be increased by the X toolkit layout widget depending upon the fontsize used. The default is “25”.
menuLocale (class MenuLocale) Specify the locale used for character-set computations when loading the popup menus.  Use this to improve initialization performance of the Athena popup menus, which may load unnecessary (and very large) fonts, e.g., in a locale having UTF-8 encoding. The default is “C” (POSIX).
To use the current locale (only useful if you have localized the resource settings for the menu entries), set the resource to an empty string.
messages (class Messages) Specifies whether write access to the terminal is allowed initially.  See mesg(1).  The default is “true”.
minBufSize (class MinBufSize) Specify the minimum size of the input buffer, i.e., the amount of data that xterm requests on each read.  The default is “4096”. You cannot set this to a value less than 64.
omitTranslation (class OmitTranslation) Selectively omit one or more parts of xterm's default translations at startup.  The resource value is a comma-separated list of keywords, which may be abbreviated:
default ignore (mouse) button-down events which were not handled by other translations
fullscreen assigns a key-binding to the fullscreen() action.
keypress assigns keypresses by default to the insert-seven-bit() and insert-eight-bit() actions.
paging assigns key bindings to the scroll-back() and scroll-forw() actions.
pointer assigns pointer motion and button events to the pointer-motion() and pointer-button() actions respectively.
popup-menu assigns mouse-buttons with the control modifier to the popup-menus.
reset  assigns mouse-button 2 with the meta modifier to the clear-saved-lines action.
scroll-lock assigns a key-binding to the scroll-lock() action.
select assigns mouse- and keypress-combinations to actions which manipulate the selection.
Xterm also uses these actions to capture mouse button and motion events which can be manipulated with the mouse protocol control sequences.  If the select translations are omitted, then the pointer-motion and pointer-button handle these mouse protocol control sequences instead.
shift-fonts assigns key-bindings to larger-vt-font() and smaller-vt-font() actions.
wheel-mouse assigns buttons 4 and 5 with different modifiers to the scroll-back() and scroll-forw() actions.
ptyHandshake (class PtyHandshake) If “true”, xterm will perform handshaking during initialization to ensure that the parent and child processes update the utmp and stty state.
See also waitForMap which waits for the pseudo-terminal's notion of the screen size, and ptySttySize which resets the screen size after other terminal initialization is complete.  The default is “true”.
ptyInitialErase (class PtyInitialErase) If “true”, xterm will use the pseudo-terminal's sense of the stty erase value.  If “false”, xterm will set the stty erase value to match its own configuration, using the kb string from the termcap entry as a reference, if available.
In either case, the result is applied to the TERMCAP variable which xterm sets, if the system uses TERMCAP.
See also the ttyModes resource, which may override this.  The default is “False”.
ptySttySize (class PtySttySize) If “true”, xterm will reset the screen size after terminal initialization is complete.  This is needed for some systems whose pseudo-terminals cannot propagate terminal characteristics. Where it is not needed, it can interfere with other methods for setting the initial screen size, e.g., via window manager interaction.
See also waitForMap which waits for a handshake-message giving the pseudo-terminal's notion of the screen size.  The default is “false” on Linux and macOS systems, “true” otherwise.
reportColors (class ReportColors) If true, xterm will print to the standard output a summary of colors as it allocates them.  The default is “false”.
reportFonts (class ReportFonts) If true, xterm will print to the standard output a summary of each font's metrics (size, number of glyphs, etc.), as it loads them.  The default is “false”.
reportIcons (class ReportIcons) If true, xterm will print to the standard output a summary of each pixmap icon as it loads them.  The default is “false”.
reportXRes (class ReportXRes) If true, xterm will print to the standard output a list of the boolean, numeric and string X resources for the VT100 widget after initialization.  The default is “false”.
sameName (class SameName) If the value of this resource is “true”, xterm does not send title and icon name change requests when the request would have no effect: the name is not changed.  This has the advantage of preventing flicker and the disadvantage of requiring an extra round trip to the server to find out the previous value.  In practice this should never be a problem.  The default is “true”.
scaleHeight (class ScaleHeight) Scale line-height values by the resource value, which is limited to “0.9” to “1.5”.  The default value is “1.0”,
While this resource applies to either bitmap or TrueType fonts, its main purpose is to help work around incompatible changes in the Xft library's font metrics.  Xterm checks the font metrics to find what the library claims are the bounding boxes for each glyph (character).  However, some of Xft's features (such as the autohinter) can cause the glyphs to be scaled larger than the bounding boxes, and be partly overwritten by the next row.
See useClipping for a related resource.
scoFunctionKeys (class ScoFunctionKeys) Specifies whether or not SCO function key escape codes should be generated for function keys.  The default is “false”, i.e., this feature is disabled.
sessionMgt (class SessionMgt) If the value of this resource is “true”, xterm sets up session manager callbacks for XtNdieCallback and XtNsaveCallback.  The default is “true”.
sunFunctionKeys (class SunFunctionKeys) Specifies whether or not Sun function key escape codes should be generated for function keys.  The default is “false”, i.e., this feature is disabled.
sunKeyboard (class SunKeyboard) Xterm translates certain key symbols based on its assumptions about your keyboard.  This resource specifies whether or not Sun/PC keyboard layout (i.e., the PC keyboard's numeric keypad together with 12 function keys) should be assumed rather than DEC VT220.  This causes the keypad “+” to be mapped to “,”.  and CTRL F1-F10 to F11-F20, depending on the setting of the ctrlFKeys resource, so xterm emulates a DEC VT220 more accurately. Otherwise (the default, with sunKeyboard set to “false”), xterm uses PC-style bindings for the function keys and keypad.
PC-style bindings use the Shift, Alt, Control and Meta keys as modifiers for function-keys and keypad (see Xterm Control Sequences for details).  The PC-style bindings are analogous to PCTerm, but not the same thing.  Normally these bindings do not conflict with the use of the Meta key as described for the eightBitInput resource.  If they do, note that the PC-style bindings are evaluated first.
See also the keyboardType resource.
tcapFunctionKeys (class TcapFunctionKeys) Specifies whether or not function key escape codes read from the termcap/terminfo entry corresponding to the TERM environment variable should be generated for function keys instead of those configured using sunKeyboard and keyboardType.  The default is “false”, i.e., this feature is disabled.
termName (class TermName) Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM environment variable.
title (class Title) Specifies a string that may be used by the window manager when displaying this application.
toolBar (class ToolBar) Specifies whether or not the toolbar should be displayed.  The default is “true”.
ttyModes (class TtyModes) Specifies a string containing terminal setting keywords.  Except where noted, they may be bound to characters.  Other keywords set modes.  Not all keywords are supported on a given system. Allowable keywords include:
Keyword   POSIX?   Notes ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── brk       no       CHAR may send an “interrupt” signal, as well as ending the input-line. dsusp     no       CHAR will send a terminal “stop” signal after input is flushed. eof       yes      CHAR will terminate input (i.e., an end of file). eol       yes      CHAR will end the line. eol2      no       alternate CHAR for ending the line. erase     yes      CHAR will erase the last character typed. erase2    no       alternate CHAR for erasing the last input- character. flush     no       CHAR will cause output to be discarded until another flush character is typed. intr      yes      CHAR will send an “interrupt” signal. kill      yes      CHAR will erase the current line. lnext     no       CHAR will enter the next character quoted. quit      yes      CHAR will send a “quit” signal. rprnt     no       CHAR will redraw the current line. start     yes      CHAR will restart the output after stopping it. status    no       CHAR will cause a system-generated status line to be printed. stop      yes      CHAR will stop the output. susp      yes      CHAR will send a terminal “stop” signal swtch     no       CHAR will switch to a different shell layer. tabs      yes      Mode disables tab-expansion. -tabs     yes      Mode enables tab-expansion. weras     no       CHAR will erase the last word typed.
Control characters may be specified as ^char (e.g., ^c or ^u) and ^? may be used to indicate delete (127).  Use ^- to denote undef. Use \034 to represent ^\, since a literal backslash in an X resource escapes the next character.
This is very useful for overriding the default terminal settings without having to run stty every time an xterm is started.  Note, however, that the stty program on a given host may use different keywords; xterm's table is built in.  The POSIX column in the table indicates which keywords are supported by a standard stty program.
If the ttyModes resource specifies a value for erase, that overrides the ptyInitialErase resource setting, i.e., xterm initializes the terminal to match that value.
useInsertMode (class UseInsertMode) Force use of insert mode by adding appropriate entries to the TERMCAP environment variable.  This is useful if the system termcap is broken.  (This resource is ignored on most systems, because TERMCAP is not used).  The default is “false”.
utmpDisplayId (class UtmpDisplayId) Specifies whether or not xterm should try to record the display identifier (display number and screen number) as well as the hostname in the system utmp log file.  The default is “true”.
utmpInhibit (class UtmpInhibit) Specifies whether or not xterm should try to record the user's terminal in the system utmp log file.  If true, xterm will not try.  The default is “false”.
validShells (class ValidShells) Augment (add to) the system's /etc/shells, when determining whether to set the “SHELL” environment variable when running a given program.
The resource value is a list of lines (separated by newlines). Each line holds one pathname.  Xterm ignores any line beginning with “#” after trimming leading/trailing whitespace from each line.
The default is an empty string.
waitForMap (class WaitForMap) Specifies whether or not xterm should wait for the initial window map before starting the subprocess.  This is part of the ptyHandshake logic.  When xterm is directed to wait in this fashion, it passes the terminal size from the display end of the pseudo-terminal to the terminal I/O connection, e.g., using the size according to the window manager.  Otherwise, it uses the size as given in resource values or command-line option -geometry.  The default is “false”.
zIconBeep (class ZIconBeep) Same as -ziconbeep command line argument.  If the value of this resource is non-zero, xterms that produce output while iconified will cause an XBell sound at the given volume and have “*** ” prepended to their icon titles.  Most window managers will detect this change immediately, showing you which window has the output. (A similar feature was in x10 xterm.)  The default is “false”.
zIconTitleFormat (class ZIconTitleFormat) Allow customization of the string used in the zIconBeep feature. The default value is “*** %s”.
If the resource value contains a “%s”, then xterm inserts the icon title at that point rather than prepending the string to the icon title.  (Only the first “%s” is used).
VT100 Widget Resources The following resources are specified as part of the vt100 widget (class VT100).  They are specified by patterns such as “XTerm.vt100.NAME”.
If your xterm is configured to support the “toolbar”, then those patterns need an extra level for the form-widget which holds the toolbar and vt100 widget.  A wildcard between the top-level “XTerm” and the “vt100” widget makes the resource settings work for either, e.g., “XTerm*vt100.NAME”.
activeIcon (class ActiveIcon) Specifies whether or not active icon windows are to be used when the xterm window is iconified, if this feature is compiled into xterm.  The active icon is a miniature representation of the content of the window and will update as the content changes. Not all window managers necessarily support application icon windows.  Some window managers will allow you to enter keystrokes into the active icon window.  The default is “default”.
Xterm accepts either a keyword (ignoring case) or the number shown in parentheses:
false (0) No active icon is shown.
true (1) The active icon is shown.  If you are using twm, use this setting to enable active-icons.
default (2) Xterm checks at startup, and shows an active icon only for window managers which it can identify and which are known to support the feature.  These are fvwm (full support), and window maker (limited).  A few other windows managers (such as twm and ctwm) support active icons, but do not support the extensions which allow xterm to identify the window manager.
allowBoldFonts (class AllowBoldFonts) When set to “false”, xterm will not use bold fonts.  This overrides both the alwaysBoldMode and the boldMode resources.
allowC1Printable (class AllowC1Printable) If true, overrides the mapping of C1 controls (codes 128–159) to make them be treated as if they were printable characters. Although this corresponds to no particular standard, some users insist it is a VT100.  The default is “false”.
allowColorOps (class AllowColorOps) Specifies whether control sequences that set/query the dynamic colors should be allowed.  ANSI colors are unaffected by this resource setting.  The default is “true”.
allowFontOps (class AllowFontOps) Specifies whether control sequences that set/query the font should be allowed.  The default is “true”.
allowMouseOps (class AllowMouseOps) Specifies whether control sequences that enable xterm to send escape sequences to the host on mouse-clicks and movement.  The default is “true”.
allowPasteControls (class AllowPasteControls) If true, allow control characters such as BEL and CAN to be pasted.  Formatting characters (tab, newline) are always allowed. Other C0 control characters are suppressed unless this resource is enabled.  The exact set of control characters (C0 and C1) depends upon whether UTF-8 encoding is used, as well as the allowC1Printable resource.  The default is “false”.
allowScrollLock (class AllowScrollLock) Specifies whether control sequences that set/query the Scroll Lock key should be allowed, as well as whether the Scroll Lock key responds to user's keypress.  The default is “false”.
When this feature is enabled, xterm will sense the state of the Scroll Lock key each time it acquires focus.  Pressing the Scroll Lock key toggles xterm's internal state, as well as toggling the associated LED.  While the Scroll Lock is active, xterm attempts to keep a viewport on the same set of lines.  If the current viewport is scrolled past the limit set by the saveLines resource, then Scroll Lock has no further effect.
The reason for setting the default to “false” is to avoid user surprise.  This key is generally unused in keyboard configurations, and has not acquired a standard meaning even when it is used in that manner.  Consequently, users have assigned it for ad hoc purposes.
See also the autoScrollLock resource.
allowSendEvents (class AllowSendEvents) Specifies whether or not synthetic key and button events (generated using the X protocol SendEvent request) should be interpreted or discarded.  The default is “false” meaning they are discarded.  Note that allowing such events would create a very large security hole, therefore enabling this resource forcefully disables the allowXXXOps resources.  The default is “false”.
allowTcapOps (class AllowTcapOps) Specifies whether control sequences that query the terminal's notion of its function-key strings, as termcap or terminfo capabilities should be allowed.  The default is “true”.
A few programs, e.g., vim, use this feature to get an accurate description of the terminal's capabilities, independent of the termcap/terminfo setting:
•   Xterm can tell the querying program how many colors it supports.  This is a constant, depending on how it is compiled, typically 16.  It does not change if you alter resource settings, e.g., the boldColors resource.
•   Xterm can tell the querying program what strings are sent by modified (shift-, control-, alt-) function- and keypad-keys. Reporting control- and alt-modifiers is a feature that relies on the ncurses extended naming.
allowTitleOps (class AllowTitleOps) Specifies whether control sequences that modify the window title or icon name should be allowed.  The default is “true”.
allowWindowOps (class AllowWindowOps) Specifies whether extended window control sequences (as used in dtterm) should be allowed.  These include several control sequences which manipulate the window size or position, as well as reporting these values and the title or icon name.  Each of these can be abused in a script; curiously enough most terminal emulators that implement these restrict only a small part of the repertoire.  For fine-tuning, see disallowedWindowOps.  The default is “false”.
altIsNotMeta (class AltIsNotMeta) If “true”, treat the Alt-key as if it were the Meta-key.  Your keyboard may happen to be configured so they are the same.  But if they are not, this allows you to use the same prefix- and shifting operations with the Alt-key as with the Meta-key.  See altSendsEscape and metaSendsEscape.  The default is “false”.
altSendsEscape (class AltSendsEscape) This is an additional keyboard operation that may be processed after the logic for metaSendsEscape.  It is only available if the altIsNotMeta resource is set.
•   If “true”, Alt characters (a character combined with the modifier associated with left/right Alt-keys) are converted into a two-character sequence with the character itself preceded by ESC.  This applies as well to function key control sequences, unless xterm sees that Alt is used in your key translations.
•   If “false”, Alt characters input from the keyboard cause a shift to 8-bit characters (just like metaSendsEscape).  By combining the Alt- and Meta-modifiers, you can create corresponding combinations of ESC-prefix and 8-bit characters.
The default is “False”.  Xterm provides a menu option for toggling this resource.
alternateScroll (class ScrollCond) If “true”, the scroll-back and scroll-forw actions send cursor-up and -down keys when xterm is displaying the alternate screen. The default is “false”.
The alternateScroll state can also be set using a control sequence.
alwaysBoldMode (class AlwaysBoldMode) Specifies whether xterm should check if the normal and bold fonts are distinct before deciding whether to use overstriking to simulate bold fonts.  If this resource is true, xterm does not make the check for distinct fonts when deciding how to handle the boldMode resource.  The default is “false”.
boldMode   alwaysBoldMode   Comparison   Action ──────────────────────────────────────────────────── false      false            ignored      use font false      true             ignored      use font true       false            same         overstrike true       false            different    use font true       true             ignored      overstrike
This resource is used only for bitmap fonts:
•   When using bitmap fonts, it is possible that the font server will approximate the bold font by rescaling it from a different font size than expected.  The alwaysBoldMode resource allows the user to override the (sometimes poor) resulting bold font with overstriking (which is at least consistent).
•   The problem does not occur with TrueType fonts (though there can be other unnecessary issues such as different coverage of the normal and bold fonts).
As an alternative, setting the allowBoldFonts resource to false overrides both the alwaysBoldMode and the boldMode resources.
alwaysHighlight (class AlwaysHighlight) Specifies whether or not xterm should always display a highlighted text cursor.  By default (if this resource is false), a hollow text cursor is displayed whenever the pointer moves out of the window or the window loses the input focus.  The default is “false”.
alwaysUseMods (class AlwaysUseMods) Override the numLock resource, telling xterm to use the Alt and Meta modifiers to construct parameters for function key sequences even if those modifiers appear in the translations resource. Normally xterm checks if Alt or Meta is used in a translation that would conflict with function key modifiers, and will ignore these modifiers in that special case.  The default is “false”.
answerbackString (class AnswerbackString) Specifies the string that xterm sends in response to an ENQ (control/E) character from the host.  The default is a blank string, i.e., “”.  A hardware VT100 implements this feature as a setup option.
appcursorDefault (class AppcursorDefault) If “true”, the cursor keys are initially in application mode. This is the same as the VT102 private DECCKM mode, The default is “false”.
appkeypadDefault (class AppkeypadDefault) If “true”, the keypad keys are initially in application mode. The default is “false”.
assumeAllChars (class AssumeAllChars) If “true”, this enables a special case in bitmap fonts to allow the font server to choose how to display missing glyphs.  The default is “true”.
The reason for this resource is to help with certain quasi- automatically generated fonts (such as the ISO-10646-1 encoding of Terminus) which have incorrect font-metrics.
autoScrollLock (class AutoScrollLock) If “true”, xterm will maintain its viewport of displayed lines whenever displaying scrollback, as if allowScrollLock were enabled and the Scroll Lock key had been pressed.  The default is “false”.  This feature is only useful if the scrollTtyOutput resource is set to “false”.
autoWrap (class AutoWrap) Specifies whether or not auto-wraparound should be enabled.  This is the same as the VT102 DECAWM.  The default is “true”.
awaitInput (class AwaitInput) Specifies whether or not xterm uses a 50 millisecond timeout to await input (i.e., to support the Xaw3d arrow scrollbar).  The default is “false”.
backarrowKey (class BackarrowKey) Specifies whether the backarrow key transmits a backspace (8) or delete (127) character.  This corresponds to the DECBKM control sequence.  A “true” value specifies backspace.  The default is “True”.  Pressing the control key toggles this behavior.
background (class Background) Specifies the color to use for the background of the window.  The default is “XtDefaultBackground”.
bellIsUrgent (class BellIsUrgent) Specifies whether to set the Urgency hint for the window manager when making a bell sound.  The default is “false”.
bellOnReset (class BellOnReset) Specifies whether to sound a bell when doing a hard reset.  The default is “true”.
bellSuppressTime (class BellSuppressTime) Number of milliseconds after a bell command is sent during which additional bells will be suppressed.  Default is 200.  If set non-zero, additional bells will also be suppressed until the server reports that processing of the first bell has been completed; this feature is most useful with the visible bell.
boldColors (class ColorMode) Specifies whether to combine bold attribute with colors like the IBM PC, i.e., map colors 0 through 7 to colors 8 through 15. These normally are the brighter versions of the first 8 colors, hence bold.  The default is “true”.
boldFont (class BoldFont) Specifies the name of the bold font to use instead of overstriking.  There is no default for this resource.
boldMode (class BoldMode) This specifies whether or not text with the bold attribute should be overstruck to simulate bold fonts if the resolved bold font is the same as the normal font.  It may be desirable to disable bold fonts when color is being used for the bold attribute.
Note that xterm has one bold font which you may set explicitly. Xterm attempts to derive a bold font for the other font selections (font1 through font7).  If it cannot find a bold font, it will use the normal font.  In each case (whether the explicit resource or the derived font), if the normal and bold fonts are distinct, this resource has no effect.  The default is “true”.
See the alwaysBoldMode resource which can modify the behavior of this resource.
Although xterm attempts to derive a bold font for other font selections, the font server may not cooperate.  Since X11R6, bitmap fonts have been scaled.  The font server claims to provide the bold font that xterm requests, but the result is not always readable.  XFree86 introduced a feature which can be used to suppress the scaling.  In the X server's configuration file (e.g., “/etc/X11/XFree86” or “/etc/X11/xorg.conf”), you can add “:unscaled” to the end of the directory specification for the “misc” fonts, which comprise the fixed-pitch fonts that are used by xterm.  For example
FontPath                 "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath                 "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/:unscaled"