FAQ - st - Simple Terminal
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FAQ (7157B)
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1 ## Why does st not handle utmp entries?
2
3 Use the excellent tool of [utmp](http://git.suckless.org/utmp/) for this task.
4
5 ## Some _random program_ complains that st is unknown/not recognised/unsupported/whatever!
6
7 It means that st doesn’t have any terminfo entry on your system. Chances are
8 you did not `make install`. If you just want to test it without installing it,
9 you can manualy run `tic -sx st.info`.
10
11 ## Nothing works, and nothing is said about an unknown terminal!
12
13 * Some programs just assume they’re running in xterm i.e. they don’t rely on
14 terminfo. What you see is the current state of the “xterm compliance”.
15 * Some programs don’t complain about the lacking st description and default to
16 another terminal. In that case see the question about terminfo.
17
18 ## I get some weird glitches/visual bug on _random program_!
19
20 Try launching it with a different TERM: $ TERM=xterm myapp. toe(1) will give
21 you a list of available terminals, but you’ll most likely switch between xterm,
22 st or st-256color. The default value for TERM can be changed in config.h
23 (TNAME).
24
25 ## How do I scroll back up?
26
27 Using a terminal multiplexer.
28
29 * `st -e tmux` using C-b [
30 * `st -e screen` using C-a ESC
31
32 ## Why doesn't the Del key work in some programs?
33
34 Taken from the terminfo manpage:
35
36 If the terminal has a keypad that transmits codes when the keys
37 are pressed, this information can be given. Note that it is not
38 possible to handle terminals where the keypad only works in
39 local (this applies, for example, to the unshifted HP 2621 keys).
40 If the keypad can be set to transmit or not transmit, give these
41 codes as smkx and rmkx. Otherwise the keypad is assumed to
42 always transmit.
43
44 In the st case smkx=E[?1hE= and rmkx=E[?1lE>, so it is mandatory that
45 applications which want to test against keypad keys send these
46 sequences.
47
48 But buggy applications (like bash and irssi, for example) don't do this. A fast
49 solution for them is to use the following command:
50
51 $ printf '\033[?1h\033=' >/dev/tty
52
53 or
54 $ tput smkx
55
56 In the case of bash, readline is used. Readline has a different note in its
57 manpage about this issue:
58
59 enable-keypad (Off)
60 When set to On, readline will try to enable the
61 application keypad when it is called. Some systems
62 need this to enable arrow keys.
63
64 Adding this option to your .inputrc will fix the keypad problem for all
65 applications using readline.
66
67 If you are using zsh, then read the zsh FAQ
68 <http://zsh.sourceforge.net/FAQ/zshfaq03.html#l25>:
69
70 It should be noted that the O / [ confusion can occur with other keys
71 such as Home and End. Some systems let you query the key sequences
72 sent by these keys from the system's terminal database, terminfo.
73 Unfortunately, the key sequences given there typically apply to the
74 mode that is not the one zsh uses by default (it's the "application"
75 mode rather than the "raw" mode). Explaining the use of terminfo is
76 outside of the scope of this FAQ, but if you wish to use the key
77 sequences given there you can tell the line editor to turn on
78 "application" mode when it starts and turn it off when it stops:
79
80 function zle-line-init () { echoti smkx }
81 function zle-line-finish () { echoti rmkx }
82 zle -N zle-line-init
83 zle -N zle-line-finish
84
85 Putting these lines into your .zshrc will fix the problems.
86
87 ## How can I use meta in 8bit mode?
88
89 St supports meta in 8bit mode, but the default terminfo entry doesn't
90 use this capability. If you want it, you have to use the 'st-meta' value
91 in TERM.
92
93 ## I cannot compile st in OpenBSD
94
95 OpenBSD lacks librt, despite it being mandatory in POSIX
96 <http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/c99.html#tag_20_11_13>.
97 If you want to compile st for OpenBSD you have to remove -lrt from config.mk, and
98 st will compile without any loss of functionality, because all the functions are
99 included in libc on this platform.
100
101 ## The Backspace Case
102
103 St is emulating the Linux way of handling backspace being delete and delete being
104 backspace.
105
106 This is an issue that was discussed in suckless mailing list
107 <http://lists.suckless.org/dev/1404/20697.html>. Here is why some old grumpy
108 terminal users wants its backspace to be how he feels it:
109
110 Well, I am going to comment why I want to change the behaviour
111 of this key. When ASCII was defined in 1968, communication
112 with computers was done using punched cards, or hardcopy
113 terminals (basically a typewriter machine connected with the
114 computer using a serial port). ASCII defines DELETE as 7F,
115 because, in punched-card terms, it means all the holes of the
116 card punched; it is thus a kind of 'physical delete'. In the
117 same way, the BACKSPACE key was a non-destructive backspace,
118 as on a typewriter. So, if you wanted to delete a character,
119 you had to BACKSPACE and then DELETE. Another use of BACKSPACE
120 was to type accented characters, for example 'a BACKSPACE `'.
121 The VT100 had no BACKSPACE key; it was generated using the
122 CONTROL key as another control character (CONTROL key sets to
123 0 b7 b6 b5, so it converts H (code 0x48) into BACKSPACE (code
124 0x08)), but it had a DELETE key in a similar position where
125 the BACKSPACE key is located today on common PC keyboards.
126 All the terminal emulators emulated the difference between
127 these keys correctly: the backspace key generated a BACKSPACE
128 (^H) and delete key generated a DELETE (^?).
129
130 But a problem arose when Linus Torvalds wrote Linux. Unlike
131 earlier terminals, the Linux virtual terminal (the terminal
132 emulator integrated in the kernel) returned a DELETE when
133 backspace was pressed, due to the VT100 having a DELETE key in
134 the same position. This created a lot of problems (see [1]
135 and [2]). Since Linux has become the king, a lot of terminal
136 emulators today generate a DELETE when the backspace key is
137 pressed in order to avoid problems with Linux. The result is
138 that the only way of generating a BACKSPACE on these systems
139 is by using CONTROL + H. (I also think that emacs had an
140 important point here because the CONTROL + H prefix is used
141 in emacs in some commands (help commands).)
142
143 From point of view of the kernel, you can change the key
144 for deleting a previous character with stty erase. When you
145 connect a real terminal into a machine you describe the type
146 of terminal, so getty configures the correct value of stty
147 erase for this terminal. In the case of terminal emulators,
148 however, you don't have any getty that can set the correct
149 value of stty erase, so you always get the default value.
150 For this reason, it is necessary to add 'stty erase ^H' to your
151 profile if you have changed the value of the backspace key.
152 Of course, another solution is for st itself to modify the
153 value of stty erase. I usually have the inverse problem:
154 when I connect to non-Unix machines, I have to press CONTROL +
155 h to get a BACKSPACE. The inverse problem occurs when a user
156 connects to my Unix machines from a different system with a
157 correct backspace key.
158
159 [1] http://www.ibb.net/~anne/keyboard.html
160 [2] http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO-5.html
161
162 ## But I really want the old grumpy behaviour of my terminal
163
164 Apply [1].
165
166 [1] http://st.suckless.org/patches/delkey
167