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- ## Why does st not handle utmp entries?
-
- Use the excellent tool of [utmp](https://git.suckless.org/utmp/) for this task.
-
- ## Some _random program_ complains that st is unknown/not recognised/unsupported/whatever!
-
- It means that st doesn’t have any terminfo entry on your system. Chances are
- you did not `make install`. If you just want to test it without installing it,
- you can manually run `tic -sx st.info`.
-
- ## Nothing works, and nothing is said about an unknown terminal!
-
- * Some programs just assume they’re running in xterm i.e. they don’t rely on
- terminfo. What you see is the current state of the “xterm compliance”.
- * Some programs don’t complain about the lacking st description and default to
- another terminal. In that case see the question about terminfo.
-
- ## How do I scroll back up?
-
- Using a terminal multiplexer.
-
- * `st -e tmux` using C-b [
- * `st -e screen` using C-a ESC
-
- ## Why doesn't the Del key work in some programs?
-
- Taken from the terminfo manpage:
-
- If the terminal has a keypad that transmits codes when the keys
- are pressed, this information can be given. Note that it is not
- possible to handle terminals where the keypad only works in
- local (this applies, for example, to the unshifted HP 2621 keys).
- If the keypad can be set to transmit or not transmit, give these
- codes as smkx and rmkx. Otherwise the keypad is assumed to
- always transmit.
-
- In the st case smkx=E[?1hE= and rmkx=E[?1lE>, so it is mandatory that
- applications which want to test against keypad keys send these
- sequences.
-
- But buggy applications (like bash and irssi, for example) don't do this. A fast
- solution for them is to use the following command:
-
- $ printf '\033[?1h\033=' >/dev/tty
-
- or
- $ tput smkx
-
- In the case of bash, readline is used. Readline has a different note in its
- manpage about this issue:
-
- enable-keypad (Off)
- When set to On, readline will try to enable the
- application keypad when it is called. Some systems
- need this to enable arrow keys.
-
- Adding this option to your .inputrc will fix the keypad problem for all
- applications using readline.
-
- If you are using zsh, then read the zsh FAQ
- <http://zsh.sourceforge.net/FAQ/zshfaq03.html#l25>:
-
- It should be noted that the O / [ confusion can occur with other keys
- such as Home and End. Some systems let you query the key sequences
- sent by these keys from the system's terminal database, terminfo.
- Unfortunately, the key sequences given there typically apply to the
- mode that is not the one zsh uses by default (it's the "application"
- mode rather than the "raw" mode). Explaining the use of terminfo is
- outside of the scope of this FAQ, but if you wish to use the key
- sequences given there you can tell the line editor to turn on
- "application" mode when it starts and turn it off when it stops:
-
- function zle-line-init () { echoti smkx }
- function zle-line-finish () { echoti rmkx }
- zle -N zle-line-init
- zle -N zle-line-finish
-
- Putting these lines into your .zshrc will fix the problems.
-
- ## How can I use meta in 8bit mode?
-
- St supports meta in 8bit mode, but the default terminfo entry doesn't
- use this capability. If you want it, you have to use the 'st-meta' value
- in TERM.
-
- ## I cannot compile st in OpenBSD
-
- OpenBSD lacks librt, despite it being mandatory in POSIX
- <http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/c99.html#tag_20_11_13>.
- If you want to compile st for OpenBSD you have to remove -lrt from config.mk, and
- st will compile without any loss of functionality, because all the functions are
- included in libc on this platform.
-
- ## The Backspace Case
-
- St is emulating the Linux way of handling backspace being delete and delete being
- backspace.
-
- This is an issue that was discussed in suckless mailing list
- <https://lists.suckless.org/dev/1404/20697.html>. Here is why some old grumpy
- terminal users wants its backspace to be how he feels it:
-
- Well, I am going to comment why I want to change the behaviour
- of this key. When ASCII was defined in 1968, communication
- with computers was done using punched cards, or hardcopy
- terminals (basically a typewriter machine connected with the
- computer using a serial port). ASCII defines DELETE as 7F,
- because, in punched-card terms, it means all the holes of the
- card punched; it is thus a kind of 'physical delete'. In the
- same way, the BACKSPACE key was a non-destructive backspace,
- as on a typewriter. So, if you wanted to delete a character,
- you had to BACKSPACE and then DELETE. Another use of BACKSPACE
- was to type accented characters, for example 'a BACKSPACE `'.
- The VT100 had no BACKSPACE key; it was generated using the
- CONTROL key as another control character (CONTROL key sets to
- 0 b7 b6 b5, so it converts H (code 0x48) into BACKSPACE (code
- 0x08)), but it had a DELETE key in a similar position where
- the BACKSPACE key is located today on common PC keyboards.
- All the terminal emulators emulated the difference between
- these keys correctly: the backspace key generated a BACKSPACE
- (^H) and delete key generated a DELETE (^?).
-
- But a problem arose when Linus Torvalds wrote Linux. Unlike
- earlier terminals, the Linux virtual terminal (the terminal
- emulator integrated in the kernel) returned a DELETE when
- backspace was pressed, due to the VT100 having a DELETE key in
- the same position. This created a lot of problems (see [1]
- and [2]). Since Linux has become the king, a lot of terminal
- emulators today generate a DELETE when the backspace key is
- pressed in order to avoid problems with Linux. The result is
- that the only way of generating a BACKSPACE on these systems
- is by using CONTROL + H. (I also think that emacs had an
- important point here because the CONTROL + H prefix is used
- in emacs in some commands (help commands).)
-
- From point of view of the kernel, you can change the key
- for deleting a previous character with stty erase. When you
- connect a real terminal into a machine you describe the type
- of terminal, so getty configures the correct value of stty
- erase for this terminal. In the case of terminal emulators,
- however, you don't have any getty that can set the correct
- value of stty erase, so you always get the default value.
- For this reason, it is necessary to add 'stty erase ^H' to your
- profile if you have changed the value of the backspace key.
- Of course, another solution is for st itself to modify the
- value of stty erase. I usually have the inverse problem:
- when I connect to non-Unix machines, I have to press CONTROL +
- h to get a BACKSPACE. The inverse problem occurs when a user
- connects to my Unix machines from a different system with a
- correct backspace key.
-
- [1] http://www.ibb.net/~anne/keyboard.html
- [2] http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO-5.html
-
- ## But I really want the old grumpy behaviour of my terminal
-
- Apply [1].
-
- [1] https://st.suckless.org/patches/delkey
-
- ## Why do images not work in st (in programs such as w3m)?
-
- This is a terrible hack that overdraws an image on top of the terminal emulator
- window. It also relies on a very specific way the terminal draws it's contents.
-
- A more proper (but limited way) would be using sixels. Which st doesn't
- support.
-
- ## BadLength X error in Xft when trying to render emoji
-
- Xft makes st crash when rendering color emojis with the following error:
-
- "X Error of failed request: BadLength (poly request too large or internal Xlib length error)"
- Major opcode of failed request: 139 (RENDER)
- Minor opcode of failed request: 20 (RenderAddGlyphs)
- Serial number of failed request: 1595
- Current serial number in output stream: 1818"
-
- This is a known bug in Xft (not st) which happens on some platforms and
- combination of particular fonts and fontconfig settings.
-
- See also:
- https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/lib/libxft/issues/6
- https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=107534
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1498269
-
- The solution is to remove color emoji fonts or disable this in the fontconfig
- XML configuration. As an ugly workaround (which may work only on newer
- fontconfig versions (FC_COLOR)), the following code can be used to mask color
- fonts:
-
- FcPatternAddBool(fcpattern, FC_COLOR, FcFalse);
-
- Please don't bother reporting this bug to st, but notify the upstream Xft
- developers about fixing this bug.
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