## Why does st not handle utmp entries? Use the excellent tool of [utmp](http://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 manualy run `tic -s 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. ## I get some weird glitches/visual bug on _random program_! Try launching it with a different TERM: $ TERM=xterm myapp. toe(1) will give you a list of available terminals, but you’ll most likely switch between xterm, st or st-256color. The default value for TERM can be changed in config.h (TNAME). ## 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 : 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 . 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 . 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] http://st.suckless.org/patches/delkey