aterm accepts application defaults set in XAPPLOADDIR/aterm (compile-time defined: usually /etc/X11/Xresources/aterm) and resources set in ~/.Xdefaults or ~/.Xresources. Note that when reading X resources, aterm recognizes two class names: XTerm and Aterm. The class name XTerm allows resources common to both aterm and xterm to be easily configured, while the class name Aterm allows resources unique to aterm, notably colours and key-handling, to be shared between different aterm configurations. If no resources are specified, suitable defaults will be used. Command-line arguments can be used to override resource settings. The following resources are allowed:

geometry: geom

Create the window with the specified X window geometry [default 80x24]; option -geometry.

background: colour

Use the specified colour as the window's background colour [default White]; option -bg.

foreground: colour

Use the specified colour as the window's foreground colour [default Black]; option -fg.

colorn: colour

Use the specified colour for the colour value n, where 0-7 corresponds to low-intensity (normal) colours and 8-15 corresponds to high-intensity (bold = bright foreground, blink = bright background) colours. The canonical names are as follows: 0=black, 1=red, 2=green, 3=yellow, 4=blue, 5=magenta, 6=cyan, 7=white, but the actual colour names used are listed in the COLORS AND GRAPHICS section.

colorBD: colour

Use the specified colour to display bold characters when the foreground colour is the default.

colorUL: colour

Use the specified colour to display underlined characters when the foreground colour is the default.

cursorColor: colour

Use the specified colour for the cursor. The default is to use the foreground colour; option -cr.

cursorColor2: colour

Use the specified colour for the colour of the cursor text. For this to take effect, cursorColor must also be specified. The default is to use the background colour.

reverseVideo: boolean

True: simulate reverse video by foreground and background colours; option -rv, False: regular screen colours [default]; option +rv. See note in COLORS AND GRAPHICS section.

scrollColor: colour

Use the specified colour for the scrollbar [default #B2B2B2].

troughColor: colour

Use the specified colour for the scrollbar's trough area [default #969696].

backgroundPixmap: file[;geom]

Use the specified image file, and cut the area defined by geometry string out of it.

MyStyle: name

Specify the name of the Afterstep MyStyle to be used as the base of aterm's look. ForeColor, BackColor, Font, BackPixmap (all texture options) will be used from MyStyle definition, unless some other command line option is specifyed for the same setting. For example resource font will override MyStyle Font. This is available only if used with AfterStep 1.9.28 or later and if compiled with AfterStep libraries support ( --enable-afterstep-lib).

transparent

Turn on/off pseudo transparency mode. In this mode aterm will use part of root background as it's own background, emulating see-through effect;

tinting: color

Turn on pseudo transparency background tinting. Tinting can be done fast and slow way. In fast way it will be done by combining of background color with tinting color using logical function. This function defaults to AND, and it can be changed using -tinttype option - see below. In general solid colors like Blue, Red, Green, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow are good, but you should experiment with it for each background you have. True tinting is more memory and CPU hungry - tinted copy of background image will be created every time you move/resize window. It alows for more smooth tinting thou. You need to build it with --enable-transparency=yes or --enable-background-image=yes option, to be able to use this feature.

-shading: amount

This option allows for darkening/lightening of the background image amount is the %value of the desired brightness, where 100 is the original. if amount is less then 100 - image will be darkened. if amount is less then 0 or more then 100 - image will be lightened. Lightening can cause some strange looking effects if applied on bright image. This option causes aterm to create shaded/lightened copy of the background - it's more memory cosuming as the result. It does not make much difference, though, if applied on non transparent background image.

backgroundType: type

Specify type of the transformation to be performed on background image. Possible types are : tile - plain vanilla tiling of the image. scale - original image will be scaled to the aterm's size, every time you resize window. scalev - original image will be scaled to the aterm's height only, every time you resize window. scaleh - original image will be scaled to the aterm's width only, every time you resize window. center - original image will be centered in aterm's window. notile - background color will be padded to image's right/bottom to make it the same size as window is. notileh - background color will be padded to image's right to make it the same width as window is. notilev - background color will be padded to image's bottom to make it the same height as window is. cut - aterm background will be cut out of the source image, as if this source image was tiled across the root window. The portion of the image that lies underneath of window will be used. If AfterStep Pager, asetroot or Esetroot where used to set the root image, then this option can be used in conjunction with -tr option. In this case it will do mentioned transformations to the root pixmap. and use it as aterm's background.

textType: type

Allows you to specify logical function to be used when displaying text. That will cause aterm to logically combine text with background pixels. That only works with transparent background and background image. Possible values are : and, andReverse, andInverted, xor, or, nor, invert, equiv, invert, orReverse, orInverted, nand.

tintingType type

Allows you to specify logical function to be used when tinting transparent background. That will cause aterm to logically combine text with background pixels. NOTE: If shading option is used, or background image is specifyed - true type will always be used. That works with bpth transparent background and background image. Possible values are :

Fast tinting options : and, andReverse, andInverted, xor, or, nor, invert, equiv, invert, orReverse, orInverted, nand,

Slow tinting: true - will do "true" tinting - that means that background pixel's RGB components will be decreased proportionaly to the RGB components of specified tinting color.

menu: file[;tag]

Read in the specified menu file (note the `.menu' extension is optional) and also optionally specify a starting tag to find. See the reference documentation for details on the syntax for the menuBar.

path: path

Specify the colon-delimited search path for finding files (XPM and menus), in addition to the paths specified by the RXVTPATH and PATH environment variables.

font: fontname

Select the main text font used [default 7x14]; option -fn.

fontn: fontname

Specify the alternative font n. The default font values:

font: ` 7x14
font1: ` 6x10
font2: ` 6x13
font3: ` 8x13
font4: ` 9x15

boldFont: fontname

Specify the name of the bold font to use if colorBD has not been specified and it is not possible to map the default foreground colour to colour 8-15 [default NONE]. This font must be the same height and width as the normal font; option -fb.

mfont: fontname

Select the main multiple-character text font used [default k14]; option -fk.

mfontn: fontname

Specify the alternative multiple-character font n. If compiled for multiple-character fonts, the Roman and multiple-character font sizes should match.

multichar_encoding: mode

Set the encoding mode to be used when multicharacter encoding is received; eucj: EUC Japanese encoding [default for Kanji]. sjis: Shift JIS encoding. big5: BIG5 encoding; option -km.

greek_keyboard: mode

Set the Greek keyboard translation mode to be used; iso: ISO-8859 mapping (elot-928) [default]. ibm: IBM-437 mapping (DOS codepage 737); option -grk. Use Mode_switch to toggle keyboard input. For more details, see the distributed file README.greek.

title: text

title: text

Set window title string, the default title is the command-line

Set window title string, the default title is the command-line specified after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application name; option -title. application name; option -title.

iconName: text

Set the name used to label the window's icon or displayed in an icon manager window, it also sets the window's title unless it is icon manager window, it also sets the window's title unless it is explicitly set; option -n.

mapAlert: boolean

True: de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character. False: no de-iconify (map) on receipt of a bell character [default].

visualBell: boolean

True: use visual bell on receipt of a bell character; option -vb. False: no visual bell [default]; option +vb.

loginShell: boolean

True: start as a login shell by prepending a `-' to argv[0] of the shell; option -ls. False: start as a normal sub-shell [default]; option +ls.

utmpInhibit: boolean

True: inhibit writing record into the system log file utmp; option -ut. False: write record into the system log file utmp [default]; option +ut.

print-pipe: string

Specify a command pipe for vt100 printer [default lpr(1)]. Use Print to initiate a screen dump to the printer and Ctrl-Print or Shift-Print to include the scrollback as well.

scrollBar: boolean

True: enable the scrollbar [default]; option -sb. False: disable the scrollbar; option +sb. Note that the scrollbar type (with/without arrows) is compile-time selected.

smallfont_key: keysym

If enabled, use Alt-keysym to toggle to a smaller font [default Alt-<]

bigfont_key: keysym

If enabled, use Alt-keysym to toggle to a bigger font [default Alt->]

saveLines: number

Save number lines in the scrollback buffer [default 64]; option -sl.

termName: termname

Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM environment variable; option -tn.

meta8: boolean

True: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress to set the 8th bit. False: handle Meta (Alt) + keypress as an escape prefix [default].

modifier: string

Set the Meta key to be enabled by modifier Mod1, Mod2, Mod3, Mod4 or Mod5.

backspacekey: string

The string to send when the backspace key is pressed. If set to DEC or unset it will send Delete (code 127) or, if shifted, Backspace (code 8) - which can be reversed with the appropriate DEC private mode escape sequence.

deletekey: string

The string to send when the delete key (not the keypad delete key) is pressed. If unset it will send the sequence traditionally associated with the Execute key.

cutchars: string

The characters used as delimiters for double-click word selection. The built-in default: BACKSLASH `"'&()*,;<=>?@[]{|}

keysym.sym: string

Associate string with keysym sym (0xFF00 - 0xFFFF). It may contain escape values (\a: bell, \b: backspace, \e, \E: escape, \n: newline, \r: return, \t: tab, \000: octal number) or control characters (^?: delete, ^@: null, ^A ...) and may enclosed with double quotes so that it can start or end with whitespace. The intervening resource name keysym. cannot be omitted. This resource is only available when compiled with KEYSYM_RESOURCE.

Lines of text that scroll off the top of the aterm window (resource: saveLines) and can be scrolled back using the scrollbar or by keystrokes. The normal aterm scrollbar has arrows and its behaviour is fairly intuitive. The xterm-scrollbar is without arrows and its behaviour mimics that of xterm. When build with --enable-next-scroll aterm will have NeXT-ish scrollbars. They look nicer and easier in use, but have slightly larger size. Their look and size can be tweaked at compile time by modifying parameters in rxvt.h.

Scroll down with Button1 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Next. Scroll up with Button3 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Prior. Continuous scroll with Button2.

To temporarily override mouse reporting, for either the scrollbar or the normal text selection/insertion, hold either the Shift or the Meta (Alt) key while performing the desired mouse action.

If mouse reporting mode is active, the normal scrollbar actions are disabled -- on the assumption that we are using a fullscreen application. Instead, pressing Button1 and Button3 sends ESC[6~ (Next) and ESC[5~ (Prior), respectively. Similarly, clicking on the up and down arrows sends ESC[A (Up) and ESC[B (Down), respectively.

The behaviour of text selection and insertion mechanism is similar to xterm(1).

Selection:

Left click at the beginning of the region, drag to the end of the region and release; Right click to extend the marked region; Left double-click to select a word; Left triple-click to select the entire line.

Insertion:

Pressing and releasing the Middle mouse button (or Shift-Insert) in an aterm window causes the current text selection to be inserted as if it had been typed on the keyboard.

You can change fonts on-the-fly, which is to say cycle through the default font and others of various sizes, by using Shift-KP_Add and Shift-KP_Subtract. Or, alternatively (if enabled) with Alt-> and Alt-<, where the actual key can be selected using resources smallfont_key/bigfont_key.

aterm tries to write an entry into the (5) file so that it can be seen via the who(1) command, and can accept messages. To allow this feature, aterm must be installed setuid root on some systems.