Standard terminal emulator for the X Window system
Not to be confused with X terminal display/input terminal hardware.
xterm
A sample xterm, running the Bash shell, showing a listing of /etc.
Original author(s)
Mark Vandevoorde
Developer(s)
Thomas Dickey
Initial release
1984; 40 years ago (1984)
Stable release
391[1]
/ 13 May 2024; 5 days ago (13 May 2024)
Repository
invisible-mirror.net/archives/xterm/
Operating system
Unix, Unix-like, MVS OpenVMS, OS/2
Type
Terminal emulator
License
MIT/X Consortium License
Website
invisible-island.net/xterm/
xterm is the standard terminal emulator for the X Window System. It allows users to run programs which require a command-line interface.
If no particular program is specified, xterm runs the user's shell. An X display can show one or more user's xterm windows output at the same time.[2][3] Each xterm window is a separate process, but all share the same keyboard, taking turns as each xterm process acquires focus. Normally focus switches between X applications as the user moves the pointer (e.g., a mouse cursor) about the screen, but xterm provides options to grab focus (the Secure Keyboard feature) as well as accept input events sent without using the keyboard (the Allow SendEvents feature). Those options have limitations, as discussed in the xterm manual.[4]
XTerm originated prior to the X Window System. It was originally written as a stand-alone terminal emulator for the VAXStation 100 (VS100) by Mark Vandevoorde, a student of Jim Gettys, in the summer of 1984, when work on X started. It rapidly became clear that it would be more useful as part of X than as a standalone program, so it was retargeted to X. As Gettys tells the story, "part of why xterm's internals are so horrifying is that it was originally intended that a single process be able to drive multiple VS100 displays."[5]
After many years as part of the X reference implementation, around 1996 the main line of development then shifted to XFree86 (which itself forked from X11R6.3), and it is now maintained by Thomas Dickey.
Many xterm variants are also available, such as hanterm, a variant tailored to Korean speakers, and kterm, which is designed for Japanese speakers.[6] Most terminal emulators for X started as variations on xterm.
^Thomas E. Dickey (13 May 2024). "ANN: xterm-391". Retrieved 16 May 2024.
^Rothman, Ernest E; Jepson, Brian; Rosen, Rich (2008-09-18). Mac OS X for Unix Geeks (Leopard): Demistifying the Geekier Side of Mac OS X. "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". ISBN 978-0596555191.
^Wagner, Bill (1998). The Complete Idiot's Guide to UNIX. Penguin. ISBN 978-0789718051.
^"xterm(1)". Security. Retrieved December 21, 2021.
^Thomas E. Dickey. "XTerm – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), Who wrote XTerm?". Archived from the original on 2018-06-24. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
^Thomas E. Dickey. "XTerm – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), What versions are available?". Archived from the original on 2018-06-24. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
is specified, xterm runs the user's shell. An X display can show one or more user's xterm windows output at the same time. Each xterm window is a separate...
systems on home and personal computers. On Unix terminal emulators such as xterm also can communicate with software running on the same machine, and thus...
829-1998 "XTERM - Change Log - Patch #24 - 1996/8/11 - XFree86 3.1.2Ee". Archived from the original on 2001-12-22. Thomas E. Dickey. "XTerm – Frequently...
GTK-based environments, Konsole on KDE, and xfce4-terminal on Xfce as well as xterm. Web-based SSH C-Kermit Project Linux console escape and control sequences...
handles 8-bit data differently, does not implement the C1 controls that xterm does. xterm does implement a switch "-k8" to suppress that functionality; rxvt...
Secure Shell (SSH) and Telnet for Microsoft Windows and Unix, along with an xterm terminal emulator. He is also the original author of Netwide Assembler (NASM)...
developer, Tatsuya Kinoshita. w3m runs in terminal emulator programs such as xterm and GNOME Terminal. The browser has tabbed browsing, right click menus,...
Retrieved December 15, 2008. Ben Byer (October 27, 2007). "Re: X11 in Leopard: xterm on start-up". Apple's x11-users mailing list. Archived from the original...
as the Windows Console in Microsoft Windows, the Terminal in macOS, and xterm in Unix. A user typically interacts with a console application using only...
programs have been developed to emulate other terminal emulators such as xterm and assorted console terminals (e.g., for Linux). Finally, some emulators...
including user provided GSSAPI DLLs. It also can emulate control sequences from xterm, VT220, VT102 or ECMA-48 terminal emulation, and allows local, remote, or...
Manual". Archived from the original on 2018-07-11. Retrieved 2018-07-11. "XTerm Control Sequences". Retrieved 2024-01-17. Tim Paterson (2007-08-08). "Is...
10646 characters but do not fully support Unicode. One such application, Xterm, can properly display all ISO/IEC 10646 characters that have a one-to-one...
a CD with free software for Windows/Mac and, finally, MILLE-Xterm itself. The MILLE-Xterm project's goal was to provide a scalable infrastructure for...
modem connects to the other modem and you log in, it is the same as an xterm session or a console login (without graphics capabilities) on your Linux...
for resizing the screen. Widely used terminal emulator programs include xterm, GNOME Terminal, Konsole, and Terminal. Remote login servers such as Secure...
protocol requests to the local X server. Simplest setup: remote clients (xterm, etc.) ↕ nxproxy client ↕ Network ↕ nxproxy server ↕ local X server (monitor/keyboard)...
a display device that is enumerated as :0 and then start an xterm on it. When the xterm terminates, xinit and startx kill the X display server. In general...
on most Unix-based operating systems, and are used in terminals such as xterm. PCF fonts replaced Bitmap Distribution Format due to a slight efficiency...
Global Information
/ 13 May 2024