rxvt in native mode, widely spaced characters [Was: Re: why "Sorry, your message has been denied due to keywords found in your subject"?]

[Charles Wilson]

Daniel Barclay wrote:

> Well, I didn't specify anything.  I haven't touched any of
> /etc/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt, ~/.Xdefaults or ~/.Xresources, or given any
> options on the command line Iused to invoke rxvt.
> 
> I am using whatever the CygWin packages and installer installed on my
> machine, which evidently changes in non-intuitive ways when I re-run it
> to modify the combinations of packages I have installed even though I'm
> not (consciously) touching any X11 or font-related packages).

No. There is something else going on, but Ruby does NOT affect rxvt.

However, I suggest rather than blindly re-installing/un-installing 
packages at random, you instead read the documentation.

/usr/share/doc/Cygwin/rxvt-20050409.README


> Just now, I tried installing the ruby package, and as soon as I started 
> rxvt,
> it started in messed-up form--widely spaced characters, in yellow, on a 
> dark
> blue background--rather than the way it started immediately 
> before--normally
> spaced characters, in black, on a white background.

"before" == default when rxvt can't find, and is not explicitly given, 
any configuration information at all.

"after" == rxvt found the default system app-defaults file 
(/etc/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt) but you do not have the fonts that it 
specifies.

Either install the bitstream vera fonts in your Windows sytem, (e.g. go 
to Control Panel/Fonts...
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/ttf-bitstream-vera/1.10/

Or change the specified font.  You can do the latter by editing the 
/etc/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt file itself, or overriding it for your 
particular account by
  (1) creating a ~/.Xdefaults file that specifies a different font
  (2) explicitly starting rxvt with the '-fn <some font>' option

> Does that color change give any hints regarding what's happening (what
> unrelated thing got modified when I re-ran cygwin.exe to install Ruby)?

My guess is that rxvt's own postinstall script, which is supposed to 
copy /etc/defaults/etc/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt into the actual 
/etc/X11/app-defaults/ directory failed the first time you ran setup. 
Then second time you ran setup, it tried again to run all the 
post-install scripts that had not yet succeeded. This second time, it 
worked, and you are now the proud owner of an /etc/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt 
file, which rxvt.exe now finds.

> 
> Hmm.  Those colors seem to match what's in 
> /etc/defaults/etc/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt:
> 
> Rxvt*background:        #000040
> Rxvt*foreground:        #ffffbf
> Rxvt*scrollBar:        true
> Rxvt*scrollBar_right:   true
> Rxvt*font:        -bitstream-bitstream vera sans 
> mono-medium-r-normal--*-160-*-*-m-*-iso8859-1
> Rxvt*boldfont:        -bitstream-bitstream vera sans 
> mono-bold-r-normal--*-160-*-*-m-*-iso8859-1
> Rxvt*saveLines:         10000
> !Rxvt*loginshell:    true
> Rxvt.backspacekey:      ^H
> 
> What's the command to determine which cygwin package installs that file?

cygcheck -f /etc/defaults/etc/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt

which will tell you it is, perhaps unsurprisingly, installed by the rxvt 
package.  However, that is the *default* version of the file. The actual 
file that is used by rxvt at runtime is in /etc/X11/app-defaults/, not 
in /etc/defaults/etc/X11/app-defaults/.  It is copied from one location 
to the other by (again, surprise!) the rxvt post-installation script, 
which is automatically executed by setup.exe the first time you install 
the rxvt package -- or every time you run setup.exe, until the script 
succeeds if there were unexpected problems.

> Is there a dependency problem in that that package does not depend on 
> the package
> containing the font that that first package depends on?

No.

> Most importantly, how to I get rvxt to work right (and consistently)?

Change the two lines that start with Rxvt*font and Rxvt*boldfont in 
/etc/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt with the following (or override using 
~/.Xdefaults). Each entry should be all on one line, and mind the space 
between Lucida and Console (ditto Courier and New):


Either

Rxvt*font:             -outline-Lucida 
Console-normal-r-*-*-14-*-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1
Rxvt*boldfont:         -outline-Lucida 
Console-bold-r-*-*-14-*-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1

Or

Rxvt*font:             -outline-Courier 
New-normal-r-*-*-16-*-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1
Rxvt*boldfont:         -outline-Courier 
New-bold-r-*-*-16-*-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1

Alternatively, you can specify the font on the command line (but there, 
you have to use "windows" names for the fonts, not the XLFD names above. 
That is,

rxvt.exe -fn "Lucida Console-14" ...

or

rxvt.exe -fn "Courier New-16"

--
Chuck

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