TITLE:		256 color xterm

DATE:		2003-10-03

LFS VERSION:	any

AUTHOR:		Randy Hron <rwhron at earthlink dot net>

SYNOPSIS:	How to build a 256 color capable xterm.

DESCRIPTION:

	This hint assumes you've already installed XFree86
	and want an xterm that supports more than 16 colors.

PREREQUISITES:	XFree86

CHANGELOG:
Mon Sep 15 20:55:36 EDT 2003  Updated for XFree86-4.3.0.1.
Other than the tarballs to extract in step 2, this applies
to earlier versions of XFree86 4.x.  (Back when there were
only 3 tarballs for XFree86, xterm was in the first tarball).

Fri Oct  3 22:09:52 EDT 2003  Reference vim-6.2.  Use 
xterm-color as TERM.  Make test programs executable.  Tested
with 4.3.99.12.


LICENSE:		GNU Free Documentation License

HINT:
	XFree86 builds a 16 color capable xterm by default.
If you want to run vim or other color capable programs, you may
want an xterm that does more colors.


1. How many colors do I have?
You can check how many colors your xterm knows with the command:

strings /usr/X11R6/bin/xterm | grep ^color[0-9] | sort -tr +1 -n

This command has to be executed as root, since xterm is setuid
and is not readable by normal users.  It may print something like:

color0
color1
..
color14
color15

If that is all you get, you have a 16 color xterm.  If the list keeps
going to color255, you already have a 256 color xterm.

2. Building a 256 color xterm
If you already removed your xc tree, don't despair.  You can recompile
xterm without compiling the World.  If you don't still have the xc tree
extracted, just extract X430src-1.tgz and X430src-2.tgz.  xterm is in
the second tarball.

cd xc/programs/xterm &&
rm -f *.o
xmkmf &&
sed 's/_WIDE_CHARS/_WIDE_CHARS -DOPT_256_COLORS -DDFT_TERM_TYPE=xterm-color/' \
	Makefile > Makefile~ &&
mv Makefile~ Makefile &&
make &&
strings xterm | grep ^color[0-9] | sort -tr +1 -n

This time you should see a list of colors that counts to color255

color0
color1
..
color254
color255

4) Install the new xterm
make install

5) Update your TERM variable
Use xterm-color as your TERM type.  You may want
something like this in your /etc/bashrc:

case `tty` in
	*/pty*|*/pts/*)	
	export TERM=xterm-color
	;;
esac
	
6) Xdefaults
Different X apps/window managers may use either .Xresources or .Xdefaults
to change their default behavior.  Here are some things in my .Xdefaults
to make colors more enjoyable:

! Pick your favorites from /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt
! Be sure to use the "OneWord" value for a color, and not
! the "two words" value.  
! xterm*background:       black
! xterm*foreground:       green
*loginShell:            true

! Use color for underline attribute
*VT100*colorULMode: on
*VT100*underLine: off

! Use color for the bold attribute
*VT100*colorBDMode: on

! Love scrollback
*VT100*saveLines: 5000
*VT100*scrollBar: true

! Use -color app-defaults in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults
*customization: -color

Make your new ~/.Xdefaults take effect without restarting X with:
xrdb -merge ~/.Xdefaults


7) Vim
To have syntax highlighting in vim, have this in your ~/.vimrc:

syntax on

8) Log all the way out and come back in.  
You can do a combination of xrdb and sourcing your .bash_profile,
but your window manager will still think your TERM is xterm and
not xterm-color.  To eliminate confusion, just log out to xdm
or the login prompt and come back in.

9) Checking colors
There are several nifty xterm tests in xc/programs/xterm/vttests.  
The fastest one for testing colors is 256colors2.pl.  Just run:

chmod +x *.pl
/256colors2.pl

10) Testing vim colors
Vim has a colortest program that you run with vim:

vim /usr/share/vim/vim62/syntax/colortest.vim

>From inside vim, type:
:source %

I counted about 23 colors in this test, but it's nice seeing
the words associated with the colors.

11) Have fun.  Let me know if something here is inaccurate or
could be better.

12) Thanks to Gerard and everyone at Linux From Scratch.