st - ArchWiki

# st

st is a simple terminal implementation for X by suckless. It is intended to serve as a lightweight replacement for xterm or urxvt. It currently supports 256 colors, most VT10X escape sequences, UTF-8, X11 copy/paste, anti-aliased fonts (using fontconfig), fallback fonts, resizing, shortcuts via config.h, and line drawing.

## Installation

Install the package stAUR or st-gitAUR from the Arch User Repository.

Install st-git-zshAUR package for a zsh preconfigured st.

## Configuration

st is configured through its `config.h` file, which is copied over from `config.h` at compile time. A default `config.def.h` is included with the source.

Consider maintaining your own PKGBUILD with your `config.h`.

### Shell

To change the default shell for st, edit this line:

     static char shell[] = "/bin/sh";

### Term

To change the terminal type, edit this line:

     static char termname[] = "st-256color";

st will set the `TERM` variable with the value of `termname`.

Note: If you experience trouble with st, you can try to set `termname` to `xterm` or `xterm-256color`

### Font

Edit the following line as you prefer:

     static char font[] = "Liberation Mono:pixelsize=12:antialias=false:autohint=false";

You can also pass the value of the font in the command line:

     st -f "Liberation Mono:size=12"

### Colors

Edit the following line to set foreground, background and cursor colors:

     static unsigned int defaultfg = 7;
     static unsigned int defaultbg = 0;
     static unsigned int defaultcs = 256;

The values refer to the `*colorname[]` array in the same file, you can use default color or add yours in `#rrggbb`, for example:

     static const char *colorname[] = {
       	/* 8 normal colors */
           "black",
           "red3",
           "green3",
           "yellow3",
           "blue2",
           "magenta3",
           "cyan3",
           "gray90",

           /* 8 bright colors */
           "gray50",
           "red",
           "green",
           "yellow",
           "#5c5cff",
           "magenta",
           "cyan",
           "white",

           [255] = 0,

           /* more colors can be added after 255 to use with DefaultXX */
           "#cccccc",
           "#eeeeee",
           "#111111",
     };

     /*
      * Default colors (colorname index)
      * foreground, background, cursor
      */
     static unsigned int defaultfg = 257;
     static unsigned int defaultbg = 258;
     static unsigned int defaultcs = 256;

## Troubleshooting

### Keyboard

#### Backspace not working properly

While virtual terminal and most popular terminal emulator for X bind `backscape` key to `^?` escape sequence, `st` bind it to `^H`, as explained in the FAQ.

If hitting the `backspace` key while typing on standard input of some programs (like `read`) prints `^H` instead of erasing, you can fix that with:

    stty erase '^H'

This will make the terminal interprets `^H` as an erase command.

If you want to put the above command in a shell profile, you should consider checking the `$TERM` before launch it.

### Vim

#### The background colour of text in vim will not fill in anything that is not a character

Try setting the value of `termname` in your `config.h` to `st-256color` and recompiling. And do not set the `TERM` var in your shell, at least not to `st-256color` as this seems to cause the issue.

Another solution, perhaps a better one, is to have the following lines in your `.vimrc` file:

    if &term =~ '256color'
        " disable Background Color Erase (BCE) so that color schemes
        " render properly when inside 256-color tmux and GNU screen.
        " see also http://sunaku.github.io/vim-256color-bce.html
        set t_ut=
    endif

## See also

- Homepage
- Frequently asked questions
- Official git repository

Category:

- Terminal emulators