From: Walter Alejandro Iglesias <wai@roquesor.com>
Subject: Re: urvt vs xterm
To: Marc Espie <marc.espie.openbsd@gmail.com>
Cc: ports@openbsd.org
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:13:30 +0200

On Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 08:41:46AM +0200, Marc Espie wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 12:39:50AM +0200, Kirill A. Korinsky wrote:
> > On Tue, 09 Jun 2026 22:09:00 +0200,
> > Marc Espie <marc.espie.openbsd@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > 
> > > I've recently started using urxvt instead of xterm everywhere,
> > > in major part because xterm was losing glyphs, and after a few months
> > > of not figuring out why (and asking the guys in charge of X11 and drm
> > > I didn't get any useful answer for my setup) I decided to switch.
> > >
> > 
> > I not completley understand what do you mean as "losing glyphs" but if you
> > mean text on resize of screen...
> 
> No, it's just some glyphs on my xterm that would randomly not show. With
> absolutely zero error messages and randomness. And it would happen after
> a while, that could be some random e that would not show. Quite infuriating.

I also don't understand the problem you explain.  Some questions:

  - Does it happen with unicode only or also with ascii?

  - Does it happen using TrueType or bitmap fonts?

  - As TrueType, do you use DejaVu Sans Mono?

  - Have you tried to reproduce the bug with another window manager?
    I remember many times, occasionally, and this is not recent, to
    notice strange behaviors with xterm in fvwm2, I never stopped to
    investigate why.

  - Do you use custom settings in ~/.Xdefaults or ~/.fonts.conf?

  - Which graphics do you use?  Does it happen with other machines?


> 
> 
> > When, it actually was fixed by me and patches was included into 406 and 407
> > release.
> 
> Maybe it's that, I'll try an xterm or two, though I've gotten used to
> urxvt by now.

I think the resize screen Kirill mentions is another issue.

> 
> > So, if it is your case, I think xterm from -current should make your happy.
> 
> 

-- 
Walter