X Options and Resources
***********************

You can customize some X-related aspects of Emacs behavior using X resources, as is usual for programs that use X.  X resources are the only way to customize tooltip windows and LessTif menus, since the libraries that implement them don't provide for customization through Emacs.  This appendix describes the X resources that Emacs recognizes and how to use them.

X Resources
===========

Programs running under the X Window System organize their user options under a hierarchy of classes and resources.  You can specify default values for these options in your X resources file, usually named ~/.Xdefaults.

Each line in the file specifies a value for one option or for a collection of related options, for one program or for several programs (optionally even for all programs).

MS-Windows systems don't support ~/.Xdefaults files, but Emacs compiled for Windows looks for X resources in the Windows Registry, under the keys HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\GNU\Emacs and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\GNU\Emacs.

Programs define named resources with particular meanings.  They also define how to group resources into named classes.  For instance, in Emacs, the internalBorder resource controls the width of the internal border, and the borderWidth resource controls the width of the external border.  Both of these resources are part of the BorderWidth class.  Case distinctions are significant in these names.

In ~/.Xdefaults, you can specify a value for a single resource on one line, like this:

     emacs.borderWidth: 2

Or you can use a class name to specify the same value for all resources in that class.  Here's an example:

     emacs.BorderWidth: 2

If you specify a value for a class, it becomes the default for all resources in that class.  You can specify values for individual resources as well; these override the class value, for those particular resources.  Thus, this example specifies 2 as the default width for all borders, but overrides this value with 4 for the external border:

     emacs.BorderWidth: 2
     emacs.borderWidth: 4

The order in which the lines appear in the file does not matter. Also, command-line options always override the X resources file.

The string emacs in the examples above is also a resource name.  It actually represents the name of the executable file that you invoke to run Emacs.  If Emacs is installed under a different name, it looks for resources under that name instead of emacs.

-name NAME
--name=NAME
     Use NAME as the resource name (and the title) for the initial Emacs frame.  This option does not affect subsequent frames, but Lisp programs can specify frame names when they create frames.

     If you don't specify this option, the default is to use the Emacs executable's name as the resource name.

-xrm RESOURCE-VALUES
--xrm=RESOURCE-VALUES
     Specify X resource values for this Emacs job (see below).

For consistency, -name also specifies the name to use for other resource values that do not belong to any particular frame.

The resources that name Emacs invocations also belong to a class; its name is Emacs.  If you write Emacs instead of emacs, the resource applies to all frames in all Emacs jobs, regardless of frame titles and regardless of the name of the executable file.  Here is an example:

     Emacs.BorderWidth: 2
     Emacs.borderWidth: 4

You can specify a string of additional resource values for Emacs to use with the command line option -xrm RESOURCES.  The text RESOURCES should have the same format that you would use inside a file of X resources.  To include multiple resource specifications in RESOURCES, put a newline between them, just as you would in a file. You can also use #include "FILENAME" to include a file full of resource specifications.  Resource values specified with -xrm take precedence over all other resource specifications.

One way to experiment with the effect of different resource settings is to use the editres program.  Select Get Tree from the Commands menu, then click on an Emacs frame.  This will display a tree showing the structure of X toolkit widgets used in an Emacs frame.  Select one of them, such as menubar, then select Show Resource Box from the Commands menu.  This displays a list of all the meaningful X resources and allows you to edit them. Changes take effect immediately if you click on the Apply button.

Table of X Resources for Emacs
==============================

This table lists the resource names that designate options for Emacs, each with the class that it belongs to:

background (class Background)
     Background color name.

bitmapIcon (class BitmapIcon)
     Use a bitmap icon (a picture of a gnu) if on, let the window manager choose an icon if off.

borderColor (class BorderColor)
     Color name for the external border.

borderWidth (class BorderWidth)
     Width in pixels of the external border.

cursorColor (class Foreground)
     Color name for text cursor (point).

font (class Font)
     Font name for text (or fontset name, see Fontsets).

foreground (class Foreground)
     Color name for text.

geometry (class Geometry)
     Window size and position.  Be careful not to specify this resource as emacs*geometry, because that may affect individual menus as well as the Emacs frame itself.

     If this resource specifies a position, that position applies only to the initial Emacs frame (or, in the case of a resource for a specific frame name, only that frame).  However, the size, if specified here, applies to all frames.

fullscreen (class Fullscreen)
     The desired fullscreen size.  The value can be one of fullboth, fullwidth or fullheight, which correspond to the command-line options -fs, -fw, and -fh (see Window Size X).

     Note that this applies to all frames created, not just the initial one.

iconName (class Title)
     Name to display in the icon.

internalBorder (class BorderWidth)
     Width in pixels of the internal border.

lineSpacing (class LineSpacing)
     Additional space (leading) between lines, in pixels.

menuBar (class MenuBar)
     Give frames menu bars if on; don't have menu bars if off.

toolBar (class ToolBar)
     Number of lines to reserve for the tool bar.  A zero value suppresses the tool bar.  If the value is non-zero and auto-resize-tool-bars is non-nil, the tool bar's size will be changed automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.

minibuffer (class Minibuffer)
     If none, don't make a minibuffer in this frame. It will use a separate minibuffer frame instead.

paneFont (class Font)
     Font name for menu pane titles, in non-toolkit versions of Emacs.

pointerColor (class Foreground)
     Color of the mouse cursor.

reverseVideo (class ReverseVideo)
     Switch foreground and background default colors if on, use colors as specified if off.

screenGamma (class ScreenGamma)
     Gamma correction for colors, equivalent to the frame parameter screen-gamma.

selectionFont (class Font)
     Font name for pop-up menu items, in non-toolkit versions of Emacs.  (For toolkit versions, see Lucid Resources, also see LessTif Resources.)

synchronous (class Synchronous)
     Run Emacs in synchronous mode if on.  Synchronous mode is useful for debugging X problems.

title (class Title)
     Name to display in the title bar of the initial Emacs frame.

verticalScrollBars (class ScrollBars)
     Give frames scroll bars if on; don't have scroll bars if off.

X Resources for Faces
=====================

You can also use resources to customize the appearance of particular faces (see Faces):

FACE.attributeFont
     Font for face FACE.

FACE.attributeForeground
     Foreground color for face FACE.

FACE.attributeBackground
     Background color for face FACE.

FACE.attributeUnderline
     Underline flag for face FACE.  Use on or true for yes.

FACE.attributeFamily
     Font family for face FACE.

FACE.attributeWidth
     Relative proportional width of the font to use for face FACE. It should be one of ultra-condensed, extra-condensed, condensed, semi-condensed, normal, semi-expanded, expanded, extra-expanded, or ultra-expanded.

FACE.attributeHeight
     Height of the font to use for face FACE: either an integer specifying the height in units of 1/10pt, or a floating point number that specifies a scale factor to scale the underlying face's default font, or a function to be called with the default height which will return a new height.

FACE.attributeWeight
     A weight to use for the face FACE.  It must be one of ultra-bold, extra-bold, bold, semi-bold, normal, semi-light, light, extra-light, ultra-light.

FACE.attributeSlant
     The slant to use for the font of face FACE.  It must be one of italic, oblique, normal, reverse-italic, or reverse-oblique.

FACE.attributeStrikeThrough
     Whether the face FACE should be drawn with a line striking through the characters.

FACE.attributeOverline
     Whether the characters in the face FACE should be overlined.

FACE.attributeBox
     Whether to draw a box around the characters in face FACE.

FACE.attributeInverse
     Whether to display the characters in face FACE in inverse video.

FACE.attributeStipple
     The name of a pixmap data file to use for the stipple pattern, or false to not use stipple for the face FACE.

FACE.attributeBackgroundPixmap
     The background pixmap for the face FACE.  Should be a name of a pixmap file or false.

FACE.attributeBold
     Whether to draw the characters in the face FACE as bold.

FACE.attributeItalic
     Whether to draw the characters in the face FACE as italic.

Lucid Menu X Resources
======================

If the Emacs installed at your site was built to use the X toolkit with the Lucid menu widgets, then the menu bar is a separate widget and has its own resources.  The resource names contain pane.menubar (following, as always, the name of the Emacs invocation, or Emacs, which stands for all Emacs invocations).  Specify them like this:

     Emacs.pane.menubar.RESOURCE:  VALUE

For example, to specify the font 8x16 for the menu-bar items, write this:

     Emacs.pane.menubar.font:  8x16

Resources for non-menubar toolkit pop-up menus have menu*, in like fashion.  For example, to specify the font 8x16 for the pop-up menu items, write this:

     Emacs.menu*.font:	8x16

For dialog boxes, use dialog instead of menu:

     Emacs.dialog*.font:	8x16

Experience shows that on some systems you may need to add shell. before the pane.menubar or menu*.  On some other systems, you must not add shell..

Here is a list of the specific resources for menu bars and pop-up menus:

font
     Font for menu item text.

foreground
     Color of the foreground.

background
     Color of the background.

buttonForeground
     In the menu bar, the color of the foreground for a selected item.

horizontalSpacing
     Horizontal spacing in pixels between items.  Default is 3.

verticalSpacing
     Vertical spacing in pixels between items.  Default is 1.

arrowSpacing
     Horizontal spacing between the arrow (which indicates a submenu) and the associated text.  Default is 10.

shadowThickness
     Thickness of shadow line around the widget.

margin
     The margin of the menu bar, in characters.  The default of 4 makes the menu bar appear like the LessTif/Motif one.

LessTif Menu X Resources
========================

If the Emacs installed at your site was built to use the X toolkit with the LessTif or Motif widgets, then the menu bar, the dialog boxes, the pop-up menus, and the file-selection box are separate widgets and have their own resources.

The resource names for the menu bar contain pane.menubar (following, as always, the name of the Emacs invocation, or Emacs, which stands for all Emacs invocations).  Specify them like this:

     Emacs.pane.menubar.SUBWIDGET.RESOURCE:  VALUE

Each individual string in the menu bar is a subwidget; the subwidget's name is the same as the menu item string.  For example, the word File in the menu bar is part of a subwidget named emacs.pane.menubar.File.  Most likely, you want to specify the same resources for the whole menu bar.  To do this, use * instead of a specific subwidget name.  For example, to specify the font 8x16 for the menu-bar items, write this:

     Emacs.pane.menubar.*.fontList:  8x16

This also specifies the resource value for submenus.

Each item in a submenu in the menu bar also has its own name for X resources; for example, the File submenu has an item named Save (current buffer).  A resource specification for a submenu item looks like this:

     Emacs.pane.menubar.popup_*.MENU.ITEM.RESOURCE: VALUE

For example, here's how to specify the font for the Save (current buffer) item:

     Emacs.pane.menubar.popup_*.File.Save (current buffer).fontList: 8x16

For an item in a second-level submenu, such as Complete Word under Spell Checking under Tools, the resource fits this template:

     Emacs.pane.menubar.popup_*.popup_*.MENU.RESOURCE: VALUE

For example,

     Emacs.pane.menubar.popup_*.popup_*.Spell Checking.Complete Word: VALUE

(This should be one long line.)

It's impossible to specify a resource for all the menu-bar items without also specifying it for the submenus as well.  So if you want the submenu items to look different from the menu bar itself, you must ask for that in two steps.  First, specify the resource for all of them; then, override the value for submenus alone.  Here is an example:

     Emacs.pane.menubar.*.fontList:  8x16
     Emacs.pane.menubar.popup_*.fontList: 8x16

For LessTif pop-up menus, use menu* instead of pane.menubar.  For example, to specify the font 8x16 for the pop-up menu items, write this:

     Emacs.menu*.fontList:  8x16

For LessTif dialog boxes, use dialog instead of menu:

     Emacs.dialog*.fontList: 8x16
     Emacs.dialog*.foreground: hotpink

To specify resources for the LessTif file-selection box, use fsb*, like this:

     Emacs.fsb*.fontList: 8x16

Here is a list of the specific resources for LessTif menu bars and pop-up menus:

armColor
     The color to show in an armed button.

fontList
     The font to use.

marginBottom
marginHeight
marginLeft
marginRight
marginTop
marginWidth
     Amount of space to leave around the item, within the border.

borderWidth
     The width of the border around the menu item, on all sides.

shadowThickness
     The width of the border shadow.

bottomShadowColor
     The color for the border shadow, on the bottom and the right.

topShadowColor
     The color for the border shadow, on the top and the left.