suckless st - simple terminal

continuing down the path of simplifying & downsizing.. i have migrated to st^[1] and removed bloatware terminals. i had been using urxvt till now, wasting so much time to configure it. i have no further need for bloatware terminals, particularly when i almost never open up more than one terminal window. for such a small package, st^[1] does everything i need out of the box and more.. suckless rocks!

st

st is simple, as it's name. st is beautiful. st has all the features i need, with just one patch^[2] to complete my requirements. and st is small and efficient above all :)

the below procedures are for gentoo. adopt them accordingly, if you use anything else.

install

# emerge x11-terms/st

you may notice messages about savedconfig. gentoo installed with a default config. we can change savedconfig, and use that to emerge again with a custom config.

patch

i think the default font is too big, and like a slightly smaller size. i also like my terminal to have an audible bell. so i change two lines, as follows.

$ vi /etc/portage/savedconfig/x11-terms/st-0.7
static char font[] = "monospace:pixelsize=10:antialias=true:autohint=true";
static int bellvolume = 10;

copyurl^[2] is the only patch i use. download required patch(es) to /etc/portage/patches/x11-terms/st. if that directory doesn't exist, create it.

# mkdir -p /etc/portage/patches/x11-terms/st

now that our savedconfig and patch(es) ready, we need use those and emerge again.

# USE="savedconfig" emerge x11-terms/st

we should see messages about user patch applied and savedconfig used. we just customised st.

use

i call st with tmux inside, like so

$ st -name tmuxj -e tmux -q has && tmux a -d || tmux -2 -u new

this means i don't need anything else. tmux does what st doesn't, and vice versa.

copyurl^[2] patch can yank a url to clipboard. this was the last reason i continued using urxvt.

Select and copy the last URL displayed with Alt+l. Multiple invocations cycle through the available URLs.

to paste, use keyboard Shift+Insert in a terminal or mouse middle-click elsewhere. make sure the cursor is at the intended location.

if you have backspace or del issues^[3], one solution is to reconfigure inputrc.

$ vi ~/.inputrc
$include /etc/inputrc
set bell-style audible
set enable-keypad on

the delkey patch didn't work for me. let me know, if you have better luck.

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[1] http://st.suckless.org
[2] http://st.suckless.org/patches/copyurl
[3] http://git.suckless.org/st/plain/FAQ