Xterm: Customizing the Display

Introduction

When using any shell with a highly customized interface, launching an Xterm terminal can sometimes result in ugly and unreadable colors.

I'd like to share my simple configuration file that I use daily.

Xdefaults

Simply create a ~/.Xdefaults file and insert the following content:

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! Deimos Xterm file
! Put the content in ~/.Xdefaults
*xterm*background:       black
*xterm*foreground:       white
*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

Now launch a graphical Xterm and the magic will happen :-)