anyway change the cursor "vertical line" instead of a box?

Question

Is there any way to change the cursor to a "vertical line" instead of a box in XTERM?

box: ■

line: |

Where would you change it? tty, console, text editor, browser? — Ryan Li, Dec 11 '10 at 13:24
What terminal emulator are you using? For xterm, this is configurable with ~/.Xdefaults. Is this a plain vanilla xterm? — Wesley Rice, Dec 11 '10 at 18:34

score 33 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 10 '22 at 08:55

It seems xterm has added support for the vertical bar or I-beam cursor.

You can change the cursor by inserting one of the following lines in your ~/.bashrc file (if you use bash):

echo -e -n "\x1b[\x30 q" # changes to blinking block
echo -e -n "\x1b[\x31 q" # changes to blinking block also
echo -e -n "\x1b[\x32 q" # changes to steady block
echo -e -n "\x1b[\x33 q" # changes to blinking underline
echo -e -n "\x1b[\x34 q" # changes to steady underline
echo -e -n "\x1b[\x35 q" # changes to blinking bar
echo -e -n "\x1b[\x36 q" # changes to steady bar

References:

~~https://code.google.com/p/iterm2/issues/detail?id=2248~~
xterm changelog entry for patch #282:

Patch #282 - 2012/09/28

extend DECSCUSR to provide a way to set the cursor to a vertical bar (patch by Paul Bolle).

XTerm Control Sequences

    CSI Ps SP q  Set cursor style (DECSCUSR), VT520.
         Ps = 0  blinking block.
         Ps = 1  blinking block (default).
         Ps = 2  steady block.
         Ps = 3  blinking underline.
         Ps = 4  steady underline.
         Ps = 5  blinking bar,  xterm.
         Ps = 6  steady bar,  xterm.

And two more from me that are always demanded as well: `echo -ne "\x1b[?25l"` will __hide__ the cursor; `echo -ne "\x1b[?25h"` will __show__ the cursor again. For me this is essential when I want to "misuse" an `xterm` as a (pseudo-)write-only output console. __Besides__: Those lines seem to contain a little too much. A mere `echo -ne "\x1b[6 q"` will change to a steady bar. No idea what the "\x3" is meant for. Just omit it. — syntaxerror, Oct 12 '14 at 19:52
`echo -ne "\x1b[?25h"` fixed a problem for me. Worth making this into an alias and an approved answer. — Daisuke Aramaki, Dec 13 '19 at 14:31

mtvec · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-11T14:03:25.887

5

I don't think making the cursor a vertical line is possible in xterm. It is possible, however, to make it underlined. Just run xterm -uc.

It might be possible to do what you want using another terminal emulator. For example, I use Konsole and I can set the cursor shape to "Block", "I-Beam" and "Underline".

edited Dec 11 '10 at 14:03

answered Dec 11 '10 at 13:58

mtvec

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i wonder is there's some option for .Xdefaults =) thnx for this. – holms Feb 25 '13 at 10:58

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 11 '10 at 16:02

0

This depends on the Terminal emulator you're on.

Try looking at the menu:preferences:Window:cursortype if there's any.

I've seen changing the terminal cursor in Mac/Apple's terminal. Try to see in your linux box.

answered Dec 11 '10 at 16:02

Neilvert Noval

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anyway change the cursor "vertical line" instead of a box?

3 Answers3

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