Arch Linux

Habmala

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2010-01-02

Posts: 21

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HowTo use ALT as meta in xterm?

I've been using irssi for a while now and gladly press esc + number to switch between channels but experimenting whit emacs a couple of days ago I realised that I have to use esc as meta quite a lot. It would be more convenient if the ALT key would do this, in irssi as well I suppose. Since it's in both applications I assume the issue is with my console (xterm). Serching around for a bit, I didn't find anything in the arch forum or wiki. I found this though: http://ithacafreesoftware.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=107 explaining that I should add a line to ~/.Xdefaults. And then activate it with "xrdb -merge ~/.Xdefaults"

Not beeing familiar with the file or the code in it or xrdb for that matter, I figured I sould ask someone who knew ;) that's where this post comes from.

So what's the correct way to get Xterm to recognice ALT as meta? If I tried the above, would that have any side effects on the system?

Thanks in advance
// Habmala