xterm

Active

Country: United States (US)
Founded: 1984
Developer: Thomas E. Dickey
Pricing: Free (open-source)
Open source: Yes
Platforms: Linux, Unix-like systems with X11

Indexes

Terminal Emulators

Overview

xterm is a terminal emulator for the X Window System that emulates DEC VT102/VT220 terminals and selected features from higher-level terminals such as VT320/VT420/VT520, as well as Tektronix 4014 compatibility.¹²³ It enables running programs that cannot directly use the window system and supports terminal resizing notifications via SIGWINCH on compatible systems.¹²³ Designed for users of X11 environments, it stands out as the standard, highly configurable terminal emulator with extensive emulation options.³⁴

Key Features

VTxxx Emulation - Emulates DEC VT102/VT220 and features from VT320/VT420/VT520 terminals.
Tektronix 4014 Emulation - Provides compatibility for Tektronix 4014 terminals.
Terminal Resizing - Notifies programs of window resizes using SIGWINCH signal on supported systems.
X Toolkit Options - Accepts standard X Toolkit command-line options for customization.
Terminal ID Response - Configurable responses to terminal ID queries with emulation levels like vt100, vt220.
High Configurability - Supports numerous resources and options for customization.

Pricing

Plan	Price	Includes
Community Edition	Free	Full terminal emulation features for X11.

Platforms & Requirements

xterm runs on Unix-like systems with the X Window System, such as Linux and BSD variants.¹³⁴ It requires an X11 server and does not support Wayland natively without compatibility layers. No specific minimum hardware requirements are noted beyond standard X11 support.

Integrations & Ecosystem

X Window System
DEC VT series protocols
Tektronix 4014 protocol
SIGWINCH signal handling
X Toolkit Intrinsics

Alternatives

App	Difference
rxvt	Lighter-weight terminal emulator with similar X11 support but fewer emulation features.
urxvt	Unicode-enabled extension of rxvt with advanced features like Perl extensions.
Alacritty	GPU-accelerated terminal focused on performance, lacks extensive legacy emulation.
Kitty	GPU renderer with image support and scripting, modern alternative without VTxxx focus.

Reputation

xterm is regarded as the standard terminal emulator for X11, valued for its reliability, extensive configurability, and comprehensive emulation of legacy terminals.³⁴ Users appreciate its stability in Unix environments but criticize its dated default appearance and lack of modern features like native Wayland support or GPU acceleration.⁴ It remains widely used in Arch Linux and other distributions despite alternatives offering better performance or aesthetics.

Sources (7)