Manual Pages for UNIX Operating System command usage for man xscreensaver-demo
XScreenSaver manual xscreensaver-demo(1)
NAME
xscreensaver-demo - interactively control the background
xscreensaver daemon
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/xscreensaver-demo [-display host:display.screen]
[-prefs] [--debug]
DESCRIPTION
The xscreensaver-demo program is a graphical front-end for
setting the parameters used by the background xscreen-
saver(1) daemon. It is essentially two things: a tool for
editing the ~/.xscreensaver file; and a tool for demoing the
various graphics hacks that the xscreensaver daemon will
launch.
The main window consists of a menu bar and two tabbed pages.
The first page is for editing the list of demos, and the
second is for editing various other parameters of the
screensaver.
MENU COMMANDS
All of these commands are on either the File or Help menus:
Blank Screen Now
Activates the background xscreensaver daemon, which will
then run a demo at random. This is the same as running
xscreensaver-command(1) with the -activate option.
Lock Screen Now
Just like Blank Screen Now, except the screen will be
locked as well (even if it is not configured to lock all
the time.) This is the same as running xscreensaver-
command(1) with the -lock option.
Kill Daemon
If the xscreensaver daemon is running on this screen,
kill it. This is the same as running xscreensaver-
command(1) with the -exit option.
Restart Daemon
If the xscreensaver daemon is running on this screen,
kill it. Then launch it again. This is the same as
doing ``xscreensaver-command -exit'' followed by
``xscreensaver''.
Note that it is not the same as doing ``xscreensaver-
command -restart''.
Exit
Exits the xscreensaver-demo program (this program)
without affecting the background xscreensaver daemon, if
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any.
About...
Displays the version number of this program,
xscreensaver-demo.
Documentation...
Opens up a web browser looking at the XScreenSaver web
page, where you can find online copies of the xscreen-
saver(1), xscreensaver-demo(1), and
xscreensaver-command(1) manuals.
DISPLAY MODES TAB
This page contains a list of the names of the various
display modes, a preview area, and some fields that let you
configure screen saver behavior.
Mode
This option menu controls the behavior of the screen
saver. The options are:
Disable Screen Saver
Don't ever blank the screen, and don't ever
allow the monitor to power down.
Blank Screen Only
When blanking the screen, just go black:
don't run any graphics hacks.
Only One Screen Saver
When blanking the screen, only ever use one
particular display mode (the one selected in
the list.)
Random Screen Saver
When blanking the screen, select a random
display mode from among those that are
enabled and applicable. This is the
default.
Random Same Saver
This option only appears if you have multi-
ple monitors. This is just like Random
Screen Saver, except that the same
randomly-chosen display mode will be run on
all monitors, instead of a different one
being run on each.
Demo List
Double-clicking in the list on the left will let you try
out the indicated demo. The screen will go black, and
the program will run in full-screen mode, just as it
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would if the xscreensaver daemon had launched it.
Clicking the mouse again will stop the demo and un-blank
the screen, making the dialog box visible again.
Single-clicking in the list will run it in the small
preview pane on the right. (But beware: many of the
display modes behave somewhat differently when running
in full-screen mode, so the scaled-down view might not
give an accurate impression.)
When Mode is set to Random Screen Saver, each name in
the list has a checkbox next to it: this controls
whether this display mode is enabled. If it is
unchecked, then that mode will not be chosen. (Though
you can still run it explicitly by double-clicking on
its name.)
Arrow Buttons
Beneath the list are a pair of up and down arrows.
Clicking on the down arrow will select the next item in
the list, and then run it in full-screen mode, just as
if you had double-clicked on it. The up arrow goes the
other way. This is just a shortcut for trying out all
of the display modes in turn.
Blank After
After the user has been idle this long, the xscreensaver
daemon will blank the screen.
Cycle After
After the screensaver has been running for this long,
the currently running graphics demo will be killed, and
a new one started. If this is 0, then the graphics demo
will never be changed: only one demo will run until the
screensaver is deactivated by user activity.
Lock Screen
When this is checked, the screen will be locked when it
activates.
Lock Screen After
This controls the length of the ``grace period'' between
when the screensaver activates, and when the screen
becomes locked. For example, if this is 5 minutes, and
Blank After is 10 minutes, then after 10 minutes, the
screen would blank. If there was user activity at 12
minutes, no password would be required to un-blank the
screen. But, if there was user activity at 15 minutes
or later (that is, Lock Screen After minutes after
activation) then a password would be required. The
default is 0, meaning that if locking is enabled, then a
password will be required as soon as the screen blanks.
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Preview
This button, below the small preview window, runs the
demo in full-screen mode so that you can try it out.
This is the same thing that happens when you double-
click an element in the list. Click the mouse to
dismiss the full-screen preview.
Settings
This button will pop up a dialog where you can configure
settings specific to the display mode selected in the
list.
ADVANCED TAB
This tab lets you change various settings used by the
xscreensaver daemon itself, rather than its sub-programs.
Grab Desktop Images
Some of the graphics hacks manipulate images. If this
option is selected, then they are allowed to manipulate
the desktop image, that is, a display mode might draw a
picture of your desktop melting, or being distorted in
some way. The security-paranoid might want to disable
this option, because if it is set, it means that the
windows on your desktop will occasionally be visible
while your screen is locked. Others will not be able to
do anything, but they may be able to see whatever you
left on your screen.
Grab Video Frames
If your system has a video capture card, selecting this
option will allow the image-manipulating modes to cap-
ture a frame of video to operate on.
Choose Random Image
If this option is set, then the image-manipulating modes
will select a random image file from disk, from the
directory you specify in the text entry field. That
directory will be recursively searched for files, and it
is assumed that all the files under that directory are
images.
If more than one of these options are selected, then one
will be chosen at random. If none of them are selected,
then an image of video colorbars will be used instead.
(All three of these options work by invoking the
xscreensaver-getimage(1) program, which is what actually
does the work.)
Text Manipulation
Some of the display modes display and manipulate text.
The following options control how that text is
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generated. (These parameters control the behavior of
the xscreensaver-text(1) program, which is what actually
does the work.)
Host Name and Time
If this checkbox is selected, then the text used by the
screen savers will be the local host name, date, time,
and system load.
Text
If this checkbox is selected, then the literal text
typed in the field to its right will be used. If it
contains % escape sequences, they will be expanded as
per strftime(2).
Text File
If this checkbox is selected, then the contents of the
corresponding file will be displayed.
Program
If this checkbox is selected, then the given program
will be run, and its output will be displayed.
URL If this checkbox is selected, then the given HTTP URL
will be downloaded and displayed repeatedly. If the
document contains HTML, RSS, or Atom, it will be con-
verted to plain-text first.
Note: this re-downloads the document every time the
screen saver runs out of text! It might be considered
abusive for you to point this at a web server that you
do not control, as it will probably be hitting that
server multiple times a minute.
Power Management Enabled
Whether the monitor should be powered down after a
period of inactivity.
If this option is grayed out, it means your X server
does not support the XDPMS extension, and so control
over the monitor's power state is not available.
If you're using a laptop, don't be surprised if this has
no effect: many laptops have monitor power-saving
behavior built in at a very low level that is invisible
to Unix and X. On such systems, you can typically only
adjust the power-saving delays by changing settings in
the BIOS in some hardware-specific way.
Standby After
If Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor
will go black after this much idle time. (Graphics
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demos will stop running, also.)
Suspend After
If Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor
will go into power-saving mode after this much idle
time. This duration should be greater than or equal to
Standby.
Off After
If Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor
will fully power down after this much idle time. This
duration should be greater than or equal to Suspend.
Fade To Black When Blanking
If selected, then when the screensaver activates, the
current contents of the screen will fade to black
instead of simply winking out. (Note: this doesn't
work with all X servers.) A fade will also be done when
switching graphics hacks (when the Cycle After expires.)
Unfade From Black When Unblanking
The complement to Fade Colormap: if selected, then when
the screensaver deactivates, the original contents of
the screen will fade in from black instead of appearing
immediately. This is only done if Fade Colormap is also
selected.
Fade Duration
When fading or unfading are selected, this controls how
long the fade will take.
Install Colormap
On 8-bit screens, whether to install a private colormap
while the screensaver is active, so that the graphics
hacks can get as many colors as possible. This does
nothing if you are running in 16-bit or better.
There are more settings than these available, but these are
the most commonly used ones; see the manual for xscreen-
saver(1) for other parameters that can be set by editing the
~/.xscreensaver file, or the X resource database.
SETTINGS DIALOG
When you click on the Settings button on the Display Modes
tab, a configuration dialog will pop up that lets you cus-
tomize settings of the selected display mode. Each display
mode has its own custom configuration controls on the left
side.
On the right side is a paragraph or two describing the
display mode. Below that is a Documentation button that
will display the display mode's manual page, if it has one,
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in a new window (since each of the display modes is actually
a separate program, they each may have their own manual.)
The Advanced button reconfigures the dialog box so that you
can edit the display mode's command line directly, instead
of using the graphical controls. It also lets you configure
the X visual type that this mode will require. If you
specify one (other than Any) then the program will only be
run on that kind of visual. For example, you can specify
that a particular program should only be run if color is
available, and another should only be run in monochrome.
See the discussion of the programs parameter in the Confi-
guration section of the xscreensaver(1) manual. (OpenGL
programs should always have their visual set to "GL".)
COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
xscreensaver-demo accepts the following command line
options.
-display host:display.screen
The X display to use. The xscreensaver-demo program
will open its window on that display, and also con-
trol the xscreensaver daemon that is managing that
same display.
-prefs Start up with the Advanced tab selected by default
instead of the Display Modes tab.
-debug Causes lots of diagnostics to be printed on stderr.
It is important that the xscreensaver and xscreensaver-demo
processes be running on the same machine, or at least, on
two machines that share a file system. When
xscreensaver-demo writes a new version of the ~/.xscreen-
saver file, it's important that the xscreensaver see that
same file. If the two processes are seeing different
~/.xscreensaver files, things will malfunction.
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.
PATH to find the sub-programs to run. However, note that
the sub-programs are actually launched by the
xscreensaver daemon, not by xscreensaver-demo
itself. So, what matters is what $PATH the xscreen-
saver program sees.
HOME for the directory in which to read and write the
.xscreensaver file.
XENVIRONMENT
to get the name of a resource file that overrides
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the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER
property.
HTTP_PROXY or http_proxy
to get the default HTTP proxy host and port.
UPGRADES
The latest version can always be found at
http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/
SEE ALSO
X(1), xscreensaver(1), xscreensaver-command(1),
xscreensaver-getimage(1), xscreensaver-text(1)
COPYRIGHT
Copyright cO 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
2003, 2004, 2005 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use,
copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its
documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee,
provided that the above copyright notice appear in all
copies and that both that copyright notice and this permis-
sion notice appear in supporting documentation. No
representations are made about the suitability of this
software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without
express or implied warranty.
AUTHOR
Jamie Zawinski , 13-aug-92.
Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improve-
ments.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | desktop/xscreensaver |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Interface Stability | Volatile |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
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