1gdesklets(1)                General Commands Manual               gdesklets(1)
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NAME

6       gDesklets - provides an advanced architecture for desktop applets
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SYNOPSIS

11       gdesklets open [ display ]
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DESCRIPTION

16       gDesklets provides an advanced architecture for desktop applets -- tiny
17       displays sitting on your desktop in a  symbiotic  relationship  of  eye
18       candy and usefulness.
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20       Populate  your  desktop with status meters, icon bars, weather sensors,
21       news tickers... whatever you can imagine! Virtually anything is  possi‐
22       ble and maybe even available some day.
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FIRST START

27       You  can  find  an entry in the GNOME menu after a successful installa‐
28       tion.  This will start the gDesklets Shell where you  can  install  and
29       run desktop applets. When you log out or quit 'gDesklets', the settings
30       will be remembered for the next session.
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COMMAND LINE TOOL

35       The command line tool gdesklets lets  you  perform  all  administration
36       tasks from the command line.
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38       Display files can be opened using
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40       $ gdesklets open <displayfile>
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42       If  the  gdesklets-daemon wasn't running, this will start up the daemon
43       as well. You can only have one daemon per X-display. The daemon can  be
44       stopped again by calling
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46       $ gdesklets stop
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49       Usage of the command line frontend:
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51       gdesklets [option] <command> [arguments...]
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53         <command>: open <files>      (Opens the given display files)
54                    start             (Runs the gDesklets daemon)
55                    stop              (Stops the gDesklets daemon)
56                    list              (Lists open displays)
57                    restart           (Restarts the gDesklets daemon)
58                    profile <profile> (Switches to the given profile)
59                    profile           (Shows the current and the available
60                                       profiles)
61                    shell             (Opens the graphical shell)
62                    slay              (Kills the daemon -- use in emergency)
63                    status            (Checks daemon status)
64                    about             (Prints information about gDesklets)
65                    version           (Prints gDesklets version)
66                    configure         (Opens the configuration dialog)
67                    help              (Displays this text)
68                    check             (Dependency check for python bindings)
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71           [option]: --no-tray-icon   (disables the systray icon)
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73         If you don't pass a command, the script will fall back to
74         gdesklets start which is the default.
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GDESKLETS-SHELL

79       The  shell  is a graphical frontend for managing your desklets. You can
80       start it either by selecting it from the  GNOME  menu  (Accessories  ->
81       gDesklets),  by selecting it from the tray icon popup menu, or by call‐
82       ing:
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84       $ gdesklets shell
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86       The shell currently  lets  you  create  and  switch  between  profiles,
87       install  new  desklets  and  search  for  desklets. New desklets can be
88       installed by dragging links from your web browser  or  files  from  the
89       file  manager  into  its window, or by selecting the menu item "File ->
90       Install package...".
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93       Displays (as we call the applets) will usually appear in the  top  left
94       corner  of  your  screen when you first run them. You can move displays
95       around  by  pressing  and  holding  down  the  middle   mouse   button.
96       'gDesklets'  will  remember  the  new  position  of the display for the
97       future.
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USAGE

102       If you press the right mouse button over a display, a popup  menu  will
103       open.   It depends on the display what you will see there, but the fol‐
104       lowing items are always available:
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106       Configure desklet
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108              Opens the configuration dialog for this display. It  depends  on
109              the display what you can configure.
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111       Move desklet
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113              Attaches  desklet  to  cursor  for  moving  it  around. Click to
114              release it.
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116       View Source
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118              Lets you view the desklet's source file (.display).
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120       Restart desklet
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122              Restarts this display. This  menu  item  is  mainly  for  sensor
123              debugging.
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125       Remove desklet
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127              Removes this display from your desktop.
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129       About
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131              Lets  you view desklet's "About" information, license and readme
132              file.
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LOGFILE

136       The gdesklets-daemon writes a log file.  That  file  can  be  found  in
137       ~/.gdesklets/logs/gdesklets<display>.log where <display> is the name of
138       the X-Display.
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140       You can select the item View log in the popup menu of the tray icon  to
141       view the log messages.
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SUPPORTED WINDOW MANAGERS

146       In  order  to  run on as many desktops as possible, gDesklets relies on
147       the EWMH specification  from  freedesktop.org.  This  specification  is
148       respected  among many window managers. We currently know of the follow‐
149       ing EWMH compliant window managers:
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151       * metacity
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153       * xfwm4
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155       * openbox
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157       * enlightenment (>= 0.16.6)
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159       * fvwm (2.5.x, see http://www.fvwm.org/features.php)
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161       * sawfish
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163       * kwin
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165       * evilwm
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167       * fluxbox (recent versions)
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169       * waimea
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171       * ...and certainly some others which we forgot here.
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MEMORY CONSUMPTION

175       This is taken  seriously.  In  every  release  we're  addressing  these
176       issues.  Unfortunately, gDesklets is relying on libraries which contain
177       their own bugs or leaks. In some places it's possible to create a work-
178       around. Sometimes, we
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180       have  to  wait  until  an issue in bugzilla is fixed.  gDesklets itself
181       shouldn't leak. We've checked the relevant C code to make sure of that.
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183       At startup the program claims approximately 16 MB of RAM. In the future
184       we're  going to decrease that number. Some people in the GNOME and GTK+
185       community are also addressing these problems at a lower level (gtk+ and
186       gnome  libraries).   gDesklets  will  automatically  benefit from these
187       efforts.
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COMMUNITY

192       The site 'http://www.gdesklets.de' is the place where you can  get  new
193       desklets  or  upload  your  own  creations  for sharing them with other
194       users.
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196       Discussion and  Help  http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gdesklets-
197       list
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199       gDesklets  Developer's Book  (for developing on the gDesklets platform)
200       http://develbook.gdesklets.de
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202       A printed reference in German language is available  from  'Software  &
203       Support Verlag GmbH'. The book 'Exploring Python' covers desklet devel‐
204       opment on 34 pages.
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206       You can meet the 'gDesklets' developers and other fans on the IRC chan‐
207       nel #gdesklets on GIMPnet (irc.gimp.org).
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AUTHOR

212       gDesklets was written by
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214         * Martin Grimme <martin@pycage.de>.
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216         * Christian Meyer <chrisime@gnome.org>.
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218         * Jesse Andrews <jdandr2@cs.uky.edu>.
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THANKS

221       I'd  like  to thank all people who supported (and are still supporting)
222       me so well with 'gDesklets'. Please complain if I forgot you... ;)
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224         * Christian Meyer -- ideas and sensor programming
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226         * Jesse Andrews -- sensor programming
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228         * Johannes "Waldgeist" Rebhan -- artwork
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230         * Christian Neumair -- installation
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232         * Sebastien Bacher -- man page and lots of other stuff
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234         * Luke Stroven -- gdesklets.gnomedesktop.org and 'gDesklets' forum
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236         * James Henstridge -- excellent GTK bindings for Python
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238         * Joe Sapp  -- documentation
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240         * Bjoern Koch  -- additional programming, documentation
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242         * Robert Pastierovic  -- additional programming, documentation
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244         * Lauri Kainulainen  -- additional programming, gdesklets website
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BUGS

249       If you encounter bugs which are not listed  here,  please  post  a  bug
250       report   at   https://launchpad.net/gdesklets/+filebug  for  gDesklets.
251       Please don't report useless bug reports, like "gDesklets crashes" with‐
252       out  checking  the  log  file first, because that doesn't tell us much.
253       Also make sure, that you have all the necessary dependencies installed.
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255       If the log says: "ImportError: No module  named  X"  then  you  clearly
256       don't  have  the  python  module  "X" installed on your system.  We are
257       going to close useless bug reports immediately(!), so please save  your
258       time and ours and be smart!
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LICENCE AND DISCLAIMER

263       This  software  is  distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
264       WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the  implied  warranty  of  MERCHAN‐
265       TIBILITY  or  FITNESS  FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the file 'COPYING'
266       for more details.
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268       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
269       with this software; if not, write to the
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271       Free  Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 390, Boston, MA
272       02111-1307  USA
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274       This software is provided "as is" and the author is not and  cannot  be
275       made  responsible  for  any damage resulting from the use of this soft‐
276       ware.
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280       gdesklets is copyright (c) 2003 - 2007 by
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282       * Martin Grimme  <martin@pycage.de>,
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284       * Christian Meyer  <chrisime@gnome.org>,
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286       * Jesse Andrews  <jdandr2@cs.uky.edu>
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288       * Benoît Dejean  <tazforever@dlfp.org>
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290       glibtop Python wrapper in libdesklets is copyright (c) 2003 - 2005 by
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292       * Benoît Dejean  <tazforever@dlfp.org>
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294       The    latest    version    of    gDesklets    can    be    found    at
295       http://www.gdesklets.de/  The  Desklets  bzr repository can be found at
296       https://code.launchpad.net/gdesklets/
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301                                March 29, 2008                    gdesklets(1)
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