1xscreensaver-demo(1)          XScreenSaver manual         xscreensaver-demo(1)
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NAME

6       xscreensaver-demo  -  interactively control the background xscreensaver
7       daemon
8

SYNOPSIS

10       xscreensaver-demo [-display host:display.screen] [-prefs] [--debug]
11

DESCRIPTION

13       The xscreensaver-demo program is a graphical front-end for setting  the
14       parameters used by the background xscreensaver(1) daemon.  It is essen‐
15       tially two things: a tool for editing the ~/.xscreensaver file;  and  a
16       tool  for demoing the various graphics hacks that the xscreensaver dae‐
17       mon will launch.
18
19       The main window consists of a menu bar and two tabbed pages.  The first
20       page  is  for  editing the list of demos, and the second is for editing
21       various other parameters of the screensaver.
22
24       All of these commands are on either the File or Help menus:
25
26       Blank Screen Now
27           Activates the background xscreensaver daemon, which will then run a
28           demo  at  random.   This  is  the same as running xscreensaver-com‐
29           mand(1) with the -activate option.
30
31       Lock Screen Now
32           Just like Blank Screen Now, except the screen  will  be  locked  as
33           well  (even if it is not configured to lock all the time.)  This is
34           the same as running xscreensaver-command(1) with the -lock option.
35
36       Kill Daemon
37           If the xscreensaver daemon is running  on  this  screen,  kill  it.
38           This  is the same as running xscreensaver-command(1) with the -exit
39           option.
40
41       Restart Daemon
42           If the xscreensaver daemon is running  on  this  screen,  kill  it.
43           Then  launch  it  again.  This is the same as doing ``xscreensaver-
44           command -exit'' followed by ``xscreensaver''.
45
46           Note that it  is  not  the  same  as  doing  ``xscreensaver-command
47           -restart''.
48
49       Exit
50           Exits  the xscreensaver-demo program (this program) without affect‐
51           ing the background xscreensaver daemon, if any.
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53       About...
54           Displays the version number of this program, xscreensaver-demo.
55
56       Documentation...
57           Opens up a web browser looking at the XScreenSaver web page,  where
58           you  can  find  online  copies  of  the  xscreensaver(1),  xscreen‐
59           saver-demo(1), and xscreensaver-command(1) manuals.
60

DISPLAY MODES TAB

62       This page contains a list of the names of the various display modes,  a
63       preview  area,  and  some  fields  that  let you configure screen saver
64       behavior.
65
66       Mode
67           This option menu controls the activation  behavior  of  the  screen
68           saver.  The options are:
69
70           Disable Screen Saver
71               Don't  ever  blank the screen, and don't ever allow the monitor
72               to power down.
73
74           Blank Screen Only
75               When blanking the screen, just go black: don't run  any  graph‐
76               ics.
77
78           Only One Screen Saver
79               When  blanking the screen, only ever use one particular display
80               mode (the one selected in the list.)
81
82           Random Screen Saver
83               When blanking the screen, select a  random  display  mode  from
84               among those that are enabled and applicable.  If there are mul‐
85               tiple monitors connected, run a different display mode on  each
86               one.  This is the default.
87
88           Random Same Saver
89               This  is  just  like  Random Screen Saver, except that the same
90               randomly-chosen display mode  will  be  run  on  all  monitors,
91               instead of different ones on each.
92
93       Demo List
94           Double-clicking  in  the  list on the left will let you try out the
95           indicated demo.  The screen will go black, and the program will run
96           in  full-screen  mode,  just as it would if the xscreensaver daemon
97           had launched it.  Clicking the mouse again will stop the  demo  and
98           un-blank the screen.
99
100           Single-clicking  in  the list will run it in the small preview pane
101           on the right.  (But beware: many of the display modes behave  some‐
102           what  differently  when running in full-screen mode, so the scaled-
103           down view might not give an accurate impression.)
104
105           When Mode is set to Random Screen Saver, each name in the list  has
106           a  checkbox  next to it: this controls whether this display mode is
107           enabled.  If it is unchecked, then that mode will  not  be  chosen.
108           (Though  you  can still run it explicitly by double-clicking on its
109           name.)
110
111       Arrow Buttons
112           Beneath the list are a pair of up and down arrows. Clicking on  the
113           down  arrow  will select the next item in the list, and then run it
114           in full-screen mode, just as if you had double-clicked on it.   The
115           up  arrow  goes  the other way.  This is just a shortcut for trying
116           out all of the display modes in turn.
117
118       Blank After
119           After the user has been idle this  long,  the  xscreensaver  daemon
120           will blank the screen.
121
122       Cycle After
123           After the screensaver has been running for this long, the currently
124           running graphics demo will be killed, and a new  one  started.   If
125           this  is  0, then the graphics demo will never be changed: only one
126           demo will run until the screensaver is deactivated by  user  activ‐
127           ity.
128
129           The running saver will be restarted every this-many minutes even in
130           Only One Screen Saver mode, since some savers tend to converge on a
131           steady state.
132
133       Lock Screen
134           When this is checked, the screen will be locked when it activates.
135
136       Lock Screen After
137           This  controls  the length of the ``grace period'' between when the
138           screensaver activates, and when the  screen  becomes  locked.   For
139           example,  if this is 5 minutes, and Blank After is 10 minutes, then
140           after 10 minutes, the screen would blank.  If there was user activ‐
141           ity  at  12  minutes, no password would be required to un-blank the
142           screen.  But, if there was user activity at  15  minutes  or  later
143           (that  is, Lock Screen After minutes after activation) then a pass‐
144           word would be required.  The default is 0, meaning that if  locking
145           is  enabled, then a password will be required as soon as the screen
146           blanks.
147
148       Preview
149           This button, below the small preview window, runs the demo in full-
150           screen  mode  so  that  you can try it out.  This is the same thing
151           that happens when you double-click an element in the  list.   Click
152           the mouse to dismiss the full-screen preview.
153
154       Settings
155           This  button  will pop up a dialog where you can configure settings
156           specific to the display mode selected in the list.
157

SETTINGS DIALOG

159       When you click on the Settings button on the Display Modes tab, a  con‐
160       figuration  dialog  will pop up that lets you customize settings of the
161       selected display mode.  Each display mode has its own custom configura‐
162       tion controls on the left side.
163
164       On  the  right  side is a paragraph or two describing the display mode.
165       Below that is a Documentation button  that  will  display  the  display
166       mode's  manual  page, if it has one, in a new window (since each of the
167       display modes is actually a separate program, they each have their  own
168       manual.)
169
170       The  Advanced  button  reconfigures the dialog box so that you can edit
171       the display mode's command line directly, instead of using the  graphi‐
172       cal controls.
173

ADVANCED TAB

175       This tab lets you change various settings used by the xscreensaver dae‐
176       mon itself, as well as some global options shared by all of the display
177       modes.
178
179       Image Manipulation
180
181       Some  of  the graphics hacks manipulate images.  These settings control
182       where those source images come from.  (All of  these  options  work  by
183       invoking  the  xscreensaver-getimage(1) program, which is what actually
184       does the work.)
185
186           Grab Desktop Images
187               If this option is selected, then they are allowed to manipulate
188               the desktop image, that is, a display mode might draw a picture
189               of your desktop melting, or being distorted in some  way.   The
190               security-paranoid might want to disable this option, because if
191               it is set, it means that the windows on your desktop will occa‐
192               sionally  be  visible while your screen is locked.  Others will
193               not be able to do anything, but they may be able to  see  what‐
194               ever you left on your screen.
195
196           Grab Video Frames
197               If  your system has a video capture card, selecting this option
198               will allow the image-manipulating modes to capture a  frame  of
199               video to operate on.
200
201           Choose Random Image
202               If  this  option is set, then the image-manipulating modes will
203               select a random image file to operate on,  from  the  specified
204               source.   That  source  may be a local directory, which will be
205               recursively searched for images.  Or, it may be the URL  of  an
206               RSS or Atom feed (e.g., a Flickr gallery), in which case a ran‐
207               dom image from that feed will be selected  instead.   The  con‐
208               tents of the feed will be cached locally and refreshed periodi‐
209               cally as needed.
210
211           If more than one of the above image-related options  are  selected,
212           then  one  will be chosen at random.  If none of them are selected,
213           then an image of video colorbars will be used instead.
214
215       Text Manipulation
216
217       Some of the display modes display and manipulate text.   The  following
218       options  control how that text is generated.  (These parameters control
219       the behavior of the xscreensaver-text(1) program, which is  what  actu‐
220       ally does the work.)
221
222           Host Name and Time
223               If  this checkbox is selected, then the text used by the screen
224               savers will be the local host name, OS version, date, time, and
225               system load.
226
227           Text
228               If  this  checkbox  is selected, then the literal text typed in
229               the field to its right will be used.  If it contains  %  escape
230               sequences, they will be expanded as per strftime(2).
231
232           Text File
233               If  this  checkbox is selected, then the contents of the corre‐
234               sponding file will be displayed.
235
236           Program
237               If this checkbox is selected, then the given  program  will  be
238               run, repeatedly, and its output will be displayed.
239
240           URL If  this  checkbox is selected, then the given HTTP URL will be
241               downloaded and displayed repeatedly.  If the document  contains
242               HTML, RSS, or Atom, it will be converted to plain-text first.
243
244               Note:  this  re-downloads  the  document  every time the screen
245               saver runs out of text, so it will probably be hitting that web
246               server  multiple  times a minute.  Be careful that the owner of
247               that server doesn't consider that to be abusive.
248
249       Power Management Settings
250
251       These settings control whether, and when, your monitor powers down.
252
253           Power Management Enabled
254               Whether the monitor should be powered down after  a  period  of
255               inactivity.
256
257               If  this  option is grayed out, it means your X server does not
258               support the XDPMS extension, and so control over the  monitor's
259               power state is not available.
260
261               If  you're  using  a  laptop, don't be surprised if this has no
262               effect: many laptops have monitor power-saving  behavior  built
263               in  at  a  very  low level that is invisible to Unix and X.  On
264               such systems, you can typically only  adjust  the  power-saving
265               delays  by  changing settings in the BIOS in some hardware-spe‐
266               cific way.
267
268           Standby After
269               If Power Management Enabled is selected, the  monitor  will  go
270               black  after  this  much  idle time.  (Graphics demos will stop
271               running, also.)
272
273           Suspend After
274               If Power Management Enabled is selected, the  monitor  will  go
275               into  power-saving  mode after this much idle time.  This dura‐
276               tion should be greater than or equal to Standby.
277
278           Off After
279               If Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor will fully
280               power  down after this much idle time.  This duration should be
281               greater than or equal to Suspend.
282
283           Quick Power-off in Blank Only Mode
284               If the display mode is set to Blank Screen  Only  and  this  is
285               checked,  then the monitor will be powered off immediately upon
286               blanking, regardless of the  other  power-management  settings.
287               In this way, the power management idle-timers can be completely
288               disabled, but the screen will be powered off when black.  (This
289               might be preferable on laptops.)
290
291       Fading and Colormaps
292
293       These  options  control  how  the  screen fades to or from black when a
294       screen saver begins or ends.
295
296           Fade To Black When Blanking
297               If selected, then when the screensaver activates,  the  current
298               contents  of  the  screen  will fade to black instead of simply
299               winking out.  (Note: this doesn't work with all X servers.)   A
300               fade  will also be done when switching graphics hacks (when the
301               Cycle After expires.)
302
303           Unfade From Black When Unblanking
304               The complement to Fade Colormap: if  selected,  then  when  the
305               screensaver  deactivates,  the  original contents of the screen
306               will fade in from black instead of appearing immediately.  This
307               is only done if Fade Colormap is also selected.
308
309           Fade Duration
310               When  fading  or  unfading are selected, this controls how long
311               the fade will take.
312
313           Install Colormap
314               On 8-bit screens, whether to install a private  colormap  while
315               the  screensaver  is active, so that the graphics hacks can get
316               as many colors as possible.  This does nothing if you are  run‐
317               ning in 16-bit or better.
318
319       There  are  more  settings than these available, but these are the most
320       commonly used ones; see the manual for xscreensaver(1) for other param‐
321       eters  that  can  be  set by editing the ~/.xscreensaver file, or the X
322       resource database.
323

COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS

325       xscreensaver-demo accepts the following command line options.
326
327       -display host:display.screen
328               The X display to use.  The xscreensaver-demo program will  open
329               its  window  on that display, and also control the xscreensaver
330               daemon that is managing that same display.
331
332       -prefs  Start up with the Advanced tab selected by default  instead  of
333               the Display Modes tab.
334
335       -debug  Causes lots of diagnostics to be printed on stderr.
336
337       It  is  important that the xscreensaver and xscreensaver-demo processes
338       be running on the same machine, or at least, on two machines that share
339       a  file  system.   When  xscreensaver-demo  writes a new version of the
340       ~/.xscreensaver file, it's important that  the  xscreensaver  see  that
341       same  file.   If the two processes are seeing different ~/.xscreensaver
342       files, things will malfunction.
343

ENVIRONMENT

345       DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.
346
347       PATH    to find the sub-programs to run.  However, note that  the  sub-
348               programs  are actually launched by the xscreensaver daemon, not
349               by xscreensaver-demo itself.  So, what matters  is  what  $PATH
350               that the xscreensaver program sees.
351
352       HOME    for  the directory in which to read and write the .xscreensaver
353               file.
354
355       XENVIRONMENT
356               to get the name of a resource file that  overrides  the  global
357               resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
358
359       HTTP_PROXY or http_proxy
360               to get the default HTTP proxy host and port.
361

UPGRADES

363       The  latest  version of xscreensaver, an online version of this manual,
364       and a FAQ can always be found at https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/
365

SEE ALSO

367       X(1),  xscreensaver(1),  xscreensaver-command(1),   xscreensaver-getim‐
368       age(1), xscreensaver-text(1)
369
371       Copyright © 1992-2015 by Jamie Zawinski.  Permission to use, copy, mod‐
372       ify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation  for  any
373       purpose  is  hereby  granted without fee, provided that the above copy‐
374       right notice appear in all copies and that both that  copyright  notice
375       and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation.  No rep‐
376       resentations are made about the suitability of this  software  for  any
377       purpose.  It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
378

AUTHOR

380       Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 13-aug-92.
381
382       Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improvements.
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386X Version 11               5.45-1.fc33 (10-Dec-2020)      xscreensaver-demo(1)
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