1webcollage(6x)                XScreenSaver manual               webcollage(6x)
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NAME

6       webcollage - decorate the screen with random images from the web
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SYNOPSIS

9       webcollage   [-display  host:display.screen]  [-root]  [-window-id  id]
10       [-verbose] [-timeout secs] [-delay secs] [-background bg]  [-no-output]
11       [-urls-only]  [-imagemap  filename-base]  [-size  WxH] [-opacity ratio]
12       [-filter command] [-filter2 command] [-http-proxy  host[:port]]  [-dic‐
13       tionary dictionary-file] [-driftnet [cmd]] [-directory dir] [-fps]
14

DESCRIPTION

16       The webcollage program pulls random image off of the World Wide Web and
17       scatters them on the root window.  One satisfied customer described  it
18       as "a nonstop pop culture brainbath."  This program finds its images by
19       doing random web searches, and  extracting  images  from  the  returned
20       pages.
21
22       webcollage is written in perl(1) and requires Perl 5.
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24       It  will  be  an order of magnitude faster if you also have the webcol‐
25       lage-helper program installed (a GDK/JPEG image compositor),  but  web‐
26       collage works without it as well.
27
28       webcollage can be used in conjunction with the driftnet(1) program (the
29       Unix equivalent of EtherPEG) to snoop images from traffic on your local
30       subnet, instead of getting images from search engines.
31

OPTIONS

33       webcollage accepts the following options:
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35       -root   Draw  on  the root window.  This option is mandatory, if output
36               is being produced: drawing to a window other than the root win‐
37               dow is not yet supported.
38
39               Images  are  placed  on  the  root  window  by using one of the
40               xscreensaver-getimage(1), chbg(1), xv(1), xli(1),  or  xloadim‐
41               age(1) programs (whichever is available.)
42
43       -window-id id
44               Draw  to  the  indicated window instead; this only works if the
45               xscreensaver-getimage(1) program is installed.
46
47       -verbose or -v
48               Print diagnostics to stderr.  Multiple -v switches increase the
49               amount  of  output.   -v will print out the URLs of the images,
50               and where they were placed; -vv will print  out  any  warnings,
51               and  all URLs being loaded; -vvv will print information on what
52               URLs were rejected; and so on.
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54       -timeout seconds
55               How long to wait for a URL to complete before giving up  on  it
56               and moving on to the next one.  Default 30 seconds.
57
58       -delay seconds
59               How  long to sleep between images.  Default 2 seconds.  (Remem‐
60               ber that this program probably spends a lot of time waiting for
61               the network.)
62
63       -background color-or-ppm
64               What  to  use  for the background onto which images are pasted.
65               This may be a color name, a hexadecimal  RGB  specification  in
66               the form '#rrggbb', or the name of a PPM file.
67
68       -size WxH
69               Normally,  the  output image will be made to be the size of the
70               screen (or target window.)  This lets you specify  the  desired
71               size.
72
73       -opacity ratio
74               How  transparently to paste the images together, with 0.0 mean‐
75               ing "completely transparent" and 1.0 meaning "opaque."  Default
76               0.85.   A  value  of  around  0.3 will produce an interestingly
77               blurry image after a while.
78
79       -no-output
80               If this option is specified, then  no  composite  output  image
81               will  be  generated.  This is only useful when used in conjunc‐
82               tion with -verbose.
83
84       -urls-only
85               If this option is specified, then  no  composite  output  image
86               will  be  generated:  instead,  a  list  of  image URLs will be
87               printed on stdout.
88
89       -imagemap filename-base
90               If this option is specified, then instead of writing  an  image
91               to  the root window, two files will be created: "base.html" and
92               "base.jpg".  The JPEG will be the collage; the HTML  file  will
93               include  that  image, and an image-map making the sub-images be
94               linked to the  pages  on  which  they  were  found  (just  like
95               https://www.jwz.org/webcollage/.)
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97       -filter command
98               Filter  all  source  images  through this command.  The command
99               must take a PPM file on stdin, and write a new PPM file to std‐
100               out.  One good choice for a filter would be:
101               webcollage -root -filter 'vidwhacker -stdin -stdout'
102
103       -filter2 command
104               Filter  the  composite image through this command.  The -filter
105               option applies to the sub-images; the -filter2 applies  to  the
106               final, full-screen image.
107
108       -http-proxy host:port
109               If  you  must go through a proxy to connect to the web, you can
110               specify it  with  this  option,  or  with  the  $http_proxy  or
111               $HTTP_PROXY environment variables.
112
113       -dictionary file
114               Webcollage  normally  looks at the system's default spell-check
115               dictionary to generate words to feed into the  search  engines.
116               You can specify an alternate dictionary with this option.
117
118               Note that by default, webcollage searches for images using sev‐
119               eral different methods, not all  of  which  involve  dictionary
120               words,  so  using  a  "topical"  dictionary  file  will not, in
121               itself, be as effective as you might be hoping.
122
123       -driftnet [ args ]
124               driftnet(1) is a program that snoops your  local  ethernet  for
125               packets  that  look  like they might be image files.  It can be
126               used in conjunction with webcollage to generate  a  collage  of
127               what  other people on your network are looking at, instead of a
128               search-engine collage.  If you have driftnet installed on  your
129               $PATH, just use the -driftnet option.  You can also specify the
130               location of the program like this:
131               -driftnet /path/to/driftnet
132               or, you can provide extra arguments like this:
133               -driftnet '/path/to/driftnet -extra -args'
134               Driftnet version 0.1.5 or later is  required.   Note  that  the
135               driftnet  program  requires root access, so you'll have to make
136               driftnet be setuid-root for this to work.  Please exercise cau‐
137               tion.
138
139       -directory dir
140               Instead  of  searching  the web for images, use the contents of
141               the given directory.
142
143       -fps    Display the current frame rate and CPU load (MacOS only).
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NOTES FOR FEDORA USER

146       Webcollage on Fedora uses '-directory' option by default,  so  it  does
147       not connect to internet and uses image files on your local disk. If you
148       want webcollage to search for image files on net, use webcollage.origi‐
149       nal .
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ENVIRONMENT

152       DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.
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154       XENVIRONMENT
155               to  get  the  name of a resource file that overrides the global
156               resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
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158       http_proxy or HTTP_PROXY
159               to get the default HTTP proxy host and port.
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FILES AND URLS

162       /usr/dict/words, /usr/share/lib/dict/words, or /usr/share/dict/words to
163       find the random words to feed to certain search engines.
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165           http://www.altavista.com/image/randomlink,
166           http://random.yahoo.com/fast/ryl,
167           http://www.livejournal.com/stats/latest-img.bml, and
168           http://www.google.com/ to find random web pages.
169

BOOBIES

171       The Internet being what it is, absolutely anything might show up in the
172       collage including -- quite possibly -- pornography, or even nudity.
173

BUGS

175       Animating GIFs are not supported: only the first frame will be used.
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UPGRADES

178       The latest version of webcollage can be found as  a  part  of  xscreen‐
179       saver,  at https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/, or on the WebCollage page
180       at https://www.jwz.org/webcollage/.
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182       DriftNet: http://www.ex-parrot.com/~chris/driftnet/
183

SEE ALSO

185       X(1),  xscreensaver(1),  xli(1),  xv(1),   xloadimage(1),   ppmmake(1),
186       giftopnm(1), pnmpaste(1), pnmscale(1), djpeg(1), cjpeg(1), xdpyinfo(1),
187       perl(1), vidwhacker(6x), dadadodo(1), driftnet(1) EtherPEG, EtherPeek
188
190       Copyright © 1998-2018 by Jamie Zawinski.  Permission to use, copy, mod‐
191       ify,  distribute,  and sell this software and its documentation for any
192       purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that  the  above  copy‐
193       right  notice  appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice
194       and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation.  No rep‐
195       resentations  are  made  about the suitability of this software for any
196       purpose.  It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
197

AUTHOR

199       Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 24-May-1998.
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203X Version 11               5.45-1.fc33 (10-Dec-2020)            webcollage(6x)
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