1XScreenSaver(1)             General Commands Manual            XScreenSaver(1)
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NAME

6       xscreensaver-settings - configure and control the xscreensaver daemon
7

SYNOPSIS

9       xscreensaver-settings [-display host:display.screen] [-prefs] [-debug]
10

DESCRIPTION

12       The  xscreensaver-settings program is a graphical front-end for setting
13       the parameters used by the xscreensaver(1) daemon.  It is  a  tool  for
14       editing  the  ~/.xscreensaver file, and for demoing the various display
15       modes.
16
17       The main window consists of a menu bar and two tabbed pages.  The first
18       page  is  for  editing the list of demos, and the second is for editing
19       various other parameters of the screensaver.
20
22       All of these commands are on either the File or Help menus:
23
24
25       Blank Screen Now
26           Activates the background xscreensaver daemon, which will then run a
27           demo  at  random.   This  is  the same as running xscreensaver-com‐
28           mand(1) with the -activate option.
29
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
37       Kill Daemon
38           If the xscreensaver daemon is running  on  this  screen,  kill  it.
39           This  is the same as running xscreensaver-command(1) with the -exit
40           option.
41
42
43       Restart Daemon
44           If the xscreensaver daemon is running  on  this  screen,  kill  it.
45           Then launch it again.  This is the same as doing "xscreensaver-com‐
46           mand --exit" followed by "xscreensaver".
47
48           Note that  it  is  not  the  same  as  doing  "xscreensaver-command
49           --restart".
50
51
52       Exit
53           Exits  the xscreensaver-settings program (this program) without af‐
54           fecting the background xscreensaver daemon, if any.
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56
57       About...
58           Displays the version number of this program, xscreensaver-settings.
59
60
61       Documentation...
62           Opens up a web browser looking at the XScreenSaver web page,  where
63           you  can  find  online  copies  of  the  xscreensaver(1),  xscreen‐
64           saver-settings(1), and xscreensaver-command(1) manuals.
65

DISPLAY MODES TAB

67       This page contains a list of the names of the various display modes,  a
68       preview  area,  and some fields that let you configure screen saver be‐
69       havior.
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71
72       Mode
73           This option menu controls the activation  behavior  of  the  screen
74           saver.  The options are:
75
76
77           Disable Screen Saver
78               Don't  ever  blank the screen, and don't ever allow the monitor
79               to power down.
80
81
82           Blank Screen Only
83               When blanking the screen, just go black: don't run  any  graph‐
84               ics.
85
86
87           Only One Screen Saver
88               When  blanking the screen, only ever use one particular display
89               mode (the one selected in the list.)
90
91
92           Random Screen Saver
93               When blanking the screen, select a  random  display  mode  from
94               among those that are enabled and applicable.  If there are mul‐
95               tiple monitors connected, run a different display mode on  each
96               one.  This is the default.
97
98
99           Random Same Saver
100               This  is  just  like  Random Screen Saver, except that the same
101               randomly-chosen display mode will be run on all  monitors,  in‐
102               stead of different ones on each.
103
104
105       Demo List
106           Double-clicking  in  the  list on the left will let you try out the
107           indicated demo.  The screen will go black, and the program will run
108           in  full-screen  mode,  just as it would if the xscreensaver daemon
109           had launched it.  Clicking the mouse again will stop the  demo  and
110           un-blank the screen.
111
112           Single-clicking  in  the list will run it in the small preview pane
113           on the right.  (But beware: many of the display modes behave  some‐
114           what  differently  when running in full-screen mode, so the scaled-
115           down view might not give an accurate impression.)
116
117           When Mode is set to Random Screen Saver, each name in the list  has
118           a  checkbox  next to it: this controls whether this display mode is
119           enabled.  If it is unchecked, then that mode will  not  be  chosen.
120           (Though  you  can still run it explicitly by double-clicking on its
121           name.)
122
123
124       Arrow Buttons
125           Beneath the list are a pair of up and down arrows. Clicking on  the
126           down  arrow  will select the next item in the list, and then run it
127           in full-screen mode, just as if you had double-clicked on it.   The
128           up  arrow  goes  the other way.  This is just a shortcut for trying
129           out all of the display modes in turn.
130
131
132       Blank After
133           After the user has been idle this  long,  the  xscreensaver  daemon
134           will blank the screen.
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136
137       Cycle After
138           After the screensaver has been running for this long, the currently
139           running graphics demo will be killed, and a new  one  started.   If
140           this  is  0, then the graphics demo will never be changed: only one
141           demo will run until the screensaver is deactivated by  user  activ‐
142           ity.
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144           If there are multiple screens, the savers are staggered slightly so
145           that while they all change every  cycle  minutes,  they  don't  all
146           change at the same time.
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148
149       Lock Screen
150           When this is checked, the screen will be locked when it activates.
151
152
153       Lock Screen After
154           This  controls  the  length  of the "grace period" between when the
155           screensaver activates, and when the screen becomes locked.  For ex‐
156           ample,  if  this  is 5 minutes, and Blank After is 10 minutes, then
157           after 10 minutes, the screen would blank.  If there was user activ‐
158           ity  at  12  minutes, no password would be required to un-blank the
159           screen.  But, if there was user activity at  15  minutes  or  later
160           (that  is, Lock Screen After minutes after activation) then a pass‐
161           word would be required.  The default is 0, meaning that if  locking
162           is  enabled, then a password will be required as soon as the screen
163           blanks.
164
165
166       Preview
167           This button, below the small preview window, runs the demo in full-
168           screen  mode  so  that  you can try it out.  This is the same thing
169           that happens when you double-click an element in the  list.   Click
170           the mouse to dismiss the full-screen preview.
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172
173       Settings
174           This  button  will pop up a dialog where you can configure settings
175           specific to the display mode selected in the list.
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177

SETTINGS DIALOG

179       When you click on the Settings button on the Display Modes tab, a  con‐
180       figuration  dialog  will pop up that lets you customize settings of the
181       selected display mode.  Each display mode has its own custom configura‐
182       tion controls on the left side.
183
184       On  the  right  side is a paragraph or two describing the display mode.
185       Below that is a Documentation button  that  will  display  the  display
186       mode's manual page in a new window.
187
188       The  Advanced  button  reconfigures the dialog box so that you can edit
189       the display mode's command line directly, instead of using the  graphi‐
190       cal controls.
191

ADVANCED TAB

193       This tab lets you change various settings used by the xscreensaver dae‐
194       mon itself, as well as some global options shared by all of the display
195       modes.
196
197       Image Manipulation
198
199       Some  of  the graphics hacks manipulate images.  These settings control
200       where those source images come from.  The savers load images by running
201       the  xscreensaver-getimage(6)  and  xscreensaver-getimage-file(6)  pro‐
202       grams.
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204
205           Grab Desktop Images
206               If this option is selected, then savers are allowed to  manipu‐
207               late  the  desktop  image, that is, a display mode might draw a
208               picture of your desktop melting, or  being  distorted  in  some
209               way.   The security-paranoid might want to disable this option,
210               because if it is set, it means that the windows on your desktop
211               will occasionally be visible while your screen is locked.  Oth‐
212               ers will not be able to do anything, but they may  be  able  to
213               see whatever you left on your screen.
214
215
216           Grab Video Frames
217               If  your  system has a video capture device, selecting this op‐
218               tion may allow the image-manipulating modes to  grab  a  still-
219               frame of video to operate on.
220
221
222           Choose Random Image
223               If  this  option is set, then the image-manipulating modes will
224               select a random image file to operate on,  from  the  specified
225               source.   That  source  may be a local directory, which will be
226               recursively searched for images.  Or, it may be the URL  of  an
227               RSS or Atom feed (e.g., a Flickr gallery), in which case a ran‐
228               dom image from that feed will be selected  instead.   The  con‐
229               tents of the feed will be cached locally and refreshed periodi‐
230               cally as needed.
231
232           If more than one of the above image-related options  are  selected,
233           then  one  will be chosen at random.  If none of them are selected,
234           then an image of video colorbars will be used instead.
235
236       Text Manipulation
237
238       Some of the display modes display and manipulate text.   The  following
239       options  control  how  that text is generated.  The savers load text by
240       running the xscreensaver-text(6) program.
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242
243           Host Name and Time
244               If this checkbox is selected, then the text used by the  screen
245               savers will be the local host name, OS version, date, time, and
246               system load.
247
248
249           Text
250               If this checkbox is selected, then the literal  text  typed  in
251               the  field  to its right will be used.  If it contains % escape
252               sequences, they will be expanded as per strftime(2).
253
254
255           Text File
256               If this checkbox is selected, then the contents of  the  corre‐
257               sponding file will be displayed.
258
259
260           Program
261               If  this  checkbox  is selected, then the given program will be
262               run, repeatedly, and its output will be displayed.
263
264
265           URL If this checkbox is selected, then the given web page  will  be
266               downloaded  and displayed repeatedly.  If the document contains
267               HTML, RSS, or Atom, it will be converted to plain-text first.
268
269               Note: this re-downloads the  document  every  time  the  screen
270               saver runs out of text, so it will probably be hitting that web
271               server multiple times a minute.
272
273       Power Management Settings
274
275       These settings control whether, and when, your monitor powers down.
276
277
278           Power Management Enabled
279               Whether the monitor should be powered down after  a  period  of
280               inactivity.
281
282               If  this  option is grayed out, it means your X server does not
283               support the XDPMS extension, and so control over the  monitor's
284               power state is not available.
285
286
287           Standby After
288               If  Power  Management  Enabled is selected, the monitor will go
289               black after this much idle time.   (Graphics  demos  will  stop
290               running, also.)
291
292
293           Suspend After
294               If  Power  Management  Enabled is selected, the monitor will go
295               into power-saving mode after this much idle time.   This  dura‐
296               tion should be greater than or equal to Standby.
297
298
299           Off After
300               If Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor will fully
301               power down after this much idle time.  This duration should  be
302               greater than or equal to Suspend.
303
304
305           Quick Power-off in Blank Only Mode
306               If  the  display  mode  is set to Blank Screen Only and this is
307               checked, then the monitor will be powered off immediately  upon
308               blanking,  regardless  of  the other power-management settings.
309               In this way, the power management idle-timers can be completely
310               disabled, but the screen will be powered off when black.
311
312       Blanking
313
314       These  options  control  how  the  screen fades to or from black when a
315       screen saver begins or ends.  Note: fading doesn't work with all  video
316       drivers.  In particular, it does not work on the 2020-vintage Raspberry
317       Pi.
318
319
320           Fade To Black When Blanking
321               If selected, then when the screensaver activates,  the  current
322               contents  of  the  screen  will fade to black instead of simply
323               winking out.  A fade will also be done when switching from  one
324               display mode to another.
325
326
327           Unfade From Black When Unblanking
328               The  opposite:  if  selected, then when the screensaver deacti‐
329               vates, the original contents of the screen will  fade  in  from
330               black  instead  of appearing immediately.  This is only done if
331               Fade To Black is also selected.
332
333
334           Fade Duration
335               When fading or unfading are selected, this  controls  how  long
336               the fade will take.
337
338       Theme
339           This  option  menu lists the color schemes available for use on the
340           unlock dialog.
341
342       There are more settings than these available, but these  are  the  most
343       commonly used ones; see the manual for xscreensaver(1) for other param‐
344       eters that can be set by editing the ~/.xscreensaver file, or the X re‐
345       source database.
346

COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS

348       xscreensaver-settings accepts the following command line options.
349
350       -display host:display.screen
351               The  X  display to use.  The xscreensaver-settings program will
352               open its window on that display, and also control the  xscreen‐
353               saver daemon that is managing that same display.
354
355
356       -prefs  Start  up  with the Advanced tab selected by default instead of
357               the Display Modes tab.
358
359
360       -debug  Causes lots of diagnostics to be printed on stderr.
361
362
363       The xscreensaver and xscreensaver-settings processes must  run  on  the
364       same  machine,  or  at least, on two machines that share a file system.
365       When xscreensaver-settings writes a new version of the  ~/.xscreensaver
366       file, xscreensaver needs to see that same file, or it won't work.
367

ENVIRONMENT

369       DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.
370
371       PATH    to  find  the sub-programs to run.  However, note that the sub-
372               programs are actually launched by the xscreensaver daemon,  not
373               by  xscreensaver-settings  itself.   So,  what  matters is what
374               $PATH that the xscreensaver program sees.
375
376       HOME    for the directory in which to read and write the  .xscreensaver
377               file.
378
379       XENVIRONMENT
380               to  get  the  name of a resource file that overrides the global
381               resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
382
383       HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, http_proxy, or https_proxy
384               to get the default proxy host and port.
385

UPGRADES

387       The latest version of xscreensaver, an online version of  this  manual,
388       and a FAQ can always be found at https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/
389

SEE ALSO

391       X(1),   xscreensaver(1),  xscreensaver-command(1),  xscreensaver-getim‐
392       age(6), xscreensaver-getimage-file(6),  xscreensaver-getimage-video(6),
393       xscreensaver-text(6)
394
396       Copyright © 1992-2021 by Jamie Zawinski.  Permission to use, copy, mod‐
397       ify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation  for  any
398       purpose  is  hereby  granted without fee, provided that the above copy‐
399       right notice appear in all copies and that both that  copyright  notice
400       and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation.  No rep‐
401       resentations are made about the suitability of this  software  for  any
402       purpose.  It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
403

AUTHOR

405       Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 13-aug-1992.
406
407       Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improvements.
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411X Version 11               6.00-4.fc34 (05-May-2021)           XScreenSaver(1)
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