1sonar(6x) XScreenSaver manual sonar(6x)
2
6 sonar - display a sonar scope
7
9 sonar [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
10 [--root] [--window-id number] [--ping hosts-or-subnets] [--ping-timeout
11 int] [--delay usecs] [--speed ratio] [--sweep-size ratio] [--font-size
12 points] [--team-a-name string] [--team-b-name string] [--team-a-count
13 int] [--team-b-count int] [--no-dns] [--no-times] [--no-wobble] [--de‐
14 bug] [--fps]
15
17 This draws a sonar screen that pings (get it?) the hosts on your local
18 network, and plots their distance (response time) from you. The three
19 rings represent ping times of approximately 2.5, 70 and 2,000 millisec‐
20 onds respectively.
21 Alternately, it can run a simulation that doesn't involve hosts.
23
25 sonar understands the following options:
26 --visual visual
28 Specify which visual to use. Legal values are the name of a
29 visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific
30 visual.
31 --window
33 Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default.
34 --root Draw on the root window.
36 --window-id number
38 Draw on the specified window.
39 --ping hosts-or-subnets
41 The list of things to ping, separated by commas or spaces. El‐
42 ements of this list may be:
43 simulation Run in simulation mode instead of pinging real
45 hosts.
46 hostname Ping the given host.
48 A.B.C.D Ping the given IPv4 address.
50 subnet Ping the local subnet. On systems where we can de‐
52 termine the local network mask, we use that; other‐
53 wise, we assume Class C (254 hosts).
54 subnet/NN Ping a different-sized local subnet: e.g., sub‐
56 net/28 would ping a 4-bit subnet (the nearest 14
57 addresses). On systems where we can determine the
58 local network mask, we always use that.
59 A.B.C.D/NN Ping an arbitrary other IPv4 subnet. The address
61 specifies the base address, and the part after the
62 slash is how wide the subnet is. Typical values
63 are /24 (for 254 addresses) and /28 (for 14 ad‐
64 dresses).
65 filename Ping the hosts listed in the given file. This file
67 can be in the format used by /etc/hosts, or it can
68 be any file that has host names as the first or
69 second element on each line. If you use ssh, try
70 this:
71 sonar -ping $HOME/.ssh/known_hosts
73 --ping-timeout int
75 The amount of time in milliseconds the program will wait for an
76 answer to a ping.
77 --delay int
79 Delay between frames, in microseconds. Default 20000.
80 --speed ratio
82 Less than 1 for slower, greater than 1 for faster. Default 1.
83 --sweep-size ratio
85 How big the glowing sweep area should be. Default 0.3.
86 --font-size points
88 How large the text should be. Default 10 points.
89 --no-wobble
91 Keep the display stationary instead of very slowly wobbling
92 back and forth.
93 --no-dns
95 Do not attempt to resolve IP addresses to hostnames.
96 --no-times
98 Do not display ping times beneath the host names.
99 --team-a-name string
101 In simulation mode, the name of team A.
102 --team-b-name string
104 In simulation mode, the name of team B.
105 --team-a-count int
107 In simulation mode, the number of bogies on team A.
108 --team-b-count int
110 In simulation mode, the number of bogies on team B.
111 --fps Display the current frame rate, polygon count, and CPU load.
113 In ping-mode, the display is a logarithmic scale, calibrated so that
115 the three rings represent ping times of approximately 2.5, 70 and 2,000
116 milliseconds respectively.
117 This means that if any the hosts you are pinging take longer than 2
119 seconds to respond, they won't show up; and if you are pinging several
120 hosts with very fast response times, they will all appear close to the
121 center of the screen (making their names hard to read.)
122
124 For this program to be able to ping other hosts, it must have the abil‐
125 ity to open ICMP sockets, which requires that it be setuid root. Priv‐
126 ileges are disavowed shortly after startup (just after connecting to
127 the X server) so this is believed to be safe:
128 chown root:root sonar
130 chmod u+s sonar
131
134 Does not support IPv6.
135
137 DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.
138 XENVIRONMENT
140 to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global
141 resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
142 XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW
144 The window ID to use with --root.
145
147 X(1), xscreensaver(1), ping(8), ping6(8)
148
150 Copyright © 2000-2022 by Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>
151 Copyright © 1998 by Stephen Martin. <smartin@canada.com>
152 Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and
154 its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, pro‐
155 vided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that
156 both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in sup‐
157 porting documentation. No representations are made about the suitabil‐
158 ity of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without
159 express or implied warranty.
160
162 Stephen Martin <smartin@canada.com>, 3-nov-1998.
163 Subnet support, etc. added by Jamie Zawinski, 17-Jul-2000.
165 Rewritten using OpenGL instead of X11 by Jamie Zawinski, 12-Aug-2008.
167X Version 11 6.08-1.fc38 (17-Oct-2023) sonar(6x)