1xscreensaver-demo(1) XScreenSaver manual xscreensaver-demo(1)
2
6 xscreensaver-demo - interactively control the background xscreensaver
7 daemon
8
10 xscreensaver-demo [-display host:display.screen] [-prefs] [--debug]
11
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 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 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 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 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 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 Note that it is not the same as doing ``xscreensaver-command
47 -restart''.
48 Exit
50 Exits the xscreensaver-demo program (this program) without affect‐
51 ing the background xscreensaver daemon, if any.
52 About...
54 Displays the version number of this program, xscreensaver-demo.
55 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
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 Mode
67 This option menu controls the behavior of the screen saver. The
68 options are:
69 Disable Screen Saver
71 Don't ever blank the screen, and don't ever allow the
72 monitor to power down.
73 Blank Screen Only
75 When blanking the screen, just go black: don't run any
76 graphics hacks.
77 Only One Screen Saver
79 When blanking the screen, only ever use one particular
80 display mode (the one selected in the list.)
81 Random Screen Saver
83 When blanking the screen, select a random display mode
84 from among those that are enabled and applicable. This
85 is the default.
86 Random Same Saver
88 This option only appears if you have multiple monitors.
89 This is just like Random Screen Saver, except that the
90 same randomly-chosen display mode will be run on all
91 monitors, instead of a different one being run on each.
92 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, making the dialog box visible again.
99 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 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 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 Blank After
119 After the user has been idle this long, the xscreensaver daemon
120 will blank the screen.
121 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 Lock Screen
130 When this is checked, the screen will be locked when it activates.
131 Lock Screen After
133 This controls the length of the ``grace period'' between when the
134 screensaver activates, and when the screen becomes locked. For
135 example, if this is 5 minutes, and Blank After is 10 minutes, then
136 after 10 minutes, the screen would blank. If there was user activ‐
137 ity at 12 minutes, no password would be required to un-blank the
138 screen. But, if there was user activity at 15 minutes or later
139 (that is, Lock Screen After minutes after activation) then a pass‐
140 word would be required. The default is 0, meaning that if locking
141 is enabled, then a password will be required as soon as the screen
142 blanks.
143 Preview
145 This button, below the small preview window, runs the demo in full-
146 screen mode so that you can try it out. This is the same thing
147 that happens when you double-click an element in the list. Click
148 the mouse to dismiss the full-screen preview.
149 Settings
151 This button will pop up a dialog where you can configure settings
152 specific to the display mode selected in the list.
153
155 This tab lets you change various settings used by the xscreensaver dae‐
156 mon itself, rather than its sub-programs.
157 Grab Desktop Images
159 Some of the graphics hacks manipulate images. If this option is
160 selected, then they are allowed to manipulate the desktop image,
161 that is, a display mode might draw a picture of your desktop melt‐
162 ing, or being distorted in some way. The security-paranoid might
163 want to disable this option, because if it is set, it means that
164 the windows on your desktop will occasionally be visible while your
165 screen is locked. Others will not be able to do anything, but they
166 may be able to see whatever you left on your screen.
167 Grab Video Frames
169 If your system has a video capture card, selecting this option will
170 allow the image-manipulating modes to capture a frame of video to
171 operate on.
172 Choose Random Image
174 If this option is set, then the image-manipulating modes will
175 select a random image file from disk, from the directory you spec‐
176 ify in the text entry field. That directory will be recursively
177 searched for files, and it is assumed that all the files under that
178 directory are images.
179 If more than one of these options are selected, then one will be
181 chosen at random. If none of them are selected, then an image of
182 video colorbars will be used instead.
183 (All three of these options work by invoking the xscreen‐
185 saver-getimage(1) program, which is what actually does the work.)
186 Text Manipulation
188 Some of the display modes display and manipulate text. The follow‐
189 ing options control how that text is generated. (These parameters
190 control the behavior of the xscreensaver-text(1) program, which is
191 what actually does the work.)
192 Host Name and Time
194 If this checkbox is selected, then the text used by the screen
195 savers will be the local host name, date, time, and system load.
196 Text
198 If this checkbox is selected, then the literal text typed in the
199 field to its right will be used. If it contains % escape
200 sequences, they will be expanded as per strftime(2).
201 Text File
203 If this checkbox is selected, then the contents of the correspond‐
204 ing file will be displayed.
205 Program
207 If this checkbox is selected, then the given program will be run,
208 and its output will be displayed.
209 URL If this checkbox is selected, then the given HTTP URL will be down‐
211 loaded and displayed repeatedly. If the document contains HTML,
212 RSS, or Atom, it will be converted to plain-text first.
213 Note: this re-downloads the document every time the screen saver
215 runs out of text! It might be considered abusive for you to point
216 this at a web server that you do not control, as it will probably
217 be hitting that server multiple times a minute.
218 Power Management Enabled
220 Whether the monitor should be powered down after a period of inac‐
221 tivity.
222 If this option is grayed out, it means your X server does not sup‐
224 port the XDPMS extension, and so control over the monitor's power
225 state is not available.
226 If you're using a laptop, don't be surprised if this has no effect:
228 many laptops have monitor power-saving behavior built in at a very
229 low level that is invisible to Unix and X. On such systems, you
230 can typically only adjust the power-saving delays by changing set‐
231 tings in the BIOS in some hardware-specific way.
232 Standby After
234 If Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor will go black
235 after this much idle time. (Graphics demos will stop running,
236 also.)
237 Suspend After
239 If Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor will go into
240 power-saving mode after this much idle time. This duration should
241 be greater than or equal to Standby.
242 Off After
244 If Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor will fully
245 power down after this much idle time. This duration should be
246 greater than or equal to Suspend.
247 Fade To Black When Blanking
249 If selected, then when the screensaver activates, the current con‐
250 tents of the screen will fade to black instead of simply winking
251 out. (Note: this doesn't work with all X servers.) A fade will
252 also be done when switching graphics hacks (when the Cycle After
253 expires.)
254 Unfade From Black When Unblanking
256 The complement to Fade Colormap: if selected, then when the screen‐
257 saver deactivates, the original contents of the screen will fade in
258 from black instead of appearing immediately. This is only done if
259 Fade Colormap is also selected.
260 Fade Duration
262 When fading or unfading are selected, this controls how long the
263 fade will take.
264 Install Colormap
266 On 8-bit screens, whether to install a private colormap while the
267 screensaver is active, so that the graphics hacks can get as many
268 colors as possible. This does nothing if you are running in 16-bit
269 or better.
270 There are more settings than these available, but these are the most
272 commonly used ones; see the manual for xscreensaver(1) for other param‐
273 eters that can be set by editing the ~/.xscreensaver file, or the X
274 resource database.
275
277 When you click on the Settings button on the Display Modes tab, a con‐
278 figuration dialog will pop up that lets you customize settings of the
279 selected display mode. Each display mode has its own custom configura‐
280 tion controls on the left side.
281 On the right side is a paragraph or two describing the display mode.
283 Below that is a Documentation button that will display the display
284 mode's manual page, if it has one, in a new window (since each of the
285 display modes is actually a separate program, they each may have their
286 own manual.)
287 The Advanced button reconfigures the dialog box so that you can edit
289 the display mode's command line directly, instead of using the graphi‐
290 cal controls. It also lets you configure the X visual type that this
291 mode will require. If you specify one (other than Any) then the pro‐
292 gram will only be run on that kind of visual. For example, you can
293 specify that a particular program should only be run if color is avail‐
294 able, and another should only be run in monochrome. See the discussion
295 of the programs parameter in the Configuration section of the xscreen‐
296 saver(1) manual. (OpenGL programs should always have their visual set
297 to "GL".)
298
300 xscreensaver-demo accepts the following command line options.
301 -display host:display.screen
303 The X display to use. The xscreensaver-demo program will open
304 its window on that display, and also control the xscreensaver
305 daemon that is managing that same display.
306 -prefs Start up with the Advanced tab selected by default instead of
308 the Display Modes tab.
309 -debug Causes lots of diagnostics to be printed on stderr.
311 It is important that the xscreensaver and xscreensaver-demo processes
313 be running on the same machine, or at least, on two machines that share
314 a file system. When xscreensaver-demo writes a new version of the
315 ~/.xscreensaver file, it's important that the xscreensaver see that
316 same file. If the two processes are seeing different ~/.xscreensaver
317 files, things will malfunction.
318
320 DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.
321 PATH to find the sub-programs to run. However, note that the sub-
323 programs are actually launched by the xscreensaver daemon, not
324 by xscreensaver-demo itself. So, what matters is what $PATH
325 the xscreensaver program sees.
326 HOME for the directory in which to read and write the .xscreensaver
328 file.
329 XENVIRONMENT
331 to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global
332 resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
333 HTTP_PROXY or http_proxy
335 to get the default HTTP proxy host and port.
336
338 The latest version can always be found at http://www.jwz.org/xscreen‐
339 saver/
340
342 X(1), xscreensaver(1), xscreensaver-command(1), xscreensaver-getim‐
343 age(1), xscreensaver-text(1)
344
346 Copyright © 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
347 2005 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute,
348 and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby
349 granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in
350 all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission
351 notice appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made
352 about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided
353 "as is" without express or implied warranty.
354
356 Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 13-aug-92.
357 Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improvements.
359X Version 11 5.05-3 (06-Apr-2008) xscreensaver-demo(1)