14 .TH XScreenSaver 1 "20-Mar-2005 (4.21)" "X Version 11"
16 xscreensaver - extensible screen saver framework, plus locking
19 [\-display \fIhost:display.screen\fP] \
22 [\-no\-capture\-stderr] \
23 [\-log \fIfilename\fP]
25 The \fIxscreensaver\fP program waits until the keyboard and mouse have been
26 idle for a period, and then runs a graphics demo chosen at random. It
27 turns off as soon as there is any mouse or keyboard activity.
29 This program can lock your terminal in order to prevent others from using it,
30 though its default mode of operation is merely to display pretty pictures on
31 your screen when it is not in use.
33 It also provides configuration and control of your monitor's power-saving
36 For the impatient, try this:
42 .BR xscreensaver-demo (1)
43 program pops up a dialog box that lets you configure the screen saver,
44 and experiment with the various display modes.
46 .B Note that xscreensaver has a client-server model:
47 the \fIxscreensaver\fP program is a daemon that runs in the background;
48 it is controlled by the foreground
49 .BR xscreensaver-demo (1)
51 .BR xscreensaver-command (1)
54 The easiest way to configure \fIxscreensaver\fP is to simply run the
55 .BR xscreensaver-demo (1)
56 program, and change the settings through the GUI. The rest of this
57 manual page describes lower level ways of changing settings.
59 I'll repeat that because it's important:
62 The easy way to configure xscreensaver is to run the
63 .BR xscreensaver-demo (1)
64 program. You shouldn't need to know any of the stuff described
65 in \fIthis\fP manual unless you are trying to do something tricky,
66 like customize xscreensaver for site-wide use or something.
69 Options to \fIxscreensaver\fP are stored in one of two places: in
70 a \fI.xscreensaver\fP file in your home directory; or in the X resource
71 database. If the \fI.xscreensaver\fP file exists, it overrides any settings
72 in the resource database.
74 The syntax of the \fI.xscreensaver\fP file is similar to that of
75 the \fI.Xdefaults\fP file; for example, to set the \fItimeout\fP paramter
76 in the \fI.xscreensaver\fP file, you would write the following:
80 whereas, in the \fI.Xdefaults\fP file, you would write
82 xscreensaver.timeout: 5
84 If you change a setting in the \fI.xscreensaver\fP file while xscreensaver
85 is already running, it will notice this, and reload the file. (The file will
86 be reloaded the next time the screen saver needs to take some action, such as
87 blanking or unblanking the screen, or picking a new graphics mode.)
89 If you change a setting in your X resource database, or if you want
90 xscreensaver to notice your changes immediately instead of the next time
91 it wakes up, then you will need to reload your \fI.Xdefaults\fP file,
92 and then tell the running xscreensaver process to restart itself, like so:
95 xscreensaver-command -restart
97 If you want to set the system-wide defaults, then make your edits to
98 the xscreensaver app-defaults file, which should have been installed
99 when xscreensaver itself was installed. The app-defaults file will
100 usually be named /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/XScreenSaver, but different
101 systems might keep it in a different place (for example,
102 /usr/openwin/lib/app-defaults/XScreenSaver on Solaris.)
104 When settings are changed in the Preferences dialog box (see above)
105 the current settings will be written to the \fI.xscreensaver\fP file.
106 (The \fI.Xdefaults\fP file and the app-defaults file will never be
107 written by xscreensaver itself.)
108 .SH COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
110 also accepts a few command-line options, mostly for use when debugging:
111 for normal operation, you should configure things via the \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP
114 .B \-display \fIhost:display.screen\fP
115 The X display to use. For displays with multiple screens, XScreenSaver
116 will manage all screens on the display simultaniously.
119 Same as setting the \fIverbose\fP resource to \fItrue\fP: print diagnostics
120 on stderr and on the xscreensaver window.
122 .B \-no-capture-stderr
123 Do not redirect the stdout and stderr streams to the xscreensaver window
124 itself. If xscreensaver is crashing, you might need to do this in order
125 to see the error message.
127 .B \-log \fIfilename\fP
128 This is exactly the same as redirecting stdout and stderr to the given
129 file (for append). This is useful when reporting bugs.
131 When it is time to activate the screensaver, a full-screen black window is
132 created on each screen of the display. Each window is created in such a way
133 that, to any subsequently-created programs, it will appear to be a "virtual
134 root" window. Because of this, any program which draws on the root
135 window (and which understands virtual roots) can be used as a screensaver.
136 The various graphics demos are, in fact, just standalone programs that
137 know how to draw on the provided window.
139 When the user becomes active again, the screensaver windows are unmapped, and
140 the running subprocesses are killed by sending them \fBSIGTERM\fP. This is
141 also how the subprocesses are killed when the screensaver decides that it's
142 time to run a different demo: the old one is killed and a new one is launched.
144 You can control a running screensaver process by using the
145 .BR xscreensaver\-command (1)
148 Modern X servers contain support to power down the monitor after an idle
149 period. If the monitor has powered down, then \fIxscreensaver\fP will
150 notice this (after a few minutes), and will not waste CPU by drawing
151 graphics demos on a black screen. An attempt will also be made to
152 explicitly power the monitor back up as soon as user activity is detected.
154 The \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP file controls the configuration of your
155 display's power management settings: if you have used
157 to change your power management settings, then xscreensaver will
158 override those changes with the values specified
159 in \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP (or with its built-in defaults, if there
160 is no \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP file yet.)
162 To change your power management settings, run
163 .BR xscreensaver\-demo (1)
164 and change the various timeouts through the user interface.
165 Alternately, you can edit the \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP file directly.
167 If the power management section is grayed out in the
168 .BR xscreensaver\-demo (1)
169 window, then that means that your X server does not support
170 the XDPMS extension, and so control over the monitor's power state
173 If you're using a laptop, don't be surprised if changing the DPMS
174 settings has no effect: many laptops have monitor power-saving behavior
175 built in at a very low level that is invisible to Unix and X. On such
176 systems, you can typically adjust the power-saving delays only by
177 changing settings in the BIOS in some hardware-specific way.
179 If DPMS seems not to be working with XFree86, make sure the "DPMS"
180 option is set in your \fI/etc/X11/XF86Config\fP file. See the
184 For the better part of a decade, GNOME shipped xscreensaver as-is,
185 and everything just worked out of the box. In 2005, however, they
186 decided to re-invent the wheel and ship their own replacement for
187 the \fIxscreensaver\fP daemon called "\fIgnome-screensaver\fP",
188 rather than improving xscreensaver and contributing their changes
189 back. As a result, the "\fIgnome-screensaver\fP" program is insecure,
190 bug-ridden, and missing many features of xscreensaver. You shouldn't
193 To replace gnome-screensaver with xscreensaver:
196 \fB1: Turn off gnome-screensaver.\fP
197 Open the "\fISystem / Preferences / Screensaver\fP" panel and uncheck
200 \fB2: Stop gnome-screensaver from launching at login.\fP
204 gconftool-2 --type boolean -s \\
205 /apps/gnome_settings_daemon/screensaver/start_screensaver \\
209 Or, just uninstall the "\fIgnome-screensaver\fP" package entirely.
211 \fB3: Launch xscreensaver at login.\fP
212 Open the "\fISystem / Preferences / Sessions / Startup Programs\fP" panel.
213 Click "\fIAdd\fP" and type "\fIxscreensaver\fP".
215 \fB4: Tell Preferences to use the xscreensaver configurator.\fP
216 Edit \fI/usr/share/applications/gnome-screensaver-preferences.desktop\fP
217 and change the \fIExec=\fP line to say
218 Exec=xscreensaver-demo
220 \fB5: Make "System / Quit / Lock Screen" use xscreensaver.\fP
223 sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/xscreensaver-command \\
224 /usr/bin/gnome-screensaver-command
227 Like GNOME, KDE also decided to invent their own screen saver framework
228 from scratch instead of simply using xscreensaver. To replace the KDE
229 screen saver with xscreensaver, do the following:
232 \fB1: Turn off KDE's screen saver.\fP
233 Open the "\fIControl Center\fP" and
234 select the "\fIAppearance & Themes / Screensaver\fP" page.
235 Un-check "\fIStart Automatically\fP".
237 \fB2: Find your Autostart directory.\fP
238 Open the "\fISystem Administration / Paths\fP" page,
239 and see what your "Autostart path" is set to: it will
240 probably be \fI~/.kde/Autostart/\fP or something similar.
242 \fB3: Make xscreensaver be an Autostart program.\fP
243 Create a .desktop file in your autostart directory
244 called \fIxscreensaver.desktop\fP that contains the following five lines:
251 X-KDE-StartupNotify=false
254 \fB4: Make the various "lock session" buttons call xscreensaver.\fP
255 The file you want to replace next has moved around over the years. It
256 might be called \fI/usr/libexec/kde4/kscreenlocker\fP,
257 or it might be called "\fIkdesktop_lock\fP" or "\fIkrunner_lock\fP", and
258 it might be in \fI/usr/lib/kde4/libexec/\fP
259 or in \fI/usr/kde/3.5/bin/\fP or even in \fI/usr/bin/\fP,
260 depending on the distro and phase of the moon. Replace the contents
261 of that file with these two lines:
265 xscreensaver-command -lock
268 Make sure the file is executable (chmod a+x).
271 Now use xscreensaver normally, controlling it via the usual
272 .BR xscreensaver-demo (1)
274 .BR xscreensaver-command (1)
277 You can run \fIxscreensaver\fP from your
279 session, so that the screensaver will run even when nobody is logged
280 in on the console. To do this, run
282 and on the \fIBackground\fP page, type the
283 command \fB"xscreensaver -nosplash"\fP into the \fIBackground Program\fP
284 field. That will cause gdm to run xscreensaver while nobody is logged
285 in, and kill it as soon as someone does log in. (The user will then
286 be responsible for starting xscreensaver on their own, if they want.)
288 Another way to accomplish the same thing is to edit the
289 file \fI/etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf\fP to include:
291 BackgroundProgram=xscreensaver -nosplash
292 RunBackgroundProgramAlways=true
294 In this situation, the \fIxscreensaver\fP process will probably be running
295 as user \fIgdm\fP instead of \fIroot\fP. You can configure the settings
296 for this nobody-logged-in state (timeouts, DPMS, etc.) by editing
297 the \fI~gdm/.xscreensaver\fP file.
299 To get gdm to run the BackgroundProgram, you may need to switch it from
300 the "Graphical Greeter" to the "Standard Greeter".
302 It is safe to run \fIxscreensaver\fP as root (as \fIxdm\fP or \fIgdm\fP may do.)
303 If run as root, \fIxscreensaver\fP changes its effective user and group ids
304 to something safe (like \fI"nobody"\fP) before connecting to the X server
305 or launching user-specified programs.
307 An unfortunate side effect of this (important) security precaution is that
308 it may conflict with cookie-based authentication.
310 If you get "connection refused" errors when running \fIxscreensaver\fP
311 from \fIgdm\fP, then this probably means that you have
313 or some other security mechanism turned on. For information on the
314 X server's access control mechanisms, see the man pages for
321 Bugs? There are no bugs. Ok, well, maybe. If you find one, please let
322 me know. http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/bugs.html explains how to
323 construct the most useful bug reports.
326 .B Locking and root logins
327 In order for it to be safe for xscreensaver to be launched by \fIxdm\fP,
328 certain precautions had to be taken, among them that xscreensaver never
329 runs as \fIroot\fP. In particular, if it is launched as root (as \fIxdm\fP
330 is likely to do), xscreensaver will disavow its privileges, and switch
331 itself to a safe user id (such as \fInobody\fP.)
333 An implication of this is that if you log in as \fIroot\fP on the console,
334 xscreensaver will refuse to lock the screen (because it can't tell
335 the difference between \fIroot\fP being logged in on the console, and a
336 normal user being logged in on the console but xscreensaver having been
342 The solution to this is simple: you shouldn't be logging in on the console
343 as \fIroot\fP in the first place! (What, are you crazy or something?)
345 Proper Unix hygiene dictates that you should log in as yourself, and
347 to \fIroot\fP as necessary. People who spend their day logged in
348 as \fIroot\fP are just begging for disaster.
351 For xscreensaver to work when launched by
355 programs running on the local machine as user \fI"nobody"\fP must be
356 able to connect to the X server. This means that if you want to run
357 xscreensaver on the console while nobody is logged in, you may need
358 to disable cookie-based access control (and allow all users who can log
359 in to the local machine to connect to the display.)
361 You should be sure that this is an acceptable thing to do in your
362 environment before doing it. See the "\fIUsing GDM\fP" section,
363 above, for more details.
366 If you get an error message at startup like "couldn't get password
367 of \fIuser\fP" then this probably means that you're on a system in which
370 library routine can only be effectively used by root. If this is the case,
371 then \fIxscreensaver\fP must be installed as setuid to root in order for
372 locking to work. Care has been taken to make this a safe thing to do.
374 It also may mean that your system uses shadow passwords instead of the standard
376 interface; in that case, you may need to change some options
377 with \fIconfigure\fP and recompile.
379 If you change your password after xscreensaver has been launched, it will
380 continue using your old password to unlock the screen until xscreensaver
381 is restarted. On some systems, it may accept \fIboth\fP your old and new
382 passwords. So, after you change your password, you'll have to do
384 xscreensaver-command -restart
386 to make \fIxscreensaver\fP notice.
389 If your system uses PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules), then in order
390 for xscreensaver to use PAM properly, PAM must be told about xscreensaver.
391 The xscreensaver installation process should update the PAM data (on Linux,
392 by creating the file \fI/etc/pam.d/xscreensaver\fP for you, and on Solaris,
393 by telling you what lines to add to the \fI/etc/pam.conf\fP file.)
395 If the PAM configuration files do not know about xscreensaver, then
396 you \fImight\fP be in a situation where xscreensaver will refuse to ever
399 This is a design flaw in PAM (there is no way for a client to tell the
400 difference between PAM responding "I have never heard of your module",
401 and responding, "you typed the wrong password".) As far as I can tell,
402 there is no way for xscreensaver to automatically work around this, or
403 detect the problem in advance, so if you have PAM, make sure it is
404 configured correctly!
407 Although this program "nices" the subprocesses that it starts,
408 graphics-intensive subprograms can still overload the machine by causing
409 the X server process itself (which is not "niced") to consume many
410 cycles. Care has been taken in all the modules shipped with xscreensaver
411 to sleep periodically, and not run full tilt, so as not to cause
414 However, if you are running the OpenGL-based screen savers on a machine
415 that does not have a video card with 3D acceleration, they \fIwill\fP
416 make your machine slow, despite
419 Your options are: don't use the OpenGL display modes; or, collect the
420 spare change hidden under the cushions of your couch, and use it to
421 buy a video card manufactured after 1998. (It doesn't even need to be
422 \fIfast\fP 3D hardware: the problem will be fixed if there is any
423 3D hardware \fIat all.\fP)
425 .B XFree86's Magic Keystrokes
426 The XFree86 X server traps certain magic keystrokes before client programs ever
427 see them. Two that are of note are Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, which causes
428 the X server to exit; and Ctrl+Alt+F\fIn\fP, which switches virtual consoles.
429 The X server will respond to these keystrokes even if xscreensaver has the
430 screen locked. Depending on your setup, you might consider this a problem.
432 Unfortunately, there is no way for xscreensaver itself to override the
433 interpretation of these keys. If you want to disable Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
434 globally, you need to set the \fIDontZap\fP flag in
435 your \fI/etc/X11/XF86Config\fP file. To globally disable VT switching,
436 you can set the \fIDontVTSwitch\fP flag. See the
440 These are the X resources use by the \fIxscreensaver\fP program.
441 You probably won't need to change these manually (that's what the
442 .BR xscreensaver\-demo (1)
445 .B timeout\fP (class \fBTime\fP)
446 The screensaver will activate (blank the screen) after the keyboard and
447 mouse have been idle for this many minutes. Default 10 minutes.
449 .B cycle\fP (class \fBTime\fP)
450 After the screensaver has been running for this many minutes, the currently
451 running graphics-hack sub-process will be killed (with \fBSIGTERM\fP), and a
452 new one started. If this is 0, then the graphics hack will never be changed:
453 only one demo will run until the screensaver is deactivated by user activity.
456 .B lock\fP (class \fBBoolean\fP)
457 Enable locking: before the screensaver will turn off, it will require you
458 to type the password of the logged-in user (really, the person who ran
459 xscreensaver), or the root password. (\fBNote:\fP this doesn't work if the
460 screensaver is launched by
462 because it can't know the user-id of the logged-in user. See
463 the "\fIUsing XDM(1)\fP" section, below.
465 .B lockTimeout\fP (class \fBTime\fP)
466 If locking is enabled, this controls the length of the "grace period"
467 between when the screensaver activates, and when the screen becomes locked.
468 For example, if this is 5, and \fI\-timeout\fP is 10, then after 10 minutes,
469 the screen would blank. If there was user activity at 12 minutes, no password
470 would be required to un-blank the screen. But, if there was user activity
471 at 15 minutes or later (that is, \fI\-lock\-timeout\fP minutes after
472 activation) then a password would be required. The default is 0, meaning
473 that if locking is enabled, then a password will be required as soon as the
476 .B passwdTimeout\fP (class \fBTime\fP)
477 If the screen is locked, then this is how many seconds the password dialog box
478 should be left on the screen before giving up (default 30 seconds.) This
479 should not be too large: the X server is grabbed for the duration that the
480 password dialog box is up (for security purposes) and leaving the server
481 grabbed for too long can cause problems.
483 .B dpmsEnabled\fP (class \fBBoolean\fP)
484 Whether power management is enabled.
486 .B dpmsStandby\fP (class \fBTime\fP)
487 If power management is enabled, how long until the monitor goes solid black.
489 .B dpmsSuspend\fP (class \fBTime\fP)
490 If power management is enabled, how long until the monitor goes into
493 .B dpmsOff\fP (class \fBTime\fP)
494 If power management is enabled, how long until the monitor powers down
495 completely. Note that these settings will have no effect unless both
496 the X server and the display hardware support power management; not
497 all do. See the \fIPower Management\fP section, below, for more
500 .B dpmsQuickOff\fP (class \fBBoolean\fP)
501 If \fImode\fP is \fIblank\fP and this is true, then the screen will be
502 powered down immediately upon blanking, regardless of other
503 power-management settings.
505 .B visualID\fP (class \fBVisualID\fP)
506 Specify which X visual to use by default. (Note carefully that this resource
507 is called \fBvisualID\fP, not merely \fBvisual\fP; if you set the \fBvisual\fP
508 resource instead, things will malfunction in obscure ways for obscure reasons.)
510 Legal values for the \fBVisualID\fP resource are:
514 Use the screen's default visual (the visual of the root window.)
518 Use the visual which supports the most colors. Note, however, that the
519 visual with the most colors might be a TrueColor visual, which does not
520 support colormap animation. Some programs have more interesting behavior
521 when run on PseudoColor visuals than on TrueColor.
524 Use a monochrome visual, if there is one.
527 Use a grayscale or staticgray visual, if there is one and it has more than
528 one plane (that is, it's not monochrome.)
531 Use the best of the color visuals, if there are any.
534 Use the visual that is best for OpenGL programs. (OpenGL programs have
535 somewhat different requirements than other X programs.)
538 where \fIclass\fP is one of \fBStaticGray\fP, \fBStaticColor\fP,
539 \fBTrueColor\fP, \fBGrayScale\fP, \fBPseudoColor\fP, or \fBDirectColor\fP.
540 Selects the deepest visual of the given class.
543 where \fInumber\fP (decimal or hex) is interpreted as a visual id number,
546 program; in this way you can have finer control over exactly which visual
547 gets used, for example, to select a shallower one than would otherwise
552 Note that this option specifies only the \fIdefault\fP visual that will
553 be used: the visual used may be overridden on a program-by-program basis.
554 See the description of the \fBprograms\fP resource, below.
557 .B installColormap\fP (class \fBBoolean\fP)
558 On PseudoColor (8-bit) displays, install a private colormap while the
559 screensaver is active, so that the graphics hacks can get as many
560 colors as possible. This is the default. (This only applies when the
561 screen's default visual is being used, since non-default visuals get
562 their own colormaps automatically.) This can also be overridden on a
563 per-hack basis: see the discussion of the \fBdefault\-n\fP name in the
564 section about the \fBprograms\fP resource.
566 This does nothing if you have a TrueColor (16-bit or deeper) display.
568 .B verbose\fP (class \fBBoolean\fP)
569 Whether to print diagnostics. Default false.
571 .B timestamp\fP (class \fBBoolean\fP)
572 Whether to print the time of day along with any other diagnostic messages.
575 .B splash\fP (class \fBBoolean\fP)
576 Whether to display a splash screen at startup. Default true.
578 .B splashDuration\fP (class \fBTime\fP)
579 How long the splash screen should remain visible; default 5 seconds.
581 .B helpURL\fP (class \fBURL\fP)
582 The splash screen has a \fIHelp\fP button on it. When you press it, it will
583 display the web page indicated here in your web browser.
585 .B loadURL\fP (class \fBLoadURL\fP)
586 This is the shell command used to load a URL into your web browser.
587 The default setting will load it into Mozilla/Netscape if it is already
588 running, otherwise, will launch a new browser looking at the \fIhelpURL\fP.
590 .B demoCommand\fP (class \fBDemoCommand\fP)
591 This is the shell command run when the \fIDemo\fP button on the splash window
592 is pressed. It defaults to
593 .BR xscreensaver\-demo (1).
595 .B prefsCommand\fP (class \fBPrefsCommand\fP)
596 This is the shell command run when the \fIPrefs\fP button on the splash window
597 is pressed. It defaults to \fIxscreensaver\-demo\ \-prefs\fP.
599 .B newLoginCommand\fP (class \fBNewLoginCommand\fP)
600 If set, this is the shell command that is run when the "New Login" button
601 is pressed on the unlock dialog box, in order to create a new desktop
602 session without logging out the user who has locked the screen.
603 Typically this will be some variant of
604 .BR gdmflexiserver (1)
608 .B nice\fP (class \fBNice\fP)
609 The sub-processes created by \fIxscreensaver\fP will be "niced" to this
610 level, so that they are given lower priority than other processes on the
611 system, and don't increase the load unnecessarily. The default is 10.
612 (Higher numbers mean lower priority; see
616 .B fade\fP (class \fBBoolean\fP)
617 If this is true, then when the screensaver activates, the current contents
618 of the screen will fade to black instead of simply winking out. This only
619 works on certain systems. A fade will also be done when switching graphics
620 hacks (when the \fIcycle\fP timer expires.) Default: true.
622 .B unfade\fP (class \fBBoolean\fP)
623 If this is true, then when the screensaver deactivates, the original contents
624 of the screen will fade in from black instead of appearing immediately. This
625 only works on certain systems, and if \fIfade\fP is true as well.
628 .B fadeSeconds\fP (class \fBTime\fP)
629 If \fIfade\fP is true, this is how long the fade will be in
630 seconds (default 3 seconds.)
632 .B fadeTicks\fP (class \fBInteger\fP)
633 If \fIfade\fP is true, this is how many times a second the colormap will
634 be changed to effect a fade. Higher numbers yield smoother fades, but
635 may make the fades take longer than the specified \fIfadeSeconds\fP if
636 your server isn't fast enough to keep up. Default 20.
638 .B captureStderr\fP (class \fBBoolean\fP)
639 Whether \fIxscreensaver\fP should redirect its stdout and stderr streams to
640 the window itself. Since its nature is to take over the screen, you would not
641 normally see error messages generated by xscreensaver or the sub-programs it
642 runs; this resource will cause the output of all relevant programs to be
643 drawn on the screensaver window itself, as well as being written to the
644 controlling terminal of the screensaver driver process. Default true.
646 .B ignoreUninstalledPrograms\fP (class \fBBoolean\fP)
647 There may be programs in the list that are not installed on the system,
648 yet are marked as "enabled." If this preference is true, then such
649 programs will simply be ignored. If false, then a warning will be printed
650 if an attempt is made to run the nonexistent program. Also, the
651 .BR xscreensaver-demo (1)
652 program will suppress the non-existent programs from the list if this
653 is true. Default: false.
655 .B GetViewPortIsFullOfLies\fP (class \fBBoolean\fP)
656 Set this to true if the xscreensaver window doesn't cover the whole screen.
657 This works around a longstanding XFree86 bug #421. See the
658 xscreensaver FAQ for details.
660 .B font\fP (class \fBFont\fP)
661 The font used for the stdout/stderr text, if \fBcaptureStderr\fP is true.
662 Default \fB*\-medium\-r\-*\-140\-*\-m\-*\fP (a 14 point fixed-width font.)
664 .B mode\fP (class \fBMode\fP)
665 Controls the behavior of xscreensaver. Legal values are:
669 When blanking the screen, select a random display mode from among those
670 that are enabled and applicable. This is the default.
673 Like \fIrandom\fP, but if there are multiple screens, each screen
674 will run the \fIsame\fP random display mode, instead of each screen
675 running a different one.
678 When blanking the screen, only ever use one particular display mode (the
679 one indicated by the \fIselected\fP setting.)
682 When blanking the screen, just go black: don't run any graphics hacks.
685 Don't ever blank the screen, and don't ever allow the monitor to power down.
689 .B selected\fP (class \fBInteger\fP)
690 When \fImode\fP is set to \fIone\fP, this is the one, indicated by its
691 index in the \fIprograms\fP list. You're crazy if you count them and
692 set this number by hand: let
693 .BR xscreensaver\-demo (1)
696 .B programs\fP (class \fBPrograms\fP)
697 The graphics hacks which \fIxscreensaver\fP runs when the user is idle.
698 The value of this resource is a multi-line string, one \fIsh\fP-syntax
699 command per line. Each line must contain exactly one command: no
700 semicolons, no ampersands.
702 When the screensaver starts up, one of these is selected (according to
703 the \fBmode\fP setting), and run. After the \fIcycle\fP period
704 expires, it is killed, and another is selected and run.
706 If a line begins with a dash (-) then that particular program is
707 disabled: it won't be selected at random (though you can still select
708 it explicitly using the
709 .BR xscreensaver\-demo (1)
712 If all programs are disabled, then the screen will just be made blank,
713 as when \fImode\fP is set to \fIblank\fP.
715 To disable a program, you must mark it as disabled with a dash instead
716 of removing it from the list. This is because the system-wide (app-defaults)
717 and per-user (.xscreensaver) settings are merged together, and if a user
718 just \fIdeletes\fP an entry from their programs list, but that entry still
719 exists in the system-wide list, then it will come back. However, if the
720 user \fIdisables\fP it, then their setting takes precedence.
722 If the display has multiple screens, then a different program will be run
723 for each screen. (All screens are blanked and unblanked simultaneously.)
725 Note that you must escape the newlines; here is an example of how you
726 might set this in your \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP file:
732 ico -r -faces -sleep 1 -obj ico \\n\\
733 xdaliclock -builtin2 -root \\n\\
734 xv -root -rmode 5 image.gif -quit \\n
738 Make sure your \fB$PATH\fP environment variable is set up correctly
739 \fIbefore\fP xscreensaver is launched, or it won't be able to find the
740 programs listed in the \fIprograms\fP resource.
742 To use a program as a screensaver, two things are required: that that
743 program draw on the root window (or be able to be configured to draw on
744 the root window); and that that program understand "virtual root"
745 windows, as used by virtual window managers such as
747 (Generally, this is accomplished by just including the \fI"vroot.h"\fP
748 header file in the program's source.)
752 Because xscreensaver was created back when dinosaurs roamed the earth,
753 it still contains support for some things you've probably never seen,
754 such as 1-bit monochrome monitors, grayscale monitors, and monitors
755 capable of displaying only 8-bit colormapped images.
757 If there are some programs that you want to run only when using a color
758 display, and others that you want to run only when using a monochrome
759 display, you can specify that like this:
761 mono: mono-program -root \\n\\
762 color: color-program -root \\n\\
766 More generally, you can specify the kind of visual that should be used for
767 the window on which the program will be drawing. For example, if one
768 program works best if it has a colormap, but another works best if it has
769 a 24-bit visual, both can be accommodated:
771 PseudoColor: cmap-program -root \\n\\
772 TrueColor: 24bit-program -root \\n\\
776 In addition to the symbolic visual names described above (in the discussion
777 of the \fIvisualID\fP resource) one other visual name is supported in
778 the \fIprograms\fP list:
782 This is like \fBdefault\fP, but also requests the use of the default colormap,
783 instead of a private colormap. (That is, it behaves as if
784 the \fI\-no\-install\fP command-line option was specified, but only for
785 this particular hack.) This is provided because some third-party programs
786 that draw on the root window (notably:
790 make assumptions about the visual and colormap of the root window:
791 assumptions which xscreensaver can violate.
794 If you specify a particular visual for a program, and that visual does not
795 exist on the screen, then that program will not be chosen to run. This
796 means that on displays with multiple screens of different depths, you can
797 arrange for appropriate hacks to be run on each. For example, if one screen
798 is color and the other is monochrome, hacks that look good in mono can be
799 run on one, and hacks that only look good in color will show up on the other.
803 You shouldn't ever need to change the following resources:
806 .B pointerPollTime\fP (class \fBTime\fP)
807 When server extensions are not in use, this controls how
808 frequently \fIxscreensaver\fP checks to see if the mouse position or buttons
809 have changed. Default 5 seconds.
811 .B pointerHysteresis\fP (class \fBInteger\fP)
812 If the mouse moves less than this-many pixels in a second, ignore it
813 (do not consider that to be "activity.") This is so that the screen
814 doesn't un-blank (or fail to blank) just because you bumped the desk.
817 .B windowCreationTimeout\fP (class \fBTime\fP)
818 When server extensions are not in use, this controls the delay between when
819 windows are created and when \fIxscreensaver\fP selects events on them.
822 .B initialDelay\fP (class \fBTime\fP)
823 When server extensions are not in use, \fIxscreensaver\fP will wait this many
824 seconds before selecting events on existing windows, under the assumption that
825 \fIxscreensaver\fP is started during your login procedure, and the window
826 state may be in flux. Default 0. (This used to default to 30, but that was
827 back in the days when slow machines and X terminals were more common...)
829 .B procInterrupts\fP (class \fBBoolean\fP)
830 This resource controls whether the \fB/proc/interrupts\fP file should be
831 consulted to decide whether the user is idle. This is the default
832 if \fIxscreensaver\fP has been compiled on a system which supports this
833 mechanism (i.e., Linux systems.)
835 The benefit to doing this is that \fIxscreensaver\fP can note that the user
836 is active even when the X console is not the active one: if the user is
837 typing in another virtual console, xscreensaver will notice that and will
838 fail to activate. For example, if you're playing Quake in VGA-mode,
839 xscreensaver won't wake up in the middle of your game and start competing
842 The drawback to doing this is that perhaps you \fIreally do\fP want idleness
843 on the X console to cause the X display to lock, even if there is activity
844 on other virtual consoles. If you want that, then set this option to False.
845 (Or just lock the X console manually.)
847 The default value for this resource is True, on systems where it works.
849 .B overlayStderr\fP (class \fBBoolean\fP)
850 If \fBcaptureStderr\fP is True, and your server supports "overlay" visuals,
851 then the text will be written into one of the higher layers instead of into
852 the same layer as the running screenhack. Set this to False to disable
853 that (though you shouldn't need to.)
855 .B overlayTextForeground\fP (class \fBForeground\fP)
856 The foreground color used for the stdout/stderr text, if \fBcaptureStderr\fP
857 is true. Default: Yellow.
859 .B overlayTextBackground\fP (class \fBBackground\fP)
860 The background color used for the stdout/stderr text, if \fBcaptureStderr\fP
861 is true. Default: Black.
863 .B bourneShell\fP (class \fBBourneShell\fP)
864 The pathname of the shell that \fIxscreensaver\fP uses to start subprocesses.
865 This must be whatever your local variant of \fB/bin/sh\fP is: in particular,
866 it must not be \fBcsh\fP.
871 to get the default host and display number, and to inform the sub-programs
872 of the screen on which to draw.
874 .B XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW
875 Passed to sub-programs to indicate the ID of the window on which they
876 should draw. This is necessary on Xinerama/RANDR systems where
877 multiple physical monitors share a single X11 "Screen".
880 to find the sub-programs to run.
883 for the directory in which to read the \fI.xscreensaver\fP file.
886 to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources
887 stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
889 The latest version of xscreensaver, an online version of this manual,
890 and a FAQ can always be found at http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/
898 .BR xscreensaver\-demo (1),
899 .BR xscreensaver\-command (1),
900 .BR xscreensaver\-gl\-helper (1),
901 .BR xscreensaver\-getimage (1),
902 .BR xscreensaver\-text (1).
904 Copyright \(co 1991-2011 by Jamie Zawinski.
905 Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software
906 and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee,
907 provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that
908 both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
909 supporting documentation. No representations are made about the
910 suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is"
911 without express or implied warranty.
913 Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>. Written in late 1991; version 1.0 posted
914 to comp.sources.x on 17-Aug-1992.
916 Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improvements.
918 And a huge thank you to the hundreds of people who have contributed, in
919 large ways and small, to the xscreensaver collection over the past