14 .TH XScreenSaver 1 "20-Mar-2005 (4.21)" "X Version 11"
16 xscreensaver-demo - interactively control the background xscreensaver daemon
19 [\-display \fIhost:display.screen\fP]
23 The \fIxscreensaver\-demo\fP program is a graphical front-end for
24 setting the parameters used by the background
27 It is essentially two things: a tool for editing the \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP
28 file; and a tool for demoing the various graphics hacks that
29 the \fIxscreensaver\fP daemon will launch.
31 The main window consists of a menu bar and two tabbed pages. The first page
32 is for editing the list of demos, and the second is for editing various other
33 parameters of the screensaver.
35 All of these commands are on either the \fBFile\fP or \fBHelp\fP menus:
38 Activates the background \fIxscreensaver\fP daemon, which will then run
39 a demo at random. This is the same as running
40 .BR xscreensaver-command (1)
41 with the \fI\-activate\fP option.
44 Just like \fBBlank Screen Now\fP, except the screen will be locked as
45 well (even if it is not configured to lock all the time.) This is the
47 .BR xscreensaver-command (1)
48 with the \fI\-lock\fP option.
51 If the xscreensaver daemon is running on this screen, kill it.
52 This is the same as running
53 .BR xscreensaver-command (1)
54 with the \fI\-exit\fP option.
57 If the xscreensaver daemon is running on this screen, kill it.
58 Then launch it again. This is the same as doing
59 ``\fIxscreensaver-command -exit\fP'' followed by ``\fIxscreensaver\fP''.
61 Note that it is \fInot\fP the same as doing
62 ``\fIxscreensaver-command -restart\fP''.
65 Exits the \fIxscreensaver-demo\fP program (this program) without
66 affecting the background \fIxscreensaver\fP daemon, if any.
69 Displays the version number of this program, \fIxscreensaver-demo\fP.
72 Opens up a web browser looking at the XScreenSaver web page, where you
73 can find online copies of the
75 .BR xscreensaver\-demo (1),
77 .BR xscreensaver\-command (1)
80 This page contains a list of the names of the various display modes, a
81 preview area, and some fields that let you configure screen saver behavior.
84 This option menu controls the activation behavior of the screen saver.
88 .B Disable Screen Saver
89 Don't ever blank the screen, and don't ever allow the monitor to power down.
92 When blanking the screen, just go black: don't run any graphics.
94 .B Only One Screen Saver
95 When blanking the screen, only ever use one particular display mode (the
96 one selected in the list.)
98 .B Random Screen Saver
99 When blanking the screen, select a random display mode from among those
100 that are enabled and applicable. If there are multiple monitors
101 connected, run a different display mode on each one. This is the default.
104 This is just like \fBRandom Screen Saver\fP, except that the \fIsame\fP
105 randomly-chosen display mode will be run on all monitors, instead of
106 different ones on each.
110 Double-clicking in the list on the left will let you try out the indicated
111 demo. The screen will go black, and the program will run in full-screen
112 mode, just as it would if the \fIxscreensaver\fP daemon had launched it.
113 Clicking the mouse again will stop the demo and un-blank the screen.
115 Single-clicking in the list will run it in the small preview pane on the
116 right. (But beware: many of the display modes behave somewhat differently
117 when running in full-screen mode, so the scaled-down view might not give
118 an accurate impression.)
120 When \fBMode\fP is set to \fBRandom Screen Saver\fP, each name in the list
121 has a checkbox next to it: this controls whether this display mode is
122 enabled. If it is unchecked, then that mode will not be chosen. (Though
123 you can still run it explicitly by double-clicking on its name.)
126 Beneath the list are a pair of up and down arrows. Clicking on the down
127 arrow will select the next item in the list, and then run it in full-screen
128 mode, just as if you had double-clicked on it. The up arrow goes the other
129 way. This is just a shortcut for trying out all of the display modes in turn.
132 After the user has been idle this long, the \fIxscreensaver\fP daemon
133 will blank the screen.
136 After the screensaver has been running for this long, the currently
137 running graphics demo will be killed, and a new one started.
138 If this is 0, then the graphics demo will never be changed:
139 only one demo will run until the screensaver is deactivated by user
143 When this is checked, the screen will be locked when it activates.
146 This controls the length of the ``grace period'' between when the
147 screensaver activates, and when the screen becomes locked. For
148 example, if this is 5 minutes, and \fIBlank After\fP is 10 minutes,
149 then after 10 minutes, the screen would blank. If there was user
150 activity at 12 minutes, no password would be required to un-blank the
151 screen. But, if there was user activity at 15 minutes or later (that
152 is, \fILock Screen After\fP minutes after activation) then a password
153 would be required. The default is 0, meaning that if locking is
154 enabled, then a password will be required as soon as the screen blanks.
157 This button, below the small preview window, runs the demo in full-screen
158 mode so that you can try it out. This is the same thing that happens when
159 you double-click an element in the list. Click the mouse to dismiss the
163 This button will pop up a dialog where you can configure settings specific
164 to the display mode selected in the list.
166 When you click on the \fISettings\fP button on the \fIDisplay Modes\fP
167 tab, a configuration dialog will pop up that lets you customize settings
168 of the selected display mode. Each display mode has its own custom
169 configuration controls on the left side.
171 On the right side is a paragraph or two describing the display mode.
172 Below that is a \fBDocumentation\fP button that will display the display
173 mode's manual page, if it has one, in a new window (since each of the
174 display modes is actually a separate program, they each have their
177 The \fBAdvanced\fP button reconfigures the dialog box so that you can
178 edit the display mode's command line directly, instead of using the
181 This tab lets you change various settings used by the xscreensaver daemon
182 itself, as well as some global options shared by all of the display modes.
184 .B Image Manipulation
186 Some of the graphics hacks manipulate images. These settings control
187 where those source images come from.
188 (All of these options work by invoking the
189 .BR xscreensaver\-getimage (1)
190 program, which is what actually does the work.)
193 .B Grab Desktop Images
194 If this option is selected, then they are allowed to manipulate the
195 desktop image, that is, a display mode might draw a picture of your
196 desktop melting, or being distorted in some way. The
197 security-paranoid might want to disable this option, because if it is
198 set, it means that the windows on your desktop will occasionally be
199 visible while your screen is locked. Others will not be able to
200 \fIdo\fP anything, but they may be able to \fIsee\fP whatever you left
204 If your system has a video capture card, selecting this option will allow
205 the image-manipulating modes to capture a frame of video to operate on.
207 .B Choose Random Image
208 If this option is set, then the image-manipulating modes will select a
209 random image file to operate on, from the specified source. That
210 source may be a local directory, which will be recursively searched
211 for images. Or, it may be the URL of an RSS or Atom feed (e.g., a
212 Flickr gallery), in which case a random image from that feed will be
213 selected instead. The contents of the feed will be cached locally and
214 refreshed periodically as needed.
216 If more than one of the above image-related options are selected, then
217 one will be chosen at random. If none of them are selected, then an
218 image of video colorbars will be used instead.
223 Some of the display modes display and manipulate text. The following
224 options control how that text is generated. (These parameters control
226 .BR xscreensaver\-text (1)
227 program, which is what actually does the work.)
230 .B Host Name and Time
231 If this checkbox is selected, then the text used by the screen savers
232 will be the local host name, OS version, date, time, and system load.
235 If this checkbox is selected, then the literal text typed in the
236 field to its right will be used. If it contains % escape sequences,
237 they will be expanded as per
241 If this checkbox is selected, then the contents of the corresponding
242 file will be displayed.
245 If this checkbox is selected, then the given program will be run,
246 repeatedly, and its output will be displayed.
249 If this checkbox is selected, then the given HTTP URL will be downloaded
250 and displayed repeatedly. If the document contains HTML, RSS, or Atom,
251 it will be converted to plain-text first.
253 Note: this re-downloads the document every time the screen saver
254 runs out of text, so it will probably be hitting that web server multiple
255 times a minute. Be careful that the owner of that server doesn't
256 consider that to be abusive.
259 .B Power Management Settings
261 These settings control whether, and when, your monitor powers down.
264 .B Power Management Enabled
265 Whether the monitor should be powered down after a period of inactivity.
267 If this option is grayed out, it means your X server does not support
268 the XDPMS extension, and so control over the monitor's power state is
271 If you're using a laptop, don't be surprised if this has no effect:
272 many laptops have monitor power-saving behavior built in at a very low
273 level that is invisible to Unix and X. On such systems, you can
274 typically only adjust the power-saving delays by changing settings
275 in the BIOS in some hardware-specific way.
278 If \fIPower Management Enabled\fP is selected, the monitor will go black
279 after this much idle time. (Graphics demos will stop running, also.)
282 If \fIPower Management Enabled\fP is selected, the monitor will go
283 into power-saving mode after this much idle time. This duration should
284 be greater than or equal to \fIStandby\fP.
287 If \fIPower Management Enabled\fP is selected, the monitor will fully
288 power down after this much idle time. This duration should be greater
289 than or equal to \fISuspend\fP.
291 .B Quick Power-off in "Blank Only" Mode
292 If the display mode is set to \fIBlank Screen Only\fP and this is
293 checked, then the monitor will be powered off immediately upon
294 blanking, regardless of the other power-management settings. In this
295 way, the power management idle-timers can be completely disabled, but
296 the screen will be powered off when black. (This might be preferable
300 .B Fading and Colormaps
302 These options control how the screen fades to or from black when
303 a screen saver begins or ends.
306 .B Fade To Black When Blanking
307 If selected, then when the screensaver activates, the current contents
308 of the screen will fade to black instead of simply winking out. (Note:
309 this doesn't work with all X servers.) A fade will also be done when
310 switching graphics hacks (when the \fICycle After\fP expires.)
312 .B Unfade From Black When Unblanking
313 The complement to \fIFade Colormap\fP: if selected, then when the screensaver
314 deactivates, the original contents of the screen will fade in from black
315 instead of appearing immediately. This is only done if \fIFade Colormap\fP
319 When fading or unfading are selected, this controls how long the fade will
323 On 8-bit screens, whether to install a private colormap while the
324 screensaver is active, so that the graphics hacks can get as many
325 colors as possible. This does nothing if you are running in 16-bit
329 There are more settings than these available, but these are the most
330 commonly used ones; see the manual for
332 for other parameters that can be set by editing the \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP
333 file, or the X resource database.
334 .SH COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
335 .I xscreensaver\-demo
336 accepts the following command line options.
338 .B \-display \fIhost:display.screen\fP
339 The X display to use. The \fIxscreensaver\-demo\fP program will open its
340 window on that display, and also control the \fIxscreensaver\fP daemon that
341 is managing that same display.
344 Start up with the \fBAdvanced\fP tab selected by default
345 instead of the \fBDisplay Modes\fP tab.
348 Causes lots of diagnostics to be printed on stderr.
350 It is important that the \fIxscreensaver\fP and \fIxscreensaver\-demo\fP
351 processes be running on the same machine, or at least, on two machines
352 that share a file system. When \fIxscreensaver\-demo\fP writes a new version
353 of the \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP file, it's important that the \fIxscreensaver\fP
354 see that same file. If the two processes are seeing
355 different \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP files, things will malfunction.
360 to get the default host and display number.
363 to find the sub-programs to run. However, note that the sub-programs
364 are actually launched by the \fIxscreensaver\fP daemon, not
365 by \fIxscreensaver-demo\fP itself. So, what matters is what \fB$PATH\fP
366 that the \fIxscreensaver\fP program sees.
369 for the directory in which to read and write the \fI.xscreensaver\fP file.
372 to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources
373 stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
375 .B HTTP_PROXY\fR or \fPhttp_proxy
376 to get the default HTTP proxy host and port.
378 The latest version of xscreensaver, an online version of this manual,
379 and a FAQ can always be found at http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/
382 .BR xscreensaver (1),
383 .BR xscreensaver\-command (1),
384 .BR xscreensaver\-getimage (1),
385 .BR xscreensaver\-text (1)
387 Copyright \(co 1992-2011 by Jamie Zawinski.
388 Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software
389 and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee,
390 provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that
391 both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
392 supporting documentation. No representations are made about the
393 suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is"
394 without express or implied warranty.
396 Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 13-aug-92.
398 Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improvements.
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