14 .TH XScreenSaver 1 "09-Nov-2013 (5.23)" "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
142 The running saver will be restarted every this-many minutes even in
143 \fIOnly One Screen Saver\fP mode, since some savers tend to converge
147 When this is checked, the screen will be locked when it activates.
150 This controls the length of the ``grace period'' between when the
151 screensaver activates, and when the screen becomes locked. For
152 example, if this is 5 minutes, and \fIBlank After\fP is 10 minutes,
153 then after 10 minutes, the screen would blank. If there was user
154 activity at 12 minutes, no password would be required to un-blank the
155 screen. But, if there was user activity at 15 minutes or later (that
156 is, \fILock Screen After\fP minutes after activation) then a password
157 would be required. The default is 0, meaning that if locking is
158 enabled, then a password will be required as soon as the screen blanks.
161 This button, below the small preview window, runs the demo in full-screen
162 mode so that you can try it out. This is the same thing that happens when
163 you double-click an element in the list. Click the mouse to dismiss the
167 This button will pop up a dialog where you can configure settings specific
168 to the display mode selected in the list.
170 When you click on the \fISettings\fP button on the \fIDisplay Modes\fP
171 tab, a configuration dialog will pop up that lets you customize settings
172 of the selected display mode. Each display mode has its own custom
173 configuration controls on the left side.
175 On the right side is a paragraph or two describing the display mode.
176 Below that is a \fBDocumentation\fP button that will display the display
177 mode's manual page, if it has one, in a new window (since each of the
178 display modes is actually a separate program, they each have their
181 The \fBAdvanced\fP button reconfigures the dialog box so that you can
182 edit the display mode's command line directly, instead of using the
185 This tab lets you change various settings used by the xscreensaver daemon
186 itself, as well as some global options shared by all of the display modes.
188 .B Image Manipulation
190 Some of the graphics hacks manipulate images. These settings control
191 where those source images come from.
192 (All of these options work by invoking the
193 .BR xscreensaver\-getimage (1)
194 program, which is what actually does the work.)
197 .B Grab Desktop Images
198 If this option is selected, then they are allowed to manipulate the
199 desktop image, that is, a display mode might draw a picture of your
200 desktop melting, or being distorted in some way. The
201 security-paranoid might want to disable this option, because if it is
202 set, it means that the windows on your desktop will occasionally be
203 visible while your screen is locked. Others will not be able to
204 \fIdo\fP anything, but they may be able to \fIsee\fP whatever you left
208 If your system has a video capture card, selecting this option will allow
209 the image-manipulating modes to capture a frame of video to operate on.
211 .B Choose Random Image
212 If this option is set, then the image-manipulating modes will select a
213 random image file to operate on, from the specified source. That
214 source may be a local directory, which will be recursively searched
215 for images. Or, it may be the URL of an RSS or Atom feed (e.g., a
216 Flickr gallery), in which case a random image from that feed will be
217 selected instead. The contents of the feed will be cached locally and
218 refreshed periodically as needed.
220 If more than one of the above image-related options are selected, then
221 one will be chosen at random. If none of them are selected, then an
222 image of video colorbars will be used instead.
227 Some of the display modes display and manipulate text. The following
228 options control how that text is generated. (These parameters control
230 .BR xscreensaver\-text (1)
231 program, which is what actually does the work.)
234 .B Host Name and Time
235 If this checkbox is selected, then the text used by the screen savers
236 will be the local host name, OS version, date, time, and system load.
239 If this checkbox is selected, then the literal text typed in the
240 field to its right will be used. If it contains % escape sequences,
241 they will be expanded as per
245 If this checkbox is selected, then the contents of the corresponding
246 file will be displayed.
249 If this checkbox is selected, then the given program will be run,
250 repeatedly, and its output will be displayed.
253 If this checkbox is selected, then the given HTTP URL will be downloaded
254 and displayed repeatedly. If the document contains HTML, RSS, or Atom,
255 it will be converted to plain-text first.
257 Note: this re-downloads the document every time the screen saver
258 runs out of text, so it will probably be hitting that web server multiple
259 times a minute. Be careful that the owner of that server doesn't
260 consider that to be abusive.
263 .B Power Management Settings
265 These settings control whether, and when, your monitor powers down.
268 .B Power Management Enabled
269 Whether the monitor should be powered down after a period of inactivity.
271 If this option is grayed out, it means your X server does not support
272 the XDPMS extension, and so control over the monitor's power state is
275 If you're using a laptop, don't be surprised if this has no effect:
276 many laptops have monitor power-saving behavior built in at a very low
277 level that is invisible to Unix and X. On such systems, you can
278 typically only adjust the power-saving delays by changing settings
279 in the BIOS in some hardware-specific way.
282 If \fIPower Management Enabled\fP is selected, the monitor will go black
283 after this much idle time. (Graphics demos will stop running, also.)
286 If \fIPower Management Enabled\fP is selected, the monitor will go
287 into power-saving mode after this much idle time. This duration should
288 be greater than or equal to \fIStandby\fP.
291 If \fIPower Management Enabled\fP is selected, the monitor will fully
292 power down after this much idle time. This duration should be greater
293 than or equal to \fISuspend\fP.
295 .B Quick Power-off in "Blank Only" Mode
296 If the display mode is set to \fIBlank Screen Only\fP and this is
297 checked, then the monitor will be powered off immediately upon
298 blanking, regardless of the other power-management settings. In this
299 way, the power management idle-timers can be completely disabled, but
300 the screen will be powered off when black. (This might be preferable
304 .B Fading and Colormaps
306 These options control how the screen fades to or from black when
307 a screen saver begins or ends.
310 .B Fade To Black When Blanking
311 If selected, then when the screensaver activates, the current contents
312 of the screen will fade to black instead of simply winking out. (Note:
313 this doesn't work with all X servers.) A fade will also be done when
314 switching graphics hacks (when the \fICycle After\fP expires.)
316 .B Unfade From Black When Unblanking
317 The complement to \fIFade Colormap\fP: if selected, then when the screensaver
318 deactivates, the original contents of the screen will fade in from black
319 instead of appearing immediately. This is only done if \fIFade Colormap\fP
323 When fading or unfading are selected, this controls how long the fade will
327 On 8-bit screens, whether to install a private colormap while the
328 screensaver is active, so that the graphics hacks can get as many
329 colors as possible. This does nothing if you are running in 16-bit
333 There are more settings than these available, but these are the most
334 commonly used ones; see the manual for
336 for other parameters that can be set by editing the \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP
337 file, or the X resource database.
338 .SH COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
339 .I xscreensaver\-demo
340 accepts the following command line options.
342 .B \-display \fIhost:display.screen\fP
343 The X display to use. The \fIxscreensaver\-demo\fP program will open its
344 window on that display, and also control the \fIxscreensaver\fP daemon that
345 is managing that same display.
348 Start up with the \fBAdvanced\fP tab selected by default
349 instead of the \fBDisplay Modes\fP tab.
352 Causes lots of diagnostics to be printed on stderr.
354 It is important that the \fIxscreensaver\fP and \fIxscreensaver\-demo\fP
355 processes be running on the same machine, or at least, on two machines
356 that share a file system. When \fIxscreensaver\-demo\fP writes a new version
357 of the \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP file, it's important that the \fIxscreensaver\fP
358 see that same file. If the two processes are seeing
359 different \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP files, things will malfunction.
364 to get the default host and display number.
367 to find the sub-programs to run. However, note that the sub-programs
368 are actually launched by the \fIxscreensaver\fP daemon, not
369 by \fIxscreensaver-demo\fP itself. So, what matters is what \fB$PATH\fP
370 that the \fIxscreensaver\fP program sees.
373 for the directory in which to read and write the \fI.xscreensaver\fP file.
376 to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources
377 stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
379 .B HTTP_PROXY\fR or \fPhttp_proxy
380 to get the default HTTP proxy host and port.
382 The latest version of xscreensaver, an online version of this manual,
383 and a FAQ can always be found at https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/
386 .BR xscreensaver (1),
387 .BR xscreensaver\-command (1),
388 .BR xscreensaver\-getimage (1),
389 .BR xscreensaver\-text (1)
391 Copyright \(co 1992-2015 by Jamie Zawinski.
392 Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software
393 and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee,
394 provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that
395 both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
396 supporting documentation. No representations are made about the
397 suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is"
398 without express or implied warranty.
400 Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 13-aug-92.
402 Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improvements.
projects / xscreensaver / blob