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 behavior of the screen saver. The options are:
87 .B Disable Screen Saver
88 Don't ever blank the screen, and don't ever allow the monitor to power down.
91 When blanking the screen, just go black: don't run any graphics hacks.
93 .B Only One Screen Saver
94 When blanking the screen, only ever use one particular display mode (the
95 one selected in the list.)
97 .B Random Screen Saver
98 When blanking the screen, select a random display mode from among those
99 that are enabled and applicable. This is the default.
102 This option only appears if you have multiple monitors.
103 This is just like \fBRandom Screen Saver\fP, except that the \fIsame\fP
104 randomly-chosen display mode will be run on all monitors, instead of a
105 different one being run on each.
109 Double-clicking in the list on the left will let you try out the indicated
110 demo. The screen will go black, and the program will run in full-screen
111 mode, just as it would if the \fIxscreensaver\fP daemon had launched it.
112 Clicking the mouse again will stop the demo and un-blank the screen, making
113 the dialog box visible again.
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 This tab lets you change various settings used by the xscreensaver daemon
167 itself, rather than its sub-programs.
169 .B Grab Desktop Images
170 Some of the graphics hacks manipulate images. If this option is selected,
171 then they are allowed to manipulate the desktop image, that is, a display
172 mode might draw a picture of your desktop melting, or being distorted in
173 some way. The security-paranoid might want to disable this option, because
174 if it is set, it means that the windows on your desktop will occasionally
175 be visible while your screen is locked. Others will not be able
176 to \fIdo\fP anything, but they may be able to \fIsee\fP whatever you
180 If your system has a video capture card, selecting this option will allow
181 the image-manipulating modes to capture a frame of video to operate on.
183 .B Choose Random Image
184 If this option is set, then the image-manipulating modes will select a
185 random image file from disk, from the directory you specify in the text
186 entry field. That directory will be recursively searched for files,
187 and it is assumed that all the files under that directory are images.
189 If more than one of these options are selected, then one will be chosen at
190 random. If none of them are selected, then an image of video colorbars will
193 (All three of these options work by invoking the
194 .BR xscreensaver\-getimage (1)
195 program, which is what actually does the work.)
198 Some of the display modes display and manipulate text. The following
199 options control how that text is generated. (These parameters control
201 .BR xscreensaver\-text (1)
202 program, which is what actually does the work.)
204 .B Host Name and Time
205 If this checkbox is selected, then the text used by the screen savers
206 will be the local host name, date, time, and system load.
209 If this checkbox is selected, then the literal text typed in the
210 field to its right will be used. If it contains % escape sequences,
211 they will be expanded as per
215 If this checkbox is selected, then the contents of the corresponding
216 file will be displayed.
219 If this checkbox is selected, then the given program will be run,
220 and its output will be displayed.
223 If this checkbox is selected, then the given HTTP URL will be downloaded
224 and displayed repeatedly. If the document contains HTML, RSS, or Atom,
225 it will be converted to plain-text first.
227 Note: this re-downloads the document every time the screen saver
228 runs out of text! It might be considered abusive for you to point
229 this at a web server that you do not control, as it will probably
230 be hitting that server multiple times a minute.
232 .B Power Management Enabled
233 Whether the monitor should be powered down after a period of inactivity.
235 If this option is grayed out, it means your X server does not support
236 the XDPMS extension, and so control over the monitor's power state is
239 If you're using a laptop, don't be surprised if this has no effect:
240 many laptops have monitor power-saving behavior built in at a very low
241 level that is invisible to Unix and X. On such systems, you can
242 typically only adjust the power-saving delays by changing settings
243 in the BIOS in some hardware-specific way.
246 If \fIPower Management Enabled\fP is selected, the monitor will go black
247 after this much idle time. (Graphics demos will stop running, also.)
250 If \fIPower Management Enabled\fP is selected, the monitor will go
251 into power-saving mode after this much idle time. This duration should
252 be greater than or equal to \fIStandby\fP.
255 If \fIPower Management Enabled\fP is selected, the monitor will fully
256 power down after this much idle time. This duration should be greater
257 than or equal to \fISuspend\fP.
259 .B Quick Power-off in "Blank Only" Mode
260 If the display mode is set to \fIBlank Screen Only\fP and this is
261 checked, then the monitor will be powered off immediately upon
262 blanking, regardless of the other power-management settings. In this
263 way, the power management idle-timers can be completely disabled, but
264 the screen will be powered off when black. (This might be preferable
267 .B Fade To Black When Blanking
268 If selected, then when the screensaver activates, the current contents
269 of the screen will fade to black instead of simply winking out. (Note:
270 this doesn't work with all X servers.) A fade will also be done when
271 switching graphics hacks (when the \fICycle After\fP expires.)
273 .B Unfade From Black When Unblanking
274 The complement to \fIFade Colormap\fP: if selected, then when the screensaver
275 deactivates, the original contents of the screen will fade in from black
276 instead of appearing immediately. This is only done if \fIFade Colormap\fP
280 When fading or unfading are selected, this controls how long the fade will
284 On 8-bit screens, whether to install a private colormap while the
285 screensaver is active, so that the graphics hacks can get as many
286 colors as possible. This does nothing if you are running in 16-bit
289 There are more settings than these available, but these are the most
290 commonly used ones; see the manual for
292 for other parameters that can be set by editing the \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP
293 file, or the X resource database.
295 When you click on the \fISettings\fP button on the \fIDisplay Modes\fP
296 tab, a configuration dialog will pop up that lets you customize settings
297 of the selected display mode. Each display mode has its own custom
298 configuration controls on the left side.
300 On the right side is a paragraph or two describing the display mode.
301 Below that is a \fBDocumentation\fP button that will display the display
302 mode's manual page, if it has one, in a new window (since each of the
303 display modes is actually a separate program, they each may have their
306 The \fBAdvanced\fP button reconfigures the dialog box so that you can
307 edit the display mode's command line directly, instead of using the
308 graphical controls. It also lets you configure the X visual type that
309 this mode will require. If you specify one (other than \fIAny\fP) then
310 the program will only be run on that kind of visual. For example, you
311 can specify that a particular program should only be run if color is
312 available, and another should only be run in monochrome. See the
313 discussion of the \fIprograms\fP parameter in the \fIConfiguration\fP
316 manual. (OpenGL programs should always have their visual set to "GL".)
317 .SH COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
318 .I xscreensaver\-demo
319 accepts the following command line options.
321 .B \-display \fIhost:display.screen\fP
322 The X display to use. The \fIxscreensaver\-demo\fP program will open its
323 window on that display, and also control the \fIxscreensaver\fP daemon that
324 is managing that same display.
327 Start up with the \fBAdvanced\fP tab selected by default
328 instead of the \fBDisplay Modes\fP tab.
331 Causes lots of diagnostics to be printed on stderr.
333 It is important that the \fIxscreensaver\fP and \fIxscreensaver\-demo\fP
334 processes be running on the same machine, or at least, on two machines
335 that share a file system. When \fIxscreensaver\-demo\fP writes a new version
336 of the \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP file, it's important that the \fIxscreensaver\fP
337 see that same file. If the two processes are seeing
338 different \fI~/.xscreensaver\fP files, things will malfunction.
343 to get the default host and display number.
346 to find the sub-programs to run. However, note that the sub-programs
347 are actually launched by the \fIxscreensaver\fP daemon, not
348 by \fIxscreensaver-demo\fP itself. So, what matters is what \fB$PATH\fP
349 the \fIxscreensaver\fP program sees.
352 for the directory in which to read and write the \fI.xscreensaver\fP file.
355 to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources
356 stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
358 .B HTTP_PROXY\fR or \fPhttp_proxy
359 to get the default HTTP proxy host and port.
361 The latest version can always be found at
362 http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/
365 .BR xscreensaver (1),
366 .BR xscreensaver\-command (1),
367 .BR xscreensaver\-getimage (1),
368 .BR xscreensaver\-text (1)
370 Copyright \(co 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
371 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell
372 this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without
373 fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that
374 both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
375 documentation. No representations are made about the suitability of this
376 software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied
379 Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 13-aug-92.
381 Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improvements.
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