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xscreensaver-demo(1)	      XScreenSaver manual	  xscreensaver-demo(1)

NAME
       xscreensaver-demo  -  interactively control the background xscreensaver
       daemon

SYNOPSIS
       xscreensaver-demo [-display host:display.screen] [-prefs] [--debug]

DESCRIPTION
       The xscreensaver-demo program is a graphical front-end for setting  the
       parameters used by the background xscreensaver(1) daemon.  It is essen‐
       tially two things: a tool for editing the ~/.xscreensaver file;	and  a
       tool  for demoing the various graphics hacks that the xscreensaver dae‐
       mon will launch.

       The main window consists of a menu bar and two tabbed pages.  The first
       page  is	 for  editing the list of demos, and the second is for editing
       various other parameters of the screensaver.

MENU COMMANDS
       All of these commands are on either the File or Help menus:

       Blank Screen Now
	   Activates the background xscreensaver daemon, which will then run a
	   demo	 at  random.   This  is	 the same as running xscreensaver-com‐
	   mand(1) with the -activate option.

       Lock Screen Now
	   Just like Blank Screen Now, except the screen  will	be  locked  as
	   well	 (even if it is not configured to lock all the time.)  This is
	   the same as running xscreensaver-command(1) with the -lock option.

       Kill Daemon
	   If the xscreensaver daemon is running  on  this  screen,  kill  it.
	   This	 is the same as running xscreensaver-command(1) with the -exit
	   option.

       Restart Daemon
	   If the xscreensaver daemon is running  on  this  screen,  kill  it.
	   Then	 launch	 it  again.  This is the same as doing ``xscreensaver-
	   command -exit'' followed by ``xscreensaver''.

	   Note that it	 is  not  the  same  as	 doing	``xscreensaver-command
	   -restart''.

       Exit
	   Exits  the xscreensaver-demo program (this program) without affect‐
	   ing the background xscreensaver daemon, if any.

       About...
	   Displays the version number of this program, xscreensaver-demo.

       Documentation...
	   Opens up a web browser looking at the XScreenSaver web page,	 where
	   you	can  find  online  copies  of  the  xscreensaver(1),  xscreen‐
	   saver-demo(1), and xscreensaver-command(1) manuals.

DISPLAY MODES TAB
       This page contains a list of the names of the various display modes,  a
       preview	area,  and  some  fields  that	let you configure screen saver
       behavior.

       Mode
	   This option menu controls the behavior of the  screen  saver.   The
	   options are:

	       Disable Screen Saver
		       Don't  ever  blank the screen, and don't ever allow the
		       monitor to power down.

	       Blank Screen Only
		       When blanking the screen, just go black: don't run  any
		       graphics hacks.

	       Only One Screen Saver
		       When  blanking the screen, only ever use one particular
		       display mode (the one selected in the list.)

	       Random Screen Saver
		       When blanking the screen, select a random display  mode
		       from among those that are enabled and applicable.  This
		       is the default.

	       Random Same Saver
		       This option only appears if you have multiple monitors.
		       This  is just like Random Screen Saver, except that the
		       same randomly-chosen display mode will be  run  on  all
		       monitors, instead of a different one being run on each.

       Demo List
	   Double-clicking  in	the  list on the left will let you try out the
	   indicated demo.  The screen will go black, and the program will run
	   in  full-screen  mode,  just as it would if the xscreensaver daemon
	   had launched it.  Clicking the mouse again will stop the  demo  and
	   un-blank the screen, making the dialog box visible again.

	   Single-clicking  in	the list will run it in the small preview pane
	   on the right.  (But beware: many of the display modes behave	 some‐
	   what	 differently  when running in full-screen mode, so the scaled-
	   down view might not give an accurate impression.)

	   When Mode is set to Random Screen Saver, each name in the list  has
	   a  checkbox	next to it: this controls whether this display mode is
	   enabled.  If it is unchecked, then that mode will  not  be  chosen.
	   (Though  you	 can still run it explicitly by double-clicking on its
	   name.)

       Arrow Buttons
	   Beneath the list are a pair of up and down arrows. Clicking on  the
	   down	 arrow	will select the next item in the list, and then run it
	   in full-screen mode, just as if you had double-clicked on it.   The
	   up  arrow  goes  the other way.  This is just a shortcut for trying
	   out all of the display modes in turn.

       Blank After
	   After the user has been idle this  long,  the  xscreensaver	daemon
	   will blank the screen.

       Cycle After
	   After the screensaver has been running for this long, the currently
	   running graphics demo will be killed, and a new  one	 started.   If
	   this	 is  0, then the graphics demo will never be changed: only one
	   demo will run until the screensaver is deactivated by  user	activ‐
	   ity.

       Lock Screen
	   When this is checked, the screen will be locked when it activates.

       Lock Screen After
	   This	 controls  the length of the ``grace period'' between when the
	   screensaver activates, and when the	screen	becomes	 locked.   For
	   example,  if this is 5 minutes, and Blank After is 10 minutes, then
	   after 10 minutes, the screen would blank.  If there was user activ‐
	   ity	at  12	minutes, no password would be required to un-blank the
	   screen.  But, if there was user activity at	15  minutes  or	 later
	   (that  is, Lock Screen After minutes after activation) then a pass‐
	   word would be required.  The default is 0, meaning that if  locking
	   is  enabled, then a password will be required as soon as the screen
	   blanks.

       Preview
	   This button, below the small preview window, runs the demo in full-
	   screen  mode	 so  that  you can try it out.	This is the same thing
	   that happens when you double-click an element in the	 list.	 Click
	   the mouse to dismiss the full-screen preview.

       Settings
	   This	 button	 will pop up a dialog where you can configure settings
	   specific to the display mode selected in the list.

ADVANCED TAB
       This tab lets you change various settings used by the xscreensaver dae‐
       mon itself, rather than its sub-programs.

       Grab Desktop Images
	   Some	 of  the  graphics hacks manipulate images.  If this option is
	   selected, then they are allowed to manipulate  the  desktop	image,
	   that	 is, a display mode might draw a picture of your desktop melt‐
	   ing, or being distorted in some way.	 The  security-paranoid	 might
	   want	 to  disable  this option, because if it is set, it means that
	   the windows on your desktop will occasionally be visible while your
	   screen is locked.  Others will not be able to do anything, but they
	   may be able to see whatever you left on your screen.

       Grab Video Frames
	   If your system has a video capture card, selecting this option will
	   allow  the  image-manipulating modes to capture a frame of video to
	   operate on.

       Choose Random Image
	   If this option is  set,  then  the  image-manipulating  modes  will
	   select  a random image file from disk, from the directory you spec‐
	   ify in the text entry field.	 That directory	 will  be  recursively
	   searched for files, and it is assumed that all the files under that
	   directory are images.

	   If more than one of these options are selected, then	 one  will  be
	   chosen  at  random.	If none of them are selected, then an image of
	   video colorbars will be used instead.

	   (All	 three	of  these  options  work  by  invoking	the   xscreen‐
	   saver-getimage(1) program, which is what actually does the work.)

       Text Manipulation
	   Some of the display modes display and manipulate text.  The follow‐
	   ing options control how that text is generated.  (These  parameters
	   control  the behavior of the xscreensaver-text(1) program, which is
	   what actually does the work.)

       Host Name and Time
	   If this checkbox is selected, then the  text	 used  by  the	screen
	   savers will be the local host name, date, time, and system load.

       Text
	   If  this  checkbox  is selected, then the literal text typed in the
	   field to  its  right	 will  be  used.   If  it  contains  %	escape
	   sequences, they will be expanded as per strftime(2).

       Text File
	   If  this checkbox is selected, then the contents of the correspond‐
	   ing file will be displayed.

       Program
	   If this checkbox is selected, then the given program will  be  run,
	   and its output will be displayed.

       URL If this checkbox is selected, then the given HTTP URL will be down‐
	   loaded and displayed repeatedly.  If the  document  contains	 HTML,
	   RSS, or Atom, it will be converted to plain-text first.

	   Note:  this	re-downloads  the document every time the screen saver
	   runs out of text!  It might be considered abusive for you to	 point
	   this	 at  a web server that you do not control, as it will probably
	   be hitting that server multiple times a minute.

       Power Management Enabled
	   Whether the monitor should be powered down after a period of	 inac‐
	   tivity.

	   If  this option is grayed out, it means your X server does not sup‐
	   port the XDPMS extension, and so control over the  monitor's	 power
	   state is not available.

	   If you're using a laptop, don't be surprised if this has no effect:
	   many laptops have monitor power-saving behavior built in at a  very
	   low	level  that  is invisible to Unix and X.  On such systems, you
	   can typically only adjust the power-saving delays by changing  set‐
	   tings in the BIOS in some hardware-specific way.

       Standby After
	   If  Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor will go black
	   after this much idle time.	(Graphics  demos  will	stop  running,
	   also.)

       Suspend After
	   If  Power  Management Enabled is selected, the monitor will go into
	   power-saving mode after this much idle time.	 This duration	should
	   be greater than or equal to Standby.

       Off After
	   If  Power  Management  Enabled  is selected, the monitor will fully
	   power down after this much idle  time.   This  duration  should  be
	   greater than or equal to Suspend.

       Fade To Black When Blanking
	   If  selected, then when the screensaver activates, the current con‐
	   tents of the screen will fade to black instead  of  simply  winking
	   out.	  (Note:  this	doesn't work with all X servers.)  A fade will
	   also be done when switching graphics hacks (when  the  Cycle	 After
	   expires.)

       Unfade From Black When Unblanking
	   The complement to Fade Colormap: if selected, then when the screen‐
	   saver deactivates, the original contents of the screen will fade in
	   from	 black instead of appearing immediately.  This is only done if
	   Fade Colormap is also selected.

       Fade Duration
	   When fading or unfading are selected, this controls	how  long  the
	   fade will take.

       Install Colormap
	   On  8-bit  screens, whether to install a private colormap while the
	   screensaver is active, so that the graphics hacks can get  as  many
	   colors as possible.	This does nothing if you are running in 16-bit
	   or better.

       There are more settings than these available, but these	are  the  most
       commonly used ones; see the manual for xscreensaver(1) for other param‐
       eters that can be set by editing the ~/.xscreensaver  file,  or	the  X
       resource database.

SETTINGS DIALOG
       When  you click on the Settings button on the Display Modes tab, a con‐
       figuration dialog will pop up that lets you customize settings  of  the
       selected display mode.  Each display mode has its own custom configura‐
       tion controls on the left side.

       On the right side is a paragraph or two describing  the	display	 mode.
       Below  that  is	a  Documentation  button that will display the display
       mode's manual page, if it has one, in a new window (since each  of  the
       display	modes is actually a separate program, they each may have their
       own manual.)

       The Advanced button reconfigures the dialog box so that	you  can  edit
       the  display mode's command line directly, instead of using the graphi‐
       cal controls.  It also lets you configure the X visual type  that  this
       mode  will  require.  If you specify one (other than Any) then the pro‐
       gram will only be run on that kind of visual.   For  example,  you  can
       specify that a particular program should only be run if color is avail‐
       able, and another should only be run in monochrome.  See the discussion
       of  the programs parameter in the Configuration section of the xscreen‐
       saver(1) manual.	 (OpenGL programs should always have their visual  set
       to "GL".)

COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
       xscreensaver-demo accepts the following command line options.

       -display host:display.screen
	       The  X display to use.  The xscreensaver-demo program will open
	       its window on that display, and also control  the  xscreensaver
	       daemon that is managing that same display.

       -prefs  Start  up  with the Advanced tab selected by default instead of
	       the Display Modes tab.

       -debug  Causes lots of diagnostics to be printed on stderr.

       It is important that the xscreensaver and  xscreensaver-demo  processes
       be running on the same machine, or at least, on two machines that share
       a file system.  When xscreensaver-demo writes  a	 new  version  of  the
       ~/.xscreensaver	file,  it's  important	that the xscreensaver see that
       same file.  If the two processes are seeing  different  ~/.xscreensaver
       files, things will malfunction.

ENVIRONMENT
       DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.

       PATH    to  find	 the sub-programs to run.  However, note that the sub-
	       programs are actually launched by the xscreensaver daemon,  not
	       by  xscreensaver-demo  itself.	So, what matters is what $PATH
	       the xscreensaver program sees.

       HOME    for the directory in which to read and write the	 .xscreensaver
	       file.

       XENVIRONMENT
	       to  get	the  name of a resource file that overrides the global
	       resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.

       HTTP_PROXY or http_proxy
	       to get the default HTTP proxy host and port.

UPGRADES
       The latest version can always be found  at  http://www.jwz.org/xscreen‐
       saver/

SEE ALSO
       X(1),   xscreensaver(1),	 xscreensaver-command(1),  xscreensaver-getim‐
       age(1), xscreensaver-text(1)

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright © 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
       2005  by	 Jamie Zawinski.  Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute,
       and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is	hereby
       granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in
       all copies and that both that  copyright	 notice	 and  this  permission
       notice appear in supporting documentation.  No representations are made
       about the suitability of this software for any purpose.	It is provided
       "as is" without express or implied warranty.

AUTHOR
       Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 13-aug-92.

       Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improvements.

X Version 11		      5.07 (10-Aug-2008)	  xscreensaver-demo(1)
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