XScreenSaver(1)

NAME
xscreensaver-demo - interactively control the background xscreensaver daemon

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

DESCRIPTION
The xscreensaver-demo program is a graphical front-end for setting the parameters used by the background xscreensaver(1) daemon. It is essentially two things: a tool for editing the ~/.xscreensaver file; and a tool for demoing the various graphics hacks that the xscreensaver daemon will launch. The main dialog box contains a scrolling list, a text field, and a number of buttons. Double-clicking on one of the programs in the list will run it. 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 place the indicated program and its args in the text field to be edited. Edit the arguments and hit return to run the program with the parameters you have specified. This will also save your changes to your ~/.xscreensaver file: so any changes you make in this way are persistent. If one of the lines in the scrolling list begins with the character "-", then that means that the program is disabled: xscreensaver will not select it to be run (though you can still try it out by clicking on it.) Rather than just deleting the programs you don't want to run, you might want to disable them in this way instead, so that you can more easily change your mind later. If the line begins with the name of a visual, followed by a colon, then that program 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 available, and another should only be run in monochrome. See the discussion of the programs parameter in the Configuration section of the xscreensaver(1) manual. The buttons are:

Run Next
    Clicking this button will run the next program in the list after the currently-selected one, and will wrap around to the top when it reaches the bottom.

Run Previous
    Opposite of Run Next; at the top, it wraps around to the bottom.

Preferences
    This pops up a second dialog box, in which you have the option to interactively change most of the screensaver's operational parameters, such as its timeouts, and whether it should lock the screen. When you click OK, your chosen settings will take effect immediately, and will also be saved to the ~/.xscreensaver file in your home directory, so that the settings will persist next time.

Quit
    Exits the xscreensaver-demo program. The background xscreensaver daemon will continue running as before.

The Preferences dialog box lets you change the following settings. (There are more settings available, but these are the most commonly used ones; see the manual for xscreensaver(1) for other parameters that can be set by editing the ~/.xscreensaver file, or the X resource database.)

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

Cycle Timeout
    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 activity.

Verbose
    Whether to print lots of debugging information.

Install Colormap
    Whether to install a private colormap while the screensaver is active, so that the graphics hacks can get as many colors as possible. (This only applies when the screen's default visual is being used, since non-default visuals get their own colormaps automatically.) This can also be overridden on a per-demo basis.

Fade Colormap
    If selected, then when the screensaver activates, the current contents of the screen will fade to black instead of simply winking out. This only works on displays with writable colormaps, that is, if the screen's default visual is a PseudoColor visual. A fade will also be done when switching graphics hacks (when the Cycle Timeout expires.)

Unfade Colormap
    The complement to Fade Colormap: if selected, then when the screensaver deactivates, the original contents of the screen will fade in from black instead of appearing immediately. This only works on displays with writable colormaps, and when Fade Colormap is also selected.

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

Fade Ticks
    This controls how many times a second the colormap will be changed to effect a fade. Higher numbers yield smoother fades, but may make the fades take longer than the specified number of seconds, if your server isn't fast enough to keep up.

Require Password
    Whether the screen saver should lock the screen when it activates.

Lock Timeout
    If Require Password is selected, this controls the length of the ``grace period'' between when the screensaver activates, and when the screen becomes locked. For example, if this is 0:05:00, and Saver Timeout is 0:10:00, then after 10 minutes, the screen would blank. If there was user activity 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 Timeout minutes after activation) then a password 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.

Password Timeout
    When the screensaver is prompting for a password, the prompt dialog box will stay on the screen for this long before giving up, and reverting to screen-saving mode.

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 in Preferences mode: this is just like launching the program with no arguments, and then pressing the Preferences button.

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.

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

SEE ALSO
X(1), xscreensaver(1), xscreensaver-command(1)

COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999 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.