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 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-command(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 affecting 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), xscreensaver-demo(1), and xscreensaver-command(1) manuals.

GRAPHICS DEMOS TAB
On the left is a list of the names of the various display modes, and on the right are some fields that let you edit their behavior.

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 populate the fields on the right side of the window.

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.

Program Description
    At the top will be a brief description of the program. Below that is a text field where you can edit the arguments to the program as xscreensaver will invoke it. (Note that most of these programs have their own man pages that describe the command-line options they take.)

Enabled
    The Enabled checkbox controls whether xscreensaver will use this display mode at all. This way, all the modes can remain available, but you can choose which ones will be automatically run.

Visual
    The Visual field is where you can select the X visual type that this demo will require. If you specify one (other than Any) then the 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. This is a combo-box, so you can either select an item from the popup menu, or type in a specific visual's hexadecimal ID.

Demo
    This button runs the demo in full-screen mode so that you can try it out. Click the mouse to dismiss it.

Documentation
    Since each of the display modes is actually a separate program, they each may have their own manual. This opens a window viewing the man page of this program, if it has one.

SCREENSAVER OPTIONS TAB
This tab lets you change various settings used by the xscreensaver daemon itself, rather than its sub-programs.

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.

There are more settings than these 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.

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 Screensaver Options tab selected by default instead of the Graphics Demos tab.

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.