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xset - user preference utility for X
xset
[-display display] [-b] [b on/off] [b [volume [pitch [duration]]] [[-]bc]
[-c] [c on/off] [c [volume]] [[+-]dpms] [dpms standby [ suspend [ off]]]
[dpms force standby/suspend/off/on] [[-+]fp[-+=] path[,path[,...]]] [fp default]
[fp rehash] [[-]led [integer]] [led on/off] [m[ouse] [accel_mult[/accel_div]
[threshold]]] [m[ouse] default] [p pixel color] [[-]r [keycode]] [r on/off]
[r rate delay [rate]] [s [length [period]]] [s blank/noblank] [s expose/noexpose]
[s on/off] [s default] [s activate] [s reset] [q]
This program
is used to set various user preference options of the display.
- -display
display
- This option specifies the server to use; see X(7)
.
- b
- The b option
controls bell volume, pitch and duration. This option accepts up to three
numerical parameters, a preceding dash(-), or a 'on/off' flag. If no parameters
are given, or the 'on' flag is used, the system defaults will be used. If
the dash or 'off' are given, the bell will be turned off. If only one numerical
parameter is given, the bell volume will be set to that value, as a percentage
of its maximum. Likewise, the second numerical parameter specifies the bell
pitch, in hertz, and the third numerical parameter specifies the duration
in milliseconds. Note that not all hardware can vary the bell characteristics.
The X server will set the characteristics of the bell as closely as it
can to the user's specifications.
- bc
- The bc option controls bug compatibility
mode in the server, if possible; a preceding dash(-) disables the mode,
otherwise the mode is enabled. Various pre-R4 clients pass illegal values
in some protocol requests, and pre-R4 servers did not correctly generate
errors in these cases. Such clients, when run against an R4 server, will
terminate abnormally or otherwise fail to operate correctly. Bug compatibility
mode explicitly reintroduces certain bugs into the X server, so that many
such clients can still be run. This mode should be used with care; new
application development should be done with this mode disabled. The server
must support the MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD protocol extension in order for this
option to work.
- c
- The c option controls key click. This option can take an
optional value, a preceding dash(-), or an 'on/off' flag. If no parameter or
the 'on' flag is given, the system defaults will be used. If the dash or 'off'
flag is used, keyclick will be disabled. If a value from 0 to 100 is given,
it is used to indicate volume, as a percentage of the maximum. The X server
will set the volume to the nearest value that the hardware can support.
- -dpms
- The -dpms option disables DPMS (Energy Star) features.
- +dpms
- The +dpms
option enables DPMS (Energy Star) features.
- dpms flags...
- The dpms option allows
the DPMS (Energy Star) parameters to be set. The option can take up to
three numerical values, or the `force' flag followed by a DPMS state. The
`force' flags forces the server to immediately switch to the DPMS state specified.
The DPMS state can be one of `standby', `suspend', `off', or `on'. When numerical
values are given, they set the inactivity period (in units of seconds)
before the three modes are activated. The first value given is for the `standby'
mode, the second is for the `suspend' mode, and the third is for the `off'
mode. Setting these values implicitly enables the DPMS features. A value
of zero disables a particular mode.
- fp= path,...
- The fp= sets the font path
to the entries given in the path argument. The entries are interpreted by
the server, not by the client. Typically they are directory names or font
server names, but the interpretation is server-dependent.
- fp default
- The
default argument causes the font path to be reset to the server's default.
- fp rehash
- The rehash argument resets the font path to its current value,
causing the server to reread the font databases in the current font path.
This is generally only used when adding new fonts to a font directory
(after running mkfontdir to recreate the font database).
- -fp or fp-
- The -fp
and fp- options remove elements from the current font path. They must be
followed by a comma-separated list of entries.
- +fp or fp+
- This +fp and fp+
options prepend and append elements to the current font path, respectively.
They must be followed by a comma-separated list of entries.
- led
- The led
option controls the keyboard LEDs. This controls the turning on or off of
one or all of the LEDs. It accepts an optional integer, a preceding dash(-)
or an 'on/off' flag. If no parameter or the 'on' flag is given, all LEDs are
turned on. If a preceding dash or the flag 'off' is given, all LEDs are turned
off. If a value between 1 and 32 is given, that LED will be turned on or
off depending on the existence of a preceding dash. A common LED which can
be controlled is the ``Caps Lock'' LED. ``xset led 3'' would turn led #3 on. ``xset
-led 3'' would turn it off. The particular LED values may refer to different
LEDs on different hardware.
- m
- The m option controls the mouse parameters.
The parameters for the mouse are `acceleration' and `threshold'. The acceleration
can be specified as an integer, or as a simple fraction. The mouse, or whatever
pointer the machine is connected to, will go `acceleration' times as fast
when it travels more than `threshold' pixels in a short time. This way, the
mouse can be used for precise alignment when it is moved slowly, yet it
can be set to travel across the screen in a flick of the wrist when desired.
One or both parameters for the m option can be omitted, but if only one
is given, it will be interpreted as the acceleration. If no parameters or
the flag 'default' is used, the system defaults will be set.
- p
- The p option
controls pixel color values. The parameters are the color map entry number
in decimal, and a color specification. The root background colors may be
changed on some servers by altering the entries for BlackPixel and WhitePixel.
Although these are often 0 and 1, they need not be. Also, a server may
choose to allocate those colors privately, in which case an error will
be generated. The map entry must not be a read-only color, or an error will
result.
- r
- The r option controls the autorepeat. If a preceding dash or the
'off' flag is used, autorepeat will be disabled. If no parameters or the 'on'
flag is used, autorepeat will be enabled. If a specific keycode is specified
as a parameter, autorepeat for that keycode is enabled or disabled. If the
server supports the XFree86-Misc extension, or the XKB extension, then a
parameter of 'rate' is accepted and should be followed by zero, one or two
numeric values. The first specifies the delay before autorepeat starts and
the second specifies the repeat rate. In the case that the server supports
the XKB extension, the delay is the number of milliseconds before autorepeat
starts, and the rate is the number of repeats per second. If the rate or
delay is not given, it will be set to the default value.
Example: The following
command will set the delay to 200 milliseconds and the repeat rate to 10
per second:
xset r rate 200 10
- s
- The s option lets you set the screen saver
parameters. This option accepts up to two numerical parameters, a 'blank/noblank'
flag, an 'expose/noexpose' flag, an 'on/off' flag, an 'activate/reset' flag,
or the 'default' flag. If no parameters or the 'default' flag is used, the system
will be set to its default screen saver characteristics. The 'on/off' flags
simply turn the screen saver functions on or off. The 'activate' flag forces
activation of screen saver even if the screen saver had been turned off.
The 'reset' flag forces deactivation of screen saver if it is active. The
'blank' flag sets the preference to blank the video (if the hardware can
do so) rather than display a background pattern, while 'noblank' sets the
preference to display a pattern rather than blank the video. The 'expose'
flag sets the preference to allow window exposures (the server can freely
discard window contents), while 'noexpose' sets the preference to disable
screen saver unless the server can regenerate the screens without causing
exposure events. The length and period parameters for the screen saver function
determines how long the server must be inactive for screen saving to activate,
and the period to change the background pattern to avoid burn in. The arguments
are specified in seconds. If only one numerical parameter is given, it will
be used for the length.
- q
- The q option gives you information on the current
settings.
These settings will be reset to default values when you log out.
Note that not all X implementations are guaranteed to honor all of these
options.
X(7)
, Xserver(1)
, xmodmap(1)
, xrdb(1)
, xsetroot(1)
Bob
Scheifler, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
David Krikorian, MIT Project Athena (X11 version)
XFree86-Misc support added by David Dawes and Joe Moss
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