XWIN
Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: xorg-server 1.7.1
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NAME
XWin - X Server for the Cygwin environment on Microsoft Windows
SYNOPSIS
XWin
[ options ] ...
DESCRIPTION
XWin is an X Server for the X Window System on the Cygwin environment
running on Microsoft Windows.
MODES
XWin can operate in 3 different modes:
* Single Window: This is the default mode. Each X screen
appears as a single Windows window and all X windows are contained
within this window.
(In X terminology, the Windows window contains the root window for
the screen)
* Multi-Window: In this mode XWin uses its own integrated
window manager in order to handle the top-level X windows, in such a
way that they appear as normal Windows windows.
* Rootless: In this mode the X server works in a window
containing the whole screen but this root window (traditionally covered with an X hatch
pattern) is hidden from view, so only top-level X windows are seen.
OPTIONS
In addition to the normal server options described in the Xserver(1)
manual page, XWin accepts the following command line switches,
all of which are optional:
OPTIONS CONTROLLING WINDOWING MODE
Only one of these options may be specified.
- (default)
-
Windowed or rooted mode.
Each X screen appears as a single Windows window and all X windows are
contained within those windows.
- -multiwindow
-
Each top-level X window appears in its own Windows window.
Also start the integrated Windows-based window manager.
- -rootless
-
Run the server in rootless mode.
The X server works on a window covering the whole screen but the root window
is hidden from view.
- -mwextwm
-
Experimental.
The mode combines -rootless mode drawing with native Windows
window frames managed by the experimental external window manager xwinwm.
NOTE: -multiwindow mode uses its own internal window manager.
All other modes require an external window manager in order to move, resize, and perform other
operations on the individual X windows.
OPTIONS FOR SPECIFYING X SCREENS
An X display may be composed of multiple screens.
The default behaviour is to create a single screen 0 that is roughly the
size of useful area of the primary monitor (allowing for any window
decorations and the task-bar).
Screen specific parameters, such as -fullscreen, can be applied as a
default to all screens by placing those screen specific parameters
before any -screen parameter. Screen specific parameters placed after
the first -screen parameter will apply only to the immediately
preceeding -screen parameter.
- -[no]multimonitors or -[no]multiplemonitors
-
Create a screen 0 that covers all monitors [the primary monitor] on a system with
multiple monitors.
This option is currently enabled by default in -multiwindow mode.
- -screen screen_number [W H [X Y] | [[WxH[+X+Y]][@M]] ]
-
Create screen number
screen_number
and optionally specify it's
height,
width
and
initial position.
Additionally a
monitor number
(which count from 1) can be specified to place the screen on,
at which point, all coordinates become relative to that monitor.
Screen numbers must be contiguous starting from zero and cannot be duplicated.
Examples:
-screen 0 @1 ; on 1st monitor using its full resolution (the default)
-screen 0 800x600+100+100@2 ; on 2nd monitor offset 100,100 size 800x600
-screen 0 1024x768@3 ; on 3rd monitor size 1024x768
OPTIONS CONTROLLING THE APPEARANCE OF THE X SCREEN WINDOWS
These parameters only apply to windowed mode screens i.e. not
in -multwindow or -rootless mode
- -fullscreen
-
The X server window takes the full screen, covering completely the
Windows desktop.
- -nodecoration
-
Do not give the Cygwin/X window a Windows window border, title bar,
etc.
This parameter is ignored when the -fullscreen parameter is specified.
- -scrollbars
-
In windowed mode, allow screens bigger than the Windows desktop.
Moreover, if the window has decorations, one can now resize it.
This parameter is ignored when the -fullscreen parameter is specified.
OPTIONS CONTROLLING WINDOWS INTEGRATION
- -[no]clipboard
-
Enables [disables] the integration between the Cygwin/X clipboard and
Windows clipboard. The default is enabled.
- -emulate3buttons [timeout]
-
Emulate a three button mouse; pressing both buttons within
timeout
milliseconds causes an emulated middle button press. The default
timeout
is 50 milliseconds. Note that most mice with scroll wheel have middle
button functionality, usually you will need this option only if you have
a two button mouse without scroll wheel.
- -[no]keyhook
-
Enable [disable] a low-level keyboard hook for catching
special keypresses like Menu and Alt+Tab and passing them to the X
Server instead of letting Windows handle them.
- -lesspointer
-
Normally the Windows mouse cursor is hidden when the mouse is
over an active Cygwin/X window. This option causes the mouse cursor
also to be hidden when it is over an inactive Cygwin/X window. This
prevents the Windows mouse cursor from being drawn on top of the X
cursor.
This parameter has no effect unless -swcursor is also specified.
- -swcursor
-
Disable the usage of the Windows cursor and use the X11 software cursor instead.
- -[no]trayicon
-
Do not create a tray icon. Default is to create one
icon per screen. You can globally disable tray icons with
-notrayicon, then enable it for specific screens with
-trayicon for those screens.
- -nounicodeclipboard
-
Do not use Unicode clipboard even if on a NT-based platform.
- -[no]unixkill
-
Enable or disable the Ctrl-Alt-Backspace key combination as a
signal to exit the X Server. The Ctrl-Alt-Backspace key combination
is disabled by default.
- -[no]winkill
-
Enable or disable the Alt-F4 key combination as a signal to exit the
X Server.
The Alt-F4 key combination is enabled by default.
DRAWING ENGINE OPTIONS
- -clipupdates num_boxes
-
Specify an optional threshold, above which the regions in a shadow
update operation will be collected into a GDI clipping region. The
clipping region is then used to do a single bit block transfer that is
constrained to the updated area by the clipping region. There is some
overhead involved in creating, installing, destroying, and removing
the clipping region, thus there may not be much benefit for a small
number of boxes (less than 10). It is even possible that this
functionality does not provide a benefit at any number of boxes; we
can only determine the usefulness of this feature through testing.
This option probably has limited effect on current Windows versions
as they already perform GDI batching.
This parameter works in conjunction with engines 1, 2, and 4 (Shadow
GDI, Shadow DirectDraw, and Shadow DirectDraw Non-Locking,
respectively).
- -engine engine_type_id
-
This option, which is intended for Cygwin/X developers,
overrides the server's automatically selected engine type. This
parameter will be ignored if the specified engine type is not
supported on the current system. The supported engine type ids are 1
- Shadow GDI, 2 - Shadow DirectDraw, and 4 - Shadow DirectDraw Non-Locking.
Additionally, there are engines with type ids
8 - Primary DirectDraw (obsolete) and 16 - Native GDI (experimental and barely functional).
Default behavior is to determine the engine with optimum performance that
supports the specified depth and window configuration.
FULLSCREEN OPTIONS
- -depth depth
-
Specify the color depth, in bits per pixel, to use when running in
fullscreen with a DirectDraw engine. This parameter is ignored if
-fullscreen is not specified.
- -refresh rate_in_Hz
-
Specify an optional refresh rate to use when running in
fullscreen with a DirectDraw engine. This parameter is ignored if
-fullscreen is not specified.
MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS
See also the normal server options described in the Xserver(1)
manual page
- -help
-
Write a help text listing supported command line options and their description to the console.
- -ignoreinput
-
Ignore keyboard and mouse input. This is usually only used for testing
and debugging purposes.
- -logfile File_Name
-
Change the log file from the default located at
/var/log/XWin.0.log to the one indicated by File_Name.
- -logverbose level
-
Control the degree of verbosity of the log messages with the integer
parameter level. For level=0 only fatal errors are
reported, for level=1 simple information about
configuration is also given, for level=2 (default)
additional runtime information is recorded
and for level=3 detailed log
information (including trace and debug output) is produced. Bigger
values will yield a still more detailed debug output.
- -silent-dup-error
-
If another instance of XWin with the same display number is found running,
exit silently and don't display any error message.
- -xkblayout layout
-
- -xkbmodel model
-
- -xkboptions option
-
- -xkbrules rule
-
- -xkbvariant variant
-
These options implement the xkeyboard extension for loading
a particular keyboard map as the X server starts. The behavior is similar
to the setxkbmap program. The layout data is located at
/usr/share/X11/xkb/. Additional information is found in the
README files therein and in the man page of setxkbmap. For example
in order to load a German layout for a pc105 keyboard one uses
the options:
-xkblayout de -xkbmodel pc105
Alternatively one may use the setxkbmap program after XWin is
running.
The default is to select a layout matching your current layout as
reported by Windows if known, or the default X server layout
if no matching keyboard layout was found.
UNDOCUMENTED OPTIONS
These options are undocumented. Do not use them.
- -emulatepseudo
-
Create a depth 8 PseudoColor visual when running in depths 15, 16, 24,
or 32, collectively known as TrueColor depths.
Color map manipulation is not supported, so the PseudoColor visual will
not have the correct colors.
This option is intended to allow applications which only work with a depth 8
visual to operate in TrueColor modes.
- -internalwm
-
Run the internal window manager.
LOG FILE
As it runs XWin writes messages indicating the most relevant events
to the console
from which it was called and to a log file that by default is located at
/var/log/XWin.0.log. This file is mainly for debugging purposes.
PREFERENCES FILE
On startup XWin looks for the file $HOME/.XWinrc or, if
the previous file does not exist,
/etc/X11/system.XWinrc. .XWinrc allows setting
preferences for the following:
* To include items into the menu associated with the XWin icon
which is in the Windows system tray. This functions in all
modes that have a tray icon.
* To include items in the system menu which is associated with the Windows
window that XWin -multiwindow produces for each top-level X
window, in both the generic case and for particular programs.
* To change the icon that is associated to the Windows window that
XWin -multiwindow produces for each top-level X-window.
* To change the style that is associated to the Windows window that
Win I-multiwindow produces for each top-level X window.
The format of the .XWinrc file is given in the man page XWinrc(5).
EXAMPLES
Need some examples
SEE ALSO
X(7), Xserver(1), xdm(1), xinit(1), XWinrc(5), setxkbmap(1)
BUGS
XWin
and this man page still have many limitations. Some of the more obvious
ones are:
- The display mode can not be changed once the X server has started.
- The XWin software is continuously developing; it is therefore possible that
this man page is not up to date. It is always prudent to
look also at the output of XWin -help in order to
check the options that are operative.
AUTHORS
This list is by no means complete, but direct contributors to the
Cygwin/X project include (in alphabetical order by last name): Stuart
Adamson, Michael Bax, Jehan Bing, Lev Bishop, Dr. Peter Busch, Biju G
C, Robert Collins, Nick Crabtree, Early Ehlinger, Christopher Faylor,
John Fortin, Brian Genisio, Fabrizio Gennari, Alexander Gottwald, Ralf
Habacker, Colin Harrison, Matthieu Herrb, Alan Hourihane, Pierre A
Humblet, Harold L Hunt II, Dakshinamurthy Karra, Joe Krahn,
Paul Loewenstein, Kensuke Matsuzaki,
Takuma Murakami, Earle F. Philhower III, Benjamin Riefenstahl, Yaakov Selkowitz,
Suhaib Siddiqi, Jack Tanner, Jon Turney and Nicholas Wourms.
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- MODES
-
- OPTIONS
-
- OPTIONS CONTROLLING WINDOWING MODE
-
- OPTIONS FOR SPECIFYING X SCREENS
-
- OPTIONS CONTROLLING THE APPEARANCE OF THE X SCREEN WINDOWS
-
- OPTIONS CONTROLLING WINDOWS INTEGRATION
-
- DRAWING ENGINE OPTIONS
-
- FULLSCREEN OPTIONS
-
- MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS
-
- UNDOCUMENTED OPTIONS
-
- LOG FILE
-
- PREFERENCES FILE
-
- EXAMPLES
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- BUGS
-
- AUTHORS
-
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