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XWin - X Server for the Cygwin environment on Microsoft Windows
XWin
[ options ] ...
XWin is an X Server for the X Window System on
the Cygwin environment running on Microsoft Windows.
XWin can operate
in five different and incompatible modes:
* Single Window: This is the default option. The X server appears as a
single Windows window and all X windows are contained within this window.
This mode requires an external window manager.
* No Decoration: This mode is like single window mode except that the X
server window does not have a title bar or border, thus maximizing the
amount of space available for X windows within the X server window. This
mode requires an external window manager.
* Full Screen: This mode is like single window mode except that the X server
window takes the full screen, covering completely the Windows desktop.
This mode requires an external window manager.
* Rootless: The X server works on a window covering the whole screen but
the root window (traditionally covered with an X hatch pattern) is hidden
from view. This mode requires an external window manager.
* 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.
NOTE: Multi-Window mode will crash if an external
window manager such as twm or fvwm is launched since Multi-Window 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.
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 /tmp/XWin.log. This file is mainly for debugging
purposes.
On startup XWin looks for the file $HOME/.XWinrc
or, if the previous file does not exist, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/system.XWinrc.
.XWinrc allows setting preferences for the following:
1- 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.
2- To include items in the menu which is associated with the Windows window
that XWin -multiwindow produces for each top-level X window. That can be
done both for the generic case and for particular programs.
3- To change the icon that is associated to the Windows window that XWin
-multiwindow produces for each top-level X-window. Again, that can be done
both for the generic case and for particular programs.
The format of the
.XWinrc file is given in the man page XWinrc(5)
.
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:
- -clipboard
- Enables the integration between the Cygwin/X clipboard and Windows
clipboard. Do not use in conjunction with the xwinclip program.
- -clipupdates
num_boxes
- Specify an optional threshold, above which the boxes 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 parameter works in conjunction with engines 1, 2,
and 4 (Shadow GDI, Shadow DirectDraw, and Shadow DirectDraw Non-Locking,
respectively).
- -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.
- -emulatepseudo
- Create a depth 8 PseudoColor visual when running in depths 15, 16, 24,
or 32, collectively known as TrueColor depths. At this date (April 2004)
this option is not still operative.
- -engine engine_type_id
- This option, which is intended for Cygwin/X developers,
overrides the server's automatically supported 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 DirectDraw4. Additionally, there is a barely functional experimental
engine type id 16 - Native GDI.
- -fullscreen [-depth depth] [-refresh rate_in_Hz]
- Run the server in fullscreen mode, as opposed to the default windowed mode.
- -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.
- -help
- Write a help text to the
console and to the log file.
- -ignoreinput
- Ignore keyboard and mouse input.
This is usually only used for testing and debugging purposes.
- -[no]keyhook
- Enable [disable] a low-level keyboard hook for catching special key combinations
like Alt+Tab and passing them to the X Server instead of letting Windows
handle them.
- -lesspointer
- Hide the Windows mouse cursor when the mouse is
over any Cygwin/X window (regardless of whether that window is active or
inactive). This prevents the Windows mouse cursor from being placed overtop
of the X cursor.
- -logfile File_Name
- Change the log file from the default
located at /tmp/XWin.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 (default)
simple information about configuration is also given, for level=2 a detailed
log information (including trace and debug output) is produced. Bigger
values will yield a still more detailed debug output. At this date (April
2004) the option is still not fully operative; the default value is 2 and
the output is insensitive to the level value.
- -multimonitors
- Create a root
window that covers all monitors on a system with multiple monitors.
- -multiwindow
- Start the integrated Windowsi-based window manager, which launches each
top-level X window in its own Windows window. Not to be used together with
-rootless nor -fullscreen.
- -nodecoration
- Do not give the Cygwin/X window a
Windows window border, title bar, etc. This parameter only applies to windowed
mode screens, i.e., this parameter is ignored when the -fullscreen parameter
is specified.
- -nounicodeclipboard
- Do not use Unicode clipboard even if NT-based
platform.
- -rootless
- Run the server in rootless mode. Not to be used with
-multiwindow nor with -fullscreen.
- -screen screen_number width height
- This
parameter may be used to specify the screen_number, height, and width of
one or several Cygwin/X screens; each Cygwin/X screen will be opened in
its own window. When using multiple screens, be sure not to duplicate any
screen numbers. XWin default behavior is to create a single screen that
is roughly the size of the current Windows display area. 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.
- -scrollbars
- In
windowed mode, allow screens bigger than the Windows desktop. Moreover,
if the window has decorations, one can now resize it.
- -[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.
- -[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.
- -swcursor
- Disable the usage of the windows cursor
and use the X11 software cursor instead.
- -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/X11R6/lib/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 or even the xmodmap program for loading the old-style
keyboard maps.
X(7)
, Xserver(1)
, xdm(1)
, xinit(1)
, XWinrc(1)
,
setxkbmap(1)
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 developing rapidly; it is therefore likely that this
man page is not up to date. It is always prudent to look also at the output
of XWin -help and to the Cygwin/X User Guide at /usr/share/doc/cygwin-x-doc-x.x.x/ug/cygwin-x-ug.xxx
in order to check the options that are operative.
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,
Kensuke Matsuzaki, Takuma Murakami, Earle F. Philhower III, Benjamin Riefenstahl,
Suhaib Siddiqi, Jack Tanner, and Nicholas Wourms.
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