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XSNOW(6) User Commands XSNOW(6)

NAME

xsnow - Snow and Santa on your desktop

SYNOPSIS

xsnow [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION

Xsnow shows an animation of Santa and snow on your desktop. Xsnow can also run in one or more windows, see options -xwininfo, -id . (These options only work satisfactorily in an X11 environment.) Xsnow depends on an X11 environment. This is forced by setting the environment variable GDK_BACKEND=x11 before initializing the GTK. Hopefully, this will ensure that xsnow also runs in a Wayland environment for some time.

If xsnow is misbehaving, try to remove the file $HOME/.xsnowrc.

General options:

Below: <n> denotes an unsigned decimal (e.g 123) or octal (e.g. 017) or hex (e.g. 0x50009) number. <c> denotes a color name like "red" or "#123456".

print this text.
print man page.
prints version of xsnow.
Drop the snowflakes on the given display. Make sure the display is nearby, so you can hear them enjoy...
Run xsnow in vintage settings.
Do not read config file (see FILES).
Do not read or write config file (see FILES).
Do not show interactive menu.
Snow in window with id (for example from xwininfo).
Act as if window is a desktop.
0: use one desktop for snow, 1: use all desktops (default: 1).
Snow on full screen window: panels, task bars etc. will be not accessible.
Snow above your windows. Default is to snow below your windows. NOTE: in some environments this results in an un-clickable desktop.
Use a cursor to point at the window you want the snow to be fallen in.
Use color <c> to erase obsolete drawings (snow, santa, ...). Useful in for example KDE: create mono colored background, and specify the same color here, e.g: -bg "#123456" (default: "#000000".)
Use XClearArea(...,exposures=True) when erasing.
Use XClearArea(...,exposures=False) when erasing. Exposures have effect with '-alpha 0' or '-xwininfo'.
Stop xsnow after so many seconds.
Specify your favorite window:
If possible, use GTK-Cairo window for Santa snow and scenery.
If possible, use transparent X11-window for Santa, snow and scenery.
Write extra info about some mouse clicks, X errors etc, to stdout.

Snow options:

The higher, the more snowflakes are generated per second. Default: 100.
Do not animate blowing snow from trees or windows.
Use the given string as color for the flakes (default: "snow").
Multiply the speed of snow with this number/100 (default: 100).
Set size of (non-vintage) snow flakes (default: 8).
Do not show falling snowflakes. (Weird!)
Maximum number of active flakes (default: 300).
The higher, the more snow is generated in blow-off scenarios (default: 40).

Tree options:

Choose tree types: minimum 0, maximum 7 (default: "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,"). Thanks to Carla Vermin for numbers >=3! Credits: Image by b0red on Pixabay.
Use all available tree types.
Use the given string as the color for the default trees (default: "chartreuse"). Works only for treetype 0.
Do not display the trees.
Desired number of trees. Default 10.
Region in percents of the height of the window where trees grow (default: 30).

Santa options:

Do not display Santa running all over the screen.
No Rudolph.
The minimum size of Santa is 0, the maximum size is 4. Default is 3. Thanks to Thomas Linder for the (big) Santa 2! Santa 3 is derived from Santa 2, and shows the required eight reindeer. The appearance of Santa 4 may be a surprise, thanks to Carla Vermin for this one.
The speed Santa should not be excessive if he doesn't want to get fined. The appropriate speed for the Santa chosen will be multiplied by santaspeedfactor/100 (default: 100).

Wind options:

By default it gets windy now and then. If you prefer quiet weather specify -nowind.
This sets the whirl factor, i.e. the maximum adjustment of the horizontal speed. The default value is 100.
With -windtimer you can specify how often it gets windy. It's sort of a period in seconds, default value is 30.

Fallen snow options:

Maximum thickness of snow on top of windows (default: 30).
Maximum thickness of snow at the bottom of the screen (default: 50).
Maximum number of flakes on trees. Default 200.
Do not keep snow on top of the windows.
Do not keep snow at the bottom of the screen.
Do not keep snow on trees.
Do not have snow sticking anywhere.
Do not create fluff on fallen snow.
Correction for window-manager provided of x-coordinate of window. Default 4.
Correction for window-managr provided of y-coordinate of window. Default 0.
Correction for window-manager provided width of window. Default -8.
Correction for bottom coordinate of your screen. A negative value lifts the xsnow screen up. Default 0.

Birds options:

Anarchy factor ( 0..100 default: 50).
Use the given string as color for the birds (default: "#361A07").
Show only birds ( 0/1 default: 0).
Speed of birds ( 0..300 default: 100).
Eagerness to keep desired distance ( 0..100 default: 20).
Eagerness to fly to the focus ( 0..300 default: 100).
Eagerness to follow neighbours ( 0..100 default: 30).
Number of birds ( 0..400 default: 70).
Number of neighbours to watch ( 0..20 default: 7).
Preferred distance to neighbours ( 0..100 default: 20).
Show birds ( 0/1 default: 1).
Show attraction point ( 0/1 default: 0).
Birds like Santa ( 0/1 default: 1).
Viewing distance ( 0..95 default: 40).

Other options:

The number of stars (default: 20).
Do not show meteorites.
How busy is your system with xsnow: the higher, the more load on the system (default: 100).

FILES

$HOME/.xsnowrc
Settings are read from and written to this file. See flags -noconfig and -defaults how to influence this behaviour.

$HOME/xsnow/pixmaps/tree.xpm
If present, xsnow will try this file for displaying the trees. The format must be xpm (X PixMap) format, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_PixMap .
$HOME/xsnow/pixmaps/santa<n>.xpm
where <n> = 1,2,3,4. If present, xsnow will try this files (4 of them) for displaying Santa. The format must be xpm (X PixMap) format, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_PixMap .

EXAMPLES


$ xsnow -defaults # run with defaults.
$ xsnow # run using values from the config file.
$ xsnow -treetype 1,2 # use tree types 1 and 2.

BUGS

- Xsnow needs a complete rewrite: the code is a mess.
- Xsnow stresses the Xserver too much.
- Xsnow does run in Wayland, but will not snow on all windows.
- Remnants of fluffy snow can persist after removing the
fallen snow. These will gradually disappear, so no big deal.
- Xsnow tries to adapt its snowing window if the display
settings are changed while xsnow is running.
This does not function always well.
- In some combinations of display managers and compositors
the desktop is visible, but unclickable.
Known example is FVWM in combination with xcompmgr or compton.
Solution: xsnow -xwininfo, and click on the desktop.
This will result in stuttering Santa and snow flakes.
In FVWM, for xsnow it is better to run without compositor.

COPYRIGHT

This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

2020 xsnow-3.1.1