table of contents
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".
- -h, -help
- print this text.
- -H, -manpage
- print man page.
- -v, -version
- prints version of xsnow.
- -display name
- Drop the snowflakes on the given display. Make sure the display is nearby, so you can hear them enjoy...
- -vintage
- Run xsnow in vintage settings.
- -defaults
- Do not read config file (see FILES).
- -noconfig
- Do not read or write config file (see FILES).
- Do not show interactive menu.
- -id <n>
- Snow in window with id (for example from xwininfo).
- -desktop
- Act as if window is a desktop.
- -allworkspaces <n>
- 0: use one desktop for snow, 1: use all desktops (default: 1).
- -fullscreen
- Snow on full screen window: panels, task bars etc. will be not accessible.
- -above
- Snow above your windows. Default is to snow below your windows. NOTE: in some environments this results in an un-clickable desktop.
- -xwininfo
- Use a cursor to point at the window you want the snow to be fallen in.
- -bg <c>
- 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".)
- -exposures
- Use XClearArea(...,exposures=True) when erasing.
- -noexposures
- Use XClearArea(...,exposures=False) when erasing. Exposures have effect with '-alpha 0' or '-xwininfo'.
- -stopafter <n>
- Stop xsnow after so many seconds.
- -wantwindow
- Specify your favorite window:
- default
- If possible, use GTK-Cairo window for Santa snow and scenery.
- transparent
- If possible, use transparent X11-window for Santa, snow and scenery.
- -noisy
- Write extra info about some mouse clicks, X errors etc, to stdout.
Snow options:¶
- -snowflakes <n>
- The higher, the more snowflakes are generated per second. Default: 100.
- -noblowsnow
- Do not animate blowing snow from trees or windows.
- -sc <c>
- Use the given string as color for the flakes (default: "snow").
- -snowspeedfactor <n>
- Multiply the speed of snow with this number/100 (default: 100).
- -snowsize <n>
- Set size of (non-vintage) snow flakes (default: 8).
- -nosnowflakes
- Do not show falling snowflakes. (Weird!)
- -flakecountmax <n>
- Maximum number of active flakes (default: 300).
- -blowofffactor <n>
- The higher, the more snow is generated in blow-off scenarios (default: 40).
Tree options:¶
- -treetype <n>[,<n> ...]
- 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.
- -treetype all
- Use all available tree types.
- -tc <c>
- Use the given string as the color for the default trees (default: "chartreuse"). Works only for treetype 0.
- -notrees
- Do not display the trees.
- -trees <n>
- Desired number of trees. Default 10.
- -treefill <n>
- Region in percents of the height of the window where trees grow (default: 30).
Santa options:¶
- -nosanta
- Do not display Santa running all over the screen.
- -norudolph
- No Rudolph.
- -santa <n>
- 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.
- -santaspeedfactor <n>
- 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:¶
- -nowind
- By default it gets windy now and then. If you prefer quiet weather specify -nowind.
- -whirlfactor <n>
- This sets the whirl factor, i.e. the maximum adjustment of the horizontal speed. The default value is 100.
- -windtimer <n>
- 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:¶
- -wsnowdepth <n>
- Maximum thickness of snow on top of windows (default: 30).
- -ssnowdepth <n>
- Maximum thickness of snow at the bottom of the screen (default: 50).
- -maxontrees <n>
- Maximum number of flakes on trees. Default 200.
- -nokeepsnowonwindows
- Do not keep snow on top of the windows.
- -nokeepsnowonscreen
- Do not keep snow at the bottom of the screen.
- -nokeepsnowontrees
- Do not keep snow on trees.
- -nokeepsnow
- Do not have snow sticking anywhere.
- -nofluffy
- Do not create fluff on fallen snow.
- -offsetx <n>
- Correction for window-manager provided of x-coordinate of window. Default 4.
- -offsety <n>
- Correction for window-managr provided of y-coordinate of window. Default 0.
- -offsetw <n>
- Correction for window-manager provided width of window. Default -8.
- -offsets <n>
- Correction for bottom coordinate of your screen. A negative value lifts the xsnow screen up. Default 0.
Birds options:¶
- -anarchy <n>
- Anarchy factor ( 0..100 default: 50).
- -birdscolor <c>
- Use the given string as color for the birds (default: "#361A07").
- -birdsonly <n>
- Show only birds ( 0/1 default: 0).
- -birdsspeed <n>
- Speed of birds ( 0..300 default: 100).
- -disweight <n>
- Eagerness to keep desired distance ( 0..100 default: 20).
- -focuscentre <n>
- Eagerness to fly to the focus ( 0..300 default: 100).
- -followneighbours <n>
- Eagerness to follow neighbours ( 0..100 default: 30).
- -nbirds <n>
- Number of birds ( 0..400 default: 70).
- -neighbours <n>
- Number of neighbours to watch ( 0..20 default: 7).
- -prefdistance <n>
- Preferred distance to neighbours ( 0..100 default: 20).
- -showbirds <n>
- Show birds ( 0/1 default: 1).
- -showattr <n>
- Show attraction point ( 0/1 default: 0).
- -followsanta <n>
- Birds like Santa ( 0/1 default: 1).
- -viewingdistance <n>
- Viewing distance ( 0..95 default: 40).
Other options:¶
- -stars <n>
- The number of stars (default: 20).
- -nometeorites
- Do not show meteorites.
- -cpuload <n>
- 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 |