NAME¶
xvfb-run - run specified X client or command in a virtual X server environment
SYNOPSIS¶
xvfb-run [
options ]
command
DESCRIPTION¶
xvfb-run is a wrapper for the
Xvfb(1x) command which simplifies
the task of running commands (typically an X client, or a script containing a
list of clients to be run) within a virtual X server environment.
xvfb-run sets up an X authority file (or uses an existing user-specified
one), writes a cookie to it (see
xauth(1x)) and then starts the
Xvfb X server as a background process. The process ID of
Xvfb is
stored for later use. The specified
command is then run using the X
display corresponding to the
Xvfb server just started and the X
authority file created earlier.
When the
command exits, its status is saved, the
Xvfb server is
killed (using the process ID stored earlier), the X authority cookie removed,
and the authority file deleted (if the user did not specify one to use).
xvfb-run then exits with the exit status of
command.
xvfb-run requires the
xauth command to function.
OPTIONS¶
- -a, --auto-servernum
- Try to get a free server number, starting at 99, or the argument to
--server-num.
- -e file, --error-file=file
- Store output from xauth and Xvfb in file. The default
is /dev/null.
- -f file, --auth-file=file
- Store X authentication data in file. By default, a temporary
directory called xvfb-run.PID (where PID is the process ID of
xvfb-run itself) is created in the directory specified by the
environment variable TMPDIR (or /tmp if that variable is
null or unset), and the tempfile(1) command is used to create a
file in that temporary directory called Xauthority.
- -h, --help
- Display a usage message and exit.
- -n servernumber, --server-num=servernumber
- Use servernumber as the server number (but see the -a,
--auto-servernum option above). The default is
99.
- -l, --listen-tcp
- Enable TCP port listening in the X server. For security reasons (to avoid
denial-of-service attacks or exploits), TCP port listening is disabled by
default.
- -p protocolname, --xauth-protocol=protocolname
- Use protocolname as the X authority protocol to use. The default is
‘.’, which xauth interprets as its own default
protocol, which is MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1.
- -s arguments, --server-args=arguments
- Pass arguments to the Xvfb server. Be careful to quote any
whitespace characters that may occur within arguments to prevent
them from regarded as separators for xvfb-run's own arguments.
Also, note that specification of ‘-nolisten tcp’ in
arguments may override the function of xvfb-run's own
-l, --listen-tcp option, and that specification of the
server number (e.g., ‘:1’) may be ignored because of
the way the X server parses its argument list. Use the
xvfb-run option
-n servernumber, --server-num=servernumber
to achieve the latter function. The default is ‘-screen 0
640x480x8’.
- -w delay, --wait=delay
- Ignored for compatibility with earlier versions.
ENVIRONMENT¶
- COLUMNS
- indicates the width of the terminal device in character cells. This value
is used for formatting diagnostic messages. If not set, the terminal is
queried using stty(1) to determine its width. If that fails, a
value of ‘80’ is assumed.
- TMPDIR
- specifies the directory in which to place xvfb-run's temporary
directory for storage of the X authority file; only used if the -f
or --auth-file options are not specified.
OUTPUT FILES¶
Unless the
-f or
--auth-file options are specified, a temporary
directory and file within it are created (and deleted) to store the X
authority cookies used by the
Xvfb server and client(s) run under it.
See
tempfile(1). If -f or --auth-file are used, then the specified X
authority file is only written to, not created or deleted (though
xauth
creates an authority file itself if told to use use that does not already
exist).
An error file with a user-specified name is also created if the
-e or
--error-file options are specifed; see above.
EXIT STATUS¶
xvfb-run uses its exit status as well as output to standard error to
communicate diagnostics. The exit status of ‘1’ is not used, and
should be interpreted as failure of the specified command.
- 0
- xvfb-run only uses this exit status if the -h, --help
option is given. In all other situations, this may be
interpreted as success of the specified command.
- 2
- No command to run was specified.
- 3
- The xauth command is not available.
- 4
- The temporary directory that was going to be used already exists; since
xvfb-run produces a uniquely named directory, this may indicate an
attempt by another process on the system to exploit a temporary file race
condition.
- 5
- A problem was encountered while cleaning up the temporary directory.
- 6
- A problem was encountered while using getopt(1) to parse the
command-line arguments.
EXAMPLES¶
- xvfb-run --auto-servernum --server-num=1 xlogo
- runs the xlogo(1x) demonstration client inside the Xvfb X
server on the first available server number greater than or equal to
1.
- xvfb-run --server-args="-screen 0 1024x768x24" ico
-faces
- runs the ico(1x) demonstration client (and passes it the
-faces argument) inside the Xvfb X server, configured with a
root window of 1024 by 768 pixels and a color depth of 24 bits.
Note that the demo X clients used in the above examples will not exit on their
own, so they will have to be killed before
xvfb-run will exit.
BUGS¶
See the Debian Bug Tracking System ⟨URL:
http://bugs.debian.org/xvfb
⟩. If you wish to report a bug in
xvfb-run, please use the
reportbug(1) command.
AUTHOR¶
xvfb-run was written by Branden Robinson and Jeff Licquia with
sponsorship from Progeny Linux Systems.
SEE ALSO¶
Xvfb(1x),
xauth(1x)