.TH get\-edid 1 "2013-08-29"
.SH NAME
get\-edid, parse\-edid \- read\-edid tools to retrieve and interpret
monitor specifications using the VESA VBE DDC protocol
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B get\-edid
[\fIOPTIONS\fR] |
.B parse\-edid
.br
.B get\-edid
[\fIOPTIONS\fR] >
.I filename
.br
.B parse\-edid
<
.I filename
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.I read\-edid
utility comprises two tools:
.B get\-edid
and
.BR parse\-edid .
.PP
.B get\-edid
uses real mode calls to perform Data Display Channel (DDC) transfers, or
Linux i2c calls to perform Enhanced DDC transfers to retrieve information from
monitors, including identification strings, supported sync ranges, available
video modes, and video mode parameters. Such information can be useful for
configuring X Window System servers in certain cases.
.PP
.B get\-edid
returns the raw Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) block directly from
the monitor, so the
.B parse\-edid
command is available to interpret it and generate a human-readable block of
text information that can also be included in a X11 xorg.conf file.
.PP
Generally the output of
.B get\-edid
is piped directly to
.BR parse\-edid .
.PP
New in version 3.0.0,
.B get\-edid
takes a few options.
.TP
\fB\-b \fIBUS\fR, \fB\-\-bus \fIBUS
only scan the i2c bus \fIBUS\fR (if built with i2c support)
.TP
\fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-classiconly
only use the older VBE interface (if built with i2c and VBE support)
.TP
\fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-help
display a basic help message
.TP
\fB\-i\fR, \fB\-\-i2conly
only use the newer i2c interface (if built with i2c and VBE support)
.TP
\fB\-m \fINUM\fR, \fB\-\-monitor \fINUM
try to return information about monitor number \fINUM\fR (VBE only)
.TP
\fB\-q\fR, \fB\-\-quiet
do not output messages over stderr
.PP
.B parse\-edid
still does not take any options. \fB\-\-help\fR will show you which options
your build of \fIread\-edid\fR supports.
.SH AUTHOR
.I read\-edid
is originally the work of John Fremlin and others. Since 1.4.2, the new
maintainer and programmer has been Matthew Kern. Nearly all of the code for
this project, as well as this manual page, has been rewritten for 3.0.0 by
Matthew Kern. See AUTHORS for more details.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
Matthew Kern's \fIread\-edid\fR website at
<http://polypux.org/projects/read-edid>