1 .TH XWIN 1 __vendorversion__
3 XWin \- X Server for the Cygwin environment on Microsoft Windows
12 .I XWin is an X Server for the X Window System on the Cygwin environment
13 running on Microsoft Windows.
17 \fIXWin\fP can operate in five different and incompatible modes:
19 * \fISingle Window\fP: This is the default option. The X server
20 appears as a single Windows window and all X windows are contained
21 within this window. This mode requires an external window manager.
23 * \fINo Decoration\fP: This mode is like single window mode except
24 that the X server window does not have a title bar or border, thus
25 maximizing the amount of space available for X windows within the X
26 server window. This mode requires an external window manager.
28 * \fIFull Screen\fP: This mode is like single window mode except that
29 the X server window takes the full screen, covering completely the
30 Windows desktop. This mode requires an external window manager.
32 * \fIRootless\fP: The X server works on a window covering the whole
33 screen but the root window (traditionally covered with an X hatch
34 pattern) is hidden from view. This mode requires an external window
37 * \fIMulti-Window\fP: In this mode \fIXWin\fP uses its own integrated
38 window manager in order to handle the top-level X windows, in such a
39 way that they appear as normal Windows windows.
41 NOTE: \fIMulti-Window\fP mode will crash if an external window manager
42 such as \fItwm\fP or \fIfvwm\fP is launched since \fIMulti-Window\fP
43 uses its own internal window manager; all other modes require an
44 external window manager in order to move, resize, and perform other
45 operations on the individual X windows.
49 As it runs \fIXWin\fP writes messages indicating the most relevant events
51 from which it was called and to a log file that by default is located at
52 \fI/tmp/XWin.log\fP. This file is mainly for debugging purposes.
56 On startup \fIXWin\fP looks for the file \fI$HOME/.XWinrc\fP or, if
57 the previous file does not exist,
58 \fI/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/system.XWinrc\fP. \fI.XWinrc\fP allows setting
59 preferences for the following:
61 1- To include items into the menu associated with the \fIXWin\fP icon
62 which is in the \fIWindows\fP system tray. This functions in all
63 modes that have a tray icon.
65 2- To include items in the menu which is associated with the Windows
66 window that \fIXWin -multiwindow\fP produces for each top-level X
67 window. That can be done both for the generic case and for particular
70 3- To change the icon that is associated to the Windows window that
71 \fIXWin -multiwindow\fP produces for each top-level X-window. Again,
72 that can be done both for the generic case and for particular
75 The format of the \fI.XWinrc\fP file is given in the man page XWinrc(5).
79 In addition to the normal server options described in the \fIXserver(1)\fP
80 manual page, \fIXWin\fP accepts the following command line switches,
81 \fIall\fP of which are optional:
84 Enables the integration
85 between the Cygwin/X clipboard and Windows clipboard. Do not use in
86 conjunction with the \fIxwinclip\fP program.
88 .B "\-clipupdates \fInum_boxes\fP"
89 Specify an optional threshold, above which the boxes in a shadow
90 update operation will be collected into a GDI clipping region. The
91 clipping region is then used to do a single bit block transfer that is
92 constrained to the updated area by the clipping region. There is some
93 overhead involved in creating, installing, destroying, and removing
94 the clipping region, thus there may not be much benefit for a small
95 number of boxes (less than 10). It is even possible that this
96 functionality does not provide a benefit at any number of boxes; we
97 can only determine the usefulness of this feature through testing.
98 This parameter works in conjunction with engines 1, 2, and 4 (Shadow
99 GDI, Shadow DirectDraw, and Shadow DirectDraw Non-Locking,
102 .B "\-emulate3buttons \fItimeout\fP"
103 Emulate a three button mouse; pressing both buttons within
105 milliseconds causes an emulated middle button press. The default
107 is 50 milliseconds. Note that most mice with scroll wheel have middle
108 button functionality, usually you will need this option only if you have
109 a two button mouse without scroll wheel.
112 Create a depth 8 PseudoColor visual when running in depths 15, 16, 24,
113 or 32, collectively known as TrueColor depths.
114 At this date (April 2004) this option is not still operative.
116 .B "\-engine \fIengine_type_id\fP"
117 This option, which is intended for Cygwin/X developers,
118 overrides the server's automatically supported engine type. This
119 parameter will be ignored if the specified engine type is not
120 supported on the current system. The supported engine type ids are 1
121 - Shadow GDI, 2 - Shadow DirectDraw, and 4 - Shadow DirectDraw4.
122 Additionally, there is a barely functional experimental engine type id
125 .B "\-fullscreen [-depth \fIdepth\fP] [-refresh \fIrate_in_Hz\fP]"
126 Run the server in fullscreen mode, as opposed to the default windowed
129 .B "\-depth \fIdepth\fP"
130 Specify the color depth, in bits per pixel, to use when running in
131 fullscreen with a DirectDraw engine. This parameter is ignored if
132 \fB\-fullscreen\fP is not specified.
134 .B "\-refresh \fIrate_in_Hz\fP"
135 Specify an optional refresh rate to use when running in
136 fullscreen with a DirectDraw engine. This parameter is ignored if
137 \fB\-fullscreen\fP is not specified.
140 Write a help text to the console and to the log file.
143 Ignore keyboard and mouse input. This is usually only used for testing
144 and debugging purposes.
147 Enable [disable] a low-level keyboard hook for catching
148 special key combinations like Alt+Tab and passing them to the X
149 Server instead of letting \fIWindows\fP handle them.
152 Hide the Windows mouse cursor when the mouse is over any Cygwin/X
153 window (regardless of whether that window is active or inactive). This
154 prevents the Windows mouse cursor from being placed overtop of the X
157 .B "\-logfile \fIFile_Name\fP"
158 Change the log file from the default located at \fI/tmp/XWin.log\fP to
159 the one indicated by \fIFile_Name\fP.
161 .B "\-logverbose \fIlevel\fP"
162 Control the degree of verbosity of the log messages with the integer
163 parameter \fIlevel\fP. For \fIlevel\fP=0 only fatal errors are
164 reported, for \fIlevel\fP=1 (default) simple information about
165 configuration is also given, for \fIlevel\fP=2 a detailed log
166 information (including trace and debug output) is produced. Bigger
167 values will yield a still more detailed debug output. At this date
168 (April 2004) the option is still not fully operative; the default
169 value is 2 and the output is insensitive to the level value.
172 Create a root window that covers all monitors on a system with
176 Start the integrated \fIWindowsi\fP-based window manager, which launches each
177 top-level X window in its own \fIWindows\fP window. Not to be used together
178 with \fB\-rootless\fP nor \fB\-fullscreen\fP.
181 Do not give the Cygwin/X window a Windows window border, title bar,
182 etc. This parameter only applies to windowed mode screens, i.e., this
183 parameter is ignored when the \fB\-fullscreen\fP parameter is specified.
185 .B \-nounicodeclipboard
186 Do not use Unicode clipboard even if NT-based platform.
189 Run the server in rootless mode. Not to be used with \fB\-multiwindow\fP
190 nor with \fB\-fullscreen\fP.
192 .B "\-screen \fIscreen_number\fP \fIwidth\fP \fIheight\fP"
193 This parameter may be used to specify the
198 of one or several Cygwin/X screens; each Cygwin/X screen will be
199 opened in its own window. When using multiple screens, be sure not to
200 duplicate any screen numbers.
202 default behavior is to create a single screen that is roughly
203 the size of the current Windows display area.
204 Screen specific parameters, such as \fB\-fullscreen\fP, can be applied as a
205 default to all screens by placing those screen specific parameters
206 before any \fB\-screen\fP parameter. Screen specific parameters placed after
207 the first \fB\-screen\fP parameter will apply only to the immediately
208 preceeding \fB\-screen\fP parameter.
211 In windowed mode, allow screens bigger than the Windows desktop.
212 Moreover, if the window has decorations, one can now resize it.
215 Do not create a tray icon. Default is to create one
216 icon per screen. You can globally disable tray icons with
217 \fB\-notrayicon\fP, then enable it for specific screens with
218 \fB\-trayicon\fP for those screens.
221 Enable or disable the \fICtrl-Alt-Backspace\fP key combination as a
222 signal to exit the X Server. The \fICtrl-Alt-Backspace\fP key combination
223 is disabled by default.
226 Enable or disable the \fIAlt-F4\fP key combination as a signal to exit the
228 The \fIAlt-F4\fP key combination is enabled by default.
231 Disable the usage of the windows cursor and use the X11 software cursor instead.
232 .B \-silent-dup-error
233 If another instance of XWin is found running, exit silently and don't display
236 .B "\-xkblayout \fIlayout\fP"
238 .B "\-xkbmodel \fImodel\fP"
240 .B "\-xkboptions \fIoption\fP"
242 .B "\-xkbrules \fIrule\fP"
244 .B "\-xkbvariant \fIvariant\fp"
245 These options implement the xkeyboard extension for loading
246 a particular keyboard map as the X server starts. The behavior is similar
247 to the \fIsetxkbmap\fP program. The layout data is located at
248 \fI/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/\fP. Additional information is found in the
249 README files therein and in the man page of \fIsetxkbmap\fP. For example
250 in order to load a German layout for a pc105 keyboard one uses
253 .I " \-xkblayout de \-xkbmodel pc105"
255 Alternatively one may use the \fIsetxkbmap\fP program after XWin is
256 running or even the \fIxmodmap\fP program for loading the old-style
261 X(__miscmansuffix__), Xserver(1), xdm(1), xinit(1), XWinrc(1), setxkbmap(1)
266 and this man page still have many limitations. Some of the more obvious
269 - The display mode can not be changed once the X server has started.
271 - The XWin software is developing rapidly; it is therefore likely that
272 this man page is not up to date. It is always prudent to
273 look also at the output of \fIXWin -help\fP and to the Cygwin/X User Guide
274 at /usr/share/doc/cygwin-x-doc-x.x.x/ug/cygwin-x-ug.xxx in order to
275 check the options that are operative.
279 This list is by no means complete, but direct contributors to the
280 Cygwin/X project include (in alphabetical order by last name): Stuart
281 Adamson, Michael Bax, Jehan Bing, Lev Bishop, Dr. Peter Busch, Biju G
282 C, Robert Collins, Nick Crabtree, Early Ehlinger, Christopher Faylor,
283 John Fortin, Brian Genisio, Fabrizio Gennari, Alexander Gottwald, Ralf
284 Habacker, Colin Harrison, Matthieu Herrb, Alan Hourihane, Pierre A
285 Humblet, Harold L Hunt II, Dakshinamurthy Karra, Kensuke Matsuzaki,
286 Takuma Murakami, Earle F. Philhower III, Benjamin Riefenstahl, Suhaib
287 Siddiqi, Jack Tanner, and Nicholas Wourms.