XSNOW(1) manual page

Table of Contents

Name

xsnow - let it snow on your desktop and windows

Description

Xsnow lets it snow on your desktop and windows (sic!).

Options

-display display_name: Drop the snowflakes on the given display. Make sure the display is nearby, so you can hear them enjoy...
-snowflakes num_snowflakes: This is the number of snowflakes. Default is 100, max is 1000.
-sc snowflake_color: Use the given string as the color for the flakes instead of the default "snow".
-bg background_color: Use the given string as the color for the background. Note that the usual default desktop pattern consisting of 50% white 50% black doesn't particularly look good with Xsnow.
-solidbg: When using solid colored backgrounds specifying this option MAY greatly improve performance. (Not on SUN Solaris 2.5.1 for example!)
-tc tree_color: Use the given string as the color for the trees.
-slc sleigh_color: This option is obsolete in version 1.41. Used to be the color for the sleigh. Santa has decided not to have you interfere with the color of his means of transportation any more.
-santa santa_size: There are 3 sizes of Santa: 0, 1 and 2. Default is 2. Thanks to Thomas Linder for the (big) Santa!
-santaspeed santa_speed: The speed Santa should not exceed if he doesn't want to get fined. The default speed for Santa size 0 is 1, for Santa 1 it's 2 and for Big Santa it's 4.
-santaupdatefactor factor: This is to slow down Santa with respect to the snow. Default the value is 3, meaning that Santa is moved only every third time the snow flakes move. Specifying zero here is considered very naughty.
-delay delay: This is the number of milliseconds delay after updating everything. Default is 50 milliseconds, i.e. 20 updates per second max.
-unsmooth: If you specify this option the snowflakes will 'whirl' more dramatically, resulting in a somewhat jerkier movement.
-whirl: This sets the whirl factor, i.e. the maximum adjustment of the horizontal speed. The default value is 4.
-nowind: Default it gets windy now and then. If you prefer it quiet specify -nowind.
-windtimer period: With -windtimer you can specify how often it gets windy. It's sort of a period in seconds, default value is 30.
-xspeed -yspeed: These options set the maximum horizontal and vertical speed. The default X maximum speed is 4, the default maximum Y speed is 8.
-wsnowdepth -ssnowdepth: This sets the maximum thickness of the snow on top of windows and at the bottom of the display respectively. The default snowdepth for windows is 15, at the bottom of the screen the default is 50.
-offset: With -offset you can specify that snow starts building up a number of pixels lower or higher. This is handy if you use twm and squeezed window titles.
-notrees: Do not display the trees.
-nosanta: Do not display Santa Claus running all over the screen.
-norudolf: No Rudolf.
-nokeepsnow: Do not have snow sticking anywhere.
-nokeepsnowonwindows: Do not keep snow on top of the windows.
-nokeepsnowonscreen: Do not keep snow at the bottom of the screen.
-nonopopup: Xsnow takes care to not let it snow on Pop-up windows, due to their nature. If however, you use an Xserver that has backing store on for all windows, then specify this option. Symptom would be that no snow is kept on any window, but only at the screen bottom.
-version: Prints the current Xsnow version and does not start Xsnow.

Examples

xsnow: Starts xsnow
xsnow&: (Mind the empersand) Starts xsnow as a background process. Use this if you start xsnow from a script. To stop xsnow find the process id (pid) as follows: ps -ef|grep xsnow and use the kill command to stop xsnow.
xsnow -bg SkyBlue3 -sc snow: Sets the background to a bluish color and lets it snow white.
xsnow -ssnowdepth 100: Starts with a thin layer of snow that gradually builds up at the bottom of the screen.
xsnow -santa 2 -santaspeed 10: Gives you the biggest Santa at a speed that is hardly legal.
xsnow -delay 100 -notrees: For slow systems use longer delay and don't draw the trees.
xsnow -snowflakes 1000 -delay 0: Uses the maximum number of snowflakes and runs as fast as possible.
xsnow -bg SkyBlue3 -solidbg: Sets the background to a bluish color and specify -solidbg for increased performance (depending on your system!).

Files

See /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt for the list of colors and their respective poetic names, like Chartreuse and SkyBlue3.

Authors

Rick Jansen (rja@euronet.nl)
WWW: http://www.euronet.nl/~rja/

Xsnow is available freely and you may give it to other people as is, but I retain all rights. Therefore it does not classify as 'Public Domain' software. However, it *is* allowed to package Xsnow for Unix/Linux distributions, CD-Roms etc, and to make the necessary changes to makefiles etc. to facilitate this.

Credits

Xsnow borrows some code from xroach by J.T. Anderson (jta@locus.com)

The big Santa was made by Thomas Linder (Thomas.Linder@gmx.net)

The idea and code for wind are from Eiichi TAZOE (tazoe@yamato.ibm.co.jp, tazoe@vnet.ibm.com).

Notes

System load
Xsnow itself doen't use very much CPU time, but it can load the X server and/or network quite substantially. Use less snowflakes and a bigger delay in such a case. On a standalone workstation there usually will not be be any problem. Another improvement can be to specify a solid background color with -bg and with this also specify the option -solidbg. This may greatly improve performance! DO check this though, on some systems (SUN Solaris 2.5.1) performance is much WORSE.

SGI Irix 5.x
Silicon Graphics and Irix 5.x users may not see any snow or Santa at all, as long the desktop icons are visible. To circumvent this problem issue this command:

/usr/lib/desktop/telldesktop quit

The icons will disappear and Xsnow will work perfectly. To restart the desktop just start /usr/lib/desktop/startdesktop or select Desktop->Home Directory from the toolchest.

It's even possible to have both - desktop icons and xsnow (and even multiple desks). You need to modify the window manager's resource file 4DWm, the file ~/.desktop-`hostname`/4DWm. Example:

*Global.backgroundDescription: -execute /etc/killall -TERM xsnow ; /usr/local/bin/xsnow
*Desk 1.backgroundDescription: -execute /etc/killall -TERM xsnow ; /usr/local/bin/xsnow
*Desk 2.backgroundDescription: -execute /etc/killall -TERM xsnow ; /usr/local/bin/xsnow

Restart the window manager (4Dwm) from the toolchest and Xsnow should appear. What this does is stop the currently running Xsnow and start a new one when you switch to another desktop.

HP and hp-ux
HP also uses a Workspace Manager which may interfere with Xsnow. If Xsnow does not appear: In the "Style Manager", choose "Backdrop" and select "NoBackdrop". You should now be able to run Xsnow.

Snow does not stick?
On black-and-white X terminals snow may not stick to windows because backing store is on. Try specifying the option -nonopopup when starting Xsnow.

Snow hovering above windows?
If you use twm it is possible you see the snow layer hovering a little bit above your windows. In that case set BorderWidth 0 in your .twmrc file. If you use windows with 'squeezed title bars' specify a -offset to get the snow on the windows itself.

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