Ubuntu Manpage: slrnface - show X-Faces in X11 terminal emulator

Provided by: slrnface_2.1.1-7build3_amd64

NAME

       slrnface - show X-Faces in X11 terminal emulator

SYNOPSIS

       slrnface  [  -xOffsetChar x_char_offset ] [ -yOffsetChar y_char_offset ] [ -xOffsetPix x_pixel_offset ] [
       -yOffsetPix y_pixel_offset ] [ -XFacePad left_padding ] [ -ink fg_color ] [ -paper bg_color ] [ -padColor
       pad_color ]

DESCRIPTION

       The slrnface helper utility can be used from slrn(1), mutt(1) or similar  programs  to  show  X-Faces  in
       Usenet articles or mail messages when those programs are run in an X11 terminal emulator. This utility is
       not intended to be run directly from the command line.  Instead, the master programs should be configured
       to invoke slrnface when appropriate.

       Different  terminal emulators have different screen layouts. Some might have scroolbars (on either side),
       a menubar  or  something  else.  Terminal  window  which  slrnface  uses  might  contain  some  of  these
       "decorations,"  but  it  is  impossible  to  determine  if  that is the case at run time. Therefore it is
       impossible to determine the exact location at which the X11  window  with  the  X-Face  image  should  be
       placed. Default hardcoded values are appropriate for several terminal emulators, but not for all of them.
       The  placement  can  be  controlled by command line arguments, but it is suggested to use X resources for
       this task.

       While slrnface is running and showing X-Face, the left mouse button can be used to move the window.

RESOURCES

The slrnface helper is controlled by the resources set for the terminal emulator in which it runs, not
for the slrnface class or instance. That is because correct execution entirely depends on the master
program and the geometry of the terminal emulator in use and has little to do with slrnface itself. All
resources have a command line parameter equivalent.

However, a lot of popular terminal emulators have a certain amount of hardcoded brain damage and setting
X resources will not have any effect with them. This usually happens because of illegal characters in the
WM_CLASS property. In those cases command line arguments are the only remaining option.

Resource Command line parameter Default value
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
slrnface.xOffsetChar -xOffsetChar 0
slrnface.yOffsetChar -yOffsetChar 1
slrnface.xOffsetPix -xOffsetPix 0
slrnface.yOffsetPix -yOffsetPix 2
slrnface.XFacePad -XFacePad 0
slrnface.ink -ink black
slrnface.paper -paper white
slrnface.padColor -padColor black

xOffsetChar
The horizontal offset for the X-Face window from the terminal's upper right corner expressed in character
units.

yOffsetChar
The vertical offset for the X-Face window from the terminal's upper right corner expressed in character
units. The exact value in pixels will be calculated at run time, as well as the pixel equivalent for
xOffestChar. There are some lousily coded terminals which are not very helpful with this, so the
calculation might not be perfect.

xOffsetPix
The horizontal offset for the X-Face window from the terminal's upper right corner expressed in pixels.

yOffsetPix
The vertical offset for the X-Face window from the terminal's upper right corner expressed in pixels.
This value is added to the character offset provided by the yOffsetChar resource and the resulting sum is
substracted from the vertical coordinate of the terminal's upper right corner. The equivalent calculation
for the horizontal coordinate is done with the xOffsetChar and xOffsetPix resources. In both cases, pixel
value resources are provided for finer control.

XFacePad
This value tells slrnface how many pixels should be cleared on the left side of the X-Face image. In the
case of long subject lines the image may be displayed over characters and having some spacing between
them would be beneficial.

ink
This is the foreground color for the X-Face image. The more common name for this resource is foreground.
However, that name is not used because there is a high probability that it would be inherited from the
terminal's resources. A lot of users use light foreground and dark background for terminals. Since
X-Faces should normally be viewed with dark foreground on light background, inheriting the colors from
the terminal setup would present a negative image by default. In order to avoid that, slrnface uses
different resource name.

paper
This is the background color for the X-Face image.

padColor
This is the color for the padding region set with XFacePad resource.

EXAMPLES

       The following example demonstrates how to set resources for xterm.

   Example 1: horizontal offsets for xterm
       Since slrnface looks at the resources defined for the terminal's class and name, an example setting is:

       xterm.slrnface.xOffsetChar:     1
       xterm.slrnface.xOffsetPix:      2

       It  is  better  to use the application name, rather than class, because some other terminals use XTerm as
       their class, since they try to be feature compatible. However,  they  might  not  have  the  same  screen
       layout, so resources set for the terminal class might not yield the desired effect in all terminals.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       DISPLAY        The name of the display where the terminal runs. This environment variable is the only way
                      to pass it to slrnface.

       WINDOWID       Used for determining terminal's X window id. It must be set by a terminal emulator.

       LANG, LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES
                      These  environment variables will be used when determining the location of the appropriate
                      resource file.

EXIT STATUS

       The slrnface helper doesn't print any diagnostic, because it doesn't know  if  that  is  the  appropriate
       action.  In  cases  when  diagnostic  output  is appropriate, it can't guarantee that the output would be
       visible to the user. Therefore it returns distinct error status for every kind of problem and  relies  on
       the parent process to take the appropriate action.

       It  should  be  noted  that  slrnface forks early in its execution. The parent process exits immediately,
       returning success status to its parent. The child process continues execution, reading commands from  the
       FIFO  in  the  $HOME/.slrnfaces directory and executing them as appropriate. In the case where there is a
       problem with the process' startup, the fork doesn't happen and slrnface exits immediately, returning  the
       appropriate error status. The following exit values are returned:

       0   Successful completion.

       1   slrnface couldn't connect to the display.

       2   Terminal emulator didn't set the WINDOWID environment variable or its value was invalid.

       3   slrnface couldn't find its controlling terminal.

       4   Terminal's width or height are not set.

       5   There was a problem with the FIFO setup.

       6   fork(2) failed.

FILES

       $HOME/.slrnfaces/*  A named pipe used for communication between slrnface and the master proces.
       slrnface.sl         An example S-Lang hooks for setting up slrnface with slrn(1).

BUGS

       Multiple X-Faces are not supported.

AUTHOR

       Drazen Kacar <dave@willfork.com>

       Home page: http://dave.willfork.com/slrnface/

                                                   28 Feb 2002                                       slrnface(1)