NAME

       twin - a Textmode WINdow environment

SYNTAX

       twin [OPTION [...]]

NOTE

       This  manual page uses some parts of /usr/local/share/doc/twin/Tutorial.  you should look at this file if
       you need further info.

DESCRIPTION

       Twin creates, draws and manages windows inside a text display.  It  implements  in  text  mode  the  same
       concepts that X11 does in graphics:

       a. draw on some kind of screen (tipically a computer monitor).

       b. allow multiple windows to coexist on the same screen, and draw independently on each of them.

       c.  talk  to  external  programs  (even on other machines) so that the programs receive keystrokes, mouse
       movements, etc. and can send back drawing commands.

       Twin runs on the linux console, inside itself, in a twin terminal and on X11: it  creates  a  window  and
       draws  in  it,  does not run inside an xterm or similar. It can also run on generic text terminals (ttys)
       using the termcap/ncurses driver, but it will work far from optimal.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              display this help and exit

       -V, --version
              output version information and exit

       -x, --excl
              start display as exclusive

       --nohw start in background without display

       --hw=<display>[,options]
              start with the given display (multiple -hw=... allowed)

       Currently known display methods:
               X[@<XDISPLAY>]
               xft[@<XDISPLAY>]
               twin[@<TWDISPLAY>]
               tty[@<tty device>]

FILES

       ~/.twinrc configuration file for the Twin user interface
       ~/.TwinAuth holds some magic data that clients use to  answer  the  challenge  received  from  twin.  See
       Security section.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       TWDISPLAY
              Specifies  the Twin server to be used.  Twin can create a window on another twin server and use it
              as display.

       DISPLAY
              Specifies the X11 server to be used.  Twin can create a window on an X11  server  and  use  it  as
              display.

SECURITY

       The  authorization  method  currently  used vaguely resembles Xauthority: the file .TwinAuth in your home
       directory holds some magic data that clients use to answer the challenge received  from  twin.   If  that
       data  is  wrong  or  the  file  doesn't  exist,  clients  can  connect to twin only using the unix socket
       (TWDISPLAY=:<something>) so they must run on the same machine as twin; remote programs won't be  able  to
       connect.   Also, the unix socket is set to permissions 600, so only the owner can connect to it (at least
       on Linux it works this way).  The `challenge' is actually an MD5 checksum verification: server sends  256
       bytes  of  random  data; client does MD5 of that data + .TwinAuth and sends MD5 back. If server agrees on
       MD5, it grants connection. This challenge method has an important feature: The contents of your .TwinAuth
       is NEVER transmitted through any socket. So, unless your home directory resides on an NFS filesystem, you
       can be sure that noone will be able to find the data contained in your .TwinAuth by  spying  the  network
       between twin and the clients you start. On the other hand, the connection between twin and clients is NOT
       encrypted,  so  it is easy to find out what you type and what you see in the client windows by spying the
       network as above.

EXAMPLES

       run a twin server, and let it try to autodetect the type of display (X11, tty or twin):

       twin

       run a twin server, specifying to create an X11 window to use as display:

       twin --hw=X

AUTHORS

       Massimiliano Ghilardi <paperinik@users.sourceforge.net>

SEE ALSO

                                                      0.6.3                                              twin(1)