XSET(1) General Commands Manual XSET(1)
NAME
xset - user preference utility for X
SYNOPSIS
xset [-display display]
[-b] [b {on|off}] [b [volume [pitch [duration]]]]
[-bc] [bc]
[-c] [c {on|off}] [c [volume]]
[+dpms] [-dpms]
[dpms standby [ suspend [ off]]]
[dpms force {standby|suspend|off|on}]
[fp=pathlist] [-fp=pathlist] [+fp=pathlist] [fp-pathlist] [fp+pathlist]
[fp default] [fp rehash]
[-led [integer|named indicator]] [led [integer|named indicator]]
[led {on|off}]
[mouse [accel_mult[/accel_div] [threshold]]] [mouse default]
[p pixel color]
[-r [keycode]] [r [keycode]] [r {on|off}] [r rate delay [rate]]
[s [length [period]]] [s {blank|noblank}]
[s {expose|noexpose}] [s {on|off}] [s default] [s activate] [s reset]
[q]
[-version]
DESCRIPTION
This program is used to set various user preference options of the dis-
play.
OPTIONS
-display display
This option specifies the server to use; see X(7).
b The b option controls bell volume, pitch and duration. This op-
tion accepts up to three numerical parameters, a preceding
dash(-), or a 'on/off' flag. If no parameters are given, or the
'on' flag is used, the system defaults will be used. If the
dash or 'off' are given, the bell will be turned off. If only
one numerical parameter is given, the bell volume will be set to
that value, as a percentage of its maximum. Likewise, the sec-
ond numerical parameter specifies the bell pitch, in hertz, and
the third numerical parameter specifies the duration in mil-
liseconds. Note that not all hardware can vary the bell charac-
teristics. The X server will set the characteristics of the
bell as closely as it can to the user's specifications.
bc The bc option controls bug compatibility mode in the server, if
possible; a preceding dash(-) disables the mode, otherwise the
mode is enabled. Various pre-R4 clients pass illegal values in
some protocol requests, and pre-R4 servers did not correctly
generate errors in these cases. Such clients, when run against
an R4 server, will terminate abnormally or otherwise fail to op-
erate correctly. Bug compatibility mode explicitly reintroduces
certain bugs into the X server, so that many such clients can
still be run. This mode should be used with care; new applica-
tion development should be done with this mode disabled. The
server must support the MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD protocol exten-
sion in order for this option to work.
c The c option controls key click. This option can take an op-
tional value, a preceding dash(-), or an 'on/off' flag. If no
parameter or the 'on' flag is given, the system defaults will be
used. If the dash or 'off' flag is used, keyclick will be dis-
abled. If a value from 0 to 100 is given, it is used to indi-
cate volume, as a percentage of the maximum. The X server will
set the volume to the nearest value that the hardware can sup-
port.
-dpms The -dpms option disables Display Power Management Signaling
(DPMS) features.
+dpms The +dpms option enables Display Power Management Signaling
(DPMS) features.
dpms flags...
The dpms option allows the Display Power Management Signaling
(DPMS) parameters to be set. The option can take up to three
numerical values, or the `force' flag followed by a DPMS state.
The `force' flags forces the server to immediately switch to the
DPMS state specified. The DPMS state can be one of `standby',
`suspend', `off', or `on'. When numerical values are given,
they set the inactivity period (in units of seconds) before the
three modes are activated. The first value given is for the
`standby' mode, the second is for the `suspend' mode, and the
third is for the `off' mode. Setting these values implicitly
enables the DPMS features. A value of zero disables a particu-
lar mode.
fp= path,...
The fp= sets the font path to the entries given in the path ar-
gument. The entries are interpreted by the server, not by the
client. Typically they are directory names or font server
names, but the interpretation is server-dependent.
fp default
The default argument causes the font path to be reset to the
server's default.
fp rehash
The rehash argument resets the font path to its current value,
causing the server to reread the font databases in the current
font path. This is generally only used when adding new fonts to
a font directory (after running mkfontdir to recreate the font
database).
-fp or fp-
The -fp and fp- options remove elements from the current font
path. They must be followed by a comma-separated list of en-
tries.
+fp or fp+
This +fp and fp+ options prepend and append elements to the cur-
rent font path, respectively. They must be followed by a comma-
separated list of entries.
led The led option controls the keyboard LEDs. This controls the
turning on or off of one or all of the LEDs. It accepts an op-
tional integer, a preceding dash(-) or an 'on/off' flag. If no
parameter or the 'on' flag is given, all LEDs are turned on. If
a preceding dash or the flag 'off' is given, all LEDs are turned
off. If a value between 1 and 32 is given, that LED will be
turned on or off depending on the existence of a preceding dash.
``xset led 3'' would turn led #3 on. ``xset -led 3'' would turn
it off. The particular LED values may refer to different LEDs
on different hardware. If the X server supports the XKEYBOARD
(XKB) extension, leds may be referenced by the XKB indicator
name by specifying the `named' keyword and the indicator name.
For example, to turn on the Scroll Lock LED:
xset led named "Scroll Lock"
mouse The m option controls the mouse parameters; it may be abbrevi-
ated to 'm'. Of course, it applies to most pointing devices, not
just mice. The parameters for the pointing device are `accelera-
tion' and `threshold'. The acceleration can be specified as an
integer, or as a simple fraction. Threshold is just an integer.
The setting is applied to all connected pointing devices. xin-
put(1) should be used if you need device-specific settings.
By default the pointer (the on-screen representation of the pointing de-
vice) will go `acceleration' times as fast when the device travels more
than `threshold' mickeys (i.e. would-be pixels) in 10 ms, including a
small transition range. This way, the pointing device can be used for
precise alignment when it is moved slowly, yet it can be set to travel
across the screen in a flick of the wrist when desired. One or both pa-
rameters for the m option can be omitted, but if only one is given, it
will be interpreted as the acceleration. If no parameters or the flag
'default' is used, the system defaults will be set.
If the `threshold' parameter is provided and 0, the `acceleration' para-
meter will be used in the exponent of a more natural and continuous for-
mula, giving precise control for slow motion but big reach for fast mo-
tion, and a progressive transition for motions in between. Recommended
`acceleration' value in this case is 3/2 to 3, but not limited to that
range.
In the X.org X Server 1.6 and above, the behaviour described so far is
linked to the default profile. There are other profiles (i.e. functions
determining pointer acceleration from device velocity) and additional
settings, so the above description may not apply to non-default cases.
In the X.org Server 1.7, these are available as input device properties
(see xinput).
p The p option controls pixel color values. The parameters are
the color map entry number in decimal, and a color specifica-
tion. The root background colors may be changed on some servers
by altering the entries for BlackPixel and WhitePixel. Although
these are often 0 and 1, they need not be. Also, a server may
choose to allocate those colors privately, in which case an er-
ror will be generated. The map entry must not be a read-only
color, or an error will result.
r The r option controls the autorepeat. Invoking with "-r", or
"r off", will disable autorepeat, whereas "r", or "r on" will
enable autorepeat. Following the "-r" or "r" option with an in-
teger keycode between 0 and 255 will disable or enable autore-
peat on that key respectively, but only if it makes sense for
the particular keycode. Keycodes below 8 are not typically
valid for this command. Example: "xset -r 10" will disable au-
torepeat for the "1" key on the top row of an IBM PC keyboard.
If the server supports the XFree86-Misc extension, or the XKB
extension, then a parameter of 'rate' is accepted and should be
followed by zero, one or two numeric values. The first specifies
the delay before autorepeat starts and the second specifies the
repeat rate. In the case that the server supports the XKB ex-
tension, the delay is the number of milliseconds before autore-
peat starts, and the rate is the number of repeats per second.
If the rate or delay is not given, it will be set to the default
value.
s The s option lets you set the screen saver parameters. This op-
tion accepts up to two numerical parameters, a 'blank/noblank'
flag, an 'expose/noexpose' flag, an 'on/off' flag, an 'acti-
vate/reset' flag, or the 'default' flag. If no parameters or
the 'default' flag is used, the system will be set to its de-
fault screen saver characteristics. The 'on/off' flags simply
turn the screen saver functions on or off. The 'activate' flag
forces activation of screen saver even if the screen saver had
been turned off. The 'reset' flag forces deactivation of screen
saver if it is active. The 'blank' flag sets the preference to
blank the video (if the hardware can do so) rather than display
a background pattern, while 'noblank' sets the preference to
display a pattern rather than blank the video. The 'expose'
flag sets the preference to allow window exposures (the server
can freely discard window contents), while 'noexpose' sets the
preference to disable screen saver unless the server can regen-
erate the screens without causing exposure events. The length
and period parameters for the screen saver function determines
how long the server must be inactive for screen saving to acti-
vate, and the period to change the background pattern to avoid
burn in. The arguments are specified in seconds. If only one
numerical parameter is given, it will be used for the length.
q The q option gives you information on the current settings.
-version
The -version option prints the program version and exits without
doing anything else.
These settings will be reset to default values when you log out.
Note that not all X implementations are guaranteed to honor all of these
options.
SEE ALSO
X(7), Xserver(1), xmodmap(1), xrdb(1), xsetroot(1), xinput(1)
AUTHOR
Bob Scheifler, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
David Krikorian, MIT Project Athena (X11 version)
XFree86-Misc support added by David Dawes and Joe Moss
Manpage updates added by Mike A. Harris <mharris@redhat.com>
X Version 11 xset 1.2.5 XSET(1)
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