NAME

       vncviewer - VNC viewer for X

SYNOPSIS

       vncviewer [options] [host][:display#]
       vncviewer [options] -listen [port]

DESCRIPTION

       vncviewer  is a viewer (client) for Virtual Network Computing.  This manual page documents
       version 4 for the X window system.

       If you run the viewer with no arguments it will prompt you for a VNC server to connect to.
       Alternatively, specify the VNC server as an argument, e.g.:

              vncviewer snoopy:2

       where 'snoopy' is the name of the machine, and '2' is the display number of the VNC server
       on that machine.  Either the machine name or  display  number  can  be  omitted.   So  for
       example  ":1"  means  display  number 1 on the same machine, and "snoopy" means "snoopy:0"
       i.e. display 0 on machine "snoopy".

       If the VNC server is successfully contacted, you  will  be  prompted  for  a  password  to
       authenticate you.  If the password is correct, a window will appear showing the desktop of
       the VNC server.

AUTOMATIC PROTOCOL SELECTION

       The viewer tests the speed of the connection to the server and chooses  the  encoding  and
       pixel format (colour level) appropriately.  This makes it much easier to use than previous
       versions where the user had to specify arcane command line arguments.

       The viewer normally starts out assuming the link is slow, using a  low  colour  level  and
       using  the  encoding  with  the  best  compression.  If it turns out that the link is fast
       enough it switches to full-colour mode and will use an encoding which compresses less  but
       is  faster  to  generate, thus improving the interactive feel.  Automatic selection can be
       turned off by setting the AutoSelect parameter to false, or from the options dialog.

POPUP MENU

       The viewer has a popup menu containing entries  which  perform  various  actions.   It  is
       usually  brought up by pressing F8, but this can be configured with the MenuKey parameter.
       Actions which the popup menu can perform include:

         * switching in and out of full-screen mode

         * quitting the viewer

         * generating key events, e.g. sending ctrl-alt-del

         * accessing the options dialog and various other dialogs

       By default, key presses in the popup menu get sent to  the  VNC  server  and  dismiss  the
       popup.  So to get an F8 through to the VNC server simply press it twice.

FULL SCREEN MODE

       A  full-screen mode is supported.  This is particularly useful when connecting to a remote
       screen which is the same size as your local one. If the remote screen is bigger,  you  can
       scroll by bumping the mouse against the edge of the screen.

       Unfortunately  this mode doesn't work completely with all window managers, since it breaks
       the X window management conventions.

OPTIONS (PARAMETERS)

       You can get a list of parameters by giving -h  as  a  command-line  option  to  vncviewer.
       Parameters  can  be  turned  on with -param or off with -param=0.  Parameters which take a
       value can be specified as -param value.  Other valid forms  are  param=value  -param=value
       --param=value.  Parameter names are case-insensitive.

       Many  of  the parameters can also be set graphically via the options dialog box.  This can
       be accessed from the popup menu or from the "Connection details" dialog box.

       -display Xdisplay
              Specifies the X display on which the VNC viewer window should appear.

       -geometry geometry
              Standard X position and sizing specification.

       -listen [port]
              Causes vncviewer to listen on the given port (default 5500) for reverse connections
              from  a  VNC  server.  WinVNC supports reverse connections initiated using the 'Add
              New Client' menu option or  the  '-connect'  command-line  option.   Xvnc  supports
              reverse connections with a helper program called vncconfig.

       -XDialog
              Popup an X dialog when asking for server, username and password.  Default is to not
              popup when vncviewer is start from command line.

       -passwd password-file
              If you are on a filesystem which gives you access to the password file used by  the
              server,  you  can  specify  it  here  to  avoid  typing  it in.  It will usually be
              "~/.vnc/passwd".

       -Shared
              When you make a connection to a VNC server,  all  other  existing  connections  are
              normally  closed.   This  option  requests  that they be left open, allowing you to
              share the desktop with someone already using it.

       -ViewOnly
              Specifies that no keyboard or mouse events should be sent to the server.  Useful if
              you  want  to  view  a desktop without interfering; often needs to be combined with
              -Shared.

       -FullScreen
              Start in full-screen mode.

       -AutoSelect
              Use automatic selection of encoding and pixel format (default is on).  Normally the
              viewer tests the speed of the connection to the server and chooses the encoding and
              pixel format appropriately.  Turn it off with -AutoSelect=0.

       -FullColour, -FullColor
              Tells the VNC server to send  full-colour  pixels  in  the  best  format  for  this
              display.  By default a low colour mode is used until AutoSelect decides the link is
              fast enough.  However if the server's  native  pixel  format  is  colourmapped  (as
              opposed to truecolour) then the server's format is used by default.

       -LowColourLevel level
              Selects  the  reduced colour level to use on slow links.  level can range from 0 to
              2, 0 meaning 8 colours, 1 meaning 64 colours (the default), 2 meaning 256 colours.

       -PreferredEncoding encoding
              This option specifies the preferred encoding to use from one of  "ZRLE",  "hextile"
              or "raw".

       -UseLocalCursor
              Render  the  mouse  cursor locally if the server supports it (default is on).  This
              can make the interactive performance feel much better over slow links.

       -WMDecorationWidth w, -WMDecorationHeight h
              The total width and height taken up by window manager decorations.  This is used to
              calculate  the  maximum  size of the VNC viewer window.  Default is width 6, height
              24.

       -log logname:dest:level
              Configures the debug log settings.  dest can currently be  stderr  or  stdout,  and
              level  is between 0 and 100, 100 meaning most verbose output.  logname is usually *
              meaning all, but you can target a specific source file if you know the name of  its
              "LogWriter".  Default is *:stderr:30.

       -MenuKey keysym-name
              This option specifies the key which brings up the popup menu.  The key is specified
              as an X11 keysym name (these can be obtained by removing the XK_  prefix  from  the
              entries in "/usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h").  Default is F8.

       -via gateway
              Automatically create encrypted TCP tunnel to the gateway machine before connection,
              connect to the host through  that  tunnel  (TightVNC-specific).  By  default,  this
              option  invokes  SSH  local port forwarding, assuming that SSH client binary can be
              accessed as /usr/bin/ssh. Note that when using the -via option,  the  host  machine
              name should be specified as known to the gateway machine, e.g.  "localhost" denotes
              the gateway, not the machine where vncviewer was launched. The environment variable
              VNC_VIA_CMD      can     override     the     default     tunnel     command     of
              /usr/bin/ssh -f -L "$L":"$H":"$R" "$G" sleep 20.  The tunnel  command  is  executed
              with  the  environment  variables L, H, R, and G taken the values of the local port
              number, the remote host, the port number  on  the  remote  host,  and  the  gateway
              machine respectively.

SEE ALSO

       Xvnc(1), vncpasswd(1), vncconfig(1), vncserver(1)
       http://www.realvnc.com

AUTHOR

       Tristan Richardson, RealVNC Ltd.

       VNC  was  originally  developed  by the RealVNC team while at Olivetti Research Ltd / AT&T
       Laboratories  Cambridge.   It   is   now   being   maintained   by   RealVNC   Ltd.    See
       http://www.realvnc.com for details.