Provided by: compton_0.1~beta2+20150922-1_amd64 bug

NAME

       compton - a compositor for X11

SYNOPSIS

       compton [OPTIONS]

WARNING

       This man page may be less up-to-date than the usage text in compton (compton -h).

DESCRIPTION

       compton is a compositor based on Dana Jansens' version of xcompmgr (which itself was
       written by Keith Packard). It includes some improvements over the original xcompmgr, like
       window frame opacity and inactive window transparency.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
           Get the usage text embedded in program code, which may be more up-to-date than this
           man page.

       -d DISPLAY
           Display to be managed.

       -r, --shadow-radius=RADIUS
           The blur radius for shadows, in pixels. (defaults to 12)

       -o, --shadow-opacity=OPACITY
           The opacity of shadows. (0.0 - 1.0, defaults to 0.75)

       -l, --shadow-offset-x=OFFSET
           The left offset for shadows, in pixels. (defaults to -15)

       -t, --shadow-offset-y=OFFSET
           The top offset for shadows, in pixels. (defaults to -15)

       -I, --fade-in-step=OPACITY_STEP
           Opacity change between steps while fading in. (0.01 - 1.0, defaults to 0.028)

       -O, --fade-out-step=OPACITY_STEP
           Opacity change between steps while fading out. (0.01 - 1.0, defaults to 0.03)

       -D, --fade-delta=MILLISECONDS
           The time between steps in fade step, in milliseconds. (> 0, defaults to 10)

       -m, --menu-opacity=OPACITY
           Default opacity for dropdown menus and popup menus. (0.0 - 1.0, defaults to 1.0)

       -c, --shadow
           Enabled client-side shadows on windows. Note desktop windows (windows with
           _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DESKTOP) never get shadow.

       -C, --no-dock-shadow
           Avoid drawing shadows on dock/panel windows.

       -z, --clear-shadow
           Zero the part of the shadow’s mask behind the window. Note this may not work properly
           on ARGB windows with fully transparent areas.

       -f, --fading
           Fade windows in/out when opening/closing and when opacity changes, unless
           --no-fading-openclose is used.

       -F
           Equals to -f. Deprecated.

       -i, --inactive-opacity=OPACITY
           Opacity of inactive windows. (0.1 - 1.0, disabled by default)

       -e, --frame-opacity=OPACITY
           Opacity of window titlebars and borders. (0.1 - 1.0, disabled by default)

       -G, --no-dnd-shadow
           Don’t draw shadows on drag-and-drop windows.

       -b, --daemon
           Daemonize process. Fork to background after initialization. Causes issues with certain
           (badly-written) drivers.

       -S
           Enable synchronous X operation (for debugging).

       --show-all-xerrors
           Show all X errors (for debugging).

       --config PATH
           Look for configuration file at the path. See CONFIGURATION FILES section below for
           where compton looks for a configuration file by default. Use /dev/null to avoid
           loading configuration file.

       --write-pid-path PATH
           Write process ID to a file.

       --shadow-red VALUE
           Red color value of shadow (0.0 - 1.0, defaults to 0).

       --shadow-green VALUE
           Green color value of shadow (0.0 - 1.0, defaults to 0).

       --shadow-blue VALUE
           Blue color value of shadow (0.0 - 1.0, defaults to 0).

       --inactive-opacity-override
           Let inactive opacity set by -i overrides the windows' _NET_WM_OPACITY values.

       --active-opacity OPACITY
           Default opacity for active windows. (0.0 - 1.0)

       --inactive-dim VALUE
           Dim inactive windows. (0.0 - 1.0, defaults to 0.0)

       --mark-wmwin-focused
           Try to detect WM windows (a non-override-redirect window with no child that has
           WM_STATE) and mark them as active.

       --mark-ovredir-focused
           Mark override-redirect windows that doesn’t have a child window with WM_STATE focused.

       --no-fading-openclose
           Do not fade on window open/close.

       --no-fading-destroyed-argb
           Do not fade destroyed ARGB windows with WM frame. Workaround of bugs in Openbox,
           Fluxbox, etc.

       --shadow-ignore-shaped
           Do not paint shadows on shaped windows. Note shaped windows here means windows setting
           its shape through X Shape extension. Those using ARGB background is beyond our
           control. Deprecated, use --shadow-exclude 'bounding_shaped' or --shadow-exclude
           'bounding_shaped && !rounded_corners' instead.

       --detect-rounded-corners
           Try to detect windows with rounded corners and don’t consider them shaped windows. The
           accuracy is not very high, unfortunately.

       --detect-client-opacity
           Detect _NET_WM_OPACITY on client windows, useful for window managers not passing
           _NET_WM_OPACITY of client windows to frame windows.

       --refresh-rate REFRESH_RATE
           Specify refresh rate of the screen. If not specified or 0, compton will try detecting
           this with X RandR extension.

       --vsync VSYNC_METHOD
           Set VSync method. VSync methods currently available:

           •   none: No VSync

           •   drm: VSync with DRM_IOCTL_WAIT_VBLANK. May only work on some (DRI-based) drivers.

           •   opengl: Try to VSync with SGI_video_sync OpenGL extension. Only work on some
               drivers.

           •   opengl-oml: Try to VSync with OML_sync_control OpenGL extension. Only work on some
               drivers.

           •   opengl-swc: Try to VSync with SGI_swap_control OpenGL extension. Only work on some
               drivers. Works only with GLX backend. Known to be most effective on many drivers.
               Does not guarantee to control paint timing.

           •   opengl-mswc: Try to VSync with MESA_swap_control OpenGL extension. Basically the
               same as opengl-swc above, except the extension we use.

           (Note some VSync methods may not be enabled at compile time.)

       --vsync-aggressive
           Attempt to send painting request before VBlank and do XFlush() during VBlank. Reported
           to work pretty terribly. This switch may be lifted out at any moment.

       --alpha-step VALUE
           X Render backend: Step for pregenerating alpha pictures. (0.01 - 1.0, defaults to
           0.03)

       --dbe
           Enable DBE painting mode, intended to use with VSync to (hopefully) eliminate tearing.
           Reported to have no effect, though.

       --paint-on-overlay
           Painting on X Composite overlay window instead of on root window.

       --sw-opti
           Limit compton to repaint at most once every 1 / refresh_rate second to boost
           performance. This should not be used with --vsync drm/opengl/opengl-oml as they
           essentially does --sw-opti's job already, unless you wish to specify a lower refresh
           rate than the actual value.

       --use-ewmh-active-win
           Use EWMH _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW to determine currently focused window, rather than
           listening to FocusIn/FocusOut event. Might have more accuracy, provided that the WM
           supports it.

       --respect-prop-shadow
           Respect _COMPTON_SHADOW. This a prototype-level feature, which you must not rely on.

       --unredir-if-possible
           Unredirect all windows if a full-screen opaque window is detected, to maximize
           performance for full-screen windows. Known to cause flickering when
           redirecting/unredirecting windows.  --paint-on-overlay may make the flickering less
           obvious.

       --unredir-if-possible-delay MILLISECONDS
           Delay before unredirecting the window, in milliseconds. Defaults to 0.

       --unredir-if-possible-exclude CONDITION
           Conditions of windows that shouldn’t be considered full-screen for unredirecting
           screen.

       --shadow-exclude CONDITION
           Specify a list of conditions of windows that should have no shadow.

       --fade-exclude CONDITION
           Specify a list of conditions of windows that should not be faded.

       --focus-exclude CONDITION
           Specify a list of conditions of windows that should always be considered focused.

       --inactive-dim-fixed
           Use fixed inactive dim value, instead of adjusting according to window opacity.

       --detect-transient
           Use WM_TRANSIENT_FOR to group windows, and consider windows in the same group focused
           at the same time.

       --detect-client-leader
           Use WM_CLIENT_LEADER to group windows, and consider windows in the same group focused
           at the same time.  WM_TRANSIENT_FOR has higher priority if --detect-transient is
           enabled, too.

       --blur-background
           Blur background of semi-transparent / ARGB windows. Bad in performance, with
           driver-dependent behavior. The name of the switch may change without prior
           notifications.

       --blur-background-frame
           Blur background of windows when the window frame is not opaque. Implies
           --blur-background. Bad in performance, with driver-dependent behavior. The name may
           change.

       --blur-background-fixed
           Use fixed blur strength rather than adjusting according to window opacity.

       --blur-kern MATRIX
           Specify the blur convolution kernel, with the following format:

               WIDTH,HEIGHT,ELE1,ELE2,ELE3,ELE4,ELE5...

           The element in the center must not be included, it will be forever 1.0 or changing
           based on opacity, depending on whether you have --blur-background-fixed. Yet the
           automatic adjustment of blur factor may not work well with a custom blur kernel.

           A 7x7 Gaussian blur kernel (sigma = 0.84089642) looks like:

               --blur-kern '7,7,0.000003,0.000102,0.000849,0.001723,0.000849,0.000102,0.000003,0.000102,0.003494,0.029143,0.059106,0.029143,0.003494,0.000102,0.000849,0.029143,0.243117,0.493069,0.243117,0.029143,0.000849,0.001723,0.059106,0.493069,0.493069,0.059106,0.001723,0.000849,0.029143,0.243117,0.493069,0.243117,0.029143,0.000849,0.000102,0.003494,0.029143,0.059106,0.029143,0.003494,0.000102,0.000003,0.000102,0.000849,0.001723,0.000849,0.000102,0.000003'

           May also be one of the predefined kernels: 3x3box (default), 5x5box, 7x7box,
           3x3gaussian, 5x5gaussian, 7x7gaussian, 9x9gaussian, 11x11gaussian. All Gaussian
           kernels are generated with sigma = 0.84089642 . You may use the accompanied
           compton-convgen.py to generate blur kernels.

       --blur-background-exclude CONDITION
           Exclude conditions for background blur.

       --resize-damage INTEGER
           Resize damaged region by a specific number of pixels. A positive value enlarges it
           while a negative one shrinks it. If the value is positive, those additional pixels
           will not be actually painted to screen, only used in blur calculation, and such. (Due
           to technical limitations, with --dbe or --glx-swap-method, those pixels will still be
           incorrectly painted to screen.) Primarily used to fix the line corruption issues of
           blur, in which case you should use the blur radius value here (e.g. with a 3x3 kernel,
           you should use --resize-damage 1, with a 5x5 one you use --resize-damage 2, and so
           on). May or may not work with --glx-no-stencil. Shrinking doesn’t function correctly.

       --invert-color-include CONDITION
           Specify a list of conditions of windows that should be painted with inverted color.
           Resource-hogging, and is not well tested.

       --opacity-rule OPACITY:'CONDITION'
           Specify a list of opacity rules, in the format PERCENT:PATTERN, like 50:name *=
           "Firefox". compton-trans is recommended over this. Note we do not distinguish 100% and
           unset, and we don’t make any guarantee about possible conflicts with other programs
           that set _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY on frame or client windows.

       --shadow-exclude-reg GEOMETRY
           Specify a X geometry that describes the region in which shadow should not be painted
           in, such as a dock window region. Use --shadow-exclude-reg x10+0-0, for example, if
           the 10 pixels on the bottom of the screen should not have shadows painted on.

       --xinerama-shadow-crop
           Crop shadow of a window fully on a particular Xinerama screen to the screen.

       --backend BACKEND
           Specify the backend to use: xrender, glx, or xr_glx_hybrid.  xrender is the default
           one.

           •   xrender backend performs all rendering operations with X Render extension. It is
               what xcompmgr uses, and is generally a safe fallback when you encounter rendering
               artifacts or instability.

           •   glx (OpenGL) backend performs all rendering operations with OpenGL. It is more
               friendly to some VSync methods, and has significantly superior performance on
               color inversion (--invert-color-include) or blur (--blur-background). It requires
               proper OpenGL 2.0 support from your driver and hardware. You may wish to look at
               the GLX performance optimization options below.  --xrender-sync and
               --xrender-sync-fence might be needed on some systems to avoid delay in changes of
               screen contents.

           •   xr_glx_hybrid backend renders the updated screen contents with X Render and
               presents it on the screen with GLX. It attempts to address the rendering issues
               some users encountered with GLX backend and enables the better VSync of GLX
               backends.  --vsync-use-glfinish might fix some rendering issues with this backend.

       --glx-no-stencil
           GLX backend: Avoid using stencil buffer, useful if you don’t have a stencil buffer.
           Might cause incorrect opacity when rendering transparent content (but never
           practically happened) and may not work with --blur-background. My tests show a 15%
           performance boost. Recommended.

       --glx-copy-from-front
           GLX backend: Copy unmodified regions from front buffer instead of redrawing them all.
           My tests with nvidia-drivers show a 10% decrease in performance when the whole screen
           is modified, but a 20% increase when only 1/4 is. My tests on nouveau show terrible
           slowdown. Useful with --glx-swap-method, as well.

       --glx-use-copysubbuffermesa
           GLX backend: Use MESA_copy_sub_buffer to do partial screen update. My tests on nouveau
           shows a 200% performance boost when only 1/4 of the screen is updated. May break VSync
           and is not available on some drivers. Overrides --glx-copy-from-front.

       --glx-no-rebind-pixmap
           GLX backend: Avoid rebinding pixmap on window damage. Probably could improve
           performance on rapid window content changes, but is known to break things on some
           drivers (LLVMpipe, xf86-video-intel, etc.). Recommended if it works.

       --glx-swap-method undefined/exchange/copy/3/4/5/6/buffer-age
           GLX backend: GLX buffer swap method we assume. Could be undefined (0), copy (1),
           exchange (2), 3-6, or buffer-age (-1).  undefined is the slowest and the safest, and
           the default value.  copy is fastest, but may fail on some drivers, 2-6 are gradually
           slower but safer (6 is still faster than 0). Usually, double buffer means 2, triple
           buffer means 3.  buffer-age means auto-detect using GLX_EXT_buffer_age, supported by
           some drivers. Useless with --glx-use-copysubbuffermesa. Partially breaks
           --resize-damage. Defaults to undefined.

       --glx-use-gpushader4
           GLX backend: Use GL_EXT_gpu_shader4 for some optimization on blur GLSL code. My tests
           on GTX 670 show no noticeable effect.

       --xrender-sync
           Attempt to synchronize client applications' draw calls with XSync(), used on GLX
           backend to ensure up-to-date window content is painted.

       --xrender-sync-fence
           Additionally use X Sync fence to sync clients' draw calls. Needed on nvidia-drivers
           with GLX backend for some users. May be disabled at compile time with NO_XSYNC=1.

       --glx-fshader-win SHADER
           GLX backend: Use specified GLSL fragment shader for rendering window contents. See
           compton-default-fshader-win.glsl and compton-fake-transparency-fshader-win.glsl in the
           source tree for examples.

       --force-win-blend
           Force all windows to be painted with blending. Useful if you have a --glx-fshader-win
           that could turn opaque pixels transparent.

       --dbus
           Enable remote control via D-Bus. See the D-BUS API section below for more details.

       --benchmark CYCLES
           Benchmark mode. Repeatedly paint until reaching the specified cycles.

       --benchmark-wid WINDOW_ID
           Specify window ID to repaint in benchmark mode. If omitted or is 0, the whole screen
           is repainted.

FORMAT OF CONDITIONS

       Some options accept a condition string to match certain windows. A condition string is
       formed by one or more conditions, joined by logical operators.

       A condition with "exists" operator looks like this:

           <NEGATION> <TARGET> <CLIENT/FRAME> [<INDEX>] : <FORMAT> <TYPE>

       With equals operator it looks like:

           <NEGATION> <TARGET> <CLIENT/FRAME> [<INDEX>] : <FORMAT> <TYPE> <NEGATION> <OP QUALIFIER> <MATCH TYPE> = <PATTERN>

       With greater-than/less-than operators it looks like:

           <NEGATION> <TARGET> <CLIENT/FRAME> [<INDEX>] : <FORMAT> <TYPE> <NEGATION> <OPERATOR> <PATTERN>

       NEGATION (optional) is one or more exclamation marks;

       TARGET is either a predefined target name, or the name of a window property to match.
       Supported predefined targets are id, x, y, x2 (x + widthb), y2, width, height, widthb
       (width + 2 * border_width), heightb, override_redirect, argb (whether the window has an
       ARGB visual), focused, wmwin (whether the window looks like a WM window, i.e. has no child
       window with WM_STATE and is not override-redirected), bounding_shaped, rounded_corners
       (requires --detect-rounded-corners), client (ID of client window), window_type (window
       type in string), leader (ID of window leader), name, class_g (= WM_CLASS[1]), class_i (=
       WM_CLASS[0]), and role.

       CLIENT/FRAME is a single @ if the window attribute should be be looked up on client
       window, nothing if on frame window;

       INDEX (optional) is the index number of the property to look up. For example, [2] means
       look at the third value in the property. Do not specify it for predefined targets.

       FORMAT (optional) specifies the format of the property, 8, 16, or 32. On absence we use
       format X reports. Do not specify it for predefined or string targets.

       TYPE is a single character representing the type of the property to match for: c for
       CARDINAL, a for ATOM, w for WINDOW, d for DRAWABLE, s for STRING (and any other string
       types, such as UTF8_STRING). Do not specify it for predefined targets.

       OP QUALIFIER (optional), applicable only for equals operator, could be ? (ignore-case).

       MATCH TYPE (optional), applicable only for equals operator, could be nothing (exact
       match), * (match anywhere), ^ (match from start), % (wildcard), or ~ (PCRE regular
       expression).

       OPERATOR is one of = (equals), <, >, <=, =>, or nothing (exists). Exists operator checks
       whether a property exists on a window (but for predefined targets, exists means != 0
       then).

       PATTERN is either an integer or a string enclosed by single or double quotes.
       Python-3-style escape sequences and raw string are supported in the string format.

       Supported logical operators are && (and) and || (or). && has higher precedence than ||,
       left-to-right associativity. Use parentheses to change precedence.

       Examples:

           # If the window is focused
           focused
           focused = 1
           # If the window is not override-redirected
           !override_redirect
           override_redirect = false
           override_redirect != true
           override_redirect != 1
           # If the window is a menu
           window_type *= "menu"
           _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE@:a *= "MENU"
           # If the window name contains "Firefox", ignore case
           name *?= "Firefox"
           _NET_WM_NAME@:s *?= "Firefox"
           # If the window name ends with "Firefox"
           name %= "*Firefox"
           name ~= "Firefox$"
           # If the window has a property _COMPTON_SHADOW with value 0, type CARDINAL,
           # format 32, value 0, on its frame window
           _COMPTON_SHADOW:32c = 0
           # If the third value of _NET_FRAME_EXTENTS is less than 20, or there's no
           # _NET_FRAME_EXTENTS property on client window
           _NET_FRAME_EXTENTS@[2]:32c < 20 || !_NET_FRAME_EXTENTS@:32c
           # The pattern here will be parsed as "dd4"
           name = "\x64\x64\o64"
           # The pattern here will be parsed as "\x64\x64\x64"
           name = r"\x64\x64\o64"

LEGACY FORMAT OF CONDITIONS

       This is the old condition format we once used. Support of this format might be removed in
       the future.

           condition = TARGET:TYPE[FLAGS]:PATTERN

       TARGET is one of "n" (window name), "i" (window class instance), "g" (window general
       class), and "r" (window role).

       TYPE is one of "e" (exact match), "a" (match anywhere), "s" (match from start), "w"
       (wildcard), and "p" (PCRE regular expressions, if compiled with the support).

       FLAGS could be a series of flags. Currently the only defined flag is "i" (ignore case).

       PATTERN is the actual pattern string.

CONFIGURATION FILES

       compton could read from a configuration file if libconfig support is compiled in. If
       --config is not used, compton will seek for a configuration file in
       $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/compton.conf (~/.config/compton.conf, usually), then ~/.compton.conf,
       then compton.conf under $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS (often /etc/xdg/compton.conf).

       compton uses general libconfig configuration file format. A sample configuration file is
       available as compton.sample.conf in the source tree. Most commandline switches each could
       be replaced with an option in configuration file, thus documented above.
       Window-type-specific settings are exposed only in configuration file and has the following
       format:

           wintypes:
           {
             WINDOW_TYPE = { fade = BOOL; shadow = BOOL; opacity = FLOAT; focus = BOOL; };
           };

       WINDOW_TYPE is one of the 15 window types defined in EWMH standard: "unknown", "desktop",
       "dock", "toolbar", "menu", "utility", "splash", "dialog", "normal", "dropdown_menu",
       "popup_menu", "tooltip", "notify", "combo", and "dnd". "fade" and "shadow" controls
       window-type-specific shadow and fade settings. "opacity" controls default opacity of the
       window type. "focus" controls whether the window of this type is to be always considered
       focused. (By default, all window types except "normal" and "dialog" has this on.)

SIGNALS

       •   compton reinitializes itself upon receiving SIGUSR1.

D-BUS API

       It’s possible to control compton via D-Bus messages, by running compton with --dbus and
       send messages to com.github.chjj.compton.<DISPLAY>. <DISPLAY> is the display used by
       compton, with all non-alphanumeric characters transformed to underscores. For DISPLAY=:0.0
       you should use com.github.chjj.compton._0_0, for example.

       The D-Bus methods and signals are not yet stable, thus undocumented right now.

EXAMPLES

       •   Disable configuration file parsing:

               $ compton --config /dev/null

       •   Run compton with client-side shadow and fading, disable shadow on dock windows and
           drag-and-drop windows:

               $ compton -cCGf

       •   Same thing as above, plus making inactive windows 80% transparent, making frame 80%
           transparent, don’t fade on window open/close, enable software optimization, and fork
           to background:

               $ compton -bcCGf -i 0.8 -e 0.8 --no-fading-openclose --sw-opti

       •   Draw white shadows:

               $ compton -c --shadow-red 1 --shadow-green 1 --shadow-blue 1

       •   Avoid drawing shadows on wbar window:

               $ compton -c --shadow-exclude 'class_g = "wbar"'

       •   Enable OpenGL SGI_swap_control VSync with GLX backend:

               $ compton --backend glx --vsync opengl-swc

BUGS

       Please report any you find to https://github.com/chjj/compton .

AUTHORS

       xcompmgr, originally written by Keith Packard, with contributions from Matthew Allum, Eric
       Anholt, Dan Doel, Thomas Luebking, Matthew Hawn, Ely Levy, Phil Blundell, and Carl Worth.
       Compton by Christopher Jeffrey, based on Dana Jansens' original work, with contributions
       from Richard Grenville.

RESOURCES

       Homepage: https://github.com/chjj/compton

SEE ALSO

       xcompmgr(1), compton-trans(1)