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)