Ubuntu Manpage: slrnface - show X-Faces in X11 terminal emulator

NAME

       slrnface - show X-Faces in X11 terminal emulator

SYNOPSIS

       slrnface  [  -xOffsetChar  x_char_offset  ]  [  -yOffsetChar y_char_offset ] [ -xOffsetPix
       x_pixel_offset ] [ -yOffsetPix y_pixel_offset ] [ -XFacePad left_padding ] [ -ink fg_color
       ] [ -paper bg_color ] [ -padColor pad_color ]

DESCRIPTION

       The  slrnface helper utility can be used from slrn(1), mutt(1) or similar programs to show
       X-Faces in Usenet articles or mail messages when those programs are run in an X11 terminal
       emulator. This utility is not intended to be run directly from the command line.  Instead,
       the master programs should be configured to invoke slrnface when appropriate.

       Different terminal emulators have different screen layouts. Some might have scroolbars (on
       either  side),  a  menubar  or  something  else. Terminal window which slrnface uses might
       contain some of these "decorations," but it is impossible to determine if that is the case
       at  run  time. Therefore it is impossible to determine the exact location at which the X11
       window with the X-Face image should be placed. Default hardcoded  values  are  appropriate
       for  several  terminal emulators, but not for all of them. The placement can be controlled
       by command line arguments, but it is suggested to use X resources for this task.

       While slrnface is running and showing X-Face, the left mouse button can be  used  to  move
       the window.

RESOURCES

The slrnface helper is controlled by the resources set for the terminal emulator in which
it runs, not for the slrnface class or instance. That is because correct execution
entirely depends on the master program and the geometry of the terminal emulator in use
and has little to do with slrnface itself. All resources have a command line parameter
equivalent.

However, a lot of popular terminal emulators have a certain amount of hardcoded brain
damage and setting X resources will not have any effect with them. This usually happens
because of illegal characters in the WM_CLASS property. In those cases command line
arguments are the only remaining option.

Resource Command line parameter Default value
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
slrnface.xOffsetChar -xOffsetChar 0
slrnface.yOffsetChar -yOffsetChar 1
slrnface.xOffsetPix -xOffsetPix 0
slrnface.yOffsetPix -yOffsetPix 2
slrnface.XFacePad -XFacePad 0
slrnface.ink -ink black
slrnface.paper -paper white
slrnface.padColor -padColor black

xOffsetChar
The horizontal offset for the X-Face window from the terminal's upper right corner
expressed in character units.

yOffsetChar
The vertical offset for the X-Face window from the terminal's upper right corner expressed
in character units. The exact value in pixels will be calculated at run time, as well as
the pixel equivalent for xOffestChar. There are some lousily coded terminals which are
not very helpful with this, so the calculation might not be perfect.

xOffsetPix
The horizontal offset for the X-Face window from the terminal's upper right corner
expressed in pixels.

yOffsetPix
The vertical offset for the X-Face window from the terminal's upper right corner expressed
in pixels. This value is added to the character offset provided by the yOffsetChar
resource and the resulting sum is substracted from the vertical coordinate of the
terminal's upper right corner. The equivalent calculation for the horizontal coordinate is
done with the xOffsetChar and xOffsetPix resources. In both cases, pixel value resources
are provided for finer control.

XFacePad
This value tells slrnface how many pixels should be cleared on the left side of the X-Face
image. In the case of long subject lines the image may be displayed over characters and
having some spacing between them would be beneficial.

ink
This is the foreground color for the X-Face image. The more common name for this resource
is foreground. However, that name is not used because there is a high probability that it
would be inherited from the terminal's resources. A lot of users use light foreground and
dark background for terminals. Since X-Faces should normally be viewed with dark
foreground on light background, inheriting the colors from the terminal setup would
present a negative image by default. In order to avoid that, slrnface uses different
resource name.

paper
This is the background color for the X-Face image.

padColor
This is the color for the padding region set with XFacePad resource.

EXAMPLES

       The following example demonstrates how to set resources for xterm.

   Example 1: horizontal offsets for xterm
       Since slrnface looks at the resources defined  for  the  terminal's  class  and  name,  an
       example setting is:

       xterm.slrnface.xOffsetChar:     1
       xterm.slrnface.xOffsetPix:      2

       It  is better to use the application name, rather than class, because some other terminals
       use XTerm as their class, since they try to be feature compatible. However, they might not
       have  the  same screen layout, so resources set for the terminal class might not yield the
       desired effect in all terminals.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       DISPLAY        The name of the display where the terminal runs. This environment  variable
                      is the only way to pass it to slrnface.

       WINDOWID       Used  for  determining terminal's X window id. It must be set by a terminal
                      emulator.

       LANG, LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES
                      These environment variables will be used when determining the  location  of
                      the appropriate resource file.

EXIT STATUS

       The  slrnface  helper doesn't print any diagnostic, because it doesn't know if that is the
       appropriate action. In cases when diagnostic output is  appropriate,  it  can't  guarantee
       that  the  output would be visible to the user. Therefore it returns distinct error status
       for every kind of problem and relies on the parent process to take the appropriate action.

       It should be noted that slrnface forks early in its execution. The  parent  process  exits
       immediately,  returning  success  status  to  its  parent.  The  child  process  continues
       execution, reading commands from the FIFO in the $HOME/.slrnfaces directory and  executing
       them  as  appropriate. In the case where there is a problem with the process' startup, the
       fork doesn't happen and  slrnface  exits  immediately,  returning  the  appropriate  error
       status. The following exit values are returned:

       0   Successful completion.

       1   slrnface couldn't connect to the display.

       2   Terminal  emulator  didn't  set  the  WINDOWID  environment  variable or its value was
           invalid.

       3   slrnface couldn't find its controlling terminal.

       4   Terminal's width or height are not set.

       5   There was a problem with the FIFO setup.

       6   fork(2) failed.

FILES

       $HOME/.slrnfaces/*  A named pipe used for communication between slrnface  and  the  master
                           proces.
       slrnface.sl         An example S-Lang hooks for setting up slrnface with slrn(1).

BUGS

       Multiple X-Faces are not supported.

AUTHOR

       Drazen Kacar <dave@willfork.com>

       Home page: http://dave.willfork.com/slrnface/

                                           28 Feb 2002                                slrnface(1)