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Xnest - a nested X server
Xnest
[-options]
Xnest is a client and a server. Xnest is a client
of the real server which manages windows and graphics requests on its behalf.
Xnest is a server to its own clients. Xnest manages windows and graphics
requests on their behalf. To these clients Xnest appears to be a conventional
server.
Xnest supports all standard options of the sample server
implementation. For more details, please see the manual page on your system
for Xserver. The following additional arguments are supported as well.
- -display
string
- This option specifies the display name of the real server that Xnest
should try to connect with. If it is not provided on the command line Xnest
will read the DISPLAY environment variable in order to find out the same
information.
- -sync
- This option tells Xnest to synchronize its window and
graphics operations with the real server. This is a useful option for debugging,
but it will slow down the performance considerably. It should not be used
unless absolutely necessary.
- -full
- This option tells Xnest to utilize full
regeneration of real server objects and reopen a new connection to the
real server each time the nested server regenerates. The sample server
implementation regenerates all objects in the server when the last client
of this server terminates. When this happens, Xnest by default maintains
the same top level window and the same real server connection in each new
generation. If the user selects full regeneration, even the top level window
and the connection to the real server will be regenerated for each server
generation.
- -class string
- This option specifies the default visual class
of the nested server. It is similar to the -cc option from the set of standard
options except that it will accept a string rather than a number for the
visual class specification. The string must be one of the following six
values: StaticGray, GrayScale, StaticColor, PseudoColor, TrueColor, or
DirectColor. If both, -class and -cc options are specified, the last instance
of either option assumes precedence. The class of the default visual of
the nested server need not be the same as the class of the default visual
of the real server; although, it has to be supported by the real server.
See xdpyinfo for a list of supported visual classes on the real server
before starting Xnest. If the user chooses a static class, all the colors
in the default colormap will be preallocated. If the user chooses a dynamic
class, colors in the default colormap will be available to individual clients
for allocation.
- -depth int
- This option specifies the default visual depth
of the nested server. The depth of the default visual of the nested server
need not be the same as the depth of the default visual of the real server;
although, it has to be supported by the real server. See xdpyinfo for a
list of supported visual depths on the real server before starting Xnest.
- -sss
- This option tells Xnest to use the software screen saver. By default
Xnest will use the screen saver that corresponds to the hardware screen
saver in the real server. Of course, even this screen saver is software
generated since Xnest does not control any actual hardware. However, it
is treated as a hardware screen saver within the sample server code.
- -geometry
WxH+X+Y
- This option specifies geometry parameters for the top level Xnest
windows. These windows corresponds to the root windows of the nested server.
The width and height specified with this option will be the maximum width
and height of each top level Xnest window. Xnest will allow the user to
make any top level window smaller, but it will not actually change the
size of the nested server root window. As of yet, there is no mechanism
within the sample server implementation to change the size of the root
window after screen initialization. In order to do so, one would probably
need to extend the X protocol. Therefore, it is not likely that this will
be available any time soon. If this option is not specified Xnest will
choose width and height to be 3/4 of the dimensions of the root window
of the real server.
- -bw int
- This option specifies the border width of the
top level Xnest window. The integer parameter must be a positive number.
The default border width is 1.
- -name string
- This option specifies the name
of the top level Xnest window. The default value is the program name.
- -scrns
int
- This option specifies the number of screens to create in the nested
server. For each screen, Xnest will create a separate top level window.
Each screen is referenced by the number after the dot in the client display
name specification. For example, xterm -display :1.1 will open an xterm client
in the nested server with the display number :1 on the second screen. The
number of screens is limited by the hard coded constant in the server sample
code which is usually 3.
- -install
- This option tells Xnest to do its own colormap
installation by bypassing the real window manager. For it to work properly
the user will probably have to temporarily quit the real window manager.
By default Xnest will keep the nested client window whose colormap should
be installed in the real server in the WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS property of
the top level Xnest window. If this colormap is of the same visual type
as the root window of the nested server, Xnest will associate this colormap
with the top level Xnest window as well. Since this does not have to be
the case, window managers should look primarily at the WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS
property rather than the colormap associated with the top level Xnest window.
Unfortunately, window managers are not very good at doing that yet so
this option might come in handy.
- -parent window_id
- This option tells Xnest
to use the window_id as the root window instead of creating a window. This
option is used by the xrx xnestplugin.
Starting up Xnest is as simple
as starting up xclock from a terminal emulator. If a user wishes to run
Xnest on the same workstation as the real server, it is important that
the nested server is given its own listening socket address. Therefore,
if there is a server already running on the user's workstation, Xnest will
have to be started up with a new display number. Since there is usually
no more than one server running on a workstation, specifying Xnest :1 on
the command line will be sufficient for most users. For each server running
on the workstation the display number needs to be incremented by one. Thus,
if you wish to start another Xnest, you will need to type Xnest :2 on the
command line.
To run clients in the nested server each client needs to be
given the same display number as the nested server. For example, xterm
-display :1 will start up an xterm in the first nested server and xterm
-display :2 will start an xterm in the second nested server from the example
above. Additional clients can be started from these xterms in each nested
server.
Xnest behaves and looks to the real server and
other real clients as another real client. It is a rather demanding client,
however, since almost any window or graphics request from a nested client
will result in a window or graphics request from Xnest to the real server.
Therefore, it is desirable that Xnest and the real server are on a local
network, or even better, on the same machine. As of now, Xnest assumes
that the real server supports the shape extension. There is no way to turn
off this assumption dynamically. Xnest can be compiled without the shape
extension built in, and in that case the real server need not support it.
The dynamic shape extension selection support should be considered in
further development of Xnest.
Since Xnest need not use the same default
visual as the the real server, the top level window of the Xnest client
always has its own colormap. This implies that other windows' colors will
not be displayed properly while the keyboard or pointer focus is in the
Xnest window, unless the real server has support for more than one installed
colormap at any time. The colormap associated with the top window of the
Xnest client need not be the appropriate colormap that the nested server
wants installed in the real server. In the case that a nested client attempts
to install a colormap of a different visual from the default visual of
the nested server, Xnest will put the top window of this nested client
and all other top windows of the nested clients that use the same colormap
into the WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS property of the top level Xnest window on
the real server. Thus, it is important that the real window manager that
manages the Xnest top level window looks at the WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS property
rather than the colormap associated with the top level Xnest window. Since
most window managers appear to not implement this convention properly as
of yet, Xnest can optionally do direct installation of colormaps into the
real server bypassing the real window manager. If the user chooses this
option, it is usually necessary to temporarily disable the real window
manager since it will interfere with the Xnest scheme of colormap installation.
Keyboard and pointer control procedures of the nested server change the
keyboard and pointer control parameters of the real server. Therefore, after
Xnest is started up, it will change the keyboard and pointer controls of
the real server to its own internal defaults. Perhaps there should be a
command line option to tell Xnest to inherit the keyboard and pointer control
parameters from the real server rather than imposing its own. This is a
future consideration.
Xnest as a server looks exactly like
a real server to its own clients. For the clients there is no way of telling
if they are running on a real or a nested server.
As already mentioned,
Xnest is a very user friendly server when it comes to customization. Xnest
will pick up a number of command line arguments that can configure its
default visual class and depth, number of screens, etc. In the future,
Xnest should read a customization input file to provide even greater freedom
and simplicity in selecting the desired layout. Unfortunately, there is
no support for backing store and save under as of yet, but this should
also be considered in the future development of Xnest.
The only apparent
intricacy from the users' perspective about using Xnest as a server is the
selection of fonts. Xnest manages fonts by loading them locally and then
passing the font name to the real server and asking it to load that font
remotely. This approach avoids the overload of sending the glyph bits across
the network for every text operation, although it is really a bug. The
proper implementation of fonts should be moved into the os layer. The consequence
of this approach is that the user will have to worry about two different
font paths - a local one for the nested server and a remote one for the
real server - since Xnest does not propagate its font path to the real server.
The reason for this is because real and nested servers need not run on
the same file system which makes the two font paths mutually incompatible.
Thus, if there is a font in the local font path of the nested server,
there is no guarantee that this font exists in the remote font path of
the real server. Xlsfonts client, if run on the nested server will list
fonts in the local font path and if run on the real server will list fonts
in the remote font path. Before a font can be successfully opened by the
nested server it has to exist in local and remote font paths. It is the
users' responsibility to make sure that this is the case.
Won't run well
on servers supporting different visual depths. Still crashes randomly. Probably
has some memory leaks.
Davor Matic, MIT X Consortium
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