.\" $Id: xvfb-run.1 2138 2005-01-17 23:40:27Z branden $ .\" .\" Copyright 1998-2004 Branden Robinson . .\" .\" This is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify .\" it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as .\" published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, .\" or (at your option) any later version. .\" .\" This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but .\" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of .\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the .\" GNU General Public License for more details. .\" .\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License with .\" the Debian operating system, in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL; if .\" not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, .\" Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA .\" .\" We need the URL macro from groff's www macro package, but also want .\" things to work all right for people who don't have it. So we define .\" our own URL macro and let the www macro package override it if it's .\" available. .de URL \\$2 \(laURL: \\$1 \(ra\\$3 .. .if \n[.g] .mso www.tmac .TH xvfb\-run 1 "2004\-11\-12" "Debian Project" .SH NAME xvfb\-run \- run specified X client or command in a virtual X server environment .SH SYNOPSIS .B xvfb\-run [ .I options ] .I command .SH DESCRIPTION .B xvfb\-run is a wrapper for the .BR Xvfb (1x) command which simplifies the task of running commands (typically an X client, or a script containing a list of clients to be run) within a virtual X server environment. .PP .B xvfb\-run sets up an X authority file (or uses an existing user\-specified one), writes a cookie to it (see .BR xauth (1x)) and then starts the .B Xvfb X server as a background process. The process ID of .B Xvfb is stored for later use. The specified .I command is then run using the X display corresponding to the .B Xvfb server just started and the X authority file created earlier. .PP When the .I command exits, its status is saved, the .B Xvfb server is killed (using the process ID stored earlier), the X authority cookie removed, and the authority file deleted (if the user did not specify one to use). .B xvfb\-run then exits with the exit status of .IR command . .PP .B xvfb\-run requires the .B xauth command to function. .SH OPTIONS .TP .B \-a\fR,\fB \-\-auto\-servernum Try to get a free server number, starting at 99, or the argument to .BR \-\-server\-num . .TP .BI \-e\ file \fR,\fB\ \-\-error\-file= file Store output from .B xauth and .B Xvfb in .IR file . The default is .IR /dev/null . .TP .BI \-f\ file \fR,\fB\ \-\-auth\-file= file Store X authentication data in .IR file . By default, a temporary directory called .IR xvfb\-run. PID (where PID is the process ID of .B xvfb\-run itself) is created in the directory specified by the environment variable .B TMPDIR (or .I /tmp if that variable is null or unset), and the .BR tempfile (1) command is used to create a file in that temporary directory called .IR Xauthority . .TP .B \-h\fR,\fB \-\-help Display a usage message and exit. .TP .BI \-n\ servernumber \fR,\fB\ \-\-server\-num= servernumber Use .I servernumber as the server number (but see the .B \-a\fR,\fB \-\-auto\-servernum option above). The default is 99. .TP .B \-l\fR,\fB \-\-listen\-tcp Enable TCP port listening in the X server. For security reasons (to avoid denial\-of\-service attacks or exploits), TCP port listening is disabled by default. .TP .BI \-p\ protocolname \fR,\fB\ \-\-xauth\-protocol= protocolname Use .I protocolname as the X authority protocol to use. The default is \(oq.\(cq, which .B xauth interprets as its own default protocol, which is MIT\-MAGIC\-COOKIE\-1. .TP .BI \-s\ arguments \fR,\fB\ \-\-server\-args= arguments Pass .I arguments to the .B Xvfb server. Be careful to quote any whitespace characters that may occur within .I arguments to prevent them from regarded as separators for .BR xvfb\-run 's own arguments. Also, note that specification of \(oq\-nolisten tcp\(cq in .I arguments may override the function of .BR xvfb\-run 's own .B \-l\fR,\fB \-\-listen\-tcp option, and that specification of the server number (e.g., \(oq:1\(cq) may be ignored because of the way the X server parses its argument list. Use the .B xvfb\-run option .BI \-n\ servernumber \fR,\fB\ \-\-server\-num= servernumber to achieve the latter function. The default is \(oq\-screen 0 640x480x8\(cq. .TP .BI \-w\ delay \fR,\fB\ \-\-wait= delay Wait .I delay seconds after launching .B Xvfb before attempting to start the specified command. The default is 3. .SH ENVIRONMENT .TP .B COLUMNS indicates the width of the terminal device in character cells. This value is used for formatting diagnostic messages. If not set, the terminal is queried using .BR stty (1) to determine its width. If that fails, a value of \(oq80\(cq is assumed. .TP .B TMPDIR specifies the directory in which to place .BR xvfb\-run 's temporary directory for storage of the X authority file; only used if the .B \-f or .B \-\-auth\-file options are not specified. .SH "OUTPUT FILES" .PP Unless the .B \-f or .B \-\-auth\-file options are specified, a temporary directory and file within it are created (and deleted) to store the X authority cookies used by the .B Xvfb server and client(s) run under it. See .BR tempfile (1). If \-f or \-\-auth\-file are used, then the specified X authority file is only written to, not created or deleted (though .B xauth creates an authority file itself if told to use use that does not already exist). .PP An error file with a user\-specified name is also created if the .B \-e or .B \-\-error\-file options are specifed; see above. .SH "EXIT STATUS" .B xvfb\-run uses its exit status as well as output to standard error to communicate diagnostics. The exit status of \(oq1\(cq is not used, and should be interpreted as failure of the specified command. .TP 0 .B xvfb\-run only uses this exit status if the .B \-h\fR,\fB \-\-help option is given. In all other situations, this may be interpreted as success of the specified command. .TP 2 No command to run was specified. .TP 3 The .B xauth command is not available. .TP 4 The temporary directory that was going to be used already exists; since .B xvfb\-run produces a uniquely named directory, this may indicate an attempt by another process on the system to exploit a temporary file race condition. .TP 5 A problem was encountered while cleaning up the temporary directory. .TP 6 A problem was encountered while using .BR getopt (1) to parse the command\-line arguments. .SH EXAMPLES .TP .B xvfb\-run \-\-auto\-servernum \-\-server\-num=1 xlogo runs the .BR xlogo (1x) demonstration client inside the .B Xvfb X server on the first available server number greater than or equal to 1. .TP .B xvfb\-run \-\-server\-args="\-screen 0 1024x768x24" ico \-faces runs the .BR ico (1x) demonstration client (and passes it the .B \-faces argument) inside the .B Xvfb X server, configured with a root window of 1024 by 768 pixels and a color depth of 24 bits. .PP Note that the demo X clients used in the above examples will not exit on their own, so they will have to be killed before .B xvfb\-run will exit. .SH BUGS See .URL "http://bugs.debian.org/xvfb" "the Debian Bug Tracking System" . If you wish to report a bug in .BR xvfb\-run , please use the .BR reportbug (1) command. .SH AUTHOR .B xfvb\-run was written by Branden Robinson and Jeff Licquia with sponsorship from Progeny Linux Systems. .SH "SEE ALSO" .BR Xvfb (1x), .BR xauth (1x) .\" vim:set et tw=80: