vncserver - start or stop a VNC server
/usr/bin/vncserver [:display#] [-name desktop-name] [-geometry widthx- height] [-depth depth] [-pixelformat format] [-fp font-path] [-fg] [-autokill] [Xvnc-options...] vncserver -kill :display#
vncserver(1) Virtual Network Computing vncserver(1)
NAME
vncserver - start or stop a VNC server
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/vncserver [:display#] [-name desktop-name] [-geometry widthx-
height] [-depth depth] [-pixelformat format] [-fp font-path] [-fg]
[-autokill] [Xvnc-options...]
vncserver -kill :display#
DESCRIPTION
vncserver is used to start a VNC (Virtual Network Computing) desktop.
vncserver is a Perl script which simplifies the process of starting an
Xvnc server. It runs Xvnc with appropriate options and starts a window
manager on the VNC desktop.
vncserver can be run with no options at all. In this case it will
choose the first available display number (usually :1), start Xvnc with
that display number, and start the default window manager in the Xvnc
session. You can also specify the display number, in which case vnc-
server will attempt to start Xvnc with that display number and exit if
the display number is not available. For example:
vncserver :13
Editing the file $HOME/.vnc/xstartup allows you to change the applica-
tions run at startup (but note that this will not affect an existing
VNC session.)
OPTIONS
You can get a list of options by passing -h as an option to vncserver.
In addition to the options listed below, any unrecognised options will
be passed to Xvnc - see the Xvnc man page, or "Xvnc -help", for
details.
-name desktop-name
Each VNC desktop has a name which may be displayed by the
viewer. The desktop name defaults to "host:display# (username)",
but you can change it with this option. The desktop name option
is passed to the xstartup script via the $VNCDESKTOP environment
variable, which allows you to run a different set of applica-
tions depending on the name of the desktop.
-geometry widthxheight
Specify the size of the VNC desktop to be created. Default is
1024x768.
-depth depth
Specify the pixel depth (in bits) of the VNC desktop to be cre-
ated. Default is 24. Other possible values are 8, 15 and 16 -
anything else is likely to cause strange behaviour by applica-
tions.
-pixelformat format
Specify pixel format for Xvnc to use (BGRnnn or RGBnnn). The
default for depth 8 is BGR233 (meaning the most significant two
bits represent blue, the next three green, and the least signif-
icant three represent red), the default for depth 16 is RGB565,
and the default for depth 24 is RGB888.
-cc 3 As an alternative to the default TrueColor visual, this allows
you to run an Xvnc server with a PseudoColor visual (i.e. one
which uses a color map or palette), which can be useful for run-
ning some old X applications which only work on such a display.
Values other than 3 (PseudoColor) and 4 (TrueColor) for the -cc
option may result in strange behaviour, and PseudoColor desktops
must have an 8-bit depth.
-httpd Instruct Xvnc to run a mini-httpd if the VNC Java applet is
found.
-kill :display#
This kills a VNC desktop previously started with vncserver. It
does this by killing the Xvnc process, whose process ID is
stored in the file "$HOME/.vnc/host:display#.pid". The -kill
option ignores anything preceding the first colon (":") in the
display argument. Thus, you can invoke "vncserver -kill $DIS-
PLAY", for example at the end of your xstartup file after a par-
ticular application exits.
-fp font-path
If the vncserver script detects that the X Font Server (XFS) is
running, it will attempt to start Xvnc and configure Xvnc to use
XFS for font handling. Otherwise, if XFS is not running, the
vncserver script will attempt to start Xvnc and allow Xvnc to
use its own preferred method of font handling (which may be a
hard-coded font path or, on more recent systems, a font cata-
log.) In any case, if Xvnc fails to start, the vncserver script
will then attempt to determine an appropriate X font path for
this system and start Xvnc using that font path.
The -fp argument allows you to override the above fallback logic
and specify a font path for Xvnc to use.
-fg Runs Xvnc as a foreground process. This has two effects: (1)
The VNC server can be aborted with CTRL-C, and (2) the VNC
server will exit as soon as the user logs out of the window man-
ager in the VNC session. This may be necessary when launching
TigerVNC from within certain grid computing environments.
-autokill
Automatically kill Xvnc whenever the xstartup script exits. In
most cases, this has the effect of terminating Xvnc when the
user logs out of the window manager.
FILES
Several VNC-related files are found in the directory $HOME/.vnc:
$HOME/.vnc/xstartup
A shell script specifying X applications to be run when a VNC
desktop is started. If this file does not exist, then vncserver
will create a default xstartup script which attempts to launch
your chosen window manager.
$HOME/.vnc/passwd
The VNC password file.
$HOME/.vnc/host:display#.log
The log file for Xvnc and applications started in xstartup.
$HOME/.vnc/host:display#.pid
Identifies the Xvnc process ID, used by the -kill option.
SEE ALSO
vncviewer(1), vncpasswd(1), vncconfig(1), Xvnc(1)
http://www.tigervnc.org
AUTHOR
Tristan Richardson, RealVNC Ltd.
D. R. Commander
VNC was originally developed by the RealVNC team while at Olivetti
Research Ltd / AT&T Laboratories Cambridge. TightVNC additions were
implemented by Constantin Kaplinsky. Many other people participated in
development, testing and support.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Availability |x11/server/xvnc |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Interface Stability |Volatile |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
TigerVNC 13 Mar 2011 vncserver(1)