xset
(1)
Name
xset - user preference utility for X
Synopsis
/usr/bin/xset [-display display]
[-b] [b {on|off}] [b [volume [pitch [duration]]]]
[-bc] [bc]
[-c] [c {on|off}] [c [volume]]
[+dpms] [-dpms]
[dpms standby [ suspend [ off]]] [dpms force
{standby|suspend|off|on}]
[+fbpm] [-fbpm]
[fbpm force {standby|suspend|off|on}]
[fp=pathlist] [-fp=pathlist] [+fp=pathlist] [fp-pathlist]
[fp+pathlist]
[fp default] [fp rehash]
[-led [integer|named indicator]] [led [integer|named indica-
tor]]
[led {on|off}]
[mouse [accel_mult[/accel_div] [threshold]]] [mouse default]
[p pixel color]
[-r [keycode]] [r [keycode]] [r {on|off}] [r rate delay
[rate]]
[s [length [period]]] [s {blank|noblank}] [s {expose|noex-
pose}] [s {on|off}] [s default] [s activate] [s reset]
[q]
[-version]
Description
User Commands XSET(1)
NAME
xset - user preference utility for X
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/xset [-display display]
[-b] [b {on|off}] [b [volume [pitch [duration]]]]
[-bc] [bc]
[-c] [c {on|off}] [c [volume]]
[+dpms] [-dpms]
[dpms standby [ suspend [ off]]] [dpms force
{standby|suspend|off|on}]
[+fbpm] [-fbpm]
[fbpm force {standby|suspend|off|on}]
[fp=pathlist] [-fp=pathlist] [+fp=pathlist] [fp-pathlist]
[fp+pathlist]
[fp default] [fp rehash]
[-led [integer|named indicator]] [led [integer|named indica-
tor]]
[led {on|off}]
[mouse [accel_mult[/accel_div] [threshold]]] [mouse default]
[p pixel color]
[-r [keycode]] [r [keycode]] [r {on|off}] [r rate delay
[rate]]
[s [length [period]]] [s {blank|noblank}] [s {expose|noex-
pose}] [s {on|off}] [s default] [s activate] [s reset]
[q]
[-version]
DESCRIPTION
This program is used to set various user preference options
of the display.
OPTIONS
-display display
This option specifies the server to use; see X(5).
b The b option controls bell volume, pitch and dura-
tion. This option accepts up to three numerical
parameters, a preceding dash(-), or a 'on/off' flag.
If no parameters are given, or the 'on' flag is
used, the system defaults will be used. If the dash
or 'off' are given, the bell will be turned off. If
only one numerical parameter is given, the bell vol-
ume will be set to that value, as a percentage of
its maximum. Likewise, the second numerical parame-
ter specifies the bell pitch, in hertz, and the
third numerical parameter specifies the duration in
milliseconds. Note that not all hardware can vary
the bell characteristics. The X server will set the
characteristics of the bell as closely as it can to
the user's specifications.
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User Commands XSET(1)
bc The bc option controls bug compatibility mode in the
server, if possible; a preceding dash(-) disables
the mode, otherwise the mode is enabled. Various
pre-R4 clients pass illegal values in some protocol
requests, and pre-R4 servers did not correctly gen-
erate errors in these cases. Such clients, when run
against an R4 server, will terminate abnormally or
otherwise fail to operate correctly. Bug compati-
bility mode explicitly reintroduces certain bugs
into the X server, so that many such clients can
still be run. This mode should be used with care;
new application development should be done with this
mode disabled. The server must support the MIT-
SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD protocol extension in order for
this option to work.
c The c option controls key click. This option can
take an optional value, a preceding dash(-), or an
'on/off' flag. If no parameter or the 'on' flag is
given, the system defaults will be used. If the dash
or 'off' flag is used, keyclick will be disabled.
If a value from 0 to 100 is given, it is used to
indicate volume, as a percentage of the maximum.
The X server will set the volume to the nearest
value that the hardware can support.
-dpms The -dpms option disables DPMS (Energy Star) fea-
tures.
+dpms The +dpms option enables DPMS (Energy Star) fea-
tures.
dpms flags...
The dpms option allows the DPMS (Energy Star) param-
eters to be set. The option can take up to three
numerical values, or the `force' flag followed by a
DPMS state. The `force' flags forces the server to
immediately switch to the DPMS state specified. The
DPMS state can be one of `standby', `suspend',
`off', or `on'. When numerical values are given,
they set the inactivity period (in units of seconds)
before the three modes are activated. The first
value given is for the `standby' mode, the second is
for the `suspend' mode, and the third is for the
`off' mode. Setting these values implicitly enables
the DPMS features. A value of zero disables a par-
ticular mode. Note that standby is less than sus-
pend is less than off, if this condition is not met,
an error is produced.
+fbpm Enable frame buffer power management. NOTE: FBPM
timing is linked to DPMS, See DPMS for default
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User Commands XSET(1)
timeout values.
-fbpm Disable frame buffer power management. NOTE: Does
not affect DPMS timeouts.
fbpm force standby
Force to standby power level.
fbpm force suspend
Force to suspend power level.
fbpm force off
Force power to off.
fbpm force on
Force power to on.
fp= path,...
The fp= sets the font path to the entries given in
the path argument. The entries are interpreted by
the server, not by the client. Typically they are
directory names or font server names, but the inter-
pretation is server-dependent.
fp default
The default argument causes the font path to be
reset to the server's default.
fp rehash
The rehash argument resets the font path to its cur-
rent value, causing the server to reread the font
databases in the current font path. This is gener-
ally only used when adding new fonts to a font
directory (after running mkfontdir to recreate the
font database).
-fp or fp-
The -fp and fp- options remove elements from the
current font path. They must be followed by a
comma-separated list of entries.
+fp or fp+
This +fp and fp+ options prepend and append elements
to the current font path, respectively. They must
be followed by a comma-separated list of entries.
led The led option controls the keyboard LEDs. This
controls the turning on or off of one or all of the
LEDs. It accepts an optional integer, a preceding
dash(-) or an 'on/off' flag. If no parameter or the
'on' flag is given, all LEDs are turned on. If a
preceding dash or the flag 'off' is given, all LEDs
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User Commands XSET(1)
are turned off. If a value between 1 and 32 is
given, that LED will be turned on or off depending
on the existence of a preceding dash. ``xset led
3'' would turn led #3 on. ``xset -led 3'' would
turn it off. The particular LED values may refer to
different LEDs on different hardware. If the X
server supports the XKEYBOARD (XKB) extension, leds
may be referenced by the XKB indicator name by spec-
ifying the `named' keyword and the indicator name.
For example, to turn on the Scroll Lock LED:
xset led named "Scroll Lock"
mouse The m option controls the mouse parameters; it may
be abbreviated to 'm'. Of course, it applies to most
pointing devices, not just mice. The parameters for
the pointing device are `acceleration' and `thresh-
old'. The acceleration can be specified as an inte-
ger, or as a simple fraction. Threshold is just an
integer. The setting is applied to all connected
pointing devices. xinput(1) should be used if you
need device-specific settings.
By default the pointer (the on-screen representation of the
pointing device) will go `acceleration' times as fast when
the device travels more than `threshold' mickeys (i.e.
would-be pixels) in 10 ms, including a small transition
range. This way, the pointing device can be used for precise
alignment when it is moved slowly, yet it can be set to
travel across the screen in a flick of the wrist when
desired. One or both parameters for the m option can be
omitted, but if only one is given, it will be interpreted as
the acceleration. If no parameters or the flag 'default' is
used, the system defaults will be set.
If the `threshold' parameter is provided and 0, the `accel-
eration' parameter will be used in the exponent of a more
natural and continuous formula, giving precise control for
slow motion but big reach for fast motion, and a progressive
transition for motions in between. Recommended `accelera-
tion' value in this case is 3/2 to 3, but not limited to
that range.
In the X.org X Server 1.6 and above, the behaviour described
so far is linked to the default profile. There are other
profiles (i.e. functions determining pointer acceleration
from device velocity) and additional settings, so the above
description may not apply to non-default cases. In the X.org
Server 1.7, these are available as input device properties
(see xinput).
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User Commands XSET(1)
p The p option controls pixel color values. The
parameters are the color map entry number in deci-
mal, and a color specification. The root background
colors may be changed on some servers by altering
the entries for BlackPixel and WhitePixel. Although
these are often 0 and 1, they need not be. Also, a
server may choose to allocate those colors pri-
vately, in which case an error will be generated.
The map entry must not be a read-only color, or an
error will result.
r The r option controls the autorepeat. Invoking with
"-r", or "r off", will disable autorepeat, whereas
"r", or "r on" will enable autorepeat. Following
the "-r" or "r" option with an integer keycode
between 0 and 255 will disable or enable autorepeat
on that key respectively, but only if it makes sense
for the particular keycode. Keycodes below 8 are
not typically valid for this command. Example:
"xset -r 10" will disable autorepeat for the "1" key
on the top row of an IBM PC keyboard.
If the server supports the XFree86-Misc extension,
or the XKB extension, then a parameter of 'rate' is
accepted and should be followed by zero, one or two
numeric values. The first specifies the delay before
autorepeat starts and the second specifies the
repeat rate. In the case that the server supports
the XKB extension, the delay is the number of mil-
liseconds before autorepeat starts, and the rate is
the number of repeats per second. If the rate or
delay is not given, it will be set to the default
value.
s The s option lets you set the screen saver parame-
ters. This option accepts up to two numerical
parameters, a 'blank/noblank' flag, an 'expose/noex-
pose' flag, an 'on/off' flag, an 'activate/reset'
flag, or the 'default' flag. If no parameters or
the 'default' flag is used, the system will be set
to its default screen saver characteristics. The
'on/off' flags simply turn the screen saver func-
tions on or off. The 'activate' flag forces activa-
tion of screen saver even if the screen saver had
been turned off. The 'reset' flag forces deactiva-
tion of screen saver if it is active. The 'blank'
flag sets the preference to blank the video (if the
hardware can do so) rather than display a background
pattern, while 'noblank' sets the preference to dis-
play a pattern rather than blank the video. The
'expose' flag sets the preference to allow window
exposures (the server can freely discard window
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User Commands XSET(1)
contents), while 'noexpose' sets the preference to
disable screen saver unless the server can regener-
ate the screens without causing exposure events.
The length and period parameters for the screen
saver function determines how long the server must
be inactive for screen saving to activate, and the
period to change the background pattern to avoid
burn in. The arguments are specified in seconds.
If only one numerical parameter is given, it will be
used for the length.
q The q option gives you information on the current
settings.
-version
The -version option prints the program version and
exits without doing anything else.
These settings will be reset to default values when you log
out.
Note that not all X implementations are guaranteed to honor
all of these options.
SEE ALSO
X(5), Xserver(1), xmodmap(1), xrdb(1), xsetroot(1), xin-
put(1)
AUTHOR
Bob Scheifler, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
David Krikorian, MIT Project Athena (X11 version)
XFree86-Misc support added by David Dawes and Joe Moss
Manpage updates added by Mike A. Harris <mharris@redhat.com>
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Availability |x11/x11-server-utilities |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Interface Stability |Uncommitted |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
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