NAME

xsnow - Snow and Santa on your desktop

SYNOPSIS

xsnow [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION

Xsnow shows an animation of Santa and snow on your desktop. Xsnow can also run in one or more windows, see options -xwininfo, -id . (These options only work satisfactorily in an X11 environment.) Xsnow depends on an X11 environment. This is forced by setting the environment variable GDK_BACKEND=x11 before initializing the GTK. Hopefully, this will ensure that xsnow also runs in a Wayland environment for some time.

If xsnow is misbehaving, try to remove the file $HOME/.xsnowrc.

General options:

Below:
<n> denotes an unsigned decimal (e.g 123) or octal (e.g. 017) or hex (e.g. 0x50009) number.
<c> denotes a string like "red" or "#123456".
<f> denotes a file name, like "/home/rick/Pictures/background.jpg".

-h, -help: print this text.
-H, -manpage: print man page.
-v, -version: prints version of xsnow.
-changelog: prints ChangeLog.
-selfrep: put tar ball on stdout, so you can do:
xsnow -selfrep > xsnow.tar.gz
-display name: Drop the snowflakes on the given display. Make sure the display is nearby, so you can hear them enjoy...
-vintage: Run xsnow in vintage settings.
-defaults: Do not read config file (see FILES).
-noconfig: Do not read or write config file (see FILES).
-hidemenu: Start with hidden interactive menu.
-nomenu: Do not show interactive menu.
-scale <n>: Apply scalefactor (default: 100).
-doublebuffer <n>: 1: use double buffering; 0: do not use double buffering (default: 1). Only effective with '-root' or '-id' or '-xwininfo'.
-transparency <n>: Transparency in (default: 0)
-theme <n>: 1: use xsnow theme for menu; 0: use system theme (default: 1)
-checkgtk <n>: 0: Do not check gtk version before starting the user interface. 1: Check gtk version before starting the user interface. (default: 1).
-id <n>, -window-id <n>: Snow in window with id (for example from xwininfo).
-desktop: Act as if window is a desktop.
-allworkspaces <n>: 0: use one desktop for snow, 1: use all desktops (default: 1).
-above: Snow above your windows. Default is to snow below your windows. NOTE: in some environments this results in an un-clickable desktop.
-xwininfo: Use a cursor to point at the window you want the snow to be fallen in.
-stopafter <n>: Stop xsnow after so many seconds.
-root: Force to paint on (virtual) root window.
Use this for xscreensaver:
Make sure xscreensaver is running, either as a start-up application
or from the command line, e.g: nohup xscreensaver &
or nohup xscreensaver -no-capture-stderr &
Run the program xscreensaver-demo to create the file ~/.xscreensaver
In the file ~.xscreensaver add after the line 'programs:' this line: xsnow -root
Use the program xscreensaver-demo to select xsnow as screensaver.
You probably want to select: Mode: Only One Screen Saver.
-bg <f>: file to be used as background when running under xscreensaver.
-noisy: Write extra info about some mouse clicks, X errors etc, to stdout.
-cpuload <n>: How busy is your system with xsnow: the higher, the more load on the system (default: 100).

Snow options:

-snowflakes <n>: The higher, the more snowflakes are generated per second. Default: 100.
-blowsnow: (Default) Animate blow-off snow.
-noblowsnow: Do not animate blowing snow from trees or windows
-sc <c>: Use the given string as color for the flakes (default: #fffafa).
-snowspeedfactor <n>: Multiply the speed of snow with this number/100 (default: 100).
-snowsize <n>: Set size of (non-vintage) snow flakes (default: 8).
-snow: (Default) Show snow.
-nosnow -nosnowflakes: Do not show snow.
-flakecountmax <n>: Maximum number of active flakes (default: 300).
-blowofffactor <n>: The higher, the more snow is generated in blow-off scenarios (default: 40).

Tree options:

-treetype <n>[,<n> ...]: Choose tree types: minimum 0, maximum 7 (default: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,). Thanks to Carla Vermin for numbers >=3! Credits: Image by b0red on Pixabay.
-treetype all: (Default) Use all non-vintage available tree types.
-tc <c>: Use the given string as the color for the vintage tree (default: #7fff00). Works only for treetype 0.
-notrees: Do not display the trees.
-showtrees: (Default) Display the trees.
-trees <n>: Desired number of trees. Default 10.
-treefill <n>: Region in percents of the height of the window where trees grow (default: 30).
-treeoverlap: Allow scenery items to overlap each other (default).
-notreeoverlap: Do not allow scenery items to overlap each other.

Santa options:

-showsanta: (Default) Display Santa running all over the screen.
-nosanta: Do not display Santa running all over the screen.
-showrudolph: (Default) With Rudolph.
-norudolph: No Rudolph.
-santa <n>: The minimum size of Santa is 0, the maximum size is 4. Default is 3. Thanks to Thomas Linder for the (big) Santa 2! Santa 3 is derived from Santa 2, and shows the required eight reindeer. The appearance of Santa 4 may be a surprise, thanks to Carla Vermin for this one.
-santaspeedfactor <n>: The speed Santa should not be excessive if he doesn't want to get fined. The appropriate speed for the Santa chosen will be multiplied by santaspeedfactor/100 (default: 100).

Celestial options:

-wind: (Default) It will get windy now and then.
-nowind: By default it gets windy now and then. If you prefer quiet weather specify -nowind.
-whirlfactor <n>: This sets the whirl factor, i.e. the maximum adjustment of the horizontal speed. The default value is 100.
-windtimer <n>: With -windtimer you can specify how often it gets windy. It's sort of a period in seconds, default value is 30.
-stars <n>: The number of stars (default: 20).
-meteorites: (Default) Show meteorites.
-nometeorites: Do not show meteorites.
-moon <n>: 1: show moon, 0: do not show moon (default: 1).
Picture of moon thanks to Pedro Lasta on Unsplash.
https://unsplash.com/photos/wCujVcf0JDw
-moonspeed <n>: Speed of moon in pixels/minute (default: 120).
-moonsize <n>: Realtive size of moon (default: 100).
-halo <n>: 1: show halo around moon, 0: do not show halo (default: 1).
-halobrightness <n>: Brightness of halo (default: 25).

Fallen snow options:

-wsnowdepth <n>: Maximum thickness of snow on top of windows (default: 30).
-ssnowdepth <n>: Maximum thickness of snow at the bottom of the screen (default: 50).
-maxontrees <n>: Maximum number of flakes on trees. Default 200.
-keepsnowonwindows: (Default) Keep snow on top of the windows.
-nokeepsnowonwindows: Do not keep snow on top of the windows.
-keepsnowonscreen: (Default) Keep snow at the bottom of the screen.
-nokeepsnowonscreen: Do not keep snow at the bottom of the screen.
-keepsnowontrees: (Default) Keep snow on trees.
-nokeepsnowontrees: Do not keep snow on trees.
-keepsnow: (Default) Have snow sticking anywhere.
-nokeepsnow: Do not have snow sticking anywhere.
-fluffy: (Default) Create fluff on fallen snow.
-nofluffy: Do not create fluff on fallen snow.
-offsetx <n>: Correction for window-manager provided x-coordinate of window. Default 4.
-offsety <n>: Correction for window-manager provided y-coordinate of window. Default 0.
-offsetw <n>: Correction for window-manager provided width of window. Default -8.
-offsets <n>: Correction for bottom coordinate of your screen. A negative value lifts the xsnow screen up. Default 0.
-ignoretop <n>: Do not collect snow on window > 0.8*width of screen and closer than <n> pixels from the top. Sometimes an hidden window is sitting there, but treated as a normal window by xsnow. Default 0.
-ignorebottom <n>: Analog to -ignoretop, but now for the bottom. Default 0.

Birds options:

-anarchy <n>: Anarchy factor ( 0..100 default: 50).
-birdscolor <c>: Use the given string as color for the birds (default: #361A07).
-birdsonly <n>: Show only birds ( 0/1 default: 0).
-birdsspeed <n>: Speed of birds ( 0..300 default: 100).
-disweight <n>: Eagerness to keep desired distance ( 0..100 default: 20).
-focuscentre <n>: Eagerness to fly to the focus ( 0..300 default: 100).
-followneighbours <n>: Eagerness to follow neighbours ( 0..100 default: 30).
-nbirds <n>: Number of birds ( 0..400 default: 70).
-neighbours <n>: Number of neighbours to watch ( 0..20 default: 7).
-prefdistance <n>: Preferred distance to neighbours ( 0..100 default: 40).
-showbirds <n>: Show birds ( 0/1 default: 1).
-showattr <n>: Show attraction point ( 0/1 default: 0).
-attrspace <n>: Vertical space to be used by the attraction point (default: 40).
-followsanta <n>: Birds like Santa ( 0/1 default: 0).
-viewingdistance <n>: Viewing distance ( 0..95 default: 40).
-birdsscale <n>: Scalefactor used painting the birds (default: 100).

FILES

$HOME/.xsnowrc: Settings are read from and written to this file. See flags -noconfig and -defaults how to influence this behaviour. NOTE: the following settings are not read or written: -above -defaults -desktop -fullscreen -noconfig -id -nomenu -stopafter -xwininfo -display -noisy -checkgtk
$HOME/xsnow/pixmaps/tree.xpm: If present, xsnow will try this file for displaying the trees. The format must be xpm (X PixMap) format, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_PixMap . NOTE: when this file is present, no menu will appear.
$HOME/xsnow/pixmaps/santa<n>.xpm: where <n> = 1,2,3,4. If present, xsnow will try this files (4 of them) for displaying Santa. The format must be xpm (X PixMap) format, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_PixMap . NOTE: when these files are present, no menu will appear.

EXAMPLES

$ xsnow -defaults # run with defaults. $ xsnow # run using values from the config file. $ xsnow -treetype 1,2 # use tree types 1 and 2.

WINDOW MANAGER ISSUES

In general, xsnow works better when using a compositing window manager like xcompmgr, compton or picom. However, with some window managers (FVWM for example), the xsnow-window is transparent, but not click-through. Flags to be tried in this case include: -root, -doublebuffer, -xwininfo, -id.

Here follow some window managers with their issues:

AWESOME: Without compositor: no issues. With compositor: no click-through xsnow window
BSPWM: No issues if you add to your bspwmrc (the bspwm configuration file): bspc rule -a Xsnow state=floating border=off
CINNAMON: No issues.
DWM: No issues, except the "Below Windows" setting in the "settings" panel.
ENLIGHTENMENT: No issuses.
FLUXBOX: Without compositor: no issues. With compositor: no click-through xsnow window
FVWM: Without compositor: no issues. With compositor: no click-through xsnow window
GNOME: No issues.
HERBSTLUFTWM: No issues.
I3: Without compositor: no issues, using the next line in "config": for_window [class="Xsnow"] floating enable;border none
With compositor: unworkable.
JVM: No issues.
LXDE: With compositor: no issues. Without compositor: use: xsnow -xwininfo
LXQT: Without compositor: unworkable. With compositor: no click-through xsnow window.
MATE: No issues.
OPENBOX: No issues.
PLASMA (KDE): No issues.
SPECTREWM: Without compositor: no snow on windows, use the next line in "spetrewm.conf": quirk[Xsnow] = FLOAT
With compositor: no satisfactorily results.
TWM: Without compositor: no issues. With compositor: no click-through xsnow window
WINDOW MAKER: Without compositor: no issues. With compositor: no click-through xsnow window
XFCE: No issues when compositing is on, unworkable when compositing is off.
See settings -> Window Manager Tweaks -> Compositor
XMONAD: No issues if you add to your xmonad.hs in the ManageHook section: className = ? "Xsnow" --> doFloat

BUGS

- Xsnow needs a complete rewrite: the code is a mess.
- The flags are not consistent, caused by trying to be compatible with older versions.
- Xsnow stresses the Xserver too much.
- Xsnow does run in Wayland, but will not snow on all windows.
- Xsnow tries to create a click-through window. This is not successful in for example FVWM/xcompmgr. In that case, xsnow tries to keep the snow window below all others, resulting in a transient effect when you click on the desktop. Sadly, no FVWM menu will appear...
- Remnants of fluffy snow can persist after removing the fallen snow. These will gradually disappear, so no big deal.
- Remnants of meteorites can persist after passage of Santa. These will eventually be wiped out by snow or Santa.
- Xsnow tries to adapt its snowing window if the display settings are changed while xsnow is running. This does not function always well.
- Xsnow does not play well with 'xcompmgr -a'. In some environments (Raspberry 64 bit) xcompmgr is started with the flag '-a', resulting in a black snow window. Remedy: In a terminal window type: killall xcompmgr nohup xcompmgr -n & and try again.
- In XFCE, compositing must be enabled for xsnow. Settings -> Window Manager Tweaks -> Compositor -> Enable display compositing
- In multi-screen environments, it depends on the display settings if it is snowing on all screens. Experiment!

COPYRIGHT

This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.