NAME

xset − user preference utility for X. 

SYNTAX

xset [options]

DESCRIPTION

xset allows you to set various preferences for the display, pointer, and keyboard.  Generally, all settings are reset to their defaults when you log out.  However, in certain cases, settings specified for a particular display may be carried over from session to session.  For example, some X terminals can be configured to retain settings between logins.  Regardless of the environment, it’s generally a good idea to run xset from the user’s startup file.  See Chapter 14, Setup Clients, for more information. 

OPTIONS

xset accepts the following options.  (Note that not all X implementations are guaranteed to honor all of these options.) 

bControls bell volume, pitch, and duration.  The b option accepts up to three numerical parameters (volume, pitch, and duration), a preceding dash (−), or an 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 volume will be set to that value, as a percentage of its maximum.  Likewise, the second numerical parameter 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. 

-bc, bc
Controls bug compatibility mode in the server, if possible.  The option with a preceding dash (−) disables the mode; the option alone enables the mode.  The need for this option is determined by the following circumstances. Various pre-R4 clients pass illegal values in some protocol requests, and pre-R4 servers do not correctly generate errors in these cases.  Such clients, when run with an R4 server, will terminate abnormally or otherwise fail to operate correctly. Bug compatibility 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.  Be aware that the server must support the MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD protocol extension in order for this option to work. 

cControls key click.  The c 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, the 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. 

-display [host]:server[.screen]
Allows you to specify the host, server, and screen for which to set preferences.  host is the hostname of the physical display, server specifies the server number, and screen specifies the screen number.  For example, % xset -display your_node:0.1 specifies screen 1 of server 0 on the display named by your_node.  Either or both of the host and screen elements to the display specification can be omitted.  If host is omitted, the local display is assumed.  If screen is omitted, screen 0 is assumed (and the period is unnecessary).  The colon and server are necessary in all cases. 

fp= path
Sets the font path used by the server. path must be a directory or a comma-separated list of directories.  The directories are interpreted by the server, not the client, and are server-dependent.  (Directories that do not contain font databases created by mkfontdir will be ignored by the server.) 

fp default
Restores the default font path.

fp rehash
Causes the server to reread the font databases in the current font path.  This is generally used only when adding new fonts to a font directory (after running mkfontdir to recreate the font database). 

-fp path or fp- path
The -fp and fp- options remove elements from the current font path.  path must be a directory or comma-separated list of directories. 

+fp path or fp+ path
The +fp and fp+ options prepend and append, respectively, elements to the current font path.  path must be a directory or a comma-separated list of directories. 

ledControls the turning on or off of one or all of the LEDs.  The led option accepts an optional integer, a preceding dash (−) or an on/off flag.  If no parameter or the on flag is given, all LEDs are enabled.  If a preceding dash or the flag off is given, all LEDs are disabled.  If a value between 1 and 32 is given, that LED will be enabled or disabled, depending on the existence of a preceding dash.  A common LED that can be controlled is the Caps Lock LED.  xset led 3 enables LED #3.  xset -led 3 disables it.  The particular LED values may refer to different LEDs on different hardware. 

mControls the mouse parameters.  The acceleration can be specified as an integer or as a fraction (with the numerator and denominator separated by a slash, for example, 1/2).  The parameters for the mouse are acceleration and threshold.  The mouse, or whatever pointer is connected to the machine, will go acceleration times as fast when it travels more than threshold pixels in a short time.  This way, the mouse 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. 

pControls pixel color values.  The parameters are the color map entry number in decimal, 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 privately, in which case an error will be generated.  The map entry must not be a read-only color, or an error will result. 

qGives you information on the current settings. 

rControls the autorepeat.  If a preceding dash or the off flag is used, autorepeat will be disabled.  If no parameters or the on flag is used, autorepeat will be enabled. 

sControls the screen saver parameters.  The s option accepts up to two numerical parameters (time and cycle), a blank/noblank flag, an expose/noexpose flag, an on/off 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 functions on or off.  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 display a pattern rather than blank the video.  The expose flag sets the preference to allow window exposures (the server can freely discard window contents), while noexpose sets the preference to disable the screen saver unless the server can regenerate the screens without causing exposure events.  The time and cycle parameters for the screen saver function determine how long the server must be inactive for screen saving to activate, and the period to change the background pattern to avoid burn in, respectively.  The arguments are specified in seconds.  If only one numerical parameter is given, it will be used for the time. 

SEE ALSO

X, Xserver, xmodmap, xrdb, xsetroot; Chapter 14, Setup Clients. 

AUTHORS

Bob Scheifler, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science;
David Krikorian, MIT Project Athena (X11 version).