NAME

xnews − window system server

SYNOPSIS

xnews [ :display ] [ serveroptions ] [ [ -dev device ] [ deviceoptions ] ]...

DESCRIPTION

The xnews command starts the X11/NeWS window system server.  The server supports both the X11 and NeWS protocols.  Clients connect to the server by opening the socket appropriate to the protocol they use.  The X11 protocol is described in the X Window System Protocol, Version 11, from MIT.  The C language binding to the X11 protocol is described in Xlib - C Language X Interface, Version 11, also from MIT. 

The NeWS protocol is a superset of the POSTSCRIPT page description language, described in the POSTSCRIPT Language Reference Manual by Adobe Systems, Inc.  NeWS extensions to the POSTSCRIPT language are described in The NeWS Programmer’s Guide, from Sun.  The C client interface is also described there. 

SERVER OPTIONS

[ :display ]
The server will listen for X11 and NeWS connections on sockets indexed by display.  This allows you to run multiple servers on the same machine and still connect to a specific display. 

[ −auth authorization-file ]
Specifies a file which contains a collection of authorization records used to authenticate access. This option is normally used by openwin(1) to initialize the server’s authorization mechanism. Using this option will initialize the server’s host-based access list to empty. Connecting client programs must send correct authorization information to the server at connection time or they will be rejected. This is transparently handled by libX for X11 clients or by libcps for NeWS clients. Older versions of libX and libcps may not send authorization information, so older clients may not be able to connect to a server started with this option unless the client programs are relinked. 

[ −cubesize small | large ]
This determines the size of the color cube contained in the StaticColor colormap, which is the default colormap used by NeWS programs.  small is the default cube size value since it leaves the most room for X11 clients to allocate colors without conflicting with NeWS colors.  large will generate better looking NeWS rendering, but will increase the chance of conflicts between X11 and NeWS colors.  small provides a color cube with 5 colors along the red axis, 5 along the green axis, and 5 along the blue axis.  It also provides 15 additional shades of gray above and beyond the grays contained in the color cube.  This can be described by the syntax: 5x5x5+15.  This gives a total of 140 colors).  The large cube size, on the other hand, provides a color cube of the form 5x9x5+15.  It has a total size of 240 colors. 

[ −defeateventsecurity ]
This tells xnews to disable the security feature that detects synthetically created events.  Any event distributed by the server, even if it was created by a client program, will have a synthetic field with value false.  NeWS events will see this as a false value in the /Synthetic field of events.  X11 events will all lack the synthetic bit in the type field.  This flag allows clients which need to generated synthetic events, such as the journalling demo, to run correctly.  Running the X11/NeWS server with this option enabled exposes your workstation to many security risks.  It is not recommended that this option be enabled except when explicitly needed.

[ −favorstatic ]
This option increases the chances of NeWS colors being displayed on the screen.  It is intended for users who use a lot of NeWS applications. When xnews installs a software colormap into the hardware, it must decide what to do for color cells in that software colormap which have not been allocated.  What it usually does is to look in the default colormap for an allocated cell and load this value.  Next, if the cell in the default colormap is not allocated either, it just leaves the hardware alone for that cell.  What this option does is to force xnews to look in the StaticColor map for an allocated cell immediately after the the examination of the default colormap has failed.  Thus, if this option is used, colors from the StaticColor will get loaded into the hardware more often. 

[ −init ’POSTSCRIPT-code’ ]
The server interprets this POSTSCRIPT language code to initialize the server.  If this option is not specified, xnews  executes the following: (NeWS/init.ps) (r) file cvx exec This code fragment sets up the X11/NeWS server for its normal use.  When specifying this argument, putting single quotes around the POSTSCRIPT-code will protect it from premature interpretation by the shell. 

DEVICE OPTIONS

[ −dev framebuffer ]
This specifies the framebuffer device which the server should use for display. If this option is not set, the default is /dev/fb.  Subsequent uses of this option indicate multiple displays on the same server.  After each -dev option a list of modifiers changes the behavior of the named device. 

[ grayvis ]
This device modifier tells xnews to use the GrayScale or StaticGray visual as the default visual depending on the state of the staticvis device modifier.  The default is to use the PseudoColor or GrayScale visual. 

[ staticvis ]
This device modifier tells xnews to use a StaticColor or StaticGray visual as the default visual depending on the state of the grayvis device modifier.  The default is to use the PseudoColor or GrayScale visual. 

[ left ][ right ][ top ][ bottom ]
This indicates where you would like a given screen in relation to the previous one on the command line.

[ pos x y ]
This indicates where you would like a given screen as an absolute coordinate on the global root.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The X11/NeWS server recognizes the following environment variables:

DISPLAY
Before starting an X11 application, you can set this environment variable to tell the application which server to connect to. If unset, you must specify the server on the application’s command line with the -display option.  It is of the following form: hostname:display.screen Here, hostname may be the name of a host, unix, or localhost.  The display argument is normally 0.  The .screen argument is optional. 

FONTPATH
A list of directories, separated by semicolons, telling the server where to look for fonts. If unset, it defaults to $OPENWINHOME/lib/fonts. 

LD_LIBRARY_PATH
This variable is used by the shared library linker to determine which directories to examine for shared libraries. It should normally be set to $OPENWINHOME/lib:/usr/lib. 

NEWSSERVER
Before starting a NeWS application, you can set this environment variable to tell the application which server to connect to.  If unset, the application will default to the local server, socket 2000.  (For information on how to set this environment variable, see the manual page for newsserverstr.) 

OPENWINHOME
Should be set to the directory in which the server’s directory hierarchy is installed, for instance "/usr/local/xnews".  Below this directory are the binaries, libraries, fonts, man pages and demos.  If this is not set the default is "/home/openwin".

FILES

$OPENWINHOME/etc/NeWS/∗.ps
Startup POSTSCRIPT language code. 

$OPENWINHOME/lib/fonts/∗
Font library.

$OPENWINHOME/bin/xnews
The server.

~/.startup.ps
User-definable server customizations, loaded before other system ∗.ps files. 

~/.user.ps
User-definable server customizations, loaded after other system ∗.ps files

X11 PROPERTIES

xnews creates the following X11 Standard Colormap property on the root window of each configured 8-bit indexed color screen: Name Atom: XA_RGB_DEFAULT_MAP
Type Atom:XA_RGB_COLOR_MAP
Format:32
Contents Type:XStandardColormap These atoms are predefined and are declared in <X11/Xatom.h>.  The XStandardColormap struct is defined in <X11/Xutil.h>. The value of this property is a single XStandardColormap which contains a description of the NeWS color cube in the StaticColor colormap.  Only the color portion of the StaticColor colormap is described; the gray ramp portion is not described. The information contained in this property will vary depending on whether the staticvis device modifier is used.  Refer to the Xlib C Language X Interface for more information on Standard Colormaps. Refer to the X11/NeWS Server Guide for more information on the StaticColor colormap.

SEE ALSO

kbd_mode(1), newsserverstr(1), olwm(1), openwin(1), psh(1), psterm(1)

NeWS Programmer’s Guide

X11/NeWS Server Guide

POSTSCRIPT Language Reference Manual, Adobe Systems Inc., Addison-Wesley

X Window System Protocol, Version 11, MIT

Xlib - C Language X Interface, Version 11, MIT

BUGS

Some parts of the POSTSCRIPT language have yet to be implemented.  See the appendix in the NeWS Programmer’s Guide entitled Omissions and Implementation Limits. 

The server is not yet completely robust when it runs out of memory.  This out-of-memory condition occurs because swap space has been used up.  Swap space is a resource that is shared by all the processes running on your machine. 

When running SunView 1 programs, you may see Window display lock broken... messages. 

If you do not have a console window, messages to the console disrupt the entire window system display. 

Anyone who can gain access (legitmately or otherwise) to the system on which the server is running, or to any system allowed to access the server, has, through either the X11 or the NeWS protocol, unrestricted access to the resources of the server.  They can monitor the keyboard and the mouse, read information from the screen, and interfere with the operation of other clients. 

TRADEMARK

POSTSCRIPT is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc. 

Sun Release 4.0  —  Last change: 23 May 1990