XFACES(1) XFACES(1)
NAME
xfaces - mail image display for X
SYNOPSIS
xfaces [-toolkitoption ...] [-option ...]
DESCRIPTION
XFaces version 3.0 is a program that will display an image and
optionally play a sound for each piece of mail in your mail box.
Additionaly, you can have a shell command executed. This lets you know
at a glance (or a listen, or a whatever) who you have mail from.
XFaces starts out (when you have no mail) looking like a color xbiff.
As you receive mail XFaces becomes a column (or a number of columns)
of mail icons.
XFaces can also be used to monitor other lists using the -e option or
the listCommand resource.
OPTIONS
Xfaces accepts all of the standard X Toolkit command line options as
well as the following options designed to be compatible with Rich
Burridge's faces program:
-c <columns>
Specify the number of images that faces will allow before
starting a new row. This is also available as resource
XFaces.frame.maxWidth.
-e <command>
Run <command> and use output for faces list. This is also
available as XFaces.listCommand.
-f <facedb path>
This option set the default facedb search path to the colon
separated list of directories specified in <facedb path>.
Also available as resource XFaces.facedbPath.
-h <image height>
This option sets the height used internally by XFaces to
layout images in a tiled fashion. This is also available as
the resource XFaces.frame.tileHeight.
-p <update time>
Specify the amount of time to wait between checks for new
mail. Also available as resource XFaces.update.
-s <spool file>
This option specifies an alternate mail spool file to watch.
Also available as XFaces.spoolFile.
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XFACES(1) XFACES(1)
-w <image width>
This option sets the width used internally by XFaces to layout
images in a tiled fashion. This is also available as the
resource XFaces.frame.tileWidth.
-C This option disables image compression. Image compression is
used to only show a particular image only once in the display.
Also available as resource XFaces.compressImages.
-K This option insists that the order of the images in the
display reflect the order of the images in the spool file or
those returned by a <command>. Also available as resource
XFaces.keepOrder.
-S This option says not to shape extra space added to images that
are smaller than the tile size.
-pop <hostname>
This option specifies the host name to use for a POP3 mailbox.
Also available as XFaces.popHost.
X DEFAULTS
The application class name is XFaces. For best results the following
Shell resource is suggested:
XFaces.allowShellResize: True
This will allow the XFaces window to resize to be the exact
size that is required for the current images.
This program uses a very simple tiled layout widget to layout the
images. Each image is displayed in an Athena Label widget. The name
of the layout widget is frame and the following resources are
available:
XFaces.frame.tileWidth: <tile width>
This resource specifies the width of the children that the
Tiled widget is to manage. This size is enforced. The
default is 64
XFaces.frame.tileHeight: <tile height>
This resource specifies the height of the children that the
Tiled widget is to manage. This size is enforced. The
default is 64.
XFaces.frame.setWidth: <force width>
This resource forces the width of the Tiled widget to be
<width> tiles wide. If the value is zero then no width is
forced. The default is 0.
XFaces.frame.setHeight: <force height>
This resource forces the height of the Tiled widget to be
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<height> tiles wide. If the value is zero then no height is
forced. The default is 0.
XFaces.frame.minWidth: <minimum width>
This resource specifies the minimum width in tiles that the
Tiled widget is allowed. If the value is zero then there is
no minimum. The default is 0.
XFaces.frame.minHeight: <minimum height>
This resource specifies the minimum height in tiles that the
Tiled widget is allowed. If the value is zero then there is
no minimum. The default is 0.
XFaces.frame.maxWidth: <maximum width>
This resource specifies the maximum width in tiles that the
Tiled widget is allowed. If the value is zero then there is
no maximum. The default is 0. Note that since the Tiled
widget lays out its children in row major order a value of 0
creates a horizontal list of images. If the value is
specified as 1 a vertical list is created.
XFaces.frame.maxHeight: <maximum height>
This resource specifies the maximum height in tiles that the
Tiled widget is allowed. If the value is zero then there is
no maximum. The default is 0.
XFaces.frame.vertSpacing: <spacing>
This resource specifies the spacing in pixels that the Tiled
widget places vertically between children.
XFaces.frame.horizSpacing
This resource specifies the spacing in pixels that the Tiled
widget places horizontally between children.
XFaces.frame.internalWidth
This resource specifies the spacing in pixels that the Tiled
widget places horizontally between its borders and its
children.
XFaces.frame.internalHeight
This resource specifies the spacing in pixels that the Tiled
widget places vertically between its borders and its children.
Note: If you have specified a border width for the children of
the Tiled widget that is non zero then you should specify the
following resource values to be at least two times the border
width specified for the children:
+ vertSpacing
+ horizSpacing
+ internalWidth
+ internalHeight
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XFACES(1) XFACES(1)
XFaces also introduces the following application resources:
XFaces.spoolFile: <mail spool file>
This can be used to specify the mail spool file to watch. The
default is to append the users name onto the spoolDir
resource.
XFaces.spoolDir: <mail spool directory>
This resource specifies the directory that contains user mail
spool files. The default is /usr/spool/mail. On some
machines (SVR4?) you may want to set this to /usr/mail.
XFaces.popHost: <hostname>
This resource specifies the name of a host to contact for a
POP3 mailbox. Note that in order for this to work you need to
create a file called .popauth in your home directory. The
file needs to contain one line that contains your pop host
login id followed by white space followed by your pop host
password. Since this file contains a clear text password it
is not the most secure method. I currently do not have access
to a pop server that supports any other type of
authentication.
XFaces.popPort: <port number>
This specifies what port number to use for POP. The default
is the standard POP3 port 110.
XFaces.listCommand:<usercommand>
This resource specifies a user command that will be executed
instead of looking at the spool file. If this resource is
specified then value specified in the spoolFile is ignored.
See the USER COMMANDS section for a description of the data
format that XFaces expects from user commands.
XFaces.imagePath: <image path>
This resource specifies a colon-separated list of directories
that specify the default directories to use for image files.
The default is /usr/images.
XFaces.soundPath: <sound path>
This resource specifies a colon-separated list of directories
that specify the default directories to use for sound files.
The default is /usr/sounds.
XFaces.facedbPath: <facedb path>
This is a list of directories that contain a multi-level
directory hierarchy. The first few levels are the host name
where each part of the host name is a new directory level.
Inside this is another directory using the users name. And
finally, inside of this directory are the actual image and
sound files for this user. The root of the face (for images
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XFACES(1) XFACES(1)
and for sounds) is face. This file can be in any of the
supported image/sound formats. See the description of the
facedb search type under the imageSearch resource.
XFaces.machine: <machine file>
This resource specifies the name of a file that is used to
alias machine names. Each facedb tree is allowed to contain
one of these. The default is machine.tab. Any blank lines
and lines starting with the # character are ignored. All
other lines are expected to look like:
old.host.name=new.name
XFaces.people: <people file>
This resource specifies the name of a file that is used to
alias user names for specific hosts. Each facedb tree is
allowed to contain
one of these. The default is people.tab. Any blank lines
and lines starting with the # character are ignored. All
other lines are expected to look like:
host.name/olduser=newuser
XFaces.update: <update time>
How often to check for new mail in seconds. The default is 60.
XFaces.volume:
The volume at which to play sounds. The default is 33.
XFaces.fromField:
This resource specifies which mail header to use as the from
header. The default is the old uucp "From_" header. (the _ is
really a space character)
XFaces.noMailImage: <empty image>
The image to use when you have no mail. The default is
"nomail". The imagePath is used to locate this file.
XFaces.noMailSound: <empty sound>
The sound to use when you have no mail. The default not to
play a sound with no mail. The soundPath is used to locate
this sound.
XFaces.lookupHostname: <flag>
If this resource is True then the host name part of the from
address will be looked up and translated to the real hostname.
The default value is False.
XFaces.keepOrder: <flag>
This boolean resource controls the image ordering in faces.
For performance reasons the default is False. When scripts
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XFACES(1) XFACES(1)
are being run you will usually want to specify this as True.
XFaces.compressImages: <flag>
Only show each image once in the image display. The default is
True. When scripts are being run you will usually want to
specify this as False.
XFaces.useSound: <flag>
Play sounds. The default is True. A user can disable sounds
for his XFaces by setting this resource to False in his
resources.
XFaces.useShape: <flag>
Use shaped images if available. This will also cause the
background of the XFaces main window to become transparent
where there is no image. This defaults to True.
XFaces.useCommands: <flag>
This resource tells FIXFaces if it needs to search for shell
commands to run in addition to image and sounds. The default
is False.
XFaces.useContentLength: <flag>
This resource enable code to use a Content-Length: mail header
to specify how large the mail body is. After the headers this
many bytes are skiped.
XFaces.shapeBorders: <flag>
This resource, when set to True will cause the borders of the
Label widgets to be shaped out. The default is True.
XFaces.shapeInternal: <flag>
This resource when set to True will cause the internal width
and height margins of the Label widgets to be shaped out. The
default is True.
XFaces.closeness: <closeness value>
This resource controls how close a color must come to the
actual color for the XPM library to accept it. The default is
40000.
XFaces.imageTypes: <image type list>
This resource specifies the default image types that are used
to attempt to load an image file. The list also specifies the
order the types are attempted. Valid types are:
xpm-shaped
This is a shaped color image. Shaped xpm files should
be named face-shaped.xpm.
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XFACES(1) XFACES(1)
xpm This is a non shaped color image. These files should
be named face.xpm.
xbm-shaped
This a an monochrome shaped image. The image file and
mask are stored in separate files called face-
shape.xbm for the image data and face-shape.xbm-mask
for the shape mask.
xbm This is a non shaped monochrome image. These files
should be called face.xbm.
the default value for this resource is:
xpm-shape:xpm:xbm-shape:xbm
XFaces.imageSearch: <search specs>
XFaces.soundSearch: <search specs>
XFaces.commandSearch: <search specs>
These resources have complete control of the search type ,
image types for images and path arguments for locating images,
sounds and commands. The search spec is a multi line
resource. Each line represents a new search. Each line is
constructed as follows:
<search type> [<format list> [<search path>]]
The <format list> is currently ignored for the soundSearch
resource. Both the <format list> and the <search path> are
(except if you use the facedb search) for the commandSearch
resoiurce. If the <format list> is empty then the list in the
imageFormats resource is used. If the <search path> is empty
then the facedbPath is used for facedb searches for both
sounds and images and one of the soundPath or imagePath is
used for the other search types.
The valid search types are:
beforeImage
The beforeImageBindings resource is used as a set of
regular expression to match lines in the mail header.
beforeSound The beforeSoundBindings resource is used
as a set of regular expression to match lines in the
mail header. beforeCommand The beforeCommandBindings
resource is used as a set of regular expression to
match lines in the mail header.
resource
The user name and host name are looked up in the X
resources for a match. The resources attempted are:
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XFACES(1) XFACES(1)
XFaces.<type>.user@host
XFaces.<type>.user
XFaces.<type>.host
Where type is one of: image, sound, command.
u@h The user name and host name is combined and looked for
as a file name. The names attempted are:
[path]user@host
[path]user
[path]host
facedb This is the search that is used in Rich Burridge's
faces program. The search attempts the following for
the address liebman@zod.clark.net:
[path]/net/clark/zod/liebman
[path]/net/clark/zod/liebman/face
[path]/net/clark/liebman
[path]/net/clark/liebman/face
[path]/net/liebman
[path]/net/liebman/face
[path]/MISC/liebman
[path]/MISC/liebman/face
[path]/net/clark/zod/unknown
[path]/net/clark/zod/unknown/face
[path]/net/clark/unknown
[path]/net/clark/unknown/face
[path]/net/unknown
[path]/net/unknown/face
[path]/MISC/unknown
[path]/MISC/unknown/face
x-face This looks for an X-Face: header and extracts a 48
pixel by 48 pixel monochrome image.
afterImage
The afterImageBindings resource is used as a set of
regular expression to match lines in the mail header.
afterSound
The afterSoundBindings resource is used as a set of
regular expression to match lines in the mail header.
afterImage
The afterCommandBindings resource is used as a set of
regular expression to match lines in the mail header.
The default value of the imageSearch resource is:
beforeImage\n\
resource\n\
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XFACES(1) XFACES(1)
facedb\n\
x-face\n\
afterImage
The default value of the soundSearch resource is:
beforeImage\n\
resource\n\
facedb\n\
afterImage
The default value of the commandSearch resource is:
beforeImage\n\
resource\n\
afterImage
XFaces.beforeImageBindings: <spec>
XFaces.afterImageBindings: <spec>
XFaces.beforeSoundBindings: <spec>
XFaces.afterSoundBindings: <spec>
XFaces.beforeCommandBindings: <spec>
XFaces.afterCommandBindings: <spec>
These resources specify regular expressions that can be
matched against the mail headers to locate an image or sound.
These are multi-line resources. Each line is constructed as:
<field name> <regexp><:> <file> <label><:><anno>
If the <field name> is specified as * then all headers are tested. If
the <field name> begins with a (like Subject: or *) then the search
is case insensitive. The <label> field is only used for image and if
specified, it will be used in the annotations at position <anno> if
<anno> is not supplied then it defaults to 1.
XFaces.ignoreMessageBindings:
These resources specify regular expressions that can be
matched against the mail headers to locate an image or sound.
These are multi-line resources. Each line is constructed as:
<field name> <regexp>
If the field name is specified as * then all headers are tested. Any
match found will cause the message to be ignored, no sound, no image,
no nothing!
XFaces.annotationCount: <number of annotations>
XFaces.unknownAnnotationCount: <number of annotations>
This resource specifies the number of annotations that the
user is specifing. The unknown annotations are applied on
faces that were located via the facedb search when
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XFACES(1) XFACES(1)
substituting "unknown" for the user name. For each annotation
the following resources will be retrieved where N runs from 1
to annotationCount (or unknownAnnotationCount)
XFaces.annotationN.x: <x>
XFaces.unknownAnnotationN.x: <x>
If <x> is a positive number then it is the offset from
the left side of the image to the left side of the
text. If <x>P is a negative number then it is the
offset from the right side of the image to the right
side of the text.
XFaces.annotationN.y: <y>
XFaces.unknownAnnotationN.y: <y>
If <y> is a positive number then it is the offset from
the top of the image to the top of the text. If <y>P
is a negative number then it is the offset from the
bottom of the image to the bottom of the text.
XFaces.annotationN.maxWidth: <width>
XFaces.unknownAnnotationN.maxWidth: <width>
This specifies the maximum width in pixels the text is
allowed to be.
XFaces.annotationN.font: <font name>
XFaces.unknownAnnotationN.font: <font name>
This is the font to use to render the annotation.
XFaces.annotationN.foreground: <X color spec>
XFaces.unknownAnnotationN.foreground: <X color spec>
This is the foreground color for the annotation.
XFaces.annotationN.background: <X color spec>
XFaces.unknownAnnotationN.background: <X color spec>
This is the background color for the annotation.
XFaces.annotationN.shapeText: <flag>
XFaces.unknownAnnotationN.shapeText: <flag>
If true then the text itself is used as the shape
mask, if false then the shape mask is a filled
rectangle with extents matching those of the text. The
default is False.
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XFACES(1) XFACES(1)
XFaces.annotationN.opaqueText: <flag>
XFaces.unknownAnnotationN.opaqueText: <flag>
If true then the text background is drawn too (the
background is the bounding filled rectangle, when
false only the text is drawn. The default is True.
XFaces.mail.annotationN: <type>
XFaces.mail.unknownAnnotationN: <type>
This specifies what is to be placed into this annotation
position for mail items. The values for type are:
none An empty string.
user The user part of the From address.
host The host part of the From address.
user@host The user and host parts of the From address.
count The number of messages represented by this face.
*<header> Any value beginning with a '*' is expected to be a header
name and the contents of that header will be displayed.
For instance "*subject:" will display the subject line.
XFaces.annotationAbove: <flag>
This really should be called something else! Anyway, when this
resource is true and the image found is smaller than the tile
size the extra space allocated will be placed on teh top
instead of the bottom. The default value is False.
XFaces.background: <color>
This is the color of any extra image space allocated.
XFaces.shapeExtra: <flag>
This, if true, will cause any extra image space allocated to
be shaped out.
XFaces.xbm.foreground: <color>
This is the foreground color for loaded X bitmaps.
XFaces.xbm.background: <color>
This is the background color for loaded X bitmaps.
XFaces.xpm.noneColor: <color>
This is the color used to represent the transparent pixels
when the overrideNoneColor is True.
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XFACES(1) XFACES(1)
XFaces.xpm.overrideNoneColor: <flag>
When this value is set to true the transparent pixels in a Xpm
image are replaced bu the color specified in the noneColor
resource. The default value is False.
XFaces.xpm.filterCount: <count>
This resource specifies the number of external filters to look
for. The filters are specified with the following resources:
XFaces.xpmFilterN.name: <name>
This is the image type name used to refer to this
filter. It can be used in the imageType resource and
anywhere else an image type name is expected.
XFaces.xpmFilterN.filter: <command>
This is the command that will produce an xpm file on
stdout. This could be something like: "giftopnm %s |
ppmtoxpm". A single %s will be replaced by the file
name of the image to be loaded.
XFaces.xpmFilterN.extension: <entension>
This is the file extension that the image file is
expected to have.
USER COMMANDS
These commands add a very powerful feature to XFaces. They allow
almost anything to be monitored visually and audibly. When a value is
specified for the listCommand resource XFaces will run the command and
read the commands standard output. The following is expected.
The first line consists of two tokens. The first is expected to
be a user name and the second a host name. They are intended to
describe the image that should be displayed by XFaces in an
iconic state. Note: This is currently not implemented though the
line is still expected.
The second line is expected as
Cols=<columns> Rows=<rows>
where <columns> is the number of columns and <rows> that faces should
display. These values are used to set the setWidth and setHeight
resources on the Tiled layout widget.
Each line following is expected to contain two to six TAB
separated fields. The fields are: user, host, annotation1,
annotation2, annotation3, annotation4. See the annotationCount
resource to see how to specify how and where each of the
annotations are displayed.
Steve Kinzler maintains a distribution of scripts that can be used to
generate faces lists in cs.indiana.edu:pub/faces/scripts.tar.Z.
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XFACES(1) XFACES(1)
SEE ALSO
mail(1), sendmail(8)
AUTHOR
Christopher B. Liebman (liebman@zod.clark.net)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to Rich Burridge. A lot of the concepts that now exist
in XFaces came from faces first.
Thanks also go to James Ashton for the X-Faces header face compression
/ decompression code.
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