XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
NAME
xalarm - alarm clock for X xmemo - memo for X xfortune - fortune for X
xyow - yow for X
SYNOPSIS
xalarm [-toolkitoption ...] [-option ...] [message_text] xmemo [-
toolkitoption ...] [-option ...] message_text xfortune [-toolkitoption
...] [-option ...] xyow [-toolkitoption ...] [-option ...]
DESCRIPTION
xalarm is an interactive alarm clock for the X(1) Window System, and
is analogous to a combination of leave(1) and calendar(1), but much
more powerful. You can set the alarm either on the command line or by
using the popup window. At the appropriate time and date, xalarm pops
up a window to tell you that your time is up. The time the alarm is
to trigger may be a specific time or a time for xalarm to wait before
triggering. The date may be a specific date or a number of days in
the future.
You can tell xalarm to pop up warning windows at specified times
before the alarm is to trigger, in order to warn you of the impending
triggering of the alarm, and specify what message you want the alarm
to display.
You can also make xalarm read alarm times and dates, along with the
message to display in the alarm, from alarm files. This can be done
once by xalarm, or you can make it read from the file periodically, as
an xalarm daemon. This enables you to forget your regular or
important appointments, but xalarm will tell you by popping up at the
appropriate time.
In the event that the current X session is terminated before xalarm
has finished, xalarm saves its alarm (if it is not already in the
alarm file) so that it will automatically be restarted the next time
xalarm is invoked. Any daemons connected to the display will go away.
This means that you can set an alarm even if you are likely to
terminate the X session underwhich you are currently running before it
triggers, and the alarm will still trigger on whatever display you are
then connected to at the time.
The alarm window itself consists of a box of buttons and an area
containing the alarm message. To give you an opportunity to carry on
after the alarm has triggered and be late anyway, xalarm allows you to
snooze the alarm. For the completely absent-minded, xalarm can also
repeatedly re-trigger after a specified interval.
To help with setting the alarm, each popup displays the current time,
and the alarm itself also displays the time since the alarm last
triggered.
- 1 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
USING XALARM TO SET AN ALARM
If no alarm time is specified, xalarm will pop up a window in order
for an alarm time to be entered.
This form is suitable for inclusion as a menu option under a window
manager.
The window is also popped up if an invalid alarm or warning time is
given (see below for date and time syntax), or if you specify that
confirmation should be sought before setting the alarm.
The window gives you an opportunity to change the alarm setting,
warning times, and the message xalarm will display when the alarm is
triggered.
The popup resizes itself to edit any message larger than the space
given by default. The keymap used by the Athena Dialog widget is
modelled on the text buffer keymap of the editor/environment emacs(1).
Text may be entered when the pointer is anywhere within the popup.
This popup window comprises of four separate windows, dealing with the
alarm time, date, the warning time(s) and confirmation of all the
settings (where you can also re-edit the alarm message).
If the confirmation window is popped up, then you can re-edit the
alarm time, date, or warning time(s) by switching through the windows
using the edit buttons. Confirmation of a window's settings is made
using the enter buttons, and the translations resource is set so that
the return key will do the same thing.
From the confirmation window you can also save the alarm settings in
your own alarm file. You can make xalarm read alarms from this alarm
file.
If confirmation is not enabled, then the window for confirmation of
all settings will not be popped up even if the other windows are.
Also see the examples section.
USING XALARM TO READ AN ALARM FILE
You can put alarms in alarm files. xalarm looks in ~/.xalarms and all
the files in the colon separated list of files in the environment
variable XALARMFILEPATH.
This form is suitable for inclusion in your X start up or
initialisation script. It is suited to those who start up X on a
regular (eg. daily) basis.
Each line in the file should consist of an optional date on which the
alarm is to trigger, optionally followed the by time and/or message.
If the time and/or date are/is specified, then they must be separated
- 2 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
from the date by a `-' on its own. If both the time and message are
given, the time must come first.
If no date is specified, it is assumed to be today. If no time is
specified, the alarm will trigger at the current time on whatever date
is given.
The format for entries in an alarm file is therefore:
date [- [time] [message]]
or
- [time] [message]
To make it easier to put entries into the alarm file, xalarm can
create them for you. You can save settings by pressing the save
button in the confirmation window when you have set the alarm that you
want. The settings are saved in the alarm file ~/.xalarms.
You can use XALARMFILEPATH to include alarms shared among a number of
people. If a path in the list is not absolute, then it is assumed to
be relative to your home directory.
Blank lines and any line with `#' or `!' as the first character are
ignored. This can be used to structure and comment the alarm file.
All other command line options and resources still apply. See below
for the date and time formats. Also see the examples section.
USING A DAEMON TO READ AN ALARM FILE
An alternative to using the file option to search for alarms within a
certain date, is to use an xalarm daemon.
This form is suitable for inclusion in your X start up or
initialisation script. It is suited to those whose X sessions
typically span days.
The daemon behaves in the same way as invoking xalarm with the file
option, except that it periodically attempts to scan the alarm
file(s). The interval between scanning may be a date in the form of
+days, or one of the special symbols daily (equivalent to +1) or
weekly. See below for more on date formats.
Once started, the daemon immediately reads the alarm file(s), starting
those alarms which are within the date given. It then sleeps until
the number of days given ahead (on the following Sunday if given as
weekly) at just passed midnight before trying again, ad infinitum.
The daemon dies when the connection to the display is lost.
Note that any xalarm processes that the daemon invokes will try to
connect to the same display each time. If you move displays, xalarm
cannot know.
- 3 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
Also see the examples section.
TIMES
The definition is that for times given with 3 or 4 digits, the last 2
digits are always assumed to be minutes.
Absolute times may be suffixed with `am' or `pm', and are assumed to
be in hours if given with 1 or 2 digits.
Times relative to the present time must be prefixed by `+', and are
assumed to be in minutes if given with 1 or 2 digits.
The special symbols now and noon may also be used, and are equivalent
to +0 and 12:00, respectively. Hours and minutes may be separated
with `:', `.' or `-'.
To prevent ambiguities, hours and minutes must be in their usual
ranges. If a time of an hour or more is wanted, you must state it in
hours and minutes. It is not possible to specify days in the time.
The format is a super-set (by far) of the format recognised by
leave(1).
Also see the examples section.
DATES
The date may be in the form of that given by date(1) (day of week, day
of month, month, year), but can be in any order, need not be
completely specified, and case is not significant. xalarm attempts to
find the nearest real date which matches the date given.
Alternatively, the date may be specified as the number of whole days
into the future, by prefixing the number with `+'. The special
symbols today, tomorrow and week may also be used, and these symbols
may be combined. They are equivalent to +0, +1 and +7, respectively.
Note that if there is more than one word in the date, then the date
must be quoted to stop the shell treating them as separate arguments.
When given as an argument to the -date option, week means ``seven days
into the future''. However, when it is used as an argument to the -
file or -daemon options, it means ``until the end of the current
week'' (up to and including the coming Sunday), as in weekly. This is
to make it easier to get xalarm to set all the alarms for the current
week.
Because the alarm is set in milliseconds, you cannot set an alarm for
more than 49 days into the future (on the assumption that your machine
has 32-bit unsigned longs).
All symbols must consist of at least the first 3 characters of the
- 4 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
name. Unlike calendar(1), tomorrow always means tomorrow.
Also see the examples section.
WARNINGS
When given, warnings are popped up at specified times before the
alarm. You can also specify that a number of words from the alarm
message should be displayed with any warnings, in case you've
forgotten what you set it for. If none are to be used, the warning
will only indicate when the alarm is due.
Also see the examples section.
RINGING
You can specify how xalarm announces itself, when either a warning or
the alarm is popped up. Each of these events has a separate resource,
which can be one of the special symbols bell, beep and quiet, or a
shell script.
The first two cause the terminal bell to be rung, and quiet does
nothing. Otherwise it is assumed to be a shell script and is executed
under a Bourne shell (sh(1)). You can also control the volume at which
the terminal bell is rung.
Note that if the script contains more than one word then the whole
script must be quoted to stop the shell treating them as separate
arguments.
Also see the examples section.
SNOOZING AND PESTERING
You can snooze the alarm and make it pester you, after the alarm has
triggered.
Snoozing is done by selecting a time to snooze using the +mins buttons
(they can be pressed as often as necessary) and pressing the snooze
button. The snooze time may be zeroed by clicking on the snoozetime
button (it has these two functions; display and zero). For the really
lazy, the initial value of snoozetime can be set either by the
relevant command line option or by its resource.
Pestering is done either by the relevant command line option or by its
resource. The alarm will then re-popup after the specified interval,
a bit like snooze on autopilot.
Note that if you snooze the alarm, pestering is temporarily disabled
and you will have to rely on the snoozed alarm.
Also see the examples section.
- 5 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
MORE ON XALARM
Even after you have set the alarm and confirmed it, you can reset the
alarm as long as you know the xalarm process number. This can be
found by using the command line option to list process numbers, or
ps(1).
xalarm makes maximum use of resources, as well as having a number of
command line options, and these can be used to control most of the
appearance of xalarm and (just about) all of its behaviour. Both
command line options and useful resources are listed below.
When xalarm is invoked it immediately attempts to fork off a child and
exit itself, leaving the child to continue with the alarm. The child
disappears when the X session on which display xalarm is using is
terminated.
You can exit from xalarm at any time by pressing the available quit
button.
XMEMO, XFORTUNE & XYOW
In reality, xmemo is just a front end to xalarm (implemented as xalarm
-time now -date today), while xfortune and xyow are front ends to
xmemo (implemented as xmemo "`fortune`" etc.). Options supplied to
them on the command line still override these defaults, however.
Note that xfortune and xyow require fortune(6) and yow(6) respectively
- yow(6) comes with emacs(1). Also note that since they are front ends
to xmemo, you can actually give extra message text to include on the
command line. If you specify a time in the future, you can edit the
message text when asked to confirm (if enabled).
OPTIONS
xalarm accepts all of the standard X Toolkit command line options
along with the additional options listed below:
-help Print a (possibly) helpful usage message.
-version
Print out the version number of xalarm in the form
version.patchlevel.
-restart[only]
This option makes xalarm attempt only to restart those alarms
which had not finished when a previous X session was
terminated.
-kill pid|all
This option sends a signal to the process number pid, or to
all xalarm processes, on the current host. If the process is
an xalarm, owned by you, it will exit. Note these are what
ps(1) thinks are xalarm processes, and only on the current
- 6 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
host.
-d[a]emon +days|daily|weekly
This option starts a new xalarm daemon on the current host
connected to the current display. See the above description
for more on alarm files, dates and daemons.
-f[ile] +days|date|today|tomorrow|weekly
This option makes xalarm read alarms from the alarm file(s).
See the above description for more on the alarm file and
dates.
-date +days|date|today|tomorrow|week
This option indicates the date on which the alarm is to be
triggered. See the above description for more on dates.
-t[ime] +time|time|now|noon
This option indicates at what time the alarm is to be
triggered. See the above description for more on times.
-w[arn] time[,time...]
Indicate the time(s) before the alarm is due to trigger when a
warning should be given. They need not be in any particular
order, and should be in the same format as relative times, but
without the preceding `+'. Note that multiple times must be
separated by commas but without spaces.
-c[onfirm]
This option overrides the resource value and forces xalarm to
ask for confirmation, unless the alarm is due to trigger
immediately.
-warnwords [-ww] number_of_words
Indicate the number of words from the alarm message you wish
to display with the warning.
-l[ist] List the process numbers of any xalarm processes running on
the current host. Note that this lists what ps(1) thinks are
xalarm processes, and only on the current host.
-r[eset] pid|all
This option sends a signal to the process number pid, or to
all xalarm processes, on the current host. If the process is
an xalarm, owned by you, it will pop up the confirmation
window to allow you to re-edit the alarm settings. If the
process is an xalarm daemon, it will have no effect. Note
these are what ps(1) thinks are xalarm processes, and only on
the current host.
-p[ester] time
Indicate the time that xalarm should wait before re-
- 7 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
triggering. It should be in the same format as relative
times, but without the preceding `+'.
-s[nooze] time
Indicate the time that snoozetime should initially have when
the alarm triggers. It should be in the same format as
relative times, but without the preceding `+'.
-alarmaudio [-aa] bell|beep|quiet|shell script
The method by which xalarm should announce the fact that the
alarm has been triggered. See above for a description on the
different options.
-warningaudio [-wa] bell|beep|quiet|shell script
As above, but for when any warning windows are popped up.
-q[uiet]
This is equivalent to specifying -alarmaudio quiet
-warningaudio quiet, or setting the relevant resources to
quiet.
-v[olume] percentage
The percentage of full volume at which the terminal bell
should ring, if it is rung. This currently applies to the
terminal bell only.
-nowarn [-nw]
This option overrides the resource value and forces xalarm not
to give any warnings. This is the same as setting the warning
times resource to the empty string.
-noconfirm [-nc]
This option overrides the resource value and forces xalarm not
to ask for confirmation.
-nowarnwords [-nww]
This option overrides the resource value and forces xalarm not
to display any of the alarm text with any warnings. This is
the same as setting the warningwords resource to zero.
-nopester [-np]
This option overrides the resource value and forces xalarm not
to re-trigger the alarm once it has popped up. This is the
same as setting the pester resource to zero.
-noalarmaudio [-naa] -nowarningaudio [-nwa]
These options make the relevant resource values quiet, and are
equivalent to setting the audio method to quiet.
message_text
The remaining unrecognised text is used as the message
- 8 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
displayed with the triggering of the alarm. Note that each
separate argument is assumed to be a single line, so words
must be quoted if they are to appear on the same line. For
example:
% xalarm "On one line" Secondline "Third line"
It is a good idea always to use quotes, even when a line is
only one word. Newlines within arguments are recognised, so
that input from other tools can be used:
% xalarm -time now "`fortune -l`"
Also note that xalarm deletes its copy of any arguments,
including any message, given on the command line, so your boss
can't see them by looking at the xalarm process.
EXAMPLES
An entry in an X initialisation file, invoked along with all the other
utilities, before the window manager is executed, making xalarm check
the alarm file for today's appointments, asking for confirmation
before each of the alarms are set, and using up to three words from
the alarm message in any warning message:
xclock &
xbiff &
xalarm -file today -confirm -warnwords 3
exec twm
If you do not want to know about the alarms that remain from the
previous X session, you could first restart them silently. Here they
are restarted with warnings set at 15 and 30 minutes prior to each
alarm's triggering.
To check the week's appointments, including some shared alarm files,
warning 1 hour, and 30 and 15 minutes before each alarm (if you set
the variable in your X initialisation script, rather than your login
script, you may need to export it):
XALARMFILEPATH=\
/usr/local/lib/seminars.xlm:/usr/local/lib/meetings.xlm
export XALARMFILEPATH
xalarm -restartonly -noconfirm -warn 15,30
xalarm -file weekly -confirm -warn 1:00,30,15
Or to start an xalarm daemon, which is to scan the alarm file on a
daily basis. Each alarm should not ask for confirmation, but should
give warnings 30 and 15 minutes before triggering, and pester every 5
minutes thereafter:
- 9 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
xalarm -daemon daily -noconfirm -warn 15,30 -pester 5
The alarm file might contain, for example, the lines:
# This is just a comment.
! So is this. Format is: date [- [time] [message]]
! or: - [time] [message]
Wednesday - 12:30pm Football !!!
Sun 29 september - 9pm Drag yourself home.
Oct 4 - Contrib sometime today...
So that every Wednesday I have an alarm set for 12:30pm; on Sunday
September 29 there is an alarm to be set for 9pm; on October 4 the
alarm is to trigger straight away.
A twm(1) window manger entry which forces xalarm to ask for
confirmation, and have the triggered alarm re-trigger every 5 minutes:
Menu "Utilities" {
...
"alarm": f.exec "xalarm -confirm -pester 5 &"
...
}
The following examples show how to set the alarm from the command
line. It is often more convenient to invoke xalarm without specifying
the time and, where necessary, the date and/or message as arguments
(using a window manager, say, as above), using the popup window to
enter these options.
If this was the method of entry, the option arguments would be entered
in the relevant Dialog box instead, just as they appear below (except
that there is no need to quote multi-word arguments).
To only restart those xalarm processes that were set before a previous
X session was terminated, not including those in the alarm file:
% xalarm -restartonly
To set an alarm for tomorrow at noon, so as to avoid missing yet
another meeting:
% xalarm -date tomorrow -time noon "MEETING!!!"
To set an alarm on Tuesday week (that is one week on from the next
Tuesday) at 3:30 in the afternoon:
% xalarm -date "Tues week" -time 3-30pm
- 10 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
To set an alarm for March 10th (my very own personal public holiday),
first thing in the morning, just in case I have forgotten:
% xalarm -date "10 march" -time 9am "Birthday boy!"
To set an alarm for 5 o'clock in the evening without confirmation,
with the snooze time initially 10 minutes, but with the default alarm
message:
% xalarm -time 5pm -snooze 10 -noconfirm
To set an alarm for 2 hours in advance, warning 1 minute and 5 minutes
before it, with a message other than the default:
% xalarm -time +2.00 -warn 5,1 "Get off your bottom"
To set a completely silent alarm for 4.30 (not specifying am/pm, so it
is whichever is first), with the default warnings and a message other
than the default:
% xalarm -quiet -time 4:30 "Time to sneak off home!"
To reset a running xalarm we first find out its process number, and
then we can reset it:
% xalarm -list
xalarms: 12345 12321
% xalarm -reset 12345
To put a 2 line message on the display foo immediately (this will only
work if the display foo can be opened):
% xmemo -display foo:0.0 "Bob!" "The bar for lunch?"
To display a fortune (a random adage from hell) at a specific geometry
in 5 minutes:
% xfortune -geometry +10+300 -time +5
To display a Zippy quote (yow!!!), characteristically harassing you
every minute and making some noise each time it triggers by executing
a shell script:
% xyow -pester 1 -alarmaudio "play -v30 yow.au"
In this example, -v30 is the option to make play play the audio data
in the file yow.au at maximum volume.
WIDGET HIERARCHY
xalarm uses the Athena Widget set, and the widget hierarchy is as
follows:
- 11 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
XAlarm (applicationShell)
Alarm! (transientShell)
alarm (form)
buttons (form)
quit (command)
snooze (command)
snooze1 (command)
snooze5 (command)
snooze15 (command)
snoozetime (command)
message (label)
When? (transientShell)
when (form)
time (dialog)
label (label)
value (asciiText)
ok (command)
editdate (command)
editwarnings (command)
quit (command)
date (dialog)
label (label)
value (asciiText)
ok (command)
edittime (command)
editwarnings (command)
quit (command)
warnings (dialog)
label (label)
value (asciiText)
ok (command)
edittime (command)
editdate (command)
quit (command)
confirm (dialog)
label (label)
value (asciiText)
ok (command)
cancel (command)
save (command)
quit (command)
Warning! (transientShell)
warning (form)
dismiss (command)
message (label)
reset (command)
quit (command)
EXAMPLE RESOURCES
Some example resources. These are the most common resources, and the
ones most likely needed changed in order to alter the (default)
- 12 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
behaviour of xalarm:
! For some nice colours... If you have X11R5:
*customization: -color
! Otherwise:
XAlarm*background: LightYellow
XAlarm*foreground: IndianRed
XAlarm*Command.background: IndianRed
XAlarm*Command.foreground: LightYellow
XAlarm.When?.when.Dialog.background: MidnightBlue
XAlarm.Warning!.warning.background: HotPink
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.background: DarkGreen
! This is what you normally get...
XAlarm*background: White
XAlarm*foreground: Black
XAlarm*Command.background: Black
XAlarm*Command.foreground: White
! Perhaps the most commonly used resources...
XAlarm.confirm: True
XAlarm.warnings: 5,15
XAlarm.warningwords: 0
XAlarm.pester: 0
XAlarm.snooze: 0
XAlarm.volume: 50
XAlarm.alarmaudio: bell
XAlarm.warningaudio: bell
! If the fonts are not to your taste, try "-new century schoolbook-"
! instead of "-times-".
XAlarm*font: -*-times-bold-r-*-*-14-*-*-*-p-*-iso8859-1
XAlarm.When?.when.confirm.value*font: -*-times-bold-i-*-*-14-*-*-*-p-*-iso8859-1
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.message.font: -*-times-bold-i-*-*-34-*-*-*-p-*-iso8859-1
! If you want a more compact alarm window, try these...
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.buttons.snooze1.fromVert: quit
! This will vary depending on button labels & font...
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.buttons.snooze1.horizDistance: -93
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.buttons.snooze5.fromVert: quit
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.buttons.snooze15.fromVert: quit
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.buttons.snoozetime.fromHoriz: snooze
! Plus, if you want...
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.message.fromHoriz: buttons
! This will vary depending on button labels & font...
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.message.vertDistance: -33
! Some other defaults...
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.background: Black
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.message.label: Alarm Call!!!
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.buttons.quit.label: Quit
- 13 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.buttons.snooze.label: Snooze
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.buttons.snooze1.label: +1 min
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.buttons.snooze5.label: +5 mins
XAlarm.Alarm!.alarm.buttons.snooze15.label: +15 mins
TOOLKIT OPTIONS
The following standard X Toolkit command line arguments are commonly
used with xalarm:
-display display
This option specifies the X server to contact.
-geometry geometry
This option specifies the preferred size and position of
xalarm. It is a little meaningless to specify a size; it is as
large as need be.
-xrm resourcestring
This option specifies a resource string to be used. This is
especially useful for setting resources that do not have
separate command line options.
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.
XENVIRONMENT
to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global
resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
XALARMFILEPATH
a colon separated list of file names to be used in conjunction
with ~/.xalarms for xalarm to look for alarms to set.
USER The user's login name. This may be used by xalarm when
looking for the user's name for the alarm title, or the user's
xalarm processes.
HOME The user's home directory. This may be used by xalarm when
looking for the user's alarm file.
FILES
~/.xalarms
The name of the alarm file looked at by xalarm for alarms to
set and where alarms are saved. See also the environment
variable XALARMFILEPATH.
~/.xalarms.died
The name of the alarm file where xalarm stores its alarm which
had not finished when the X session under which it was running
was terminated.
- 14 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
SEE ALSO
X(1), leave(1), calendar(1), date(1), emacs(1), twm(1), ps(1), sh(1),
fortune(6), yow(6)
BUGS
Preamble:
Because of the way xalarm has evolved (it started as a 24-hour
period one-off alarm clock), its dealing with dates, alarm
files and the interface to these is not ideal. Nobody said
evolution was perfect.
If you want to report a bug, or anything else, please first
give as much information as you can. See COMMENTS at the end
of the manual.
General:
Each alarm is a separate, forked, xalarm process, each with
its own connection to the display. There is no way to get
xalarm to set more than one alarm or to display on several
displays at once.
Because xalarm is one of those clients you tend to start from
a window manager or from an X initialisation script, you may
not see error messages that these xalarm processes write to
standard error. You will only see them if this output also
goes to, or is redirected to, your display.
If your shell initialisation script does any output, xalarm
may get confused when trying to list other xalarm processes
(and therefore also when killing or resetting all xalarm
processes).
Daemons:
If you terminate the session which an xalarm daemon is running
under, the daemon does not exit until just before it re-tries
to start new alarms from the alarm file. It is possible, but
unlikely, that someone else may have got your particular
display connection (not physical display) in the meantime.
xalarm cannot know when this happens.
It would be nice to be able to tell daemon and normal xalarm
processes apart when listing them.
Saving to file:
The date saved in the alarm file is the exact date the alarm
would trigger, not the date specified in the date input popup
window. Both types of behaviour have their advantages, but
only this behaviour is implemented.
The same happens with those alarms that are saved when the X
session under which they are running is terminated. This type
- 15 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
of behaviour does seem more useful than the alternative.
Currently does not satisfactorily save alarms with multi-line
messages.
Restarting:
Because uncompleted alarms are saved in the same format as the
alarm file format, the resource environment of restarted
alarms is inherited from the xalarm which restarted them.
This is not necessarily the same as the original resource
environments of these alarms.
Times & Dates:
xalarm is at the mercy of the system clock.
The message informing at what time xalarm is to trigger may
appear to be wrong if the clocks go forwards or backwards
between the present and the time it is due to trigger.
If the time is relative to the present and confirmation is
sought, the alarm and warnings are set from when the time is
confirmed, not from when xalarm was invoked.
Date and symbol names are recognised by the first three
characters only, the rest are ignored. This is why week and
weekly are equivalent, and midday and midnight are not
implemented. There is no real wild carding within dates.
You can only set an alarm that will trigger within the next 49
days (on the assumption that your machine has 32-bit unsigned
longs).
Editing:
The dialog box uses a subset of the emacs(1)
editor/environment keymap for text buffers (which is certainly
not a bug!).
However, the return key event is translated by default into
the confirm button event, as it is translated similarly in the
alarm time and warning dialog boxes. To insert a newline, use
ctrl-m (since under emacs(1) the return key is a synonym for
ctrl-m, under X they generate different events), or just
change the relevant resource(s) so that return produces the
desired effect. The resources, followed by the necessary
value, are:
XAlarm.When?.time.value.translations
XAlarm.When?.date.value.translations
XAlarm.When?.warnings.value.translations
XAlarm.When?.confirm.value.translations
- 16 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
#override <Key>Return: newline()
Resetting & Killing:
Signalling is implemented very simply, and if the process
signalled is not an xalarm, strange things may occur.
Usually, nothing will happen.
However, killing does not use the KILL signal, and is
therefore relatively safe to use even though your ps(1) can
never be 100% reliable.
Still, this can mean that when you reset or kill all xalarm
processes, not all will have been signalled.
Input: Doesn't take input from a pipe etc.
Audio: Doesn't parse the alarm or warning message to produce voice
output(!)
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1991, 1992, Simon Marshall.
AUTHOR
Simon Marshall, Ph.D. Self Defense Group, Dept. of Computer Science,
University Of Hull, UK. S.Marshall@Hull.ac.UK
CONTRIBERS
A lot of people have put in effort for xalarm since it was first
released in the summer of 1991; testing, suggesting, commenting,
cajoling and even fixing, in all the areas that software development
entails. Not all will have been mentioned below, but thanks for your
input.
Big thanks yet again have to go to Gisle Hannemyr, Norsk Regnsesentral
(NCC), J Braham Levy, UDSP Lab, University of Keele and Ex-Tek
Associates (UK), and Stefan Haenssgen, Informatik Rechnerabteilung,
University of Karlsruhe, for their help with ideas, comments and code,
in the making of xalarm version 3.03. Thanks also to Paul Moore and
Kirk Morgan for their help in porting xalarm for versions 3.04 and
3.05.
For getting version 3 from version 2 in the first place, thanks have
to go to Bill Leonard, Harris Computer Systems Division, Florida, for
harassing me with suggestions for improvements to make xalarm version
3 a useful tool and this manual page easier to understand, and Andreas
Stolcke, International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley, for his
help fixing code. Without both, xalarm would still be pretty much as
version 2.
Thanks also to J Braham Levy, Stefan Haenssgen, Jamie Zawinski, Jason
Venner and Kimmo Suominen for their help with version 3.
- 17 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
XALARM(1) X Version 11 XALARM(1)
Release 5
For their help and suggestions with xalarm "over the years", I would
also like to thank (in no real order) Steve Aronson, Dave Brooks,
Reiner Hammer, Jay Lawlor, Janet Anstett, Gordon Freedman, Francois-
Regis Colin and Jeffrey Mast. If I've missed anyone, sorry.
COMMENTS
I'd welcome any; comments, suggestions, code, bug reports and fixes,
etc. Don't forget to include which version of xalarm you are using
(from xalarm -version), machine/OS, X release & patch number, window
manager etc.
- 18 - Formatted: December 22, 2024
