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authorKaleb Keithley <kaleb@freedesktop.org>2003-11-14 15:54:54 +0000
committerKaleb Keithley <kaleb@freedesktop.org>2003-11-14 15:54:54 +0000
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+.\" $Xorg: xprop.man,v 1.4 2001/02/09 02:05:56 xorgcvs Exp $
+.\" Copyright 1988, 1998 The Open Group
+.\"
+.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its
+.\" documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that
+.\" the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that
+.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
+.\" documentation.
+.\"
+.\" The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
+.\" in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+.\"
+.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
+.\" OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
+.\" MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
+.\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE OPEN GROUP BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
+.\" OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,
+.\" ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
+.\" OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
+.\"
+.\" Except as contained in this notice, the name of The Open Group shall
+.\" not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or
+.\" other dealings in this Software without prior written authorization
+.\" from The Open Group.
+.TH XPROP 1 "Release 6.4" "X Version 11"
+.SH NAME
+xprop - property displayer for X
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.B "xprop"
+[-help] [-grammar] [-id \fIid\fP] [-root] [-name \fIname\fP]
+[-frame]
+[-font \fIfont\fP]
+[-display \fIdisplay\fP]
+[-len \fIn\fP] [-notype] [-fs \fIfile\fP]
+[-remove \fIproperty-name\fP]
+[-spy]
+[-f \fIatom\fP \fIformat\fP [\fIdformat\fP]]*
+[\fIformat\fP [\fIdformat\fP] \fIatom\fP]*
+.SH SUMMARY
+.PP
+The
+.I xprop
+utility is for displaying window and font properties in an X server.
+One window or font is selected using the command
+line arguments or possibly in the case of a window, by clicking on the desired
+window. A list of properties is then given, possibly with formatting
+information.
+.SH OPTIONS
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B "-help"
+Print out a summary of command line options.
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B "-grammar"
+Print out a detailed grammar for all command line options.
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B "-id \fIid\fP"
+This argument allows the user to select window \fIid\fP on the
+command line rather than using the pointer to select the target window.
+This is very useful in debugging X applications where the target
+window is not mapped to the screen or where the use of the pointer might
+be impossible or interfere with the application.
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B "-name \fIname\fP"
+This argument allows the user to specify that the window named \fIname\fP
+is the target window on the command line rather than using the pointer to
+select the target window.
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B "-font \fIfont\fP"
+This argument allows the user to specify that the properties of font
+\fIfont\fP should be displayed.
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B "-root"
+This argument specifies that X's root window is the target window.
+This is useful in situations where the root window is completely
+obscured.
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B "-display \fIdisplay\fP"
+This argument allows you to specify the server to connect to;
+see \fIX(1)\fP.
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B "-len \fIn\fP"
+Specifies that at most \fIn\fP bytes of any property should be read or
+displayed.
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B "-notype"
+Specifies that the type of each property should not be displayed.
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B "-fs \fIfile\fP"
+Specifies that file \fIfile\fP should be used as a source of more formats
+for properties.
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B "-frame"
+Specifies that when selecting a window by hand (i.e. if none of \fB-name\fP,
+\fB-root\fP, or \fB-id\fP are given), look at the window manager frame (if
+any) instead of looking for the client window.
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B "-remove \fIproperty-name\fP"
+Specifies the name of a property to be removed from the indicated window.
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B "-spy"
+Examine window properties forever, looking for property change events.
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B "-f \fIname\fP \fIformat\fP [\fIdformat\fP]"
+Specifies that the \fIformat\fP for \fIname\fP should be \fIformat\fP and that
+the \fIdformat\fP for \fIname\fP should be \fIdformat\fP. If \fIdformat\fP
+is missing, " = $0+\\n" is assumed.
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+.PP
+For each of these properties, its value on the selected window
+or font is printed using the supplied formatting information if any. If no
+formatting information is supplied, internal defaults are used. If a property
+is not defined on the selected window or font, "not defined" is printed as the
+value for that property. If no property list is given, all the properties
+possessed by the selected window or font are printed.
+.PP
+A window may be selected in one of four ways. First, if the desired window
+is the root window, the -root argument may be used.
+If the desired window is not the root window, it may be selected
+in two ways on the command line, either by id number such as might be obtained
+from \fIxwininfo\fP, or by name if the window possesses a name. The -id
+argument selects a window by id number in either decimal or hex (must start
+with 0x) while the -name argument selects a window by name.
+.PP
+The last way to select a window does not involve the command line at all.
+If none of -font, -id, -name, and -root are specified, a crosshairs cursor
+is displayed and the user is allowed to choose any visible window by pressing
+any pointer button in the desired window. If it is desired to display properties
+of a font as opposed to a window, the -font argument must be used.
+.PP
+Other than the above four arguments and the -help argument for obtaining help,
+and the -grammar argument for listing the full grammar for the command line,
+all the other command line arguments are used in specifying both the format
+of the properties to be displayed and how to display them. The -len \fIn\fP
+argument specifies that at most \fIn\fP bytes of any given property will be
+read and displayed. This is useful for example when displaying the cut buffer
+on the root window which could run to several pages if displayed in full.
+.PP
+Normally each property name is displayed by printing first the property
+name then its type (if it has one) in parentheses followed by its value.
+The -notype argument specifies that property types should not be
+displayed. The -fs argument is used to specify a file containing a list of
+formats for properties while the -f argument is used to specify the format
+for one property.
+.PP
+The formatting information for a property actually consists of two parts,
+a \fIformat\fP and a \fIdformat\fP. The \fIformat\fP specifies the actual
+formatting of the property (i.e., is it made up of words, bytes, or longs?,
+etc.) while the \fIdformat\fP specifies how the property should be displayed.
+.PP
+The following paragraphs describe how to construct \fIformat\fPs and
+\fIdformat\fPs. However, for the vast majority of users and uses, this should
+not be necessary as the built in defaults contain the \fIformat\fPs and
+\fIdformat\fPs necessary to display all the standard properties. It should
+only be necessary to specify \fIformat\fPs and \fIdformat\fPs
+if a new property is being dealt with or the user dislikes the standard display
+format. New users especially are encouraged to skip this part.
+.PP
+A \fIformat\fP consists of one of 0, 8, 16, or 32 followed by a sequence of one
+or more format characters. The 0, 8, 16, or 32 specifies how many bits per
+field there are in the property. Zero is a special case meaning use the
+field size information associated with the property itself. (This is only
+needed for special cases like type INTEGER which is actually three different
+types depending on the size of the fields of the property)
+.PP
+A value of 8 means
+that the property is a sequence of bytes while a value of 16 would mean that
+the property is a sequence of words. The difference between these two lies in
+the fact that the sequence of words will be byte swapped while the sequence of
+bytes will not be when read by a machine of the opposite byte order of the
+machine that originally wrote the property. For more information on how
+properties are formatted and stored, consult the Xlib manual.
+.PP
+Once the size of the fields has been specified, it is necessary to specify
+the type of each field (i.e., is it an integer, a string, an atom, or what?)
+This is done using one format character per field. If there are more fields
+in the property than format characters supplied, the last character will be
+repeated as many times as necessary for the extra fields. The format
+characters and their meaning are as follows:
+.TP
+a
+The field holds an atom number. A field of this type should be of size 32.
+.TP
+b
+The field is an boolean. A 0 means false while anything else means true.
+.TP
+c
+The field is an unsigned number, a cardinal.
+.TP
+i
+The field is a signed integer.
+.TP
+m
+The field is a set of bit flags, 1 meaning on.
+.TP
+s
+This field and the next ones until either a 0 or the end of the property
+represent a sequence of bytes. This format character is only usable with
+a field size of 8 and is most often used to represent a string.
+.TP
+x
+The field is a hex number (like 'c' but displayed in hex - most useful
+for displaying window ids and the like)
+.PP
+An example \fIformat\fP is 32ica which is the format for a property of three
+fields of 32 bits each, the first holding a signed integer, the second an
+unsigned integer, and the third an atom.
+.PP
+The format of a \fIdformat\fP unlike that of a \fIformat\fP is not so rigid.
+The only limitations on a \fIdformat\fP is that one may not start with a letter
+or a dash. This is so that it can be distinguished from a property name or
+an argument. A \fIdformat\fP is a text string containing special characters
+instructing that various fields be printed at various points in a manner similar
+to the formatting string used by printf. For example, the \fIdformat\fP
+" is ( $0, $1 \\)\\n" would render the POINT 3, -4 which has a \fIformat\fP of
+32ii as " is ( 3, -4 )\\n".
+.PP
+Any character other than a $, ?, \\, or a ( in a \fIdformat\fP prints as
+itself. To print out one of $, ?, \\, or ( precede it by a \\. For example,
+to print out a $, use \\$. Several special backslash sequences are provided
+as shortcuts. \\n will cause a newline to be displayed while \\t will
+cause a tab to be displayed. \\\fIo\fP where \fIo\fP is an octal number
+will display character number \fIo\fP.
+.PP
+A $ followed by a number \fIn\fP causes field number \fIn\fP to be
+displayed. The format of the displayed field depends on the formatting
+character used to describe it in the corresponding \fIformat\fP. I.e., if
+a cardinal is described by 'c' it will print in decimal while if it is
+described by a 'x' it is displayed in hex.
+.PP
+If the field is not present in
+the property (this is possible with some properties), <field not available>
+is displayed instead. $\fIn\fP+ will display field number \fIn\fP then a
+comma then field number \fIn\fP+1 then another comma then ... until the last
+field defined. If field \fIn\fP is not defined, nothing is displayed.
+This is useful for a property that is a list of values.
+.PP
+A ? is used to start a conditional expression, a kind of if-then statement.
+?\fIexp\fP(\fItext\fP) will display \fItext\fP if and only if \fIexp\fP evaluates to
+non-zero. This is useful for two things. First, it allows fields to be
+displayed if and only if a flag is set.
+And second, it allows a value such as a state
+number to be displayed as a name rather than as just a number. The syntax of
+\fIexp\fP is as follows:
+.TP
+\fIexp\fP
+::= \fIterm\fP | \fIterm\fP=\fIexp\fP | !\fIexp\fP
+.TP
+\fIterm\fP
+::= \fIn\fP | $\fIn\fP | m\fIn\fP
+.PP
+The ! operator is a logical ``not'', changing 0 to 1 and any non-zero value to 0.
+= is an equality operator. Note that internally all expressions are evaluated
+as 32 bit numbers so -1 is not equal to 65535. = returns 1 if the two values
+are equal and 0 if not.
+\fIn\fP represents the constant value \fIn\fP while $\fIn\fP represents the
+value of field number \fIn\fP.
+m\fIn\fP is 1 if flag number \fIn\fP in the first field having format
+character 'm' in the corresponding \fIformat\fP is 1, 0 otherwise.
+.PP
+Examples: ?m3(count: $3\\n) displays field 3 with a label of count if and only if flag
+number 3 (count starts at 0!) is on. ?$2=0(True)?!$2=0(False) displays the
+inverted value of field 2 as a boolean.
+.PP
+In order to display a property, \fIxprop\fP needs both a \fIformat\fP and a
+\fIdformat\fP. Before \fIxprop\fP uses its default values of a \fIformat\fP
+of 32x and a \fIdformat\fP of " = { $0+ }\\n", it searches several places
+in an attempt to find more specific formats.
+First, a search is made using the name of the property. If this
+fails, a search is made using the type of the property. This allows type
+STRING to be defined with one set of formats while allowing property WM_NAME
+which is of type STRING to be defined with a different format. In this way,
+the display formats for a given type can be overridden for specific properties.
+.PP
+The locations searched are in order: the format if any specified with the
+property name (as in 8x WM_NAME), the formats defined by -f options in last to
+first order, the contents of the file specified by the -fs option if any,
+the contents of the file specified by the environmental variable XPROPFORMATS
+if any, and finally \fIxprop\fP's built in file of formats.
+.PP
+The format of the files referred to by the -fs argument and the XPROPFORMATS
+variable is one or more lines of the following form:
+.PP
+\fIname\fP \fIformat\fP [\fIdformat\fP]
+.PP
+Where \fIname\fP is either the name of a property or the name of a type,
+\fIformat\fP is the \fIformat\fP to be used with \fIname\fP and \fIdformat\fP
+is the \fIdformat\fP to be used with \fIname\fP. If \fIdformat\fP is not
+present, " = $0+\\n" is assumed.
+.SH EXAMPLES
+.PP
+To display the name of the root window: \fIxprop\fP -root WM_NAME
+.PP
+To display the window manager hints for the clock: \fIxprop\fP -name xclock
+WM_HINTS
+.PP
+To display the start of the cut buffer: \fIxprop\fP -root -len 100 CUT_BUFFER0
+.PP
+To display the point size of the fixed font: \fIxprop\fP -font fixed POINT_SIZE
+.PP
+To display all the properties of window # 0x200007: \fIxprop\fP -id 0x200007
+.SH ENVIRONMENT
+.PP
+.TP 8
+.B DISPLAY
+To get default display.
+.TP 8
+.B XPROPFORMATS
+Specifies the name of a file from which additional formats are to be obtained.
+.PP
+.SH SEE ALSO
+X(1), xwininfo(1)
+.SH AUTHOR
+Mark Lillibridge, MIT Project Athena