lbxproxy.man   [plain text]


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.\" $XFree86: xc/programs/lbxproxy/lbxproxy.man,v 1.9 2003/05/29 21:48:10 herrb Exp $
.\"
.TH LBXPROXY 1 __xorgversion__
.SH NAME
lbxproxy - Low BandWidth X proxy
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B lbxproxy [:<display>] [option]
.SH DESCRIPTION
Applications that would like to take advantage of the Low Bandwidth
extension to X (LBX) must make their connections to an lbxproxy.  These
applications need to know nothing about LBX, they simply connect to the
lbxproxy as if were a regular server.  The lbxproxy accepts client
connections, multiplexes them over a single connection to the X server, and
performs various optimizations on the X protocol to make it faster over low
bandwidth and/or high latency connections.
.PP
With regard to authentication/authorization, lbxproxy simply passes along
to the server the credentials presented by the client.  Since X clients will
connect to lbxproxy, it is important that the user's .Xauthority file contain
entries with valid keys associated with the network ID of the proxy.  lbxproxy
does not get involved with how these entries are added to the .Xauthority file.
The user is responsible for setting it up.
.PP
The lbxproxy program has various options, all of which are optional.
.PP
If
.B :<display>
is specified, the proxy will use the given display port when
listening for connections.  The display port is an offset from port 6000,
identical to the way in which regular X display connections are specified.
If no port is specified on the command line option, lbxproxy will default
to port 63.  If the port number that the proxy tries to listen on is in
use, the proxy will attempt to use another port number.  If
the proxy is not using the Proxy Manager and the default
port number cannot be used, the port number that is used
will be written to stderr.
.PP
The other command line options that can be specified are:
.PP
.TP 8
.B \-help
Prints a brief help message about the command line options.
.TP 8
.B \-display \fIdpy\fP
Specifies the address of the X server supporting the LBX extension.
If this option is not specified, the display is obtained by the
DISPLAY environment variable.
.TP 8
.B \-motion \fIcount\fP
A limited number of pointer motion events are allowed to be in flight
between the server and the proxy at any given time.  The maximum
number of motion events that can be in flight is set with this option;
the default is 8.
.TP 8
.B \-maxservers \fInumber\fP
The default behavior of lbxproxy is to manage a single server.
However, lbxproxy can manage more than one server.  The default
maximum number of servers is 20.  The number of servers can be 
overridden by setting the environment variable LBXPROXY_MAXSERVERS 
to the desired number.  The order of precedence from highest
to lowest: command line, environment variable, default number.
.TP 8
.B \-[terminate|reset]
The default behavior of lbxproxy is to continue running as usual when
it's last client exits.  The
.B \-terminate
option will cause lbxproxy to
exit when the last client exits.  The
.B \-reset
option will cause
lbxproxy to reset itself when the last client exits.  Resetting causes
lbxproxy to clean up it's state and reconnect to the server.
.TP 8
.B \-reconnect
The default behavior of lbxproxy is to exit when its connection to the
server is broken.  The
.B \-reconnect
option will cause lbxproxy to just reset instead (see
.B \-reset
above) and attempt to reconnect to the server.
.TP 8
.B \-I
Causes all remaining arguments to be ignored.
.TP 8
.B \-nolbx
Disables all LBX optimizations.
.TP 8
.B \-nocomp
Disables stream compression.
.TP 8
.B \-nodelta
Disables delta request substitutions.
.TP 8
.B \-notags
Disables usage of tags.
.TP 8
.B \-nogfx
Disables reencoding of graphics requests (not including image
related requests).
.TP 8
.B \-noimage
Disables image compression.
.TP 8
.B \-nosquish
Disables squishing of X events.
.TP 8
.B \-nointernsc
Disables short circuiting of InternAtom requests.
.TP 8
.B \-noatomsfile
Disables reading of the atoms control file.  See the section on
"Atom Control" for more details.
.TP 8
.B \-atomsfile \fIfile\fP
Overrides the default AtomControl file.  See the section on
"Atom Control" for more details.
.TP 8
.B \-nowinattr
Disables GetWindowAttributes/GetGeometry grouping into one round trip.
.TP 8
.B \-nograbcmap
Disables colormap grabbing.
.TP 8
.B \-norgbfile
Disables color name to RGB resolution in proxy.
.TP 8
.B \-rgbfile \fIpath\fP
Specifies an alternate RGB database for color name to RGB resolution.
.TP 8
.B \-tagcachesize
Set the size of the proxy's tag cache (in bytes).
.TP 8
.B \-zlevel \fIlevel\fP
Set the Zlib compression level (used for stream compression).
.br
default is 6
.br
1 = worst compression, fastest
.br
9 = best compression, slowest
.TP 8
.B \-compstats
Report stream compression statistics every time the proxy resets
or receives a SIGHUP signal.
.TP 8
.B \-nozeropad
Don't zero out unused pad bytes in X requests, replies, and events.
.TP 8
.B \-cheaterrors
Allows cheating on X protocol for the sake of improved performance.
The X protocol guarantees that any replies, events or
errors generated by a previous request will be sent before those of
a later request.  This puts substantial restrictions on when lbxproxy
can short circuit a request.  The -cheaterrors option allows lbxproxy to
violate X protocol rules with respect to errors.  Use at your own risk.
.TP 8
.B \-cheatevents
The -cheatevents option allows lbxproxy to violate X protocol rules with
respect to events as well as errors.  Use at your own risk.
.PP
.SH ATOM CONTROL
.PP
At startup, lbxproxy "pre-interns" a configurable list of
atoms.  This allows lbxproxy to intern a group of atoms in a single round
trip and immediately store the results in its cache.
.PP
While running, lbxproxy uses heuristics to decide when to delay
sending window property data to the server.  The heuristics depend
on the size of the data, the name of the property, and whether a
window manager is running through the same lbxproxy.
.PP
Atom control is specified in the "AtomControl" file, set
up during installation of lbxproxy, with command line overrides.
.PP
The file is a simple text file.  There are three forms of lines:
comments, length control, and name control.  Lines starting with
a '!' are treated as comments.  A line of the form
.sp
.in +4
.nf
z \fIlength\fP
.fi
.in -4
.sp
specifies the minimum length in bytes before property data will be
delayed.  A line of the form
.sp
.in +4
.nf
\fIoptions\fP \fIatomname\fP
.fi
.in -4
.sp
controls the given atom, where \fIoptions\fP is any combination
of the following characters: 'i' means the atom should be pre-interned;
'n' means data for properties with this name should never be delayed;
and 'w' means data for properties with this name should be delayed only
if a window manager is also running through the same lbxproxy.
.PP
.SH BUGS
.PP
When the authorization protocol XDM-AUTHORIZATION-1 is used:
.PP
.in +4
A client must be on the same host as lbxproxy for the client to be
authorized to connect to the server.
.PP
.in +4
If a client is not on the same host as lbxproxy, the client will
not be authorized to connect to the server.