From 3350ac7b06bd6e5c88e058c92708e493de277236 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Martin Mares Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 23:24:49 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Added a README with brief documentation --- README | 71 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 71 insertions(+) create mode 100644 README diff --git a/README b/README new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9b974d --- /dev/null +++ b/README @@ -0,0 +1,71 @@ +================================================================================ + + On-Screen Display Daemon + + (c) 2010 Martin Mares + + You can use and distribute this program under the terms of GPLv2. + +================================================================================ + + +OSDD is a simple daemon whose purpose is to wait for messages sent by other +programs and display them on the screen using libxosd. Unlike other such +daemons, it handles message attributes (like colors), keeps its eye on +message timing and uses X properties to pass messages, so it works over SSH +connections with X forwarding. + +I have developed osdd on Linux, but it should work on any recent POSIX-compliant +system equipped with libX11 and libxosd. + +Please send all bug reports and suggestions to the author. + +Usage +~~~~~ +When you run `osdd' without any parameters, it forks and waits in the background +to serve the messages. It is convenient to invoke it from ~/.xsession, so that +it is started with your X session. It should exit properly when the session +terminates. + +The simplest way of sending messages to the daemon is using the `osdc' client, +e.g., `osdc "Hello world!"'. Use multiple parameters to create a multi-line +message (however, the maximum number of lines is fixed and it can be changed +only by the `--lines' switch on daemon startup). + +You can also add attributes to the message (written as command-line options): + + --color=c Set foreground color of the message. Colors are specified + either as #RGB, or #RRGGBB, or color names from X11 rgb.txt, + or any other method documented in XParseColor(3). + + --outline-color=c Set color of character outlines. + + --duration=ms Show the message for a given number of miliseconds. + + --min-duration=ms When another message arrives while this one is displayed, + the duration of this message can be shortened, but not + below this parameter. + + --percent=p Draw a line with a percentage bar (p=0..100) + + --slider=p Draw a line with a slider (p=0..100) + +The default values of most of these attributes can be given by command-line +options of the daemon, use `osdd --help' to get the full list. + +Any value can be replaced by "-", meaning "read from standard input". + + +Example clients +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +osd-clock Display current date and time (a shell script piping + its output to osdc). + +osd-mpc-volume Adjust volume of the MPD music player daemon and show + a slider with the new value. + +osd-batt A slightly more complex client written in C, showing + the current status of laptop batteries. It can be asked + to show status immediately or to run in background and + croak whenever the battery is low. -- 2.39.2