4.3BSD-UWisc/man/cat1/xbiff.1
XBIFF(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XBIFF(1)
NAME
XBIFF - X window system mail notification program
SYNOPSIS
XBIFF [ option ] ...
DESCRIPTION
_X_B_I_F_F periodically checks the user's mail file (i.e.
/usr/spool/mail/<user>) and indicates mail state (none, new
or old). _X_B_I_F_F creates a window in which a pixmap is
displayed indicating current mail state. The three pixmaps
used are: an empty mail box (no mail), a mail box with
letters and the flag up (new mail) and a mail box with
letters but with the flag down (old mail). When new mail is
received, _X_B_I_F_F flashes the window. If the user then
presses the left button in the window, a summary of the new
message(s) is displayed in another window. A click of any
button in this window causes the window to go away. Until
this is done, no further checks of the mailbox are per-
formed.
The middle button pops up a window giving a short summary of
every message in the mailbox. This summary consists of the
``From '' and ``Subject:'' lines of each message. A click
of the mouse inside the window causes it to go away. The
right button provides a menu from which the user may quit
the program or enter a program to read his/her mail. As
with the left button, no further checks are made on the
mailbox until this function has ended. The user must exit
the program to cause this to happen.
In either of the summary windows (either of new mail or of
all mail), as many lines as possible will be displayed,
given the size of the screen and the limits imposed by the
user on the command line and in the ~/.Xdefaults file.
Sometimes, however, not all the lines will fit in the sum-
mary window. To view these lines, move the mouse out of the
window either to the top or to the bottom and, if you don't
move the mouse too far away, the window will scroll so as to
display hidden summary lines from the given direction. E.g.
if you move the mouse out of the window to the bottom, lines
which are below the currently displayed ones will become
visible. This scrolling can be stopped either by reentering
the window or by moving the mouse beyond a certain distance,
as specified on the command line or in the ~/.Xdefaults
file. See below.
_X_B_I_F_F understands the following options:
-fn _f_o_n_t
Specify the font to use in displaying the hostname.
Defaults to _t_i_m_r_o_m_1_0.
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XBIFF(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XBIFF(1)
-fs _f_o_n_t
Specify the font to use in displaying summary lines.
Defaults to the -fn font.
-bd _c_o_l_o_r
Specify the border color. On monochrome displays,
should be ``white'' or ``black''; white is the
default.
-bg _c_o_l_o_r
Specify the background color. On monochrome
displays, should be ``white'' or ``black''; black is
the default.
-bw[idth] _p_i_x_e_l_s
Specify the width in pixels of the border around the
_X_B_I_F_F window. The default value is 0 pixels.
-fg _c_o_l_o_r
Specify the foreground color. On monochrome
displays, should be ``white'' or ``black''; white is
the default.
-r[everse]
Cause _X_B_I_F_F to reverse foreground and background
colors.
-u[pdate] _s_e_c_o_n_d_s
Specify the frequency in seconds with which _X_B_I_F_F
checks the mail file and updates its display (except
if the _X_B_I_F_F window is obscured and then exposed,
immediate check and redisplay occurs). The default
update frequency is 30 seconds.
-d[elay] _t_e_n_t_h_s _o_f _s_e_c_o_n_d_s
Specify the fequency in tenths of seconds which
_X_B_I_F_F will flash the window. The default delay is 5
tenths of a second.
-st[hresh] _p_i_x_e_l_s
Set the number of pixels within which the mouse must
be of the window to cause the summary window to
scroll. Once it begins scrolling, moving the mouse
outside this threshold will cause scrolling to
cease.
-sd[elay] _s_e_c_o_n_d_s
Specify, as a real number, the number of seconds to
delay between scrolls. If the mouse remains outside
the window and within the scrolling threshold longer
than this, the window will scroll again. The window
will continue scrolling one scroll-size (see below)
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XBIFF(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XBIFF(1)
every this many seconds until the mouse moves out-
side the threshold.
-ss[ize] _l_i_n_e_s
Set the number of lines to scroll each time to
_l_i_n_e_s. This is summary lines, not screen scanlines.
=_g_e_o_m_e_t_r_y
The window is created with the specified size and
location determined by the supplied geometry specif-
ication. See _X(_1) for a full explanation.
S=_g_e_o_m_e_t_r_y
Each summary window is created with the specified
size and location. The width and height are inter-
preted a little differently than usual. The width
is taken to be the _m_i_n_i_m_u_m number of characters wide
each window should be. If you specify a width of 10
and there's a line of width 50, the window will be
created to hold the width 50 line. The height is in
summary lines rather than screen scanlines.
[_h_o_s_t]:[_d_i_s_p_l_a_y]
Normally, _X_B_I_F_F gets the host and display number to
use from the environment variable ``DISPLAY''.
Either or both can be specified with this option.
_h_o_s_t specifies which machine to create the _X_B_I_F_F
window on, and _d_i_s_p_l_a_y specifies the display number.
For example, ``ginko:0'' creates an _X_B_I_F_F on display
0 on machine ginko. Either value can be defaulted by
omission but ``:'' is necessary to specify one or
both.
X DEFAULTS
Font Specify the font to use in displaying the hostname.
SummaryFont
Specify the font to use when displaying summary win-
dows.
Foreground
Set the foreground color.
Background
Set the background color.
Border Set the border color.
BorderWidth
Set the border width of the window.
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ReverseVideo
If ``on'', reverse the definition of foreground and
background color.
Update Set the interval (in seconds) to check the mail file
and update display.
Delay Set the flash delay interval.
OtherCommand
Set the command which is executed when the _O_t_h_e_r
item in the right-button menu is selected. This
command is passed directly to an instance of /bin/sh
so if you want it to create a window, use xterm.
SummaryGeometry
Same as for S=, above, only don't precede it with a
`S'.
ScrollThreshold
Equivalent to -st[hresh].
ScrollSize
Equivalent to -ss[ize].
ScrollDelay
Equivalent to -sd[elay].
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY - to get the default host and display number.
SEE ALSO
X(1), X(8C), select(2)
DIAGNOSTICS
Unable to open display or create window. Unable to query
root window for dimensions. Various X errors.
BUGS
_X_B_I_F_F attempts to flash the window when new mail arrives;
this is quite slow when going across long nets and small
(e.g. less than 15) delays often result in only a single
flash.
AUTHOR
David C. Martin (UC Berkeley).
Summary windows added by Adam R. de Boor (UC Berkeley)
Copyright (c) 1986, Regents of the University of California
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