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Package: xbase-clients
Version: 4.3.0-5
Severity: minor
File: /usr/X11R6/bin/xset
When I run, for example, 'xset blah', I see the following in my
reasonably-sized terminal:
[top of screen]
force standby
force suspend
force off
force on
(also implicitly enables DPMS features)
a timeout value of zero disables the mode
To control font cache:
fc [hi-mark [low-mark [balance]]]
both mark values spcecified in KB
balance value spcecified in percent (10 - 90)
Show font cache statistics:
fc s
To set the font path:
fp= path[,path...]
To restore the default font path:
fp default
To have the server reread font databases:
fp rehash
To remove elements from font path:
-fp path[,path...] fp- path[,path...]
To prepend or append elements to font path:
+fp path[,path...] fp+ path[,path...]
To set LED states off or on:
-led [1-32] led off
led [1-32] led on
To set mouse acceleration and threshold:
m [acc_mult[/acc_div] [thr]] m default
To set pixel colors:
p pixel_value color_name
To turn auto-repeat off or on:
-r [keycode] r off
r [keycode] r on
r rate [delay [rate]]
For screen-saver control:
s [timeout [cycle]] s default s on
s blank s noblank s off
s expose s noexpose
s activate s reset
For status information: q
$
Somewhere in the terminal's scrollback buffer is the line "xset:
unknown option blah". Why should I have to scroll backwards to see it?
My theory is that at one point xset had such a short usage string that
the developers thought, "Gee, it would be convenient if we printed a
usage message, for quick reference, whenever there was an argument
parsing error." But now the usage string has grown so long that this
argument is no longer valid. The usage message should be secondary to
the actual error message, but instead it takes up so much space that
it makes the error message harder to read. This is especially tiresome
when one is trying to specify a complicated command line, and must
keep scrolling up past the usage message to see what went wrong.
I can think of two solutions. My preferred solution would be to modify
xset to recognize '-h' and '--help', and to only print the usage
message when one of these is specified on the command line (the same
behavior, as, for instance, gcc). (A shorter version of the usage
message could be printed when there is an error, although I would be
happiest if nothing were printed but the error message.) Another
possibility would be to modify xset to print the error message after
the usage message, rather than before, so that the user doesn't have
to scroll backwards to see the error message.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.2-1-686
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
Versions of packages xbase-clients depends on:
ii cpp 4:3.3.3-2 The GNU C preprocessor (cpp)
ii libc6 2.3.2.ds1-11 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii libdps1 4.2.1-16 Display PostScript (DPS) client li
ii libexpat1 1.95.6-6 XML parsing C library - runtime li
ii libfontconfig1 2.2.1-14 generic font configuration library
ii libfreetype6 2.1.7-2 FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii libice6 4.3.0-5 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii libncurses5 5.3.20030719-5 Shared libraries for terminal hand
ii libpng12-0 1.2.5.0-4 PNG library - runtime
ii libsm6 4.3.0-5 X Window System Session Management
ii libstdc++5 1:3.3.3-1 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii libxaw7 4.2.1-16 X Athena widget set library
ii libxcursor1 1.0.2-4 X Cursor management library
ii libxext6 4.3.0-5 X Window System miscellaneous exte
ii libxft2 2.1.2-5 FreeType-based font drawing librar
ii libxi6 4.3.0-5 X Window System Input extension li
ii libxmu6 4.3.0-5 X Window System miscellaneous util
ii libxmuu1 4.3.0-5 lightweight X Window System miscel
ii libxpm4 4.3.0-5 X pixmap library
ii libxrandr2 4.3.0-5 X Window System Resize, Rotate and
ii libxrender1 0.8.3-7 X Rendering Extension client libra
ii libxt6 4.3.0-5 X Toolkit Intrinsics
ii libxtrap6 4.3.0-5 X Window System protocol-trapping
ii libxtst6 4.3.0-5 X Window System event recording an
ii libxv1 4.3.0-5 X Window System video extension li
ii xlibmesa-gl [libgl1] 4.3.0-5 Mesa 3D graphics library [XFree86]
ii xlibmesa-glu [libglu1] 4.3.0-5 Mesa OpenGL utility library [XFree
ii xlibs 4.3.0-6 X Window System client libraries m
ii xlibs-data 4.3.0-6 X Window System client data
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.1-4 compression library - runtime
-- no debconf information
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