xnots(1) BSD General Commands Manual xnots(1)
NAME
xnots -- A desktop sticky note program for Unix geeks.
SYNOPSIS
xnots [-hqv] [-c file] [-d dir]
DESCRIPTION
xnots is a desktop sticky note system for the X window system and unix
geeks. xnots is designed so that all your sticky notes and to-do lists
are text files in a certain directory (by default ~/.xnots). The idea is
that any unix geek should abhor typing text into anything EXCEPT his
favourite editor. These files completely control the appearance and con-
tent of the displayed sticky notes, and thus the average unix geek will
never have to use the mouse or (god forbid) navigate using menus to con-
trol xnots.
On startup xnots first reads options from the file ~/.xnotsrc, or the
file specified by the -c option. Then xnots reads the file .xnotsinfo in
the directory ~/.xnots (or the directory specified by the -d option).
This file contains the position / sizes of sticky notes saved from previ-
ous sessions. Finally, xnots displays all files found in the directory
~/.xnots (or the directory specified by the -d option) as sticky notes.
xnots then watches this directory for changes so that changes made to
files in this directory are immediately reflected in the displayed sticky
notes. To create new notes, simply create a file in this directory. To
delete notes, either use your window manager to close them, or delete the
corresponding note file. And to modify the content or appearance of an
existing note, simply edit the corresponding text file with your
favourite text editor.
If you move / resize any sticky note, xnots will periodically save this
information in the file .xnotsinfo, so that the notes can be restored to
the same positions the next time xnots is started. This file can safely
be edited (or removed) by the user when xnots is not running (if xnots is
running, then your changes might be lost when it exits). Finally, xnots
will exit only when the watched directory is deleted / moved, or it
receives a TERM signal (e.g. via 'pkill -n xnots').
NOTE: Files in the watched directory beginning with a period, or ending
with '~' or '.swp' are ignored.
OPTIONS
-c file
Read default note options from file instead of from ~/.xnotsrc.
-d dir
Read notes from directory dir instead of from ~/xnots.
-h Display brief help message
-q Do not display any messages (except for X errors).
-v Display version information and exit.
NOTE FILE SYNTAX
The typical note file looks like this
* background : #204040
* geometry : 150x150-0+0
Super important memo goes here. This will be bold
The first few lines that have a '*' in the first collumn are options that
modify the appearance of the sticky note. Once a (non-blank) line is
encountered without a '*' in the first column, that line and everything
following is treated as the text of the sticky note.
The text of the sticky note can contain simple markup tags as supported
by the pango library. See the file pango-Text-Attributes.html that comes
with the pango documentation for a list and description of all markup
tags supported. Keep in mind that even minor errors in your markup will
cause the pango library to complain verbosely, and not render any markup
at all for your note. You can disable the use of markup in the note text
using the useMarkup option.
The following options can be used to control the appearance of your
sticky notes. If these options appear in the configuration file
~/.xnotsrc then they apply to all notes. Otherwise they will only apply
to the current note.
display dpy
X display to connect to (this only works from the ~/.xnotsrc file)
geometry geom
The geometry of the note as understood by the XParseGeometry(3X11)
function. xnots checks to see if the geometry of this note is
saved in the file .xnotsinfo. If found, then this is used as the
geometry of the note. If not, then geom is used as the geometry of
the note.
If the user resizes / moves the note, then the new geometry will be
saved in the file .xnotsinfo, so that the note can be restored to
exactly the same position in future sessions. If you want the pre-
viously stored geometry information in .xnotsinfo to be ignored,
then just delete the appropriate entry in .xnotsinfo.
NOTE: The geometry of a note is stored along with the filename of
the note. If the note file is deleted, then the geometry of the
note is NOT forgotten. This is useful if you later create a note
with the same filename, as it will appear on the desktop with the
same geometry.
foreground color
The color of the note text.
background color
The color of the note background.
alpha degree
The transparency degree of the note. 0 is fully transparent, 255 is
completely opaque. The note is made 'root-transparent' and is
tinted to the color specified by the background option with alpha
degree.
The note can only be made root-transparent if you used an esetroot
compatible program to set the desktop wallpaper. For instance
feh(1) or fvwm-root(1) with the -r option will do this. See also
the comments about transparency in the man page of mrxvt(1) since
the transparency code is almost identical to mrxvt's transparency
code.
bypassWM [bool]
If bool is true, then the OverrideRedirect flag is set when creat-
ing note windows. This means that window managers will completely
ignore this window (not decorate it, not pass it focus put it in
task bars or pagers). Also the X server generally preserves the
contents of such windows, when you expose parts or all of your note
window, you'll find that your sticky notes take less time to redraw
themselves.
When this option is unset, xnots tries very hard to tell your win-
dow manager to make your sticky notes skip your pager / taskbar and
appear undecorated on all desktops. However some window managers,
like fvwm(1), do not honor all such requests. If you use fvwm for
instance, and your sticky notes to not have window decorations then
you can either set the bypassWM option, or put the following line
in your fvwm configuration file:
Style XNots NoTitle, !Borders, WindowListSkip
stickWM [bool]
If bool is true, then all decisions about the sticky nature of a
window are left up to the window manager and no hints are sent to
make windows sticky. When this option is in use, all other hints
are sent to the window manager.
When this option is unset, xnots tries very hard to tell your win-
dow manager to make your sticky notes sticky to all desktops.
onTop bool
If true your sticky notes are above other windows, instead of being
below them.
moveOnScreenResize bool
If true (default), then the note's position is updated when the
desktop is resized (e.g. via xrandr(3)) to keep the notes relative
position on screen constant. (The note is only moved, not resized.)
title title
The window of your note window
useMarkup bool
If true, basic markup tags are accepted in the note text. See the
file pango-Text-Attributes.html that comes with the pango documen-
tation for a list and description of all markup tags supported.
font fontname
The name of the Xft font to be used to render your sticky note
text.
size size
The point size of the font to be used to render your sticky note
text.
leftMargin margin
Left margin of note text
rightMargin margin
Right margin of note text
topMargin margin
Top margin of note text
botMargin margin
This works differently from the other margins. If non-zero, then
the height of the note window is adjusted so that the note has
exactly the specified margin at the bottom. If 0, then the height
of the sticky note window is exactly as specified by the geometry
option.
indent width
Set's the indentation of the first line of each paragraph. Hanging
indents can be produced by setting this to a negative value. In
this case the first tab stop will be exactly equal to the (abso-
lute) value of the indent, so that the first tab character will
skip the hanging indent.
roundRadius radius
If you want your note to have rounded corners, then set this option
to the radius of the corners and xnots will use the shape extension
to shape the note window to be a rounded rectangle. If set to 0
your notes will be regular rectangles.
EXAMPLES
See the files in the examples/ subdirectory of the xnots source archive.
NOTES
- You need a Linux kernel with inotify compiled with inotify support for
xnots to work. I think inotify is included by default with the Linux
2.6.13 upward, but I recommend using 2.6.16 and up.
- Sometimes xnots does not detect when the watched directory is deleted
(but it generally detects when the watched directory is moved).
FILES
~/.xnotsrc
Default note options are read from this file on startup.
~/.xnots
Default directory to look for sticky note files.
.xnotsinfo
File where all note geometries are stored.
BUGS
- Deleting options from a displayed note does not reset to the default
value. Maybe this is how it should be :)
- The useMarkup and bypassWM options work badly when changed for a
already displayed note.
SEE ALSO
The pango text markup attributes pango-Text-Attributes.html, inotify(7).
http://xnots.sourceforge.net
AUTHOR
Gautam Iyer
X Version 11 January 11, 2009 X Version 11