xvfb-run(1) General Commands Manual xvfb-run(1)
NAME
xvfb-run - run specified X client or command in a virtual X server en-
vironment
SYNOPSIS
xvfb-run [ options ] command
DESCRIPTION
xvfb-run is a wrapper for the Xvfb(1x) command which simplifies the
task of running commands (typically an X client, or a script containing
a list of clients to be run) within a virtual X server environment.
xvfb-run sets up an X authority file (or uses an existing user-speci-
fied one), writes a cookie to it (see xauth(1x)) and then starts the
Xvfb X server as a background process. The process ID of Xvfb is
stored for later use. The specified command is then run using the X
display corresponding to the Xvfb server just started and the X author-
ity file created earlier.
When the command exits, its status is saved, the Xvfb server is killed
(using the process ID stored earlier), the X authority cookie removed,
and the authority file deleted (if the user did not specify one to
use). xvfb-run then exits with the exit status of command.
xvfb-run requires the xauth command to function.
OPTIONS
-a, --auto-servernum
Try to get a free server number, starting at 99, or the argument
to --server-num.
-e file, --error-file=file
Store output from xauth and Xvfb in file. The default is
/dev/null.
-f file, --auth-file=file
Store X authentication data in file. By default, a temporary
directory called xvfb-run.PID (where PID is the process ID of
xvfb-run itself) is created in the directory specified by the
environment variable TMPDIR (or /tmp if that variable is null or
unset), and the tempfile(1) command is used to create a file in
that temporary directory called Xauthority.
-h, --help
Display a usage message and exit.
-n servernumber, --server-num=servernumber
Use servernumber as the server number (but see the -a,
--auto-servernum option above). The default is 99.
-l, --listen-tcp
Enable TCP port listening in the X server. For security reasons
(to avoid denial-of-service attacks or exploits), TCP port lis-
tening is disabled by default.
-p protocolname, --xauth-protocol=protocolname
Use protocolname as the X authority protocol to use. The de-
fault is ‘.’, which xauth interprets as its own default proto-
col, which is MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1.
-s arguments, --server-args=arguments
Pass arguments to the Xvfb server. Be careful to quote any
whitespace characters that may occur within arguments to prevent
them from regarded as separators for xvfb-run's own arguments.
Also, note that specification of ‘-nolisten tcp’ in arguments
may override the function of xvfb-run's own -l, --listen-tcp op-
tion, and that specification of the server number (e.g., ‘:1’)
may be ignored because of the way the X server parses its argu-
ment list. Use the xvfb-run option -n servernum-
ber, --server-num=servernumber to achieve the latter function.
The default is ‘-screen 0 1280x1024x24’.
-w delay, --wait=delay
Ignored for compatibility with earlier versions.
ENVIRONMENT
COLUMNS
indicates the width of the terminal device in character cells.
This value is used for formatting diagnostic messages. If not
set, the terminal is queried using stty(1) to determine its
width. If that fails, a value of ‘80’ is assumed.
TMPDIR specifies the directory in which to place xvfb-run's temporary
directory for storage of the X authority file; only used if the
-f or --auth-file options are not specified.
OUTPUT FILES
Unless the -f or --auth-file options are specified, a temporary direc-
tory and file within it are created (and deleted) to store the X au-
thority cookies used by the Xvfb server and client(s) run under it.
See tempfile(1). If -f or --auth-file are used, then the specified X
authority file is only written to, not created or deleted (though xauth
creates an authority file itself if told to use use that does not al-
ready exist).
An error file with a user-specified name is also created if the -e or
--error-file options are specified; see above.
EXIT STATUS
xvfb-run uses its exit status as well as output to standard error to
communicate diagnostics. The exit status of ‘1’ is not used, and
should be interpreted as failure of the specified command.
0 xvfb-run only uses this exit status if the -h, --help option is
given. In all other situations, this may be interpreted as suc-
cess of the specified command.
2 No command to run was specified.
3 The xauth command is not available.
4 The temporary directory that was going to be used already ex-
ists; since xvfb-run produces a uniquely named directory, this
may indicate an attempt by another process on the system to ex-
ploit a temporary file race condition.
5 A problem was encountered while cleaning up the temporary direc-
tory.
6 A problem was encountered while using getopt(1) to parse the
command-line arguments.
EXAMPLES
xvfb-run --auto-servernum --server-num=1 xlogo
runs the xlogo(1x) demonstration client inside the Xvfb X server
on the first available server number greater than or equal to 1.
xvfb-run --server-args="-screen 0 1024x768x24" ico -faces
runs the ico(1x) demonstration client (and passes it the -faces
argument) inside the Xvfb X server, configured with a root win-
dow of 1024 by 768 pixels and a color depth of 24 bits.
Note that the demo X clients used in the above examples will not exit
on their own, so they will have to be killed before xvfb-run will exit.
BUGS
See the Debian Bug Tracking System ⟨https://bugs.debian.org/xvfb⟩. If
you wish to report a bug in xvfb-run, please use the reportbug(1) com-
mand.
AUTHOR
xvfb-run was written by Branden Robinson and Jeff Licquia with sponsor-
ship from Progeny Linux Systems.
SEE ALSO
Xvfb(1x), xauth(1x)
Debian Project 2004-11-12 xvfb-run(1)
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