NAME

xmx - an X protocol multiplexor

SYNOPSIS

xmx [:displaynum] [-option ...] [display ...]

DESCRIPTION

Xmx is an X protocol multiplexor. It connects to some number of X servers as a client, then accepts connections, as an X server itself, from some number of X clients. It passes packets unaltered between the clients and one controlling server. As it is doing this, it filters and modifies the requests and passes them along to some number of slave servers.

The effect is of an X session controlled by one server broadcast to the other servers. The windows controlled by xmx on the slave servers do not accept input, they are a visual echo of the controlling process.

OPTIONS

:displaynum: Specifies the display number for which to be an X server. This number need not correspond to a real display - in fact it must not if a real X server is running on the same machine.
-display display: Specifies the name of the master X server to connect to. If this option is not specified, the value of the environment variable DISPLAY is used. If DISPLAY is not set, the first slave server listed becomes the master.
-f filename: Specifies a file which contains a whitespace-separated list of display names to use as slave servers.
-p: Echo pointer motion of master server to slaves.
-i: Run in interactive mode. Commands are read from stdin.
-S: Run in slave only mode. No controlling X server display is opened. This option should only be used to run an xmx process whose only client will be another xmx process. No interaction is possible unless the topmost xmx has a master X server connection. This option is used to fan-out multiplexing to increase speed or overcome system resource limits when broadcasting to a large number of displays.
-maxfd: Set NOFILE to the maximum possible value. On systems that permit it, the number of active file descriptors is raised to the system maximum.
-msb num: Increase the size of the outgoing slave socket buffers (SNDBUF) by a factor of num. Can improve performance dramatically for protocol intensive applications (clients that putimage large images will benefit, for instance). However, making the buffers very large can wedge xmx's host machine. Setting num larger than 4 is not advised.
-help: Print a helpful message describing usage and options.
display...: The list of slave server displays can also be specified on the command line. If the -f option is also specified, the lists are merged.

BUGS

Pointer motion could be improved. Interactive mode is currently a hack. Does not support any extensions yet.

AUTHOR