vncviewer(1)						     Virtual Network Computing						      vncviewer(1)

NAME

       vncviewer - VNC viewer for X

SYNOPSIS

       vncviewer [options] [host][:display#]
       vncviewer [options] -listen [port]

DESCRIPTION

       vncviewer is a viewer (client) for Virtual Network Computing.  This manual page documents version 4 for the X window system.

       If  you	run  the  viewer with no arguments it will prompt you for a VNC server to connect to.  Alternatively, specify the VNC server as an
       argument, e.g.:

	      vncviewer snoopy:2

       where 'snoopy' is the name of the machine, and '2' is the display number of the VNC server on that machine.  Either  the  machine  name	or
       display	number can be omitted.	So for example ":1" means display number 1 on the same machine, and "snoopy" means "snoopy:0" i.e. display
       0 on machine "snoopy".

       If the VNC server is successfully contacted, you will be prompted for a password to authenticate you.  If the password is correct, a window
       will appear showing the desktop of the VNC server.

AUTOMATIC PROTOCOL SELECTION

       The  viewer  tests  the speed of the connection to the server and chooses the encoding and pixel format (colour level) appropriately.  This
       makes it much easier to use than previous versions where the user had to specify arcane command line arguments.

       The viewer normally starts out assuming the link is slow, using a low colour level and using the encoding with the best compression.  If it
       turns out that the link is fast enough it switches to full-colour mode and will use an encoding which compresses less but is faster to gen-
       erate, thus improving the interactive feel.  Automatic selection can be turned off by setting the AutoSelect parameter to  false,  or  from
       the options dialog.

POPUP MENU

       The  viewer  has  a  popup menu containing entries which perform various actions.  It is usually brought up by pressing F8, but this can be
       configured with the MenuKey parameter.  Actions which the popup menu can perform include:

	 * switching in and out of full-screen mode

	 * quitting the viewer

	 * generating key events, e.g. sending ctrl-alt-del

	 * accessing the options dialog and various other dialogs

       By default, key presses in the popup menu get sent to the VNC server and dismiss the popup.  So to get an F8 through to the VNC server sim-
       ply press it twice.

FULL SCREEN MODE

       A  full-screen mode is supported.  This is particularly useful when connecting to a remote screen which is the same size as your local one.
       If the remote screen is bigger, you can scroll by bumping the mouse against the edge of the screen.

       Unfortunately this mode doesn't work completely with all window managers, since it breaks the X window management conventions.

OPTIONS (PARAMETERS)
       You can get a list of parameters by giving -h as a command-line option to vncviewer.  Parameters can be turned on with -param or  off  with
       -param=0.   Parameters  which take a value can be specified as -param value.  Other valid forms are param=value -param=value --param=value.
       Parameter names are case-insensitive.

       Many of the parameters can also be set graphically via the options dialog box.  This can be accessed from the popup menu or from the  "Con-
       nection details" dialog box.

       -display Xdisplay
	      Specifies the X display on which the VNC viewer window should appear.

       -geometry geometry
	      Standard X position and sizing specification.

       -listen [port]
	      Causes vncviewer to listen on the given port (default 5500) for reverse connections from a VNC server.  WinVNC supports reverse con-
	      nections initiated using the 'Add New Client' menu option or the '-connect' command-line option.	Xvnc supports reverse  connections
	      with a helper program called vncconfig.

       -XDialog
	      Popup an X dialog when asking for server, username and password.	Default is to not popup when vncviewer is start from command line.

       -passwd password-file
	      If  you  are on a filesystem which gives you access to the password file used by the server, you can specify it here to avoid typing
	      it in.  It will usually be "~/.vnc/passwd".

       -Shared
	      When you make a connection to a VNC server, all other existing connections are normally closed.  This option requests that  they	be
	      left open, allowing you to share the desktop with someone already using it.

       -ViewOnly
	      Specifies  that no keyboard or mouse events should be sent to the server.  Useful if you want to view a desktop without interfering;
	      often needs to be combined with -Shared.

       -FullScreen
	      Start in full-screen mode.

       -AutoSelect
	      Use automatic selection of encoding and pixel format (default is on).  Normally the viewer tests the speed of the connection to  the
	      server and chooses the encoding and pixel format appropriately.  Turn it off with -AutoSelect=0.

       -FullColour, -FullColor
	      Tells  the  VNC  server  to send full-colour pixels in the best format for this display.	By default a low colour mode is used until
	      AutoSelect decides the link is fast enough.  However if the server's native pixel format is colourmapped (as opposed to  truecolour)
	      then the server's format is used by default.

       -LowColourLevel level
	      Selects  the reduced colour level to use on slow links.  level can range from 0 to 2, 0 meaning 8 colours, 1 meaning 64 colours (the
	      default), 2 meaning 256 colours.

       -PreferredEncoding encoding
	      This option specifies the preferred encoding to use from one of "ZRLE", "hextile" or "raw".

       -UseLocalCursor
	      Render the mouse cursor locally if the server supports it (default is on).  This can make the interactive performance feel much bet-
	      ter over slow links.

       -WMDecorationWidth w, -WMDecorationHeight h
	      The  total  width  and  height taken up by window manager decorations.  This is used to calculate the maximum size of the VNC viewer
	      window.  Default is width 6, height 24.

       -log logname:dest:level
	      Configures the debug log settings.  dest can currently be stderr or stdout, and level is between 0 and 100, 100 meaning most verbose
	      output.	logname  is  usually  *  meaning  all,	but you can target a specific source file if you know the name of its "LogWriter".
	      Default is *:stderr:30.

       -MenuKey keysym-name
	      This option specifies the key which brings up the popup menu.  The key is specified as an X11 keysym name (these can be obtained	by
	      removing the XK_ prefix from the entries in "/usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h").  Default is F8.

       -via gateway
	      Automatically  create  encrypted	TCP  tunnel  to  the  gateway  machine	before connection, connect to the host through that tunnel
	      (TightVNC-specific). By default, this option invokes SSH local port forwarding, assuming that SSH client binary can be  accessed	as
	      /usr/bin/ssh.  Note that when using the -via option, the host machine name should be specified as known to the gateway machine, e.g.
	      "localhost" denotes the gateway, not the machine where vncviewer was launched. The environment variable VNC_VIA_CMD can override the
	      default  tunnel  command	of  /usr/bin/ssh -f -L "$L":"$H":"$R" "$G" sleep 20.   The tunnel command is executed with the environment
	      variables L, H, R, and G taken the values of the local port number, the remote host, the port number on the  remote  host,  and  the
	      gateway machine respectively.

SEE ALSO

       Xvnc(1), vncpasswd(1), vncconfig(1), vncserver(1)
       http://www.realvnc.com

AUTHOR

       Tristan Richardson, RealVNC Ltd.

       VNC  was originally developed by the RealVNC team while at Olivetti Research Ltd / AT&T Laboratories Cambridge.	It is now being maintained
       by RealVNC Ltd.	See http://www.realvnc.com for details.

RealVNC Ltd							    08 Nov 2006 						      vncviewer(1)