FACES(1) FACES(1)
13 November 1991
NAME
faces - visual mail, user and print face server.
SYNOPSIS
faces [ -A ] [ -B soundfile ] [ -C audiocmd ] [ -H hostname ] [ -M ] [
-P printer ] [ -S spooldir ] [ -U ] [ -a ] [ -b background ] [ -bg
color ] [ -c columns ] [ -d display ] [ -e program ] [ -f facedir ] [
-fg color ] [ -fn font ] [ -g geometry ] [ -h height ] [ -iconic ] [ -i
] [ -l label ] [ -n ] [ -p period ] [ -rv ] [ -s spoolfile ] [ -t ] [
-u ] [ -v ] [ -w width ] [ -Wi ] [ -Wp x y ] [ -WP x y ]
DESCRIPTION
Faces is a window based tool for visual monitoring lists. Typically it
is used to monitor mail, print queues or users on a system. It
contains graphical interfaces for NeWS, SunView, XView and X11. It has
five different modes of operation:
The default (no -a, -H, -P or -e arguments) will monitor for new mail.
By default, only the last ten messages are displayed. Using the left
mouse button it is possible to toggle the text in the faces window.
This will either be the username or the time the mail message arrived.
You can clear this area to the background pattern by hitting the
Delete key (but see below, under set button1clear). The icon shows
the image of the last message to arrive.
The second choice (-a) is to monitor the whole of a mail file. The
open window will automatically adjust its size to correctly show the
face icons. The open window options are the username or the timestamp
and number of message from that user. The icon will display the image
of the last message, and a count of the total number of messages in
the spool file or mail folder.
The third option (-P) allows this program to monitor a given print
queue. This will generate a single face icon showing the job at the
top of the print queue, and the text message will display the printer
name plus the number of jobs to be printed. Opening the window will
show images of all the jobs in the queue. The text on each image can
be toggled, choices being the owner's name and the size of the job in
bytes.
With the fourth mode (-H), you can monitor who is logged in a machine.
For each user, a face image is displayed. Text can be either the
username or the time they logged on. The iconic form displays the
total number of users.
Finally you can specify a program or shell script to run (-e). The
standard output from this program will be read by the faces program,
and the appropriate faces displayed using the information provided.
The format of this face information is given in the faces manual page.
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13 November 1991
There are special displays for no mail, no faces found, no print jobs,
no paper in the printer, and no users logged into a machine.
OPTIONS
-A Enable audio support (where applicable).
-B soundfile
The name of the sound file to play instead of making the
bell sound. Audio support has to be enabled.
-C audiocmd An alternative command to use to play the audio files.
Audio support has be be enabled.
-H hostname Name of the machine to monitor. Faces will be displayed
for each user logged in. Note that on some systems, the
-ut option should be used with the xterm program, if you
wish to prevent each xterm showing as a separate user.
-M Used when the user is using a mail reader which is capable
of shrinking the mail spoolfile (Elm and MH mail being two
such examples) and the default mail monitoring facility
within faces adjusts accordingly.
-P printer Printer name to monitor. If this and a mail spool file are
given with the -s option, faces will monitor the print
queue.
-S spooldir Specify an alternate mail spool directory. The folder that
will be monitored will then be spooldir/username where
username is the name of the user currently logged in.
-U Automatically send mail to a special mail alias, to update
the faces database when a new X-Face: record is read. By
default this special alias is facemaker. This should be
aliased (see aliases(7)) to:
facemaker: "|/usr/local/bin/face_update"
By default the face_update shell script will not
overwriting existing ikons in the faces database.
Overwriting will take place if the -w option is specified.
You should also note that the installation of this mail
alias is not done automatically, as this might be
considered a security risk on some systems.
-a Monitor the whole of the specified mail file. The icon and
open window display the appropriate faces, and dynamically
change size as a new check is made and if the mail file
has altered size.
-b background
Sun icon or X11 bitmap file containing an alternate
background pattern. The default is root grey.
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FACES(1) FACES(1)
13 November 1991
-bg color Used with the X11 variant of faces to pick the background
pixel color.
-c columns Number of columns of face images in each row. By default
this is 10.
-d display Used with the X11 variant of faces to give the display
name.
-e program Name of the user program to run. This program or shell
script will generate lines which the faces program will
read, and then display the appropriate face images. The
format of these input records is described in a later
section.
-f facepath If specified, this is a colon-separated list of paths to
be searched for face images. A null entry in the path
will be replaced by the compiled in default face
directory. If not specified, the directories specified by
the FACEPATH environment variable will be used. If there
is no FACEPATH environment variable, the default face
directory will be searched. The default face directory is
normally /usr/local/faces. Note that in previous versions
of faces, a -f option added the directory to the search
path, which already consisted of the system default faces.
Using the -f option now, supercedes the system default
faces, and you must include a trailing colon in the list
of paths, in order to have them included.
-fg color Used with the X11 variant of faces to pick the foreground
pixel color.
-fn font Used with the X11 variant of faces to pick which font to
use for displaying face names and timestamps.
-g geometry Used with the X11 variant of faces to give geometry
information.
-h height The height of each face image in pixels. Note that this is
the height of the area allocated to each image, and not
necessarily the height of the displayed image inside.
-iconic Start the faces program up in iconic form.
-i Invert the faces images before displaying them. For use by
people who started SunView with the -i option.
-l label The label to be used in the title line of the faces
window.
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FACES(1) FACES(1)
13 November 1991
-n Do not display the number of messages from this person.
The default is to display, and a count is shown at the
bottom right corner of the face for this person.
-p period The period in seconds before the mail spool file or the
print queue is scanned again for new mail. The default is
60 seconds.
-rv For X11, displays the faces in pseudo-reverse video by
reversing the foreground and background colors.
-s spoolfile
Use an alternate mail spool file to monitor. The default
is /var/spool/mail/username where username is the name of
the user currently logged in.
-t Do not display a timestamp of the last message from this
person. The default is to display, and a timestamp is
shown at the bottom left corner of the face for this
person.
-u Do not display the username on the face icon. The default
is to display, and the username will appear over the face
icon, when the window is opened.
-v Print the version number of this release of the faces
program.
-w width The width of each face image in pixels. Note that this is
the width of the area allocated to each image, and not
necessarily the width of the displayed image inside.
-Wi Start the faces program up in iconic form. SunView
automatically uses this flag, but the NeWS version will
also.
-Wp x y Start the open window position at x y
-WP x y Start the icon position at x y
AUDIO SUPPORT
Faces is capable of playing sounds for each user when monitoring for
new mail. Audio support needs to be enabled, and there must be a
face.au file present for that user (see FACE FORMATS below). A special
command is used to play the sounds. This can be overridden by a
command line option or an X resource.
FACE FORMATS
There is a special faces directory containing a multi-level hierarchy,
which by default is /usr/local/faces. The first few levels are the
machine name, where each part of the machine name is at a separate
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13 November 1991
level. One level below this is the user name, and one level below that
is the actual face image, which can be stored in four formats. If the
file is named 48x48x1 then it is a Blit ikon, if it is called sun.icon
then the image is stored in Sun icon format, if the file is named
face.xbm then it is an X11 xbm formatted image, and if the file is
called face.ps then it contains executable NeWS code. Multiple formats
can be stored in the same username directory, and the one used will
depend upon which graphics interface is currently being used.
For example, the face.xbm file for user joe at host machine.att.com
would be stored in the hierarchy:
/com/att/machine/joe/face.xbm
It is also possible to store audio files in the faces directory. These
files are called face.au, and should be stored under the appropriate
user directory.
To access the face for the mail name machine.dom.ain!uid take the
result of the first successful open from the following list of files
(where $DIR represents iteration over the list of directories in
FACEPATH):
$DIR/ain/dom/machine/uid/iconname
$DIR/ain/dom/uid/iconname
$DIR/ain/uid/iconname
$DIR/MISC/uid/iconname
$DIR/ain/dom/machine/unknown/iconname
$DIR/ain/dom/unknown/iconname
$DIR/ain/unknown/iconname
$DIR/MISC/unknown/iconname
If the -f argument is specified the given directory is searched
instead of /usr/local/faces. The iconname above, consists of the
following choices, in the given order: r1 c1 l1 l1 l1 l1 .
NeWS - face.ps, sun.icon, 48x48x1, face.xbm
SunView - sun.icon, 48x48x1, face.xbm
X11 - face.xbm, sun.icon, 48x48x1 Domain names are now fully
supported. For example, if mail arrives from foo@a.b.c then faces will
use the directories c/b/a, c/b and c for the machine name. The
directory MISC hold faces for generic users such as root and uucp. If
the faces directory hierarchy is not found, then a blank face image
will be used.
Faces information is administered by a pair of ASCII files in the
faces directory that associate related machines and faces. The machine
table machine.tab attaches machines to communities; the line
stard=sunaus
puts the machine stard in community sunaus. The machine table may be
used to alias entire communities; the line
wseng.sun.com=eng.sun.com
will cause the wseng.sun.com domain to be mapped to the eng.sun.com
community. The people table associates a community/alias pair, with a
real username.
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FACES(1) FACES(1)
13 November 1991
sunaus/rburridge=richb
causes the alias rburridge to be translated into the real username
richb for the community sunaus
Note that you still need to use mailtool or some other mail reading
utility to actually read the mail that this program monitors; faces
simply displays who the mail is from.
When new mail arrives, faces will beep and flash appropriately,
depending upon the set parameters in the user's faces startup file.
This is looked for in the user's home directory; first the file
.facesrc is tried, and if that file is not found, .mailrc is looked
for. The file, if found, will be examined for lines in the following
form:
set bell = number
Give the number of times faces will ring the bell when new mail
arrives.
set flash = number
Give the number of times faces will flash the window when new
mail arrives.
set raise
faces will raise the window when new mail arrives.
set lower
faces will lower the window when there is no mail left in the
monitored spoolfile.
set button1clear
For those who liked the behaviour of previous versions of faces,
this causes button 1 to clear the window (like typing Delete).
The ``toggling'' function of button 1 is moved to button 2 if
this option is set. If you are using the X11 version, these
parameters may be set via your X resources rather than the faces
startup file. See the X DEFAULTS section for more details.
If you are using the NeWS version and creating face images of the
face.ps form, then the following points should be noted: All graphics
operations should be performed on the unit square; and the final image
will be translated to a 64 x 64 square image at the appropriate
position in the faces display.
If you are using the -e option, then the user program or shell script
needs to generate a set of records which are interpreted by the faces
program. The first record should be in the following fixed format,
beginning at column 1:
Cols=mm Rows=nn
where mm is the size in columns for the faces window and icon, and nn
is the size in rows. A window will be generated with these dimensions.
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13 November 1991
This record is followed by the face information records. These records
can have upto six fields, each one TAB separated. As well as providing
the username and hostname, there are four other fields which can be
filled in, which denote what is displayed on the left or the right
sides of the bottom area of each face image in the normal display and
the alternate display (normally selectable by clicking the left mouse
button).
The fields are:
username
hostname
normal left
normal right
alternate left
alternate right
Any of these fields may be left blank. There are also four special
usernames, which will display the appropriate standard icons. These
are NOMAIL, NOPAPER, NOPRINT and NOUSERS.
There can also be one optional information record for the faces icon
display. This uses the first four of these fields, and if this record
is present, it should be before the Cols record. If not present, then
the icon will contain the same display and text as the last window
unformation record.
XFACE SUPPORT
Faces is capable of recognising a compressed face image in the mail
message header. It uses special X-Face: lines to do this. It is very
simple to add your compressed face image to a mail header. The
following method works for Berkeley Mail (aka /usr/ucb/mail), Open
Windows mailtool and mush. It probably works for others too. It is
suggested that each user store the compressed image (generated by
compface ) in a file called .face in their home directory. See the
compface manual page for more information on how to generate the
compressed face image. The first line should have the X-Face:
prepended; second and subsequent lines should have a preceding tab,
and there should be a trailing blank line. Here is a typical .face
file:
X-Face: *7O.<19S{MCsaxxe=iCc*y5!i:>e,K40m^btp"<`~gNx5>o?eJMzUng=j]%KybY
/VaZ/3a4pD%#rGu7D<M$.TDpaDN8#8eJC&^^&Mr]@~}Pa,*F-ePrMg5.}e,,bu
qROdT{Vzn{!ouXy.&*#V#Q&Zf7a8lX2Kb}"$UT^VhnsJ?){wFU5r+,duO>4@L
Each user should add the line:
set sendmail=/usr/local/bin/faces.sendmail
to their ~/.mailrc file, where /usr/local/bin is the directory where
your faces binaries were installed. A similar method exists with the
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13 November 1991
Elm mailer. The user's compressed face image should be setup in a
~/.face file, but without the initial "X-Face:", and leading spaces
removed from each line. There is also no trailing blank line. Here's
an example:
*7O.<19S{MCsaxxe=iCc*y5!i:>e,K40m^btp"<`~gNx5>o?eJMzUng=j]%KybY
/VaZ/3a4pD%#rGu7D<M$.TDpaDN8#8eJC&^^&Mr]@~}Pa,*F-ePrMg5.}e,,bu
qROdT{Vzn{!ouXy.&*#V#Q&Zf7a8lX2Kb}"$UT^VhnsJ?){wFU5r+,duO>4@L
To automatically include this into a header into an Elm mail message,
just add the following line to your .elm/elmheaders file:
X-Face: `cat $HOME/.face`
X DEFAULTS
The X11 and XView versions of faces uses the following resources:
audioCommand
The name of the command to use to play audio files.
audioSupport
Enable audio support (where applicable).
background
The window's background color. The default value is white.
backgroundPixmap
The pixel map to use for tiling the background of the faces window
or icon. The default value is the default X11 root background
pattern.
bell
The number of times to ring the bell when new mail arrives.
bellAudioFile
The name of an audio file to play instead of sounding the bell.
button1clear
A boolean (default: false), if set, causes faces to revert to the
old button behavior, namely, button 1 clears the window, and
button two toggles the display.
displayHostname
A boolean (default: false), if set, causes faces to display the
hostname rather than the username if the icon represents a
username rather than a hostname.
flash
Give the number of times to flash the window when new mail
arrives.
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FACES(1) FACES(1)
13 November 1991
font
The text font. The default value is fixed.
foreground
The foreground color. The default value is black.
geometry (class Geometry)
The size and location of the faces window.
iconGeometry (class Geometry)
The size and location of the faces window.
raise
A boolean (default: false), if true caused to raise it's window
when new mail arrives.
lower
A boolean (default: false), if true causes to lower it's window
when there is no mail left in the monitored spoolfile.
SEE ALSO
mail(1), elm(1), mush(1), aliases(7).
FILES
/var/spool/mail directory for system mailboxes
$HOME/.facesrc faces startup file
$HOME/.mailrc mail startup file (examined if .facesrc
doesn't exist)
/usr/local/faces main directory containing the face
icons.
/usr/local/faces/people.tab people/file equivalences
/usr/local/faces/machine.tab machine/community equivalences
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
DISPLAY The X11 server to be used by the XView or X11 faces
program to display the face icons on.
FACEDEFAULTS Name of the file containing the X resource information
for faces.
FACEPATH A colon separated list of directory paths to search for
machine/user face icons.
HOME The home directory of the current user. Used to locate
the .facesrc or .mailrc file.
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FACES(1) FACES(1)
13 November 1991
MAIL The complete pathname of the mail spool file to
monitor.
WINDOW_PARENT Used to verify that the program is executing under a
valid SunView environment.
HISTORY
faces is based on the Bell Labs Edition 8 program vismon(9). This
program is not derived from vismon source.
BUGS
The machine and people table lookup is hopelessly inefficient and will
need to be improved as the faces database gets larger.
AUTHOR
l r1 l . Rich Burridge, Internet: richb@stard.Eng.Sun.COM PHONE: +61
2 413 2666 ACSnet: richb@sunaus.sun.oz.au
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