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vncserver(1)		    Virtual Network Computing		    vncserver(1)

NAME
     vncserver - start or stop a VNC server

SYNOPSIS
     vncserver [:display#] [-name desktop-name] [-geometry widthxheight] [-depth
     depth]  [-pixelformat  format]  [-fp  font-path]  [-fg] [-autokill] [-noxs-
     tartup] [-xstartup script] [Xvnc-options...]
     vncserver -kill :display#
     vncserver -list

DESCRIPTION
     vncserver is used to start a VNC (Virtual Network Computing) desktop.  vnc-
     server is a Perl script which simplifies the process of  starting	an  Xvnc
     server.   It runs Xvnc with appropriate options and starts a window manager
     on the VNC desktop.

     vncserver can be run with no options at all. In this case	it  will  choose
     the  first available display number (usually :1), start Xvnc with that dis-
     play number, and start the default window manager in the Xvnc session.  You
     can also specify the display number, in which case vncserver  will  attempt
     to  start	Xvnc  with that display number and exit if the display number is
     not available.  For example:

	    vncserver :13

     Editing the file $HOME/.vnc/xstartup allows you to change the  applications
     run  at  startup  (but  note that this will not affect an existing VNC ses-
     sion.)

OPTIONS
     You can get a list of options by passing -h as an option to vncserver.   In
     addition  to  the	options  listed  below, any unrecognised options will be
     passed to Xvnc - see the Xvnc man page, or "Xvnc -help", for details.

     -name desktop-name
	    Each VNC desktop has a name which may be displayed	by  the  viewer.
	    The desktop name defaults to "host:display# (username)", but you can
	    change  it	with  this option.  The desktop name option is passed to
	    the xstartup script via the $VNCDESKTOP environment variable,  which
	    allows  you  to run a different set of applications depending on the
	    name of the desktop.

     -geometry widthxheight
	    Specify the size of the  VNC  desktop  to  be  created.  Default  is
	    1024x768.

     -depth depth
	    Specify  the pixel depth (in bits) of the VNC desktop to be created.
	    Default is 24.  Other possible values are 8, 15 and  16  -	anything
	    else is likely to cause strange behaviour by applications.

     -pixelformat format
	    Specify  pixel  format  for Xvnc to use (BGRnnn or RGBnnn).  The de-
	    fault for depth 8 is BGR233 (meaning the most significant  two  bits
	    represent  blue,  the  next  three	green, and the least significant
	    three represent red), the default for depth 16 is  RGB565,	and  the
	    default for depth 24 is RGB888.

     -cc 3  As	an  alternative to the default TrueColor visual, this allows you
	    to run an Xvnc server with a PseudoColor visual (i.e. one which uses
	    a color map or palette), which can be useful for running some old  X
	    applications which only work on such a display.  Values other than 3
	    (PseudoColor)  and	4  (TrueColor)	for the -cc option may result in
	    strange behaviour, and  PseudoColor  desktops  must  have  an  8-bit
	    depth.

     -kill :display#
	    This kills a VNC desktop previously started with vncserver.  It does
	    this  by killing the Xvnc process, whose process ID is stored in the
	    file "$HOME/.vnc/host:display#.pid".  The -kill option ignores  any-
	    thing  preceding  the  first  colon  (":")	in the display argument.
	    Thus, you can invoke "vncserver -kill $DISPLAY", for example at  the
	    end of your xstartup file after a particular application exits.

     -fp font-path
	    If the vncserver script detects that the X Font Server (XFS) is run-
	    ning,  it  will  attempt to start Xvnc and configure Xvnc to use XFS
	    for font handling.	Otherwise, if XFS is not running, the  vncserver
	    script will attempt to start Xvnc and allow Xvnc to use its own pre-
	    ferred  method of font handling (which may be a hard-coded font path
	    or, on more recent systems, a font catalog.)  In any case,	if  Xvnc
	    fails  to start, the vncserver script will then attempt to determine
	    an appropriate X font path for this system and start Xvnc using that
	    font path.

	    The -fp argument allows you to override the above fallback logic and
	    specify a font path for Xvnc to use.

     -fg    Runs Xvnc as a foreground process.	This has two  effects:	(1)  The
	    VNC  server  can be aborted with CTRL-C, and (2) the VNC server will
	    exit as soon as the user logs out of the window manager in	the  VNC
	    session.   This may be necessary when launching TigerVNC from within
	    certain grid computing environments.

     -autokill
	    Automatically kill Xvnc whenever the xstartup script exits.  In most
	    cases, this has the effect of terminating Xvnc when  the  user  logs
	    out of the window manager.

     -noxstartup
	    Do	not  run  the  %HOME/.vnc/xstartup  script after launching Xvnc.
	    This option allows you to manually start a window  manager	in  your
	    TigerVNC session.

     -xstartup script
	    Run  a  custom startup script, instead of %HOME/.vnc/xstartup, after
	    launching Xvnc. This is useful to run full-screen applications.

     -list  Lists all VNC desktops started by vncserver.

FILES
     Several VNC-related files are found in the directory $HOME/.vnc:

     $HOME/.vnc/xstartup
	    A shell script specifying X applications to be run when a VNC  desk-
	    top  is  started.	If this file does not exist, then vncserver will
	    create a default xstartup script which attempts to launch your  cho-
	    sen window manager.

     /etc/tigervnc/vncserver-config-defaults
	    The  optional  system-wide	equivalent of $HOME/.vnc/config. If this
	    file exists and defines options to be passed to Xvnc, they	will  be
	    used  as  defaults for users. The user's $HOME/.vnc/config overrides
	    settings configured in this file.  The  overall  configuration  file
	    load    order   is:   this	 file,	 $HOME/.vnc/config,   and   then
	    /etc/tigervnc/vncserver-config-mandatory. None are required  to  ex-
	    ist.

     /etc/tigervnc/vncserver-config-mandatory
	    The  optional  system-wide	equivalent of $HOME/.vnc/config. If this
	    file exists and defines options to be  passed  to  Xvnc,  they  will
	    override any of the same options defined in a user's $HOME/.vnc/con-
	    fig.  This	file  offers a mechanism to establish some basic form of
	    system-wide policy. WARNING! There is nothing  stopping  users  from
	    constructing  their  own  vncserver-like  script that calls Xvnc di-
	    rectly to bypass any options defined in /etc/tigervnc/vncserver-con-
	    fig-mandatory.  Likewise, any CLI arguments passed to vncserver will
	    override ANY config file setting of the same name. The overall  con-
	    figuration	file  load  order is: /etc/tigervnc/vncserver-config-de-
	    faults, $HOME/.vnc/config, and then this file.  None are required to
	    exist.

     $HOME/.vnc/config
	    An optional server config file wherein options to be passed to  Xvnc
	    are  listed  to  avoid  hard-coding them to the physical invocation.
	    List options in this file one per line. For those requiring an argu-
	    ment, simply separate the option from the  argument  with  an  equal
	    sign,   for   example:  "geometry=2000x1200"  or  "securitytypes=vn-
	    cauth,tlsvnc". Options without an argument are simply  listed  as  a
	    single word, for example: "localhost" or "alwaysshared".

     $HOME/.vnc/passwd
	    The VNC password file.

     $HOME/.vnc/host:display#.log
	    The log file for Xvnc and applications started in xstartup.

     $HOME/.vnc/host:display#.pid
	    Identifies the Xvnc process ID, used by the -kill option.

SEE ALSO
     vncviewer(1), vncpasswd(1), vncconfig(1), Xvnc(1)
     https://www.tigervnc.org

AUTHOR
     Tristan Richardson, RealVNC Ltd., D. R. Commander and others.

     VNC was originally developed by the RealVNC team while at Olivetti Research
     Ltd  / AT&T Laboratories Cambridge.  TightVNC additions were implemented by
     Constantin Kaplinsky. Many other people have since participated in develop-
     ment, testing and support. This manual is part  of  the  TigerVNC	software
     suite.

TigerVNC							    vncserver(1)

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