FACES(1)FACES(1)NAMEfaces - visual mail, and list face server.
SYNOPSISfaces [ -A ] [ -B soundfile ] [ -C audiocmd ] [ -I ] [ -M ] [ -P ] [ -S
spooldir ] [ -a ] [ -b background ] [ -bg color ] [ -c columns ] [ -d
display ] [ -e program ] [ -f facepath ] [ -fg color ] [ -fn font ] [
-g geometry ] [ -h height ] [ -iconic ] [ -i ] [ -l label ] [ -n ] [ -p
period ] [ -rv ] [ -s spoolfile ] [ -t ] [ -u ] [ -v ] [ -w width ]
DESCRIPTION
Faces is a window based tool for visual monitoring lists. Typically it
is used to monitor mail, but it is also capable of running a user sup‐
plied program or shell script. It contains a graphical interface for
Gtk. It has three different modes of operation:
The default (no -a 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.
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.
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.
-I Read mail from an IMAP mail server. As faces starts, a
popup will be displayed. The user will need to supply
their IMAP server name, and their username and password. If
this information is valid, faces will connect to that IMAP
server, and display the faces associated with the user mail
as described above. Note that faces needs to be build with
IMAP support enabled for this option to work.
-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 Read mail from a POP mail server. As faces starts, a popup
will be displayed. The user will need to supply their POP
server name, and their username and password. If this
information is valid, faces will connect to that POP
server, and display the faces associated with the user mail
as described above. Note that faces needs to be build with
POP support enabled for this option to work.
-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.
-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
X11 bitmap file containing an alternate background pattern.
The default is root grey.
-bg color The background pixel color to use.
-c columns Number of columns of face images in each row. By default
this is 10.
-d display The X11 display name to use.
-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 sec‐
tion.
-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 envi‐
ronment 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/share/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 The foreground pixel color to use.
-fn font The font to use for displaying face names and timestamps.
-g geometry Geometry information to use.
-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.
-l label The label to be used in the title line of the faces window.
-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 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/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 pro‐
gram.
-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 nec‐
essarily the width of the displayed image inside.
AUDIO SUPPORT
Faces is capable of playing sounds for each user when monitoring for
new mail. Audio support needs to have been compiled in, and also 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/share/faces. The first few levels are
the machine name, where each part of the machine name is at a separate
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 face.xpm then it is an X11 pixmap file. If it is called
face.xbm then it is an X11 bitmap formatted image. 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/share/faces. The iconname above, consists of the follow‐
ing choices, in the given order:
Gtk - face.xpm, face.xbm
Domain names are 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.
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, depend‐
ing 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 posi‐
tion 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.
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 com‐
pressed 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}"$UT^VhnsJ?){wFU5r+,duO>4@L
Each user should add the line:
set sendmail=/usr/local/bin/faces.sendmail
to their ~/.mailrc file, where /usr/local/bin is the directory where
your faces binaries were installed.
A similar method exists with the Elm mailer. The user's compressed face
image should be setup in a ~/.face file, but without the initial "X-
Face:", and leading spaces removed from each line. There is also no
trailing blank line. Here's an example:
*7O.<19S{MCsaxxe=iCc*y5!i:>e,K40m^btp"<`~gNx5>o?eJMzUng=j]%KybY
VaZ/3a4pD%#rGu7D<M$.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 Gtk version of faces uses the following X resources. Faces will
now initially try to read resources from whatever the environment vari‐
able FACESDEFAULTS points to. If that's not set, it will try to read
resources from $HOME/.facesdefaults
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 pat‐
tern.
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.
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.
imap
Read users mail from an IMAP mail server.
lower
A boolean (default: false), if true causes to lower it's window
when there is no mail left in the monitored spoolfile.
pop Read users mail from a POP mail server.
raise
A boolean (default: false), if true caused to raise it's window
when new mail arrives.
SEE ALSOmail(1), elm(1), mush(1), aliases(7).
FILES
/var/mail directory for system mailboxes
$HOME/.facesrc faces startup file
$HOME/.mailrc mail startup file (examined if .facesrc
doesn't exist)
/usr/local/share/faces main directory containing the face icons.
/usr/local/share/faces/people.tab
people/file equivalences
/usr/local/share/faces/machine.tab
machine/community equivalences
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
DISPLAY The X11 server to be used by the Gtk 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.
MAIL The complete pathname of the mail spool file to monitor.
HISTORYfaces is based on the Bell Labs Edition 8 program vismon(9). This pro‐
gram 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
Rich Burridge, (rich.burridge@Sun.COM)
15 January 2002 FACES(1)
