RFBPROXY(1) User's Manual RFBPROXY(1)NAMErfbproxy - record, play back, or export a VNC session
SYNOPSISrfbproxy [OPTION]... ACTION files
DESCRIPTIONrfbproxy is a simple proxy for VNC, which allows recording of screen
updates, key presses and mouse events, for later replay to a VNC client
or export as a series of PPM frames. It can also record screen updates
by connecting to a VNC session shared by other client(s). Exporting as
a series of PPMs is the first step towards converting a session to
video using tools such as mjpegtools(1), ffmpeg(1), and/or ffmpeg2the‐
ora.
OPTIONS
ACTION is exactly one of:
-r, --record
record RFB communications and store them in the file (only one
file is allowed for files)
-p, --playback
play back the RFB communications that were captured to the files
-x, --export
export as a series of PPM frames written to standard output the
RFB communications that were captured to the files
OPTIONS can be:
-c, --stdout
use stdin and stdout for communications with the client. Useful
in conjunction with inetd
-l, --loop
(playback only) when file is finished, replay from first Frame‐
BufferUpdate
-d, --date
(record only) append date to end of filename
-s, --shared
(record only) attach to a shared session
-v increase verbosity
--pause=key
(playback only) when key is pressed, playback will be paused
until it is pressed again. key can be either a single lowercase
ASCII character or an X Windows keysym in hex (no preceding
'0x'). Note that keys between 'a' and 'f' will be interpreted
as hexadecimal numbers, and must be specified as '61' through
'66'. Backspace is 'ff08'; Return is 'ff0d'; Escape is 'ff1b';
Delete is 'ffff'. (no default)
--cycle=key
(playback only) when multiple files are specified pressing key
will cycle between them. Specified in same way as --pause. (no
default)
--type=WHAT
(proxy record only) capture either screen updates (`screen') or
keyboard/mouse events (`events'). If 'events' are requested, an
RFM (remote framebuffer macro) file is recorded that can be
played back with rfbplaymacro. (default screen)
--framerate=[ntsc|pal|file|m/n]
(export only) specify framerate by name or numeric ratio (m/n
frames per second) (default ntsc)
:n Occupy VNC display localhost:n (not valid with -c option;
default :10).
--server=[server]:display
(record only) use specified VNC server (default localhost:0)
EXAMPLESrfbproxy-r log.fbs
Wait for a VNC client to connect to localhost:10, then connect
to localhost:0 and relay all VNC traffic between them, recording
the screen updates in FBS 1.0 format to log.fbs and exiting when
the client disconnects. See BUGS AND CAVEATS below for limita‐
tions of FBS 1.0.
rfbproxy-rs log.fbs
Connect to localhost:0 as a shared session and record the screen
updates in FBS 1.1 format to log.fbs until killed (CNTL-C or
kill).
rfbproxy-p log.fbs
Wait for a VNC client to connect to localhost:10, then playback
the VNC session recorded in log.fbs.
rfbproxy-pl --cycle=ff0d log.fbs
Looping playback that resets if the Return key hit. Useful for
playing back sessions whose colors don't show right because of
client-initiated changes in pixel format; hitting Return right
away to reset the playback often helps. See BUGS AND CAVEATS
below for a better solution.
rfbproxy-x log.fbs | ppmtoy4m -S 420_jpeg | mpeg2enc -o video.mpg
Convert the VNC session in log.fbs to MPEG-2 using mjpeg‐
tools(1).
rfbproxy-x log.fbs | ppmtoy4m -S 420_jpeg | ffmpeg -f yuv4mpegpipe -i
- -vcodec mpeg4 video.avi
Convert the VNC session in log.fbs to MPEG-4 using ffmpeg(1)
(ppmtoy4m(1) is from mjpegtools(1)).
Here's simple shell script that simultaneously records VNC and audio at
DVD's 48 kHz sample rate (vrec is from sndtools):
#!/bin/sh
function terminate() {
kill $background_pid
}
trap terminate SIGTERM SIGINT SIGKILL
rfbproxy-rs fbs &
background_pid=$!
vrec -s 48000 -b 16 -r audio
This one converts the recorded fbs/audio pair into a DVD-standard
MPEG-2 with MP2 audio using mjpegtools(1) and toolame(1).
#!/bin/sh
rfbproxy-x fbs | ppmtoy4m -S 420_jpeg | \
yuvscaler -n ntsc -O DVD | mpeg2enc -f 8 -o video.mpv
toolame -m mono -s 48 audio audio.mp2
mplex -f 8 -o video.mpg audio.mp2 video.mpv
And this one converts the recorded fbs/audio pair into an DivX6-compat‐
ible MPEG-4 with MP3 audio using ffmpeg(1) and lame(1).
#!/bin/sh
lame -m m -x -r -s 48 -h audio audio.mp3
rfbproxy-x fbs | ppmtoy4m -S 420_jpeg | \
ffmpeg -f yuv4mpegpipe -i - -i audio.mp3 \
-vcodec mpeg4 -vtag DivX -b 800 -g 300 -bf 2 -acodec copy
video.avi
Both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 files can be converted to Ogg/Vorbis with ffm‐
peg2theora:
ffmpeg2theora -o video.ogg video.avi
SECURITY
To avoid recording passwords (even encrypted), rfbproxy discards
authentication information when recording a session, and instead
changes the recorded authenticated scheme to look like the session used
no authentication.
rfbproxy does not authenticate incomming connections in playback mode.
Recording keystrokes with --type=events can record passwords.
BUGS AND CAVEATS
A proxy record will create a version 1.0 FBS file whose pixel formats
can't be reliably interpreted, and will probably only work for playback
to the same (or a very similar) client that recorded it, and not for
export. Shard-session records create version 1.1 FBS files that don't
have this problem.
Playback makes no attempt to handle client FramebufferUpdateRequests;
it justs transmits a series of FramebufferUpdates exactly as they were
recorded. This defect is most noticeable with clients that pan across
a session larger than their window size; the exposed areas will proba‐
bly remain undrawn by rfbproxy. Clients that switch pixel formats
(i.e, xvncviewer) can also be affected by this; parts of the screen can
remain drawn in a low-resolution format after the client has switched
to a high-resolution format. Fix this by stopping the client from
changing pixel formats. For xvncviewer try -autoselect=0 -fullcolor
(version 4.1.1) or -noauto -depth 24 (version 3.3.7).
If you intend to use the --loop or --cycle options when playing back an
FBS 1.0 file, you cannot use the ZRLE encoding when recording. This is
because the zlib state cannot be maintained. FBS 1.1 files do not use
ZRLE at all.
Suspending rfbproxy (or any script using it) when recording in shared
session mode can freeze all sessions attached to the VNC server.
Neither export nor FBS 1.1 playback work on colormap sessions (only
true color is supported).
Pixel formats larger than 32 bits are not supported.
AUTHORS
Tim Waugh <twaugh@redhat.com>
Brent Baccala <baccala@freesoft.org>
SEE ALSOvncviewer(1), vncserver(1), Xvnc(1), ppm(5), mjpegtools(1), ffmpeg(1).
VNC EXTRAS 19 Aug 2005 RFBPROXY(1)
