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.TH xwait 1 "15 November 1998" "Straylight/Edgeware" "xtoys"
.SH NAME
xwait \- wait until prodded by another X client
.SH SYNOPSIS
.ll +5i
.B xwait
.RB [ \-f ]
.RB [ \-d
.IR display ]
.RB [ \-a
.IR atom ]
.RB [ \-m
.IR msg ]
.RI [ \c
.IB atom : msg , msg \c
\&...]
.ll -5i
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B xwait
program waits until it notices that a particular property on the X root
window has been assigned a particular value, at which point the program
exits.  The property can be set using the
.BR xtell (1)
and
.BR xshutdown (1)
programs.  It's mostly useful for putting at the end of a user's
.B .xinitrc
file, so that it can be triggered to end the session.
.PP
The properties, and the values to listen for, can be configured at the
command line.  When
.B xwait
exits, it removes the properties from the root window.
.SS Options
.TP 5
.B \-f, \-\-force
Force 
.B xwait
to start up, even though there may be an existing process already
listening for the particular atom in question.
.TP 5
.BI "\-d, \-\-display " display
Attempt to connect to
.I display
rather than the display named in the usual environment variable.
.TP 5
.BI "\-a, \-\-atom " atom
Sets
.B xwait
to listen for the property named
.IR atom .
Use of this option is deprecated.
.TP 5
.BI "\-m, \-\-msg " msg
Sets
.B xwait
to wait for the given property to be set to
.IR msg .
Use of this option is deprecated.
.SS "Argument format"
The
.B \-a
and
.B \-m
options are deprecated, though retained for compatibility reasons.
It's recommended that you use the non-option specification instead.
.PP
Each argument specifies an atom name and a list of message strings to
listen to.  Multiple properties may be listened for, and multiple
messages may be accepted for each property.  If no messages are
specified then all values are considered to be acceptable.  The program
exits when any property is set to an acceptable value.
.PP
If no atoms are given on the command line,
.B xwait
will wait for
.B XWAIT_PROPERTY
to be set to
.BR XWAIT_MESSAGE .
.SS "Output format"
When a message is eventually received,
.B xwait
prints information about it to standard output:
.hP \*o
If more than one property (atom) was specified, the property name is
printed.
.hP \*o
If more than one message is recognized for the property, the message
string is printed; if a property name was printed, the two are separated
by a colon and a single space character.
.PP
.B xwait
then exits with return code 0.
.SH AUTHOR
Mark Wooding (mdw@nsict.org).
.SH BUGS
None currently known.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR xtell (1),
and
.BR xshutdown (1).