# Xfce 4 Utilities and Scripts

### Jasper Huijsmans

`<jasper@xfce.org>`

### Benedikt Meurer

`<benny@xfce.org>`

This manual describes the `xfce-utils` package, version 4.2.0.

Copyright © 2004 Jasper Huijsmans

Copyright © 2004 Benedikt Meurer

## Introduction

The `xfce-utils` package provides a taskbar, the about dialog for Xfce 4, a run dialog and several useful scripts that are also used by other Xfce 4 components such as the panel and the desktop menu.

## Taskbar

The taskbar shows all running programs. The behaviour of the taskbar can be changed from the settings manager. Run xfce-setting-show taskbar, or start the settings manager from the panel.

Figure 1. Taskbar settings dialog

From the settings dialog, your can select the taskbar position, either at the top or at the bottom of the screen. You can set the height and width of the taskbar using the two sliders, and select a left, centered or right alignment, if the width of the taskbar is smaller than your screen. Another option allows you to use the "Auto hide" feature.

The "Tasks" options allow you to customize the behaviour of the taskbar regarding the management of the opened applications. You can choose to show the tasks from all workspaces or only the current one, to always group tasks or only group tasks when the taskbar gets crowded, and to show applications names or only their icons.

In addition to the tasklist, the taskbar also features a simple graphical pager and a notification area (also known as the system tray). Both can be disabled from the settings dialog.

## Run Dialog

Figure 2. Run dialog

The run dialog allows the user to launch applications. Applications can be run in a Terminal emulator (xterm by default, see xfterm4 script below). In a default Xfce 4 environment, the Alt+F2 key combination will open the run dialog.

## About Dialog

Figure 3. About dialog

The About Dialog is used to display information about Xfce 4, including a list of components, a credits page for all people who helped to create Xfce 4 and license information.

## Scripts

startxfce4

  The `startxfce4` is a convenient script to start an Xfce 4 session from the console. It will give you a session with a taskbar and a panel and with the desktop manager and window manager running.

  All programs, or symbolic links to programs, in `~/Desktop/Autostart/` will be run by `startxfce4` on startup.

  To customize the behaviour of `startxfce4`, copy the file `${sysconfdir}/xfce4/xinitrc` to your personal `~/.config/xfce4/` directory and edit that file. If you install from source, `${sysconfdir}` defaults to `/usr/local/etc`; for binary packages it is often set to `/etc`.

  With the inclusion of a session manager in Xfce 4.2, the preferred way to change startup behaviour is by using the "Save session" option in the logout dialog.

xfhelp4

  This script is used to open the local Xfce 4 documentation in a browser. By default it will try a number of well-known browsers, like firefox, galeon or konqueror, but you can change that by setting the $BROWSER environmental variable. For instance in your `~/.bash_profile` put the following line:

      export BROWSER="galeon -w"

  You will need to log out of your shell and log back in to make this work.

  If there is documentation installed in the language of your current locale, xfhelp4 will open that instead of the default English documentation.

xflock4

  This script is used by the panel to lock the screen using xscreensaver if available and falling back to xlock.

xfmountdev4

  xfmountdev4 `/dev/mountpoint` will mount the given mountpoint and open xffm in that location. When you close the xffm window the filesystem will be unmounted. Note that you can use `xffstab4` provided with xffm for the same purpose.

xfterm4

  This is a convenient terminal script. It uses the $TERMCMD environmental variable as terminal command if available and falls back to using xterm. Especially useful in the panel where you can drag file or directories to it that will be viewed by the appropriate console application (less for text files, lynx for html).

## About xfce-utils

`xfce-utils` was written by Jasper Huijsmans (`<jasper@xfce.org>`), Olivier Fourdan (`<fourdan@xfce.org>`) and Benedikt Meurer (`<benny@xfce.org>`). To find more information, please visit the Xfce web site.

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding this application or this manual, use the bug tracking system at http://bugzilla.xfce.org/.

If you have questions about the use or installation of this package, please ask on the xfce mailing list. Development discussion takes place on the xfce4-dev mailing list.

This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.