Xvg & web docs

[Alan Riggs]

I am experimenting with Xvg as a tool for allowing junior admins/operators to quickly grasp the lvm structure on our boxes. While poking around, it seemed to me that the display would also make a good image to include in our web documentation. I have determied how to save the display to file using xwd, but I am not familioar with the format of exported Xwindows captures. Is there an easy way to port this data to a browser recognizeable form?

[Alex Glennie]

I'd either use XV or perhaps imagemagick if it's up to the job to convert the xpm or xbm file to a gif or jpeg.

Both i think are shareware ...lots of info in this forums database on where to get these from : URLs etc .... try the search facility top left ?

[Alex Glennie]

Ignore some of my last comments ...you are talking xwd .... I would suggest you look at something like the screencapture command or XV to grab the image as a non xwd format .... the only thing that works with xwd is xwud I think !

CDE's Icon editor also has a grab screen image facility.

[Alan Riggs]

Yes, xwd would not have been my choice, but it does not seem to be something I can override. The Xvg program calls it "under the hood" when you export to file.

Anyone else have a workaround?

[Bill Hassell · Accepted solution]

All Xwindows programs have the same features. To copy a window to a file, you would use xwd. To show the result back on the Xdisplay, use xwud.

Xwindows is not PC stuff so things you are used to like gif, jpg, etc are all foreign to the Xwindow environment. However, there is an excellent set of command line utilities that will convert just about anything to anything else and even perform some manipulation in between.

The utils are called the Portable Bit Map Utilities and a compiled copy can be pulled from the HP-UX Software Archive at:

http://hpux.connect.org.uk/

Search for pbm...the package is called netpbm on this site. Since the tools are all command line-driven, they are ideal for automating a website or creating documentation. (real Unix sysadmins always use the keyboard 8-))

[Alan Riggs]

Thanks Bill. I hadn't seen netpbm before.

I agree that GUI thniking is anathematic to Unix. Unfortunately, we work in a world where people have increasing expectations that pretty pictures==good.