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NAME

       electricsheep - a distributed screen-saver (version 2.7b12)

       electricsheep-preferences - GUI to edit defaults for electricsheep

SYNOPSIS

       electricsheep  [--preferences  file]  [--nick name] [--password string]
       [--url  url]  [--nrepeats  N]  [--max-repeats   N]   [--frame-rate   N]
       [--nthreads N] [--server host/path] [--display-anim 0/1] [--show-errors
       0/1] [--standalone 0/1] [--save-dir path] [--reset-fuse N]  [--nice  N]
       [--proxy URL] [--proxy-user user:password] [--timeout N] [--start-sheep
       N] [--debug 0/1] [-window-id id] [--bracket-begin date/id]  [--bracket-
       end date/id] [--data-dir dir] [--logfile file] [--video-driver name]

       electricsheep-preferences [--preferences ]

DESCRIPTION

       Electric  Sheep  is  a  distributed  screen-saver  that  harnesses idle
       computers into a render farm with the purpose of animating and evolving
       artificial   life-forms.    It  requires  a  high-bandwidth,  always-on
       connection to the internet such as DSL or cable-modem.

       The first time it runs, it normally takes about  10  minutes  before  a
       sheep  (as  the  animations  are  called)  is downloaded and displayed.
       After that, it should come up immediately.  You can use  BitTorrent  to
       download more sheep faster, see the web site below for how.

       If  you have installed a screen-saver that supports passing key-presses
       onto the graphics hack and this feature is enabled, then  pressing  the
       up  (or down) arrow-key transmits a vote for (or against) the currently
       displayed sheep to the server.  Vote for the sheep you like,  and  they
       will  mate,  reproduce,  and evolve!  (this feature is missing from the
       beta)

       The shepherds (those who wrote the software and  run  the  server)  use
       some  of  the  sheep  for  commercial  purposes in order to support the
       network and develop it further.  For example there's the Spotworks DVD,
       and  "Dreams  in  High  Fidelity",  a painting that evolves.  Some jobs
       rendered by the network may be for images or animations which  are  not
       sheep at all, and will not appear in the screen-saver.

       Users may not subvert the protocol of the sheep server.  If you want to
       change how  the  client  communicates  with  the  server,  contact  the
       server's administrators first.

OPTIONS

       --preferences file
               Give   the  location  for  the  preferences.   The  default  is
               ~/.electricsheep/preferences.xml.

       --bracket-begin date/id
               Play no sheep before this one or this time.

       --bracket-end date/id
               Play no sheep after this one or this time.

       --data-dir dir
               Set the directory to find splash images and other data files.

       --debug 0/1
               If 1 then print copious debug information.  The default is 0.

       --display-anim 0/1
               If 1 then display the animated sheep, if 0 then  do  not.   Not
               displaying  the  sheep  allows one to contribute rendering more
               rendering cycles because no CPU time is spent on  display.   It
               also  allows  one  to run on a computer without an X display at
               all.  The default is 1.

       --frame-rate N
               Specify the frame-rate for sheep display in frames per  second.
               The default is 23.  If your client is having trouble completing
               frames because it is spending all its CPU time in  the  display
               process then decreasing this might help.  Or increase it if you
               have extra CPU for smoother display.

       --logfile file
               Write errors and diagnostics to this file instead of stderr and
               stdout.

       --max-megabytes N
               Specify  the maximum number of megabytes of disk storage to use
               to store sheep (in the directory  specified  with  --save-dir).
               The default is 2000.  Zero (0) means there is no maximum.

       --max-repeats N
               Maximum number of times to repeat any sheep.  The default is 3.

       --min-megabytes N
               Specify the minimum number of  megabytes  of  disk  storage  to
               leave  free.   The  default is 2000. Zero (0) means there is no
               minimum.

       --nice N
               Specify the priority adjustment for render process and all non-
               display processes.  The default is 10.

       --nick name
               Specify  a  nickname.   The  server  keeps  credits  the frames
               according to nickname and  ranks  nicknames  according  to  who
               contributes the most.

       --password string
               Authenticate  to  the  server  using  this password.  Note: the
               password is not encrypted!

       --nrepeats N
               Number of times to  repeat  each  sheep.   The  default  is  1.
               Transitions between sheep are not repeated.

       --nthreads N
               Specify  the  number of rendering threads.  By default there is
               one (1).

       --proxy URL
               Specify a proxy as per curl(1).

       --proxy-user user:password
               Specify a proxy user and password as per curl(1).

       --save-dir path
               Specifies a directory to save the sheep  in.   The  default  is
               ~/.electricsheep.

       --show-errors 0/1
               If  0  then  do  not report problems connecting to server.  The
               default is 1.

       --standalone 0/1
               If 1 then run without connecting to the internet at  all,  just
               displays the sheep already downloaded and do no rendering.  The
               default is 0.

       --start-sheep N
               Specify the ID of the sheep to display first.  The  default  is
               to display a random sheep.

       --timeout N
               Specify  the  timeout  in  seconds  for server operations.  The
               default is 401.

       --tryagain N
               Specify the time in seconds to wait before retrying to  contact
               the server.  The default is 696.

       --url name
               Specify a vanity URL to go with with the nickname.

       --video-driver name
               Passed  on to mplayer -vo, try "gl" and "x11" and "xv" or leave
               it blank for the default.

       --voting 0/1
               If 1 then enable the voting interface, which is broken in  this
               beta.

       -window-id X
               Specify  in  hex  the  window ID to draw into.  Note the single
               leading   dash   (this   option's   syntax   is   required   by
               xscreensaver).   The  default is to display in a new window. If
               both --root and -window-id are specified then -window-id  takes
               precedence.

ENVIRONMENT

       DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.

SEE ALSO

       http://electricsheep.org, gnome-screensaver(1), xscreensaver(1),

AUTHOR

       spot aka Scott Draves