From the Command Line

Documentation / Contents - Dock Area

• Overview of Desktop Breathing Space
  • What the Zone Is For
  • The Controls
• Choosing an Edge
• Setting the Size
  • The Fifty Percent Limit
• Reading the Preview
  • The Hazard Stripes
  • The Five Windows
• Applying the Change
• When the Toolchest Owns the Zone
• From the Command Line
• Where the Settings Live
• Copyright Information

From the Command Line

cydock can set the zone without opening a window, which is what you want from a login script or when you are setting up a machine over a terminal.

cydock               open the window
cydock --edge=WHICH  none, top, bottom, left or right
cydock --percent=N   share of the screen to reserve, 0 to 50
cydock --apply       write the settings and exit; no window
cydock --print       print the current setting and exit
cydock --conf=PATH   use PATH, not the usual file
cydock --selftest    run the internal checks and exit
cydock --log=LEVEL   error, warn, info or debug
cydock -h            show the option list
cydock -V            show the version

Setting It In One Line

cydock --edge=bottom --percent=8 --apply

--apply writes and exits. It still opens the display if it can, purely to poke the window manager into reloading, and a missing display is not an error: the settings are written either way.

Reading It Back

cydock --print

prints the stored edge and percentage:

dez_edge bottom
dez_percent 8

If the Toolchest is currently claiming the zone, --print says so too, on a third line that gives the claimed rectangle, the edge and thickness it maps to, and the note "overridden by CyChest prefs". The stored settings above it are then preserved but not in effect. See When the Toolchest Owns the Zone.

--print works with no display at all, in which case it reports the stored setting and says nothing about an override, because it cannot see one.

Refusals

--edge accepts only the five words. "off" is accepted as a spelling of "none"; anything else is refused with a message rather than silently ignored.

--percent accepts 0 to 50. See Setting the Size.

Selftest

--selftest checks the geometry: that the reserved band and the usable area add up to the whole screen on the reserved edge, that the fifty percent cap holds, and that the preview's tiling lays every window inside the usable area. It needs no display, so it is safe anywhere.