tigervncsession(8)

💖 tigervncsession(8) — Virtual Network Computing 💖

okay bestie, welcome to tigervncsession, from the TigerVNC family (that's the section-8 manual, the big system-admin energy one 💅). this is the lil program that spins up a whole VNC desktop for you. let's get into it ✨

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✨ NAME ✨

tigervncsession — start a VNC server, no cap 🖥️💫

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

tigervncsession [-D] <username> <:display#>

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so tigervncsession is what you use to start a VNC (Virtual Network Computing) desktop. it does all the steps to set up a brand-new user session, runs Xtigervnc with the right options, and then starts a window manager on your VNC desktop. it's giving full-service, honestly 👑

and like — it's rarely called directly, bestie. normally the system service manager is the one starting it. so if you're typing this by hand, just know you're doing the unusual thing 🙈

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💅 -D OPTION 💅

tigervncsession by default forks and detaches (it goes off and does its own thing in the background, main character style). but if you pass the -D option, it does not fork and detach — it stays right there in the foreground.

this option exists for system service managers that require their services to run in the foreground. that's it. that's the whole job 🫶

⚠️ it is not intended for debugging in a login shell from a terminal, and it's not for running tigervncsession from a terminal as an ordinary user. so don't do that, bestie, it's not that kind of party 😭

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🎀 FILES 🎀

there are several VNC-related files hanging out in the directory $HOME/.config/tigervnc 💖

• /etc/tigervnc/vncserver-config-defaults — the optional system-wide equivalent of $HOME/.config/tigervnc/config.pl. if this file exists and defines options to pass to Xtigervnc, those get used as the defaults for users. the user's $HOME/.config/tigervnc/config.pl overrides anything set in this file. the overall configuration file load order is: this file, then $HOME/.config/tigervnc/config.pl, then /etc/tigervnc/vncserver-config-mandatory. and none of them are required to exist, so no pressure 🍓
• /etc/tigervnc/vncserver-config-mandatory — the optional system-wide equivalent of $HOME/.config/tigervnc/config.pl. if it exists and defines options to pass to Xtigervnc, they will override any of the same options defined in a user's $HOME/.config/tigervnc/config.pl. this file is the mechanism for establishing some basic form of system-wide policy. the overall configuration file load order is: /etc/tigervnc/vncserver-config-defaults, then $HOME/.config/tigervnc/config.pl, then this file. none are required to exist.

🚨 WARNING! there is nothing stopping users from constructing their own tigervncsession-like script that calls Xtigervnc directly to bypass any options defined in /etc/tigervnc/vncserver-config-mandatory. so yeah. policy is a vibe, not a cage 💀

• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tigervnc/config.pl
• $HOME/.config/tigervnc/config.pl

an optional server config file where you list the options to pass to Xtigervnc, so you don't have to hard-code them into the physical invocation. this file uses perl(1) syntax ✨

the special option session controls which session type gets started. it should match one of the files in /usr/share/xsessions. e.g., if there's a file called gnome.desktop, then $session="gnome"; would use that session type 🧚

to stay compatible with the upstream-provided wrapper scripts, we fall back to trying to load configuration from $HOME/.config/tigervnc/config if config.pl isn't present. the config file lists options one per line. for options that need an argument, just separate the option from the argument with an equal sign, for example: "geometry=2000x1200" or "securitytypes=VncAuth,TLSVnc". options without an argument are just listed as a single word, for example: "localhost" or "alwaysshared" 🌈

• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tigervnc/passwd
• $HOME/.config/tigervnc/passwd

the VNC password file 🔐 (keep it cute, keep it secret)

• $XDG_STATE_HOME/tigervnc/Bhost:Bdisplay#.log
• $HOME/.local/state/tigervnc/Bhost:Bdisplay#.log

the log file for Xtigervnc and the session 📝

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

xtigervncviewer(1), tigervncpasswd(1), tigervncconfig(1), Xtigervnc(1) https://www.tigervnc.org

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Tristan Richardson, RealVNC Ltd., D. R. Commander and others 🫶

VNC was originally developed by the RealVNC team while at Olivetti Research Ltd / AT&T Laboratories Cambridge. the TightVNC additions were implemented by Constantin Kaplinsky. many other people have since participated in development, testing and support. this manual is part of the TigerVNC software suite 🌈

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this one's from the TigerVNC gang, manual page tigervncsession(8) 💖 go forth and start some VNC desktops, you've got this ✨🎀