     NAME(1)                                                             NAME(1)

     NAME
          ticker - scroll messages across the screen

     SYNOPSIS
          ticker [options] [message]

     DESCRIPTION
          ticker is a program that continually scrolls a given message across
          the screen.  There is also an interface to allow other programs to
          change the message.

     KEYS
          +, [up arrow]
               Increase scroll speed.

          -, [down arrw]
               Decrease scroll speed.

          [space]
               Pause. Press any key to unpause.

     OPTIONS
          -h, --help
               Show summary of options.

          -u, --upper
               Scroll text on the top line of the screen. (Default)

          -l, --lower
               Scroll text on the bottom line of the screen.

          -fcolor, --foreground=color
               Use the specified color as the forground color of the text that
               is scrolled.  The colors that may be used are:
                black           gray
                red             brightred
                green           brightgreen
                brown           yellow
                blue            brightblue
                magenta         brightmagenta
                cyan            brightcyan
                lightgray       white

          -bcolor, --background=color
               Use the specified color as the background color of the text that
               is scrolled. On most terminals, the background color can only be
               one of the colors listed in the first column above.

          -dsecs, --delay=secs
               Number of seconds delay between updates of the display. This
               controls how fast the text scrolls. You may use decimals to

                                        - 1 -      Formatted:  February 24, 2000

     NAME(1)                                                             NAME(1)

               specify faster scroll speeds.  The default delay is 1 second; I
               find 0.1 more pleasing.

          -snum, --sysv=num
               Read messages to display from the sysv shared memory segment with
               an id of num. This is only for use by other programs that need to
               be able to change the text ticker displays.

          -Snum, --size=num
               Size of the shared memory segment to read, when using shared
               memory communication with another program. Default is 80
               characters.

          -csecs, --check=secs
               Minimum time between checks of the shared memory segment for a
               new message.  Default is every second. It may in fact check
               considerably less often, as it only checks for a new message once
               per time that the current message scrolls around the screen.

          message
               The message to scroll. Required unless -s is used, in which case
               it is optional.

     NOTES
          To use the other 23 or so lines of your screen for something useful
          while the ticker is running, you might want to use splitvt(1)

     AUTHOR
          Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>

                                        - 2 -      Formatted:  February 24, 2000