using VNC display(s) to generate images on a webserver

[Wayne Throop]

: "Ehud Karni" <ehud "at" unix.mvs.co.il>
: I have to disagree.

I'm not sure I understand what you are disagreeing with.  My suggestion
was that Xvfb would suffice.  Is that what you are disagreeing with, or
some other point?  Because I don't see anything vnc-specific in your
list of steps (below).  They would all work with Xvfb.  What am I missing? 
That is, who's connecting to it via the rfb protocol; none of the steps
show that, near as I can tell.

Mind you, there's nothing particularly *wrong* about doing it that way. 
Xvnc is a perfectly wonderful tool.  I'm just saying I don't see anything
vnc specific below. 

: I use VNC for display purpose for over 5 years, also on a web page.
: 
: Here is what I do:
:  1. Create a virtual X by using a modified vncserver script with
:     3 important arguments: -alwaysshared -dontdisconnect -viewonly
:     (for the -viewonly argument which uses my view-only patch, see:
:      http://realvnc.com/pipermail/vnc-list/2000-July/015830.html,
:      http://www.tightvnc.com/whatsnew.html [under 1.2.5] ).
: 
:  2. Run the needed applications (xload, xterm+top, xclock, etc.)
:     with display set to the virtual X created in {1}.
: 
:  3. I use import (from the ImageMagick package) to convert the
:     virtual X to png like this:
:         import -display vncs:3 -silent -window root vnc-3.png
: 
:  4. Since my web server is across the Atlantic, I use ftp to copy
:     this png to the remote server.
: 
: You can see the result (updated every 5 minutes) at:
:     http://t-e-k.biz/VNC/vnc_load.html .
: 
: Hint. You can use xsri (available on GNU/Linux and Cygwin) to set
:       the background of the virtual X created by VNC.
:       I use:  xsri --tile=bg.png --set


Wayne Throop   throopw "at" sheol.org