XShot

📋 Overview

XShot is a small command-line screen capture tool written in C using Xlib and libpng. It lets the user interactively select a rectangular region on the X11 root window and saves that region as a PNG image. The program is intentionally minimal and focused on reliable, no-dependencies screen capture on traditional X11 desktops.

📥 Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/nhrx1337/xshot.git
cd xshot/

2. Install build dependencies:

Debian-based

sudo apt-get install libx11-dev libpng-dev

Arch-based

sudo pacman -S libx11 libpng

3. Build:

make

4. (Optional) Install system-wide:

sudo make install

▶️ Usage

Run interactively:

./xshot

• Click and drag with the left mouse button to draw a selection rectangle.
• Release the button to save the selected area as a PNG file.
• Press any key to abort selection.

Saved files are created in the current working directory with timestamped names like DD-MM-YYYY_HH-MM-SS.png.

⚙️ Behavior & Notes

• The program grabs the pointer and keyboard while selecting to ensure it receives all events during the selection operation.
• The selection rectangle is drawn using XOR drawing so it toggles cleanly while dragging.
• Captured images are written with libpng as 8-bit RGB PNGs.

🧩 Dependencies

• Xlib (libX11)
• libpng

❌ Uninstallation

If you installed system-wide:

sudo make uninstall