# GLFW timer functions work without a window?

**URL:** <https://discourse.glfw.org/t/glfw-timer-functions-work-without-a-window/259>\
**Category:** support\
**Created:** [December 23, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://discourse.glfw.org/t/glfw-timer-functions-work-without-a-window/259 "2011-12-23T18:44:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/uploads/glfw/original/1X/b8cdefe6b61b8d5aee6c43b2c56e9cf5eabecfe4.svg) [@system](https://discourse.glfw.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://discourse.glfw.org/t/glfw-timer-functions-work-without-a-window/259/1 "2011-12-23T18:44:11Z")

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**anonymous** wrote on [Friday, December 23, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/glfw/discussion/247562/thread/ba6dda7e/#a989):

This is probably a silly question, but I wanted to double-check that the GLFW  
timer functions work when there is no window created. I’m currently creating  
the dedicated server component of my game, and would like to continue using  
the same timing code for consistency, even though the server will not be  
creating any windows or using OpenGL.

From looking at the source, I don’t see any issues, but better to ask now than  
hunt down weird behavior later. 🙂

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/uploads/glfw/original/1X/b8cdefe6b61b8d5aee6c43b2c56e9cf5eabecfe4.svg) [@system](https://discourse.glfw.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 1:25am UTC](https://discourse.glfw.org/t/glfw-timer-functions-work-without-a-window/259/2 "2011-12-24T01:25:41Z")

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**anonymous** wrote on [Saturday, December 24, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/glfw/discussion/247562/thread/ba6dda7e/#c032):

Looking more into the source code, I’m starting to think the answer is  
"probably not". The linux platform code opens a X11 display at init time, so  
it won’t be possible to use GLFW on a non-X11 server. I may have to look into  
an alternative timer for the server.