FVWMANIMATE(1)

📦
version 1.1.5 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💫 FVWMANIMATE 💫 (that's the page for FvwmAnimate, bestie)

okay so real talk — this is a page from the Fvwm Modules manual, and it's all about FvwmAnimate, which is lowkey one of the cutest little modules in the whole fvwm ecosystem. buckle up 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

FvwmAnimate — the fvwm animate module. that's it. that's the name. iconic behavior honestly 👑

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

Module FvwmAnimate [ModuleAlias]

fr fr, listen: FvwmAnimate can only be invoked by fvwm. if you try to run it from the command line directly? nope. it will not work. not a vibe. don't do it 💀

so from inside your .fvwm2rc file, you spawn it like this:

Module FvwmAnimate

or alternatively, from inside an fvwm pop-up menu:

DestroyMenu Module-Popup
AddToMenu   Module-Popup "Modules" Title
+ "Fvwm Animate Icons" Module FvwmAnimate ModuleAlias

slay. that's the whole synopsis. 🦋

🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

The FvwmAnimate module animates iconification and de-iconification, or animates on command. and get this — there are currently 6 different animation effects. six!! the range. the versatility. we love a module with options ✨

🎀 INVOCATION 🎀

FvwmAnimate must be invoked by the fvwm window manager. like, that's non-negotiable, it's a whole codependent relationship and honestly? valid.

when it's invoked with the OptionalName argument, the ModuleAlias is used to find configuration commands, configuration files, and to name the internally generated menus and forms — you know, instead of just "FvwmAnimate".

during startup, FvwmAnimate defines menus and forms for configuring and controlling FvwmAnimate. the default menu name is "MenuFvwmAnimate" and the form name is "FormFvwmAnimate". but if you use that optional name? the menu becomes "Menu<ModuleAlias>" and the form becomes "Form<ModuleAlias>". it's giving customizable. it's giving main character energy 💅

so, assuming you already had a builtin menu called "Module-Popup", you could use FvwmAnimate by configuring it like this:

AddToFunc "StartFunction" "I" Module FvwmAnimate
AddToMenu "Module-Popup" "Control Animation" Popup MenuFvwmAnimate

periodt. 💜

👑 CONFIGURATION OPTIONS 👑

here's the tea: since the pop up menu "MenuFvwmAnimate" allows complete control of the FvwmAnimate module, you don't really have to know what any of the configuration commands are. like, the menu has you covered. but we're describing them anyway because knowledge is power and you deserve to know 🧚

FvwmAnimate gets configuration info from fvwm's module configuration database (see fvwm(1), section MODULE COMMANDS). in addition, FvwmAnimate reads the file $HOME/.FvwmAnimate, and accepts commands from fvwm and its modules while it's running. multitasking queen 🫶

if ModuleAlias is used to start FvwmAnimate, the optional name is used in all commands, messages, menus and forms generated by FvwmAnimate and in the configuration file name. and ngl? unlike other fvwm modules, there is little reason to use the optional name. so... do with that information what you will 🙈

  • *FvwmAnimate: Color color — tells FvwmAnimate what color to draw with. the color is "XOR'ed" (exclusive ORed) onto the background. depending on the display type you're using, the effect this causes will vary. especially on 8-bit displays, it helps if the background is a solid color. you have to experiment with this to see how it works — it's giving science experiment, it's giving lab rat era 🔥

the default color is not really a color and can be entered as "Black^White", or more simply "None". this is the same as the default XOR mask used by fvwm for move and resize frames.

other colors can be specified using standard X color notation, i.e. color names like "LightBlue", or RGB values like "#FFFFFF".

  • *FvwmAnimate: Pixmap pixmap — tells FvwmAnimate to use pixmap to draw with. this can be useful if *FvwmAnimate: Color gives poor results. a little backup plan, a little safety net, we love to see it 💖
  • *FvwmAnimate: Delay msecs — tells FvwmAnimate how many milliseconds to sleep between frames of animation. yes bestie, you control the tempo 🎵
  • *FvwmAnimate: Iterations iterations — tells FvwmAnimate how many steps to break the animation into.
  • *FvwmAnimate: Twist twist — tells FvwmAnimate how many revolutions to twist the iconification frame. twisting!! rotating!! the drama of it all 🌀
  • *FvwmAnimate: Width width — tells FvwmAnimate how wide a line to draw with. the default width of 0 (zero) is a fast line of Width 1. sneaky little default, love that for us.
  • *FvwmAnimate: Effect mode — tells FvwmAnimate which animation effect to use. currently the effects are: Frame, Lines, Flip, Turn, Zoom3D, Twist Random, and None. None is normally set in the configuration file, in-case FvwmAnimate is started automatically, but an individual user doesn't want it running. the "i'm here but i'm not doing anything" setting. respect. 💀
  • *FvwmAnimate: Stop — tells FvwmAnimate to stop.
  • *FvwmAnimate: Save — tells FvwmAnimate to save the current configuration in a file named .FvwmAnimate in the users home directory. this same file is read automatically by FvwmAnimate during startup. it remembers. it cares. it's a keeper 🥺

⭐ COMMANDS ⭐

FvwmAnimate can be asked to produce an animation thru the "SendToModule" command. the format of the command is:

SendToModule FvwmAnimate animate sx sy sw sh dx dy dw dh

okay so, breaking it down because you know i got you:

  • the second word must match the name FvwmAnimate is started with.
  • the 8 fields after animate must be numbers.
  • the first 4 are for the source (or starting) location of the animation.
  • the last 4 are for the destination of the animation.
  • the 2 pairs of 4 numbers represent rectangles.
  • the first 2 numbers are the x and y location of the upper right corner.
  • the next 2 numbers are the width and height.
  • one or more spaces can separate the fields in the command.

modules can use the "SendToModule" command to animate "NoIcon" windows, or you can think up your own ways to have all kinds of fun with this command. go off, invent something, i believe in you 💫

additional available commands are: pause, play, push, pop and reset. these may be space separated.

  • pause causes a module to not temporarily produce any animations.
  • play causes a module to produce an animation again.
  • push stores the current playing state for a future and pop restores it.
  • reset removes all stored states and sets playing on.

suppose, we don't want to wait for all 40 xterms to be animated:

SendToModule FvwmAnimate pause
All (XTerm) Iconify on

and if we don't want to damage the current playing state, then:

SendToModule FvwmAnimate push pause
All (XTerm) Iconify on
SendToModule FvwmAnimate pop

see? it's giving stack. it's giving data structures in your window manager. absolutely obsessed 🌸

🦋 ORIGIN 🦋

FvwmAnimate is based on the Animate module from Afterstep 1.5pre6. porting to fvwm and lots of other changes were done by Dan Espen <despen@telcordia.com>. below are the original author and acknowledgments. giving credit where credit is due, as one does 💜

🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

Alfredo Kengi Kojima <kojima@inf.ufrgs.br>

💖 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 💖

these people have contributed to FvwmAnimate:

  • Kaj Groner <kajg@mindspring.com> — Twisty iconification, configuration file parsing, man page.
  • Frank Scheelen <scheelen@worldonline.nl>

look at them. the icons. the legends. we stan contributors in this house 👑

ok that's the whole entire page, no cap. every flag, every default, every example, all present and accounted for, because i would never do you dirty like that 💅

and that's the vibe check, bestie — this was FVWMANIMATE(1) from the Fvwm Modules manual, dated 2026-07-31. go forth and animate your icons, you're gonna do great 🎀✨🫶

📦 where this page comes from