FB-FB(1)

💅 fb-fb(1) — the BRL-CAD manual page, bestie edition 🎀

okay so you opened the fb-fb(1) page from the BRL-CAD manual set and you want the tea. buckle up, because this little icon copies one framebuffer onto another and it ate. 🦋

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✨ NAME ✨

fb-fb — copy a framebuffer image to another framebuffer. that's it. that's the whole gig. 💖

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

fb-fb [-v] [-F _output_framebuffer_] _input_framebuffer_
fb-fb [-v] _input_framebuffer_ [_output_framebuffer_]

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🫶 DESCRIPTION 🫶

okay so here's the vibe: fb-fb copies the entire image from input_framebuffer over to an output framebuffer, and it does it by reading and writing in blocks of scanlines. lowkey efficient. the output size is taken straight from the input framebuffer — no guessing, no drama, it just matches. ✨

now, the output device? you've got two ways to name it, and you have to pick one:

• with the -F option, or
• as a second positional argument

but not both, bestie. -F and the positional output argument are mutually exclusive. pick a lane. 💀

if you don't give an output at all, the default framebuffer gets used (typically set by the FB_FILE environment variable). and same energy for the input — the same conventions apply if you omit it, though ngl an input framebuffer is normally required. 😭

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -v — verbose mode, the main character setting. prints the input and output device names, the detected width and height, and per-block progress — all to standard error. no cap, it's giving "narrator". 🔥
• -F output_framebuffer — specify the output framebuffer device. mutually exclusive with the positional output argument (yeah, we said it already, but it's that kind of rule). 🎀
• -h, -? — print a usage message and exit. classic. iconic. we stan a polite exit. 👑

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

Example 1. Snapshot a live framebuffer into a file 🌸

fb-fb /dev/X /dev/mem
fb-pix /dev/mem > snapshot.pix

so what's happening here: you copy whatever is currently displayed on the X11 framebuffer into the in-memory framebuffer, then you save it to a pix(5) file with fb-pix(1). 🦋

and the why? this captures a render produced by rt(1) without re-running the raytrace. literally saving you so much time. obsessed. 💖

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

brlcad(1), fb-pix(1), fb-png(1), fb-bw(1), pix-fb(1) — go read these too, they're all in the group chat. 🫶

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🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

BRL-CAD Team — the ones who built it. 💜

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🍓 COPYRIGHT 🍓

This software is Copyright (c) 1991-2026 by the United States Government as represented by U.S. Army Research Laboratory. periodt. 🎀

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🙈 BUG REPORTS 🙈

Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org. found a bug? don't be shy, tell them — they want to know, fr fr. 💌

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💀 reminder before you dip: -F or the positional output arg. not both. that's the one thing that'll get you.

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alright bestie, that's the whole page 🫶 this came to you from BRL-CAD (FB-FB(1)) — mwah, catch you on the next manpage. 💖✨🌸