xscreensaver-getimage-file(1)

📦
version 6.09 · 4 versions
, in debian trixie

💖 xscreensaver-getimage-file 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the XScreenSaver manual, and today's main character is xscreensaver-getimage-file(1) — she picks a random image file for your screen savers and she does it flawlessly. 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

xscreensaver-getimage-file — pick a random image file for screen savers to vibe with 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

xscreensaver-getimage-file [--verbose] [--no-cache] [--flush-caches]
directory-or-URL

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

So xscreensaver-getimage-file is a little helper program, right? She works for the xscreensaver hacks that mess with images, and she gets called up by xscreensaver-getimage(6x) whenever she's needed. It's giving backstage crew energy — you never see her but the whole show falls apart without her. 👑

What she does: she prints out the name of a randomly-selected image file. The directory gets searched recursively, no cap. Non-image files? Excluded. Images smaller than 500x500? Also excluded, sorry babe, we have standards. 💀

But plot twist — that directory can also be the URL of an RSS/Atom feed. Any images enclosed in it get downloaded and cached locally. Obsessed honestly.

Also, the contents of the directory get cached for performance, because we are not doing all that work every single time. The cache is re-generated if 3 hours have passed. ⏰

🔥 OPTIONS 🔥

xscreensaver-getimage-file accepts the following options, and yes we're going through all of them:

  • --verbose — prints diagnostics. She's telling you what's going on, periodt. 🗣️
  • --no-cache — ignores the cache while searching for images. Heads up bestie: this may be slow. 🐌
  • --flush-cache — throws out all the caches immediately. They'll be re-generated as needed, so don't panic. 🧹
  • directory-or-URL — okay so this one has two whole modes:
    • If it's a pathname, it gets searched recursively for images. 🗂️
    • If it's a URL, it should be an RSS or Atom feed, or an HTML page whose metadata links to its feed. All of the feed's images get downloaded to a local cache. The URL will be re-polled periodically, downloading any new images and removing expired ones. Very main character of her. ✨

📁 FILES 📁

Depending on your operating system, the filename cache will be one of:

$HOME/.cache/xscreensaver/xscreensaver-getimage.cache
$HOME/tmp/.xscreensaver-getimage.cache
$HOME/.xscreensaver-getimage.cache
$HOME/Library/Caches/org.jwz.xscreensaver.getimage.cache

Images from feeds will be downloaded and cached at one of:

$HOME/.cache/xscreensaver/SUBDIR/
$HOME/tmp/.xscreensaver-feeds/SUBDIR/
$HOME/.xscreensaver-feeds/SUBDIR/
$HOME/Library/Caches/org.jwz.xscreensaver.feeds/SUBDIR/

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

Go read these too, iykyk:

Copyright © 2001-2022 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

tl;dr: use it, copy it, sell it, whatever — just keep the copyright notice and this permission notice in there, and don't come for her if it breaks. it's provided "as is", no warranty, fr fr. 🫶

🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 14-Apr-2001. an absolute icon, we stan. 👑

and that's the whole page bestie!! this was X Version 11, 6.09 from 07-Jun-2024, signing off — stay slay, read your man pages, and go let your screen saver pick a random picture. bye bye!! 💖✨🌸🦋🎀💅

📦 where this page comes from