XScreenSaver(1)

📦
version 6.15 · 11 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable

✨ XScreenSaver(1) — the xscreensaver-settings glow-up ✨

okay bestie, so this is from the General Commands Manual for XScreenSaver(1) and it's literally all about xscreensaver-settings. grab a snack, we're going in 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

xscreensaver-settings — the icon that configures and controls the xscreensaver daemon. she's the control panel, the moment, the whole vibe ✨

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

xscreensaver-settings [--display host:display.screen] [--debug]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So xscreensaver-settings is a graphical front-end — yes, a whole GUI — for setting the parameters that the xscreensaver(1) daemon uses. Real talk: she's a tool for editing your ~/.xscreensaver file, and also for demoing all the various display modes. two jobs, both slaying 🫶

The main window is giving structure, okay? it's got a menu bar and two tabbed pages. page one is for editing the list of demos, and page two is for editing various other parameters of the screensaver. organized queen 👑

all of these live on either the File or Help menus, no cap:

  • Blank Screen Now — activates the background xscreensaver daemon, which will then run a demo at random. this is the exact same thing as running xscreensaver-command(1) with the --activate option. ✨
  • Lock Screen Now — just like Blank Screen Now, except the screen will be locked as well. and yes, even if it is not configured to lock all the time. mean it. this is the same as running xscreensaver-command(1) with the --lock option. 🔒
  • Kill Daemon — if the xscreensaver daemon is running on this screen, kill it. bye bestie 💀 this is the same as running xscreensaver-command(1) with the --exit option.
  • Restart Daemon — if the xscreensaver daemon is running on this screen, kill it. then launch it again. this is the same as doing xscreensaver-command --exit followed by xscreensaver. 🔁
⚠️ okay important: this is not the same as doing xscreensaver-command --restart. do not confuse them, i'm begging 🙈
  • Exit — exits the xscreensaver-settings program (this program, the one you're looking at) without affecting the background xscreensaver daemon, if any. she leaves, the daemon stays 🌈
  • About... — displays the version number of this program, xscreensaver-settings. ⭐
  • Documentation... — opens up a web browser looking at the XScreenSaver web page, where you can find online copies of the xscreensaver(1), xscreensaver-settings(1), and xscreensaver-command(1) manuals. study up 📚

💜 DISPLAY MODES TAB 💜

This page contains a list of the names of the various display modes, a preview area, and some fields that let you configure screen saver behavior. three things, all iconic.

🧚 Mode

This option menu controls the activation behavior of the screen saver. the options are:

  • Disable Screen Saver — don't ever blank the screen, and don't ever allow the monitor to power down. she's off duty, periodt.
  • Blank Screen Only — when blanking the screen, just go black: don't run any graphics. minimalism, i guess 🖤
  • Only One Screen Saver — when blanking the screen, only ever use one particular display mode. which one? the one selected in the list. pick your fave and commit 👑
  • Random Screen Saver — when blanking the screen, select a random display mode from among those that are enabled and applicable. and if there are multiple monitors connected, run a different display mode on each one. chaos, but make it curated ✨ this is the default.
  • Random Same Saver — this is just like Random Screen Saver, except that the same randomly-chosen display mode will be run on all monitors, instead of different ones on each. matching outfits for the whole squad 🫶

💅 Demo List

Double-clicking in the list on the left will let you try out the indicated demo. the screen will go black, and the program will run in full-screen mode, just as it would if the xscreensaver daemon had launched it. clicking the mouse again will stop the demo and un-blank the screen. full main character energy, then exit 💖

Single-clicking in the list will run it in the small preview pane on the right. but beware, bestie: many of the display modes behave somewhat differently when running in full-screen mode, so the scaled-down view might not give an accurate impression. it's giving trust issues 😭

When Mode is set to Random Screen Saver, each name in the list has a checkbox next to it: this controls whether this display mode is enabled. if it is unchecked, then that mode will not be chosen. though you can still run it explicitly by double-clicking on its name — she's benched, not cancelled 💀

🔍 Search Field

Savers will be hidden from the list unless they match the text in the search field above the list. it matches on the name of the saver as well as on any text in the description. this means you can, for example, search by author or by year. filtering queen 🔥

⬆️⬇️ Arrow Buttons

Beneath the list are a pair of up and down arrows. clicking on the down arrow will select the next item in the list, and then run it in full-screen mode, just as if you had double-clicked on it. the up arrow goes the other way. this is just a shortcut for trying out all of the display modes in turn. scrolling, but make it immersive ✨

⏰ Blank After

After the user has been idle this long, the xscreensaver daemon will blank the screen. your idle era starts the show 🌸

🔄 Cycle After

After the screensaver has been running for this long, the currently running graphics demo will be killed, and a new one started. if this is 0, then the graphics demo will never be changed: only one demo will run until the screensaver is deactivated by user activity. she's loyal like that 💜

If there are multiple screens, the savers are staggered slightly so that while they all change every cycle minutes, they don't all change at the same time. no synchronized chaos, we're polite here 🎀

🔒 Lock Screen

When this is checked, the screen will be locked when it activates. that's it, that's the whole thing, security era 🛡️

⏳ Lock Screen After

This controls the length of the "grace period" between when the screensaver activates, and when the screen becomes locked. okay let me give you the exact example, it's the clearest thing ever:

for example, if this is 5 minutes, and Blank After is 10 minutes, then after 10 minutes, the screen would blank. if there was user activity at 12 minutes, no password would be required to un-blank the screen. but, if there was user activity at 15 minutes or later (that is, Lock Screen After minutes after activation) then a password would be required. 📖✨

The default is 0, meaning that if locking is enabled, then a password will be required as soon as the screen blanks. no grace, no chill, straight to business 💅

👀 Preview

This button, below the small preview window, runs the demo in full-screen mode so that you can try it out. this is the same thing that happens when you double-click an element in the list. click the mouse to dismiss the full-screen preview. a little taste test 🍓

⚙️ Settings

This button will pop up a dialog where you can configure settings specific to the display mode selected in the list. customization time, bestie ✨

🌟 SETTINGS DIALOG 🌟

When you click on the Settings button on the Display Modes tab, a configuration dialog will pop up that lets you customize settings of the selected display mode. each display mode has its own custom set of configuration controls — every saver gets her own little panel, as she deserves 👑

✨ ADVANCED TAB ✨

Okay so this tab is where you tweak the xscreensaver daemon itself, plus a bunch of global options that every display mode shares. It’s giving control-room main character energy. 💅

🖼️ Image Manipulation 🖼️

Some of the graphics hacks manipulate images, and these settings control where those source images come from. The savers load images by running the xscreensaver-getimage(6) and xscreensaver-getimage-file(6) programs. Obsessed. 💖

  • Grab Desktop Images — if this option is selected, then savers are allowed to manipulate the desktop image. That means a display mode might draw a picture of your desktop melting, or being distorted in some way. The security-paranoid might want to disable this option, because if it is set, it means that the windows on your desktop will occasionally be visible while your screen is locked. Others will not be able to do anything, but they may be able to see whatever you left on your screen. So yeah, vibe check your privacy on that one. 🔥
  • Grab Video Frames — if your system has a camera or other video input, selecting this option may allow the image-manipulating modes to grab a still-frame of video to operate on.
  • Choose Random Image — if this option is set, then the image-manipulating modes will select a random image file to operate on, from the specified source. That source may be a local directory, which will be recursively searched for images. Or, it may be the URL of an RSS or Atom feed (e.g., a Flickr gallery), in which case a random image from that feed will be selected instead. The contents of the feed will be cached locally and refreshed periodically as needed.

If more than one of the above image-related options are selected, then one will be chosen at random. If none of them are selected, then an image of video colorbars will be used instead. Iconic fallback, honestly. 🌈

📝 Text Manipulation 📝

Some of the display modes display and manipulate text. The following options control how that text is generated. The savers load text by running the xscreensaver-text(6) program. 🫶

  • Host Name and Time — if this checkbox is selected, then the text used by the screen savers will be the local host name, OS version, date, time, and system load.
  • Text — if this checkbox is selected, then the literal text typed in the field to its right will be used. If it contains % escape sequences, they will be expanded as per strftime(2).
  • Text File — if this checkbox is selected, then the contents of the corresponding file will be displayed.
  • Program — if this checkbox is selected, then the given program will be run, repeatedly, and its output will be displayed.
  • URL — if this checkbox is selected, then the given web page will be downloaded and displayed repeatedly. If the document contains HTML, RSS, or Atom, it will be converted to plain-text first.
⚠️ Note: this re-downloads the document every time the screen saver runs out of text, so it will probably be hitting that web server multiple times a minute. Not me accidentally DDoSing my favorite blog. 💀

🔌 Power Management Settings 🔌

These settings control whether, and when, your monitor powers down. 🌙

  • Power Management Enabled — whether the monitor should be powered down after a period of inactivity. If this option is grayed out, it means your X server does not support the XDPMS extension, and so control over the monitor’s power state is not available.
  • Standby After — if Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor will go black after this much idle time. (Graphics demos will stop running, also.)
  • Suspend After — if Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor will go into power-saving mode after this much idle time. This duration should be greater than or equal to Standby.
  • Off After — if Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor will fully power down after this much idle time. This duration should be greater than or equal to Suspend.
  • Quick Power-off in Blank Only Mode — if the display mode is set to Blank Screen Only and this is checked, then the monitor will be powered off immediately upon blanking, regardless of the other power-management settings. In this way, the power management idle-timers can be completely disabled, but the screen will be powered off when black. Efficient queen behavior. 👑

🌑 Blanking 🌑

These options control how the screen fades to or from black when a screen saver begins or ends. 🎬

  • Fade To Black When Blanking — if selected, then when the screensaver activates, the current contents of the screen will fade to black instead of simply winking out.
  • Unfade From Black When Unblanking — the opposite: if selected, then when the screensaver deactivates, the original contents of the screen will fade in from black instead of appearing immediately. This is only done if Fade To Black is also selected.
  • Fade Duration — when fading or unfading are selected, this controls how long the fade will take.

🎨 Theme 🎨

This option menu lists the color schemes available for use on the unlock dialog. 💅

There are more settings than these available, but these are the most commonly used ones; see the manual for xscreensaver(1) for other parameters that can be set by editing the ~/.xscreensaver file, or the X resource database. iykyk, the config file is where the deep lore lives. 🦋

🛠️ COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS 🛠️

xscreensaver-settings accepts the following command line options. ✨

  • --display host:display.screen — the X display to use. The xscreensaver-settings program will open its window on that display, and also control the xscreensaver daemon that is managing that same display.
  • --debug — causes lots of diagnostics to be printed on stderr.

The xscreensaver and xscreensaver-settings processes must run on the same machine, or at least, on two machines that share a file system. When xscreensaver-settings writes a new version of the ~/.xscreensaver file, xscreensaver needs to see that same file, or it won’t work.

🫶 fr fr, keep them on the same filesystem or this whole thing gets messy.

🌿 ENVIRONMENT 🌿

  • DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number.
  • PATH — to find the sub-programs to run. However, note that the sub-programs are launched by xscreensaver-settings for display in the inline preview pane, but by the xscreensaver daemon when run full screen, so the $PATH setting in both processes matters.
  • HOME — for the directory in which to read and write the .xscreensaver file.
  • XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
  • HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, http_proxy, or https_proxy — to get the default proxy host and port.

💫 UPGRADES 💫

The latest version of xscreensaver, an online version of this manual, and a FAQ can always be found at https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/. Bookmark it, bestie. 🎀

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

Copyright © 1992-2026 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.

💌 AUTHOR 💌

Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>.

Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improvements. 🫶

That’s the whole manual, bestie — X Version 11, version 6.15, dated 30-Mar-2026, and it’s XScreenSaver(1). Slay and stay screensaver-pilled. 💖✨

📦 where this page comes from