antinspect(6)

📦
version 6.15 · 2 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable

💅 antinspect(6) — the antinspect page, but make it make sense

okay so real quick: this is a page from the XScreenSaver manual, and bestie, it's about ants. Ants doing cardio. Stay with me. 🐜✨

🐜 NAME

antinspect — the ant model inspection screenhack. yes that's the whole name. it inspects. ants. iconic behavior honestly.

📜 SYNOPSIS

antinspect [--display host:display.screen] [--window] [--root]
[--window-id number][--install] [--visual visual] [--delay microseconds]
[--fps]

🌸 DESCRIPTION

okay so what does it actually do, you ask, and the answer is genuinely unhinged in the best way: the antinspect code displays three ant-powered balls churning in a circle. that's it. that's the whole screensaver. three balls. powered by ants. churning. in a circle. no cap. 🔥

✨ OPTIONS ✨

antinspect accepts the following options, and I'm listing every single one because we don't skip:

  • --window — draws on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you do nothing at all, congrats, you already picked this one 🫶
  • --root — draws on the root window instead.
  • --window-id number — draws on the specific window you point at. you pick, it paints.
  • --install — installs a private colormap for the window. fancy color business 💅
  • --shadows — draws shadows on the ground. gives the balls grounding, literally, we love a bit of depth 🎀
  • --visual visual — specifies which visual to use. legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual. iykyk.
  • --fps — displays the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. yes she's tracking her own stats. main character energy 👑
also peep --delay microseconds up there in the synopsis — it's chillin' with the other flags, so don't act surprised when you see it.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT

  • DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number. it's giving "where am i supposed to be" energy.
  • XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property. yeah it's a mouthful, but she's important.
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root. this is the one you pair with --root, bestie, remember that.

🦋 SEE ALSO

go read these too, they're all part of the family fr fr:

Copyright © 2004 by Blair Tennessy. 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.

translation: it's free to use, just keep the copyright notice, and nobody promises it'll be perfect. that's the deal. 🍓

👑 AUTHOR

Blair Tennessy <tennessy@cs.ubc.ca>, 15-March-2004. an absolute legend for this one, honestly.

💖 okay that's the whole page, you're free! this little beauty shipped as part of X Version 11, version 6.15 (30-Mar-2026) — so go forth, churn some ant-powered balls, and slay ✨🎀🧚

📦 where this page comes from