antmaze(6)

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

💜 antmaze(6) — the XScreenSaver manual, bestie edition

Okay so real talk, this is a page from the XScreenSaver manual — that's the manual name, consider it folded in and acknowledged 💅 — and it's about a lil ant maze walker. Yes. Ants. Maze. Let's go 🐜✨

🌸 NAME

antmaze — an ant maze walker. That's it, that's the whole vibe 🐜🌀

🎀 SYNOPSIS

antmaze [--display host:display.screen] [--window] [--root] [--window-id
number][--install] [--visual visual] [--delay microseconds] [--fps]
Not me noticing --delay microseconds chilling in the synopsis — I'm keeping it exactly as printed, no cap, character for character 🫶

✨ DESCRIPTION

So the antmaze code displays ants finding their way through a maze. That's the whole thing. Little guys. Wandering. Solving puzzles. Iconic behaviour honestly 🐜👑

💅 OPTIONS

antmaze accepts the following options, and yes I'm listing every single one because we do not skip, ever:

  • --window — Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default, so if you don't say anything, this is what you get 🪟
  • --root — Draw on the root window. Big background energy 🌌
  • --window-id number — Draw on the specified window. You pick the window, it draws there, simple as that 🎯
  • --install — Install a private colormap for the window. Fancy private colormap moment 🎨
  • --visual visual — Specify which visual to use. Legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual. Pick your fighter 💫
  • --fps — Display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. Numbers go brrr, and honestly? We love a stats readout 📊🔥

🌈 ENVIRONMENT

The environment variables, bestie, and what they're for:

  • DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number 🖥️
  • XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property 📄
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — The window ID to use with --root 🪟✨

🦋 SEE ALSO

Go read these too, they're the friend group:

X(1), xscreensaver(1) xscreensaver-settings(1), xscreensaver-getimage(6)

Copyright © 2005 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. 📜💖

🧚 AUTHOR

Blair Tennessy <tennessy@cs.ubc.ca>, 8-May-2005. 🫶

<red>Heads up bestie:</red> that warranty line means no express or implied warranty — it's "as is", so don't come for anyone if it acts up 🙈

Okay that's the whole page, and as a lil sign-off: this beauty is X Version 11, version 6.15, dated 30-Mar-2026 🎀✨ Go forth and watch the ants, you're gonna slay 🐜💅

📦 where this page comes from