bestill(6)

📦 version 6.15, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable

✨ bestill — the XScreenSaver manual, but make it cute ✨

okay so bestie, you know how screensavers are literally the main character of any idle computer? this one is from the XScreenSaver manual and it's called bestill. it's giving ✨ ethereal ✨ and honestly? obsessed. 💖

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

bestill [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
        [--root] [--delay number] [--speed number] [--scale number] [--fps]

run it like that, bestie. that's the whole vibe. 🫶

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Various scenes of lights playing above the clouds. that's it. that's the whole thing. literal art. it's giving "lying on your back in a field at 2am staring at the sky" energy and ngl I'm here for it. 🌸

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • --visual visual — pick 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. ✨
  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so like, if you do nothing, this is what you get. slay. 🎀
  • --root — draw on the root window. yes queen, cover the whole desktop. 👑
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, in microseconds. default: 20000 (that's 0.02 seconds, for the people doing math at home). ⭐
  • --speed number — animation speed. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast. simple as that. 🔥
  • --scale number — resolution. 0.1 - 1.0. default: 1.0. turn it down if you want it low-key pixelated. 🌈
  • --fps | --no-fps — whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen. the little number that goes brrr. 💀

🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

  • 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.

three env vars, all iconic, all doing their little jobs. 🫶

🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

link dump but make it fashion. click responsibly bestie. 🌸

Copyright © 2025 by Matt Vianueva. 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.

okay so that's the legal bit — the vibe is "do whatever, just keep the notice, and no promises that it won't do something weird." standard open-source bestie energy. 🙈

🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

Matt Vianueva <diatribes@gmail.com>.

X Version 11 · 6.15 · 30-Mar-2026 — that's the version and date, bestie, so you know exactly which era of slay you're looking at. periodt. 💅✨
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