binaryring(6)

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

💫 binaryring 💫

okay bestie, welcome to binaryring(6) — it's a page straight out of the XScreenSaver manual and it's genuinely one of the prettiest little things in there, no cap 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

binaryring — a whole system of path tracing particles that just... keeps evolving, forever, from an initial creation. it's giving "glow-up that never ends" 🌸

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

binaryring [--fps] [--install] [--noinstall] [--mono] [--root]
[--window-id number] [--visual visual] [--window] [--window-id
window-id] [--color] [--no-color] [--growth-delay delayms]
[--particle-number particles] [--ring-radius radius]

like yes, that's a lot of brackets, but every single one of them is a choice you get to make 💅

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so picture this: a system of path tracing particles that evolves continuously from an initial circular creation. it never really stops doing its thing — it just keeps going and going 🔥

and the vibes? immaculate. ages of darkness play arbitrarily with ages of light. that's the whole mood. dark era, light era, dark era again — it's a rotation, it's a cycle, it's main character energy honestly 😭✨

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

binaryring accepts the following options, and yes we're going through all of them together, don't worry:

  • --fps — shows you the current frame rate and the CPU load. perfect for when you're nosy about how hard your computer is working 👀
  • --install — installs a private colormap for the window. fancy colour business 🎨
  • --mono — if you're on a colour display, this makes the program pretend we're on a monochrome display. delusion, but make it intentional 💀
  • --noinstall — don't install a private colormap for the window. the opposite of the one above, obviously 🫶
  • --root — draws on the root window. yes, the actual backdrop of your whole desktop 👑
  • --window-id number — draws on the window you specify. you give it the number, it does the thing 🔢
  • --visual visual — picks which visual to use. legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of one specific visual. so you've got options, bestie 🌈
  • --window — draws on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you do nothing, this is what you get ✨
  • --window-id window-id — specifies which window id to use. yeah it shows up twice in the synopsis, and yeah it's here too — i don't make the rules, i just keep every detail 🍓
  • --color (Default) — particles get randomly generated colours that gradually change over time. the glow-up is literally built in 💜
  • --no-color — uses the original black and white visualization. vintage, minimal, still iconic ngl 🖤🤍
  • --growth-delay delayms (Default: 10000) — the delay in ms between growth cycles. more delay = slower (but also less CPU intensive). so if your fans are screaming, you know what to do 😌
  • --particles-number particles (Default: 5000) — how many particles are in the system. heads up: with more particles, the fps can also be affected. more sparkle, more cost, fr fr 🌟
  • --ring-radius radius (Default: 40) — the radius of the ring where all the particles are born, measured in pixels. the birthplace of everything, lowkey 🎀

🌿 ENVIRONMENT 🌿

the environment variables it cares about, bestie:

  • 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. very "who's in charge here" energy 🙈
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root 🪟

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

go read those if you're obsessed (you should be) 💅

based on code © 2003 by J. Tarbell <complex@complexification.net>. XScreenSaver port by Emilio Del Tessandoro <emilio.deltessa@gmail.com> 🫶

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Patrick Leiser <patrick27leiser@yahoo.org>, Mar 2020. Emilio Del Tessandoro <emilio.deltessa@gmail.com>, Aug 2014. legends, both of them 💖

aaand that's the whole page! this one's from X Version 11, version 6.15, dated 30-Mar-2026 — so yeah, it's current, it's fresh, and it ate 💅✨🧚‍♀️

📦 where this page comes from