bumps(6)

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

💅 bumps(6) — the XScreenSaver manual, bestie edition ✨

okay so this is bumps, and it lives in the XScreenSaver manual (yes, that XScreenSaver, the one your screensaver-obsessed friend keeps talking about 🫶).

🌈 NAME 🌈

bumps — move a distorting spotlight around your desktop, fr fr 💫

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

bumps [--display host:display.screen] [--foreground color] [--background
color] [--window] [--root] [--window-id number] [--mono] [--install]
[--visual visual] [--delay usecs] [--duration secs] [--fps]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so picture this: bumps takes an image and exposes small, distorted sections of it, as if through an odd wandering spotlight beam 💡✨ like a little spotlight that just... wanders. and distorts. iconic behaviour honestly.

the image it manipulates gets grabbed from the portion of the screen underlying the window, or from the system's video input, or from a random file on disk — depends on the grabDesktopImages, grabVideoFrames, and chooseRandomImages options in your ~/.xscreensaver file 🎀 see xscreensaver-settings(1) for more details, iykyk.

💖 OPTIONS 💖

bumps accepts the following options, bestie. no cap, here's every single one:

  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so like... it's giving main character energy by default 👑
  • --root — draw on the root window. going straight to the desktop's roots, periodt 🌱
  • --window-id number — draw on the specified window. you pick the window, you get the window, no questions 💅
  • --mono — if you're on a color display, pretend we're on a monochrome display. delulu? maybe. but it's what we're doing 🙈
  • --install — install a private colormap for the window 🎨
  • --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 👀
  • --delay microseconds — slow it down. literally just slow it down 🐌
  • --duration seconds — how long to run before loading a new image. default 120 seconds ⏱️
  • --fps — display the current frame rate and CPU load. the way we love a little performance stats moment 📊🔥

🌸 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 🪟

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

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

go read those too, bestie, they're all connected 🧚💜

Copyright © 1999 by Shane Smit. 🎀

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.

⚠️ yes, that last bit means as is, no warranty, no promises — take it or leave it, that's the deal 💀

⭐ CREDITS ⭐

Shane Smit <blackend@inconnect.com>, 8-Oct-1999. 🌟 absolute legend.

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💖 this was bumps(6) from X Version 11, version 6.15, dated 30-Mar-2026 — mwah, slay, go distort some spotlights 🎀🦋✨

📦 where this page comes from