cloudlife(6)

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

💖 NAME 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the cloudlife(6) page from the XScreenSaver manual — it's all about cloudlife, a cellular automaton based on Conway's Life. iconic behavior, honestly 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

the synopsis is literally giving this, exactly:

cloudlife [--display host:display.screen] [--foreground color]
[--background color] [--window] [--root] [--window-id number][--mono]
[--install] [--visual visual] [--ncolors integer] [--cycle-delay
microseconds] [--cycle-colors integer][--cell-size integer] [--initial-
density integer] [--max-age integer]

[--fps]

quick vibe check: --display host:display.screen, --foreground color, and --background color are part of that synopsis up there exactly as shown. the options rundown below starts at --window, just like the page says. 🫶

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

cloudlife draws a cellular automaton based on Conway's Life, but with a twist: cells have a maximum age, and only one pixel per cell is drawn every tick. that's the whole main character energy of it, no cap ✨

💅 OPTIONS 💅

cloudlife accepts the following options, bestie:

  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default 🎀
  • --root — draw on the root window.
  • --window-id number — draw on the specified window.
  • --mono — if on a color display, pretend we're on a monochrome display 🙈
  • --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.
  • --cycle-delay integer — time in microseconds to sleep between ticks. default 25000.
  • --cycle-colors integer — how many ticks should elapse between cycling colors. 0 to disable color cycling. default 2.
  • --ncolors integer — how many colors should be used (if possible). default 64. the colors are chosen randomly 🌈
  • --cell-size integer — size of each cell, in powers of 2. default 3 (8-pixel cells).
  • --initial-density integer — percentage of cells that are alive at start and when the field is repopulated. default 30.
  • --max-age integer — maximum age for a cell. default 64.
  • --fps — display the current frame rate and CPU load. numbers on screen, slay 📊

🌸 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 🎀

Copyright © 2003 by Don Marti. Based on examples from the hacks directory of xscreensaver, Copyright (c) 1997, 1998, 2002 Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>

This man page based on the man page of sierpinski, Copyright © 1996 by Desmond Daignault.

the legal bit, keeping the wording intact because legal tea is not for vibes-only editing:

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation.

🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Don Marti <dmarti@zgp.org> 20 May 2003.

okay that's the whole page, bestie 💖 — footer tea: X Version 11, 6.15 (30-Mar-2026), cloudlife(6). byeee 🦋

📦 where this page comes from