cwaves(6)

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

🌊 cwaves 💅

okay bestie, so this is a page from the XScreenSaver manual (section 6, screensaver land 🎀) and it's all about a lil program called cwaves. it's honestly so chill, you're gonna love it.

✨ NAME ✨

cwaves — languid sinusoidal colors. yes that's the whole vibe. languid. sinusoidal. colors. periodt. 🌈

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

cwaves [--display host:display.screen] [--foreground color]
[--background color] [--window] [--root] [--window-id number] [--mono]
[--install] [--visual visual] [--delay usecs] [--waves int] [--colors
int] [--fps]

like, that's the whole invocation right there. copy it, don't copy it, you do you 🫶

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so cwaves draws a languidly-scrolling vertical field of sinusoidal colors. that's it. that's the whole thing. it's giving calm, it's giving screensaver, it's giving "i left my laptop for 10 minutes and now there's pretty colors." iconic behavior honestly 💖

✨ OPTIONS ✨

cwaves accepts the following options (yes, all of them, i'm not skipping a single one, i would never 😤):

  • --window — Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default, so if you don't say anything, this is what you get. lowkey the path of least resistance ✨
  • --root — Draw on the root window. main character energy, covering your whole desktop 💅
  • --window-id number — Draw on the specified window. you point at a window, it draws there. that's the deal 🎯
  • --mono — If on a color display, pretend we're on a monochrome display. gaslighting your monitor, basically 💀
  • --install — Install a private colormap for the window. fancy, private, exclusive 👑
  • --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. so, like, a name or a number, your choice 🧚
  • --delay microseconds — How much of a delay should be introduced between steps of the animation. Default 20000, or about 1/50th second. so it's not zooming, it's languid, remember 🌸
  • --waves int — How many cosines to add together. The more waves, the more complex the apparent motion. math but make it aesthetic 🌊
  • --colors int — How many colors to use. Default 800. The more colors, the smoother the blending will be. eight hundred, bestie, that's a lotta colors 🎨
  • --fps — Display the current frame rate and CPU load. for the stats girlies 📊

✨ ENVIRONMENT ✨

  • DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number. the classic 🌐
  • XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property. yep, that whole thing, verbatim, i don't make the rules 🎀
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — The window ID to use with --root. 🪟

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

go read those too, iykyk 🦋

Copyright © 2007 by Jamie Zawinski. 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.

translation: it's free, do what you want with it, just keep the copyright notice and the permission notice in all copies and in the supporting docs. and no promises that it's good for anything — it's "as is," no warranty, express or implied. fr fr, read the real text above, i'm not a lawyer 😭

✨ AUTHOR ✨

Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 2-Jul-2007. a legend, honestly 💜

and that's the whole page!! this beauty came from X Version 11, version 6.15, dated 30-Mar-2026 — mwah, slay, go watch some sinusoidal colors scroll and have the most languid day ever 💖✨🎀🦋🌸💅🫶

📦 where this page comes from