cynosure(6)

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

✨ cynosure — the XScreenSaver manual, but make it a group chat ✨

okay bestie, so this page is cynosure(6) — it lives in the XScreenSaver manual and honestly? it's kind of a vibe. 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

cynosure — a screen saver that's literally just gentle overlapping squares. soft, calm, iconic. no cap. 💅

⭐ SYNOPSIS ⭐

cynosure [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
         [--root] [--window-id number] [--delay number] [--ncolors number]
         [--iterations number] [--fps]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so it's a hack similar to greynetic, but <em>less frenetic</em> — like greynetic's chill younger sibling who went to therapy. 🌿

the lore is honestly giving main character energy:

  1. the first implementation was by Stephen Linhart
  2. then Ozymandias G. Desiderata wrote a Java applet clone
  3. that clone was discovered by Jamie Zawinski
  4. and he ported it to C for inclusion here — slay ✨

💖 OPTIONS 💖

  • --visual visual — specify which visual to use, bestie. 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 if you do nothing, this is what you get. 🫶
  • --root — draw on the root window. going full immersion.
  • --window-id number — draw on the specified window. you pick the window, you get the squares.
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, in microseconds. default: 500000 (0.50 seconds.). yes that's half a second between frames. it's a gentle saver, remember? 😌
  • --ncolors number — number of colors. default: 128. a whole rainbow of squares fr fr 🌈
  • --iterations number — duration. 2 - 200. default: 100. so like, a range. keep it in the range please.
  • --fps — display the current frame rate and CPU load. the little numbers go crazy, we love stats. 🔥

🧚 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) — go read those too, they're the parents of this whole situation. 🫶

Copyright © 2002 by Stephen Linhart, Ozymandias G. Desiderata, and 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. (so like… it might be iconic but it's not promising you anything, bestie. 😭)

🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

Stephen Linhart, Ozymandias G. Desiderata, and Jamie Zawinski. the trio. the founders. periodt. 💅

and that's the whole page, bestie — this was cynosure(6), part of X Version 11, manual/version 6.15, dated 30-Mar-2026. go forth and enjoy your gentle squares. 🦋✨💖

📦 where this page comes from