decayscreen(6)

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

💅 decayscreen — the XScreenSaver manual, but make it melt

okay bestie, so you know that one screensaver that looks like your screen is literally melting? yeah. that's this one. welcome to decayscreen, a glorious little gremlin of a program, and it lives in the XScreenSaver manual (section 6, so it's a game/demo-type page, iykyk).

✨ NAME ✨

decayscreen — it makes a screen meltdown. no cap, that's the whole bit. 🫠

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

decayscreen [--display host:display.screen] [--window] [--root]
[--window-id number] [--mono] [--install] [--visual visual] [--delay
usecs] [--duration secs] [--mode mode] [--fps]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

k so picture this: the decayscreen program creates a melting effect by randomly shifting rectangles around the screen. that's the vibe. rectangle go slide, screen go goop. iconic behavior honestly.

the image that it manipulates is gonna be grabbed from one of three places — and you don't pick here, the config picks for you:

  • the portion of the screen underlying the window,
  • the system's video input,
  • or a random file on disk,

...as indicated by the grabDesktopImages, grabVideoFrames, and chooseRandomImages options in the ~/.xscreensaver file 💖 — see xscreensaver-settings(1) for more details bestie, they got you.

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

decayscreen accepts the following options:

  • --window — Draw on a newly-created window. this one is the default, so if you don't say anything, this is what you get. slay.
  • --root — Draw on the root window. going straight for the desktop, main character energy.
  • --window-id number — Draw on the specified window. you pick the exact window, you're in charge.
  • --mono — If on a color display, pretend we're on a monochrome display. delulu era. colors stay home.
  • --install — Install a private colormap for the window. very exclusive, very VIP.
  • --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. that's it. that's the description. slow it down, microseconds edition. 🐌
  • --duration seconds — How long to run before loading a new image. default is 120 seconds. so two whole minutes of melt, periodt.
  • --mode mode — The direction in which the image should tend to slide. and ooh girl there are options, let's go through them one by one:
    • random — meaning pick one. chaos decides.
    • up — slide up.
    • left — slide left.
    • right — slide right.
    • down — slide down.
    • upleft — diagonal, up and to the left.
    • downleft — diagonal, down and to the left.
    • upright — diagonal, up and to the right.
    • downright — diagonal, down and to the right.
    • shuffle — meaning prefer no particular direction. it's giving "idk, vibes."
    • in — meaning move things toward the center. everybody gather round.
    • out — meaning move things away from the center. personal space, please.
    • melt — meaning melt straight downward. the classic.
    • stretch — meaning stretch the screen downward. long. elongated. a little unhinged. 🙈
    • fuzz — meaning go blurry instead of melty. soft focus, dreamy, blurred out.
  • --fps — Display the current frame rate and CPU load. nosy but make it fashion, so you can see exactly how hard your machine is working. 🔥

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

  • DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number. this is how it knows where to even put the melt.
  • 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. yup, that's the one you want when you're doing root things.

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

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

go read those too, they're the extended universe. 🌟

Copyright 1992 by Vivek Khera. 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.

okay so the real talk part: that permission grant is conditional — the copyright notice and the permission notice both have to show up in all copies and in the supporting documentation. and there's no warranty, express or implied, and no claims about fitness for any purpose. fr fr, read it before you ship it.

🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

Vivek Khera <khera@cs.duke.edu>, 05-Aug-93; based on code by David Wald, 1988. Modified by jwz, 28-Nov-1997. Modified by Rick Schultz <rick@skapunx.net> 05-Apr-1999. Modified by Vince Levey <vincel@vincel.org> 25-Oct-2001.

and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this one's from X Version 11, release 6.15, dated 30-Mar-2026, and it's the decayscreen(6) page from the XScreenSaver manual — go melt something pretty. 🍓✨

📦 where this page comes from