flow(6)

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

💫 flow(6) — the strange attractors one 💫

okay so this is flow, from the XScreenSaver manual, and bestie you are about to be obsessed. ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

flow — strange attractors. literally that's it, that's the whole vibe. 🦋

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

flow [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
     [--root] [--window-id number] [--count number] [--cycles number]
     [--periodic|--no-periodic] [--search|--no-search] [--rotate|--no-rotate]
     [--ride|--no-ride] [--box|--no-box] [--dbuf|--no-dbuf] [--ncolors
     number] [--delay number] [--fps]

like, copy-paste it, it's fine, i won't tell 💅

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So picture this: strange attractors made of flows in a 3D differential equation phase space. yes. that's the whole thing. it's giving math but make it fashion. 👑

It features the iconic, the legendary, the popular attractors described by Lorentz, Roessler, Birkhoff and Duffing — and honestly? it can discover entirely new attractors by itself. main character energy fr fr. 🔥

💖 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. pick your fave 🎀
  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so like, it's already doing this. slay 💅
  • --root — draw on the root window. going straight to the source, love that for you 🌈
  • --window-id number — draw on the specified window. you point, it draws. iconic 🫶
  • --count number — number of particles in the flow. default: 3000. that's a lot of lil particles living their best lives ✨
  • --size number — length of particle trails. negative values indicate randomness (yes, chaos, we love her). the computational load of a given flow depends on (particle count) * (trail length). default: -10 ⭐
  • --cycles number — timeout before changing objects. range is 0 - 800000. default: 10000. 🕐
  • --periodic / --no-periodic — turn on/off periodic attractors. these are flows in 2 dependent variables, with a periodic dependence on a third independent variable (eg time). Flow will sometimes choose to start all the particles in the same phase to illustrate the flow's cross-section. default: on 🔁
  • --search / --no-search — turn on/off search for new attractors. if this is enabled, a fraction of the computing cycles is directed to searching a 60-dimensional parameter space for new strange attractors 👀 and if periodic flows are enabled, these can be searched too. watch carefully — you are quite likely to see mathematical objects that have never been seen before, and since the parameters are not recorded, you'll probably never see them again! 😭 default: on
fr fr that's the most tragic thing i've ever read. one-time-only math. no receipts. no screenshots. just vibes and loss 💀
  • --rotate / --no-rotate — turn on/off rotating around attractor. default: on 🌀
  • --ride / --no-ride — turn on/off ride in the flow. default: on 🎢

If both -rotate and -ride are enabled the viewpoint will occasionally fly between the two views. not me getting motion sickness in a screensaver 😭✨

  • --box / --no-box — turn on/off bounding box. default: on 📦
  • --dbuf / --no-dbuf — turn on/off double buffering. if Flow runs slowly in full screen, but fast in a smaller window (eg on old graphics cards with too little memory), try turning this option off. default: on 🖥️
  • --ncolors number — number of Colors. default: 200. a whole palette, we stan 🌈
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, in microseconds. default: 10000 (that's 0.01 seconds.) ⏱️
  • --fps — display the current frame rate and CPU load. nerdy and i love it 📊

🦋 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. fancy override behavior, iykyk 💅
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root. 🔑

🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

X(1), xscreensaver(1) — go read those too, bestie, i believe in you 🫶

okay legal moment, stay with me, this part matters 💜

Copyright (c) 1996 by Tim Auckland <Tim.Auckland@Procket.com> Incorporating some code from Stephen Davies Copyright (c) 2000

Search code based on techniques described in "Strange Attractors: Creating Patterns in Chaos" by Julien C. Sprott

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.

This file is provided AS IS with no warranties of any kind. The author shall have no liability with respect to the infringement of copyrights, trade secrets or any patents by this file or any part thereof. In no event will the author be liable for any lost revenue or profits or other special, indirect and consequential damages.

Adapted from swarm.c Copyright (c) 1991 by Patrick J. Naughton.

Adapted from xswarm by Jeff Butterworth. (butterwo@ncsc.org).

ngl the "AS IS with no warranties" part is the legal version of "no thoughts head empty" — but seriously, no warranties, no liability, that's the deal 🫶

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Tim Auckland 🌸

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🎀 this was X Version 11, 6.15 (30-Mar-2026) — flow(6), signing off. go watch some attractors that no one will ever see again. mwah 💋✨

📦 where this page comes from