glplanet(6)

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

💫 glplanet(6) — the XScreenSaver manual, bestie edition 💫

Okay so picture this: it's a page from the XScreenSaver manual, and it's all about a lil spinning planet. Buckle up 🪐

✨ NAME ✨

glplanet — a rotating 3d texture-mapped planet. That's it. That's the whole vibe. 🌍

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

glplanet [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--delay number] [--image file] [--image2
file] [--mode string] [--resolution number] [--wireframe] [--fps]

Copy that exactly, bestie, no cap. 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

It draws a planet, and the planet is bouncing around in space. Main character behavior, honestly. 🌌

The built-in images are day and night maps of the Earth — but here's the slay part: you can wrap any Equirectangular-projected map onto the sphere. So like, anything. Go off. The example the page gives is the planetary textures included with ssystem. 🪐✨

💖 OPTIONS 💖

  • --visual visual — picks which visual to use. Legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual. Both formats, she's flexible. 💅
  • --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 instead.
  • --window-id number — draw on the window you specify. You pick, she draws.
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, measured in microseconds. Default: 20000 (that's 0.02 seconds, iykyk). ⏱️
  • --image file — the day texture map, wrapped around the planet's surface. ☀️
  • --image2 file — the night texture map, also wrapped around the planet's surface. The two get blended together at the dusk terminator. Day and night, hand in hand at the boundary 🫶
  • --mode globe — "All is right with the world." 🫡
  • --mode equirectangular — "Wat." 😭
  • --mode mercator — "Good day, Sir. I said GOOD DAY." 💀
  • --resolution — the resolution of the planetary mesh. Default: 128. 🔥
  • --wireframe — render in wireframe instead of solid. Skeleton mode, lowkey stunning.
  • --fps — display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. The stats girlies stay winning 👑

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

  • DISPLAY — used to get the default host and display number.
  • XENVIRONMENT — used 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) dymaxionmap(6) ssystem(1)

(Yes, that's exactly how they're written. Don't come for me, I'm just the messenger 🧚)

Copyright © 2002-2018 by David Konerding 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.

(Keeping the legal bits word-for-word, because the one thing we never mess with is a license 🫶)

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

David Konerding and Jamie Zawinski.

And that's the tea, bestie 🍓 This was page glplanet(6) from X Version 11, dated 6.15 (30-Mar-2026) — go wrap a planet in something pretty and think of me 💜✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from