gnubik(6)

📦
version 2.4.3 · 2 versions
, in fedora 43, fedora 44

💖 gnubik — the manual, but make it slay 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're about to talk about gnubik(6), a genuine icon of the GNU Utility Documentation cinematic universe. this is the page for gnubik, and yes it's section 6, and yes it's as fun as it sounds.

✨ NAME ✨

gnubik — an interactive, graphic Magic cube program. that's it. that's the whole vibe. a cube. but graphic. but interactive. 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

gnubik [window_system_options] [-hvs]  [-z n[,m[,p]]]  [-a m]

look at her. so compact. so powerful. 🫶

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so basically, this program shows you a 3 dimensional image of a magic cube — the one and only, introduced to the world by its Hungarian inventor, Erno Rubik. (yes, that Rubik. the main character.)

you rotate the blocks of the cube, and you try to solve the puzzle by moving all the blocks to their correct positions and orientations, until you've got a cube with a single colour on each face. that's the goal. that's the dream. 🌈

💅 OPERATION 💅

here's how you and the program talk to each other:

👀 Viewing the Cube

the viewing position may be altered using the arrow keys or by using the mouse.

  • the left and right arrow keys rotate the cube about the vertical axis.
  • the up and down keys rotate the cube about the horizontal axis.
  • holding down the shift key whilst pressing the left and right arrow keys rotates the cube about the z axis. (shift = z-axis era. iconic.)

to rotate the cube using the mouse, hold down button 1 and move the mouse anywhere on the window. and if your mouse has a scroll wheel, you can use this to rotate the cube about the z axis. lowkey the scroll wheel is the moment. ✨

🎯 Performing Rotations

rotations are performed using the mouse. to manipulate the cube, place the mouse cursor on a square in the cube, against the edge facing the direction you want to move, and click button 1.

the mouse cursor will indicate the direction of rotation. so like, it tells you where it's going. no cap. 🖱️

🌟 OPTIONS 🌟

the following options may be specified on the command line at invocation. let's go one by one, no skipping, we don't do that here.

  • -z n,m,p — draws a cube of size n x m x p, where n, m and p are positive. the default size is 3 x 3 x 3. (the classic. the blueprint. 💖)
  • -a m — when rotating parts of the cube, show m intermediate positions. the default for this value is 2. setting to a higher value will give smoother animations, but will result in a slower program. so like… glow up or speed, pick one. 😭
  • -s — starts with the cube already solved. by default, it starts in a random position. (so -s is basically easy mode / instant win energy. periodt.)
  • -h — display a help message and exit. 🫶
  • -v — display version number and then exit. 👑

🛠️ IMPLEMENTATION 🛠️

the code for gnubik is written in C and Scheme. it uses the Mesa/OpenGL graphics library, and the Gtk+ library and Guile. as such, it should be easy to generate a version for any system complying with these standards. cross-platform queen fr fr. 🌍

💀 BUGS 💀

okay so, keeping it real:

the rendering process is slower than it could be, since display lists aren't currently used. the entire image is re-rendered, during each refresh, regardless of which components have changed their appearance.

not the full redraw every single frame 😭 it's giving "we're doing the most for no reason". still works though bestie.

Copyright (C) 1998, 2011 John Darrington.

this program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

this program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

you should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

bestie, this is the "no takebacks, no guarantees, but also free forever" part and it is important. read it. respect it. 💜

🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

nope, there's literally nothing else listed here. gnubik stands alone. she's self-made. 👑

that's the whole page! 💖 written by JMD, dated 01 January 2011, and it lives at gnubik(6) in the manual. go solve that cube, bestie — you've got this. 🦋✨

📦 where this page comes from