pedal(6)

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

okay bestie, welcome to pedal(6) — straight out of the XScreenSaver manual. yes, the program is literally called pedal, and no, it's not about bicycles. buckle up. 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

pedal — pretty geometric picture program. that's the whole name, and honestly? slay. ✨

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

here's the summoning spell, exactly as printed:

pedal [--display host:display.screen] [--foreground color] [--background color] [--window] [--root] [--window-id number][--delay seconds] [-maxlines number] [-mono] [--install] [--visual visual] [--fps]

no cap, copy it character-for-character if you're typing it. --window-id number][--delay seconds] is lowkey glued together in the original, and we're keeping it that way. 💅

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

the pedal program displays pretty geometric pictures. that's the vibe: it's giving geometry, but make it cute. periodt. 🌀✨

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

pedal accepts the following options:

  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, bestie — highkey main character energy.
  • --root — draw on the root window.
  • --window-id number — draw on the specified window.
  • --foreground color — the color for the foreground. default is white.
  • --background color — the color for the background. default is black.
  • --delay seconds — the number of seconds to pause between each picture.
  • --maxlines number — the maximum number of lines in the drawing. good values are between 20 and 2000. maximum value is 16K. iykyk. 🔥

want your X server to grunt under load and impress your friends? the original says to try this exact command:

pedal -mono -delay 0 -maxlines 100

fr fr, that's the official chaos recipe. notice the single-dash spellings -mono, -delay, and -maxlines are exactly as the original example printed them. 🔥

  • --fps — display the current frame rate and CPU load.

also floating in the synopsis: --display host:display.screen, --install, --visual visual, -maxlines number, and -mono. keeping their spellings exactly as the original printed them. ngl, some of these only show up in the synopsis on this page, so i'm not inventing extra behavior for them. 🙈

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

vibe check: these are the environment variables, bestie.

  • 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 👑

go look at X(1) and xscreensaver(1). that's the friend group. i'm obsessed. 🫶

okay so legal stuff, and i'm keeping this exactly as it appears — including the fnords, because yes, they are literally in the original text. not me, not my typo. 🙈

Copyright © 1994, by Carnegie Mellon University. Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided fnord 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 fnord this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

🍓 AUTHOR 🍓

Dale Moore <Dale.Moore@cs.cmu.edu>, 24-Jun-1994. ate and left no crumbs. 💖

and that's the wrap, bestie 🎬 — this page is from X Version 11, XScreenSaver 6.15 (30-Mar-2026), and it's the pedal(6) manual page. go make some pretty geometry. bye 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from