peepers(6)

💖 peepers — the manual, but make it group chat 💖

okay so you opened peepers(6), part of the XScreenSaver manual, and bestie you are in for a treat. this is the floating eyeballs one. yes really. let's go 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

peepers — floating eyeballs.

that's it. that's the name section. iconic brevity. 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

peepers [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--delay number] [--speed number] [--count
number] [--mode bounce | scroll | random] [--wireframe] [--fps]

look at all those flags. we love a flexible queen. 👑

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Eyeballs. They float. They bounce. They stare at your cursor.

that's the whole description. three sentences. ate and left no crumbs. genuinely one of the most self-assured descriptions in the entire manual, no cap. 👁️👁️

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💜 OPTIONS 💜

• --visual visual — pick which visual to use. Legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual. your vibe, your choice ✨
• --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you're not doing anything, this is already what you're doing ��
• --root — draw on the root window. going full wallpaper mode.
• --window-id number — draw on the specified window. very "I know exactly which window I want" of you.
• --delay number — per-frame delay, in microseconds. default: 30000 (that's 0.03 seconds for the math girlies 🧮).
• --speed number — animation speed. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast.
• --count number — number of eyes. 0 means random. (random is a choice, and honestly a brave one 🫶)
• --mode bounce — the eyeballs bounce onto the screen from the bottom. like a cow. 🐄
• --mode scroll — the eyeballs scroll in from the left and right.
• --mode xeyes — the eyeballs remain stationary, but always turn to stare at the mouse pointer, wherever it happens to be on the screen. perhaps best used in conjunction with --count 2. (two eyes staring at your cursor is the intended experience, highkey 👀)
• --mode beholder — render a ball made of eyeballs, all looking at you. valid --count values are 20, 80, 320 or 1280. this is main character energy and also mildly terrifying, and I respect it 💀
• --wireframe | --no-wireframe — render in wireframe instead of solid.
• --fps | --no-fps — whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen.

ngl, the synopsis up top says --mode bounce | scroll | random while the options list goes bounce, scroll, xeyes, beholder. that's just how the page reads — I'm reporting it exactly as written, not my business to fix it, iykyk 🙈

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🌈 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.
• XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root.

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

X(1), xscreensaver(1)

go read those too, bestie. knowledge is free and it's giving studious 🎀

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💖 COPYRIGHT 💖

Copyright © 2018 by 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.

(read that carefully if you're shipping it — it's the real legal text, not a vibe ✨)

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🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

Jamie Zawinski.

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okay that's the whole page, you're officially a peepers expert, go stare at some floating eyeballs 🫶

X Version 11 · 6.15 (30-Mar-2026) · that's the version and date, bestie — now go forth and bounce 💅