pinion(6)

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

🌸 NAME 🌸

okay bestie, this is the pinion(6) page from the XScreenSaver manual — yes, manual section 6, screensaver territory. pinion draws a scrolling sequence of interconnected gears. It's giving mechanical aquarium in the best way. 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

Here's the summoning spell, exactly as written:

pinion [--display host:display.screen] [--window] [--root] [--window-id
       number][--install] [--visual visual] [--delay usecs] [--scroll ratio]
       [--spin ratio] [--size ratio] [--max-rpm int] [--wireframe] [--fps]

Yep, --display host:display.screen is right there in the synopsis. The OPTIONS list below starts with --window, and DISPLAY gets its moment down in ENVIRONMENT. 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The pinion program draws an interconnected set of gears moving across the screen. That's the vibe: gears, connected, scrolling, absolutely slaying across your display. Not me getting emotional over a screensaver. 😭

🛠️ OPTIONS 🛠️

pinion accepts the following options:

  • --window — Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default, so if you don't specify anything, this is what you get. 🫶
  • --root — Draw on the root window.
  • --window-id number — Draw on the specified window. You give it the number, it draws there. Simple.
  • --install — Install a private colormap for the window.
  • --visual visual — Specify which visual to use. Legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual.
  • --delay usecs — The delay between frames of the animation, in microseconds: default 15000.
  • --spin ratio — How fast the gears should spin; default 1.0. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast. 🌀
  • --scroll ratio — How fast the gears should scroll past the screen; default 1.0. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast.
  • --size ratio — How big the gears should be, on average; default 1.0. 2.0 means twice as large, 0.5 means half as large.
  • --max-rpm integer — If any gear exceeds the maximum RPM, the current gear train is broken there, and we start a new train. Default: 900 RPM. (At 30 FPS, that's about half a rotation per frame.) 👑
  • --wireframe — Render in wireframe instead of solid.
  • --fps — Display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count.

🌍 ENVIRONMENT 🌍

These are the environment variables doing the behind-the-scenes work:

  • 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 touch grass in these other pages: gears(6), xscreensaver(1), X(1). 💖

Copyright © 2004 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.

🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 12-Dec-2004.

okay that's the whole page, bestie. This one is from X Version 11, version 6.15, dated 30-Mar-2026. Go make some gears scroll. 💜✨

📦 where this page comes from