protophore(6)

📦 version 6.15, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable

✨ protophore ✨

okay so this is a page from the XScreenSaver manual, and honestly? bestie, you're gonna be obsessed. it's protophore(6) and it's giving shiny-metal-fractal main character energy 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

protophore — it's a screen saver. that's the whole vibe. 🫶

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

protophore [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
           [--root] [--delay number] [--speed number] [--scale number] [--fps]

like, that's it. that's the whole incantation. ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

literally a reflective metal fractal. no cap. it's shiny, it's metal, it's fractal, it reflects. that's the entire concept and it ate. 🔥

💖 OPTIONS 💖

  • --visual visual — pick which visual you wanna use, bestie. legal values are either the name of a visual class, or the id number of one specific visual (and that id can be decimal or hex, so go off 👑).
  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you just run it and don't say anything, this is what you get 🎀
  • --root — draw on the root window instead. different window, different vibe 🌈
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, measured in microseconds. default is 20000 (which is 0.02 seconds, if you were gonna ask 😌).
  • --speed number — animation speed. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast. math is mathing ⭐
  • --scale number — frame buffer resolution. 0.5 means halve the resolution for better performance but lower quality output. default is 1.0, full quality. so like, tradeoffs, yk? 💅
  • --fps | --no-fps — whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen. yes or no, your call 🍓

🧚 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.
these are the little environment gremlins pulling strings behind the scenes. respect them 🙈

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

X(1), xscreensaver(1), and https://www.shadertoy.com/view/XljGDz — go click that last one, it's the whole inspiration iykyk 💜

Copyright © 2015 by Otavio Good.

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.

fr fr, it's "as is" — no warranty, no promises, no take-backs 💀

🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

Otavio Good. 🫶

and that's the whole page, bestie!! X Version 11, version 6.15, dated 30-Mar-2026 — mwah, go run it, slay, periodt 💖✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from