ripples(6)

💧 ripples(6) — the interference-pattern icon

okay so bestie, welcome to ripples, a lil XScreenSaver hack from the XScreenSaver manual that literally draws rippling interference patterns, like when you splash water and the waves all crash into each other and make that gorgeous mesh thing. it's giving pond-after-a-raindrop. it's giving "ooh pretty" ✨

and here's the fun part: with the -water option it literally grabs your desktop image and messes with it so it looks like something is dripping into your screen. your wallpaper, but wet. no cap. 🌊

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ripples [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--delay number] [--duration secs] [--rate
number] [--fluidity number] [--light number] [--water] [--stir] [--oily]
[--grayscale] [--colors number] [--no-shm] [--fps]

like yes that's a lot of flags, but that's the whole menu and we're gonna go through every single one, because i love you and i refuse to let you run this blind 🫶

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

this thing draws rippling interference patterns, exactly like splashing water — the overlapping wave rings, the shimmery bits, all of it. iconic behavior honestly.

and with the -water option? it manipulates your desktop image to look like something is dripping into it. your actual screen image. getting dripped on. 💧

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• --visual visual — tells it which visual to use. legal values are either the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual. pick your fighter.
• --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you do nothing, this is what you get. main character energy.
• --root — draw on the root window instead. going full desktop.
• --window-id number — draw on the specified window. you point, it draws.
• --delay number — per-frame delay, in microseconds. default: 50000 (that's 0.05 seconds, bestie).
• --duration seconds — how long to run before loading a new image. default 120 seconds.
• --rate number — "Drizzle." range 1 - 100. default: 5.
• --fluidity number — "Small Drops." range 0 - 16. default: 6.
• --light number — "Lighting Effect." range 0 - 8. default: 0.
• --water | --no-water — "Grab Screen Image." it's a boolean, so it's a yes/no vibe.
• --stir | --no-stir — "Moving Splashes." boolean again.
• --oily | --no-oily — "Psychedelic Colors." boolean. yes the manpage really calls it that and yes it's exactly as chaotic as it sounds 🌈
• --grayscale — converts the screen image to grayscale. but (and this is important) it's ignored if we don't grab the screen image, or if our screen doesn't have enough color depth. so if nothing happens, that's why, don't @ me.
• --colors number — "Colors Two." default: 200.
• --shm | --no-shm — "Use Shared Memory." boolean. (the synopsis up top only shows --no-shm, but both exist, so there you go 💅)
• --fps — displays the current frame rate and CPU load. for when you wanna know how hard your computer is working for the aesthetic.

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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)

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💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

Copyright © 2002 by Tom Hammersley.

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.

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⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Tom Hammersley.

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okay that's the whole page, and here's your cute lil sign-off: this beauty is from X Version 11, dated 6.15 (30-Mar-2026), filed under the XScreenSaver manual — go make some ripples bestie, you've earned it 💖🌸