rotzoomer(6)

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

💫 rotzoomer(6) — the XScreenSaver manual, bestie edition ✨

okay so you're reading the rotzoomer page from the XScreenSaver manual, and honestly? it's a vibe. it's giving "screen saver but make it art". let's get into it 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

rotzoomer — animated rotations and scalings of portions of the screen. literally it takes bits of your screen and spins and stretches them. iconic behavior only 💅

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

rotzoomer [--display host:display.screen] [--move | --no-move] [--delay
millisecs] [--duration secs] [--n count] [--shm | --no-shm] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number][--install] [--visual visual] [--fps]

copy that exactly, bestie, don't be editing it 🙈

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so rotzoomer grabs an image, then picks rectangles and draws scaled and rotated animations of that section. that's the whole gig. it's zooming, it's rotating, it's picking little rectangle chunks of your screen and making them main character energy 🌀

where does the image come from? the image that it manipulates will be grabbed from the portion of the screen underlying the window, or from the system's video input, or from a random file on disk — as indicated by the grabDesktopImages, grabVideoFrames, and chooseRandomImages options in the ~/.xscreensaver file. see xscreensaver-settings(1) for more details 👑

💖 OPTIONS 💖

rotzoomer accepts the following options:

  • --window — Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default. ✨
  • --root — Draw on the root window. going full desktop, no cap.
  • --window-id number — Draw on the specified window. you pick the window, you pick the vibe.
  • --install — Install a private colormap for the window. fancy colors, just for you 💜
  • --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. so like, a class name or a number, your call 🎀
  • --delay milliseconds — How much of a delay should be introduced between steps of the animation. Default 10, or about 1/100th second. tiny pauses, big drama ⏱️
  • --duration seconds — How long to run before loading a new image. Default 120 seconds. two whole minutes of this 🍓
  • --move — Make the rectangles should wander around the screen. yes the original says it like that and we're keeping it fr fr. the rectangles roam 🚶‍♀️
  • --no-move — Make the rectangles be stationary. This is the default. they stay put, lowkey chill 💤
  • --n count — How many rectangles to animate simultaneously. Default 2. double trouble 🫶
  • --no-shm — Disable use of the SHM extension, even if it appears to be available. (and yeah, the synopsis up there also mentions --shm as the counterpart, just so you know 👀)
  • --fps — Display the current frame rate and CPU load. numbers on screen, we love a performance check 🔥

🌈 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.

environment variables are lowkey the backstage crew of this whole operation 🧚

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

X(1), xscreensaver(1), xscreensaver-settings(1), xscreensaver-getimage(6)

go read those too, bestie, iykyk 💀

Copyright © 2001 by Claudio Matsuoka. 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.

translation: it's free to use however you want, just keep the copyright + permission notice in there. and no promises that it's fit for anything — it's "as is", no warranty, periodt. 🙈

🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Claudio Matsuoka <claudio@helllabs.org> — thank you for the rectangles, king 🌟

and that's the whole page!! this version is X Version 11, 6.15 (30-Mar-2026) — screenshot it, cite it, frame it, slay 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from