skyline(6)

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

✨ skyline(6) — the XScreenSaver manual, but make it cute ✨

okay so you found the skyline page in the XScreenSaver manual (XScreenSaver manual, bestie, that's the book this is from) and honestly? it's a good one. let's get into it 💖

🌆 NAME

skyline — it's a screen saver. that's the whole vibe. ✨

🫶 SYNOPSIS

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

like, that's the whole invocation. copy it, paste it, go live your life 💅

🏙️ DESCRIPTION

A procedurally-generated cityscape.

no cap, that's it — the program just builds a whole city for you out of math. main character energy fr fr. 🌃

🎀 OPTIONS

  • --visual visual — tells it which visual to use. legal values are either the name of a visual class, or the id number of a specific visual (decimal or hex, your call bestie). pick your fave ✨
  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. 👑 this is the default, so if you do nothing, this is what you get.
  • --root — draw on the root window instead. classic screensaver move.
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, measured in microseconds. default is 20000 (that's 0.02 seconds, if you're keeping score). 🕰️
  • --speed number — animation speed. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast. go fast, go slow, go iconic. 🔥
  • --scale number — frame buffer resolution. 0.5 means halve the resolution for better performance but lower quality output. default is 1.0, which is full quality. so like… pick your tradeoff, we don't judge 🦋
  • --fps | --no-fps — whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen. on or off, that's the whole question 📊

🌈 ENVIRONMENT

  • DISPLAY — used to get the default host and display number. this is how it knows where to live 💜
  • XENVIRONMENT — used to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property. fancy ✨
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root. yep, that's the one 🪟

🧚 SEE ALSO

(that last one is where the shader magic lives, 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. 🫶

so like… it's free, it's permissive, just keep the notices and don't come for anyone if it breaks. periodt.

👑 AUTHOR

Otavio Good.

and that's the whole page, bestie 💖✨ this little gem is from X Version 11, version 6.15, dated 30-Mar-2026 — screenshot that for later, mwah 🎀

📦 where this page comes from