slidescreen(6)

💅 slidescreen(6) — the XScreenSaver manual, bestie edition 💅

okay so you found slidescreen(6) in the XScreenSaver manual and you're like "what even is this" — don't worry, I got you 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

slidescreen — permute the screen image like an 8-puzzle 🧩

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

slidescreen [--display host:display.screen] [--background color]
[--grid-size pixels] [--ibw pixels] [--increment pixels] [--delay usecs]
[--delay2 usecs] [--duration secs] [--window] [--root] [--window-id
number] [--install] [--visual visual] [--fps]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

ok so picture this: slidescreen takes an image, chops it into a grid, deletes a random square of that grid (rude, but okay 💀), and then randomly slides one of the neighbors of this "hole" into the hole. And then it does that again. And again. Forever. it's giving sliding puzzle energy, no cap.

The image it manipulates gets grabbed from whichever of these the vibe check picks:

• the portion of the screen underlying the window
• the system's video input
• a random file on disk

…as indicated by the grabDesktopImages, grabVideoFrames, and chooseRandomImages options in your ~/.xscreensaver file. see xscreensaver-settings(1) for more details, iykyk ✨

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

slidescreen accepts the following options (yes, all of them, I would never skip a single one for you 💖):

• --window — Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default. main character energy, honestly 👑
• --root — Draw on the root window.
• --window-id number — Draw on the specified window.
• --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.
• --grid-size pixels — The size of the grid cells. Default 70 pixels.
• --ibw pixels — The size of the "gutter" between grid cells. Default 4 pixel. (yes, "pixel", singular, that's how they wrote it, not me 🙈)
• --increment pixels — How many pixels by which a piece should be moved when sliding to a new location. Default 10 pixels.
• --delay microseconds — How much of a delay should be introduced between steps of the animation of the motion of each segment. Default 50000, which is 0.05 seconds. This is closely related to the --increment parameter. they're besties fr fr 🫶
• --delay2 microseconds — How much of a delay should be introduced between the end of the motion of one segment and the beginning of the motion of another. Default 1000000, which is one second.
• --duration seconds — How long to run before loading a new image. Default 120 seconds.
• --fps — Display the current frame rate and CPU load.

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

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💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

Copyright © 1992 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.

ok yes that's the whole legal paragraph, I'm not cutting it, it's iconic and also legally required so like. both 💅

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 3-dec-92.

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and that's the whole thing bestie!! this page is X Version 11, version 6.15 (30-Mar-2026) — periodt, go slide some pixels 🌸✨