spotlight(6)

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

✨ NAME ✨

Okay bestie, this is spotlight(6) from the XScreenSaver manual, and the assignment is simple: spotlight will move spotlight around desktop. That’s the name, that’s the vibe, main character energy only 💅.

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

Run it like this, fr fr:

spotlight [--display host:display.screen] [--foreground color]
[--background color] [--window] [--root] [--window-id number][--mono]
[--install] [--visual visual] [--delay usecs] [--duration secs]
[--radius pixels] [--fps]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The spotlight program takes an image and exposes small sections of it as if through a wandering spotlight beam. It’s literally peekaboo with a beam 🔦✨.

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. That’s the whole source-image situation, no cap 🫶.

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

spotlight accepts the following options, bestie:

  • --window — Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default. New window, who dis? 💖
  • --root — Draw on the root window. Straight-up root energy 🌱.
  • --window-id number — Draw on the specified window. You pick the window, it draws there 🪟.
  • --mono — If on a color display, pretend we're on a monochrome display. Retro pretend-mode, iconic 🖤.
  • --install — Install a private colormap for the window. Colormap? Private. Very VIP 💅.
  • --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. Pick your visual, bestie 👀.
  • --delay microseconds — Slow it down. Chill mode activated 😌.
  • --duration seconds — How long to run before loading a new image. Default 120 seconds. Two whole minutes before the next image, periodt ⏳.
  • --radius pixels — Radius of the spotlight in pixels. Big beam, tiny beam, your call 🔦.
  • --fps — Display the current frame rate and CPU load. Stats on screen, because we love data 📈.

🌸 ENVIRONMENT 🌸

  • DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number. Where the display lives, basically 🌍.
  • XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property. Resource-file override realness 🧚.
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — The window ID to use with --root. This is the window ID bestie for --root 🪟.

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

Copyright © 1999 by Rick Schultz.

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.

That’s the legal tea, and yes, it must stay in all the copies and supporting docs 🫖.

🧚 CREDITS 🧚

Hacked together by Rick Schultz <rick@skapunx.net>, based on StefView for BackSpace by Darcy Brockbank and on several other xscreensaver hacks. Origin story slays, iykyk 💜.

This page is from the XScreenSaver manual: X Version 11, 6.15 (30-Mar-2026). Go make that wandering spotlight beam serve, bestie 🫶💖

📦 where this page comes from