squiral(6)

💖 squiral(6) — square spirals screensaver 💖

okay so this is the squiral(6) page from the XScreenSaver manual, and it's giving “tiny automata doing spiral choreography” ✨. I’m keeping every flag, value, default, env var, and legal line exactly where it belongs — just with way more sparkle. 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

squiral — square spirals screensaver. 🌀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

squiral [--display host:display.screen] [--foreground color]
        [--background color] [--window] [--root] [--window-id number][--mono]
        [--install] [--noinstall] [--visual visual] [--fill percent] [--count
        number] [--scale number] [--delay usec] [--disorder fraction]
        [--handedness fraction] [--cycle] [--fps]

That’s the whole invocation, no cap. 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The squiral program displays interacting, spiral-producing automata. That’s the whole description, and honestly? iconic. 🌈

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

squiral accepts the following options:

• --window — Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default. 🪟
• --root — Draw on the root window. 🌍
• --window-id number — Draw on the specified window. 🪟
• --mono — If on a color display, pretend we’re on a monochrome display. 🖤
• --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. 👀
• --fill percent — Specify the percent (0-100) of the screen which must be filled before the screen is cleared. 60-80 percent are good values. 💯
• --count number — The number of squiralies. By default, the screen width divided by 32. 🔢
• --scale number — Line thickness. 📏
• --delay usec — The wait between steps. The default is 1000. ⏳
• --disorder fraction — The fraction of the time a squiraly will choose a new direction. The default is 0.005. 🌀
• --handedness fraction — The fraction of the time a squiraly will choose to enter lefthanded mode. 0.0 means exclusively right-handed behavior, 0.5 (the default) is a balance between the two, and 1.0 is exclusively left-handed behaviour. 🤝
• --fps — Display the current frame rate and CPU load. 📈

Also chillin’ in the synopsis, exactly as printed: --display host:display.screen, --foreground color, --background color, --noinstall, and --cycle. The original OPTIONS list doesn’t give these their own writeups, so I’m not inventing extra deets — just making sure they don’t get lost. 💅

🧚 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. 🪟

💀 BUGS 💀

None known. periodt. 😌

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• X(1)
• xscreensaver(1)

go read these too, bestie. 👑

👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright © 1999, by Jeff Epler. Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided fnord 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 fnord this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or fnord implied warranty.

🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

Jeff Epler <jepler@inetnebr.com>, 18-mar-1999 — iconic. 💜

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💖 okay that’s the whole squiral(6) experience! Footer deets, folded into a cute sign-off: X Version 11, 6.15 (30-Mar-2026), squiral(6). Bye bestie, go make some square spirals! 🌀💅