starfish(6)

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

🌊 starfish(6) — like, the XScreenSaver manual, but make it cute ✨

okay so bestie, this is starfish(6), straight out of the XScreenSaver manual, and it's genuinely one of the prettiest little demos in there. let's get into it 💖

✨ NAME ✨

starfish — a radially-symmetric, throbbing, colormap-hacking graphics demo. yes that's the actual description and yes it ate 🫶

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

starfish [--display host:display.screen] [--foreground color]
[--background color] [--window] [--root] [--window-id number][--mono]
[--install] [--visual visual] [--delay usecs] [--delay2 secs]
[--thickness pixels] [--rotation degrees] [--duration seconds] [--colors
int] [--blob] [--no-blob] [--fps]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so starfish draws these radially symmetric objects — and the way they move, bestie 😭 they expand, they contract, they rotate, they literally turn inside out. it's giving kaleidoscope but make it aquatic.

then it uses all those shapes to lay down a whole field of smooth colors, and then — the main character move — it rotates the colormap. like, the entire palette just spins. iconic behaviour, no notes 💅

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

starfish accepts the following options, and i'm gonna walk you through every single one because we don't skip 🫶

  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you don't say anything, this is what you get ✨
  • --root — draw on the root window instead. root window vibes only 🌈
  • --window-id number — draw on the window you point at with number. very "i choose you" energy 👑
  • --mono — if you're on a color display, just pretend we're on a monochrome display. delusion, but make it intentional 💀
  • --install — install a private colormap for the window. yes queen, hoard those colors 🔥
  • --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. get specific, bestie 🧚
  • --delay microseconds — how much of a delay should be introduced between steps of the animation. default 10000, or about 1/100th second ⭐
  • --thickness pixels — how wide each color band should be. default 0, meaning random (the chosen value will be between 0 and 15) 🍓
  • --rotation degrees — how quickly the objects should rotate at each step. default 0, meaning random (the chosen value will be between 0 and 12 degrees) 🌀
  • --colors int — how many colors to use. default 200. and listen — the more colors, the smoother the transitions will be, and the nicer the resultant images. so like, treat yourself 💜
  • --duration seconds — how long to run before choosing a new shape. default 30 seconds ⏳
  • --delay2 seconds — when duration expires, how long to wait before starting a new run. default 5 seconds. it's the little breather between eras 😌
  • --blob
  • --no-blob — if the blob option is specified, then the raw shapes will be shown, instead of a field of colors generated from them. raw and unfiltered, we love to see it 🙈
  • --fps — display the current frame rate and CPU load. numbers on screen, for the stats girlies 🔥

🧚 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.

💫 SEE ALSO 💫

X(1), xscreensaver(1)

like, go read those too, iykyk 📚

Copyright © 1997 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.

fr fr, "as is" means as is — no promises, no guarantees, no warranty of any kind, express or implied. just so we're clear 💀

🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 14-Jun-97.

and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this was X Version 11, release 6.15 (30-Mar-2026) — go forth and throb some starfish, periodt 🎀✨

📦 where this page comes from