starnest(6)

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

💫 starnest(6) — the XScreenSaver manual, bestie edition ✨

okay so real talk: this is starnest, straight out of the XScreenSaver manual, and it is literally the prettiest little screensaver page you're gonna read today. grab a snack 🍓, sit down, and let's get into it.

🌌 NAME 🌌

starnest — a star field screen saver. that's it, that's the whole vibe. stars. field. screen. saver. slay 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

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

that's the whole invocation, bestie — copy it exactly, no cap 🫶

🪐 DESCRIPTION 🪐

A star field via 3D kaliset fractal and volumetric rendering.

and like… the way that combination is so iconic?? a star field, but it's made with a 3D kaliset fractal plus volumetric rendering. it's giving deep-space main character energy fr fr 🌈⭐

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • --visual visual — specify which visual to use. the legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual. iykyk, this is the "which flavour of pixel-pushing do you want" knob.
  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you do nothing, congrats, you already picked it 💖
  • --root — draw on the root window. full desktop takeover, no window chrome, just vibes.
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, in microseconds. default: 20000 (that's 0.02 seconds). little pause between frames, basically the screensaver catching its breath 🌸
  • --speed number — animation speed. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast. yes bestie, math works, we love to see it ✨
  • --scale number — frame buffer resolution. 0.5 means halve the resolution for better performance but lower quality output. default 1.0, full quality. so: crank it down if ur machine is fighting for its life 😭
  • --fps | --no-fps — whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen. the little number down there? iconic. some people love it, some people hate it, and both are valid 🦋

🌿 ENVIRONMENT 🌿

  • DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number. this is how it knows where to put the pretty stars 👑
  • XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property. fancy override business, we respect it 🧚
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root. (yep, specifically the --root buddy.) 💜

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

X(1), xscreensaver(1), https://www.shadertoy.com/view/XlfGRj

that last one is the shadertoy link the whole fractal came from, so if you wanna go down a rabbit hole, there ya go 🌈

Copyright © 2013 by Pablo Roman Andrioli.

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.

ngl this is the standard generous-license situation — just keep the copyright notice and the permission notice in your copies and docs, don't sue anybody, and understand it comes with no warranty whatsoever. read it, don't skim it, bestie 🙈

🦋 AUTHOR 🦋

Pablo Roman Andrioli.

and that's the page!! 🎀 this one's from X Version 11, version 6.15, dated 30-Mar-2026, filed under starnest(6) — go forth and stare at some fractally-generated stars, you absolute icon ⭐💖

📦 where this page comes from