truchetzoom(6)

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

🌈 truchetzoom — the XScreenSaver manual, but make it cute 🎀

okay so bestie, real talk: this is truchetzoom, and it lives in section 6 of the XScreenSaver manual. that's the vibe. it's a screen saver, and it's lowkey gorgeous. let's get into it 💖

✨ NAME ✨

truchetzoom — a truchet screen saver. that's it, that's the whole name. iconic behavior honestly 👑

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

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

no cap, that's the whole invocation. type it, love it, press enter 💅

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

A looping, distorting truchet chain with scanlines.

and honestly?? the way that description ate and left zero crumbs. a truchet chain that loops, a truchet chain that distorts, plus scanlines on top for that crunchy retro glow. main character energy fr fr ✨

💜 OPTIONS 💜

  • --visual visual — tells it which visual to use. legal values are either the name of a visual class, or the id number of a specific visual (decimal or hex, your call, both slay).
  • --window — draws on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you do nothing, congrats, you already did it 🫶
  • --root — draws on the root window instead. going full desktop takeover, we respect it.
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, measured in microseconds. default: 20000 (that's 0.02 seconds, for the people keeping score 🍓).
  • --speed number — animation speed. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast. math but make it fashion 💫
  • --scale number — frame buffer resolution. 0.5 means halve the resolution for better performance but lower quality output. default 1.0, full quality, no compromise, we love a maximalist 🎀
  • --fps | --no-fps — whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen. tiny numbers, huge serotonin 📊

🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

  • DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number. it's giving "where am i supposed to be" and honestly same.
  • XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property. yeah it's a mouthful, but it's the override hook and it's doing its best 💀
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

X(1), xscreensaver(1), and here's the link bestie, it's literally right there: https://www.shadertoy.com/view/4cBcDy — go look at the original, it's the inspo, pay your respects 🙏

Copyright © 2024 by mrange.

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.

bestie read that warranty line again. "as is", no promises, no take-backs. if it breaks, it breaks dramatically and it's not mrange's problem 💀

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

mrange.

that's it. one name. mysterious. iconic. periodt 💅

okay that's the whole page!! and for the cute sign-off you asked for: this is the X Version 11 release, version 6.15, dated 30-Mar-2026 — and it's section 6 of the XScreenSaver manual, so you know exactly where to find it again 🦋💖 see u in the group chat!!

📦 where this page comes from