xscreensaver-getimage(6)

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

💖 xscreensaver-getimage — the XScreenSaver manual, bestie edition 💖

okay so real quick, this is xscreensaver-getimage(6) from the XScreenSaver manual, and it's literally the little helper that feeds pretty pictures to your screen savers. let's get into it ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

xscreensaver-getimage — loads a randomly-selected image onto an X11 Drawable, for use by screen savers. that's the whole vibe 🎀

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

xscreensaver-getimage [--display host:display.screen] [--verbose]
window-id [pixmap-id]

two args, a couple flags, iconic. 💅

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so xscreensaver-getimage is a helper program for the xscreensaver hacks that manipulate images. it's the backstage crew, not the main character, but nothing works without it 🫶

this program picks a random image and puts it on the specified window or pixmap. and like, "random image" can mean a few things:

  • a snapshot of the desktop 📸
  • a frame captured from the system's video input 🎥
  • a randomly-selected image from disk 💾

here's the deal on the two IDs:

  • if you give it only a window ID, the image gets painted there. simple.
  • if you give it both a window ID and a pixmap ID, the image gets painted on the pixmap — and heads up, the window may get modified as a side-effect 👀

✨ OPTIONS ✨

so xscreensaver-getimage reads the ~/.xscreensaver file for its configuration info, and it uses these settings:

  • grabDesktopImages — whether it's acceptable to grab snapshots of the desktop. the security-paranoid besties might wanna turn this off, so nobody can see (but not touch!) your desktop while the screen is locked. ngl that's a fair concern 🔒
  • grabVideoFrames — whether it's acceptable to grab frames of video from the system's video input. the actual video grabbing is done by invoking the xscreensaver-getimage-video(6) program 🎬
  • chooseRandomImages — whether it's acceptable to display random images found on disk. the selecting and loading of images is done by invoking the xscreensaver-getimage-file(6) program 🖼️
  • imageDirectory — when loading images from disk, this is the directory to find them in. and it searches that directory recursively for images, so it's thorough 💅

it may also be the URL of an RSS or Atom feed, in which case a random image from that feed gets selected instead. the contents of the feed are cached locally and refreshed periodically as needed 🔄

and if none of the three options (grabDesktopImages, grabVideoFrames, chooseRandomImages) are set to True? you get video colorbars instead. the classic "we have nothing" aesthetic 🌈

💀 BUGS 💀

when grabbing desktop images, the window argument will be unmapped and have its contents modified — which causes flicker. 😭 and like, it genuinely does not happen when loading image files or video frames, so it's specifically the desktop-grab path being extra. sorry bestie.

🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

X(1), xscreensaver(1) xscreensaver-settings(1) xscreensaver-getimage-file(6) xscreensaver-getimage-video(6)

(the way this list has zero commas between the xscreensaver entries in the original… preserving the chaos fr fr 🙈)

Copyright © 2001-2021 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.

(that's the whole legal bit, verbatim, don't @ me — it's giving very "read the license" energy 📜)

🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 14-Apr-2001

and that's the page!! written by jwz himself, and this beautiful little manual ships with X Version 11, release 6.15 (30-Mar-2026) — okay love you bye, go grab some images 💖✨🍓

📦 where this page comes from