bumps(6x)

💫 bumps(6x) — the XScreenSaver manual, bestie edition 💫

okay so before we even get into it: this is a page from the XScreenSaver manual, and it's about a little program called bumps. she's cute, she's weird, she's gonna move a spotlight around your screen. let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

bumps — move distorting spotlight around desktop

like, literally that. a spotlight. that distorts. wandering around. main character energy tbh.

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

bumps [--display host:display.screen] [--foreground color] [--background
color] [--window] [--root] [--window-id number] [--mono] [--install]
[--visual visual] [--delay usecs] [--duration secs] [--fps]

that's the whole vibe check right there. run it, give it some flags if you want, she does her thing 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so bumps takes an image and then exposes small, distorted sections of it — like you're peeking at it through some odd, wandering spotlight beam. it's giving "looking at your screen through a funhouse mirror that won't sit still" and honestly? iconic.

the image it manipulates gets grabbed from one of three places, depending on what the grabDesktopImages, grabVideoFrames, and chooseRandomImages options in your ~/.xscreensaver file say:

• the portion of the screen underlying the window
• the system's video input
• a random file on disk

if you wanna know more about those config options, check out xscreensaver-settings(1). iykyk 💖

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🌸 OPTIONS 🌸

bumps accepts the following options, and yes she accepts them all, no cap:

• --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you don't say anything she's already doing this ✨
• --root — draw on the root window instead. going full desktop wallpaper mode.
• --window-id number — draw on the specific window you point at with number. very "you, specifically, this one" energy.
• --mono — if you're on a color display, pretend we're on a monochrome display. delusion? maybe. aesthetic? absolutely 💀
• --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.
• --delay microseconds — slow it down. literally just vibes, but slower. use microseconds.
• --duration seconds — how long to run before loading a new image. default is 120 seconds. so like, two whole minutes of the same spotlight 🕐
• --fps — display the current frame rate and CPU load. numbers on screen. she's showing off. love that for her 👑

lowkey reminder: --display, --foreground color, and --background color show up in the synopsis up top, so they're part of the program too — just not given their own little bullet down here. no gatekeeping, just how the page is laid out 💜

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🧚 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. she needs to know which window, bestie 🌈

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

go read these too, they're all connected, it's a whole ecosystem:

• X(1)
• xscreensaver(1)
• xscreensaver-settings(1)
• xscreensaver-getimage(6x)

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💖 COPYRIGHT 💖

Copyright © 1999 by Shane Smit.

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. (translation: it's free, just keep the receipts, and no promises that it'll be perfect for whatever you're doing with it 🙈)

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👑 CREDITS 👑

Shane Smit <blackend@inconnect.com>, 8-Oct-1999.

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and that's the page, bestie 🎀

cute lil sign-off: this one's from X Version 11, dated 6.09 (07-Jun-2024) — so she's been doing her wandering-spotlight thing for a minute and she's still going. slay. periodt. 🌸💅

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