companioncube(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 companioncube 💖

okay bestie, lemme tell you about companioncube — it lives in the XScreenSaver manual, section 6x, and it is, and I quote, "a vital aparatus." yes with the typo, we love her, we respect her, we are not fixing her 💅

✨ NAME ✨

companioncube — a vital aparatus.

like. that's it. that's the whole name section. she's mysterious. she's iconic. she's vital. periodt.

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

companioncube [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual]
[--window] [--root] [--window-id number] [--delay number] [--speed
ratio] [--spin] [--wander] [--count number] [--wireframe] [--fps]

run it, hand it some flags, watch the cube do cube things. no cap 🧊

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so the Enrichment Center wants you to know something, and ngl it's a bit of a jump scare:

The symptoms most commonly produced by Enrichment Center testing are superstition, perceiving inanimate objects as alive, and hallucinations.

(not me looking at my own laptop like 👀)

The Enrichment Center reminds you that the weighted companion cube will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak. 🫶

and if the Weighted Companion Cube does speak?? the Enrichment Center urges you to disregard its advice. literally do not listen. do not take notes. do not make a podcast about it.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

here's the whole flag roster, bestie, nothing skipped, nothing summarised, we eat the whole plate 🍓

  • --visual visual — pick which visual to use. Legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual.
  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this one is the default, she's the main character ✨
  • --root — draw on the root window instead.
  • --window-id number — draw on the specified window. you point, it draws.
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, in microseconds. Default: 30000 (that's 0.03 seconds, for the people who don't speak micro).
  • --speed number — how fast the animation should run. less than 1 for slower, greater than 1 for faster. so 0.5 is a sleepy cube, 2 is a cube that has had three espresso shots 🔥
  • --count number — how many cubes. Default 3. (the council has spoken.)
  • --spin, --no-spin — instead of bouncing, float and spin. 🌀
  • --wander, --no-wander — instead of bouncing, float and drift. 🦋
  • --wireframe — render in wireframe instead of solid. she's transparent now. she's showing you her bones. 💀
  • --fps — display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. nerd stats, we love a stats girlie 🌈

🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

the environment variables she reads, all of them, in order, no skipping:

  • 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 👑

go read these too, bestie, they're the friend group:

Copyright © 2011 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 read that part. "as is". no promises. she said what she said 🙈

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Jamie Zawinski, with apologies to the fine folks at Valve Software and Aperture Science.

(that apology is doing so much work and honestly? it's giving respect 💐)

okay that's the whole thing!! 💖 you just read the companioncube(6x) page from X Version 11, version 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026 — yes we time travelled, don't worry about it 🕰️✨

now go run it before you start perceiving inanimate objects as alive again. love u, bye!! 🎀🦋💅

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