covid19(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 covid19 💖 (from the XScreenSaver manual, section 6x)

okay bestie, buckle up, we're doing the most 2020 thing that has ever been a screen saver 🦠✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

covid19 — literally the most 2020 of all screen savers. no cap. it's giving lockdown, it's giving doomscroll, it's giving that year. 😭

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

covid19 [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--delay number] [--speed number] [--count
number] [--no-wander] [--no-spin] [--wireframe] [--fps]

she takes all of these flags, periodt. 👑

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

SARS-CoV-2. Stay the fuck home. Wear a fucking mask.

that's the whole description. it's iconic, it's direct, it's the vibe check that changed the planet. 💅

✨ OPTIONS ✨

every single one, coming right up, no skipping, no summarizing, we don't do that here 🫶

  • --visual visual — pick which visual you wanna use. legal values are either the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex, she accepts both 🌈) of a specific visual.
  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this one is the default, so if you do nothing, this is what you get. main character energy fr.
  • --root — draw on the root window instead.
  • --window-id number — draw on the window you specify. exactly that one. no others.
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, measured in microseconds. Default: 30000 (which is 0.03 seconds, if the math was doing math 🧮).
  • --speed number — animation speed. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast. simple as.
  • --count number — maximum number of virus particles. range is 1 - 200. Default: 60.
  • --wander | --no-wander — whether the viruses should wander around the screen. yes or no, bestie, pick one.
  • --spin | --no-spin — whether the viruses should spin. lil rotational moment 🌀
  • --wireframe | --no-wireframe — render in wireframe instead of solid. skeleton mode vs full look.
  • --fps | --no-fps — whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen. numbers at the bottom, very demure.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

env vars she's reading, all listed, all important:

  • 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 👑

X(1), xscreensaver(1)

go read those too, they're the supporting cast and they ate 💜

Copyright © 2020 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.

not me reading the whole license out loud. but fr fr, it's all there and it all matters. 🙈

🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

Jamie Zawinski.

and that's the whole page, bestie — this is X Version 11, 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026, so like, go wash your hands, stay home, and let the viruses spin on your root window instead of in your life 💖✨🦋🌸💅

📦 where this page comes from