gflux(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 gflux — the rippling square of your dreams 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the XScreenSaver manual corner of the internet, where we talk about gflux(6x) 💅✨

✨ NAME ✨

gflux — a rippling surface graphics hack 🦋 lowkey the prettiest little chaos generator

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

gflux [--display host:display.screen] [--window] [--root] [--window-id
number][--install] [--visual visual] [--delay microseconds] [--squares
num] [--resolution num] [--mode mode] [--flat num] [--speed num]
[--rotationx num] [--rotationy num] [--rotationz num] [--waves num]
[--waveChange num] [--waveHeight num] [--waveFreq num] [--zoom num]
[--wireframe] [--fps]

yes it's a lot of flags. no you don't have to memorise them. that's literally what this page is for 🫶

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So here's the tea ☕ — the gflux program draws a colourfull animated rippling square rotating in 3D space. That's it. That's the whole vibe. A square. Rippling. Spinning. Absolutely iconic behaviour, no notes 👑

💅 OPTIONS 💅

gflux accepts the following options, bestie. every single one of them. let's go 🏃♀️

  • --window — Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default, so if you say nothing, this is what you get ✨
  • --root — Draw on the root window.
  • --window-id number — Draw on the specified window. (number is a placeholder — plug in your own 💖)
  • --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.
  • --squares num — Specifies the size of the grid in squares. default 19
  • --resolution num — Specifies the wireframe detail of the squares. default 4
  • --mode mode — Specifies the draw method. Your choices are:
    • wireframe
    • solid (meaning a solid colored surface)
    • light (same as solid, but with lighting effects ✨)
    • checker (a texture-mapped checkerboard pattern 🏁)
    • grab (meaning grab an image to manipulate)
When grabbing images, the image will be grabbed from the portion of the screen underlying the window, or from the system's video input, or from a random file on disk, as indicated by the grabDesktopImages, grabVideoFrames, and chooseRandomImages options in the ~/.xscreensaver file; see xscreensaver-settings(1) for more details. iykyk 📸
  • --wireframe — Same as -mode wire. (shortcut queen 💅)
  • --flat num — 0 for smooth shading, 1 for flat. default 0
  • --speed num — Specifies speed of ripples flowing over the surface. default 0.05
  • --rotationx num --rotationy num --rotationz num — Specifies the speed of rotation of the surface in these axis. spin spin spin 🌀
  • --waves num — Specifies the number of ripple centres at any one time. Values should be greater than 1. default 3
  • --waveChange num — Specifies the duration of a ripple centre. after this they fade away to be reborn elsewhere with a different frequency 🌱 default 50
  • --waveHeight num — Specifies the height of ripples on the surface. default 1.0
  • --waveFreq num — Specifies the maximum frequency of ripples. default 3.0
  • --zoom num — Specifies the size of the viewport. Smaller values fill the screen with rippling surface. default 1.0
  • --delay microseconds — How long to pause between frames. Default is 20000, or 0.02 second.
  • --fps — Display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. numbers go brrr 📊

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

the environment variables said "we're part of this too" and honestly? correct 💜

  • 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 when you're done, fr fr:

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

Copyright © 2000 by Josiah Pease. 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.

yes the "as is" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. no warranty bestie, she said what she said 💀

🍓 AUTHOR 🍓

Josiah Pease <gflux@jpease.force9.co.uk>, 10-Jun-2000.

and that's the whole page!! ✨ this lil' manual is from X Version 11, version 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026 — so yeah, certified vintage. go forth, spin your rippling square, and slay 🎀💖🫶

📦 where this page comes from