hypnowheel(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44

💫 hypnowheel(6x) — the XScreenSaver manual, but make it cute 💫

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and get ready, because this is hypnowheel from the XScreenSaver manual and it is literally the most hypnotic little thing 💅

✨ NAME ✨

hypnowheel — draws overlapping, translucent spiral patterns

like. that's it. that's the whole job. and it ATE. 🌀

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

hypnowheel [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--delay int] [--layers int] [--count int]
[--twistiness float] [--speed float] [--wander] [--symmetric] [--fps]

no cap, that's the whole invocation. every flag gets its own glow-up down below 👇

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So what does it do, you ask? It draws a whole series of overlapping, translucent spiral patterns 💖 And the tightness of their spirals goes fluctuates in and out. In and out. In and out. The way that it just... breathes. 🫠

That's it. That's the vibe. You stare, you get mesmerized, you forget what time it is, iconic behaviour honestly. 😭

👑 OPTIONS 👑

one bullet per flag, bestie, nothing skipped, we don't do that here ✨

  • --visual visual — pick which visual to use. Legal values are either the name of a visual class, or the id number of a specific visual (and yes, that number can be decimal or hex, we're flexible like that 💅).
  • --window — draw on a brand-new window that gets created just for this. This is the default, so if you say nothing, this is what you get. ✨
  • --root — draw straight onto the root window instead. living dangerously, love that for you 🫶
  • --window-id number — draw on the window you specify. your window, your rules 👑
  • --delay int — the delay between frames, measured in microseconds. Default is 20000. tiny little pause, tiny little nap 😴
  • --layers int — how many different spirals get drawn at once. Default is 4. stack 'em up 🥞
  • --count int — how many arms each spiral should have. Default is 11. eleven arms. giving full eldritch angel energy fr fr 🧚
  • --twistiness float — how tightly wound the spirals can become, and this is measured in rotations. Default is 4.0, which means four times around. spiral so tight it's giving cinnamon roll 🍓
  • --speed ratio — less than 1 for slower, greater than 1 for faster. Default is 1. crank it or chill it, your call 🏎️
  • --wander — if you specify this, then the centers of the spirals will wander around, instead of all of them sharing the same origin. free-range spirals 🌈
  • --symmetric — if you specify this, then each pair of left-wrapping and right-wrapping spirals will be mirror images of each other. perfect symmetry, perfectly balanced, as all things should be ⚖️
  • --fps — display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. numbers!! on your screen!! for the nerds (me, I'm the nerd) 📊

🌸 ENVIRONMENT 🌸

the environment variables, aka the behind-the-scenes besties that make things work 🫶

  • DISPLAY — used to get the default host and display number.
  • XENVIRONMENT — used 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, they're the extended universe:

Copyright © 2008 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.

okay so legally speaking that's the whole thing — use it, sell it, remix it, just keep the copyright notice and this permission notice in there, and understand that there's no warranty of any kind, express or implied. it's "as is". periodt. 💀

😌 AUTHOR 😌

Jamie Zawinski. the icon, the legend, the moment 👑

and that's the whole page bestie!! this was X Version 11, 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026, and it's still hypnowheel(6x) at the end of the day 🦋 go stare at some spirals, you've earned it 💖✨

📦 where this page comes from