lockward(6x)

💖 lockward — like, the whole vibe 💖

okay bestie, so this is lockward(6x), and it lives in the XScreenSaver manual, which is basically the group chat where all the coolest screen toys hang out. section 6x, for the record — that's the demos-only section, we're ✨fancy✨. anyway. buckle up 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

lockward — rotating spinning color-cycling things 🌀🌈

no fr that's it. that's the whole name. and honestly? iconic. it does exactly what it says on the tin and it does NOT elaborate. periodt.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

lockward [--display displayspec] [--root] [--window-id number]
[--window] [--visual arg] [--window-id arg] [--delay usec] [--pair]
[--fps] [--blink | --no-blink] [--rotateidle-min msec] [--rotateidle-max
msec] [--blinkidle-min msec] [--blinkidle-max msec] [--blinkdwell-min
msec] [--blinkdwell-max msec]

ngl bestie, you probably don't type most of these yourself. xscreensaver handles that for you and it's giving "let me cook" energy. but if you do wanna run it by hand, here's everything it takes. 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

lockward draws a spinning, rotating set of notched wheels, and then it overlays them with some flashing effects, and it does all of that with OpenGL. so it's, like, smooth and shiny and your GPU gets to participate. ✨

so what IS it, aesthetically? it's a sort of cross between the wards in a combination lock and those old information displays that animated via polarized light. and yes that is the most specific sentence you've ever read and i'm obsessed with it. 🫶 like, imagine a padlock's inner mechanism got drafted into a retro-futuristic airport departure board. that's the vibe. main character energy, lowkey museum-core. 🔥

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

here's the full menu, no skips, no cuts, everything stays. 🍓

• --visual visual — pick which visual to use. the legal values are either the name of a visual class, or the ID number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual. so like, name it or number it, either works. 🎀
• --window — draw on a newly-created window. and this is the default, so if you don't say anything, this is what you get. the path of least resistance. queen behavior. 👑
• --root — draw on the root window. (that's the desktop-background one, iykyk.)
• --window-id number — draw on the specified window. you point at a window, it draws there. very "i know a guy" of you. 🙈
• --delay microseconds — the per-frame delay, measured in microseconds. Default: 20000, which is 50 frames/sec. so like, the speed knob. turn it and things get weird. 😭
• --blink | --no-blink — enables/disables the blinking effects. Default: Enabled. so the blinks are on out of the box, and --no-blink is your "i need calm" button. 🌸
• --fps — displays the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. basically a little dashboard for your eyeballs. extremely "let her cook" stats screen. 📊✨
• --rotateidle-min milliseconds
• --rotateidle-max milliseconds — these two together are the minimum and maximum time each spinner will sit idle, in milliseconds. Defaults: Min 1000, max 6000. so each spinner chills for somewhere between one and six seconds before it does its thing again. dramatic pause, but make it customizable. 🌀
• --blinkidle-min milliseconds
• --blinkidle-max milliseconds — the minimum and maximum time between blinking effects, in milliseconds. Defaults: Min 1000, max 9000. this is the gap between blinks, not the blinks themselves. important distinction bestie 🫶
• --blinkdwell-min milliseconds
• --blinkdwell-max milliseconds — the minimum and maximum dwell time for the blinking effects, in milliseconds. this one affects how quickly the blinks actually happen. Defaults: Min 100, max 600. so this is the blink length. ✨

also, tiny little thing, the synopsis above also lists --pair, and i'm just relaying what's in the source-of-truth, not adding commentary. it's in the list, so it's in the list. 💜

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🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

the vibes your shell passes down, bestie:

• DISPLAY — the default host and display number.
• XENVIRONMENT — the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property. fancy override energy. ✨
• XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root. so that's the one you want when you're going the root route. 🎀

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

go read these too, they're the extended universe:

• X(1)
• xscreensaver(1)

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🧚 AUTHORS 🧚

Leo L. Schwab <ewhac@best.com> — thank you for your service, legend 🫶🌸

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💜 and that's the whole page 💜

alright bestie, that was it. we stayed until the very last line, which is where all the official paperwork lives, so let me fold it in real cute instead of copy-pasting the line like a bot: this whole thing is X Version 11, specifically 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026, and it's the lockward(6x) page. and that's it. slay, go watch some spinning wheels. 🌈💖🦋