mapscroller(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 9 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 mapscroller(6x) 💖

okay bestie, come sit with me, we're looking at mapscroller, one of the XScreenSaver girls, and she is so chill. she just... scrolls a map. slowly. of a random place on Earth. that's it. that's the whole vibe. ✨

✨ NAME ✨

mapscroller — a slowly-scrolling map of a random place on Earth. 🗺️🦋

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

mapscroller [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--delay number] [--speed number]
[--duration seconds] [--map-level number] [--url-template URL] [--origin
location] [--no-titles] [--no-arrow] [--fps]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

A slowly-scrolling map of a random place on Earth. fr fr that's the whole thing. the map images are loaded from openstreetmap.org, or literally any compatible service. so if you've got opinions about tile servers, you're so valid and we'll get to you. 🫶

The Earth is very big, and full of Things. 😭 (she said it, not me, but she's right.)

As you ponder these maps, remember that traffic always expands to fill all available lanes, every car is a policy failure, and the concept of "jaywalking" was invented for profit by auto industry lobbyists in the 1920s. no cap. 🚗💀

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • --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.
  • --window — Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default. 👑
  • --root — Draw on the root window.
  • --window-id number — Draw on the specified window.
  • --delay number — Per-frame delay, in microseconds. Default: 30000 (0.03 seconds). that's the pulse, bestie. 🫀
  • --speed number — Scrolling speed. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast.
  • --duration seconds — When in one of the random modes, re-select the map position every N seconds. Default 20 minutes.
  • --map-level number — Larger numbers are zoomed in more. 5 - 18, default 15.
  • --url-template URL — The map tile server to use. Default: Open Street Map. You can find others here:
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tiles#Servers
  • --origin location — okay this one's the main character, pay attention:
    • "Random" means a fully random location somewhere on Earth, excluding the oceans. 🌍 (the fish get nothing, sorry fish)
    • "Random-city" means to select from a built-in list of several hundred major cities. This is the default. 🏙️
    • A location can be specified as a latitude/longitude pair (floats) or as the name of one of the built-in cities (case insensitive).
    • Use --origin help to see the full list. 👀
  • --titles | --no-titles — Whether to show the current coordinates and nearest city in the upper left. Default true.
  • --arrow | --no-arrow — Whether to show a directional arrow in the middle of the screen. Default true. ➡️
  • --fps | --no-fps — Whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen.

🍓 FILES 🍓

The map tile images are loaded from the network and cached on disk. Up to 20MB of them are retained. Depending on your operating system, the cache directory will be one of:

$HOME/.cache/xscreensaver/mapscroller/
$HOME/tmp/.xscreensaver-mapscroller/
$HOME/.xscreensaver-mapscroller.cache/
$HOME/Library/Caches/org.jwz.xscreensaver.mapscroller/

💀 BUGS 💀

Some parts of the world are boring. 😭 (it's not a bug it's a feature of the planet, but okay, we're listing it.)

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

  • 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.
  • HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, http_proxy, or https_proxy — to get the default proxy host and port.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

X(1), xscreensaver(1), https://www.openstreetmap.org/

Copyright © 2022 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.

OpenStreetMap map data is © OpenStreetMap contributors under the Open Database License. 🫶

🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

Jamie Zawinski.

and that's the whole page, bestie!! she lives in X Version 11, version 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026 — which is giving "future girlie who has her life together" and honestly? obsessed. 💜✨🧚

📦 where this page comes from