peepers(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44

👀 peepers — the XScreenSaver manual for peepers(6x) 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because today we are talking about peepers, one of the lil screensaver hacks that ships with XScreenSaver. floating eyeballs. that's it. that's the whole thing. and honestly? iconic. ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

peepers — floating eyeballs. yes really. eyeballs that float. no cap. 🫶

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

peepers [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--delay number] [--speed number] [--count
number] [--mode bounce | scroll | random] [--wireframe] [--fps]

that's the whole vibe check right there, bestie. 🦋

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

Eyeballs. They float. They bounce. They stare at your cursor. 😭👁️

that is literally the entire concept and honestly it ate. no further notes your honor.

✨ OPTIONS ✨

every single flag, laid out like a lil group chat:

  • --visual visual — pick which visual to use. legal values are either the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of one specific visual. so like, however you wanna specify it, you can. 💜
  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you don't say anything, this is what you get. 🎀
  • --root — draw on the root window instead. main character energy, whole screen devoted to eyeballs.
  • --window-id number — draw on the exact window you specify. you pick, bestie.
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, measured in microseconds. default is 30000 (that's 0.03 seconds). ⏱️
  • --speed number — animation speed. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast. simple math, slay.
  • --count number — number of eyes. 0 means random. let chaos decide. 🌈
  • --mode bounce — the eyeballs bounce onto the screen from the bottom. Like a cow. 🐄 (yes, that's the actual note. we don't question it.)
  • --mode scroll — the eyeballs scroll in from the left and right. 🦋
  • --mode xeyes — the eyeballs stay stationary, but they always turn to stare at the mouse pointer, wherever it happens to be on the screen. lowkey unhinged, highkey iconic. maybe best used with --count 2. 👀
  • --mode beholder — render a ball made of eyeballs, all looking at you. valid --count values for this one are 20, 80, 320 or 1280. it's giving cosmic horror but make it cute. 🔥
  • --wireframe | --no-wireframe — render in wireframe instead of solid. ✏️
  • --fps | --no-fps — whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen. nerdy and we love it. 💀
lowkey important note bestie: the synopsis lists --mode bounce | scroll | random, but the option list breaks it down as bounce, scroll, xeyes, and beholder. we're just reporting what the page says, fr fr. 🙈

🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

the lil environment variables doing their thing in the background:

  • 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 next, bestie, they're the same universe:

Copyright © 2018 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.

💖 AUTHOR 💖

Jamie Zawinski.

okay and for the cute sign-off: this lil masterpiece is part of X Version 11, version 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026. 💜 go stare at some floating eyeballs, you deserve it. periodt. ✨👁️💅

📦 where this page comes from