photopile(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44

🎀 photopile — the manual, but make it cute

okay bestie, so this is photopile(6x), from the XScreenSaver manual. it displays multiple images in a periodically shuffled pile and honestly? it's giving "my camera roll but it fell on the floor and it's art now." 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

photopile [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--count int] [--scale factor] [--maxTilt
degrees] [--titles | --no-titles] [--polaroid | --no-polaroid]
[--shadows | --no-shadows] [--font font] [--speed ratio] [--duration
seconds] [--fps] [--debug] [--wireframe]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

So basically it loads a bunch of random images and tosses them down like they're lying in a random pile. aesthetically chaotic, no notes. And then — plot twist — the pile gets periodically reshuffled, with new images sliding in and the old ones getting thrown out. it's a whole rotation. main character energy for the pictures that stay. 🦋

ngl though, heads up: this program requires a good video card capable of supporting large textures. so if your GPU is giving potato, don't come for me. 😭

Also, if you wanna pick which directory the images get loaded from, go run xscreensaver-settings(1) and click on the "Advanced" tab. that's the whole vibe. ✨

🌸 OPTIONS 🌸

  • --visual visual — picks which visual to use. legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number of a specific visual (decimal or hex, both work, we don't discriminate 💜).
  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you do nothing at all, this is what you get, periodt.
  • --root — draw on the root window instead. going full desktop takeover, iconic.
  • --window-id number — draw on the specified window. you're picking the exact window. precise. slay.
  • --count int — how many images to display. default 7. a lucky number, honestly.
  • --scale factor — size of images in relation to the size of the window. default 0.4.
  • --maxTilt degrees — maximum deviation from vertical. default 50 degrees. yes they will be tilted. they're leaning, it's a look. 🙈
  • --duration seconds — every duration seconds, one of the images will be replaced with a new one. default 5 seconds. so every 5 seconds somebody gets voted off the pile. 💀
  • --speed ratio — speed up or slow down the animation. 0.5 means half as fast as the default; 2.0 means twice as fast. simple math bestie. 🧚
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, in microseconds. default: 10000 (that's 0.01 seconds, for the record).
  • --titles | --no-titles — whether to display the file names of the images beneath them. default: yes. so you can see what everything is called. very helpful, very demure.
  • --polaroid | --no-polaroid — whether to simulate images taken by an instant camera. default: yes. vintage filter but it's real geometry, we love her. 🎀
  • --shadows | --no-shadows — whether to draw images with drop shadows. default: no. dramatic lighting is opt-in around here.
  • --font font-name — the font to use for the initial loading screen and for image titles. so the loading screen and the titles match, cute.
  • --fps — display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. nerd stats on screen, lowkey obsessed. 📊
  • --debug — prints debugging info to stderr. 🐛
  • --wireframe — another debug mode. just… another one. 😌

🌈 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.

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

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

(yes the middle two are squished together like that. I'm not touching it. it's canon. 🫶)

Copyright © 2005 by Jamie Zawinski. Copyright © 2008 by Jens Kilian.

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.

real talk: that's the license, and it's the whole license. don't skip it, don't paraphrase it, it's doing important legal work. 💜

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Jens Kilian.

and that's the whole page, bestie!! ✨ this one shipped as X Version 11, 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026, and the man page is filed under photopile(6x). go build a pile, it'll eat. 💖🦋🎀

📦 where this page comes from