pinion(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44

✨ pinion(6x) — the XScreenSaver girlies' gear extravaganza ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to the XScreenSaver manual, babes, and specifically to pinion 💖 this is the one that draws a whole scrolling parade of interconnected gears across your screen and honestly? it's giving clockwork fairycore. no cap.

🎀 NAME 🎀

pinion — draws a scrolling sequence of interconnected gears 🦋

⭐ SYNOPSIS ⭐

pinion [--display host:display.screen] [--window] [--root] [--window-id
number][--install] [--visual visual] [--delay usecs] [--scroll ratio]
[--spin ratio] [--size ratio] [--max-rpm int] [--wireframe] [--fps]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so basically the pinion program draws an interconnected set of gears, and they just... move across the screen 🌈 like a little mechanical friend group walking past you in slow motion. iconic behaviour tbh.

✨ OPTIONS ✨

pinion accepts the following options, and yes we're listing every single one because we don't gatekeep here 💜

  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, it's the main character 🫶
  • --root — draw on the root window instead. going full wallpaper mode, we love that for you ✨
  • --window-id number — draw on the specified window. yes, that specific one, you picky queen 👑
  • --install — install a private colormap for the window. fancy.
  • --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. either/or, no in-between 🎀
  • --delay usecs — the delay between frames of the animation, in microseconds. default 15000. yes, microseconds, we're precise here ⭐
  • --spin ratio — how fast the gears should spin. default 1.0. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast. go feral 🔥
  • --scroll ratio — how fast the gears should scroll past the screen. default 1.0. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast. zoom zoom 🦋
  • --size ratio — how big the gears should be, on average. default 1.0. 2.0 means twice as large, 0.5 means half as large. chonky gears or tiny gears, your call 💖
  • --max-rpm integer — if any gear exceeds the maximum RPM, the current gear train is broken there, and we start a new train. default: 900 RPM. (at 30 FPS, that's about half a rotation per frame.) so yeah, speed demon gears get cut off, the group chat splits 💀
  • --wireframe — render in wireframe instead of solid. skeleton aesthetic, lowkey gorgeous 🌸
  • --fps — display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. stats girlies rise 🙈

🌈 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 🦋

gears(6x), xscreensaver(1), X(1)

(yeah, gears — the cousin. the original. the blueprint. iykyk 🧚)

Copyright © 2004 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.

translation bestie: it's free, use it, sell it, go off — just keep the copyright notice and this permission notice in the copies and in the docs. and no promises that it'll work for whatever you're doing, it's provided "as is" with no express or implied warranty. periodt. 💅

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 12-Dec-2004.

and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 — this lil' gear page comes to you from X Version 11, version 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026, and it's still signed pinion(6x) at the bottom like the icon it is 🎀✨ no cap, obsessed.

📦 where this page comes from