slidescreen(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 slidescreen — the manual, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, so this is slidescreen(6x), part of the XScreenSaver manual, and it's genuinely one of the cutest little programs in the whole suite. let's get into it 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

slidescreen — it permutes the screen image like an 8-puzzle. yes, like the little sliding-tile toy. iconic behavior honestly 🧩

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

slidescreen [--display host:display.screen] [--background color]
[--grid-size pixels] [--ibw pixels] [--increment pixels] [--delay usecs]
[--delay2 usecs] [--duration secs] [--window] [--root] [--window-id
number] [--install] [--visual visual] [--fps]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so here's the vibe: slidescreen grabs an image, chops it up into a grid, deletes one random square of that grid (bye 👋), and then randomly slides one of the neighbors of that "hole" into the hole. and then it just… does that again. and again. forever. no cap. 🔥

and where does the image come from? bestie it depends:

  • the portion of the screen underlying the window, or
  • the system's video input, or
  • a random file on disk

which one it picks is controlled by the grabDesktopImages, grabVideoFrames, and chooseRandomImages options in your ~/.xscreensaver file. go read xscreensaver-settings(1) for the deets 💅

✨ OPTIONS ✨

slidescreen accepts the following options, and yes we're going through all of them:

  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, she's the main character 👑
  • --root — draw on the root window instead.
  • --window-id number — draw on the specific window you name.
  • --install — install a private colormap for the window.
  • --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. your choice, slay ✨
  • --grid-size pixels — the size of the grid cells. default is 70 pixels.
  • --ibw pixels — the size of the "gutter" between grid cells. default is 4 pixel.
  • --increment pixels — how many pixels by which a piece should be moved when sliding to a new location. default is 10 pixels.
  • --delay microseconds — how much of a delay should be introduced between steps of the animation of the motion of each segment. default is 50000, which is 0.05 seconds. heads up: this is closely related to the --increment parameter 👀
  • --delay2 microseconds — how much of a delay should be introduced between the end of the motion of one segment and the beginning of the motion of another. default is 1000000, which is one second.
  • --duration seconds — how long to run before loading a new image. default is 120 seconds.
  • --fps — display the current frame rate and CPU load. nerd stats, obsessed 📊

✨ 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(1), xscreensaver-settings(1), xscreensaver-getimage(6x)

go read those too, bestie, they're all connected 🫶

Copyright © 1992 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: it's free, have fun, just keep the notice, and no promises that it works perfectly 💀)

✨ AUTHOR ✨

Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 3-dec-92. the legend herself, we stan 🌈

and that's the whole page!! this came from X Version 11, version 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026. mwah, go slide some tiles 💅🎀

📦 where this page comes from