unicrud(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 unicrud(6x) — the XScreenSaver manual, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, so this is <rainbow>unicrud</rainbow>, part of the XScreenSaver manuals (6x, the screenhacker chapter, iykyk). Sit down, grab a strawberry drink, and let's learn about the little program that just... throws a random Unicode character at your whole screen. Iconic behaviour honestly.

✨ NAME ✨

unicrud — bounces a random Unicode character on the screen. That's it. That's the whole job. She's simple, she's slaying, she's employed.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

unicrud [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--delay number] [--speed number] [--block
string] [--no-titles] [--no-wander] [--no-roll] [--fps]

Look at all those brackets, that's a lot of optional energy 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So basically: unicrud picks a random Unicode character and displays it full screen. And because it's a considerate queen, it also chucks up some information about it, so you're not just staring at a mystery glyph like 👁️👄👁️ — no, you get lore. Character reveal + character backstory. Ate.

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • --visual visual — pick which visual to use, bestie. Legal values are either the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of one specific visual. Choose wisely 💜
  • --window — draw on a freshly-created window. This one is the default, so if you do nothing, this is what you get.
  • --root — draw on the root window instead. Going full desktop-wallpaper mode.
  • --window-id number — draw on the specific window you point at. Not "a" window. That window. 👑
  • --delay number — the per-frame delay, measured in microseconds. Default: 20000 (which is 0.02 seconds, if math isn't your moment). Yes microseconds. She's precise.
  • --speed number — animation speed. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast. Slider, but make it CLI.
  • --titles | --no-titles — whether to describe the character being shown. Default true. So like, the little info card situation. Turn it off if you want pure mystery.
  • --wander | --no-wander — whether the object should wander around the screen. Baby needs enrichment, let her roam 🧚
  • --roll | --no-roll — whether the object should rotate. It's a boolean, so it's either rolling or it's not, no in-between.
  • --block string — which block or blocks of Unicode characters to display. Default: "all". And listen: use --block help to see the full list, because that list is long and she is not about to type it out for you.
  • --fps | --no-fps — whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen. For the performance girlies who need to know the numbers 📈

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

  • DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number. The classic.
  • XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property. Yes, it's a whole chain of who-overrides-whom, and yes it matters.
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root. Bffr, they go together.

🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

Copyright © 2016 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.

not to be dramatic but NO WARRANTY, FR FR — it's handed to you as-is, so don't come for her if something's weird 🙈

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Jamie Zawinski.

okay that's the whole page!! 💖 This was unicrud(6x) from X Version 11, version 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026 — love that for her, a true icon of an era. Go bounce a glyph, bestie, you've earned it ✨🦋🌸

📦 where this page comes from