xplanet mit Homebrew, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper installieren

Projektlinks

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream-Dokumentation
• Paketmanager-Seite

Befehle und Aliase

• xplanet

Projektgeschichte

The official Xplanet homepage says the project was inspired by Xearth, the classic program that rendered the Earth into the X root window. Xplanet kept that wallpaper lineage but broadened it: the homepage describes support for major planets, many satellites, and map projections including azimuthal, Lambert, Mercator, Mollweide, orthographic, and rectangular.

The NEWS file records a major internal break at Xplanet 1.0: Hari Nair rewrote the earlier 0.95-era program, regretting in retrospect that it was not called Xplanet2. That rewrite changed the default behavior to run continuously, removed the need for the old xplanetbg helper, and moved body-specific options such as maps and marker files into configuration sections.

Xplanet's later evolution stayed practical rather than flashy. The README documents astronomy-oriented details such as JPL ephemeris files, SPICE kernels, NAIF and NORAD identifiers, TLE files, spacecraft flyby origins, cloud-map generation, star maps, marker files, and output to GIF, JPEG, PNG, PNM, and TIFF when built with the relevant libraries.

Adoptionsgeschichte

The upstream homepage reports successful runs on GNU/Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, Windows under Cygwin, Darwin/X11, and Mac OS X Aqua. That mix explains its packaging history: Xplanet was useful both as an X11 root-window toy and as a scriptable image generator for non-X11 desktop backgrounds and web images.

SourceForge file history shows the 0.95a line in 2003, 1.0-era releases in 2004 and 2005, and later 1.3.x releases in 2015 and 2016. The official links page also lists projects and front ends using Xplanet output, including Xplanet Configurator, web views of Earth with updated clouds, OS X guides, and mobile/live-wallpaper style uses.

Wie es verwendet wird

Typical use is either continuous desktop rendering or batch image generation. Users choose a target body, projection, geometry, map data, marker files, and update interval; Xplanet then paints a window, root window, desktop image, or output file.

The package matters to shell users because it can be driven from cron jobs, window-manager startup scripts, website generators, or wallpaper refresh scripts. Its data-file search paths and configuration layout also make it a small ecosystem package: maps, clouds, markers, fonts, satellites, stars, ephemerides, and scripts are all part of practical use.

Warum Paket-Nerds sich dafür interessieren

Xplanet is package-nerd catnip because it connects several old Unix traditions at once: X11 root-window backgrounds, scientific visualization, public astronomy datasets, and command-line image generation. It is not just a wallpaper app; it is a renderer people can wire into desktops, scripts, and generated pages.

It also preserves the late-SourceForge desktop era, where a single C++ utility could have ports, GUI wrappers, map collections, cloud-map mirrors, platform-specific desktop glue, and a loyal niche long after mainstream desktops moved to other wallpaper mechanisms.

Zeitleiste

• 2003-03-07: SourceForge lists the 0.95a release line.
• 2004-06-20: SourceForge lists Xplanet 1.1.0, after the rewritten 1.x architecture had landed.
• 2005-06-17: SourceForge lists Xplanet 1.2.0.
• 2015-11-14: SourceForge lists Xplanet 1.3.0.
• 2016-03-13: SourceForge lists Xplanet 1.3.1.

Related projects

• Xearth: the X11 root-window Earth renderer that inspired Xplanet.
• Xplanet Configurator: a Java front end for building Xplanet configurations and downloading supporting data.
• Celestia, OpenUniverse, and JPL Solar System Simulator: neighboring solar-system visualization projects referenced from Xplanet pages or SourceForge recommendations.

Quellen

• https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Xplanet
• https://sourceforge.net/projects/xplanet/files/xplanet/
• https://xplanet.sourceforge.net/
• https://xplanet.sourceforge.net/NEWS
• https://xplanet.sourceforge.net/README
• https://xplanet.sourceforge.net/documentation.php
• https://xplanet.sourceforge.net/links.php