Depending on the level of compatability you want, "pxv" may be enough for you. https://github.com/linsomniac/pxv
pxv is a xv-inspired image viewer that I built to take advantage of my xv "muscle memory" but without having to mess with the issues compiling the real xv. I'm a huge xv fan (back in the day I sent John >$30K in licensing fees), but these days I'm not doing enough image work that I use it often enough between compiles. pxv is meant to be something that's easier to deal with. Lots of options for running it: uvx --from git+https://github.com/linsomniac/pxv pxv photo.jpg pip install pxv uv pip install pxv RIP John Bradley On Fri, Jun 5, 2026 at 5:55 AM Steve McIntyre <[email protected]> wrote: > [email protected] wrote: > > > >On Fri, Jun 05, 2026 at 02:09:12 -0400, Lee wrote: > >> and yet another FWIW: > >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xv_(software) > >> While popular in the early 1990s ("XV is widely considered to be the > >> preeminent image viewer for the X Window System"[2] > >> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xv_(software)#cite_note-2>), ... > >> > >> I haven't found anything like that for Linux (& preferably Debian) > > > >xv was packaged in Debian, back in the late 1990s. You can still find > >the old packages on <https://snapshot.debian.org/binary/xv/> for > >example. > > > >You can still build xv from the old Debian source packages (e.g. > ><https://snapshot.debian.org/package/xv/3.10a-20slink1/>), though > >it's becoming more and more difficult over time. The main issue is > >the PNG library, which has changed its API. If you're willing to > >install the older libpng12-0 packages, then it can be built on a > >modern(-ish) Debian system. Those packages (xv and libpng12-0) are no > >longer maintained, so there could be bugs in them, possibly even > >security bugs. Proceed at your own risk. > > Even better, there is a new forked version of xv that's being > maintained again \o/. > > https://github.com/jasper-software/xv.git > > -- > Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. > [email protected] > Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky, > Tongue-tied & twisted, Just an earth-bound misfit, I... > >
