1xscreensaver-command(1) XScreenSaver manual xscreensaver-command(1)
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6 xscreensaver-command - control a running xscreensaver process
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9 xscreensaver-command [-display host:display.screen] [-help | -demo |
10 -prefs | -activate | -deactivate | -cycle | -next | -prev | -select n |
11 -exit | -restart | -lock | -suspend | -version | -time | -watch |
12 -quiet | -verbose]
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15 The xscreensaver-command program controls a running xscreensaver
16 process by sending it client-messages.
17 xscreensaver(1) has a client-server model: the xscreensaver process is
19 a daemon that runs in the background; it is controlled by other fore‐
20 ground programs such as xscreensaver-command and xscreensaver-demo(1).
21 This program, xscreensaver-command, is a command-line-oriented tool;
23 the xscreensaver-demo(1). program is a graphical tool.
24
26 xscreensaver-command accepts the following command-line options:
27 -help Prints a brief summary of command-line options.
29 -quiet Only print output if an error occurs.
31 -verbose
33 Opposite of -quiet. Default.
34 -demo This just launches the xscreensaver-demo(1) program, in which
36 one can experiment with the various graphics hacks available,
37 and edit parameters.
38 -demo number
40 When the -demo option is followed by an integer, it instructs
41 the xscreensaver daemon to run that hack, and wait for the user
42 to click the mouse before deactivating (i.e., mouse motion does
43 not deactivate.) This is the mechanism by which xscreen‐
44 saver-demo(1) communicates with the xscreensaver(1) daemon.
45 (The first hack in the list is numbered 1, not 0.)
46 -prefs Like the no-argument form of -demo, but brings up that pro‐
48 gram's Preferences panel by default.
49 -activate
51 Tell xscreensaver to turn on immediately (that is, blank the
52 screen, as if the user had been idle for long enough.) The
53 screensaver will deactivate as soon as there is any user activ‐
54 ity, as usual.
55 It is useful to run this from a menu; you may wish to run it as
57 sleep 5 ; xscreensaver-command -activate
58 to be sure that you have time to take your hand off the mouse
59 before the screensaver comes on. (Because if you jiggle the
60 mouse, xscreensaver will notice, and deactivate.)
61 -deactivate
63 This tells xscreensaver to pretend that there has just been
64 user activity. This means that if the screensaver is active
65 (the screen is blanked), then this command will cause the
66 screen to un-blank as if there had been keyboard or mouse
67 activity. If the screen is locked, then the password dialog
68 will pop up first, as usual. If the screen is not blanked,
69 then this simulated user activity will re-start the countdown
70 (so, issuing the -deactivate command periodically is one way to
71 prevent the screen from blanking.)
72 -cycle If the screensaver is active (the screen is blanked), then stop
74 the current graphics demo and run a new one (chosen randomly.)
75 -next This is like either -activate or -cycle, depending on which is
77 more appropriate, except that the graphics hack that will be
78 run is the next one in the list, instead of a randomly-chosen
79 one. In other words, repeatedly executing -next will cause the
80 xscreensaver process to invoke each graphics demo sequentially.
81 (Though using the -demo option is probably an easier way to
82 accomplish that.)
83 -prev This is like -next, but cycles in the other direction.
85 -select number
87 Like -activate, but runs the Nth element in the list of hacks.
88 By knowing what is in the programs list, and in what order, you
89 can use this to activate the screensaver with a particular
90 graphics demo. (The first element in the list is numbered 1,
91 not 0.)
92 -exit Causes the xscreensaver process to exit gracefully. This does
94 nothing if the display is currently locked.
95 Warning: never use kill -9 with xscreensaver while the screen‐
97 saver is active. If you are using a virtual root window man‐
98 ager, that can leave things in an inconsistent state, and you
99 may need to restart your window manager to repair the damage.
100 -lock Tells the running xscreensaver process to lock the screen imme‐
102 diately. This is like -activate, but forces locking as well,
103 even if locking is not the default (that is, even if xscreen‐
104 saver's lock resource is false, and even if the lockTimeout
105 resource is non-zero.)
106 Note that locking doesn't work unless the xscreensaver process
108 is running as you. See xscreensaver(1) for details.
109 -suspend
111 Like -activate, but ignores lockTimeout and immediately powers
112 off the screen without fading out. This is intended to be run
113 just after your laptop's lid is closed, and just before the CPU
114 halts, to lock things down quickly.
115 -version
117 Prints the version of xscreensaver that is currently running on
118 the display: that is, the actual version number of the running
119 xscreensaver background process, rather than the version number
120 of xscreensaver-command. (To see the version number of
121 xscreensaver-command itself, use the -help option.)
122 -time Prints the time at which the screensaver last activated or
124 deactivated (roughly, how long the user has been idle or non-
125 idle: but not quite, since it only tells you when the screen
126 became blanked or un-blanked.)
127 -restart
129 Causes the screensaver process to exit and then restart with
130 the same command line arguments as last time. You shouldn't
131 really need to do this, since xscreensaver notices when the
132 .xscreensaver file has changed and re-reads it as needed.
133 -watch Prints a line each time the screensaver changes state: when the
135 screen blanks, locks, unblanks, or when the running hack is
136 changed. This option never returns; it is intended for use by
137 shell scripts that want to react to the screensaver in some
138 way. An example of its output would be:
139 BLANK Fri Nov 5 01:57:22 1999
140 RUN 34
141 RUN 79
142 RUN 16
143 LOCK Fri Nov 5 01:57:22 1999
144 RUN 76
145 RUN 12
146 UNBLANK Fri Nov 5 02:05:59 1999
147 The above shows the screensaver activating, running three dif‐
148 ferent hacks, then locking (perhaps because the lock-timeout
149 went off) then unblanking (because the user became active, and
150 typed the correct password.) The hack numbers are their index
151 in the `programs' list (starting with 1, not 0, as for the
152 -select command.)
153 For example, suppose you want to run a program that turns down
155 the volume on your machine when the screen blanks, and turns it
156 back up when the screen un-blanks. You could do that by run‐
157 ning a Perl program like the following in the background. The
158 following program tracks the output of the -watch command and
159 reacts accordingly:
160 #!/usr/bin/perl
161 my $blanked = 0;
163 open (IN, "xscreensaver-command -watch |");
164 while (<IN>) {
165 if (m/^(BLANK|LOCK)/) {
166 if (!$blanked) {
167 system "sound-off";
168 $blanked = 1;
169 }
170 } elsif (m/^UNBLANK/) {
171 system "sound-on";
172 $blanked = 0;
173 }
174 }
175 Note that LOCK might come either with or without a preceding
176 BLANK (depending on whether the lock-timeout is non-zero), so
177 the above program keeps track of both of them.
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180 If xscreensaver is running, but you want it to stop running screen
181 hacks (e.g., if you are logged in remotely, and you want the console to
182 remain locked but just be black, with no graphics processes running)
183 you can accomplish that by simply powering down the monitor remotely.
184 In a minute or so, xscreensaver will notice that the monitor is off,
185 and will stop running screen hacks. You can power off the monitor like
186 so:
187 xset dpms force off
188 See the xset(1) manual for more info.
189 You can also use xscreensaver-demo(1) to make the monitor power down
191 after a few hours, meaning that xscreensaver will run graphics until it
192 has been idle for the length of time you specified; and after that, the
193 monitor will power off, and screen hacks will stop being run.
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196 If an error occurs while communicating with the xscreensaver daemon, or
197 if the daemon reports an error, a diagnostic message will be printed to
198 stderr, and xscreensaver-command will exit with a non-zero value. If
199 the command is accepted, an indication of this will be printed to std‐
200 out, and the exit value will be zero.
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203 DISPLAY to get the host and display number of the screen whose saver is
204 to be manipulated.
205 PATH to find the executable to restart (for the -restart command).
207 Note that this variable is consulted in the environment of the
208 xscreensaver process, not the xscreensaver-command process.
209
211 The latest version of xscreensaver(1) and related tools can always be
212 found at https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/
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215 X(1), xscreensaver(1), xscreensaver-demo(1), xset(1)
216
218 Copyright © 1992-2020 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use, copy, mod‐
219 ify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any
220 purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copy‐
221 right notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice
222 and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. No rep‐
223 resentations are made about the suitability of this software for any
224 purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
225
227 Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 13-aug-1992.
228 Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improvements.
230X Version 11 5.45-1.fc33 (10-Dec-2020) xscreensaver-command(1)