1acpid(8)                    System Manager's Manual                   acpid(8)
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NAME

6       acpid - Advanced Configuration and Power Interface event daemon
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SYNOPSIS

9       acpid [options]
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DESCRIPTION

13       acpid  is designed to notify user-space programs of ACPI events.  acpid
14       should be started during the system boot, and will run as a  background
15       process,  by default.  It will open an events file (/proc/acpi/event by
16       default) and attempt to read whole lines which represent  ACPI  events.
17       If the events file does not exist, acpid will attempt to connect to the
18       Linux kernel via the input layer and netlink.  When an  ACPI  event  is
19       received from one of these sources, acpid will examine a list of rules,
20       and execute the rules that match  the  event.  acpid  will  ignore  all
21       incoming  ACPI  events  if  a  lock  file  exists  (/var/lock/acpid  by
22       default).
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24       Rules are defined by simple configuration files.  acpid will look in  a
25       configuration  directory  (/etc/acpi/events  by default), and parse all
26       regular files with names that consist entirely of upper and lower  case
27       letters,  digits,  underscores,  and  hyphens (similar to run-parts(8))
28       that do not begin with a period ('.') or end with a  tilde  (~).   Each
29       file  must define two things: an event and an action.  Any blank lines,
30       or lines where the first character is a hash ('#') are ignored.  Extra‐
31       neous  lines are flagged as warnings, but are not fatal.  Each line has
32       three tokens: the key, a literal equal sign, and the  value.   The  key
33       can  be  up  to  63 characters, and is case-insensitive (but whitespace
34       matters).  The value can be up to  511  characters,  and  is  case  and
35       whitespace sensitive.
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37       The event value is a regular expression (see regcomp(3)), against which
38       events are matched.
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40       The action value is a commandline, which will be  invoked  via  /bin/sh
41       whenever  an  event matching the rule in question occurs.  The command‐
42       line may include shell-special characters, and they will be  preserved.
43       The  only  special  characters in an action value are "%" escaped.  The
44       string "%e" will be replaced by the literal text of the event for which
45       the action was invoked.  This string may contain spaces, so the comman‐
46       dline must take care to quote the "%e" if it wants a single token.  The
47       string  "%%"  will be replaced by a literal "%".  All other "%" escapes
48       are reserved, and will cause a rule to not load.
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50       This feature allows multiple rules to be defined  for  the  same  event
51       (though  no  ordering is guaranteed), as well as one rule to be defined
52       for multiple events.  To force acpid to reload the rule  configuration,
53       send it a SIGHUP.
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55       The  pseudo-action <drop> causes the event to be dropped completely and
56       no further processing  undertaken;  clients  connecting  via  the  UNIX
57       domain  socket  (see below) will not be notified of the event. This may
58       be useful on some machines, such as certain laptops which generate spu‐
59       rious  battery  events  at frequent intervals. The name of this pseudo-
60       action may be redefined with a commandline option.
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62       In addition to rule files, acpid also accepts  connections  on  a  UNIX
63       domain  socket (/var/run/acpid.socket by default).  Any application may
64       connect to this socket.  Once connected, acpid will send  the  text  of
65       all  ACPI  events  to the client.  The client has the responsibility of
66       filtering for messages about which it cares.  acpid will not close  the
67       client socket except in the case of a SIGHUP or acpid exiting.
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69       For faster startup, this socket can be passed in as stdin so that acpid
70       need not create the socket.  In addition, if a socket is passed  in  as
71       stdin,  acpid  will not daemonize.  It will be run in foreground.  This
72       behavior is provided to support systemd(1).
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74       acpid will log all of its activities, as well as the stdout and  stderr
75       of any actions, to syslog.
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77       All  the  default files and directories can be changed with commandline
78       options.
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OPTIONS

81       -c, --confdir directory
82                   This option changes the directory in which acpid looks  for
83                   rule configuration files.  Default is /etc/acpi/events.
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85       -C, --clientmax number
86                   This  option  changes the maximum number of non-root socket
87                   connections which can be made to the acpid socket.  Default
88                   is 256.
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90       -d, --debug This option increases the acpid debug level by one.
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92       -e, --eventfile filename
93                   This  option  changes the event file from which acpid reads
94                   events.  Default is /proc/acpi/event.
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96       -n, --netlink
97                   This option forces acpid to  use  the  Linux  kernel  input
98                   layer and netlink interface for ACPI events.
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100       -f, --foreground
101                   This option keeps acpid in the foreground by not forking at
102                   startup, and makes it log to stderr instead of syslog.
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104       -l, --logevents
105                   This option tells acpid to log information about all events
106                   and actions.
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108       -L, --lockfile filename
109                   This  option  changes the lock file used to stop event pro‐
110                   cessing.  Default is /var/lock/acpid.
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112       -g, --socketgroup groupname
113                   This option changes the group ownership of the UNIX  domain
114                   socket to which acpid publishes events.
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116       -m, --socketmode mode
117                   This  option  changes  the  permissions  of the UNIX domain
118                   socket to which acpid publishes events.  Default is 0666.
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120       -s, --socketfile filename
121                   This option changes the name  of  the  UNIX  domain  socket
122                   which acpid opens.  Default is /var/run/acpid.socket.
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124       -S, --nosocket
125                   This  option  tells acpid not to open a UNIX domain socket.
126                   This overrides the -s option, and negates all other  socket
127                   options.
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129       -p, --pidfile filename
130                   This  option  tells  acpid to use the specified file as its
131                   pidfile.  If the file exists, it will be removed and  over-
132                   written.  Default is /var/run/acpid.pid.
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134       -r, --dropaction action
135                   This  option defines the pseudo-action which tells acpid to
136                   abort all processing of an event, including client  notifi‐
137                   cations.  Default is <drop>.
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139       -t, --tpmutefix
140                   This option enables special handling of the mute button for
141                   certain ThinkPad models with mute LEDs that get out of sync
142                   with  the  mute  state  when  the mute button is held down.
143                   With this option, the mute button will generate the follow‐
144                   ing  events  in  sync  with  the number of presses (and, by
145                   extension, the state of the LED):
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147                   button/mute MUTE (key pressed) K
148                   button/mute MUTE (key released) K
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150       -v, --version
151                   Print version information and exit.
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153       -h, --help  Show help and exit.
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EXAMPLE

156       This example will shut down your system if you press the power button.
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158       Create a file named /etc/acpi/events/power that contains the following:
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160              event=button/power
161              action=/etc/acpi/power.sh "%e"
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163       Then create a file named /etc/acpi/power.sh that contains  the  follow‐
164       ing:
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166              /sbin/shutdown -h now "Power button pressed"
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168       Now,  when acpid is running, a press of the power button will cause the
169       rule   in   /etc/acpi/events/power   to   trigger   the    script    in
170       /etc/acpi/power.sh.  The script will then shut down the system.
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TROUBLESHOOTING

173       acpid  is a simple program that runs scripts in response to ACPI events
174       from the kernel.  When there's trouble,  the  problem  is  rarely  with
175       acpid  itself.  The following are some suggestions for finding the most
176       common sources of ACPI-related problems.
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178       When troubleshooting acpid, it is important  to  be  aware  that  other
179       parts of a system might be handling ACPI events.  systemd(1) is capable
180       of handling the power switch and various other events that are commonly
181       handled   by   acpid.    See   the  description  of  HandlePowerKey  in
182       logind.conf(5) for more.  Some window managers also take  over  acpid's
183       normal handling of the power button and other events.
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185       kacpimon(8)  can  be  used  to verify that the expected ACPI events are
186       coming in.  See the man page for kacpimon(8) for the proper  procedure.
187       If  the  events  aren't  coming in, you've probably got a kernel driver
188       issue.
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190       If the expected events are coming in, then you'll need to check and see
191       if  your window manager is responsible for handling these events.  Some
192       are, some aren't.  (E.g. in Ubuntu 14.04 (Unity/GNOME), there are  set‐
193       tings for the laptop lid in the System Settings > Power > "When the lid
194       is closed" fields.)  If your window manager is responsible for handling
195       the  problematic event, and you've got it configured properly, then you
196       may have a window manager issue.
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198       Lastly, take a look in /etc/acpi/events (see above).  Is there  a  con‐
199       figuration   file   in   there   for   the   event  in  question  (e.g.
200       /etc/acpi/events/lidbtn for laptop lid open/close events)?  Is it prop‐
201       erly  connected  to  a  script (e.g. /etc/acpi/lid.sh)?  Is that script
202       working?  It's not unusual for an acpid script  to  check  and  see  if
203       there  is  a window manager running, then do nothing if there is.  This
204       means it is up to the window manager to handle this event.
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DEPENDENCIES

207       acpid should work on any linux kernel released since 2003.
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FILES

210       /proc/acpi/event
211       /dev/input/event*
212       /etc/acpi/
213       /var/run/acpid.socket
214       /var/run/acpid.pid
215       /var/lock/acpid
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BUGS

218       There are no known bugs.  To file  bug  reports,  see  PROJECT  WEBSITE
219       below.
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SEE ALSO

222       regcomp(3) sh(1) socket(2) connect(2) init(1) systemd(1) acpi_listen(8)
223       kacpimon(8)
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PROJECT WEBSITE

226       http://sourceforge.net/projects/acpid2/
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AUTHORS

229       Ted Felix <ted@tedfelix.com>
230       Tim Hockin <thockin@hockin.org>
231       Andrew Henroid
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