1XScreenSaver(1) General Commands Manual XScreenSaver(1)
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6 xscreensaver-settings - configure and control the xscreensaver daemon
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9 xscreensaver-settings [--display host:display.screen] [--debug]
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12 The xscreensaver-settings program is a graphical front-end for setting
13 the parameters used by the xscreensaver(1) daemon. It is a tool for
14 editing the ~/.xscreensaver file, and for demoing the various display
15 modes.
16 The main window consists of a menu bar and two tabbed pages. The first
18 page is for editing the list of demos, and the second is for editing
19 various other parameters of the screensaver.
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22 All of these commands are on either the File or Help menus:
23 Blank Screen Now
25 Activates the background xscreensaver daemon, which will then run a
26 demo at random. This is the same as running xscreensaver-com‐
27 mand(1) with the --activate option.
28 Lock Screen Now
30 Just like Blank Screen Now, except the screen will be locked as
31 well (even if it is not configured to lock all the time.) This is
32 the same as running xscreensaver-command(1) with the --lock option.
33 Kill Daemon
35 If the xscreensaver daemon is running on this screen, kill it.
36 This is the same as running xscreensaver-command(1) with the --exit
37 option.
38 Restart Daemon
40 If the xscreensaver daemon is running on this screen, kill it.
41 Then launch it again. This is the same as doing "xscreensaver-com‐
42 mand --exit" followed by "xscreensaver".
43 Note that it is not the same as doing "xscreensaver-command
45 --restart".
46 Exit
48 Exits the xscreensaver-settings program (this program) without af‐
49 fecting the background xscreensaver daemon, if any.
50 About...
52 Displays the version number of this program, xscreensaver-settings.
53 Documentation...
55 Opens up a web browser looking at the XScreenSaver web page, where
56 you can find online copies of the xscreensaver(1), xscreen‐
57 saver-settings(1), and xscreensaver-command(1) manuals.
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60 This page contains a list of the names of the various display modes, a
61 preview area, and some fields that let you configure screen saver be‐
62 havior.
63 Mode
65 This option menu controls the activation behavior of the screen saver.
66 The options are:
67 Disable Screen Saver
69 Don't ever blank the screen, and don't ever allow the monitor
70 to power down.
71 Blank Screen Only
73 When blanking the screen, just go black: don't run any graph‐
74 ics.
75 Only One Screen Saver
77 When blanking the screen, only ever use one particular display
78 mode (the one selected in the list.)
79 Random Screen Saver
81 When blanking the screen, select a random display mode from
82 among those that are enabled and applicable. If there are mul‐
83 tiple monitors connected, run a different display mode on each
84 one. This is the default.
85 Random Same Saver
87 This is just like Random Screen Saver, except that the same
88 randomly-chosen display mode will be run on all monitors, in‐
89 stead of different ones on each.
90 Demo List
92 Double-clicking in the list on the left will let you try out the indi‐
93 cated demo. The screen will go black, and the program will run in
94 full-screen mode, just as it would if the xscreensaver daemon had
95 launched it. Clicking the mouse again will stop the demo and un-blank
96 the screen.
97 Single-clicking in the list will run it in the small preview pane on
99 the right. (But beware: many of the display modes behave somewhat dif‐
100 ferently when running in full-screen mode, so the scaled-down view
101 might not give an accurate impression.)
102 When Mode is set to Random Screen Saver, each name in the list has a
104 checkbox next to it: this controls whether this display mode is en‐
105 abled. If it is unchecked, then that mode will not be chosen. (Though
106 you can still run it explicitly by double-clicking on its name.)
107 If the list has focus, you can type any character to search within it.
109 Arrow Buttons
111 Beneath the list are a pair of up and down arrows. Clicking on the down
112 arrow will select the next item in the list, and then run it in full-
113 screen mode, just as if you had double-clicked on it. The up arrow
114 goes the other way. This is just a shortcut for trying out all of the
115 display modes in turn.
116 Blank After
118 After the user has been idle this long, the xscreensaver daemon will
119 blank the screen.
120 Cycle After
122 After the screensaver has been running for this long, the currently
123 running graphics demo will be killed, and a new one started. If this
124 is 0, then the graphics demo will never be changed: only one demo will
125 run until the screensaver is deactivated by user activity.
126 If there are multiple screens, the savers are staggered slightly so
128 that while they all change every cycle minutes, they don't all change
129 at the same time.
130 Lock Screen
132 When this is checked, the screen will be locked when it activates.
133 Lock Screen After
135 This controls the length of the "grace period" between when the screen‐
136 saver activates, and when the screen becomes locked. For example, if
137 this is 5 minutes, and Blank After is 10 minutes, then after 10 min‐
138 utes, the screen would blank. If there was user activity at 12 min‐
139 utes, no password would be required to un-blank the screen. But, if
140 there was user activity at 15 minutes or later (that is, Lock Screen
141 After minutes after activation) then a password would be required. The
142 default is 0, meaning that if locking is enabled, then a password will
143 be required as soon as the screen blanks.
144 Preview
146 This button, below the small preview window, runs the demo in full-
147 screen mode so that you can try it out. This is the same thing that
148 happens when you double-click an element in the list. Click the mouse
149 to dismiss the full-screen preview.
150 Settings
152 This button will pop up a dialog where you can configure settings spe‐
153 cific to the display mode selected in the list.
154
156 When you click on the Settings button on the Display Modes tab, a con‐
157 figuration dialog will pop up that lets you customize settings of the
158 selected display mode. Each display mode has its own custom set of
159 configuration controls.
160
162 This tab lets you change various settings used by the xscreensaver dae‐
163 mon itself, as well as some global options shared by all of the display
164 modes.
165 Image Manipulation
167 Some of the graphics hacks manipulate images. These settings control
168 where those source images come from. The savers load images by running
169 the xscreensaver-getimage(6) and xscreensaver-getimage-file(6) pro‐
170 grams.
171 Grab Desktop Images
173 If this option is selected, then savers are allowed to manipu‐
174 late the desktop image, that is, a display mode might draw a
175 picture of your desktop melting, or being distorted in some
176 way. The security-paranoid might want to disable this option,
177 because if it is set, it means that the windows on your desktop
178 will occasionally be visible while your screen is locked. Oth‐
179 ers will not be able to do anything, but they may be able to
180 see whatever you left on your screen.
181 Grab Video Frames
183 If your system has a camera or other video input, selecting
184 this option may allow the image-manipulating modes to grab a
185 still-frame of video to operate on.
186 Choose Random Image
188 If this option is set, then the image-manipulating modes will
189 select a random image file to operate on, from the specified
190 source. That source may be a local directory, which will be
191 recursively searched for images. Or, it may be the URL of an
192 RSS or Atom feed (e.g., a Flickr gallery), in which case a ran‐
193 dom image from that feed will be selected instead. The con‐
194 tents of the feed will be cached locally and refreshed periodi‐
195 cally as needed.
196 If more than one of the above image-related options are selected,
198 then one will be chosen at random. If none of them are selected,
199 then an image of video colorbars will be used instead.
200 Text Manipulation
202 Some of the display modes display and manipulate text. The following
203 options control how that text is generated. The savers load text by
204 running the xscreensaver-text(6) program.
205 Host Name and Time
207 If this checkbox is selected, then the text used by the screen
208 savers will be the local host name, OS version, date, time, and
209 system load.
210 Text
212 If this checkbox is selected, then the literal text typed in
213 the field to its right will be used. If it contains % escape
214 sequences, they will be expanded as per strftime(2).
215 Text File
217 If this checkbox is selected, then the contents of the corre‐
218 sponding file will be displayed.
219 Program
221 If this checkbox is selected, then the given program will be
222 run, repeatedly, and its output will be displayed.
223 URL If this checkbox is selected, then the given web page will be
225 downloaded and displayed repeatedly. If the document contains
226 HTML, RSS, or Atom, it will be converted to plain-text first.
227 Note: this re-downloads the document every time the screen
229 saver runs out of text, so it will probably be hitting that web
230 server multiple times a minute.
231 Power Management Settings
233 These settings control whether, and when, your monitor powers down.
234 Power Management Enabled
236 Whether the monitor should be powered down after a period of
237 inactivity.
238 If this option is grayed out, it means your X server does not
240 support the XDPMS extension, and so control over the monitor's
241 power state is not available.
242 Standby After
244 If Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor will go
245 black after this much idle time. (Graphics demos will stop
246 running, also.)
247 Suspend After
249 If Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor will go
250 into power-saving mode after this much idle time. This dura‐
251 tion should be greater than or equal to Standby.
252 Off After
254 If Power Management Enabled is selected, the monitor will fully
255 power down after this much idle time. This duration should be
256 greater than or equal to Suspend.
257 Quick Power-off in Blank Only Mode
259 If the display mode is set to Blank Screen Only and this is
260 checked, then the monitor will be powered off immediately upon
261 blanking, regardless of the other power-management settings.
262 In this way, the power management idle-timers can be completely
263 disabled, but the screen will be powered off when black.
264 Blanking
266 These options control how the screen fades to or from black when a
267 screen saver begins or ends.
268 Fade To Black When Blanking
270 If selected, then when the screensaver activates, the current
271 contents of the screen will fade to black instead of simply
272 winking out.
273 Unfade From Black When Unblanking
275 The opposite: if selected, then when the screensaver deacti‐
276 vates, the original contents of the screen will fade in from
277 black instead of appearing immediately. This is only done if
278 Fade To Black is also selected.
279 Fade Duration
281 When fading or unfading are selected, this controls how long
282 the fade will take.
283 Theme
285 This option menu lists the color schemes available for use on the un‐
286 lock dialog.
287 There are more settings than these available, but these are the most
289 commonly used ones; see the manual for xscreensaver(1) for other param‐
290 eters that can be set by editing the ~/.xscreensaver file, or the X re‐
291 source database.
292
294 xscreensaver-settings accepts the following command line options.
295 --display host:display.screen
297 The X display to use. The xscreensaver-settings program will
298 open its window on that display, and also control the xscreen‐
299 saver daemon that is managing that same display.
300 --debug Causes lots of diagnostics to be printed on stderr.
302 The xscreensaver and xscreensaver-settings processes must run on the
304 same machine, or at least, on two machines that share a file system.
305 When xscreensaver-settings writes a new version of the ~/.xscreensaver
306 file, xscreensaver needs to see that same file, or it won't work.
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309 DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.
310 PATH to find the sub-programs to run. However, note that the sub-
312 programs actually launched by xscreensaver-settings for display
313 in the inline preview pane, but are launched by the xscreen‐
314 saver daemon when run full screen, so the $PATH setting in both
315 processes matters.
316 HOME for the directory in which to read and write the .xscreensaver
318 file.
319 XENVIRONMENT
321 to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global
322 resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
323 HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, http_proxy, or https_proxy
325 to get the default proxy host and port.
326
328 The latest version of xscreensaver, an online version of this manual,
329 and a FAQ can always be found at https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/
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332 X(1), xscreensaver(1), xscreensaver-command(1), xscreensaver-getim‐
333 age(6), xscreensaver-getimage-file(6), xscreensaver-getimage-video(6),
334 xscreensaver-text(6)
335
337 Copyright © 1992-2022 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use, copy, mod‐
338 ify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any
339 purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copy‐
340 right notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice
341 and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. No rep‐
342 resentations are made about the suitability of this software for any
343 purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
344
346 Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>.
347 Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improvements.
349X Version 11 6.08-1.fc39 (17-Oct-2023) XScreenSaver(1)