1xautolock(1) General Commands Manual xautolock(1)
2
6 xautolock - fire up programs in case of user inactivity under X
7
10 This man page applies to xautolock version 2.2.
11
14 xautolock [-help] [-version] [-time mins] [-locker locker] [-killtime
15 killmins] [-killer killer] [-notify margin] [-notifier noti‐
16 fier] [-bell percent] [-corners xxxx] [-cornerdelay secs]
17 [-cornerredelay altsecs] [-cornersize pixels] [-secure]
18 [-resetsaver] [-nocloseout] [-nocloseerr] [-noclose] [-dis‐
19 able] [-enable] [-toggle] [-exit] [-locknow] [-unlocknow]
20 [-nowlocker locker] [-restart] [-detectsleep]
21
24 Xautolock monitors the user activity on an X Window display. If none is
25 detected within mins minutes, a program is started as specified by the
26 -locker option. Xautolock will typically be used to lock the screen
27 (hence its primary name) but it really doesn't care what program you
28 make it start. For this reason, xautolock does not interfere with the
29 default X screen saver, unless the -resetsaver option is used. This
30 implies that it is the job of the locker or the user to take the appro‐
31 priate actions if the default screen saver is to be disabled. The only
32 real assumption made by xautolock is that a new countdown starts as
33 soon as the locker exits.
34 In the presence of the -notify option, a warning signal will be issued
36 margin seconds before starting the locker. Warning signals come in two
37 kinds:
38 · You can use the -notifier option to specify the command to be issued
40 to perform notification.
41 · Alternatively, you can let xautolock ring the bell. In this case,
43 the -bell option specifies the loudness of the signal in percent, as
44 described in the XBell man page.
45 You can tell xautolock to take special actions when you move the mouse
47 into one of the corners of the display and leave it there, by using the
48 -corners, -cornerdelay, -cornerredelay and -cornersize options. This
49 works as follows:
50 The xxxx argument to the -corners option must consist of exactly 4
52 characters from the following set: '0', '+', '-'. Each one of these
53 specifies what xautolock should do when the mouse enters a small square
54 area located in each of the corners of the screen. The corners are con‐
55 sidered in the following order: top left, top right, bottom left, bot‐
56 tom right. A '0' indicates that xautolock should ignore the corner. A
57 '+' indicates that xautolock should start the locker after secs or alt‐
58 secs seconds (see below for the difference between both), unless the
59 mouse is moved or keyboard input is received. A '-' indicates that xau‐
60 tolock should not start the locker at all. The pixels argument speci‐
61 fies the size in pixels of the corner areas.
62 Most users of the -corners option want the locker to activate within a
64 very short time interval after they move the mouse into a '+' corner.
65 This can be achieved by specifying a small value for the -cornerdelay
66 option. However, if the mouse is subsequently left where it is, xau‐
67 tolock will almost immediately start a new locker right after the user
68 quits the current one. To prevent this from happening, the -cornerrede‐
69 lay option can be used to specify the time-out interval to be used if
70 and only if the mouse is sitting in a `+' corner and has not been moved
71 since the previous locker exited.
72 A running xautolock process can be disabled (unless if the -secure
74 option has been specified), in which case it will not attempt to start
75 the locker. To disable an already running xautolock process, use the
76 -disable option. To re-enable it, use -enable. To toggle it between
77 both states, use -toggle. Using this method is preferable to using
78 sending it SIGSTOP and SIGCONT signals, because while disabled xau‐
79 tolock will still be emptying its event queue.
80 A running xautolock process can also be told to exit (unless if the
82 -secure option has been specified). To do this, use the -exit option.
83 The -killtime and -killer options allow, amongst other things, to
85 implement an additional automatic logout, on top of the automatic
86 screen locking. In the presence of one or both of these options, a sec‐
87 ondary timeout will be triggered killmins after starting the locker
88 (unless user activity is detected in the mean time). Upon expiration
89 of this secondary timer, the killer program is run. Note that, despite
90 the name of the options, xautolock really doesn't care what the killer
91 does in reality. If it doesn't (indirectly) cause xautolock to get
92 killed, and assuming that no user activity is detected, the secondary
93 trigger will periodically expire every killmins minutes for as long as
94 the locker runs.
95 In combination with -killtime and -killer, the -secure option allows
97 system administrators to enforce xautolock as a part of their security
98 procedures, and to prevent people from locking shared displays for an
99 excessive amount of time. One way to achieve this is to start xautolock
100 (using -secure and optionally -killtime and -killer) from within XDM's
101 Xsession file in such a way that the session automatically ends if xau‐
102 tolock itself is killed.
103 By default xautolock closes stdout and stderr. This prevents the locker
105 from writing error messages to these files in case you manually lock
106 your display. The -nocloseout, -nocloseerr and -noclose options cause
107 xautolock to not close stdout and/or stderr. On some platforms users of
108 xnlock will need to use -nocloseout, in order to make xnlock's witty
109 sayings show up. These options can also be used for debugging cases in
110 which locker invocation is not successful.
111 Xautolock is capable of managing multi-headed displays.
113
116 -help Print a help message and exit.
117 -version Print the version number and exit.
119 -time Specifies the primary timeout interval. The default is
121 10 minutes, the minimum is 1 minute, and the maximum is
122 1 hour.
123 -locker Specifies the locker to be used. The default is xlock.
125 Notice that if locker contains multiple words, it must
126 be specified between quotes. In order to use your PATH
127 to locate the program, xautolock feeds the locker com‐
128 mand to /bin/sh, so it should be understandable for
129 whatever shell your /bin/sh is. Because this typically
130 is a Bourne shell, ~ expansion most likely will not
131 work.
132 -killtime Specifies the secondary timeout in minutes after start‐
134 ing the locker. This timer is only active as long as
135 the locker is running, and is reset each time user
136 activity is detected. If it expires before the locker
137 exits, the killer command is run. The default is 20
138 minutes, the minimum is 10 minutes, and the maximum is
139 2 hours. This option is only useful in conjunction
140 with -killer.
141 -killer Specifies the killer to be used. The default is none.
143 Notice that if killer contains multiple words, it must
144 be specified between quotes. In order to use your PATH
145 to locate the program, xautolock feeds the killr com‐
146 mand to /bin/sh, so it should be understandable for
147 whatever shell your /bin/sh is. Because this typically
148 is a Bourne shell, ~ expansion most likely will not
149 work.
150 -notify Warn the user margin seconds before locking. The
152 default is to not warn the user. If used in conjunction
153 with -cornerdelay or -cornerredelay, the notification
154 margin iused is the minimum of margin, secs and/or alt‐
155 secs.
156 -notifier Specifies the notifier to be used. The default is none.
158 This option is only useful in conjunction with -notify.
159 Notice that if notifier contains multiple words, it
160 must be specified between quotes. In order to use your
161 PATH to locate the program, xautolock feeds the noti‐
162 fier command to /bin/sh, so it should be understandable
163 for whatever shell your /bin/sh is. Because this typi‐
164 cally is a Bourne shell, ~ expansion most likely will
165 not work.
166 -bell Specifies the loudness of the notification signal in
168 the absence of the -notifier option. The default is 40
169 percent. This option is only useful in conjunction with
170 -notify.
171 -corners Define special actions to be taken when the mouse
173 enters one of the corners of the display. The default
174 is 0000, which means that no special action is taken.
175 -cornerdelay Specifies the number of seconds to wait before reacting
177 to the mouse entering a '+' corner. The default is 5
178 seconds.
179 -cornerredelay Specifies the number of seconds to wait before reacting
181 again if the current locker exits while the mouse is
182 sitting in a '+' corner. The default is for altsecs to
183 equal secs.
184 -cornersize Specifies the size in pixels of the corner areas. The
186 default is 10 pixels.
187 -resetsaver Causes xautolock to reset the X screen saver after suc‐
189 cessfully starting the locker. This is typically used
190 in case the locker is not really intended to lock the
191 screen, but to replace the default X screen saver. Note
192 that the default screen saver is not disabled, only
193 reset. Also note that using -resetsaver will inferfere
194 with the DPMS monitors, as the power down time out will
195 also be also reset. The default is not to reset the
196 screen saver.
197 See the xset man page for more information about manag‐
199 ing the X screen saver.
200 -detectsleep Instructs xautolock to detect that computer has been
202 put to sleep. This is done by detecting that time has
203 jumped by more than 3 seconds. When this occurs, the
204 lock timer is reset and locker program is not launched
205 even if primary timeout has been reached. This option
206 is typically used to avoid locker program to be
207 launched when awaking a laptop computer.
208 -secure Instructs xautolock to run in secure mode. In this
210 mode, xautolock becomes imune to the effects of
211 -enable, -disable, -toggle, and -exit. The default is
212 to honour these actions.
213 -nocloseout Don't close stdout.
215 -nocloseerr Don't close stderr.
217 -noclose Close neither stdout nor stderr.
219 -disable Disables an already running xautolock process (if there
221 is one, and it does not have -secure switched on). In
222 any case, the current invocation of xautolock exits.
223 -enable Enables an already running xautolock process (if there
225 is one, and it does not have -secure switched on). In
226 any case, the current invocation of xautolock exits.
227 -toggle Toggles an already running xautolock process (if there
229 is one, and it does not have -secure switched on)
230 between its disabled and enabled modes of operation. In
231 any case, the current invocation of xautolock exits.
232 -exit Causes an already running xautolock process (if there
234 is one, and it does not have -secure switched on) to
235 exit. In any case, the current invocation of xautolock
236 also exits.
237 -locknow Causes an already running xautolock process (if there
239 is one, if it does not have -secure switched on, and is
240 not currently disabled) to lock the display immedi‐
241 ately. In any case, the current invocation of xautolock
242 exits.
243 -unlocknow Causes an already running xautolock process (if there
245 is one, if it does not have -secure switched on, and is
246 not currently disabled) to unlock the display immedi‐
247 ately (if it's locked) by sending the locker a SIGTERM
248 signal. In any case, the current invocation of xau‐
249 tolock exits.
250 -nowlocker Specifies the locker to be used if the lock is initi‐
252 ated with -locknow option. The default is to use the
253 locker program given with -locker option, which
254 defaults to xlock.
255 -restart Causes an already running xautolock process (if there
257 is one and it does not have -secure switched on) to
258 restart. In any case, the current invocation of xau‐
259 tolock exits.
260
263 time Specifies the primary timeout. Numerical.
264 locker Specifies the locker. No quotes are needed, even if the
266 locker command contains multiple words.
267 killtime Specifies the secondary timeout. Numerical.
269 killer Specifies the killer. No quotes are needed, even if the
271 killer command contains multiple words.
272 notify Specifies the notification margin. Numerical.
274 notifier Specifies the notifier. No quotes are needed, even if
276 the notifier command contains multiple words.
277 bell Specifies the notification loudness. Numerical.
279 corners Specifies the corner behaviour, as explained above.
281 cornersize Specifies the size of the corner areas. Numerical.
283 cornerdelay Specifies the delay of a '+' corner. Numerical.
285 cornerredelay Specifies the alternative delay of a '+' corner. Numer‐
287 ical.
288 resetsaver Reset the default X screen saver. Boolean.
290 nocloseout Don't close stdout. Boolean.
292 nocloseerr Don't close stderr. Boolean.
294 noclose Close neither stdout nor stderr. Boolean.
296 Resources can be specified in your ~/.Xresources or ~/.Xdefaults file
299 (whichever your system uses) and merged via the xrdb(1) command. They
300 can be specified either for class Xautolock, or for whatever name your
301 xautolock program has been given. This can be useful in case xautolock
302 is to be used for other purposes than simply locking the screen. For
303 example: if you have two copies of xautolock, one called "xmonitor",
304 and one called "xlogout", then both will honour the following:
305 Xautolock.corners: ++++
307 In addition, "xmonitor" will honour:
309 xmonitor.cornersize: 10
311 while "xlogout" will honour:
313 xlogout.cornersize: 5
315 Each command line option takes precedence over the corresponding
317 (default) resource specification.
318
321 The -disable, -enable, -toggle, -exit, -locknow, -unlocknow, and
322 -restart options depend on access to the X server to do their work.
323 This implies that they will be suspended in case some other application
324 has grabbed the server all for itself.
325 If, when creating a window, an application waits for more than 30 sec‐
327 onds before selecting KeyPress events on non-leaf windows, xautolock
328 may interfere with the event propagation mechanism. This effect is the‐
329 oretical and has never been observed in real life. It can only occur in
330 case xautolock has been compiled without support for both the Xidle and
331 the MIT ScreenSaver extensions, or in case the X server does not sup‐
332 port these extensions.
333 xautolock does not always properly handle the secure keyboard mode of
335 terminal emulators like xterm, since that mode will prevent xautolock
336 from noticing the keyboard events occurring on the terminal. Therefore,
337 xautolock sometimes thinks that there is no keyboard activity while in
338 reality there is. This can only occur in case xautolock has been com‐
339 piled without support for both the Xidle and the MIT ScreenSaver exten‐
340 sions, or in case the X server does not support these extensions.
341 xautolock does not check whether notifier and/or locker are available.
343 The xautolock resources have dummy resource classes.
345
348 X(1), xset(1), xlock(1), xnlock(1), xscreensaver(1).
349
352 Copyright 1990, 1992-1999, 2001-2002, 2004, 2007 by Stefan De Troch and
353 Michel Eyckmans.
354 Versions 2.0 and above of xautolock are available under version 2 of
356 the GNU GPL. Earlier versions are available under other conditions. For
357 more information, see the License file.
358
361 Xautolock was conceived, written, and performed by:
362 Michel Eyckmans (MCE)
364 Stefan De Troch
365 Please send queries for help, feature suggestions, bug reports, etc.
367 to mce@scarlet.be.
368
371 Kris Croes
372 December 28, 2007 xautolock(1)