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Manpage of xautolock
xautolock
Section: Misc. Reference Manual Pages (l)
Updated: March 13, 1999
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NAME
xautolock - fire up programs in case of user inactivity under X
VERSION
This man page applies to xautolock patchlevel 15.
SYNOPSIS
- xautolock
-
[-help] [-version]
[-time mins] [-locker locker]
[-killtime killmins] [-killer killer]
[-notify margin] [-notifier notifier]
[-bell percent]
[-corners xxxx]
[-cornerdelay secs]
[-cornerredelay altsecs]
[-cornersize pixels]
[-secure]
[-resetsaver]
[-nocloseout] [-nocloseerr] [-noclose]
[-disable] [-enable] [-toggle] [-exit]
[-locknow] [-unlocknow] [-nowlocker locker]
DESCRIPTION
Xautolock monitors the user activity on an X Window display. If none is
detected within mins minutes, a program is started as specified by
the -locker option. Xautolock will typically be used to lock the
screen (hence its primary name) but it really doesn't care what program
you make it start. For this reason, xautolock does not interfere with the
default X screen saver, unless the -resetsaver option is used.
This implies that it is the job of the locker or the user to take
the appropriate actions if the default screen saver is to be disabled.
The only real assumption made by xautolock is that a new countdown starts
as soon as the locker exits.
In the presence of the -notify option, a warning signal will be
issued margin seconds before starting the locker. Warning
signals come in two kinds:
- *
-
You can use the -notifier option to specify the command to be
issued to perform notification.
- *
-
Alternatively, you can let xautolock ring the bell. In this case, the
-bell option specifies the loudness of the signal in percent,
as described in the XBell man page.
You can tell xautolock to take special actions when you move the mouse into
one of the corners of the display and leave it there, by using the
-corners, -cornerdelay, -cornerredelay and
-cornersize options. This works as follows:
The xxxx argument to the -corners option must consist of exactly
4 characters from the following set: '0', '+', '-'. Each one of these
specifies what xautolock should do when the mouse enters a small square area
located in each of the corners of the screen. The corners are considered in
the following order: top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right. A '0'
indicates that xautolock should ignore the corner. A '+' indicates that
xautolock should start the locker after secs or altsecs
seconds (see below for the difference between both), unless the mouse is
moved or keyboard input is received. A '-' indicates that xautolock should
not start the locker at all. The pixels argument specifies the
size in pixels of the corner areas.
Most users of the -corners option want the locker to activate
within a very short time interval after they move the mouse into a '+' corner.
This can be achieved by specifying a small value for the -cornerdelay
option. However, if the mouse is subsequently left where it is, xautolock
will almost immediately start a new locker right after the user quits
the current one. To prevent this from happening, the -cornerredelay
option can be used to specify the time-out interval to be used if and only
if the mouse is sitting in a `+' corner and has not been moved since the
previous locker exited.
A running xautolock process can be disabled (unless the -secure
option has been specified), in which case it will not attempt to start the
locker. To disable an already running xautolock process, use the
-disable option. To re-enable it, use -enable. To toggle it
between both states, use -toggle. Using this method is preferable
to using sending it SIGSTOP and SIGCONT signals, because while disabled
xautolock will still be emptying its event queue.
A running xautolock process can also be told to exit (unless the
-secure option has been specified). To do this, use the
-exit option.
The -killtime and -killer options allow, amongst other
things, to implement an additional automatic logout, on top of the
automatic screen locking. In the presence of one or both of these
options, a secondary timeout will be triggered killmins after
starting the locker (unless user activity is detected in the
mean time). Upon expiration of this secondary timer, the killer
program is run. Note that, despite the name of the options, xautolock
really doesn't care what the killer does in reality. If it
doesn't (indirectly) cause xautolock to get killed, and assuming that
no user activity is detected, the secondary trigger will periodically
expire every killmins minutes for as long as the locker runs.
In combination with -killtime and -killer, the -secure
option allows system administrators to enforce xautolock as a part of
their security procedures, and to prevent people from locking shared
displays for an excessive amount of time. One way to achieve this is
to start xautolock (using -secure and optionally -killtime
and -killer) from within XDM's Xsession file in such a way that
the session automatically ends if xautolock itself is killed.
By default xautolock closes stdout and stderr. This prevents the locker
from writing error messages to these files in case you manually lock your
display. The -nocloseout, -nocloseerr and -noclose
options cause xautolock to not close stdout and/or stderr. On some platforms
users of xnlock will need to use -nocloseout, in order to make xnlock's
witty sayings show up. These options can also be used for debugging cases in
which locker invocation is not successful.
Xautolock is capable of managing multi-headed displays.
OPTIONS
- -help
-
Print a help message and exit.
- -version
-
Print the version number and exit.
- -time
-
Specifies the primary timeout interval. The default is 10 minutes,
the minimum is 1 minute, and the maximum is 1 hour.
- -locker
-
Specifies the locker to be used. The default is xlock. Notice that if
locker contains multiple words, it must be specified between quotes.
In order to use your PATH to locate the program, xautolock feeds the
locker command to /bin/sh, so it should be understandable for
whatever shell your /bin/sh is. Because this typically is a Bourne
shell, ~ expansion most likely will not work.
- -killtime
-
Specifies the secondary timeout in minutes after starting the locker.
This timer is only active as long as the locker is running, and is
reset each time user activity is detected. If it expires before the
locker exits, the killer command is run. The default is
20 minutes, the minimum is 10 minutes, and the maximum is 2 hours.
This option is only useful in conjunction with -killer.
- -killer
-
Specifies the killer to be used. The default is none. Notice that
if killer contains multiple words, it must be specified between
quotes. In order to use your PATH to locate the program, xautolock feeds
the killr command to /bin/sh, so it should be understandable
for whatever shell your /bin/sh is. Because this typically is a Bourne
shell, ~ expansion most likely will not work.
- -notify
-
Warn the user margin seconds before locking. The default is to not
warn the user. If used in conjunction with -cornerdelay or
-cornerredelay, the notification margin iused is the minimum of
margin, secs and/or altsecs.
- -notifier
-
Specifies the notifier to be used. The default is none. This
option is only useful in conjunction with -notify. Notice that
if notifier contains multiple words, it must be specified between
quotes. In order to use your PATH to locate the program, xautolock feeds
the notifier command to /bin/sh, so it should be understandable
for whatever shell your /bin/sh is. Because this typically is a Bourne
shell, ~ expansion most likely will not work.
- -bell
-
Specifies the loudness of the notification signal in the absence of the
-notifier option. The default is 40 percent. This option is only
useful in conjunction with -notify.
- -corners
-
Define special actions to be taken when the mouse enters one of the
corners of the display. The default is 0000, which means that no special
action is taken.
- -cornerdelay
-
Specifies the number of seconds to wait before reacting to the mouse
entering a '+' corner. The default is 5 seconds.
- -cornerredelay
-
Specifies the number of seconds to wait
before reacting again if the current locker exits while the mouse is
sitting in a '+' corner. The default is for altsecs to equal
secs.
- -cornersize
-
Specifies the size in pixels of the corner areas. The default is 10 pixels.
- -resetsaver
-
Causes xautolock to reset the X screen saver after successfully starting
the locker. This is typically used in case the locker is not
really intended to lock the screen, but to replace the default X screen
saver. Note that the default screen saver is not disabled, only reset.
Also note that using -resetsaver will inferfere with the DPMS
monitors, as the power down time out will also be also reset. The
default is not to reset the screen saver.
See the xset man page for more information about managing the
X screen saver.
- -secure
-
Instructs xautolock to run in secure mode. In this mode, xautolock
becomes immune to the effects of -enable, -disable,
-toggle, and -exit. The default is `false'.
- -nocloseout
-
Don't close stdout.
- -nocloseerr
-
Don't close stderr.
- -noclose
-
Close neither stdout nor stderr.
- -disable
-
Disables an already running xautolock process (if there is one, and
it does not have -secure switched on). In any case, the current
invocation of xautolock exits.
- -enable
-
Enables an already running xautolock process (if there is one, and
it does not have -secure switched on). In any case, the current
invocation of xautolock exits.
- -toggle
-
Toggles an already running xautolock process (if there is one, and
it does not have -secure switched on) between its disabled and
enabled modes of operation. In any case, the current invocation of
xautolock exits.
- -exit
-
Causes an already running xautolock process (if there is one, and
it does not have -secure switched on) to exit. In any case,
the current invocation of xautolock also exits.
- -locknow
-
Causes an already running xautolock process (if there is one, if
it does not have -secure switched on, and is not currently
disabled) to lock the display immediately. In any case, the current
invocation of xautolock exits.
- -unlocknow
-
Causes an already running xautolock process (if there is one, if
it does not have -secure switched on, and is not currently
disabled) to unlock the display immediately (if it's locked).
In any case, the current invocation of xautolock exits.
- -nowlocker
-
Specifies the locker to be used if lock is initiated with
-unlocknow option. The default is to use the locker
program given with -locker option, which defaults to xlock.
RESOURCES
- time
-
Specifies the primary timeout. Numerical.
- locker
-
Specifies the locker. No quotes are needed, even if the
locker command contains multiple words.
- killtime
-
Specifies the secondary timeout. Numerical.
- killer
-
Specifies the killer. No quotes are needed, even if the
killer command contains multiple words.
- notify
-
Specifies the notification margin. Numerical.
- notifier
-
Specifies the notifier. No quotes are needed, even if the
notifier command contains multiple words.
- bell
-
Specifies the notification loudness. Numerical.
- corners
-
Specifies the corner behaviour, as explained above.
- cornersize
-
Specifies the size of the corner areas. Numerical.
- cornerdelay
-
Specifies the delay of a '+' corner. Numerical.
- cornerredelay
-
Specifies the alternative delay of a '+' corner. Numerical.
- resetsaver
-
Reset the default X screen saver. Boolean.
- nocloseout
-
Don't close stdout. Boolean.
- nocloseerr
-
Don't close stderr. Boolean.
- noclose
-
Close neither stdout nor stderr. Boolean.
Resources can be specified in your ~/.Xdefaults file, either for class
Xautolock, or for whatever name you renamed xautolock to. This can be
useful in case xautolock is to be used for other purposes than simply locking
the screen. For example: if you have two copies of xautolock, one called
"xmonitor", and one called "xlogout", then both will honour the following:
-
Xautolock.corners: ++++
In addition, "xmonitor" will honour:
-
xmonitor.cornersize: 10
while "xlogout" will honour:
-
xlogout.cornersize: 5
Each command line option takes precedence over the corresponding
(default) resource specification.
KNOWN BUGS
If, when creating a window, an application waits for more than 30 seconds
before selecting KeyPress events on non-leaf windows, xautolock may
interfere with the event propagation mechanism. This effect is theoretical
and has never been observed in real life. It can only occur in case
xautolock has been compiled without support for both the Xidle
and the MIT ScreenSaver extensions, or in case the X server does
not support these extensions.
xautolock does not properly handle the secure keyboard mode of terminal
emulators like xterm, since that mode will prevent xautolock from noticing
the keyboard events occurring on the terminal. Therefore, xautolock
sometimes thinks that there is no keyboard activity while in reality there
is. This can only occur in case xautolock has been compiled without support
for both the Xidle and the MIT ScreenSaver extensions, or in case the
X server does not support these extensions.
xautolock does not check whether notifier and/or locker are
available.
The xautolock resources have dummy resource classes.
SEE ALSO
X(1),
xset(1),
xlock(1),
xnlock(1),
xscreensaver(1).
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1990, 1992-1999 by S. De Troch and M. Eyckmans (MCE).
Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and the
supporting documentation without fee is hereby granted, provided that
- 1:
-
Both the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all
copies of both the software and the supporting documentation.
- 2:
-
No commercial use is made out of it.
- THE AUTHORS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE,
-
INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO
EVENT SHALL THEY BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA
OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER
TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
AUTHORS
Xautolock was conceived, written, and performed by:
Michel Eyckmans (MCE) eyckmans@imec.be
Stefan De Troch stefan@specs.philips.com
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Kris Croes croes@imec.be
Index
- NAME
-
- VERSION
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- OPTIONS
-
- RESOURCES
-
- KNOWN BUGS
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- COPYRIGHT
-
- AUTHORS
-
- SPECIAL THANKS TO
-
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Time: 08:54:58 GMT, January 12, 2013