Provided by:
xautolock_2.1-7_i386 
NAME
xautolock - fire up programs in case of user inactivity under X
VERSION
This man page applies to xautolock version 2.1.
SYNOPSIS
xautolock [-help] [-version] [-time mins] [-locker locker] [-killtime
killmins] [-killer killer] [-notify margin] [-notifier noti‐
fier] [-bell percent] [-corners xxxx] [-cornerdelay secs]
[-cornerredelay altsecs] [-cornersize pixels] [-secure]
[-resetsaver] [-nocloseout] [-nocloseerr] [-noclose] [-dis
able] [-enable] [-toggle] [-exit] [-locknow] [-unlocknow]
[-nowlocker locker] [-restart] [-detectsleep]
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 appro‐
priate 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 con‐
sidered in the following order: top left, top right, bottom left, bot‐
tom right. A ’0’ indicates that xautolock should ignore the corner. A
’+’ indicates that xautolock should start the locker after secs or alt‐
secs seconds (see below for the difference between both), unless the
mouse is moved or keyboard input is received. A ’-’ indicates that xau‐
tolock should not start the locker at all. The pixels argument speci‐
fies 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, xau‐
tolock will almost immediately start a new locker right after the user
quits the current one. To prevent this from happening, the -cornerrede
lay 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 if 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 xau‐
tolock will still be emptying its event queue.
A running xautolock process can also be told to exit (unless if 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 sec‐
ondary 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 xau‐
tolock 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 com‐
mand 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 start‐
ing 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 com‐
mand 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 alt‐
secs.
-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 noti‐
fier command to /bin/sh, so it should be understandable
for whatever shell your /bin/sh is. Because this typi‐
cally 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 suc‐
cessfully 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 manag‐
ing the X screen saver.
-detectsleep Prevents xautolock from invoking the locker program
when the computer is detected as being put to sleep.
This is detected when the time has jumped immediately
by more than 3 seconds.
Note: This option is considered a security issue if
used carelessly.
-secure Instructs xautolock to run in secure mode. In this
mode, xautolock becomes imune to the effects of
-enable, -disable, -toggle, and -exit. The default is
to honour these actions.
-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 immedi‐
ately. 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 immedi‐
ately (if it’s locked) by sending the locker a SIGTERM
signal. In any case, the current invocation of xau‐
tolock exits.
-nowlocker Specifies the locker to be used if the lock is initi‐
ated with -locknow option. The default is to use the
locker program given with -locker option, which
defaults to xlock.
-restart Causes an already running xautolock process (if there
is one and it does not have -secure switched on) to
restart. In any case, the current invocation of xau‐
tolock exits.
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. Numer‐
ical.
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.
The -disable, -enable, -toggle, -exit, -locknow, -unlocknow, and
-restart options depend on access to the X server to do their work.
This implies that they will be suspended in case some other application
has grabbed the server all for itself.
If, when creating a window, an application waits for more than 30 sec‐
onds before selecting KeyPress events on non-leaf windows, xautolock
may interfere with the event propagation mechanism. This effect is the‐
oretical 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 sup‐
port these extensions.
xautolock does not always 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 com‐
piled without support for both the Xidle and the MIT ScreenSaver exten‐
sions, 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.
X(1), xset(1), xlock(1), xnlock(1), xscreensaver(1).
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1990, 1992-1999, 2001-2002 by Stefan De Troch and Michel
Eyckmans.
Versions 2.0 and above of xautolock are available under version 2 of
the GNU GPL. Earlier versions are available under other conditions. For
more information, see the License file.
AUTHORS
Xautolock was conceived, written, and performed by:
Michel Eyckmans (MCE)
Stefan De Troch
Please send queries for help, feature suggestions, bug reports, etc.
to eyckmans@imec.be.
Kris Croes
January 16, 2002 xautolock(1)