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XIDLE(1) General Commands Manual XIDLE(1)

NAME

xidle —
run a program on X inactivity

SYNOPSIS

xidle [-area pixels] [-delay secs] [-display display] [-nw | -ne | -sw | -se] [-program path] [-timeout secs]

DESCRIPTION

xidle uses the XScreenSaver(3) extension to receive inactivity events when a timeout is specified, running a specific program after the elapsed time. xidle also monitors the very corner of the given position for pointer activity and runs a program if the pointer sits there for more than the specified number of seconds. This behavior is always present, whether -timeout is specified or not.

The options are as follows:

pixels
Specify the size in pixels of the corner area. The default is 2 pixels.
secs
Specify the number of seconds the pointer has to be in the given position before running the program. The default is 2 seconds.
display
This argument allows you to specify the server to connect to; see X(7).
| | |
Set the position to one of northwest, northeast, southwest, or southeast, respectively. If no position is specified, the default is northwest.
path
Specify the full pathname of the program to run on any of the aforementioned events. Arguments to the program may also be specified, separated by whitespace. If -program is not specified, the default is xlock(1).
secs
Set the timeout to the specified number of seconds. If -timeout is not specified, xidle won't run any program on inactivity.

EXAMPLES

Run xlock(1) using the flying bats mode if no activity is detected in 300 seconds or the pointer sits in the southwest corner for more than 5 seconds: 
$ xidle -delay 5 -sw -program "/usr/X11R6/bin/xlock -mode bat" \
	-timeout 300

SEE ALSO

xlock(1), XScreenSaver(3), X(7)

AUTHORS

The xidle program was written by Federico Schwindt as an xautolock replacement.

BUGS

xidle does not support resources (yet).

The maximum number of arguments for -program, including the executable file, is currently set to 9.

July 29, 2013 Linux 4.9.0-9-amd64