Name

xdg-screensaver — command line tool for controlling the screensaver

Synopsis

xdg-screensaver suspend WindowID

xdg-screensaver resume WindowID

xdg-screensaver { activate | lock | reset | status }

xdg-screensaver { --help | --manual | --version }

Description

xdg-screensaver provides commands to control the screensaver.

xdg-screensaver is for use inside a desktop session only. It is not recommended to use xdg-screensaver as root.

Commands

suspend WindowID

Suspends the screensaver and monitor power management. WindowID must be the X Window ID of an existing window of the calling application. The window must remain in existence for the duration of the suspension.

WindowID can be represented as either a decimal number or as a hexadecimal number consisting of the prefix 0x followed by one or more hexadecimal digits.

The screensaver can be suspended in relation to multiple windows at the same time. In that case screensaver operation is only restored once the screensaver has been resumed in relation to each of the windows

resume WindowID
Resume the screensaver and monitor power management after being suspended. WindowID must be the same X Window ID that was passed to a previous call of xdg-screensaver suspend
activate
Turns the screensaver on immediately. This may result in the screen getting locked, depending on existing system policies.
lock
Lock the screen immediately.
reset
Turns the screensaver off immediately. If the screen was locked the user may be asked to authenticate first.
status
Prints enabled to stdout if the screensaver is enabled to turn on after a period of inactivity and prints disabled if the screensaver is not enabled.

Options

--help
Show command synopsis.
--manual
Show this manual page.
--version
Show the xdg-utils version information.

Exit Codes

An exit code of 0 indicates success while a non-zero exit code indicates failure. The following failure codes can be returned:

1
Error in command line syntax.
3
A required tool could not be found.
4
The action failed.

Examples

xdg-screensaver suspend 0x1c00007

Causes the screensaver to be disabled till xdg-screensaver resume 0x1c00007 is called. 0x1c00007 must be the X Window ID of an existing window.