VLOCK(1)

💖 VLOCK(1) — General Commands Manual 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and let me tell you about vlock — it's the Virtual Console lock program and honestly? it's giving security guard energy but make it Linux. 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

vlock — the Virtual Console lock program. that's it, that's the name, iconic behavior honestly 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

vlock

vlock [ -a,--all ] [ -c,--current ] [ -h,--help ] [ -v,--version ]

like… you can just run it, or you can run it with flags. both are valid. both are slay. pick your fighter ✨

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so vlock is a program that locks one or more sessions on the Linux console. and why do we care?? because it is especially useful for Linux machines where multiple users have access to the console. one user can lock his or her session(s) while still letting other users use the system on other virtual consoles. everybody eats, nobody starves. 🍓

and if you want to be dramatic about it — which, same — the entire console can be locked and virtual console switching disabled. locked. locked locked. 🔥

by default, only the current VC (that's virtual console, keep up bestie) gets locked. but with the -a,-all option, all VCs are locked. and here's the thing: those locked VCs cannot be unlocked without the invoker's password. periodt. and for the paranoid girlies out there — respect — vlock makes it a trying experience for anyone attempting to guess the password, so unauthorized access to session(s) is highly unlikely. like, good luck with that. 🙈

okay but real talk for a sec because this one matters: it is entirely possible to completely lock yourself out of the console with the -a,--all option if you cannot remember your password!! 😭 unless you are able to kill vlock by logging in remotely via a serial terminal or network, a hard reset is the only method of ``unlocking'' the display. not me warning you and you still doing it. 💀

and one more lil note: vlock works for console sessions primarily. however, there is support for trying to lock non-console sessions as well — but that support has not been well tested. so like… it's there. it's trying its best. be nice to it. 🎀

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -a, --all — locks all console sessions and disables VC switching. the full send option. maximum commitment. 👑
• -c, --current — locks the current session. this is the default, so if you just run vlock with nothing else, this is what you're getting. ✨
• -h, --help — prints a brief help message. when in doubt, ask for help. always. 🌈
• -v, --version — prints the version number of vlock. for the girlies who need to know exactly what they're working with. 💜

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💜 AUTHORS 💜

Michael K. Johnson <johnsonm@redhat.com> — thank you for your service king 🫶

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

chvt(1), deallocvt(1), openvt(1) — go read those too, they're all in the same friend group 🧚

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and that's the whole vibe check bestie 💖 this page came from the kbd manual and it's dated 16 May 1996 — yes, it's an elder but she still slays, no cap. go lock your console. responsibly. 🌸