XIDLE(1)

✨ XIDLE(1) ✨

okay bestie, pull up a chair because we're talking about xidle — a manual page from the General Commands Manual section, and the whole vibe is "run a program on X inactivity". Yes queen, it watches your screen so you don't have to. 🦋

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

xidle [-area pixels] [-delay secs] [-display display] [-no | -nw | -ne |
      -sw | -se] [-program path] [-timeout secs]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so xidle uses the XScreenSaver(3) extension to receive inactivity events when a timeout is specified, and then it runs a specific program after the elapsed time. periodt.

but wait, there's more, because she's multitalented: xidle will also run the program if it gets sent a SIGUSR1 signal 👑, or if the pointer just… sits in a corner of the screen for an amount of time. like, go off pointer, take a nap.

Signal and corner locking are always enabled, whether -timeout is specified or not. like, always always. no cap.

The options are as follows:

• -area pixels — tell her the size, in pixels, of the corner area. the default is 2 pixels. tiny corner, big energy.
• -delay secs — how many seconds the pointer has to be parked in the given position before the program runs. default is 2 seconds.
• -display display — lets you specify the server to connect to; go peek at X(7) for the deets.
• -no | -nw | -ne | -sw | -se — set the position to one of none, northwest, northeast, southwest, or southeast, respectively. if you specify no position at all, the default is northwest.
• -program path — 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 isn't specified, the default is xlock(1). 🎀
• -timeout secs — set the timeout to that many seconds. and listen: if -timeout is not specified, xidle won't run any program on inactivity. she'll just be chilling. 😭

🌈 RESOURCES 🌈

a few sets of application specific resources are supported, and their values can be overridden by the command line options. slay.

• area (class Area) — the size, in pixels, of the corner area; see the -area option.
• delay (class Delay) — the number of seconds to wait before running the program; see the -delay option.
• position (class Position) — set the position to one of: "no", "nw", "ne", "sw", or "se"; see the descriptions of the -no, -nw, -ne, -sw, and -se options.
• program (class Program) — the full pathname of the program to run; see the -program option.
• timeout (class Timeout) — set the timeout to the specified number of seconds; see the -timeout option.

The xidle program resource class is XIdle. 💖

🎀 EXAMPLES 🎀

Run xlock(1) using the flying bats mode if no activity is detected in 300 seconds, or if 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

bats. flying. in your terminal's honor. iconic. 🦇✨

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

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

👑 AUTHORS 👑

the xidle program was written by Federico Schwindt <fgsch@openbsd.org> as an xautolock replacement. king behavior, honestly.

💀 BUGS 💀

the maximum number of arguments for -program, including the executable file, is currently set to 9. so don't get cute and pass her ten things, bestie, she will simply not. 🙈

that's the whole page, babes — this came from the Debian build, dated August 2, 2020. go forth and let your screen go idle responsibly. 🫶🌸