LOCK(1)

💅 NAME 💅

okay bestie, welcome to LOCK(1) — the lock command from the User Contributed Perl Documentation. She reserves a terminal. That's the whole job, and she ate. 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

the vibe check:

lock [-n] [-p] [-t timeout]

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

lock is literally the terminal bodyguard: she requests a password from the user, reads it again for verification, and then will normally not relinquish the terminal until the password is repeated. Periodt. 💅

There are two other conditions under which it will terminate:

• it will timeout after some interval of time ⏳
• it may be killed by someone with the appropriate privileges 💀

🌸 OPTIONS 🌸

All of the specified options are optional — yes, every single one. 🫶

• -n — don't use a timeout value. the terminal will be locked forever. 😭
• -p — a password is not requested; instead the user's current login password is used. 🔑
• -t timeout — the time limit (default 15 minutes) is changed to timeout minutes. ⏰

⚠️ CAVEATS ⚠️

heads up, bestie: the BSD version of the lock command supports using an S/Key to lock the terminal. iykyk 👀

👑 AUTHOR 👑

the Perl implementation of lock was written by Aron Atkins, atkins@gweep.net. iconic behavior 🌈

📜 COPYRIGHT and LICENSE 📜

This program is copyright by Aron Atkins 1999. 💖

This program is free and open software. You may use, copy, modify, distribute and sell this program (and any modified variants) in any way you wish, provided you do not restrict others to do the same. 🫶

xoxo bestie 💅 — perl v5.42.2, 2026-02-15