VLOCK-MAIN(8)

💖 VLOCK-MAIN(8) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to vlock-main, from the Linux Programmer's Manual — yes she's a section 8 girlie, she's system-y, she's iconic, let's get into it 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

vlock-main — locks your current virtual console. that's it, that's the job 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

vlock-main [plugins...]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so vlock-main is part of vlock(1), the Virtual Console locking program for Linux 🌸 It locks the current session and literally will not exit unless the current user can authenticate themselves. no vibes-based unlocking here, you need actual credentials.

the root user will also be able to unlock the session — unless that's been disabled at compile time 🙈

the command line arguments specify plugins that should be loaded by vlock-main. see vlock-plugins(5) for more info, she has the tea ☕

ngl, if plugin support is disabled at compile time, the only supported argument is "all". that's the whole menu, bestie.

✨ ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES ✨

these are the env vars that can change how vlock-main behaves, and honestly they're giving main character energy:

• USER — if this variable is set when vlock-main is run as root (uid 0), vlock locks the screen as this user instead of root. the root password will still be able to unlock the session, unless disabled at compile time. so like, root is still root, she's just cosplaying as someone else 🧚
• VLOCK_ALL_MESSAGE — if this variable is set and all consoles are locked, its contents will be used as the locking message instead of the default message. custom message era 💌
• VLOCK_CURRENT_MESSAGE — if this variable is set and only the current console is locked, its contents will be used as the locking message instead of the default message.
• VLOCK_MESSAGE — if this variable is set, its contents will be used as the locking message instead of the default. this overrides the former two variables — she's the boss, the final word, periodt 👑
• VLOCK_TIMEOUT — set this variable to specify the timeout (in seconds) after which the screen saver plugins (if any) will be invoked. if this variable is unset, or set to an invalid value, or set to 0, no timeout is used. see vlock-plugins(5) for more information about plugins ✨
• VLOCK_PROMPT_TIMEOUT — set this variable to specify the amount of time (in seconds) you will have to enter your password at the password prompt. if this variable is unset, or set to an invalid value, or set to 0, no timeout is used.

⚠️ warning bestie: if this value is too low, you may not be able to unlock your session. like, you'll be locked out of your own console. do not do this to yourself 😭

✨ SIGNALS ✨

several signals are ignored. vlock-main will try to exit cleanly if SIGTERM is received 🫶 she's polite like that.

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

• vlock(1)
• vlock-plugins(5)

✨ AUTHORS ✨

Frank Benkstein <frank-vlock@benkstein.net> 💜

and that's the whole page, no notes 💖 this one's from the Linux manual, dated 28 July 2007 — vintage but still slaying, fr fr. stay locked, stay safe, mwah 🎀✨🦋