The above shows the screensaver activating, running three different hacks, then locking (perhaps because the lock-timeout went off) then unblanking (because Returns it is intended for use by shell scripts that want to react to the screensaver in some way. Prints a line each time the screensaver changes state: when the screen blanks, locks, unblanks, or when the running hack is changed. xscreensaver file has changed and re-reads it as needed. You shouldn't really need to do this, since restart Causes the screensaver process to exit and then restart with the same command line arguments as last time. Tells you when the screen became blanked or un-blanked.)
Prints the time at which the screensaver last activated or deactivated (roughly, how long the user has been idle or non-idle: but not quite, since it only (To see the version number of xscreensaver-command itself, use the -help Process, rather than the version number of xscreensaver-command. version Prints the version of xscreensaver that is currently running on the display: that is, the actual version number of the running xscreensaver background Note that locking doesn't work unless the xscreensaver process is running as you. This is like -activate, but forces locking as well, even if locking is not theĭefault (that is, even if xscreensaver's lock resource is false, and even if the lockTimeout resource is non-zero.) Tells the running xscreensaver process to lock the screen immediately. Leave things in an inconsistent state, and you may need to restart your window manager to repair the damage. If you are using a virtual root window manager, that can Warning: never use kill -9 with xscreensaver while the screensaver is active. This does nothing if the display is currently locked. (The first element in the list is numbered 1, not 0.)Ĭauses the xscreensaver process to exit gracefully. This to activate the screensaver with a particular graphics demo. By knowing what is in the programs list, and in what order, you can use select number Like -activate, but runs the Nth element in the list of hacks. This is like -next, but cycles in the other direction. (Though using the -demo option is probably an easier way to accomplish that.) In other words, repeatedly executing -next will cause the xscreensaver process to invoke each graphics demo One in the list, instead of a randomly-chosen one. This is like either -activate or -cycle, depending on which is more appropriate, except that the graphics hack that will be run is the next If the screensaver is active (the screen is blanked), then stop the current graphics demo and run a new one (chosen randomly.) Is one way to prevent the screen from blanking.) If the screen is not blanked, then this simulated user activity will re-start the countdown (so, issuing the -deactivate command periodically
If the screen is locked, then the password dialog will pop up first,Īs usual. This means that if the screensaver is active (the screen is blanked), then thisĬommand will cause the screen to un-blank as if there had been keyboard or mouse activity. deactivate This tells xscreensaver to pretend that there has just been user activity. (Because if you jiggle the mouse, xscreensaver will notice, Sleep 5 xscreensaver-command -activateto be sure that you have time to take your hand off the mouse before the screensaver comes on.
It is useful to run this from a menu you may wish to run it as activate Tell xscreensaver to turn on immediately (that is, blank the screen, as if the user had been idle for long enough.) The screensaver will deactivate as soon Like the no-argument form of -demo, but brings up that program's Preferences panel by default. (The first hack in the list is numbered 1, not 0.) Mouse before deactivating (i.e., mouse motion does not deactivate.) This is the mechanism by which xscreensaver-demo(1) communicates with the demo number When the -demo option is followed by an integer, it instructs the xscreensaver daemon to run that hack, and wait for the user to click the This just launches the xscreensaver-demo(1) program, in which one can experiment with the various graphics hacks available, and edit
Prints a brief summary of command-line options. Xscreensaver-command accepts the following command-line options: This program, xscreensaver-command, is a command-line-oriented tool the xscreensaver-demo(1). Programs such as xscreensaver-command and xscreensaver-demo(1). Xscreensaver(1) has a client-server model: the xscreensaver process is a daemon that runs in the background it is controlled by other foreground The xscreensaver-command program controls a running xscreensaver process by sending it client-messages.