XIDLE(1) General Commands Manual XIDLE(1)

xidle — run a program on X inactivity

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

xidle uses the XScreenSaver(3) extension to receive inactivity events when a timeout is specified, running a specific program after the elapsed time. xidle will also run the program if it is sent a SIGUSR1 signal, or if the pointer sits in a corner of the screen for an amount of time. Signal and corner locking are always enabled, whether -timeout is specified or not.

The options are as follows:

pixels
Specify the size, in pixels, of the corner area. The default is 2 pixels.
secs
Specify the number of seconds the pointer has to be in the given position before running the program. The default is 2 seconds.
display
This argument allows you to specify the server to connect to; see X(7).
| -nw | -ne | -sw | -se
Set the position to one of none, northwest, northeast, southwest, or southeast, respectively. If no position is specified, the default is northwest.
path
Specify 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 is not specified, the default is xlock(1).
secs
Set the timeout to the specified number of seconds. If -timeout is not specified, xidle won't run any program on inactivity.

A few sets of application specific resources are supported and their values can be overridden by the command line options:

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

The xidle program resource class is .

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

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

The xidle program was written by Federico Schwindt <fgsch@openbsd.org> as an xautolock replacement.

The maximum number of arguments for -program, including the executable file, is currently set to 9.

August 2, 2020 Debian