- -help
-
Prints a brief summary of command-line options.
- -demo
-
This just launches the
xscreensaver-demo(1)
program, in which one can experiment with the various graphics hacks
available, and edit parameters.
- -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 mouse before deactivating (i.e., mouse motion does not
deactivate.) This is the mechanism by which
xscreensaver-demo(1)
communicates with the
xscreensaver(1)
daemon. (The first hack in the list is numbered 1, not 0.)
- -prefs
-
Like the no-argument form of -demo, but brings up that program's
Preferences panel by default.
- -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 as there is any user activity, as usual.
It is useful to run this from a menu; you may wish to run it as
sleep 5 ; xscreensaver-command -activate
to be sure that you have time to take your hand off the mouse before
the screensaver comes on. (Because if you jiggle the mouse, xscreensaver
will notice, and deactivate.)
- -deactivate
-
If the screensaver is active (the screen is blanked), this command will
deactivate it just as if there had been keyboard or mouse activity.
If locking is enabled, then the screensaver will prompt for a password
as usual.
- -cycle
-
If the screensaver is active (the screen is blanked), then stop the current
graphics demo and run a new one (chosen randomly.)
- -next
-
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
one in the list, instead of a randomly-chosen one. In other words,
repeatedly executing -next will cause the xscreensaver process to invoke each
graphics demo sequentially. (Though using the -demo option is probably
an easier way to accomplish that.)
- -prev
-
This is like -next, but cycles in the other direction.
- -select number
-
Like -activate, but runs the Nth element in the list of hacks.
By knowing what is in the programs list, and in what order, you can use
this to activate the screensaver with a particular graphics demo. (The first
element in the list is numbered 1, not 0.)
- -exit
-
Causes the xscreensaver process to exit gracefully. This is roughly the same
as killing the process with
kill(1),
but it is easier, since you don't need to first figure out the pid.
Warning:
never use kill -9 with xscreensaver while the screensaver is
active. If you are using a virtual root window manager, that can leave
things in an inconsistent state, and you may need to restart your window
manager to repair the damage.
- -lock
-
Tells the running xscreensaver process to lock the screen immediately.
This is like -activate, but forces locking as well, even if locking
is not the default (that is, even if xscreensaver's lock resource is
false, and even if the lockTimeout resource is non-zero.)
Note that locking doesn't work unless the xscreensaver process is
running as you. See
xscreensaver(1)
for details.
- -throttle
-
Temporarily switch to ``blank screen'' mode, and don't run any display modes
at all, until the screensaver is next de-activated. This is useful if you're
using a machine remotely, and you find that some display modes are using too
much CPU.
(If you want to do this permanently, that is, you want the screen saver
to only blank the screen and not run demos at all, then set the programs
resource to an empty list: See
xscreensaver(1)
for details.)
- -unthrottle
-
Turn `-throttle' mode off and resume normal behavior.
- -version
-
Prints the version of xscreensaver that is currently running on the display:
that is, the actual version number of the running xscreensaver background
process, rather than the version number of xscreensaver-command. (To see
the version number of xscreensaver-command itself, use
the -help option.)
- -time
-
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 tells you when the screen became blanked or
un-blanked.)
- -restart
-
Causes the screensaver process to exit and then restart with the same command
line arguments as last time. Do this after you've changed the resource
database, to cause xscreensaver to notice the changes.
Warning:
if you have a .xscreensaver file, this might not do what you
expect. You're probably better off killing the existing
xscreensaver (with xscreensaver-command -exit) and then
launching it again.
The important point is, you need to make sure that the xscreensaver
process is running as you. If it's not, it won't be reading the
right .xscreensaver file.
- -watch
-
Prints a line each time the screensaver changes state: when the screen
blanks, locks, unblanks, or when the running hack is changed. This option
never returns; it is intended for use by shell scripts that want to react to
the screensaver in some way. An example of its output would be:
BLANK Fri Nov 5 01:57:22 1999
RUN 34
RUN 79
RUN 16
LOCK Fri Nov 5 01:57:22 1999
RUN 76
RUN 12
UNBLANK Fri Nov 5 02:05:59 1999
The above shows the screensaver activating, running three different
hacks, then locking (perhaps because the lock-timeout went off) then
unblanking (because the user became active, and typed the correct
password.) The hack numbers are their index in the `programs'
list (starting with 1, not 0, as for the -select command.)
For example, suppose you want to run a program that turns down the volume
on your machine when the screen blanks, and turns it back up when the screen
un-blanks. You could do that by running a Perl program like the following
in the background. The following program tracks the output of
the -watch command and reacts accordingly:
#!/usr/bin/perl
my $blanked = 0;
open (IN, "xscreensaver-command -watch |");
while (<IN>) {
if (m/^(BLANK|LOCK)/) {
if (!$blanked) {
system "sound-off";
$blanked = 1;
}
} elsif (m/^UNBLANK/) {
system "sound-on";
$blanked = 0;
}
}
Note that LOCK might come either with or without a preceeding BLANK
(depending on whether the lock-timeout is non-zero), so the above program
keeps track of both of them.
