1x:xlock
From Linux Man Pages
xlock - Locks the local X display until a password is entered.
Contents |
SYNOPSIS
xlock [ -help ] [ -version ] [ -resources ] [ -display displayname ] [ -visual visualname ] [ -name resourcename
] [ -mode modename ] [ -delay usecs ] [ -batchcount num ] [ -count num ] [ -cycles num ] [ -ncolors num ] [ -size
num ] [ -saturation value ] [ -erasemode modename ] [ -erasedelay usecs ] [ -/+allowaccess ] [ -vtlock modename ]
[ -/+nolock ] [ -/+inwindow ] [ -/+inroot ] [ -/+remote ] [ -/+mono ] [ -/+allowroot ] [ -/+debug ] [ -/+descrip-
tion ] [ -/+echokeys ] [ -echokey echokey ] [ -/+enablesaver ] [ -/+resetsaver ] [ -/+grabmouse ] [ -/+grabserver
] [ -/+install ] [ -/+mousemotion ] [ -/+sound ] [ -/+timeelapsed ] [ -/+usefirst ] [ -/+verbose ] [ -nice level
] [ -lockdelay seconds ] [ -timeout seconds ] [ -font fontname ] [ -planfont fontname ] [ -bg color ] [ -fg color
] [ -background color ] [ -foreground color ] [ -username string ] [ -password string ] [ -info string ] [ -vali-
date string ] [ -invalid string ] [ -geometry geom ] [ -icongeometry geom ] [ -glgeometry geom ] [ -/+wireframe ]
[ -/+showfps ] [ -fpsfont fontname ] [ -/+fpstop ] [ -/+use3d ] [ -delta3d value ] [ -none3d color ] [ -right3d
color ] [ -left3d color ] [ -both3d color ] [ -program programname ] [ -messagesfile formatted-filename ] [ -mes-
sagefile filename ] [ -message string ] [ -messagefont fontname ] [ -bitmap filename ] [ -cpasswd crypted-pass-
word ] [ -forceLogout minutes ] [ -logoutButton minutes ] [ -logoutButtonLabel textstring ] [ -logoutButtonHelp
textstring ] [ -logoutFailedString textstring ] [ -/+dtsaver ] [ -modulepath path ] [ -locksound string ] [
-infosound string ] [ -validsound string ] [ -invalidsound string ] [ -startCmd string ] [ -endCmd string ] [
-pipepassCmd string ] [ -logoutCmd string ]
DESCRIPTION
xlock locks the X server till the user enters their password at the keyboard. While xlock is running, all new
server connections are refused. The screen saver is disabled. The mouse cursor is turned off. The screen is
blanked and a changing pattern is put on the screen. If a key or a mouse button is pressed then the user is
prompted for the password of the user who started xlock.
If the correct password is typed, then the screen is unlocked and the X server is restored. When typing the
password Control-U and Control-H are active as kill and erase respectively. To return to the locked screen,
click in the small icon version of the changing pattern.
In the lower part of the password screen a text is displayed. This message is taken from the first file of the
following that exists: $HOME/.xlocktext, $HOME/.plan, or $HOME/.signature.
On systems which support new BSD style authentication, the password may be prefixed by an authentication style
followed by a colon (i.e. "style:password"). See the login.conf(5) for more information on authentication
styles.
NOTE ON ETIQUETTE
Xlock should not be used on public terminals when there is a high demand for them.
If you find a public terminal that has been locked by another user and there are no other terminals available,
and the terminal appears to have been left idle for a while (normally more than 15 minutes), it is fair to try to
reset the session in some manner.
OPTIONS
-help
Print options and a brief description to standard output.
-version
Print version number (if >= 4.00) to standard output.
-resources
Print default resource file to standard output.
-display displayname
The display option sets the X11 display to lock. xlock locks all available screens on a given server, and
restricts you to locking only a local server such as unix:0, localhost:0, or :0 unless you set the -remote
option.
-visual visualname
visualname which is one of "StaticGray", "GrayScale", "StaticColor", "PseudoColor", "TrueColor", "Direct-
Color", or "default". default used to set the screen's default visual (the visual of the root window).
-name resourcename
resourcename is used instead of XLock when looking for resources to configure xlock.
-mode modename
As of this writing there are over 90 display modes supported (plus one more for random selection of one of
these). anemone Shows wiggling tentacles.
apollonian
ant Shows Langton's and Turk's generalized ants.
ant3d Shows 3D ants.
apollonian
Shows Apollonian circles.
atlantis
Shows moving sharks/whales/dolphin. May not be available depending on how it was configured.
atunnels
Advance GL tunnels screensaver. May not be available depending on how it was configured.
ball Shows bouncing balls.
bat Shows bouncing flying bats.
biof Shows 3D bioform.
blot Shows Rorschach's ink blot test.
bouboule
Shows Mimi's bouboule of moving stars.
bounce Shows bouncing footballs.
braid Shows random braids and knots.
bubble Shows popping bubbles.
bubble3d
Shows Richard Jones's GL bubbles. May not be available depending on how it was configured.
bug Shows Palmiter's bug evolution and a garden of Eden.
clock Shows Packard's oclock.
coral Shows a coral reef.
crystal Shows polygons in 2D plane groups.
daisy Shows a meadow of daisies.
dclock Shows a floating digital clock or message.
deco Shows art as ugly as sin.
demon Shows Griffeath's cellular automata.
dilemma Shows Lloyd's Prisoner's Dilemma simulation.
discrete
Shows various discrete maps.
dragon Shows Deventer's Hexagonal Dragons Maze.
drift Shows cosmic drifting flame fractals.
cage Shows the Impossible Cage, an Escher-like GL scene. May not be available depending on how it was config-
ured.
euler2d Shows a simulation of 2D incompressible inviscid fluid.
eyes Shows eyes following a bouncing grelb.
fadeplot
Shows a fading plot of sine squared.
fiberlamp
Shows a Fiber Optic Lamp.
fire Shows a 3D fire-like image. May not be available depending on how it was configured.
flag Shows a waving flag image. This may be text or a graphic image. Default text is the hostname and oper-
ating system.
flame Shows cosmic flame fractals.
flow Shows dynamic strange attractors.
forest Shows binary trees of a fractal forest.
fzort Shows a metallic-looking fzort.
galaxy Shows crashing spiral galaxies.
gears Shows GL's gears. May not be available depending on how it was configured.
glplanet
Animates texture mapped sphere (planet)
goop Shows goop from a lava lamp.
grav Shows orbiting planets.
helix Shows string art.
hop Shows real plane iterated fractals.
hyper Shows spinning n-dimensional hypercubes.
ico Shows a bouncing polyhedron.
ifs Shows a modified iterated function system.
image Shows randomly appearing logos.
juggle Shows a Juggler, juggling.
julia Shows the Julia set.
kaleid Shows Brewster's Kaleidoscope.
kumppa Shows kumppa.
laser Shows spinning lasers.
life Shows Conway's game of life.
life1d Shows Wolfram's game of 1D life.
life3d Shows Bays' game of 3D life.
lightning
Shows Keith's fractal lightning bolts.
lisa Shows animated lissajous loops.
lissie Shows lissajous worms.
loop Shows Langton's self-producing loops.
mandelbrot
Shows mandelbrot sets.
marquee Shows text.
matrix Shows the matrix.
maze Shows a random maze and a depth first search solution.
moebius Shows the Moebius Strip II, an Escher-like GL scene with ants. May not be available depending on how it
was configured.
molecule
Draws molecules, based on coordinates from PDB (Protein Data Base) files.
morph3d Shows GL morphing polyhedra. May not be available depending on how it was configured.
mountain
Shows Papo's mountain range.
munch Shows munching squares.
noof Shows SGI Diatoms.
nose Shows a man with a big nose runs around spewing out text.
pacman Shows Pacman(tm).
penrose Shows Penrose's quasiperiodic tilings.
petal Shows various GCD Flowers.
petri Shows a mold simultation in a petri dish
pipes Shows a self-building pipe system. May not be available depending on how it was configured.
polyominoes
Shows attempts to place polyominoes into a rectangle.
puzzle Shows a puzzle being scrambled and then solved.
pyro Shows fireworks.
qix Shows spinning lines a la Qix(tm).
roll Shows a rolling ball.
rotor Shows Tom's Roto-Rooter.
rubik Shows an auto-solving Rubik's Cube. May not be available depending on how it was configured.
sballs Shows balls spinning like crazy in GL. May not be available depending on how it was configured.
scooter Shows a journey through space tunnel and stars.
shape Shows stippled rectangles, ellipses, and triangles.
sierpinski
Shows a Sierpinski's triangle.
sierpinski3d
Shows a Sierpinski's gasket.
slip Shows slipping blits.
solitare
Shows Klondike's game of solitare.
space Shows a journey into deep space.
sphere Shows a bunch of shaded spheres.
spiral Shows a helical locus of points.
spline Shows colorful moving splines.
sproingies
Shows Sproingies! Nontoxic. Safe for pets and small children. May not be available depending on how it
was configured.
stairs Shows Infinite Stairs, an Escher-like GL scene. May not be available depending on how it was configured.
star Shows a star field with a twist.
starfish
Shows starfish.
strange Shows strange attractors.
superquadrics
Shows 3D mathematical shapes. May not be available depending on how it was configured.
swarm Shows a swarm of bees following a wasp.
swirl Shows animated swirling patterns.
t3d Shows a Flying Balls Clock Demo.
tetris Shows an autoplaying tetris game.
text3d | text3d2
Shows 3D moving texts.
thornbird
Shows an animated Bird in a Thorn Bush fractal map.
tik_tak Shows rotating polygons.
toneclock
Shows Peter Schat's toneclock.
triangle
Shows a triangular mountain range.
tube Shows an animated tube.
turtle Shows turtle fractals.
vines Shows fractal-like vines.
voters Shows Dewdney's Voters.
wator Shows Dewdney's Water-Torus planet of fish and sharks.
wire Shows a random circuit with 2 electrons.
world Shows spinning Earths.
worm Shows wiggly worms.
xjack Shows Jack having one of those days.
xcl Shows a Control Line combat model race
blank Shows nothing but a black screen. Does not show up in random mode.
bomb Shows a bomb and will autologout after a time. Does not show up in random mode and may be available
depending on how it was configured.
random Shows a random mode from above except blank (and bomb).
-delay usecs
The delay option sets the speed at which a mode will operate. It simply sets the number of microseconds to
delay between batches of animations. In blank mode, it is important to set this to some small number of
seconds, because the keyboard and mouse are only checked after each delay, so you cannot set the delay too
high, but a delay of zero would needlessly consume cpu checking for mouse and keyboard input in a tight
loop, since blank mode has no work to do.
-count num
The batchcount option sets number of things to do per batch to num .
In anenome mode it is means nothing.
In ant and ant3d modes this refers the number of ants.
In apollonian mode it is the number of possible ways to imbed circles within a circle, all of integer curva-
ture.
In atlantis mode it is the number of sharks.
In atunnels mode it is means nothing.
In ball mode it is the number of balls.
In bat mode it is the number of bats, could be less because of conflicts.
In blot mode this refers to the number of pixels rendered in the same color.
In bouboule mode it is the number of stars.
In bounce mode it is the number of balls, could be less because of conflicts.
In braid mode it is the upper bound number of strands.
In bubble mode it is the number of bubbles.
In bubble3d mode it is the number of bubbles.
In bug mode it is the number of bugs, could be less because of conflicts.
In cage mode it is means nothing.
In clock mode it is the percentage of the screen, but less than 100%.
In coral mode it is the number of seeds.
In crystal mode it is the number of polygons.
In daisy mode it is the number flowers that make a meadow.
In dclock mode it means nothing.
In deco mode it is the depth.
In demon mode this refers the number of colors.
In dilemma mode this refers the number of initial defectors.
In discrete mode it is the number of points.
In drift mode it is the number of levels to recurse (larger = more complex).
In dragon mode it means nothing.
In euler2d mode it is the number of segments.
In eyes mode it is the number of eyes.
In fadeplot mode it is the number of steps.
In fiberlamp it is the number of fibers.
In fire mode it is the number of fire particles (set it to 0 to have rain).
In flag mode it means nothing.
In flame mode it is the number of levels to recurse (larger = more complex).
In flow mode it is the number of bees.
In forest mode it is the number trees that make a forest.
In fzort mode it means nothing.
In galaxy mode it means the number of galaxies.
In gears mode it is the number of degrees to rotate the set of gears by.
In glplanet mode it is the number of hundredth degrees to roll the planet by.
In goop mode it is the number of blobs per plane.
In grav mode it is the number of planets.
In helix mode it means nothing.
In hop mode this refers to the number of pixels rendered in the same color.
In hyper mode it the number of dimensions.
In ico mode it is the ith platonic solid.
In ifs mode it means nothing.
In image mode it means it is the number of logos on screen at once.
In juggle mode it is time in milliseconds between a throw and the next catch.
In julia mode it is the depth of recursion.
In kaleid mode it is the number of pens.
In kumppa mode it means nothing.
In lament mode it means nothing.
In laser mode it is the number lasers.
In life and life3d modes it is the number of generations before a glider is introduced.
In life1d mode it means nothing.
In lisa mode it is the number of loops.
In lissie mode it is the number of worms.
In loop mode it is the number of flaws.
In mandelbrot mode it is the order.
In marquee mode it means nothing.
In matrix mode it means nothing.
In maze mode it means nothing.
In moebius mode it is means nothing.
In molecule mode it means nothing.
In morph3d mode it is the ith platonic solid.
In mountain mode it is the number of mountains.
In munch mode it means nothing.
In noof mode it means nothing.
In nose mode it means nothing.
In qix mode it is the number of points.
In pacman mode it means the number of ghosts.
In penrose mode it means nothing.
In petal mode it the greatest random number of petals.
In petri mode it means nothing.
In pipes mode it shows different joints, 0 random, 1 spherical, 2 bolted elbow, 3 elbow, and 4 alternating.
In polyominoes mode it means nothing.
In puzzle mode it the number of moves.
In pyro mode it is the maximum number flying rockets at one time.
In roll mode it is the number of points.
In rotor mode it is the number of rotor thingys which whirr...
In rubik mode it is the number of moves.
In sballs mode it is the number of spheres.
In scooter mode it is the number of doors.
In shape mode it means nothing.
In sierpinski mode it is the number of points.
In slip mode it means nothing.
In solitare mode it means nothing.
In space mode it is the number of stars.
In sphere mode it means nothing.
In spiral mode it is the number of spirals.
In spline mode it is the number of points "splined".
In sproingies mode it is the number of sproingies.
In stairs mode it is means nothing.
In star mode it is the number of stars on the screen at once.
In starfish mode it means nothing.
In strange mode it means nothing.
In superquadrics mode its the number of horizontal and vertical lines in the superquadric.
In swirl mode it means the number of "knots".
In swarm mode it is the number of bees.
In t3d mode it means nothing.
In tetris mode it means nothing.
In text3d mode it means nothing.
In thornbird mode it is the number of points.
In triangular mode it is the number of mountains.
In tube mode it is a rectangle (= 1), an ellipse (= 2), or a polygon if greater.
In turtle mode it means nothing.
In vines mode it is draw a complete vine (= 0) or a portion (= 1).
In voters mode it means the number of parties, 2 or 3.
In wator mode it means the breed time for the fish.
In wire mode it means the length of the circuit.
In world mode it is the number of worlds.
In worm mode it is the number of worms.
In xcl mode it represents the number of planes.
In xjack mode it means nothing.
In blank mode it means nothing.
In bomb mode it means the number of minutes to autologout.
A negative count allows for randomness. The range from the minimum allowed nonnegative count for a
particular mode to the ABS( count ) (or maximum allowed count , whichever is less).
-batchcount num
The batchcount option is deprecated but should still work as count.
-cycles num
The cycles option sets the number of cycles until time out for ant, ant3d, apollonian, blot, braid, bug,
clock, crystal, daisy, deco, demon, dilemma, discrete, dragon, eyes, fiberlamp, flag, flow, forest, galaxy,
helix, hop, hyper, ico, juggle, laser, life, life1d, life3d, lisa, lissie, loop, mandelbrot, mountain,
petal, sierpinski, shape, spline +erase, t3d, thornbird, triangle, tube, voters, wator, and wire. For
euler2d and worm it is the length of the lines, for atlantis it is the shark speed, for fadeplot, julia and
spiral it is the length of the trail of dots, munch it is the minimum size of the squares, for kaleid it is
the % of black, for qix it is the number of lines, for spline -erase it means the number of splines * 64
(for compatibility with +erase), for gears it is the number of degrees to increment the spin of each gear
by, for glplanet it is the number of hundredth degrees to rotate the planet by, for molecule it is the time
in seconds until timeout, for pipes it is the number of systems to draw before clearing the screen, for
rubik it is the number of steps to complete a 90 move, for sballs it is the sphere speed value, for scooter
it is the speed, for superquadrics it is the number of frames it takes to morph from one shape to another.
for text3d it is the number of times drawing a word before the next one, For others it means nothing.
-size num
The size option sets the size maximum size of a star in bouboule, pyro and star, size of ball in ball and
bounce, size of bat in bat, maximum size of bubble in bubble, size of clock in clock, minimum size of rect-
angles in deco, size of the polygons in crystal, tik_tak, and toneclock, size of polyhedron in ico, size of
lissie in lissie, size of dots of flag, for kaleid it is the symmetry, width of maze hallway, size of side
of penrose tile, radius of loop in lisa, radius of ball in roll, number of corners in sierpinski, number of
stars in scooter, size of tube in tube, width of worm in worm, line width in rotor, size of cells in ant,
bug, dilemma, dragon, life, life1d, pacman, petri, tetris, voters, wator, and wire. In pipes it is the max-
imum length of a system. In flow and swarm it is the length of the lines. In atlantis it is the shark
size. A negative number allows for randomness, similar to count. In atunnels, fire, gears, sballs and
sproingies it is the size of the screen (default 400), this is because on many slow systems it runs too slow
when the picture covers the full screen. Set to 0 for full screen on fast machines.
-ncolors num
The ncolors option sets the maximum number of colors to be used.
-saturation value
The saturation option sets saturation of the color ramp used to value . 0 is grayscale and 1 is very rich
color. 0.4 is a nice pastel.
-erasemode modename
As of this writing there are over 12 erase modes supported (if its not chosen its assumed random). The
erase modes are random_lines, random_squares, venetian, triple_wipe, quad_wipe, circle_wipe, three_cir-
cle_wipe, squaretate, fizzle, spiral, slide_lines, losira, no_fade. modename is now similar to the option
modelist where you can it can be something like "all-losira" to get all erasemodes but losira. Use a "+" or
a "," to add modes like "spiral+venetian".
-erasedelay usecs
The erasedelay option sets the number of microseconds for steps of the erasemode (a setting of 0 and the
erasemode is bypassed).
+/-nolock
The nolock option causes xlock to only draw the patterns and not lock the display. A key press or a mouse
click will terminate the screen saver.
-/+inwindow
Runs xlock in a window, so that you can iconify, move, or resize it and still use your screen for other
stuff. When running in a window, xlock no longer locks your screen, it just looks good.
-/+inroot
Runs xlock in your root window. Like the inwindow option it no longer locks the screen, it just looks good.
-/+remote
The remote option tells xlock to not stop you from locking remote X11 servers. This option should be used
with care and is intended mainly to lock X11 terminals which cannot run xlock locally. If you lock someone
else's workstation, they will have to know your password to unlock it. Using +remote overrides any resource
derived values for remote and prevents xlock from being used to lock other X11 servers. (Use `+' instead of
`-' to override resources for other options that can take the `+' modifier similarly.)
-/+mono
The mono option causes xlock to display monochrome, (black and white) pixels rather than the default colored
ones on color displays.
-/+allowaccess
This option is required for servers which do not allow clients to modify the host access control list. It
is also useful if you need to run x clients on a server which is locked for some reason... When allowaccess
is true, the X11 server is left open for clients to attach and thus lowers the inherent security of this
lock screen. A side effect of using this option is that if xlock is killed -KILL, the access control list
is not lost.
-vtlock modename
This option is used on a XFree86 system to manage VT switching in [off|noswitch|switch|restore] mode.
off means no VT switch locking.
switch means VT switch locking + switching to xlock VT when activated.
restore means VT switch locking + switching to xlock VT when activated + switching back to previous VT when
desactivated.
noswitch means VT switch locking only when xlock VT is active.
-/+allowroot
The allowroot option allows the root password to unlock the server as well as the user who started xlock.
May not be able to turn this on and off depending on your system and how xlock was configured.
-/+debug
Allows xlock to be debugged by doing all but locking the screen.
-/+description
The description option causes xlock shows a mode description above password window. The default is to show
this description.
-/+echokeys
The echokeys option causes xlock to echo '?' characters (default) for each key typed into the password
prompt. Some consider this a security risk, so the default is to not echo anything.
-echokey echokey
The text character to use for echo key in echokeys .
-/+enablesaver
By default xlock will disable the normal X server's screen saver since it is in effect a replacement for it.
Since it is possible to set delay parameters long enough to cause phosphor burn on some displays, this
option will turn back on the default screen saver which is very careful to keep most of the screen black.
-/+resetsaver
By default xlock will call XResetScreenSaver. This may be undesirable with DPMS monitors.
-/+grabmouse
The grabmouse option causes xlock to grab the mouse and keyboard, this is the default. xlock can not lock
the screen without this.
-/+grabserver
The grabserver option causes xlock to grab the server. This is not usually needed but some unsecure X
servers can be defeated without this.
-/+install
Allows xlock to install its own colormap if xlock runs out of colors. May not work on with some window man-
agers (fvwm) and does not work with the -inroot option.
-/+mousemotion
Allows you to turn on and off the sensitivity to the mouse to bring up the password window.
-/+sound
Allows you to turn on and off sound if installed with the capability.
-/+timeelapsed
Allows you to find out how long a machine is locked so you can complain to an administrator that someone is
hogging a machine.
-/+usefirst
The usefirst option causes xlock to use the keystroke which got you to the password screen as the first
character in the password. The default is to ignore the first key pressed.
-/+verbose
Verbose mode, tells what options it is going to use.
-nice nicelevel
The nice option sets system nicelevel of the xlock process to nicelevel .
-lockdelay seconds
The lockdelay option sets the number of seconds before the screen needs a password to be unlocked. Good for
use with an autolocking mechanism like xautolock(1).
-timeout seconds
The timeout option sets the number of seconds before the password screen will time out.
-font fontname
The font option sets the font to be used on the prompt screen.
-planfont fontname
option sets the font to be used for the text that is displayed in the lower part of the password screen.
-fg color
The fg option sets the color of the text on the password screen to color .
-bg color
The bg option sets the color of the background on the password screen to color .
-foreground color
The foreground option sets the color of the text on the password screen to color .
-background color
The background option sets the color of the background on the password screen to color .
-username string
Text string is shown in front of user name, defaults to "Name: ".
-password string
Text string is the password prompt string, defaults to "Password: ".
-info string
Text string is an informational message to tell the user what to do, defaults to "Enter password to unlock;
select icon to lock.".
-validate string
Text string is a message shown while validating the password, defaults to "Validating login..."
-invalid string
Text string is a message shown when password is invalid, defaults to "Invalid login."
-geometry geom
The geometry option sets geom the size and offset of the lock window (normally the entire screen). The
entire screen format is still used for entering the password. The purpose is to see the screen even though
it is locked. This should be used with caution since many of the modes will fail if the windows are far
from square or are too small (size must be greater than 0x0). This should also be used with -enablesaver to
protect screen from phosphor burn.
-icongeometry geom
The icongeometry option sets geom the size of the iconic screen (normally 64x64) seen when entering the
password. This should be used with caution since many of the modes will fail if the windows are far from
square or are too small (size must be greater than 0x0). The greatest size is 256x256. There should be
some limit so users could see who has locked the screen. Position information of icon is ignored.
-glgeometry geom
The glgeometry option sets geom the size of the screen for gl modes. Not normally available or needed.
-/+wireframe
Turn on/off wireframe, available on ant3d, atlantis, atunnels, daisy, fire, gears, lament, life3d, mountain,
sballs, sproingies, superquadrics, and triangle.
-/+showfps
Turn on/off frame per sec display, available on atlantis, atunnels, bubble3d, cage, fire, gears, invert,
lament, moebius, morph3d, rubik, sballs, stairs, and superquadrics.
-/+fpstop
Turn on/off frame per sec display on top of screen, used if showfps is on.
-fpsfont fontname
The fpsfont option sets the font to be used in the frame per sec display, used if showfps is on.
-/+use3d
Turn on/off 3d view, available on bouboule, pyro, star, and worm.
-delta3d value
Space between the center of your 2 eyes for 3d mode.
-none3d color
Color used for empty size in 3d mode.
-right3d color
Color used for right eye in 3d mode.
-left3d color
Color used for left eye in 3d mode.
-both3d color
Color used for overlapping images for left and right eye in 3d mode.
-program programname
The program option sets the program to be used as the fortune generator. Currently used only for marquee
and nose modes.
-messagesfile formatted-filename
The messagesfile option sets the file to be used as the fortune generator. The first entry is the number of
fortunes, the next line contains the first fortune. Fortunes begin with a "%%" on a line by itself. Cur-
rently used only for marquee and nose modes. If one exists, it takes precedence over the fortune program.
-messagefile filename
The messagefile option sets the file whose contents are displayed. Currently used only for marquee and nose
modes. If one exists, it takes precedence over the fortune program and messagesfile.
-message textstring
The message option sets the text to be displayed in a mode. Currently used only for flag, marquee and nose
modes. If one exists, it takes precedence over the fortune program, messagesfile and message.
-messagefont fontname
The messagefont option sets the font to be used in the mode. Currently used only for flag, marquee, and
nose modes.
-bitmap filename
The bitmap option sets the xbm, xpm, or ras file to be displayed with flag, image, life, life1d, maze, or
puzzle mode. For eyes and pacman only a xbm file is accepted. Certain modes reject the bitmap if too big.
/
MORE OPTIONS (these may not be available)
-cpasswd crypted-password
The cpasswd option sets the key to be this text string to unlock xlock instead of password file.
-forceLogout minutes
The forceLogout option sets minutes to auto-logout.
-logoutButton minutes
The logoutButton option sets minutes to logoutButton is available on password screen.
-logoutButtonLabel string
Text string is a message shown inside logout button when logout button is displayed. Defaults to "Logout".
-logoutButtonHelp string
Text string is a message shown outside logout button when logout button is displayed. Defaults to "Click
the \"Logout\" button to log out current\n user and make workstation available."
-logoutFailedString string
Text string is a message shown when a logout is attempted and fails. Defaults to "Logout attempt FAILED.\n
Current user could not be automatically logged out."
-/+dtsaver
Turn on/off CDE Saver Mode. This option is only available if CDE support was compiled in.
-modulepath path
The modulepath option sets the directories that xlock searches for mode modules to load. It is a colon sep-
arated list of directories to search. If "%S" is included in the path, it is replaced by the default mod-
ulepath. To add a private module directory to the default path, use something like '%S:~/mymoduledir' as
the path. This option is only available if module support was compiled in.
-locksound string
Text string references sound to use at lock time. Default sound, male voice: "Thank you, for your coopera-
tion."
-infosound string
Text string references sound to use for information. Default sound, male voice: "Identify please."
-validsound string
Text string references sound to when a password is valid. Default sound, female voice: "Complete."
-invalidsound string
Text string references sound to when a password is invalid. Default sound, female voice: "I am not pro-
grammed to give you that information."
-startCmd string
Text string command to execute when the screen is locked. Commonly used instructions include: "zaway". This
command, if still running when the screensaver exits, will be killed.
-endCmd string
Text string command to execute when the screen is unlocked.
-pipepassCmd string
Text string command into which to pipe the password when the screen is unlocked.
-logoutCmd string
Text string command to execute when the program logs the user out (either via the autologout or by pressing
the logout button).
-mailCmd string
Text string command to execute when the program to check mail.
-mailIcon string
Text string of file for the "mail arrived" bitmap.
-nomailIcon string
Text string of file for the "no mail" bitmap.
-dpmsstandby seconds
Allows one to set DPMS Standby for monitor (0 is defined as infinite). (Horizontal sync on, Vertical sync
off, RGB guns off, power supply on, tube filaments energized, (screen saver mode). Typical 17 inch
screen... 110 out of 120 watts with a 3 sec recovery time.) This option is only available if DPMS support
was compiled in.
-dpmssuspend seconds
Allows one to set DPMS Suspend for monitor (0 is defined as infinite). (Horizontal sync off, Vertical sync
on, RGB guns off, power supply off, tube filaments energized. Typical 17 inch screen ... 15 out of 120
watts with a 3 sec recovery time.) This option is only available if DPMS support was compiled in.
-dpmsoff seconds
Allows one to set DPMS Power Off for monitor (0 is defined as infinite). (Horizontal sync off, Vertical
sync off, Small auxiliary circuit stays on to monitor the HS/VS signals to enable power on when data needs
to be displayed on the screen. Typical 17 inch screen ... 5 out of 120 watts with a 10 sec recovery time.)
This option is only available if DPMS support was compiled in.
SPECIAL MODE DEPENDENT OPTIONS
-neighbors num
The neighbors option sets the number of neighbors of a cell to 3, 4, 6, 9 (may not have real mathematical
meaning), or 12 for several automata modes (ant, bug, demon, dilemma, life, loop, voters, wator, and wire)
(bug and loop do not span this full range). Setting it to 0 typically randomizes this, except where bitmaps
are used (dilemma, life, voters, and wator).
-/+eyes
Turn on and off eyes for ant, ant3d, and bug.
-/+cycle
Turn on and off colour cycling in crystal, lyapunov, mandelbrot, starfish, swirl, tetris, tik_tak,
toneclock, and tube.
-/+label
Turn on and off alternate space and number labeling in apollonian. For ant and ant3d this turns on and off
the labeling of the rule. For life and life3d this turns on and off the labeling of the pattern name and
rule.
-/+serial
Turn on and off sequential allocation of colors in kaleid. For life and life3d this turns on and off the
picking of sequential patterns (to be used with middle button of the mouse).
-/+trackmouse
Turn on and off mouse interaction in eyes, fire, julia, solitare, sballs, swarm, and tetris. For maze, pac-
man, solitare and tetris this may not be available depending on how xlock was configured.
-/+texture
Turn on and off texturing in fire, lament and sballs. This may not be available depending on how xlock was
configured.
-rule <rule>
The rule string is defined as S<neighborhood>/B<neighborhood> for life and life3d. Special parameters: P,
picks a random rule from all rules that have known patterns; G, picks a random rule from all rules that have
known gliders. For life a good example is Conway's rule which is S23/B3. Others are B36/S23 and
B3678/S34678. For life3d good examples are Bay's rules which are S45/B5, S567/B6, S56/B5, and S67/B67. The
rule string is defined as a binary string (requires at least one 1 and one 0) for ant and a base 4 (or quad-
ranary) string (requires 3 of 4 digits to be represented) for ant3d. Here a special parameter, T and then a
number, will pick a specific table.
-lifefile filename
The lifefile option sets the life and life3d lifeform. Only one format is currently supported, similar to
the #P xlife format. For life3d, 2 linefeeds in a row are assumed to advance the depth.
-arms num
Allows one to set the number of arms in anemone.
-finpoints num
Allows one to set the width of the arms in anemone.
-width num
Allows one to set the final number of points in each array of anemone.
-withdraws num
Allows one to set the withdraw frequency in
anemone.
-turnspeed num Allows one to set the turning speed in
-/+truchet
Turn on and off Truchet lines (trail) in ant.
-/+altgeom
Turn on and off alternate geometries (off euclidean space, on includes spherical and hyperbolic) in apollo-
nian mode.
-whalespeed num
Allows one to set the speed of the whales and dolphin in atlantis.
-/+boil
Turn on and off having the bubbles bubble up in bubble.
-nx num
Allows one to set the number of unit cells in x-direction in crystal.
-ny num
Allows one to set the number of unit cells in y-direction in crystal.
-/+centre
Turn on and off the centering on screen in crystal.
-/+maxsize
Turn on and off the centering on screen in crystal.
-/+cell
Turn on and off the drawing of unit cell in crystal.
-/+grid
Turn on and off the drwing of grid of unit cells (if -cell is on) in crystal.
-/+garden
Turn off and on garden look in daisy.
-/+binary
Turn on and off the binary clock in dclock.
-/+led
Turn on and off the led clock in dclock.
-/+popex
Turn on and off the population explosion counter in dclock.
-/+forest
Turn on and off the tropical deforest (hectares/acres) counter in dclock.
-/+hiv
Turn on and off the HIV infection counter in dclock.
-/+lab
Turn on and off the Animal Research counter in dclock.
-/+veg
Turn on and off the Animal Consumation counter in dclock.
-/+y2k
Turn on and off the Year 2000 countdown in dclock.
-/+millennium
Turn on and off the Second Millennium (January 1, 2001) countdown in dclock.
-bonus value
Allows one to set the bonus for cheating... between 1.0 and 4.0 in dilemma.
-/+conscious
Turn off and on self-awareness in dilemma.
-/+grow
Turn on and off growing fractals (else they are animated) for drift.
-/+liss
Turn on and off using lissajous figures to get points for drift.
-/+fog
Turn on and off fog for fire.
-/+shadows
Turn on and off shadows for fire.
-trees num
Validate the displaying of trees for fire if greater than zero.
-/+invert
Turn on and off inverting of the flag.
-/+rotate
Turn on/off rotating around attractor in flow.
-/+ride
Turn on/off rideing in the flow.
-/+box
Turn on/off bounding box in flow.
-/+periodic
Turn on/off periodic attractors in flow.
-/+search
Turn on/off search for new attractors in flow.
-/+dbuf
Turn on/off double buffering in flow.
-/+tracks
Turn on and off star tracks in galaxy.
-/+light
Turn on and off lighting of the planet for glplanet.
-/+bounce
Turn on and off bouncing movement of the planet for glplanet.
-pimage filename
Use the named xbm or xpm file for texturing the planet for glplanet. Use BUILTIN as filename for the
builtin image taken from Xearth.
-/+roll
Turn on and off rolling of the planet for glplanet.
-/+rotate
Turn on and off rotation of the planet for glplanet.
-/+texture
Turn on and off texturing of the planet for glplanet.
-/+stars
Turn on and off showing stars in the background for glplanet.
-/+decay
Turn on and off decaying orbits for grav.
-/+trail
Turn on and off decaying trail of dots for grav.
-/+ellipse
Turn on and off ellipse format in helix.
-/+martin
Turn on and off Barry Martin's square root hop. -/+popcorn Turn on and off Clifford A. Pickover's popcorn
hop.
-/+ejk1...ejk6
Turn on and off Ed J. Kubaitis' hops.
-/+rr
Turn on and off Renaldo Recuerdo's hop.
-/+jong
Turn on and off Jong's hop.
-/+sine
Turn on and off Barry Martin's sine hop.
-pattern <pattern>
Allows one to set the pattern for juggle.
-tail num
Minimum Trail Length for juggle.
-/+real
Turn on/off real-time juggling for juggle. Deprecated. There should be no need to turn off real-time jug-
gling, even on slow systems. Adjust speed using -count.
-/+describe
Turn on/off pattern descriptions in juggle.
-/+balls
Turn on/off Balls in juggle.
-/+clubs
Turn on/off Clubs in juggle.
-/+torches
Turn on/off Flaming Torches in juggle.
-/+knives
Turn on/off Knives in juggle.
-/+rings
Turn on/off Rings in juggle.
-/+bballs
Turn on/off Bowling Balls in juggle.
-/+planetary
Turn on and off planetary gears in gears.
-planetsize num
Sets the size of the screen for planetary option in gears. This is for machines with slower CPU. (Set to 0
for full screen).
-/+disconnected
Turn on and off disconnected pen movement in kaleid.
-/+alternate
Turn on and off alternate rotated display mode kaleid.
-/+quad
Turn on and off quad mirrored/rotated mode similar to size 4 in kaleid.
-/+oct
Turn on and off oct mirrored/rotated mode similar to size 8 in kaleid.
-/+linear
Turn on and off Cartesian/Polar coordinate mode in kaleid.
-/+conway
Turn on and off John Conway's original Life rule S23/B3 life.
-/+highlife
Turn on and off David Bell's HighLife rule S23/B36 life.
-/+daynight
Turn on and off Nathan Thompson's Day and Night rule S34678/B3678 life.
-/+callahan
Turn on and off Paul Callahan's S2b34/B2a hexagonal life.
-/+andreen
Turn on and off Bob Andreen's S2a2b4a/B2a3a4b hexagonal life.
-/+trilife
Turn on and off Carter Bays' S34/B45 triangular life.
-/+trilife1
Turn on and off Carter Bays' S45/B456 triangular life.
-/+trilife2
Turn on and off Carter Bays' S23/B45 triangular life.
-/+totalistic
Turn on and off totalistic rules for life1d. If this is off then it follows rules of the LCAU collection.
These rules may not be symmetric and are more general.
-/+additive
Turn on and off additive functions mode in lisa.
-/+dissolve
Turn on and off disolving state in loop.
-/+evolve
Turn on and off Evolving Loops in loop.
-/+langton
Turn on and off Langton Loops for loop.
-/+sheath
Turn on and off sheath extension for loop.
-/+wrap
Turn on and off wrapping of borders for loop.
-increment num
Sets the option for increasing orders in mandelbrot.
-/+alpha
Turn on and off interior displaying level of closest return in mandelbrot.
-/+binary
Turn on and off binary decomposition color modulation in mandelbrot.
-/+dem
Turn on and off Distance Estimator Method (instead of escape time) in mandelbrot.
-/+index
Turn on and off interior displaying iteration of closest return in mandelbrot.
-/+lyap
Turn on and off interior displaying according to an estimate of the Lyapunov exponent in mandelbrot.
-/+pow
Turn on and off adding z^z in mandelbrot.
-/+sin
Turn on and off adding sin(z) in mandelbrot.
-/+noants
Turn off and on ants in moebius.
-/+solidmoebius
Turn on and off solid Mobius strip in moebius.
-/+atoms
Turn on and off the drawing of spheres for the atoms in molecule.
-/+bbox
Turn on and off showing the molecules in a blue box in molecule.
-/+bonds
Turn on and off the drawing of the atomic bonds in molecule.
-molecule filename
Read a molecule structure from a pdb file in molecule.
-/+labels
Turn on and off the labeling of the atoms in molecule.
-spin{x|y|z}
Set the axis for molecule rotation in molecule. The default is "XYZ".
+spin
Turn off the molecule rotation in molecule.
-/+titles
Turn on and off the molecule description in molecule.
-/+wander
Turn on and off the moving of the molecule on a sinoid curve in molecule. Turn on and off movements in
fire.
-/+ammann
Turn on and off lines for penrose.
-increment value
Allows fine adjustments to order in mandelbrot.
-/+erase
Turn on and off erasing for spline. If this option is on, cycles is divided by 64 to compute the number of
lines, so as to be compatible when using -fullrandom.
-factory num
Number of extra factory parts in pipes.
-/+fisheye
Turn on if you want a zoomed-in view of pipes.
-/+tightturns
Turn on if you want the pipes to bend more often.
-/+rotatepipes
Turn on if you want the pipe system rotated in pipes.
-/+complete
Turn on or off complete graph morphing in qix.
-size[xyz] num
Number represents the number of cubies on the x, y, or z axis. Negative numbers offer randomness from 2 to
the absolute value of the number. star.
-/+hideshuffling
Turn on or off hidden shuffle phase for rubik.
-/+border
Turn on or off borders in shape.
-/+shadowing
Turn on or off shadowing in shape.
-/+stippling
Turn on or off stippling in shape.
-intensity value
Set the brightness (default 2185) of the sierpinski structure for sierpinski3d.
-maxdepth value
Set the maximum depth (up to 10) of the sierpinski structure for sierpinski3d.
-speed value
Determines after how much steps the depth changes for sierpinski3d.
-trek num
If its a high number you will see the space ship all the time in star.
-/+rock
Turn on and off rocks for star. If this is off, stars will be seen instead.
-/+straight
Turn on if star gets you motion sick.
-cyclepeed num
Set speed of cycling in starfish.
-rotation num
Set rotation velocity in starfish.
-thickness num
Set thickness in starfish.
-/+rock
Turn on and off blob for starfish.
-spinspeed num
Set speed of rotation, in degrees per frame for superquadrics.
-/+bonus
Turn on in tetris to see 5 square bonus pieces.
-/+well
Turn on in tetris to see welltris.
-ttfont filename
Sets the True Type font file (or font directory) used for text3d
-extrusion num
Sets length of the text extrusion for text3d
-rot_amplitude float
Sets rotation amplitude value of each letter for text3d
-rot_frequency float
Sets rotation frequency for text3d
-/+no_split
Turn on and off word splitting for text3d
-ttanimate function_name
Sets the animation function used for text3d. Currently one of : Random FullRandom Default Default2 None
Crazy UpDown Extrude RotateXY RotateYZ Frequency Amplitude
-speed km/h
The speed for all planes in km/h for xcl.
-frametime microseconds
The time for one frame on the screen. This time is used to calculate the delay time and depends on the speed
of the X server for xcl.
-line_length mm
The distance between the pilot and the plane for xcl.
-spectator mm
The distance between spectator and pilot. It should be grater than the line_length and the half wing width
of the plane to be not dangerous for the spectator for xcl.
-viewmodel
Shows an animated view of one model for xcl.
-/+oldcolor
Sets the colors for the first two planes fixed to red and yellow in xcl.
-xcldebug
Shows some additional timing information to make sure that the calibrate procedure goes right in xcl.
-automatic
The auto scale for automatic fit into the window is Deactivated with this option for xcl.
-randomstart
Use a random start point for models at startup for xcl.
-preset num
Use the preset num [1-5] for biof.
-lines num
Use num lines in biof.
-points num
Use num points in biof.
-/+offangle
Use offangle in biof.
-duration seconds
Allows one to set a duration for a mode in random. Duration of 0 is defined as infinite.
-/+fullrandom
Turn on/off randomness options within modes in random. Not implemented for all mode options.
-modelist textstring
Allows one to pass a list of files to randomly display to random. "all" will get all files but blank (and
bomb if compiled in). "all,blank" will get all modes. "all,-image bounce,+blank" will get all modes exclud-
ing image and bounce modes. "bug wator" will get only bug and wator. "allgl" will get only the GL modes if
compiled in, all-allgl will get all excluding the GL modes, "allnice" will weed out high cpu usage modes (as
well as hackers and gl modes). "allxpm" will get all modes that use xpm. "allwrite" will get all modes
that take advantage of writable colormaps (not including xpm). "all3d" will get all the modes that support
this option. "allmouse" will get all the modes that support mouse interaction. Similarly, "allautomata"
for automata modes, "allfractal" for fractal modes, "allgeometry" for geometry modes, "allspace" for space
modes. The random mode itself can not be referenced.
-/+sequential
Turn on non-random random option.
**WARNING**
xlock can appear to hang if it is competing with a high-priority process for the CPU. For example, if xlock is
started after a process with 'nice -20' (high priority), xlock will take considerable amount of time to respond.
SHADOW PASSWORDS
If the machine is using a shadow password system, then xlock may not be set up to get the real password and so
must be given one of its own. This can be either on the command line, via the -cpasswd option, or in the file
$HOME/.xlockrc, with the first taking precedence. In both cases an encrypted password is expected (see
makekey(8)). If neither is given, then xlock will prompt for a password and will use that, also storing an
encrypted version of it in $HOME/.xlockrc for future use.
XLOCK AND SSH-AGENT
If you use ssh-agent(1) to avoid entering a passphrase every time you use one of your ssh(1) private keys, it's good security practice to have ssh-agent forget the keys before you leave your terminal unattended. That way, an attacker who takes over your terminal won't be able to use your private ssh keys to log in to other systems. Once you return to your terminal, you can enter the passphrase and re-add the keys to ssh-agent. There are a couple of ways in which xlock can help to automate this process. Firstly, the startCmd option allows xlock to be configured to run 'ssh-add -D' every time you lock the screen, so that your keys are automatically deleted from ssh-agent. If the passphrase on your ssh keys is the same as your password, then xlock can also be made to re- add the keys to ssh-agent when you unlock the screen, via the pipepassCmd option. This requires a bit of script- ing, as the command must read your password from standard input and then automate the interaction with ssh-add to re-add the keys. There is an example of such a script in the xlock distribution - see etc/xlockssh*
BUGS
"kill -KILL xlock " causes the server that was locked to be unusable, since all hosts (including localhost) were
removed from the access control list to lock out new X clients, and since xlock could not catch SIGKILL, it ter-
minated before restoring the access control list. This will leave the X server in a state where "you can no
longer connect to that server, and this operation cannot be reversed unless you reset the server."
-From the X11R4 Xlib Documentation, Chapter 7.
NCD terminals do not allow xlock to remove all the hosts from the access control list. Therefore you will need
to use the "-remote" and "-allowaccess" switches. If you happen to run without "-allowaccess" on an NCD termi-
nal, xlock will not work and you will need to reboot the terminal, or simply go into the SETUP menus, under 'Net-
work Parameters', and turn off TCP/IP access control.
RELATED
X(1), Xlib Documentation.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1988-1991 by Patrick J. Naughton
Copyright (c) 1993-2005 by David A. Bagley
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without
fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright
notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation.
The original BSD daemon is Copyright (c) 1988 Marshall Kirk McKusick. All Rights Reserved.
DEC, HP, IBM, Linux, SCO, SGI, and Sun icons have their respective copyrights.
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