14.7 Screen Saver

To prevent monitor damage, an X server implements a screen saver function which blanks screens during periods of unuse. The screen saver can be in one of three states:

set-screen-saver

display timeout period blanking exposures

Function

display: A display.
timeout: Specifies the delay until timeout takes over.
period: Specifies the periodic change interval, if used.
blanking: Specifies whether the blanking option is available.
exposures: Specifies whether exposures are allowed during blanking.

Changes the current control values for the display server screen saver. The screen saver is reset. The screen saver is also disabled if:

timeout is zero, or
Both blanking and exposures are disabled and the server cannot regenerate the screen contents without sending :exposure events.

The timeout specifies the (non-negative) number of seconds of input device inactivity that must elapse before the screen saver is activated. The timeout can be set to :default to restore the server default timeout interval.

If blanking is :yes and the screen hardware supports blanking, blanking is enabled; that is, the screen saver will simply blank all screens when it is activated. blanking can be set to :default to restore the server default state for blanking.

If exposures is :yes, exposures are enabled. If exposures are enabled, or if the server is capable of regenerating screen contents without sending :exposure events, the screen saver will display some server-dependent image when activated. Frequently, this image will consist of a repeating animation sequence, in which case period specifies the ( non-negative) number of seconds for each repetition. A period of zero is a hint that no repetition should occur.