XDIMMER(1)

NAME
xdimmer - dim the screen and/or the keyboard backlight when idle or when ambient light changes

SYNOPSIS
xdimmer [-a] [-b brighten steps] [-d] [-k] [-n] [-p percent] [-s dim steps] [-t timeout]

DESCRIPTION
xdimmer waits timeout number of seconds and if no keyboard or mouse input is detected, the screen backlight is dimmed to percent in dim steps steps, unless the -n option was specified. Once keyboard or mouse input is detected, the screen backlight is restored to its previous brightness value in brighten steps steps.

On OpenBSD, if the -k option is used, the keyboard backlight is also dimmed to zero and restored upon movement via the wscons(4) interface.

Also on OpenBSD, if the -a option is used and an ambient light sensor device is located via sysctl(8), screen backlight (and keyboard backlight if -k is used) is dimmed or brightened based on lux readings.

OPTIONS

-a  Change backlights according to ambient light sensor lux readings. Currently only supported on OpenBSD.

-b steps
    Number of steps to take while restoring backlight. The default is 5 steps.

-d  Print debugging messages to stdout.

-k  Affect the keyboard backlight as well as the screen backlight. Currently only supported on OpenBSD.

-n  Do not adjust the screen backlight when idle.

-p percent
    Absolute brightness value to which the backlight is dimmed. The default is 10 percent.

-s steps
    Number of steps to take while decrementing backlight. The default is 20 steps.

-t timeout
    Number of seconds to wait without receiving input before dimming. The default is 120 seconds.

SIGNALS
SIGINT
    xdimmer will exit, attempting to brighten the screen and/or keyboard before exiting if they are currently in a dimmed state.

SIGUSR1
    xdimmer will immediately dim the screen and/or keyboard (depending on -k and -n options).

SIGUSR2
    xdimmer will immediately brighten the screen and/or keyboard if they are in a dimmed state.

AUTHORS
xdimmer was written by joshua stein <jcs@jcs.org>.