runwhenidle
runwhenidle is a Linux utility that can be used to run a computationally or IO-intensive program when user is not in front of the computer, pausing it once the user is back, resuming once the user left, often without requiring adaptation from the program being run.
runwhenidle runs a command given to it or monitors an existing command with --pid parameter, pauses it if the user
is active by sending SIGSTOP (or optionally SIGTSTP) to the command and all its child processes.
When the user activity stops, runwhenidle resumes the command by sending it and all the child processes SIGCONT signal.
It then checks once per second if user activity has resumed, and once it is, pauses the command and its child processes again.
runwhenidle uses XScreenSaverQueryInfo() to check when last user activity happened therefore a running X server is required. Wayland is not currently supported.
If runwhenidle was used to start a command (i.e. --pid parameter was not used) and it receives an interruption
signal (SIGINT or SIGTERM), it will pass that signal to the command it is
running, resume the command if it previously paused it, stop checking for user activity and will wait for the command
to handle the signal.
Installation
Ubuntu and Debian: Download the deb file attached to the latest release.
Arch: Available in AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/runwhenidle
Other Distros: You will need to compile runwhenidle yourself.
Compiling
Make sure you have gcc, make, git and libxss-dev installed. Run make release. This should produce a binary
file runwhenidle in the project directory.
If you want to install it system-wide, run sudo make install or simply sudo cp ./runwhenidle /usr/bin.
Usage
runwhenidle [OPTIONS] [shell_command_to_run] [shell_command_arguments]
Example 1:
runwhenidle -t 100 -v rsync /filea /fileb
Run the rsync command and pause it while user is active. When user is inactive for 100 seconds, resume the command.
Output debug information to stderr.
Example 2:
runwhenidle --start-monitor-after=10 --timeout=30 --quiet ffmpeg -i file.mp4 file.mkv
Run the ffmpeg for 10 seconds uninterrupted. After 10 seconds pass, start monitoring user activity and pause ffmpeg
if user has been active within last 30 seconds. If user is inactive for 30 seconds, resume the operation of ffmpeg.
--quiet option makes sure runwhenidle doesn't output anything other than the output of ffmpeg.
Example 3:
runwhenidle -p 12345
Start monitoring user activity and when user is active, pause process with PID 12345, unpause it when user is inactive for 300 seconds.
All options
| Option | Description | Default Value |
|---|---|---|
--timeout| -t <seconds> |
Set the user idle time after which the command can run in seconds. | 300 seconds |
--pid|-p <pid> |
Monitor an existing command rather than start a new one. When this option is used, shell_command_to_run should not be passed. | |
--start-monitor-after| -a <ms> |
Set an initial delay in milliseconds before monitoring starts. During this time command runs unrestricted. This helps to catch quick errors. | 300 ms |
--pause-method| -m <method> |
Specify method for pausing the command when the user is not idle. Available Options: SIGTSTP (can be ignored by the program), SIGSTOP (cannot be ignored). | SIGSTOP |
--verbose| -v |
Enable verbose output for monitoring. | Not verbose |
--debug |
Enable debugging output. | No debug |
--quiet| -q |
Suppress all output from ./runwhenidle except errors and only display output from the command that is running. | Not quiet |
--version| -V |
Print the program version information. |
Known issues
- Wayland support. runwhenidle currently doesn't work without XScreenSaver, but Wayland support should be possible and is planned (at least for the DEs supporting ext-idle-notify, which now both Gnome and KDE support).
Building Ubuntu/Debian package
Make sure you have docker installed and run:
make debian-package
The .deb file will be generated in package-build/ directory.