Re: auto-lockscreen? -> idle + caveat!

Sven Guckes <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.comp.gnu.screen
Message-ID <[email protected]>
* Charles Fry <[email protected]> [2004-03-16 22:38]:
> > Also, what are some alternative lock programs
> > ($LOCKPRG) than the builtin screenlock?
>
> cmatrix is cute.

indeed!  however - beware!

  $ man cmatrix
  ...
  BUGS
    This program is very CPU intensive.  Don't be
    surprised if it eats up over 40% of your CPU at times.

and indeed - it does eat CPU cycles!

at the end of october i was in Cologne
showing off what screen can do.
i also showed the new "idle" command.
however, "idle 100 cmatrix" will
keep on spawning a new cmatrix
after each 100 seconds of idle time.

so while i was talking my screen session filled up with
more cmatrix processes until 40 windows were filled.  and
the CPU was seriously having trouble with all of these..

even worse, this was on the *server* which was
running a dozen apaches and some more services.

the admin was not amused.

once i learned about this i changed
the command in my screenrc to this:

    idle 666 eval "screen cmatrix" "idle 0"

so once the first idle time has passed
screen would open a new window with cmatrix
and then reset the idle time to zero
which means "don't do anything".

the manual does mention the parameter of zero -
but it certinaly does not include any warning.

oh, well, the rewrite of screen will probably
have a lot more documentation for beginners..

further info is in my setup file:
http://www.guckes.net/setup/screenrc

Sven


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