SWAYLOCKD(1)

NAME
swaylockd - launch swaylock(1) and re-launch if it dies

SYNOPSIS

All arguments are directly passed to swaylock(1).

DESCRIPTION

swaylockd is a dumb launcher to spawn swaylock(1) and ensure it’s running no matter what — it immediately restarts swaylock(1) if terminated by a signal (e.g. the process crashed) and also blocks all signals (except SIGKILL and SIGSTOP). It also ensures that only one instance per user is running (using flock(2)).

IMPORTANT: swaylockd is not compatible with swaylock(1) option --daemonize!

ENVIRONMENT

XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
    This variable must be set and contain the path to the existing directory where the lock file will be created. Refer to “XDG Base Directory Specification” for more information.

FILES

${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/swaylockd.lock
    A lock file created when swaylockd is executed and removed right before it quits.

LOGGING

Error messages generated by swaylockd(1) are printed to STDERR and logged to syslog with ident string “swaylockd” and facility code 1 (user).

HISTORY

swaylockd has been developed mainly as a workaround for the swaylock(1) stability issues (see e.g. issue

swaylock(1) is a critical piece of security software — as a screen locker, any bug in the program that causes it to crash will cause the screen to unlock. As soon as swaylock(1) is no longer running, the screen is no longer locked. Therefore, great care must be taken to ensure that it never crash.

AUTHORS

Jakub Jirutka

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to the project’s issue tracker at

SEE ALSO

swaylock(1)