caffeine-indicator

Manually inhibit desktop idleness with a toggle

$ caffeine-indicator

caffeine-indicator [OPTIONS]

--help
    Displays help information and exits.

--version
    Displays version information and exits.

--activate
    Activates Caffeine, preventing system idleness. Availability varies by implementation and is not universally supported via CLI.

--deactivate
    Deactivates Caffeine, allowing the system to idle. Availability varies by implementation and is not universally supported via CLI.

--toggle
    Toggles the Caffeine state between active and inactive. Availability varies by implementation and is not universally supported via CLI.

The caffeine-indicator is an application designed to temporarily prevent your Linux system from becoming idle. When active, it stops actions like screen blanking, screen locking, and system suspension, making it ideal for presentations, watching videos, or running long-duration tasks without user interaction. It's typically implemented as a small icon in your desktop environment's system tray or top bar, allowing for quick toggling of its "awake" state.

While the executable often associated with this functionality is simply caffeine, it functions as a user-friendly frontend to underlying system mechanisms like xset or systemd-inhibit, ensuring your display remains on and your system stays active as long as needed. Its primary mode of operation is through a graphical interface, making command-line interaction limited or non-existent in many modern implementations.

The caffeine-indicator is primarily a graphical utility. Its command-line interface and available options can vary significantly or be entirely absent depending on the specific implementation, package, and Linux distribution. Modern versions (e.g., as a GNOME Shell Extension) often have no direct CLI interaction. It prevents idleness but does not inhibit explicit system shutdown or reboot commands.

The primary and most common way to interact with Caffeine is via its graphical icon, usually found in the system tray, notification area, or top bar of your desktop environment. Clicking this icon typically toggles its active state or provides a menu for further options.

While caffeine-indicator provides a convenient front-end, it often works by leveraging standard Linux utilities. This includes commands like xset s off to disable X screen blanking, or more robustly, using systemd-inhibit to register a system-wide inhibition lock against suspend, idle, or screen-locking actions.

The caffeine-indicator originated as a popular applet for Ubuntu's Unity desktop environment. It gained prominence for its simple solution to prevent screen blanking and system suspension during activities like presentations or video playback, where continuous user input isn't present. Over time, its functionality has been adapted into various forms, including GNOME Shell extensions and similar indicator applets for other desktop environments, maintaining its core purpose of keeping the system 'awake'.

xset(1), systemd-inhibit(1), gnome-tweaks(1)