caffeine-indicator

Manually inhibit desktop idleness with a toggle

$ caffeine-indicator

caffeine-indicator

The `caffeine-indicator` command, typically provided by the `caffeine` package, is a simple GUI tool for preventing your Linux system from going to sleep or dimming the screen. It provides a status icon, usually in the system tray, that allows the user to quickly toggle the sleep inhibition on or off. This is useful when watching videos, giving presentations, or performing other tasks where inactivity might cause the screen to turn off.

It's a straightforward application, usually invoked without any command-line arguments, relying primarily on its graphical interface. It directly interacts with the system's power management settings, typically using mechanisms like `xdg-screensaver` or similar APIs to inhibit screen blanking and system sleep.

The `caffeine-indicator` provides a convenient way for users to control system sleep behavior without needing to dive into system settings or use command-line tools like `xset` directly. The GUI indicator presents an intuitive and accessible option.

Since it's a GUI application, it generally requires a desktop environment (like GNOME, KDE, XFCE, etc.) to function correctly. It also depends on the underlying power management system of the desktop environment.

Simply running `caffeine-indicator` from a terminal will typically launch the application and place an icon in the system tray. From there, you can click the icon to toggle the sleep inhibition. When the indicator is 'active' your system will not sleep or dim your display. Clicking the indicator will deactivate, which will allow the system to revert to normal power-saving behavior.

It usually depends on `python3`, `gir1.2-gtk-3.0`, `gir1.2-appindicator3-0.1` and other libraries to run, however, this varies depending on the distribution used.

The `caffeine` package and its associated `caffeine-indicator` have been available for many years on various Linux distributions. Its original purpose was to offer a simple, accessible tool for keeping a system awake during media playback. The development of GUI has evolved over time with improvements to the desktop environment.

xset(1), xdg-screensaver(1), gnome-session-inhibit(1)