Call system-idle-seconds to get the number of seconds since last user activity on the computer.
This differs from the built-in current-idle-time, which can only be used for that purpose as long as Emacs is "in focus".
This differs from org-user-idle-seconds in org-clock.el, by adding support for Wayland. Hopefully more in the future. Plus your code won't have to depend on loading Org, just this little library.
- Mac OS
- Wayland (GNOME)
- Wayland (KDE Plasma, and other compositors supporting the ext-idle-notify protocol)
- Returns 0 if invoked in the first 9 seconds or so
- Requires installing
swayidle
- X11 (GNOME)
- X11 (any)
- Requires installing
x11idleorxprintidle
- Requires installing
To test that it works, eval the following and do not touch the computer for 11 seconds. A number should be printed to *Messages*.
(run-with-timer 11 nil (lambda () (print (system-idle-seconds))))
Important
Your Help Needed! It's impossible to test all possible systems, so please take a moment to report in about whether this works on yours or not.
If you're willing to test solutions, even better! Then we should be able to add support for your system type.
Not guaranteed to return correct results if user has switched from the graphical desktop to a TTY console and is in the console by the time it is called.
