Please provide an option to lock the screen only a while after blanking

[xtaran]

I'm submitting a…

[ ] Bug
[x] Feature Request
[ ] Other (Please describe in detail)

Current Behavior

i3lock unconditionally immediately locks the screen when started

Wanted Behavior

An option which allows a (usually short) delay during which the screen is already blanked/saved, but not yet locked, e.g. any mouse movement or keypress just exits i3lock again.

This is common on mobile phone (a common setting seems 5 minutes) and also present in XScreenSaver.

Common use case: You're sitting in front of the screen thinking or explaining something on the screen or talking with someone in the same room, and you just poke the mouse once the screen goes blank instead having to enter your super long password.

Fictional Example

i3lock --lock-delay 5

(Lock the screen only 5 seconds after blanking it.)

Environment

Output of i3lock --version:

i3lock: version 2.14.1 © 2010 Michael Stapelberg

[stapelberg]

Seems like a reasonable request. But, to make it clear to users what’s happening (even i3lock users who unknowingly sit in front of a machine with this feature enabled), we need to force the unlock indicator and make it describe how many seconds until the screen will be locked. This is similar to what we already have when i3lock can’t grab the X11 server (yet).

[xtaran]

To users what’s happening (even i3lock users who unknowingly sit in front of a machine with this feature enabled), we need to force the unlock indicator and make it describe how many seconds until the screen will be locked.

This sounds even better! I.e. it would be also reminder to touch an input device to avoid the desktop being locked in <n> seconds: 3, 2, 1, sold —eh— locked. ;-)

[orestisfl]

This feature seems much more well suited for the program that is responsible to run i3lock when the screen blanks because that would be the authoritative source for when a screen is "blank".

[pataquets]

I'm against adding this, as it would introduce undesired complexities and side effects to i3lock which could be confusing to users. I fully agree with @orestisfl, which is also the recommended and widespread practice. Case in point: xss-lock.

@xtaran : Looks like xss-lock does exactly what you need and would allow you solve your issue. WDYT?