systemd-inhibit Command Examples

Prohibit the system from entering certain power states. Inhibitor locks may be used to block or delay system sleep and shutdown requests as well as automatic idle handling. More information: https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-inhibit.html.

• List all active inhibition locks and the reasons for their creation:

systemd-inhibit --list

• Block system shutdown for a specified number of seconds with the sleep command:

systemd-inhibit --what shutdown sleep {{5}}

• Keep the system from sleeping or idling until the download is complete:

systemd-inhibit --what sleep:idle wget {{https://example.com/file}}

• Ignore lid close switch until the script exits:

systemd-inhibit --what sleep:handle-lid-switch {{path/to/script}}

• Ignore power button press while command is running:

systemd-inhibit --what handle-power-key {{command}}

• Describe who and why created the inhibitor (default: the command and its arguments for --who and Unknown reason for --why):

systemd-inhibit --who {{$USER}} --why {{reason}} --what {{operation}} {{command}}