Tell me more ×
Ask Different is a question and answer site for power users of Apple hardware and software. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 14 down vote favorite
5

I'd like to be able to turn my screen off from command line.

I know there's the keyboard shortcut ctrl+⇧+⏏ but I want to do it from a shell script or remotely.

Is there a way?

share|improve this question
This might help: apple.stackexchange.com/questions/34884/… – George Jan 16 '12 at 22:18
You can also read this: stackoverflow.com/questions/1239439/… – jm666 Jan 18 '12 at 17:03

7 Answers

up vote 18 down vote accepted
+50

While I haven't been able to find a command that will sleep the display natively, there is an app you download that will do it. There are two options from here.

  1. Install the app to the Applications folder and from Terminal or SSH run open /Applications/Sleep\ Display.app

  2. Right click on the app from the Downloads folder and click "Show Package Contents". Navigate to Contents/MacOS and copy the sleepdisplay file.

    Navigate to /usr/bin (you can use the ⇧+⌘+G shortcut and type the directory in) and paste the binary file. You will now be able to type the command sleepdisplay into Terminal or through SSH and the display will immediately go to sleep.

Hope this helps!

share|improve this answer
1  
+1 I was just about to post the same! I guess this is the best way. I'll up vote this as soon as I'm allowed again. I've reached my limit for today. :) – gentmatt Jan 12 '12 at 14:57
Haha, that's awesome. Thanks. – Matt Love Jan 12 '12 at 15:03
5  
You'd rather put it in /usr/local/bin, so as not to risk anything messed up in the system, have it survive potential system upgrades and whatnot. That's what /usr/local is for after all. – Lloeki Jan 13 '12 at 9:57
2  
No we're not getting confused. This is dictated by the FHS. Every single opensource package worth its salt has a --prefix defaulting to /usr/local for this reason. On Mac OS X (which respects the FHS, mostly, except for /users which got inherited from some other unixes) /usr/local/bin, although nonexistent on the filesystem by default, is in the default PATH. Just create it. – Lloeki Jan 14 '12 at 17:06
1  
Matt should get credit for the correct answer here, but just to note that you can run 'open -a SleepDisplay' via ssh and it will immediately turn off the screen (or, yes, you can do cp /Applications/SleepDisplay.app/Contents/MacOS/sleepdisplay /usr/local/bin/ if you want it in your path. Then you can just type sleepdisplay and it will, even over ssh, dim the monitor. I just tested this on my iMac, ssh'd from my MacBook Air. Both running 10.7. – TJ Luoma Jan 17 '12 at 15:18
show 5 more comments
up vote 4 down vote

The following script will do the job (in Leopard and later), but it must be run with sudo:

The premise is that pmset can set a time until display sleep, but the problem is that a value of 0 turns the feature off, rather than setting the delay to zero, and a value of 1 is a full one minute delay. The magic here is that a value of 2^31 seems to be stored as negative zero, which magically functions as "turn the display off immediately". In Tiger and earlier, a different magic number was needed, because a different bit-sized variable was used internally to store the delay, in minutes, until the display turns off.

This mimics the behavior of control-shift-eject, and can be used on MacBook Airs without an eject key.

#!/bin/bash
original_setting=`/usr/bin/pmset -g | /usr/bin/grep displaysleep | /usr/bin/awk '{print $2}'`
magic_number=2147483648
/usr/bin/pmset -a displaysleep $magic_number; sleep 1; /usr/bin/pmset -a displaysleep $original_setting
share|improve this answer
That didn't seem work if the original setting was 0 (never). You could add something like [[ $original_setting == 0 ]] && original_setting=180. – Lauri Ranta Jan 17 '12 at 1:59
up vote 3 down vote

Here's a simple shell script that will do it.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
open /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app

This will run/start whatever settings you have enabled for Screen Saver on that computer.

share|improve this answer
I like this one. I copy/pasted this code into a file /usr/local/bin/ss, chmod +x on it, and can now type 'ss' in a commandline to make the screen saver activate. The screen saver in turn is configured to ask for a password one minute after activating the screen saver (which could be lowered further, I believe, if needed) – fwielstra Jan 27 '12 at 10:15
up vote 2 down vote

Run the following command to execute a short AppleScript that puts the display to sleep:

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to sleep'

The command name suggests that it might put the entire system to sleep under some circumstances, but I could not make that happen in limited testing: I tested it with a shell script I started shortly before executing this command, and that was running for a few minutes until I "awoke" the system. It had continued to print output during the entire time.

share|improve this answer
1  
Running shell scripts will delay system sleep, though the details aren't all there in my brain at the moment. – Jason Salaz♦ Jan 6 '12 at 0:50
1  
Yes something like that but just to turn the screen black (as with ctrl+shift+eject), not put the computer to sleep. It does stop the music for example. – gregseth Jan 6 '12 at 6:33
1  
This is the answer. It works instantly and incudes a true sleep state. – Miles Leacy Jan 13 '12 at 19:32
2  
@MilesLeacy Thanks, but that's not what the user asked for. Apparently it sleeps the machines completely (it didn't when I tested it). Keeping the answer up for others' reference only. – Daniel Beck Jan 13 '12 at 19:56
up vote 1 down vote

Really hope this answer isn't too off the beaten track. My favourite way to sleep, restart, shut down - and most importantly lock - a Mac is using Alfred (the app launcher).

It doesn't require any scripts, knowledge of scripts or use of terminal, which is brilliant.

However, if you specifically WANT to use terminal, this probably isn't the solution for you.

share|improve this answer
While this is really cool, there are two limitations: 1) Alfred has no option for displaysleep 2) These special commands in Alfred only exist when your system language is English. – gentmatt Jan 16 '12 at 16:05
1  
@gentmatt While #1 is correct, #2 is wrong. My system language is Finnish and the special commands happily exist & execute. If you want to localize the triggering commands you can do it under Alfred's Preferences → Features → System Commands → System. – koiyu Jan 16 '12 at 17:54
Great news! Thanks for that info. – gentmatt Jan 16 '12 at 18:00
up vote 0 down vote

You could use the pmset command to change the value for displaysleep, something like

pmset -a displaysleep 1

(requires root)

share|improve this answer
2  
This is a good option as well, the only downside is that it will cause a one minute (hence the 1 at the end of the command) for the display sleep. Just thought Daniel Beck should know. – Matt Love Jan 12 '12 at 16:26
3  
Isn't this permanent? If it's just supposed to be used once when needed you need to use force: sudo pmset force -a display sleep 1 – gentmatt Jan 12 '12 at 17:09
up vote 0 down vote

Using Alfred (free at the AppStore) is a great way to put the display to sleep by just writing: "sleep". Doesn't get simpler than that.

Of course Alfred does much more than that, you can also restart, logout, empty trash, lock, shutdown and many more things.

share|improve this answer
1  
This does not address his need to do this remotely or via ssh. – TJ Luoma Jan 17 '12 at 14:36

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.