UNCLUTTER(1X)

NAME
unclutter - remove idle cursor image from screen

SYNOPSIS
unclutter [-display display] [-idle seconds] [-jitter pixels] [-grab] [-reset] [-root] [-not] name ...

DESCRIPTION
unclutter removes the cursor image from the screen so that it does not obstruct the area you are looking at after it has not moved for a given time. It does not do this if the cursor is in the root window or a button is down. It tries to ignore jitter (small movements due to noise) if you have a mouse that twitches.

OPTIONS

-display
    is followed by the display to open.

-idle
    is followed by the number of seconds between polls for idleness. The default is 5.

-jitter
    is followed by the amount of movement of the pointer that is to be ignored and considered as random noise. The default is 0.

-grab
    means use the original method of grabbing the pointer in order to remove the cursor. This often doesn't interoperate too well with some window managers.

-reset
    resets the timeout for idleness after the cursor is restored for some reason (such as a window being pushed or popped) even though the x y coordinates of the cursor have not changed. Normally, the cursor would immediately be removed again.

-root
    means remove the cursor even if it is on the root background, where in principle it should not be obscuring anything useful.

-not
    is followed by a list of window names where the cursor should not be removed. The first few characters of the WM_NAME property on the window need to match one the listed names. This argument must be the last on the command line.

LIMITATIONS
Unfortunately, clients like emacs set different text cursor shapes depending on whether they have pointer focus or not, and so not only does the cursor pixture go, but the text cursor image changes. Even more sadly, some window managers like to remove keyboard focus if pointer focus is lost.

DIAGNOSTICS
The message

 someone created a sub-window to my sub-window!

means that unclutter thinks a second unclutter is running, and tried to steal the cursor by creating a sub-window to the sub-window already used to steal the cursor. This situation quickly deteriorates into a fight no one can win, so it is detected when possible and the program gives up.

AUTHOR
Mark M Martin. cetia 24may1991. mmm@cetia.fr