APMD(8)                 OpenBSD System Manager's Manual                APMD(8)

NAME
     apmd - Advanced Power Management monitor daemon

SYNOPSIS
     apmd [-adempqs] [-f devname] [-S sockname] [-t seconds]

DESCRIPTION
     apmd monitors the advanced power management (APM) pseudo-device, acting
     on signaled events and upon user requests as sent by the apm(8) program.
     For suspend and standby request events delivered by the BIOS, or via
     apm(8), apmd runs the appropriate configuration program (if one exists),
     syncs the buffer cache to disk and initiates the requested mode.  When
     resuming after suspend or standby, apmd runs the appropriate configura-
     tion program (if one exists).  For power status change events, apmd
     fetches the current status and reports it via syslog(3) with logging fa-
     cility LOG_DAEMON.

     apmd announces the transition to standby mode with a single high tone on
     the speaker (using the /dev/speaker device).  Suspends are announced with
     two high tones.

     apmd periodically polls the APM driver for the current power state.  If
     the battery charge level changes substantially or the external power sta-
     tus changes, the new status is logged.  The polling rate defaults to once
     per 10 minutes, but may be specified using the -t command-line flag.

     If the -s flag is specified, the current battery statistics are reported
     via syslog(3) and apmd exits without monitoring the APM status.

     If the -a flag is specified, any BIOS-initiated suspend or standby re-
     quests are ignored if the system is connected to line current and not
     running from batteries (user requests are still honored).

     If the -d flag is specified, apmd enters debug mode, logging to facility
     LOG_LOCAL1 and staying in the foreground on the controlling terminal.

     If the -q flag is specified, apmd does not announce suspend and standby
     requests on the speaker.

     If the -m flag is specified, apmd does not disable power status messages
     issued by the APM driver.  In normal operation these status messages are
     disabled as they are the same as the information collected by this daemon
     and reported via syslog.

     The -e and -p flags are used to re-enable APM driver power status mes-
     sages.  In both cases apmd exits immediately after setting the desired
     option.  The -e flag unconditionally enables power status messages.  The
     -p flag causes power status messages to be displayed only when the bat-
     tery life expectancy changes.  This minimizes message output for those
     devices that are constantly updating the estimated time remaining based
     upon current processor load.  However, in no case will power status mes-
     sages be displayed until the battery life goes below the percentage in
     the sysctl(8) state variable machdep.apmwarn. Setting machdep.apmwarn to
     zero disables all warnings.

     When a client requests a suspend or stand-by mode, apmd does not wait for
     positive confirmation that the requested mode has been entered before re-
     plying to the client; to do so would mean the client does not get a reply
     until the system resumes from its sleep state.  Rather, apmd replies with
     the intended state to the client and then places the system in the re-
     quested mode after running the configuration script and flushing the
     buffer cache.

     Actions can be configured for the following five transitions: suspend,
     standby, resume, powerup and powerdown. The suspend and standby actions
     are run prior to apmd performing any other actions (such as disk syncs)
     and entering the new mode.  The resume program is run after resuming from
     a stand-by or suspended state.  The powerup and powerdown programs are
     run after the power status (AC connected or not) changes, as well as af-
     ter a resume (if the power status changed in the mean time).

FILES
     /etc/apm/suspend, /etc/apm/standby, /etc/apm/resume, /etc/apm/powerup and
     /etc/apm/powerdown are the files that contain the host's customized ac-
     tions.  Each file must be an executable binary or shell script suitable
     for execution by the execve(2) function.  If you wish to have the same
     program or script control all transitions, it may determine which transi-
     tion is in progress by examining its argv[0] which is set to one of
     suspend, standby, resume, powerup and powerdown.

     /var/run/apmdev is the default UNIX-domain socket used for communication
     with apm(8). The -S flag may be used to specify an alternate socket name.
     The socket is protected to mode 0660, UID 0, GID 0; this protects access
     to suspend requests to authorized users only.

     /dev/apmctl is the default device used to control the APM kernel driver.
     The -f flag may be used to specify an alternate device file name.

SEE ALSO
     execve(2), syslog(3), apm(4), speaker(4), apm(8), syslogd(8)

REFERENCES
     Advanced Power Management (APM) BIOS Interface Specification (revision
     1.2), Intel Corporation and Microsoft Corporation.

HISTORY
     The apmd command appeared in NetBSD 1.3, OpenBSD support was added in
     OpenBSD 1.2.

OpenBSD 3.0                     March 24, 1996                               2
