redshift(1) set color temperature of display according to time of day

SYNOPSIS

redshift [-l LAT:LON | -l PROVIDER:OPTIONS] [-t DAY:NIGHT] [OPTIONS...]

DESCRIPTION

redshift adjusts the color temperature of your screen according to your surroundings. This may help your eyes hurt less or reduce the risk for delayed sleep phase syndrome if you are working in front of the screen at night.

The color temperature is set according to the position of the sun. A different color temperature is set during night and daytime. During twilight and early morning, the color temperature transitions smoothly from night to daytime temperature to allow your eyes to slowly adapt over a period of about an hour. At night the color temperature should be set to match the lamps in your room. This is typically a low temperature at around 3000K-4000K (default is 3700K). During the day, the color temperature should match the light from outside, typically around 5500K-6500K (default is 5500K). The light has a higher temperature on an overcast day.

OPTIONS

-h
Display this help message
-v
Verbose output
-V
Show program version
-b DAY:NIGHT
Screen brightness to apply (between 0.1 and 1.0)
-c FILE
Load settings from specified configuration file
-g R:G:B
Additional gamma correction to apply
-l LAT:LON
Your current location, in degrees, given as floating point numbers, towards north and east, with negative numbers representing south and west, respectively.
-l PROVIDER[:OPTIONS]
Select provider for automatic location updates (Use `-l list' to see available providers)
-m METHOD[:OPTIONS]
Method to use to set color temperature (Use `-m list' to see available methods)
-o
One shot mode (do not continuously adjust color temperature)
-O TEMP
One shot manual mode (set color temperature)
-p
Print mode (only print parameters and exit)
-x
Reset mode (remove adjustment from screen)
-r
Disable temperature transitions
-t DAY:NIGHT
Color temperature to set at daytime/night

The neutral temperature is 6500K. Using this value will not change the color temperature of the display. Setting the color temperature to a value higher than this results in more blue light, and setting a lower value will result in more red light.

Default temperature values:

Daytime: 5500K, night: 3700K

CONFIGURATION FILE

A configuration file with the name `redshift.conf' can optionally be placed in `~/.config/'. The file has standard INI format. General program options are placed under the `redshift' header, while options for location providers and adjustment methods are placed under a header with the name of that provider or method. General options are:
temp-day = integer
Daytime temperature
temp-night = integer
Night temperature
transition = 0 or 1
Disable or enable transitions
brightness-day = 0.1-1.0
Screen brightness at daytime
brightness-night = 0.1-1.0
Screen brightness at night
elevation-high = decimal
The solar elevation for the transition to daytime
elevation-low = decimal
The solar elevation for the transition to night
gamma = R:G:B
Gamma adjustment to apply (day and night)
gamma-day = R:G:B
Gamma adjustment to apply at daytime
gamma-night = R:G:B
Gamma adjustment to apply at night
adjustment-method = name
Select adjustment method. Options for the adjustment method can be given under the configuration file heading of the same name.
location-provider = name
Select location provider. Options for the location provider can be given under the configuration file heading of the same name.

Options for location providers and adjustment methods can be found in the help output of the providers and methods.

EXAMPLE

Example for Copenhagen, Denmark:
$ redshift -l 55.7:12.6 -t 5700:3600 -g 0.8 -m randr -v

An example configuration file with the same effect as the above command line:

[redshift]
temp-day=5700
temp-night=3600
gamma=0.8
adjustment-method=randr
location-provider=manual
[manual]
lat=55.7
lon=12.6

HOOKS

Executables (e.g. scripts) placed in folder `~/.config/redshift/hooks' will be run when a certain event happens. The first parameter to the script indicates the event and further parameters may indicate more details about the event. The event `period-changed' is indicated when the period changes (`night', `daytime', `transition'). The second parameter is the old period and the third is the new period. The event is also signaled when Redshift starts up with the old period set to `none'. Any dotfiles in the folder are skipped.

A simple script to handle these events can be written like this:

#!/bin/sh
case $1 in
    period-changed)
        exec notify-send "Redshift" "Period changed to $3"
esac

AUTHOR

redshift was written by Jon Lund Steffensen <[email protected]>.

Both redshift and this manual page are released under the GNU General Public License, version 3.

BUGS

Please report bugs to <https://github.com/jonls/redshift/issues>

KNOWN ISSUES

Redshift won't affect the color of your cursor when your graphics driver is configured to use hardware cursors. Some graphics drivers have an option to disable hardware cursors in xorg.conf.