How to run a script on screen lock/unlock?

Gnome-screensaver emits some signals on dbus when something happens.

Here the documentation (with some examples).

You could write a scripts that runs:

dbus-monitor --session "type='signal',interface='org.gnome.ScreenSaver'"

and that does what you need anytime dbus-monitor prints a line about the screen being locked/unlocked.

---

Here a bash command to do what you need:

dbus-monitor --session "type='signal',interface='org.gnome.ScreenSaver'" |
  while read x; do
    case "$x" in 
      *"boolean true"*) echo SCREEN_LOCKED;;
      *"boolean false"*) echo SCREEN_UNLOCKED;;  
    esac
  done

Just replace echo SCREEN_LOCKED and echo SCREEN_UNLOCKED with what you need.

In ubuntu 14.04 the DBus event for screen lock unlock has changed and the new script for binding to screen lock and unlock events looks like the following

dbus-monitor --session "type='signal',interface='com.ubuntu.Upstart0_6'" | \
(
  while true; do
    read X
    if echo $X | grep "desktop-lock" &> /dev/null; then
      SCREEN_LOCKED;
    elif echo $X | grep "desktop-unlock" &> /dev/null; then
      SCREEN_UNLOCKED;
    fi
  done
)

Nowadays I think it's better to listen to the LockedHint rather than screensaver messages. That way you're not tied to a screensaver implementation.

Here's a simple script to do that:

gdbus monitor -y -d org.freedesktop.login1 | grep LockedHint

Gives this:

/org/freedesktop/login1/session/_32: org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.PropertiesChanged ('org.freedesktop.login1.Session', {'LockedHint': <true>}, @as [])
/org/freedesktop/login1/session/_32: org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.PropertiesChanged ('org.freedesktop.login1.Session', {'LockedHint': <false>}, @as [])