Managing Power Profiles with powerprofilesctl (with examples)

Managing power profiles on your system can greatly assist in optimizing power consumption and extending battery life. The powerprofilesctl command-line tool provides a convenient way to handle power profiles over D-Bus. In this article, we will explore some common use cases of the powerprofilesctl command and provide code examples for each use case.

Use Case 1: Listing available power profiles

To list all the available power profiles on your system, you can use the following command:

powerprofilesctl list

Motivation:

This use case is particularly useful when you want to view all the power profiles currently available on your system. It allows you to see the options you have and choose the most appropriate profile for your needs.

Explanation:

The list subcommand is provided to list all the available power profiles. It does not require any additional arguments.

Example Output:

Available power profiles:
- Balanced
- High Performance
- Power Saver

Use Case 2: Setting a specific power profile

To set a specific power profile on your system, you can use the following command:

powerprofilesctl set <profile_name>

Motivation:

This use case is useful when you want to switch to a specific power profile according to your current needs. Different power profiles have varying configurations to optimize power usage, and setting the appropriate profile can help you maximize battery life or enhance system performance.

Explanation:

The set subcommand is used to set the power profile. You need to provide the <profile_name> argument to specify the desired power profile. This argument must be one of the available power profiles listed when using the list subcommand.

Example Output:

Power profile set to: Power Saver

In this example, the power profile is successfully set to “Power Saver” based on the provided argument.

Conclusion: The powerprofilesctl command-line tool provides a convenient way to manage power profiles over D-Bus. It allows you to list available power profiles and set a specific profile according to your needs. By utilizing this command, you can optimize power consumption and extend the battery life of your system.