python-libei 0.4.1__tar.gz → 0.5.0__tar.gz

python_libei-0.5.0/PKG-INFO

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+Metadata-Version: 2.4
+Name: python-libei
+Version: 0.5.0
+Summary: Inject and receive input on Wayland from Python: ctypes bindings for libei, libeis and liboeffis
+Author: Dennis K. Paulsen
+License-Expression: MIT
+Project-URL: homepage, https://github.com/ctrondlp/python-libei
+Project-URL: repository, https://github.com/ctrondlp/python-libei
+Project-URL: issues, https://github.com/ctrondlp/python-libei/issues
+Project-URL: changelog, https://github.com/ctrondlp/python-libei/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
+Keywords: wayland,libei,libeis,liboeffis,input,input-emulation,emulated-input,portal,xdg-desktop-portal,remote-desktop,automation,gui-testing,accessibility,ctypes
+Classifier: Development Status :: 4 - Beta
+Classifier: Intended Audience :: Developers
+Classifier: Operating System :: POSIX :: BSD :: FreeBSD
+Classifier: Operating System :: POSIX :: Linux
+Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3
+Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: Only
+Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10
+Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11
+Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12
+Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13
+Classifier: Topic :: Desktop Environment
+Classifier: Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries
+Classifier: Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules
+Classifier: Topic :: Software Development :: Testing
+Classifier: Typing :: Typed
+Requires-Python: >=3.10
+Description-Content-Type: text/markdown
+License-File: LICENSE
+Provides-Extra: portal
+Requires-Dist: PyGObject>=3.42; extra == "portal"
+Provides-Extra: dev
+Requires-Dist: pytest>=7; extra == "dev"
+Requires-Dist: ruff>=0.6; extra == "dev"
+Requires-Dist: mypy>=1.11; extra == "dev"
+Dynamic: license-file
+
+# python-libei
+
+Python bindings for [libei, libeis and liboeffis](https://libinput.pages.freedesktop.org/libei/) —
+the Wayland input-emulation libraries. Use this to **move the pointer, click,
+type, or scroll on a Wayland desktop** from Python, the way `xdotool` did on
+X11.
+
+Pure ctypes, no build step, no dependencies.
+
+```python
+device.start_emulating().pointer_motion(5, 0).frame().stop_emulating()
+```
+
+**The one concept:** events queue up, and **`frame()` is what sends them** as
+one logical hardware event. Forget it and nothing happens — no exception, no
+warning, no movement. Fill the package, then post it.
+
+New here? [docs/getting-started.md](docs/getting-started.md) is install
+through a first real pointer motion, in five minutes.
+
+## What it's for
+
+Driving a Wayland desktop from Python, when you need real input events rather
+than a widget-tree back door:
+
+- **GUI test automation** — click and type at an application the way a user
+  does, against the real compositor.
+- **Remote desktop and screen sharing** — inject the remote user's input into
+  the local session.
+- **Accessibility tooling** — on-screen keyboards, dwell clicking, alternative
+  pointing devices.
+- **Macros and scripting** — the `xdotool`-shaped jobs that stopped working
+  when the desktop moved off X11.
+- **Compositor and protocol work** — `libei.eis` is the server half of the
+  protocol, so an EIS server (or a test double for one) can be written in
+  Python too.
+
+### What it isn't
+
+- **Not an X11 tool.** This speaks the EI/EIS protocol to a compositor that
+  implements it. On an X server there is nothing to talk to, and nothing here
+  falls back to XTEST — despite the `xdotool` comparison above, it is not a
+  drop-in replacement for one.
+- **Keyboard input is key positions, not characters.** `keyboard_key()`
+  takes Linux evdev *keycodes*, and what character one produces is the
+  compositor's layout to decide. `text_utf8()` does send characters
+  directly, but only against libei 1.6 with a TEXT-capable device — see
+  [Keys are positions, not characters](docs/recipes.md#keyboard-positions-not-characters).
+- **Not a screen-reading library.** libei is input only. Pair it with the
+  ScreenCast portal and PipeWire if you also need pixels.
+- **Not a way around user consent.** A real session goes through the portal's
+  consent dialog, by design. Input that must bypass that prompt belongs at the
+  kernel layer (`/dev/uinput`) instead — a different tool and a different
+  trust model.
+
+## Which API do I need?
+
+Five modules, and most callers need exactly two of them: `oeffis` or `portal`
+to get permission, then `ei` to inject.
+
+| You want to… | Use | Notes |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| **Inject input** into a desktop | `libei.ei` → `Sender` | The automation case. This is what the quick start below does |
+| **Consume input** from a compositor | `libei.ei` → `Receiver` | Compositor-side or input-capture code; same connection dance |
+| **Get permission**, simply | `libei.oeffis` | One call, pollable fd, no dependencies. The consent dialog appears on **every** run |
+| **Get permission**, and not be asked again | `libei.portal` | Same handshake over D-Bus directly, with `persist_mode` / `restore_token`. Needs PyGObject |
+| **Be the server**, for tests or a compositor | `libei.eis` | Drives your client code with no real compositor and no consent dialog |
+
+Each module has `is_available()`, an `Error` exception, and an `EventType` /
+`DeviceCapability` enum. `ei` and `eis` also share the shapes around them:
+`Device`, `Seat`, `Region`, `Keymap`, `Touch`, `Ping`, `Event`, and the frozen
+dataclasses its accessors return. The package ships `py.typed`, so callers
+type-check against real annotations rather than `Any`.
+
+## What's implemented
+
+Injection covers the input types most automation needs.
+
+| `DeviceCapability` | What you get |
+| --- | --- |
+| `POINTER` | `pointer_motion()` |
+| `POINTER_ABSOLUTE` | `pointer_motion_absolute()`, `device.regions` |
+| `BUTTON` | `button()` |
+| `KEYBOARD` | `keyboard_key()`, `device.keymap`, `KEYBOARD_MODIFIERS` events |
+| `SCROLL` | `scroll_delta()`, `scroll_discrete()`, `scroll_stop()`, `scroll_cancel()` |
+| `TOUCH` | `device.touch_new()` → `down()` / `motion()` / `up()` |
+| `TEXT` | `text_utf8()`, `text_keysym()`, `TEXT_UTF8` / `TEXT_KEYSYM` events (libei 1.6+) |
+
+### Recognized, but not in any released libei
+
+| `DeviceCapability` | State |
+| --- | --- |
+| `GESTURES` | Exists on libei's `main` branch only. **Binding it against a shipping library silently does nothing** — no error, no device, no events |
+| `STYLUS` | Same |
+
+These are a different case from the table above, and worth stating separately
+because a skimming reader could otherwise take them as supported. 1.6.0's own
+`enum ei_device_capability` stops at `TEXT`, and its `enum ei_event_type`
+stops at `EI_EVENT_TEXT_UTF8` — so the swipe/pinch/hold/stylus members of
+`EventType` cannot arrive either. The values here match upstream `main`
+exactly, so they are ready for whatever release adds them. The 22
+gesture/stylus accessor functions `main` adds are deliberately not bound:
+nothing that ships today exports them, so nothing here could be verified
+against a real library, which is the bar every other binding in this package
+was held to.
+
+`EventType` otherwise mirrors libei's enum in full, and any event type can be
+*identified* and released safely whether or not it has an accessor.
+
+Beyond sending input, the wrapper also covers ping/pong round trips
+(`Context.new_ping()`), touch cancellation (`Touch.cancel()`), keymap transfer
+(`Device.keymap`), region mapping ids and coordinate conversion,
+`Context.disconnect()`, `Context.peek_event_type()`, and
+`Seat.request_device()`. On the server side, `libei.eis` mirrors all of it and
+adds `Eis.set_flag()` and `Client.pid`. Underneath, the ctypes layer binds 250
+of the 302 functions the three libraries export as of 1.6.0; what is left out,
+and why, is in
+[docs/developers/architecture.md](docs/developers/architecture.md#what-is-bound-and-what-is-deliberately-not).
+
+## Status
+
+Beta (`0.5.0`), published on [PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/python-libei/)
+since `0.1.0`, and **the API is not frozen** — expect renames before 1.0.
+
+The injection path is exercised end to end against the real libraries by the
+integration tests, and is in use as the Wayland input backend of a separate
+GUI-automation project. Both portal paths can only ever be verified by hand,
+since they need a consent dialog nothing can drive automatically; both have
+been, most recently `libei.portal` against a real GNOME Wayland session on
+2026-09-01. Development is against libei 1.6.0, and CI runs the suite against
+Ubuntu's 1.2.1 so the 1.0.0 floor is exercised on a real old build rather than
+asserted.
+
+Exactly what was run, when, and against which versions:
+[docs/developers/verification.md](docs/developers/verification.md).
+
+## Alternatives
+
+| Instead of this | Why you might |
+| --- | --- |
+| [snegg](https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/whot/snegg) | The reference bindings, by libei's own author — closer to upstream, and first to get new API. Self-described as for "rapid prototyping" with an explicitly unstable API, and `import snegg.ei` fails outright where libei isn't installed. [`docs/vs-snegg.md`](docs/vs-snegg.md) covers the differences in detail. |
+| The RemoteDesktop portal's own D-Bus API directly (`NotifyPointerMotion`, `NotifyKeyboardKeycode`, …), bypassing libei/EI entirely | `libei.portal` already gets you the D-Bus session and its `persist_mode`/`restore_token` handling — reach past libei entirely only if you don't want the EI protocol at all. The catch if you do: `NotifyPointerMotionAbsolute` needs a PipeWire stream id, which only exists after a second, separate ScreenCast consent dialog. libei has no such requirement. |
+| `ydotool` and other `/dev/uinput` tools | Kernel-level, so they work under any compositor and need no portal session — at the cost of a privileged daemon, and of sidestepping the consent model that EI exists to enforce. |
+
+## Requirements
+
+- Linux or FreeBSD with a Wayland compositor (GNOME, KDE, Sway, …).
+  Nothing here is kernel-specific -- it is pure ctypes over the native
+  libraries, with no syscall the C library doesn't already abstract. The
+  portal paths are the part likeliest to come up short off Linux, since
+  they need an xdg-desktop-portal RemoteDesktop backend to talk to.
+- CPython 3.10 or newer (tested on 3.13)
+- The native libraries: on Fedora, `sudo dnf install libei libeis liboeffis`;
+  on FreeBSD, `pkg install libei` (the `x11/libei` port), which supplies all
+  three sonames including `liboeffis`
+- `libei.portal` only: PyGObject (`pip install 'python-libei[portal]'`), plus
+  whatever GObject-introspection libraries your distro needs for `Gio` --
+  PyPI's PyGObject wheel supplies the Python side only. Not needed for
+  `libei.ei`, `libei.eis` or `libei.oeffis`.
+- libei 1.0.0 or newer for the core: connecting, binding a seat, and
+  sending pointer, button, keyboard, scroll and touch input all use symbols
+  that have existed with a stable signature since 1.0.0, and upstream keeps
+  API/ABI back-compatible within the 1.x series. Only 1.5.0 and 1.6.0 have
+  actually been run against -- 1.6.0 on both Fedora 44 and FreeBSD 15, where
+  the injection path passes the full suite with nothing skipped.
+
+  Newer libei buys you more, per feature:
+
+  | Needs | For |
+  | --- | --- |
+  | 1.1 | `Region.mapping_id`, `Region.convert_point()`, `Device.region_at()` |
+  | 1.4 | ping/pong round trips (`Context.new_ping()`), `Context.disconnect()`, touch cancellation (`Touch.cancel()`) |
+  | 1.5 | `eis.Client.pid` |
+  | 1.6 | `Device.text_utf8()` / `text_keysym()` and TEXT events, `Seat.request_device()`, `Eis.set_flag()` |
+
+  Nothing is resolved until it is called, so a build without one of these
+  costs you only that call — it raises `LibraryNotFoundError` naming the
+  missing symbol, while the rest of the package keeps working. The one
+  exception is `Event.touch_up_event`, which degrades instead of raising:
+  on libei older than 1.4 it reports `is_cancel=False`, since a library
+  with no notion of cancellation genuinely never sends one.
+
+  These versions were established by building libei 1.2.1 and diffing its
+  exported symbols against every binding here, not by reading `@since`
+  annotations — three of them are missing upstream, and taking their
+  absence to mean 1.0 got touch cancellation wrong by four releases.
+
+## Install
+
+From [PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/python-libei/):
+
+```sh
+pip install python-libei
+```
+
+The distribution is named `python-libei`, the import is `libei` -- so
+`pip show python-libei`, but `from libei import ei`.
+
+Pure Python, no build step: the wheel is `py3-none-any` and ctypes talks to
+the native libraries directly, so there is no compiler, no headers and no
+`libei-devel` involved at install time. What `pip` does *not* bring is the
+native libraries themselves -- see [Requirements](#requirements) above; on
+Fedora, `sudo dnf install libei libeis liboeffis`.
+
+To track `main` instead, or to hack on it, install from a checkout:
+
+```sh
+git clone https://github.com/ctrondlp/python-libei.git
+cd python-libei
+pip install .          # or `pip install -e '.[dev]'` to develop
+```
+
+Importing is always safe, even where the native libraries are missing — they
+are loaded on first use, not at import. Check before you rely on them:
+
+```python
+from libei import ei
+
+if not ei.is_available():
+    ...  # fall back to another input backend
+```
+
+## Concepts
+
+Five terms are enough to read the rest of this file:
+
+| Term | Meaning |
+| --- | --- |
+| **Sender** | A client that *injects* input. This is what you want for automation. |
+| **Receiver** | A client that *consumes* input. For compositor-side code. |
+| **Seat** | A group of input devices, offered by the compositor. You ask it for the capabilities you need. |
+| **Capability** | What kind of input you want: `POINTER`, `KEYBOARD`, `TOUCH`, `SCROLL`, `BUTTON`, … |
+| **Device** | What you actually send events through, handed to you after you bind a capability. |
+
+The flow is always the same: **connect → bind a capability on a seat → wait
+for a device → send events through it.**
+
+## Quick start
+
+Getting an EI connection means asking the desktop portal, which shows the user
+a consent dialog. After that you have a fd, and everything else is the same
+regardless of how you got it.
+
+**The dialog comes back every run** with `libei.oeffis`, which exposes no way
+to persist an approval. If being prompted once per launch is unacceptable for
+what you're building, use `libei.portal` instead —
+[Avoiding the consent dialog on every run](docs/recipes.md#avoiding-the-consent-dialog-on-every-run).
+
+```python
+import select
+from libei import ei, oeffis
+
+# 1. Ask the portal for permission. The user sees a consent dialog.
+session = oeffis.Oeffis.create(devices=oeffis.DeviceType.POINTER)
+while True:
+    ready, _, _ = select.select([session.fd], [], [], 30)
+    if not ready:
+        raise TimeoutError("portal request timed out")
+    if session.dispatch():
+        break  # session.eis_fd is now valid
+
+# 2. Connect as a sender.
+sender = ei.Sender.create_for_fd(session.eis_fd, name="my-app")
+
+# 3. Ask for a pointer, and wait for the compositor to hand one over.
+device = None
+while device is None:
+    select.select([sender.fd], [], [], 5)
+    sender.dispatch()  # events stays empty until dispatch() reads the socket
+    for event in sender.events:
+        if event.event_type is ei.EventType.SEAT_ADDED:
+            event.seat.bind((ei.DeviceCapability.POINTER,))
+        elif event.event_type is ei.EventType.DEVICE_RESUMED:
+            device = event.device
+
+# 4. Send input.
+device.start_emulating().pointer_motion(5, 0).frame().stop_emulating()
+```
+
+Wait for `DEVICE_RESUMED`, not `DEVICE_ADDED` — a device arrives paused, and
+libei calls sending events before it resumes "a client bug".
+
+This loop takes the first device to resume, which is fine here because only
+`POINTER` was bound. Bind more than one capability and a seat may resume
+several devices — see
+[Picking the right device](docs/recipes.md#picking-the-right-device-when-several-resume)
+before reusing this pattern.
+
+## Sending input
+
+Every burst of input is wrapped in `start_emulating()` … `frame()` …
+`stop_emulating()`. `frame()` is what actually commits the queued events as one
+logical hardware event; without it nothing is delivered. Each method returns
+the device, so they chain.
+
+```python
+# Move the pointer 10px right, 5px down
+device.start_emulating().pointer_motion(10, 5).frame().stop_emulating()
+
+# Left click (BTN_LEFT; codes are Linux input codes, from
+# <linux/input-event-codes.h>)
+BTN_LEFT = 0x110
+device.start_emulating()
+device.button(BTN_LEFT, True).frame()
+device.button(BTN_LEFT, False).frame()
+device.stop_emulating()
+
+# Press the A key (KEY_A -- a key *position*, not the character "a")
+KEY_A = 30
+device.start_emulating()
+device.keyboard_key(KEY_A, True).frame()
+device.keyboard_key(KEY_A, False).frame()
+device.stop_emulating()
+
+# Scroll: smooth (logical pixels) or discrete (one detent is 120)
+device.start_emulating().scroll_delta(0, 20).frame().stop_emulating()
+device.start_emulating().scroll_discrete(0, 120).frame().stop_emulating()
+```
+
+Keyboards need care, because a keycode is a key *position* and the character
+it produces is the layout's business — `KEY_A = 30` types something else under
+AZERTY. Absolute positioning needs the `POINTER_ABSOLUTE` capability and
+coordinates inside one of `device.regions`, and binding it alongside `POINTER`
+is what produces two devices where order cannot be trusted. Touch has its own
+short-lived object rather than going through the device.
+
+All four, with working code:
+[docs/recipes.md](docs/recipes.md#pointer-buttons-and-scrolling).
+
+## Things that will bite you
+
+- **`dispatch()` before `events`.** `events` drains only what is already
+  queued; it yields nothing until `dispatch()` has read from the socket.
+- **Don't keep an event past its loop iteration.** Each event is released as
+  soon as the loop moves on, and using it afterwards raises `RuntimeError`.
+  Objects you pull *off* an event (`event.device`, `event.seat`) are safe to
+  keep — copy out `event.pointer_event` and friends rather than the event.
+- **`frame()` or nothing happens.** Events queue up until a `frame()` commits
+  them.
+- **`bind()` needs at least one capability.** Binding an empty set sends
+  nothing, so the device you are waiting for never arrives; this raises
+  `ValueError` rather than hanging.
+- **Capabilities are per-seat.** A seat only offers some; check
+  `seat.capabilities` before binding.
+- **One seat can resume several devices.** Bind both `POINTER` and
+  `POINTER_ABSOLUTE` and GNOME gives you two, relative first. Taking
+  whichever resumes first is a coin flip — select on `device.capabilities`
+  instead. Sending an event the device lacks the capability for is silently
+  ignored, which makes this look like the injection simply not working.
+- **Read the accessor that matches the event type.** `event.key_event` on a
+  `POINTER_MOTION` event raises `TypeError` naming both types. libei itself
+  would have returned `KeyEvent(key=0, is_press=False)` — a real-looking
+  value — while logging a `Bug:` line the caller never sees, so branch on
+  `event_type` first. `TOUCH_UP` has its own `touch_up_event`, since it
+  carries no coordinates.
+- **`GESTURES` and `STYLUS` are not in any released libei.** They match
+  upstream `main` and are here ready for it, but 1.6.0's capability enum
+  stops at `TEXT`. Binding them against a shipping library silently does
+  nothing — no error, no device, no events.
+
+Nearly all of these fail *silently*, which is why
+[docs/troubleshooting.md](docs/troubleshooting.md) is a checklist rather than
+a list of error messages. Start there when nothing happens.
+
+## Documentation
+
+- [docs/getting-started.md](docs/getting-started.md) — install through a first
+  pointer motion, in five minutes
+- [docs/recipes.md](docs/recipes.md) — keyboards, touch, absolute positioning,
+  consent persistence, receiver mode, running your own EIS server, logging
+- [docs/troubleshooting.md](docs/troubleshooting.md) — the "when nothing
+  happens" checklist
+- [docs/vs-snegg.md](docs/vs-snegg.md) — how this differs from the reference
+  bindings, and two signature issues found by cross-checking the C source
+- [docs/developers/](docs/developers/) — the four-layer architecture, and what
+  has actually been verified against which libei versions
+- [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) — setup, checks, testing against an old
+  libei, releasing
+
+## License
+
+MIT.