ltratt / hk

hk: Set temporary X11 hotkeys

hk: Set temporary X11 hotkeys

Overview

hk allows temporary X11 hotkeys to be set. Its usage is:

hk [-w] <hotkey> <command> [<argument> ...]

where <hotkey> is of the form [Modifier1[+Modifier2[+...]]+]<Key>. For example:

hk Ctrl+Shift+F6 notify-send "Hello"

will execute the command notify-send "Hello" when Ctrl+Shift+F6 is pressed. hk exits as soon as the command has executed.

hk passes through stdin unchanged so you can pipe input to commands e.g.:

uname | hk Ctrl+F8 xargs notify-send

By default, hk executes the command as soon as the hotkey sequence is pressed. The -w option makes hk wait until all keys (not just the hotkeys) have been released. This can be useful if the action of the command can be effected by key presses. For example if you use xdotool type to enter text on a hotkey, then having the Ctrl key held down can have surprising effects which -w can alleviate:

uname | hk -w Ctrl+F8 xdotool type --file -

Install

$ autoconf
$ ./configure
$ make install

hk's Issues

Does hk support wayland ?

After your post about debugging ``Debugging A Failing Hotkey´´ I tried to install hk but I got some errors during compilation. I checked the code and I realize that you use X11 lib. Before going further I would like to check if Wayland is supported.

Not compiling

I like the simplicity of this script but I couldn't get this to install on Linux Mint 21.2 which uses X11. I have libx11-dev installed. Also tried added -L/usr/lib... Seems like it should be something I'm missing here?

gcc -Wl,-z,relro,-z,now -lX11 -L/usr/X11/lib -L/usr/lib -o hk hk.o
/usr/bin/ld: hk.o: in function `ignorable_modifiers':
/home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:49: undefined reference to `XKeysymToKeycode'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:52: undefined reference to `XGetModifierMapping'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:61: undefined reference to `XFreeModifiermap'
/usr/bin/ld: hk.o: in function `parse_modifier':
/home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:100: undefined reference to `XStringToKeysym'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:103: undefined reference to `XKeysymToKeycode'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:104: undefined reference to `XGetModifierMapping'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:115: undefined reference to `XFreeModifiermap'
/usr/bin/ld: hk.o: in function `parse_key':
/home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:126: undefined reference to `XStringToKeysym'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:130: undefined reference to `XKeysymToKeycode'
/usr/bin/ld: hk.o: in function `main':
/home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:199: undefined reference to `XOpenDisplay'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:208: undefined reference to `XGrabKey'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:211: undefined reference to `XGrabKey'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:215: undefined reference to `XSelectInput'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:218: undefined reference to `XNextEvent'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:277: undefined reference to `XCloseDisplay'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:229: undefined reference to `XQueryKeymap'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:244: undefined reference to `XkbKeycodeToKeysym'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/mikob/tools/hk/hk.c:255: undefined reference to `XKeysymToString'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [Makefile:17: hk] Error 1