README

##QST## Quickstart for the very impatient
##INT## Introduction
##DEV## Device Support
##REQ## Requierements
##INS## Installation
##CDE## Configuring your Desktop
##CIM## Configuring inputmangler
  #XML#   A few XML-Basics
  #CNF#   The configuration file
  #OUT#   Defining outputs
##KEY## Editing keymap
##NET## Using the Net module
##SIG## Invocation and Interaction
##FUT## Future Plans
##HLP## Contributing to inputmangler
##SPM## Contact
##CHN## Changes



##QST## Quickstart for the very impatient #######

runtime dependencies for the package can be installed with
sudo apt-get install dkms libqt5core5a libqt5dbus5a libqt5network5a

(Tested on KUbuntu 14.04)
# Installation and system setup (skip the next 2 lines if you used the package)
sudo apt-get install g++ cmake qtbase5-dev linux-headers-`uname -r`
./install.sh

echo "/path/to/inputmangler 2> /tmp/.inputmangler.log &" >> your_autostart_file
reboot

# configure and start
./setupHelper.sh # this will also set up the notification script for KDE. if you are using another window manager, you should read "Configuring your Desktop" (##CDE##)
$EDITOR ~/.config/inputMangler/config.xml # (for more Information go to section "Configuring Inputmangler" (##CIM##), the part starting with "config.xml:").
build/inputmangler



##INT## Introduction #######

inputmangler is a daemon that intercepts and transforms linux input events, depending on the active window.
It aims to be highly configurable, reliable and not too hard to use. You can use it to remap those extra mouse buttons, properly utilize a Footswitch or even remap your second keyboard to trigger all kinds of shortcuts! If you are left-handed, you can switch left and right mouse buttons for applications that ignore your Desktops settings (like dosbox and fs-uae). And you can have a different configuration for each window!
It is also capable of translating Text from the network to key presses.

So how does it work?
First of all: it completely bypasses X!
This is done for following reasons:
1. In my experience, applications that generate X events do not work reliably with all applications, especially those in full-screen mode.
2. It allows configuring different devices independently.
3. As X may become obsolete (I certainly hope so) in the near future, I'd rather write something that doesn't need to be rewritten soon.
4. It can be used without X running as well.
5. I *hate* working with the X API :( - i really tried, but when i couldn't reliably get the window title after -i don't know how many- hours, even using a code example from the internet that was supposed to do *exactly* what i wanted, i really had enough of that #&%!!.

So what it actually does, is grabbing input events at their device files in /dev/input and using a custom kernel module to generate new input events inside the kernel.
Also, it does not directly talk to X about changes of the current window, but instead offers a D-Bus interface which can be used by the window manager to inform inputmangler about these.
While writing this, I am completely aware that except for the kde-window-manager and xmonad there might not be any window managers actually capable of doing that. See the section on configuring your desktop (##CDE##) for alternatives.

WARNING:
To transform input events from certain devices, this application needs the user to have full reading rights on these devices. This may not be a big problem on single-user systems, because if someone can hack into your one and only account, he or she can certainly find another way of doing all the nasty stuff these rights allow for, anyway. On multiuser systems however, this means that any user that is allowed to use inputmangler can log all the keystrokes (or other events) on these devices. That can also include the root password, typed on a console (the Ctrl-Alt-F1 type of console...).
I recommend not to use it for any devices used to type in sensitive data, especially your main keyboard.



##DEV## Device Support

Supported Hardware: I'd like to categorize devices in 3 levels of support:
Full: device is fully functional, and every event can be transformed from/into.
Patrial: device fully works, but not every event transformation is possible.
Unsupported: inputmangler will likely break some of the devices functionality if configured to use it.

At the moment these are:
Full: keyboards, mice, touchpads, joypads and joysticks that do not need calibration.
Partial: joypads and joysticks that need calibration.
Unsupported: tablets (theoreticaly, this seems to be working, but a practical test at painting in Krita shows otherwise...)

In technical terms: So far keys and relative movements (mouse movents and wheel) are fully supported. Absolute movements (e.g. tablets, analog joystick movements) are passed through and can be generated, but not used to trigger events. The problem with tablets seems to be caused by applications not properly utilizing the virtual tablet, as all events seem to be generated as they should be. Maybe this can be solved by tweeking the capabilities reported by the kernel module, but i don't have a clue how exactly...
Does anyone need to transform tablet events anyway?






##REQ## Requierements #######

Basic:
g++
qt5 (with support for dbus, xml, network)
linux-headers (for your kernel version)
cmake

On Ubuntu do
$ sudo apt-get install g++ cmake qtbase5-dev linux-headers-`uname -r`


To use window specific settings:
With KDE: no additial requirements
With xmonad: probably   qdbus
With other desktop environments / window managers probably   qdbus xdotool x11-utils

$ sudo apt-get install qdbus xdotool x11-utils



##INS## Installation #######

On (K)ubuntu, install.sh is your friend - on other Systems it might or might not work.

install.sh (mostly) automates the following steps:
1. Building the application. (mkdir build ; cd build ; cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release .. ; make)
2. optional: install (make install)
3. compile and install kernel module (cd inputdummy ; make ; sudo make install)
4. set up the system to load the kernel module at boot
5. set up the system, so that the virtual input devices get the right permissions (copy inputdummy/40-inputdummy.rules to /etc/udev/rules.d and change the group inside the file if neccessary)
6. generate udev rules to set the right permissions on the input devices, that inputmangler should use (needs the user to uncomment them) (using scripts/make_udev_rules.sh)

After this is done, reboot the system or set the permissions of your input devices manually and run
$ sudo modprobe inputmangler ; chown :$GRP /dev/virtual_kbd /dev/virtual_mouse ; chmod 660 /dev/virtual_kbd /dev/virtual_mouse
Where $GRP is the group with the necessary permissions.

Please note, that udev does not set the permissions for PS/2 devices. You have to set them in /etc/rc.local.
$ ls /dev/input/by-id/platform*event*
shows you a list of canditates. Then after the line "chmod 660 /dev/virtual_kbd /dev/virtual_mouse" in /etc/rc.local insert something like
chown :$GRP /dev/input/by-id/platform-i8042-serio-1-event-mouse
chmod 660 /dev/input/by-id/platform-i8042-serio-1-event-mouse

If you are unsure, which is the correct device, you can use hd.
$ sudo hd /dev/input/by-id/platform-i8042-serio-1-event-mouse
and do something with only that device for a few seconds. If you get a lot of output, your guess was good ;). Stop it by pressing Ctrl-C.



##CDE## Configuring your Desktop #######

Somewhere in your autostart skript, (KDE: Systemsettings -> "Startup and Shutdown" -> "Autostart" to add one) put the following line (modify path):
/path/to/inputmangler 2> /tmp/.inputmangler.log &

(or if you don't want it to log:)
/path/to/inputmangler 2> /dev/null &


KDE:
to install the KWinScript, run: (this is now done by package / setupHelper.sh)
$ plasmapkg --type kwinscript -i kwinNotifyOnWindowChange.kwinscript

Then open The KDE System Settings, navigate to "Window Behavior" -> "KWin Scripts" and activate "WindowChange Notifier".


XMonad:
I don't know how exactly to configure XMonad to send the right d-bus calls, but I am pretty sure it can be done. You need to find the routines that are triggered on a change of the window title or class and then trigger the d-bus events.

From console this can be done with:
Title changed:
$ qdbus org.inputManglerInterface /org/inputMangler/Interface org.inputMangler.API.Interface.activeWindowTitleChanged "TITLE"
Window changed:
$ qdbus org.inputManglerInterface /org/inputMangler/Interface org.inputMangler.API.Interface.activeWindowChanged "CLASS" "TITLE"


Others:

Best way: find a way to trigger some function on window changes from your window manager and make the d-bus calls there. Then send me an EMail describing what you have done, so i can include it here.

Also a great way: I prepared a code skeleton (xwatcher.cpp) for a thread that watches X for changes and informs the rest of the application about them. Implement it! (you can activate it by putting a line with "<xwatcher/>" into the config file)

More a hack, then a solution: use the included script trackCurrentWindow.sh. It calls xdotool and xprop every 2 seconds to get the properties of the current window and uses qdbus to notify inputmangler on a change. To use it, put this line (modify path) into your autostart file:
/path/to/trackCurrentWindow.sh &



##CIM## Configuring inputmangler #######

You can use the included script to set a default keymap and copy a example config into inputmanglers config directory (~/.config/inputMangler).
$ ./setupHelper.sh

Inputmanglers configuration consists of 3 files in its config directory: keymap, charmap and config.xml.

keymap:
Describes your keyboard layout. Since inputmangler works at a very low level, it is not aware of your keyboard layout settings and needs its own definition. If you use a German(de), US(us) or Programmer Dvorak(dvp) layout, just copy the one you like from the keymaps directory to ~/.config/inputMangler/keymap (or let ./setupHelper.sh do it for you). It is not necessary to use the correct keymap, but it makes configuration more intuitive. See the section on Editing the keymap (##KEY##) on how to modify it, or just use the one most similar to yours.

axismap:
Similar to keymap, but for relative and absolute movements. In most cases this does not need to be changed, but you maywant to your prefered names to events. Also see ##KEY##.

charmap:
This is only needed if you intend to use the net module. For choosing the right one, it's the same as with keymap, with the exceptions that the dvp version is made for my personal, slightly modified, keyboard layout (The difference is in the handling of the german letters "äöüÄÖÜß".) and that you'll probably want to change it to your needs, anyway. See section ##NET## on how to modify it.

config.xml:
This is where the truly interesting things are configured. I recommend starting from the example configuration, because... well... it offers examples. The rest of this section will explain the configuration structure and a few basic things about xml.

If you are familiar with XML, jump to #CNF#.


#XML# A few XML-Basics (maybe not using the correct terminology)

XML has elements.
In xml, Every element either starts with
<elementName optionalAttribute=something >
and ends with
</elementName>

or consists just of
<elementName optionalAttribute="something" />

note the '/' at the end - it's important! Forgetting or misplacing the '/' will cause your configuration to be misinterpreted!
Attributes are always formatted nameOfAttribute="value".

Everything between <elementName> and </elementName> belongs to the element and can be either another element (a child element of elementName) or just some text.

Comments start with
<!--
and end with
-->


#CNF# The configuration file.

The configuration file starts with
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<inputmanglerConf>
and ends with
</inputmanglerConf>

Everything in between is optional, but if you don't configure anything, of course nothing will happen.

--> I will putt optional Attributes in '[' ']'. The braces are not meant to be written in the config file.
--> [/] means the element can stop here or have child elements.
--> Attributes always want to followed by ="value". If i ommit it, the value is some String.
--> '@' means a key as defined in keymap (see ##KEY##).
--> '&' means an output definition(see #OUT#).
--> {ID} is special and will be explained later in this chapter.
--> Elements documented between <tag> and </tag> are child elements of <tag>.
<inputmanglerConf> Can have the following child elements:

<mapfiles [keymap] [charmap]/>
This can be used to specify custom paths to the keymap and charmap files.

<device [name] vendor product [id={ID}]>
Configures a device to be read from. The device is identified by its "vendor" and "product" numbers, which can be found in the file "80-inputmangler.rules", generated by install.sh, or by looking at "/proc/bus/input/devices".
"name" is completely ignored by inputmangler and serves only to remind you what device that element is about.
"id" is the identifier later used to the assign window specific settings to this device.

<signal key="@" [default="&"] /> Tells inputmangler to watch for a key. Only Events for keys, that are mentioned in a <signal> element are transformed.
"default" specifies the default output that will be generated for the key. If not set, the default will be the same as key.
</device>

<device [name] phys [id={ID}]>
As above, but device is identified by its phys property (where is it connected to). See "/proc/bus/input/devices".
This allows you to configure multiple identical devices with different settings, but has the disadvantage that your device will not be recognized if you plug it e.g. into another USB port.


<net addr port />
Configures inputmangler to listen at "port" of the ip(or hostname?) "addr". See "Using the Net module" (##NET##)

<debug [name] vendor product [id] log grab />
Logs all events from the input device, identified by "vendor" and "product" (see <device>).
This is meant to help you find the correct keynames and problems with your keymap configuration. Do not use it for anything evil or you'll sure end in hell... or prison... or whereever you believe bad people go to! In any case it would make the Flying Spaghetti Monster sad :(.
"name" is completely ignored by inputmangler and serves only to remind you what device that element is about.
"id" will be printed to the log file.
"log" is the path to the log file.
"grab" Can be 0 or 1. If set to 1, the input events will not be passed to other applications. Don't do this with your main keyboard!


<window class [{ID="&,&,..."}] [/]>
This element defines the transformations for a specific window class. A window class is an identifier, set for a window by its application. Most times it is equal to the name of the application. Different windows of the same application do not need to have the same class value. SDL applications usually have an empty value as class and for Java applications it's usually bogus like "focusProxy".
To find out what class a window has you can either use the xprop tool (sudo apt-get install x11-utils) - look for the second value of "WM_CLASS", or send a SIGUSR1 to inputmangler (see "Invocation and Interaction" ##SIG##).

ID="&,&,..." stands for the short notation of output definitions for this case for input comming from a device, identified by ID.
If you configured a device like
<device ... id="A" >
	<signal key="a" />
	<signal key="b" />
	<signal key="c" />
</device>
then
A="c+C,b,a+S"
means that pressing the key "a" on that device will trigger the key combination CTRL+C, "c" will be translated to SHIFT+A and "b" will just do what everyone expects it to do. Assuming, of course, you stick to the same naming of your keys and modifiers as I do (see "Editing keymap" (##KEY##) and "Defining outputs" (#OUT#)).
The value of {ID} always has to have the exact number of fields, separated by ',' as the device has <signal> elements.
You can define multiple {ID} attributes in one <window> element.
As an alternative to the short notation, you can use:
<long {ID}>
@=&, @=&
</long>
The long notation does not require you to specify all inputs. Aside from ',' newline it is also an accepted separator.

<title regex [{ID="&,&,..."}] [/]>
The <title> element allows for fine-tuning of the window matching by the title of the window to a regular expression. It accepts short and long notations of output values, just like <window>.
In most cases you will only need ".*", which matches to anything. Inputmangler uses QRegExp, so if this is not enough, look at http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-5/QRegExp.html for documentation.
</window>


#OUT# Defining outputs.

The output format is actually quite simple. There are three variations:
1. no modifiers - just the key
@
you can use any key defined in keymap (see ##KEY##)

2. with modifiers
@+MOD
where MOD is a sequence of @ with the following restrictions:
1. A current maximum of five modifiers can be used per shortcut.
2. Only keys that have a one character name defined in keymap can be used (you can define multiple names for the same key). The usual modifiers are:
A - Left Alt
S - Left Shift
C - Left Control
M - Left Meta ("Windoze key")
G - AltGr, aka Right Alt, aka "Level 3 Shift"

so "a" would just be translate a key to "a", where "f+CS" would be translated to the following sequence:
press   Left Control
press   Left Shift
press   f
release f
release Left Shift
release Left Control

Note that you can also trigger mouse buttons, e.g.
"BTN_LEFT+C" for Ctrl+Left Button. In the keymap file, search for "BTN_" for a list. In theory, every key and button supported by Linux should work with inputmangler.

3. Macros (Sequences)
~Seq(@ [#], [~s#,] @ [#], ... ~)
where: ~Seq( marks the start of a Sequence
       ~)    its end
       []    something optional
       #     a numerical value
       ~s#   a delay (in 1/1000 seconds)
             Delays are sometimes neccessary to give the application time to respond.

Macros must be defined inside a long notation.
Example, Drag & Drop to Upper Right, then press Alt-Tab:
    a=~Seq( BTN_LEFT 1, s~50, MOUSE_X 300, MOUSE_Y -200, BTN_LEFT 0, A 1, TAB, A 0 ~)
    
    in Detail: ~Seq           Start Sequence
               BTN_LEFT 1     Press Left mouse Button
               s~50           Wait 50 miliseconds
               MOUSE_X 300    Move mouse 300 pixels to the right
               MOUSE_Y -200   Move mouse 200 pixels to the top
               BTN_LEFT 0     Release Left mouse Button
               A 1            Press Alt
               TAB            Press and Release Tab
               A 0            Release Alt
               ~)             End Sequence
               
    Note that you can also use TAB+A for the last part.
    
    WARNING: use Delays sparingly. Until a sequence is finished, all other input from the device that triggered it, is postponed.
               

If you're not sure what the keys are called, use the debug module or take a look at the keymap file.



##KEY## Editing keymap

The "keymap" file contains a list of key definitions, loaded at startup.
It looks like this:
KEY_LEFTCTRL LEFTCTRL
KEY_LEFTCTRL C
KEY_A a
KEY_S s

Every line has two entries, separated by ' '. The left one is the name of the key as defined in /usr/include/linux/input.h, which is actually read by inputmangler as well.
The other one is the name inputmangler will use in its configuration to identify the key.
Defining it like that, instead just using the names in input.h has two advantages:
1. Localization
2. Lazy people like me can write ';' instead of "KEY_SEMICOLON", "S" instead of KEY_LEFTSHIFT and so on.

(Because I am lazy,) I tried to give the naming as much freedom as possible, so you can use almost every UTF-8 character. Yet there are some restrictions:
You can not use Space or Newline because they have a meaning in "keymap".
',' '+' '~' are reserved for special meanings in inputmangler.
'=' can be used, but will break the long definition if it is used anywhere but at the beginning of the name.
Some of the characters like '&', '<', '>' and '"' are used in XML and may have to be treated in a special way.
In summary:

Do not use:       , + ~ Space Newline
Use with caution: = & < > "


So, if you are ready to modify the keymap definition to fit your layout (or if you are so lazy that you want to shorten every key to at most 2 characters), I suggest the following procedure:
1. Take the keymap file, closest to your layout and copy it to keymap.[your layout]
2. Modify the names so they fit your layout.
    * Most probably you are only interested in the first 60 or so lines of the file.
    * The keys are mostly listed in the order they appear on a typical US layout, starting with the leftmost key in the row with the numbers, going left to right, top to bottom.
    * Use lowercase letters for letters and uppercase letters as short modifiers.
    * Do not use any modifier twice! (Inputmangler doesn't check for it yet, and strange things may happen...)
3. Test it!
4. If it is for a standard layout: send it to me, so i can include it in the next release. :)

The Axismap is similar to this, but every line has another field in between.
REL_WHEEL * REL_WHEEL
REL_WHEEL + WHEEL_UP
REL_WHEEL - WHEEL_DOWN

The middle symbol defines which values are meant and can be:

Use this when translating a complete axis.
 * Any	

Use these two when translating from/to a key. As source only positive/negative event values will be translated, as target the event values will be translated to a positive or negative value if neccessary. You could also use this to switch up and down mouse movement...
+ Positive
- Negative

For Absolute Axes the Notation is like
ABS_X J JOY_X  
ABS_Y J JOY_Y
ABS_X T ABS_X
ABS_Y T ABS_Y

This means JOY_X will generate an absolute movement on the X axis of the virtual Joystick device while ABS_X will generate it on the virtual Tablet.


##NET## Using the Net module
The net module listens on TCP port and converts incoming data to linux input events.
WARNING!!!
There is no encryption or authentification! If you use this, everyone who can access the port, will be able to do all sorts of strange things on your computer, that are possible with the currently used charmap!

<net addr port />
Configures inputmangler to listen at "port" of the ip(or hostname?) "addr".

The more interesting part of the configuration is in charmap.
This file contains a list of translations. At the left side is the trigger, which can be any sequence of UTF-8 characters, including non-visible ones (defined by the sequence \uxxxx, where xxxx is the 4-Hex-Digit UTF-8 character value).
Then follows a space, and after that a key description as described in section #OUT#.
If you use multiple character sequences as a trigger, please be aware that, at the moment, any event starting with a character used to start such as sequence will only be triggered after as many characters as the longest trigger sequence consists of has been read.
Example:

charmap:
a 1
b 2
c 3
d 4
da 5
db 6
dccccc 7
be 8


INPUT | +BUFFER  | OUTPUT | BUFFER
abc   | abc      | 123    |
abda  | abda     | 12     | da
d     | dad      |        | dad
abbe  | dadabbe  | 5      | dabbe  | still 1 char short
cdb   | dabbecdb | 522    | becdb  | dab translated
ca    | becdbca  | 83     | dbca
cac   | dbcacac  | 631313 |        | no problem with a & c



##SIG## Invocation and Interaction

Inputmangler takes exactly one parameter, and that is the path to an alternative configuration file.

While running, you can interact with it through d-bus, or you can send UNIX signals. The following unix signals are supported:

TERM  Tells inputmangler to graciously end itself.
HUP   Reread the configuration.
USR1  Print the current window class and title.
USR2  Print the current window specific configuration.

All output goes to stderr, which you hopefully redirected to a log file.

If you are collecting the various window class names of your applications, you could open 2 console windows.
In #1 start send USR1 every 2 seconds:
$ watch killall -USR1 inputmangler
In #2 show the output:
$ tail -f /tmp/.inputmangler.log | uniq

The following dbus calls are supported (examples as called per command line)

Notify inputmangler about a change of the window title: 
$ qdbus org.inputManglerInterface /org/inputMangler/Interface org.inputMangler.API.Interface.activeWindowTitleChanged "TITLE"

Notify inputmangler about a change of the active window:
$ qdbus org.inputManglerInterface /org/inputMangler/Interface org.inputMangler.API.Interface.activeWindowChanged "CLASS" "TITLE"

Print class and title of current Window, as seen by inputmangler. (You might want to start it in a shell loop for tracking)
$ qdbus org.inputManglerInterface /org/inputMangler/Interface org.inputMangler.API.Interface.printWinInfo 

Generate an input event. Do not use this, unless you know what you're doing!
$ qdbus org.inputManglerInterface /org/inputMangler/Interface org.inputMangler.API.Interface.sendRaw $type $code $value $device
All Paramenters are integers. See linux/input.h for $type $code and $value
$device is  0 Keyboard
            1 Mouse
            2 Tablet
            3 Joystick



##FUT## Future Plans

Some things I want to do are:

WHAT?                             | WHY?                                        | WHEN?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Making this README available as   | Because i can! ...                          | 2014? (mostly done 
man page (and maybe pdf).         | Can tex generate man pages?                 | - not quite happy 
                                  |                                             | with the result.)
                                  |                                             | 
More complex output sequences     | Better support for Macros.                  | 2015 ?
and maybe making output modular.  |                                             |
                                  |                                             |
More d-bus slots.                 | Better interaction                          | maybe 2014
                                  |                                             |
Plugin architecture.              | A whole world of awesome new possibilities! | maybe 2015
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ideas:
Absolute Axis:
	Deadzone at the center (Joy)
	Sensitivity Curve mapping (Joy)
	Coordinates to Button (Tablet)

Using Buttons/Keys as modifiers (to switch windowsettings)
Debughandler: Filter

Configuration GUI


##HLP## Contributing to inputmangler

There are a few things I would appreciate help with.

If you are an experienced kernel hacker (which i definitely am not...):
The inputdummy kernel module seems to be working fine, but would you mind taking a look at the code? Do I do something terribly stupid? Could something cause problems with other kernel modules?
input.h defines two event types, EV_SYN and EV_MSC. So far I completely ignore them (except for Absolute Movements), which does not seem to be causing any problems. Are there any reasons I should care more about them?

If you are familiar with X:
You could implement the xwatcher (see xwatcher.cpp).
There are many different keyboard layouts, for which a keymap file could be written. But what would be even better, is some code that generates a keymap from the current keyboard layout.

Other things:
Packaging!
I tried using dkms to rebuild the kernel module when neccessary, but i don't yet get it. Could someone help me with that?

Just write me an e-mail if you are interested :).

The Repository is at https://github.com/kermitfrog/inputmangler



##SPM## Contact

Arkadiusz Guzinski <kermit@ag.de1.cc>



##CHN## Changes

1.2:
 * Basic Macro Support
 * Minor documentation improvements.

1.1:

 * Full support for relative movements (e.g. mouse wheel)
 * Passing through of absolute movements (-> joystick & tablet support)
 * New xml parsing code now gives warning messages on some configuration errors (i simply *had* to do this after spending another 2 hours searching for a bug in the source code that was caused by nothing more than a missing '/' in the config file)
 * Support for multiple identical devices with different configurations (through phys property)
 * Fixed some minor bugs in kernel module
 * 2 New d-bus slots 
 * Internal changes