Hacking on Qtile

Requirements

Any reasonably recent version of these should work, so you can probably just install them from your package manager.

  • pytest
  • Xephyr
  • xrandr, xcalc, xeyes and xclock (x11-apps on Ubuntu)

On Ubuntu, if testing on Python 3, this can be done with:

sudo apt-get install python3-pytest xserver-xephyr x11-apps

On ArchLinux, the X11 requirements are installed with:

sudo pacman -S xorg-xrandr xorg-xcalc xorg-xeyes xorg-xclock

To build the documentation, you will also need to install graphviz. On ArchLinux, you can install it with sudo pacman -S graphviz.

Building cffi module

Qtile ships with a small in-tree pangocairo binding built using cffi, pangocffi.py, and also binds to xcursor with cffi. The bindings are not built at run time and will have to be generated manually when the code is downloaded or when any changes are made to the cffi library. This can be done by calling:

./scripts/ffibuild

Setting up the environment

In the root of the project, run ./dev.sh. It will create a virtualenv called venv.

Activate this virtualenv with . venv/bin/activate. Deactivate it with the deactivate command.

Building the documentation

Activate your virtualenv, and install the graphviz Python package:

pip install graphviz

Go into the docs/ directory and run pip install -r requirements.txt.

Build the documentation with make html.

Check the result by opening _build/html/index.html in your browser.

Development and testing

In practice, the development cycle looks something like this:

  1. make minor code change
  2. run appropriate test: pytest tests/test_module.py or pytest -k PATTERN
  3. GOTO 1, until hackage is complete
  4. run entire test suite: pytest
  5. commit

Of course, your patches should also pass the unit tests as well (i.e. make check). These will be run by travis-ci on every pull request so you can see whether or not your contribution passes.

Coding style

While not all of our code follows PEP8, we do try to adhere to it where possible. All new code should be PEP8 compliant.

The make lint command will run a linter with our configuration over libqtile to ensure your patch complies with reasonable formatting constraints. We also request that git commit messages follow the standard format.

Deprecation policy

When a widget API is changed, you should deprecate the change using libqtile.widget.base.deprecated to warn users, in addition to adding it to the appropriate place in the changelog. We will typically remove deprecated APIs one tag after they are deprecated.

Using Xephyr

Qtile has a very extensive test suite, using the Xephyr nested X server. When tests are run, a nested X server with a nested instance of Qtile is fired up, and then tests interact with the Qtile instance through the client API. The fact that we can do this is a great demonstration of just how completely scriptable Qtile is. In fact, Qtile is designed expressly to be scriptable enough to allow unit testing in a nested environment.

The Qtile repo includes a tiny helper script to let you quickly pull up a nested instance of Qtile in Xephyr, using your current configuration. Run it from the top-level of the repository, like this:

./scripts/xephyr

Change the screen size by setting the SCREEN_SIZE environment variable. Default: 800x600. Example:

SCREEN_SIZE=1920x1080 ./scripts/xephyr

Change the log level by setting the LOG_LEVEL environment variable. Default: INFO. Example:

LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG ./scripts/xephyr

The script will also pass any additional options to Qtile. For example, you can use a specific configuration file like this:

./scripts/xephyr -c ~/.config/qtile/other_config.py

Once the Xephyr window is running and focused, you can enable capturing the keyboard shortcuts by hitting Control+Shift. Hitting them again will disable the capture and let you use your personal keyboard shortcuts again.

You can close the Xephyr window by enabling the capture of keyboard shortcuts and hit Mod4+Control+Q. Mod4 (or Mod) is usually the Super key (or Windows key). You can also close the Xephyr window by running qtile-cmd -o cmd -f shutdown in a terminal (from inside the Xephyr window of course).

You don’t need to run the Xephyr script in order to run the tests as the test runner will launch its own Xephyr instances.

Second X Session

Some users prefer to test Qtile in a second, completely separate X session: Just switch to a new tty and run startx normally to use the ~/.xinitrc X startup script.

It’s likely though that you want to use a different, customized startup script for testing purposes, for example ~/.config/qtile/xinitrc. You can do so by launching X with:

startx ~/.config/qtile/xinitrc

startx deals with multiple X sessions automatically. If you want to use xinit instead, you need to first copy /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc to ~/.xserverrc; when launching it, you have to specify a new session number:

xinit ~/.config/qtile/xinitrc -- :1

Examples of custom X startup scripts are available in qtile-examples.

Capturing an xtrace

Occasionally, a bug will be low level enough to require an xtrace of Qtile’s conversations with the X server. To capture one of these, create an xinitrc or similar file with:

exec xtrace qtile >> ~/qtile.log

This will put the xtrace output in Qtile’s logfile as well. You can then demonstrate the bug, and paste the contents of this file into the bug report.

Note that xtrace may be named x11trace on some platforms, for example, on Fedora.

Debugging in PyCharm

Make sure to have all the requirements installed and your development environment setup.

PyCharm should automatically detect the venv virtualenv when opening the project. If you are using another viirtualenv, just instruct PyCharm to use it in Settings -> Project: qtile -> Project interpreter.

In the project tree, on the left, right-click on the libqtile folder, and click on Mark Directory as -> Sources Root.

Next, add a Configuration using a Python template with these fields:

  • Script path: bin/qtile, or the absolute path to it
  • Parameters: -c libqtile/resources/default_config.py, or nothing if you want to use your own config file in ~/.config/qtile/config.py
  • Environment variables: PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1;DISPLAY=:1
  • Working directory: the root of the project
  • Add contents root to PYTHONPATH: yes
  • Add source root to PYTHONPATH: yes

Then, in a terminal, run:

Xephyr +extension RANDR -screen 1920x1040 :1 -ac &

Note that we used the same display, :1, in both the terminal command and the PyCharm configuration environment variables. Feel free to change the screen size to fit your own screen.

Finally, place your breakpoints in the code and click on Debug!

Once you finished debugging, you can close the Xephyr window with kill PID (use the jobs builtin to get its PID).

Resources

Here are a number of resources that may come in handy:

Troubleshoot

Cairo errors

When running the Xephyr script (./scripts/xephyr), you might see tracebacks with attribute errors like the following or similar:

AttributeError: cffi library 'libcairo.so.2' has no function, constant or global variable named 'cairo_xcb_surface_create'

If it happens, it might be because the cairocffi and xcffib dependencies were installed in the wrong order.

To fix this:

  1. uninstall them from your environment: with pip uninstall cairocffi xcffib if using a virtualenv, or with your system package-manager if you installed the development version of Qtile system-wide.

  2. re-install them sequentially (again, with pip or with your package-manager):

    pip install xcffib
    pip install --no-cache-dir cairocffi
    

See this issue comment for more information.

If you are using your system package-manager and the issue still happens, the packaging of cairocffi might be broken for your distribution. Try to contact the persons responsible for cairocffi’s packaging on your distribution, or to install it from the sources with xcffib available.

DBus/GObject errors

When running the Xephyr script (./scripts/xephyr), you might see a line in the output like the following or similar:

libqtile manager.py:setup_python_dbus():L310  importing dbus/gobject failed, dbus will not work.

If it happens, it might be because you are missing some dependencies on your system and/or in your Qtile virtualenv.

To fix this:

  1. follow the installation instructions of PyGObject at https://pygobject.readthedocs.io/en/latest/getting_started.html. There are methods for several Linux distributions: pick yours.

  2. there are instructions for system-wide installation and virtualenv installation: pick the relevant one, depending on how you installed the development version of QTile (usually in a virtualenv).

  3. Optionally re-install QTile’s dependencies:

    pip install -r requirements.txt
    pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
    

Fonts errors

When running the test suite or the Xephyr script (./scripts/xephyr), you might see errors in the output like the following or similar:

  • Xephyr script:

    xterm: cannot load font "-Misc-Fixed-medium-R-*-*-13-120-75-75-C-120-ISO10646-1"
    xterm: cannot load font "-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso10646-1"
    
  • pytest:

    ---------- Captured stderr call ----------
    Warning: Cannot convert string "8x13" to type FontStruct
    Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
    Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
    Error: Aborting: no font found
    
    -------- Captured stderr teardown --------
    Qtile exited with exitcode: -9
    

If it happens, it might be because you’re missing fonts on your system.

On ArchLinux, you can fix this by installing xorg-fonts-misc:

sudo pacman -S xorg-fonts-misc

Try to search for “xorg fonts misc” with your distribution name on the internet to find how to install them.