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Trawl

Simple Xresources style linux based configuration system that is independent of distro / display backend (Wayland / X11 / etc).

Build Instructions

Make sure you have the rust toolchain (version >= 1.62) installed. Use the following commands to build all the binaries:

git clone https://github.com/regolith-linux/trawl.git
cd trawl
make

Note 1: Replace cargo build with cargo build --release to build the binaries in release mode.

Note 2: The binaries are located in the target/debug directory (target/release if built in release mode).

Note 3: The make setup command will fail the first time you run it. This is because the code for dbus-interface is generated at this step. You can ignore this error and proceed to the following commands.

Install Instructions

git clone https://github.com/regolith-linux/trawl.git
cd trawl
# enable the "install" target in the Makefile
make install
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now trawld

Note: The make setup command will fail the first time you run it. This is because the code for dbus-interface is generated at this step. You can ignore this error and proceed to the following commands.

Features

  • Xresources like file based configuration system.
  • Compatible with existing Xresources files.
  • Display backend and distro independent.
  • Lightweight and Simple to use.
  • Uses DBus session bus to estabish IPC. This allows each user to run thier own instance of the config manager.

Usage

Prefix the binaries with build directory path (target/debug or target/release) to use without installing.

Resource file / Config file format

  • Each line in the resource file is a key value pair separated by ':'. Eg. 
    key1: value1
key2: value2
  • A valid key is an ASCII alphanumeric string with no whitespace, but can include the following special characters -- ' - ', ' . ', ' _ '. Eg. 
    sway-wm.screen_timeout: 100
  • In case a line contains multiple colons (':'), the contents before the first colon are treated as key and the contents after the first colon are treated as value. Eg. 
    swaywm.workspace.1.name: 1: Shell
  • Value can be any UTF-8 string.
  • Comments are prefixed with '//' and are ignored.
  • By default, preprocessor directives (begin with '#') are processed by the c preprocessor. If the directive is not recognized, it is ignored.
  • Preprocessor directives can be used to include other files. The directive is of the form #include <file>. The file is relative to the resource file. 
    #include <config.d/swayidle>
  • Preprocessor directives can be used to define macros. The directive is of the form #define <macro> <value>. The macro is a string and the value is a string. The macro is defined in the resource file. 
    #define USERNAME "John Doe"
  • Just like in C, pats of the resource file can be ignored / included conditionally using the #ifdef and ifndef directives. 
    #ifdef USERNAME
swaylock.greeter.user USERNAME // USERNAME is replaced with John Doe
#endif

Start the config manager (trawld)

Run trawld to start the config daemon. You can pass optional arguments to the daemon to customize the behavior or to change the logging level. Run trawld --help documentation for more information.

Using the CLI Cleint (trawldb)

The CLI client allows the user to interact with the config manager. Primary functions of the client include loading configurations from files. Run trawldb --help for more information.

Examples

  1. Load a file 
    # load a file (doesn't overwrite existing resources)
trawldb --load example/resources
# load a file without preprocessing
resrdb --load example/resources --nocpp
  2. Merge resources from a file 
    # merge resource from a file (overrides existing resources)
trawldb --merge example/resources
# merge resource from a file without preprocessing
trawldb --merge example/resources --nocpp
  3. Save currently loaded resources into a file 
    # if file exists it is backed up to a file with the same name but with a .bak extension
trawldb --edit all_resources
# specify suffix for -edit [.bak]
trawldb --edit all_resources --backup .old
  4. Query Resources 
    # query all resources
trawldb --query
# query a specific resource (partial matches are also shown)
trawldb --query key1
  5. Get resource values 
    # get the value for the resouource whose name is 'key1'
trawldb --get key1

Get resource value (trawlcat)

trawlcat is a drop-in replacement for xrescat and prints the value of the requested resource. For more info, see the (xrerscat) documentation.

Client API (for C)

The header and implementation files for the dbus interface is autogenerated from the service.xml file during the meson build. The client_api.h header file provides a simple to use wrapper api. All the dbus method names are in snake case and are prefixed with conf_client.

Rust Client Library

Include the trawldb crate in the Cargo.toml file. You can then use the Rust client library to interact with the config manager.

[dependencies]
trawldb = { path = "/path/to/trawldb" }