How can I determine the display idle time from Python in Windows, Linux, and MacOS?

Question

I would like to know how long it\'s been since the user last hit a key or moved the mouse - not just in my application, but on the whole \"computer\" (i.e. display), in orde

Answer 1

If you use PyGTK and X11 on Linux, you can do something like this, which is based on what Pidgin does:

import ctypes
import ctypes.util
import platform

class XScreenSaverInfo(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [('window', ctypes.c_long),
                ('state', ctypes.c_int),
                ('kind', ctypes.c_int),
                ('til_or_since', ctypes.c_ulong),
                ('idle', ctypes.c_ulong),
                ('eventMask', ctypes.c_ulong)]

class IdleXScreenSaver(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.xss = self._get_library('Xss')
        self.gdk = self._get_library('gdk-x11-2.0')

        self.gdk.gdk_display_get_default.restype = ctypes.c_void_p
        # GDK_DISPLAY_XDISPLAY expands to gdk_x11_display_get_xdisplay
        self.gdk.gdk_x11_display_get_xdisplay.restype = ctypes.c_void_p
        self.gdk.gdk_x11_display_get_xdisplay.argtypes = [ctypes.c_void_p]
        # GDK_ROOT_WINDOW expands to gdk_x11_get_default_root_xwindow
        self.gdk.gdk_x11_get_default_root_xwindow.restype = ctypes.c_void_p

        self.xss.XScreenSaverAllocInfo.restype = ctypes.POINTER(XScreenSaverInfo)
        self.xss.XScreenSaverQueryExtension.restype = ctypes.c_int
        self.xss.XScreenSaverQueryExtension.argtypes = [ctypes.c_void_p,
                                                        ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.c_int),
                                                        ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.c_int)]
        self.xss.XScreenSaverQueryInfo.restype = ctypes.c_int
        self.xss.XScreenSaverQueryInfo.argtypes = [ctypes.c_void_p,
                                                   ctypes.c_void_p,
                                                   ctypes.POINTER(XScreenSaverInfo)]

        # gtk_init() must have been called for this to work
        import gtk
        gtk  # pyflakes

        # has_extension = XScreenSaverQueryExtension(GDK_DISPLAY_XDISPLAY(gdk_display_get_default()),
        #                                            &event_base, &error_base);
        event_base = ctypes.c_int()
        error_base = ctypes.c_int()
        gtk_display = self.gdk.gdk_display_get_default()
        self.dpy = self.gdk.gdk_x11_display_get_xdisplay(gtk_display)
        available = self.xss.XScreenSaverQueryExtension(self.dpy,
                                                        ctypes.byref(event_base),
                                                        ctypes.byref(error_base))
        if available == 1:
            self.xss_info = self.xss.XScreenSaverAllocInfo()
        else:
            self.xss_info = None

    def _get_library(self, libname):
        path = ctypes.util.find_library(libname)
        if not path:
            raise ImportError('Could not find library "%s"' % (libname, ))
        lib = ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary(path)
        assert lib
        return lib

    def get_idle(self):
        if not self.xss_info:
            return 0

        # XScreenSaverQueryInfo(GDK_DISPLAY_XDISPLAY(gdk_display_get_default()),
        #                       GDK_ROOT_WINDOW(), mit_info);
        drawable = self.gdk.gdk_x11_get_default_root_xwindow()
        self.xss.XScreenSaverQueryInfo(self.dpy, drawable, self.xss_info)
        # return (mit_info->idle) / 1000;
        return self.xss_info.contents.idle / 1000

The example above uses gdk via ctypes to be able to access the X11 specific. Xscreensaver APIs also need to be accessed via ctypes.

It should be pretty easy to port it to use PyGI and introspection.