thqm 1.0.0

thqm, WSGI server providing simple remote hotkey and command execution on host.

thqm

Control your desktop from your phone

thqm (pronounced tahakoom from the arabic تحكم meaning control).

thqm starts a waitress WSGI server on the host machine and allows the client to run pre-configured commands & hotkeys on the host machine. This allows for simple remote command & hotkey execution.

A few nice use cases are:

• Media playback control
• Volume control
• Download/torrent control
• Control other web applications e.g. Jupyter notebook server

Installation

pip install thqm

thqm is compatible with linux & MacOS (maybe windows ?, though probably not the hotkeys).

Dependencies

• python3
• flask
• pyqrcode
• waitress

For hotkey execution:

• linux: xdotool
• MacOS: osascript

Usage

To start the thqm server, on the host machine, simply run:

thqm

The help:

usage: thqm [-h] [-c CONFIG] [-p PORT] [-q] [-v]

Remote command and hotkey execution server.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -c CONFIG, --config CONFIG
                        Path to config file. (default:
                        /home/lcoyle/.config/thqm/config)
  -p PORT, --port PORT  Port number. (default: 8800)
  -q, --qrcode          Show the qrcode. (default: False)
  -v, --verbosity       Verbosity of the waitress server. -v will print
                        events. -vv will print server messages. (default: 0)

The -q flag will print a qr-code in the terminal, this qr-code will bypass the thqm-auth authentication, the same is true for the in browser qr-code, this makes it particularly easy to share access with others.

Configuration

thqm reads a configuration file located at $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/thqm/config (or $HOME/.config/thqm/config if $XDG_CONFIG_HOME if not defined). This ini format file contains the pre-configured commands & hotkeys.

Each ini block can have the following structure:

[event name]        # name of the event
exec_cmd=...        # command to execute
exec_hotkey=...     # hotkey to execute (on linux use xdotool key names, on macos use osascript key names)
icon_path=...       # (optional) icon of the the event

if the event has both an exec_cmd and an exec_hotkey the command is run prior to running the hotkey.

Here would be the contents for media playback and audio control:

# requires pactl
[Raise volume]
exec_cmd=pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ +10%

[Lower volume]
exec_cmd=pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ -10%

[Toggle mute]
exec_cmd=pactl set-sink-mute @DEFAULT_SINK@ toggle

# using media keys
[Media previous]
exec_hotkey=XF86AudioPrev

[Media next]
exec_hotkey=XF86AudioNext

[Media play]
exec_hotkey=XF86AudioPlay

[Media pause]
exec_hotkey=XF86AudioPause

# browser control
[play/pause]
exec_hotkey=space

[scrub back]
exec_hotkey=Left

[scrub forward]
exec_hotkey=Right

If you want rudimentary authentication, add the thqm-auth block, with the password key, don't use a real password, the encryption isn't secure:

[thqm-auth]
password=super_secret_password