Modularized HerbstluftWM in Perl

   
   
 coding  perl  herbstluftwm  
 desktop  
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Tutorial/ Guidance/ Article:

[ Modularized Overview ]  [ BASH ]  [ Perl ]  [ Python ]  [ Ruby ]  [ PHP ]  [ Lua ]  [ Haskell ]

Source Code Directory:

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Preface

Goal: Separate Main Flow, Code, and Data.

So anyone can focus to alter special customization in Main Script, without changing the whole stuff.

Reading

Before you jump off to scripting, you might desire to read this overview.

All The Source Code:

Impatient coder like me, like to open many tab on browser.

Influence

For a more sophisticated HerbstluftWM configuration in Perl. You may also take a look at this script. I am also inspired by this configuration script. This give influence to my script.

Table of Content

1: Directory Structure

Directory Structure has been explained in preface. This figure will explain how it looks in Perl script directory.

HerbstluftWM: Directory Structure

2: Modularizing in Perl

While main script using .pl extension (perl library), module use .pm. extension (perl module).

Declare a module

Perl module have to explicitly define what to export. Anything exported become public in caller script. And the rest is private to module.

Here we export hc function variable from helper module.

package helper;

use warnings;
use strict;

use config;

use Exporter;
our @ISA = 'Exporter';
our @EXPORT = qw(hc);

Call a module

use helper;

3: System Calls

Here we wrap herbstclient system call in a function named hc.

helper.pm

function hc() {
    system("herbstclient @_");
}

autostart.pl

# Read the manual in $ man herbstluftwm
hc('emit_hook reload');

# gap counter
system("echo 35 > /tmp/herbstluftwm-gap");

4: Array: Tag Names and Keys

config.pm

our @tag_names = (1..9);
our @tag_keys  = (1..9, 0);

HerbstluftWM: Tag Status

5: Hash: Color Schemes

Using key-value pairs, a simple data structure.

gmc.pm

our %color = (
    'white' => '#ffffff',
    'black' => '#000000',

    'grey50'  => '#fafafa',
    'grey100' => '#f5f5f5'
);

autostart.pl

# background before wallpaper
system("xsetroot -solid '$color{'blue500'}'");

View Source File:

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6: Hash: Config

The Hash in Config is very similar with the colors above. Except that it has string interpolation all over the place.

config.pm

# Modifier variables
my $s = 'Shift';
my $c = 'Control';
my $m = 'Mod4';
my $a = 'Mod1';

our %keybinds = (
  # session
    "$m-$s-q" => 'quit',
    "$m-$s-r" => 'reload',
    "$m-$s-c" => 'close'
);

This config will be utilized in main script as shown in the following code.

autostart.pl

helper::do_config("keybind",   %config::keybinds);
helper::do_config("keybind",   %config::tagskeybinds);
helper::do_config("mousebind", %config::mousebinds);
helper::do_config("attr",      %config::attributes);
helper::do_config("set",       %config::sets);
helper::do_config("rule",      %config::rules);

View Source File:

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7: Processing The Hash Config

This is the heart of this script.

This do-config function has two arguments, the herbstclient command i.e “keybind”, and hash from config. Passing hash argument in Perl is rather cryptic.

helper.pm

sub do_config($\%) {
    my ($command, $ref2hash) = @_;
    my %hash = %$ref2hash;

    # loop over hash
    while(my ($key, $value) = each %hash) { 
        hc("$command $key $value");
        
        # uncomment to debug in terminal
        # print("$command $key $value \n")
    }
}

Debug Herbstclient Command

I do not remove line where I do debug when I made this script, so anyone can use it later, avoid examining blindly. Sometimes strange things happen. Just uncomment this line to see what happened.

        print("$command $key $value \n")

You can see the debugging result in figure below.

HerbstluftWM: Debug Command

View Source File:

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8: Setting the Tags

Perl read all exported variable from modules.

helper.pm

sub set_tags_with_name() {
    hc("rename default '$tag_names[0]' 2>/dev/null || true");
    
    for my $index (0 .. $#tag_names) {
        hc("add '$tag_names[$index]'");
        
        my $key = $tag_keys[$index];
        if ("$key" ne "") {
            hc("keybind Mod4-$key use_index '$index'");
            hc("keybind Mod4-Shift-$key move_index '$index'");
        }
    }
}

9: Launch the Panel

Two more functions left, it is do_panel and startup_run.

This two also be easy to do in Perl. helper.pm

sub do_panel() {
    my $dirname = dirname(__FILE__);
    my $panel   = "$dirname/panel-lemonbar.pl";
    if (not -x $panel) { $panel = "/etc/xdg/herbstluftwm/panel.sh"; }

    my $monitor_qx = qx(herbstclient list_monitors | cut -d: -f1);
    my @monitors = split /\n/, $monitor_qx;

    for my $monitor (@monitors) {
        # start it on each monitor
        system("$panel $monitor &");
    }
}

10: Run Baby Run

This is the last part. It is intended to be modified. Everyone has their own personal preferences.

startup.pm

sub run() {
    my $command = 'silent new_attr bool my_not_first_autostart';

    my $not_first_qx = qx(herbstclient $command);
    my $exitcode = $?;

    if ($exitcode == 0) {
      # non windowed app
        system("compton &");
        system("dunst &");
        system("parcellite &");
        system("nitrogen --restore &");
        system("mpd &");
    
      # windowed app
        system("xfce4-terminal &");
        system("sleep 1 && firefox &");
        system("sleep 2 && geany &");
        system("sleep 2 && thunar &");
    }
}

View Source File:

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[ BASH Startup ]  [ Perl Startup ]  [ Python Startup ]  [ Ruby Startup ]  [ PHP Startup ]  [ Lua Startup ]  [ Haskell Startup ]

11: Putting It All Together

The last part is going to main script and putting it all back together.

Now the flow is clear

Header Part: autostart.pl

use warnings;
use strict;

use File::Basename;
use lib dirname(__FILE__);

use gmc;
use helper;
use config;
use startup;

Procedural Part: autostart.pl

# background before wallpaper
system("xsetroot -solid '$color{'blue500'}'");

# Read the manual in $ man herbstluftwm
hc('emit_hook reload');

# gap counter
system("echo 35 > /tmp/herbstluftwm-gap");

# do not repaint until unlock
hc("lock");

# standard
hc('keyunbind --all');
hc("mouseunbind --all");
hc("unrule -F");

helper::set_tags_with_name();

# do hash config
helper::do_config("keybind",   %config::keybinds);
helper::do_config("keybind",   %config::tagskeybinds);
helper::do_config("mousebind", %config::mousebinds);
helper::do_config("attr",      %config::attributes);
helper::do_config("set",       %config::sets);
helper::do_config("rule",      %config::rules);

# unlock, just to be sure
hc("unlock");

# launch statusbar panel
helper::do_panel();

# load on startup
startup::run();

View Source File:

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[ BASH autostart ]  [ Perl autostart ]  [ Python autostart ]  [ Ruby autostart ]  [ PHP autostart ]  [ Lua autostart ]  [ Haskell autostart ]

Coming up Next

After the Window Manager, comes the Panel.

Happy Configuring.

tup.hs