My KWIN fork where I work on features like per-output virtual desktops
Find a file
2016-07-18 16:34:03 +02:00
autotests [autotests] Move libkwineffects/autotests to autotests/libkwineffects 2016-07-18 08:47:45 +02:00
cmake/modules Don't look out for libis 2016-05-30 12:45:38 +05:30
data [plugins/qpa] Add debug output for the KWin internal QPA plugin 2016-07-18 16:34:03 +02:00
decorations pedantic fixes 2016-07-16 13:14:44 -04:00
doc Add docbook for kwineffects kcm 2016-05-13 08:11:27 +02:00
effects pedantic fixes 2016-07-16 13:14:44 -04:00
helpers [helpers/xclipboradsync] Ensure that KWayland::Client connects through the passed fd 2016-06-29 19:13:00 +02:00
kcmkwin [autotests] Move libkwineffects/autotests to autotests/libkwineffects 2016-07-18 08:47:45 +02:00
libinput pedantic fixes 2016-07-16 13:14:44 -04:00
libkwineffects [autotests] Move libkwineffects/autotests to autotests/libkwineffects 2016-07-18 08:47:45 +02:00
plugins [plugins/qpa] Add debug output for the KWin internal QPA plugin 2016-07-18 16:34:03 +02:00
qml Integrate QtVirtualKeyboard into KWin/Wayland 2016-06-02 11:26:53 +02:00
scripting pedantic fixes 2016-07-16 13:14:44 -04:00
scripts SVN_SILENT made messages (.desktop file) - always resolve ours 2016-07-13 10:19:49 +00:00
shaders [libkwinglutils] Cleanup Shader API: removal of ShaderType 2016-01-26 09:42:49 +01:00
tabbox pedantic fixes 2016-07-16 13:14:44 -04:00
tests [tests] Fix build - missing include to QDebug 2016-07-13 10:13:47 +02:00
.arcconfig Adding .arcconfig 2016-03-15 13:37:47 +01:00
.reviewboardrc
16-apps-kwin.png
32-apps-kwin.png
48-apps-kwin.png
abstract_client.cpp Correct datatype to qint64 for value returned from QElapsedTimer::elapsed 2016-06-29 10:52:43 +02:00
abstract_client.h Use hiddenInternal() for a ShellClient which got unmapped 2016-07-13 10:45:10 +02:00
abstract_egl_backend.cpp Properly get error message for eglInitialize 2016-07-15 10:04:39 +02:00
abstract_egl_backend.h Move the loadTexture for X11 pixmap functionality to the EglOnXBackend 2016-06-14 09:10:09 +02:00
activation.cpp restrict cross-vd activation to in-client distrib 2016-02-27 11:26:51 +01:00
activities.cpp Revert "Remove saving and loading (and client matching by) WM_COMMAND." 2016-06-23 21:07:03 +02:00
activities.h
atoms.cpp
atoms.h Create screen edge through the Platform 2016-04-19 13:29:55 +02:00
client.cpp Emit windowShown and windowHidden from Client::internalKeep and ::internalHide 2016-07-14 11:11:49 +02:00
client.h Use hiddenInternal() for a ShellClient which got unmapped 2016-07-13 10:45:10 +02:00
client_machine.cpp Fix heap-use-after-free use in resolving ClientMachine 2015-10-01 10:09:52 +02:00
client_machine.h
CMakeLists.txt Update version number for 5.7.1 2016-07-12 10:32:27 +01:00
COMPLIANCE
composite.cpp Use hiddenInternal() for a ShellClient which got unmapped 2016-07-13 10:45:10 +02:00
composite.h Only start Xwayland server if Compositor created a Scene 2016-04-14 08:51:16 +02:00
config-kwin.h.cmake Support for syncing the clipboard from X11 to Wayland and vice versa 2016-06-29 09:03:40 +02:00
CONFIGURING
COPYING
COPYING.DOC
cursor.cpp Add Cursor::cursorAlternativeNames 2016-02-22 13:33:21 +01:00
cursor.h Add Cursor::cursorAlternativeNames 2016-02-22 13:33:21 +01:00
dbusinterface.cpp Provide functionality of CompositingPrefs through Platform 2016-05-17 13:59:52 +02:00
dbusinterface.h Add a debugging console to KWin 2016-03-16 14:30:19 +01:00
debug_console.cpp Trimm the buttonsToString in debug console 2016-05-30 15:32:05 +02:00
debug_console.h Don't reset InputDevicesModel when devices change 2016-05-13 10:04:40 +02:00
debug_console.ui [libinput] Add a wrapper class Device for a libinput_device 2016-05-06 08:21:49 +02:00
deleted.cpp Be sure isCurrentTab returns true 2016-06-01 20:46:35 +03:00
deleted.h Be sure isCurrentTab returns true 2016-06-01 20:46:35 +03:00
effectloader.cpp Cancel the EffectLoader query on clear 2016-04-26 15:01:15 +02:00
effectloader.h pedantic fixes 2016-07-16 13:14:44 -04:00
effects.cpp [libkwineffects] Add signals windowShown and windowHidden to EffectsHandler 2016-07-13 10:46:05 +02:00
effects.h Add bool checkInputWindowEvent(QWheelEvent *e) to EffectsHandlerImpl 2016-03-04 14:18:32 +01:00
events.cpp Properly call Toplevel::setSurface for wl_surface_id X11 client message event 2016-06-14 07:41:20 +02:00
ExtraDesktop.sh
focuschain.cpp
focuschain.h
geometry.cpp Remove completely useless output 2016-06-29 11:56:18 +05:30
geometrytip.cpp Port to CMake AUTOMOC 2016-02-01 21:05:36 +01:00
geometrytip.h
globalshortcuts.cpp Change supported platforms of kglobalaccel plugin to "org.kde.kwin" 2015-07-07 13:36:27 +02:00
globalshortcuts.h [wayland] Add a plugin for kglobalaccel 2015-07-02 13:42:29 +02:00
group.cpp Reintroduce nullptr check in Client::removeFromMainClients 2015-09-17 14:17:55 +02:00
group.h
HACKING
input.cpp Use hiddenInternal() for a ShellClient which got unmapped 2016-07-13 10:45:10 +02:00
input.h Support touch events on KWin internal windows 2016-05-23 18:40:06 +02:00
input_event.cpp Pass LibInput::Device* through the event handlers 2016-05-30 15:26:37 +02:00
input_event.h Pass LibInput::Device* through the event handlers 2016-05-30 15:26:37 +02:00
keyboard_input.cpp pedantic fixes 2016-07-16 13:14:44 -04:00
keyboard_input.h Update Keyboard focus when the Surface of the active client changes 2016-06-26 16:07:31 +02:00
killwindow.cpp
killwindow.h
kwin.kcfg
kwin.notifyrc SVN_SILENT made messages (.desktop file) - always resolve ours 2016-05-31 11:06:54 +00:00
kwinbindings.cpp
KWinDBusInterfaceConfig.cmake.in Add path to kwin_wayland binary to KWin's installed CMakeConfig 2015-11-19 09:28:16 +01:00
lanczosfilter.cpp Use shader traits API for lanczos filter's shader 2016-01-25 14:11:54 +01:00
lanczosfilter.h Use shader traits API for lanczos filter's shader 2016-01-25 14:11:54 +01:00
layers.cpp Allow transients to go over dock windows under certain conditions 2015-09-17 14:33:54 +02:00
logind.cpp Drop not needed include to sys/sysmacros.h from logind.cpp 2016-06-20 11:21:45 +02:00
logind.h Switch virtual teminal through logind seat 2016-04-22 14:18:56 +02:00
main.cpp Move requiresCompositing from Application to Platform 2016-05-17 13:59:32 +02:00
main.h Move requiresCompositing from Application to Platform 2016-05-17 13:59:32 +02:00
main_wayland.cpp Handle situation of no XDG_RUNTIME_DIR gracefully 2016-07-13 10:00:46 +02:00
main_wayland.h Move everything KCrash related from Application to ApplicationX11 2016-05-09 08:08:49 +02:00
main_x11.cpp Move everything KCrash related from Application to ApplicationX11 2016-05-09 08:08:49 +02:00
main_x11.h Move everything KCrash related from Application to ApplicationX11 2016-05-09 08:08:49 +02:00
Mainpage.dox
manage.cpp Merge branch 'Plasma/5.4' 2015-10-23 09:38:50 +02:00
Messages.sh killer/ moved to helpers/killer 2016-06-30 11:25:43 +02:00
netinfo.cpp
netinfo.h
options.cpp Provide functionality of CompositingPrefs through Platform 2016-05-17 13:59:52 +02:00
options.h Move requiresCompositing from Application to Platform 2016-05-17 13:59:32 +02:00
org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver.xml
org.kde.kwin.Compositing.xml
org.kde.kwin.Effects.xml
org.kde.KWin.xml Add a debugging console to KWin 2016-03-16 14:30:19 +01:00
outline.cpp Make QmlPath in Outline configurable 2016-01-29 09:50:52 +01:00
outline.h
overlaywindow.cpp
overlaywindow.h Move glxbackend to x11 standalone plugin 2016-04-15 07:46:02 +02:00
placement.cpp Fix typo 2016-03-03 17:01:52 +01:00
placement.h Move implementation of Client::packTo to AbstractClient 2015-10-26 11:30:34 +01:00
platform.cpp Properly trigger repaint for sofware cursor 2016-06-28 12:40:38 +02:00
platform.h Properly trigger repaint for sofware cursor 2016-06-28 12:40:38 +02:00
pointer_input.cpp Pass LibInput::Device* through the event handlers 2016-05-30 15:26:37 +02:00
pointer_input.h Pass LibInput::Device* through the event handlers 2016-05-30 15:26:37 +02:00
README
resources.qrc [libkwinglutils] Cleanup Shader API: removal of ShaderType 2016-01-26 09:42:49 +01:00
rules.cpp Unblock signals in child processes 2015-12-15 13:03:30 +01:00
rules.h Add rule to protect the focus on a window 2015-11-17 21:30:05 +01:00
sc-apps-kwin.svgz
scene.cpp Use hiddenInternal() for a ShellClient which got unmapped 2016-07-13 10:45:10 +02:00
scene.h [autotests] Add a new test case which can verify the rendering of QPainter Scene 2016-07-01 09:00:19 +02:00
scene_opengl.cpp Fix shadow rendering calculations 2016-07-06 13:16:18 +01:00
scene_opengl.h Move glxbackend to x11 standalone plugin 2016-04-15 07:46:02 +02:00
scene_qpainter.cpp [autotests] Add a new test case which can verify the rendering of QPainter Scene 2016-07-01 09:00:19 +02:00
scene_qpainter.h [autotests] Add a new test case which can verify the rendering of QPainter Scene 2016-07-01 09:00:19 +02:00
scene_xrender.cpp SceneXRender::Window uses a static XRenderPicture which it didn't clean up 2016-06-13 15:29:35 +02:00
scene_xrender.h SceneXRender::Window uses a static XRenderPicture which it didn't clean up 2016-06-13 15:29:35 +02:00
screenedge.cpp Add KRunner and Activity Manager screen edge 2016-05-08 16:53:48 +02:00
screenedge.h Create screen edge through the Platform 2016-04-19 13:29:55 +02:00
screens.cpp Move XRandrScreens to the x11/standalone plugin 2016-04-12 08:04:16 +02:00
screens.h Rename AbstractBackend to Platform 2016-04-07 16:18:12 +02:00
settings.kcfgc
shadow.cpp Make Toplevel::window() no longer virtual and introduce ::windowId() 2016-05-17 14:13:24 +02:00
shadow.h [wayland] Shadow gains support for a Wayland protocol 2015-07-15 11:25:16 +02:00
shell_client.cpp Add support for xdg-shell version 5 interface 2016-07-13 13:20:00 +02:00
shell_client.h Add support for xdg-shell version 5 interface 2016-07-13 13:20:00 +02:00
shortcutdialog.ui
sm.cpp Drop warning regarding ksmserver in sm.cpp 2016-06-29 11:06:24 +02:00
sm.h Revert "Remove saving and loading (and client matching by) WM_COMMAND." 2016-06-23 21:07:03 +02:00
tabgroup.cpp
tabgroup.h
thumbnailitem.cpp Make Toplevel::window() no longer virtual and introduce ::windowId() 2016-05-17 14:13:24 +02:00
thumbnailitem.h
toplevel.cpp Update Keyboard focus when the Surface of the active client changes 2016-06-26 16:07:31 +02:00
toplevel.h Update Keyboard focus when the Surface of the active client changes 2016-06-26 16:07:31 +02:00
touch_input.cpp Pass LibInput::Device* through the event handlers 2016-05-30 15:26:37 +02:00
touch_input.h Pass LibInput::Device* through the event handlers 2016-05-30 15:26:37 +02:00
udev.cpp
udev.h
unmanaged.cpp Port to CMake AUTOMOC 2016-02-01 21:05:36 +01:00
unmanaged.h
useractions.cpp Make Toplevel::window() no longer virtual and introduce ::windowId() 2016-05-17 14:13:24 +02:00
useractions.h force grab on useractions menu 2015-10-16 15:45:55 +02:00
utils.cpp Port to CMake AUTOMOC 2016-02-01 21:05:36 +01:00
utils.h Unblock signals in child processes 2015-12-15 13:03:30 +01:00
virtual_terminal.cpp Fix build with future glibc (major/minor macros) 2016-04-20 19:03:34 +02:00
virtual_terminal.h [wayland] Don't break if we try to vt-switch to vt we're on 2015-07-20 11:49:41 +02:00
virtualdesktops.cpp
virtualdesktops.h
virtualkeyboard.cpp Fix broken build 2016-06-02 11:54:14 +02:00
virtualkeyboard.h Integrate QtVirtualKeyboard into KWin/Wayland 2016-06-02 11:26:53 +02:00
wayland_cursor_theme.cpp Fix fallback resolution in WaylandCursorTheme 2016-02-25 14:05:20 +01:00
wayland_cursor_theme.h Clear cursor cache on theme changes 2016-02-25 08:14:48 +01:00
wayland_server.cpp Add support for xdg-shell version 5 interface 2016-07-13 13:20:00 +02:00
wayland_server.h Add support for xdg-shell version 5 interface 2016-07-13 13:20:00 +02:00
workspace.cpp Merge signal connections for AbstractClient in Workspace 2016-07-13 10:44:34 +02:00
workspace.h Merge signal connections for AbstractClient in Workspace 2016-07-13 10:44:34 +02:00
x11eventfilter.cpp
x11eventfilter.h Move XRandrScreens to the x11/standalone plugin 2016-04-12 08:04:16 +02:00
xcbutils.cpp Clean debug output 2015-07-20 13:36:27 +02:00
xcbutils.h Fix regression in unit-test introduced with 62b6401175 2015-08-21 11:14:20 +02:00

- A collection of various documents and links related to KWin is at http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/KWin .


- The mailing list for KWin is kwin@kde.org (https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kwin).

- If you want to develop KWin, see file HACKING.

- If you want to check KWin's compliance with specifications, see file COMPLIANCE.

- File CONFIGURATION includes some details on configuring KWin.

- Below is some info for application developers about application interaction
  with the window manager, but it'd need some cleanup.








 This README is meant as an explanation of various window manager related
mechanisms that application developers need to be aware of. As some of these
concepts may be difficult to understand for people not having the required
background knowledge (since sometimes it's difficult even for people who
do have the knowledge), the mechanisms are first briefly explained, and
then an example of fixing the various problems is given.

 For comments, questions, suggestions and whatever use the kwin@kde.org
mailing list.


Table of contents:
==================

- Window relations
    - how to make the window manager know which windows belong together
- Focus stealing prevention
    - how to solve cases where focus stealing prevention doesn't work
      properly automatically



Window relations:
=================

(For now, this explanation of window relations is mainly meant for
focus stealing prevention. To be extended later.)

 All windows created by an application should be organized in a tree
with the root being the application's main window. Note that this is about
toplevel windows, not widgets inside the windows. For example, if you
have KWrite running, with a torn-off toolbar (i.e. a standalone toolbar),
a file save dialog open, and the file save dialog showing a dialog
for creating a directory, the window hiearchy should look like this:


             KWrite mainwindow
              /             \
             /               \
      file save dialog      torn-off toolbar
            \
             \
          create directory dialog

 Each subwindow (i.e. all except for the KWrite mainwindow) points to its
main window (which in turn may have another main window, as in the case
of the file save dialog). When the window manager knows these relations,
it can better arrange the windows (keeping subwindows above their
main windows, preventing activation of a main window of a modal dialog,
and similar). Failing to provide this information to the window manager
may have various results, for example having dialogs positioned below
the main window,

The window property used by subwindows to point to their mainwindows is
called WM_TRANSIENT_FOR. It can be seen by running
'xprop | grep WM_TRANSIENT_FOR' and clicking on a window. If the property
is not present, the window does not (claim to) have any mainwindow.
If the property is present, it's value is the window id of its main window;
window id of any window can be found out by running 'xwininfo'. A window
having WM_TRANSIENT_FOR poiting to another window is said to be transient
for that window.

 In some cases, the WM_TRANSIENT_FOR property may not point to any other
existing window, having value of 0, or pointing to the screen number
('xwininfo -root'). These special values mean that the window is transient
for all other windows in its window group. This should be used only
in rare cases, everytime a specific main window is known, WM_TRANSIENT_FOR
should be pointing to it instead of using one of these special values.
(The explanation why is beyond the scope of this document - just accept it
as a fact.)

 With Qt, the WM_TRANSIENT_FOR property is set by Qt automatically, based
on the toplevel widget's parent. If the toplevel widget is of a normal
type (i.e. not a dialog, toolbar, etc.), Qt doesn't set WM_TRANSIENT_FOR
on it. For special widgets, such as dialogs, WM_TRANSIENT_FOR is set
to point to the widget's parent, if it has a specific parent, otherwise
WM_TRANSIENT_FOR points to the root window.

 As already said above, WM_TRANSIENT_FOR poiting to the root window should
be usually avoided, so everytime the widget's main widget is known, the widget
should get it passed as a parent in its constructor.
(TODO KDialog etc. classes should not have a default argument for the parent
argument, and comments like 'just pass 0 as the parent' should go.)



Focus stealing prevention:
==========================

 Since KDE3.2 KWin has a feature called focus stealing prevention. As the name
suggests, it prevents unexpected changes of focus. With older versions of KWin,
if any application opened a new dialog, it became active, and
if the application's main window was on another virtual desktop, also
the virtual desktop was changed. This was annoying, and also sometimes led
to dialogs mistakenly being closed because they received keyboard input that
was meant for the previously active window.

 The basic principle of focus stealing prevention is that the window with most
recent user activity wins. Any window of an application will become active
when being shown only if this application was the most recently used one.
KWin itself, and some of the related kdecore classes should take care
of the common cases, so usually there's no need for any special handling
in applications. Qt/KDE applications, that is. Applications using other
toolkits should in most cases work fine too. If they don't support
the window property _NET_WM_USER_TIME, the window manager may fail to detect
the user timestamp properly, resulting either in other windows becoming active
while the user works with this application, or this application may sometimes
steal focus (this second case should be very rare though).

 There are also cases where KDE applications needs special handling. The two
most common cases are when windows relations are not setup properly to make
KWin realize that they belong to the same application, and when the user
activity is not represented by manipulating with the application windows
themselves.

 Also note that focus stealing prevention implemented in the window manager
can only help with focus stealing between different applications.
If an application itself suddenly pops up a dialog, KWin cannot do anything about
it, and its the application's job to handle this case.


Window relations:
-----------------

 The common case here is when a dialog is shown for an application, but this
dialog is not provided by the application itself, but by some other process.
For example, dialogs with warnings about accepted cookies are provided
by KCookieJar, instead of being shown by Konqueror. In the normal case,
from KWin's point of view the cookie dialog would be an attempt of another
application to show a dialog, and KWin wouldn't allow activation of this
window.

 The solution is to tell the window manager about the relation between
the Konqueror main window and the cookie dialog, by making the dialog
point to the mainwindow. Note that this is not special to focus stealing
prevention, subwindows such as dialogs, toolbars and similar should always
point to their mainwindow. See the section on window relations for full
description.

 The WM_TRANSIENT_FOR property that's set on dialogs to point to their
mainwindow should in the cookie dialog case point to the Konqueror window
for which it has been shown. This is solved in kcookiejar by including
the window id in the DCOP call. When the cookie dialog is shown, its
WM_TRANSIENT_FOR property is manually set using the XSetTransientForHint()
call (see kdelibs/kioslave/http/kcookiejar/kcookiewin.cpp). The arguments
to XSetTransientForHint() call are the X display (i.e. QX11Info::display()),
the window id on which the WM_TRANSIENT_FOR property is to be set
(i.e. use QWidget::winId()), and the window id of the mainwindow.


  Simple short HOWTO:
  
 To put it simply: Let's say you have a daemon application that has
DCOP call "showDialog( QString text )", and when this is called, it shows
a dialog with the given text. This won't work properly with focus stealing
prevention. The DCOP call should be changed to
"showDialog( QString text, long id )". The caller should pass something like
myMainWindow->winId() as the second argument. In the daemon, before
the dialog is shown, a call to XSetTransientHint() should be added:

 XSetTransientForHint( QX11Info::display(), dialog->winId(), id_of_mainwindow );
 
 That's it.

Non-standard user activity:
---------------------------

 The most common case in KDE will be DCOP calls. For example, KDesktop's DCOP
call "KDesktopIface popupExecuteCommand". Executing this DCOP call e.g.
from Konsole as 'dcop kdesktop KDesktopIface popupExecuteCommand" will lead
to showing the minicli, but the last user activity timestamp gained from events
sent by X server will be older than user activity timestamp of Konsole, and
would normally result in minicli not being active. Therefore, before showing
the minicli, kdesktop needs to call KApplication::updateUserTimestamp().

 However, this shouldn't be done with all DCOP calls. If a DCOP call is not
a result of direct user action, calling KApplication::updateUserTimestamp()
would lead to focus stealing. For example, let's assume for a moment
that KMail would use this DCOP call in case it detects the modem is not
connected, allowing to you to start KPPP or whatever tool you use. If KMail
would be configured to check mail every 10 minutes, this would lead to minicli
possibly suddenly showing up at every check. Basically, doing the above change
to kdesktop's minicli means that the popupExecuteCommand() DCOP call is only
for user scripting. (TODO write about focus transferring?)

 Simply said, KApplication::updateUserTimestamp() should be called only
as a result of user action. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any universal
way how to handle this, so every case will have to be considered separately.