Listening for keypress in the background

[Mathias Dahl]

I have created a small Python program that is running on my desktop.

How can I make it listen for a certain keypress (say, Windows-key +
space) in a controlled fashion even when it is not the program having
focus?

I need to do this running under GNOME in Mandrake GN/Linux 10.

/Mathias

[Peter Hansen]

Mathias Dahl wrote:

I have created a small Python program that is running on my desktop.

How can I make it listen for a certain keypress (say, Windows-key +
space) in a controlled fashion even when it is not the program having
focus?

I need to do this running under GNOME in Mandrake GN/Linux 10.

Search Google for "python keylogger".

-Peter

[Mathias Dahl]

Peter Hansen <pe***@engcorp.com> writes:

How can I make it listen for a certain keypress (say, Windows-key +
space) in a controlled fashion even when it is not the program having
focus?

I need to do this running under GNOME in Mandrake GN/Linux 10.

Search Google for "python keylogger".

Thanks, good idea! The relevant pages I found only link to
Windows-specific keyloggers though.

I just got another idea on a solution for my main problem (invoking my
sleeping app) and that would be to let my window manager execute a
small "invoker" program that would communicate with the sleeping
app. The question is, which is the easiest way to communicate with a
running Python program? Signals? TCP/IP (not really, right?) Pipes?

[Mathias Dahl]

Mathias Dahl <br********@gmail.com> writes:

Peter Hansen <pe***@engcorp.com> writes:

How can I make it listen for a certain keypress (say, Windows-key +
space) in a controlled fashion even when it is not the program having
focus?

I need to do this running under GNOME in Mandrake GN/Linux 10.

Search Google for "python keylogger".

Thanks, good idea! The relevant pages I found only link to
Windows-specific keyloggers though.

I just got another idea on a solution for my main problem (invoking my
sleeping app) and that would be to let my window manager execute a
small "invoker" program that would communicate with the sleeping
app. The question is, which is the easiest way to communicate with a
running Python program? Signals? TCP/IP (not really, right?) Pipes?

I solved it using named pipes (mkfifo, open and read) plus a simple
echo x > pipe to invoke.

[Peter Hansen]

Mathias Dahl wrote:

Peter Hansen <pe***@engcorp.com> writes:

How can I make it listen for a certain keypress (say, Windows-key +
space) in a controlled fashion even when it is not the program having
focus?

I need to do this running under GNOME in Mandrake GN/Linux 10.

Search Google for "python keylogger".

Thanks, good idea! The relevant pages I found only link to
Windows-specific keyloggers though.

Oops, you're quite right. Sorry! I didn't even read the second
sentence in your post. Stupid me...

-Peter