hhpc

hhpc(1) is a utility that hides the mouse pointer in X11. The method it uses to hide the cursor was taken from the hhp program found in xmonad-utils. I found that after a while for some reason the original hhp stopped hiding my mouse pointer, so I recreated it in C to make it easier to debug. Should hhpc not work out for you, unclutter is a good alternative. I created hhpc because unclutter doesn't seem to interoperate properly with hardware accelerated surfaces like those of video players using VAAPI.

It functions by grabbing your mouse pointer at startup and replacing its bitmap with an empty one (thus hiding it). It uses the XGrabPointer X11 function. Then, it waits for the X server to notify it when a user tries to move or click the pointer. At this point, hhpc relinquishes control with XUngrabPointer, replays the action the user just tried to execute and waits for the specified number of seconds (flag -i) before trying to grab the pointer and hide it again.

Running

./hhpc [options]

  -i seconds: amount of time to wait before hiding the cursor
  -h: display a help message
  -v: be verbose

Runtime Dependencies

A running X server.

Build dependencies

• X.org development files
• A gcc-compatible compiler (haven't tested if the flags works with other compilers)
• pkg-config

NOTE: this code compiles by default with the -std=c99 switch, for standards-compliance. This standard was implemented completely as of gcc 4.5, but has been quite functional for a long time before that. So chances are it will compile just fine. However, since hhpc doesn't use any advanced C99 features, it will probably compile with much older versions of gcc as well, though I haven't tried. So if you have an ancient compiler and the build fails, just edit the Makefile and try leaving out the -std=c99 flag.

Installing

hhpc(1) is available in the AUR: hhpc-git.

Building

To get the dependencies on Debian and derivatives.

$ sudo apt-get install make pkg-config gcc libc6-dev libx11-dev

Then clone and build it.

$ git clone ...
$ cd hhpc
$ make

If everything goes well, there should appear a hhpc executable in the current directory.

Todo

• Use XCB instead of Xlib.

Changelog

v0.3

• Use sync grabbing and make the X11 server replay the drained pointer events. This allows clicking while the pointer is hidden, which will henceforth register the click to the underlying window. NOTE: if this is undesired behaviour for some, please log an issue and I will reinstate the old behaviour with a commandline switch.
• Minor code, comments and output cleanup

License (3-clause BSD)

Copyright (c) 2013 Nicolas Hillegeer All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.