Felitendo
b7e0ff6fd1
Steam's autoscroll worked, except when it didn't. Every report of that came down to the same thing: Steam started in a way that carried no -noverifyfiles, noticed the patched web helper script, put its own copy back, and spent the session without the flag. There is no way to make every possible way of starting Steam carry an argument - a game launcher, a shortcut, a terminal, another program calling `steam steam://` - so the patch stops depending on it. The check is on size and timestamp, not on content, so the patch is now written to look untouched: the bytes the flag costs come back out of the script's own comments, and the timestamp of the untouched copy is restored afterwards. The file Steam finds is exactly as long and exactly as old as the one it wrote. A client that verifies its files finds nothing to repair. -noverifyfiles stays as the fallback for a script with no comments left to pay for the flag. Two things fall out of that. A patch that keeps the size no longer has to wait for Steam to close, because there is no size mismatch for the client to chase; only the growing one still defers. And an installation patched by the earlier version is quietly redone at the original size on the next apply, so the fix arrives without anyone having to know about it. Then the launch paths that were never covered: - Shortcuts on the desktop itself. Nothing in the XDG search path looks at that folder, so nothing had ever seen them - and Steam writes one there for every game somebody asks for a shortcut to. Its name is translated, so it is read from user-dirs.dirs and handed to the watcher in a drop-in. - Steam as a Flatpak was never recognised as Steam, so its entry got nothing while its script got patched - the worst of both. The switch goes after the application id there, where flatpak passes it on rather than reading it. - steam-native and steam-jupiter, which are ordinary Steam starts under another name, and Flatpak and snap entries in ~/.config/autostart. Two things found on the way: a client update left the undo copy holding the script from before the update, so undoing would have put an old version back; and a shortcut edited in place and later deleted would have been recreated by `disable`.
206 lines
8.5 KiB
Scdoc
206 lines
8.5 KiB
Scdoc
middleclick-autoscroll(1)
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# NAME
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middleclick-autoscroll - middle-click autoscroll in every application that supports it
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# SYNOPSIS
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*middleclick-autoscroll* [_command_]
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# DESCRIPTION
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Blink, the engine inside Chromium, Electron and CEF, implements Windows-style
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autoscroll: hold the middle mouse button and the page scrolls with the pointer.
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On Linux it is switched off, because middle click is taken by primary-selection
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paste. It can be turned back on with *--enable-blink-features=MiddleClickAutoscroll*
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on the command line.
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*middleclick-autoscroll* finds every Chromium-based application on the system
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and puts that argument somewhere the application will actually read it, then
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keeps doing so for anything installed later. It works on any distribution:
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which of the routes below an application takes is read off its launcher, not
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assumed from where the launcher came from.
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Run without a command it shows an interactive menu. Everything it can be told
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is reachable from there; the configuration file behind it does not need to be
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edited by hand.
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Nothing outside the user's home directory is written to, and running it as root
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is refused.
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# COMMANDS
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*enable*
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Turn autoscroll on, apply it to everything installed, and start watching
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for new applications.
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*disable*
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Turn it off and put every file that was changed back the way it was.
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*apply* [*--rebuild*]
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Apply to anything that has appeared since the last run. This is what the
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watcher calls; running it by hand is only needed when the watcher is off.
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Entries left behind by an application that has since been uninstalled are
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removed here too - the entry shadowing it lives in the user's home, where
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the package manager that removed the application cannot see it.
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With *--rebuild* everything is taken back first and written again from
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scratch. That is the repair: it does not care what looks correct already.
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*status*
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How many applications are covered, whether Steam is patched, and when the
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last run was.
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*list*
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Every Chromium-based application that was found, and how each one is
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handled.
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*-h*, *--help*
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Show a summary of the commands.
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*-V*, *--version*
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Show the version.
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# HOW THE ARGUMENT GETS IN
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Two ways, chosen per application.
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*Flag file*
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Where the launcher reads extra arguments from
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_$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/<name>-flags.conf_. This is the preferred route: it is
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the supported way to pass arguments, it survives package upgrades, and it
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applies to a launch from a terminal as much as one from the menu. An
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*--enable-blink-features* line that is already in the file is extended
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rather than duplicated - Chromium keeps only the last occurrence of that
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option, so a second one would switch the first one off.
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Arch's Electron and Chromium packages all wrap their binaries this way, and
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so do a number of individual vendors' launchers elsewhere. Whether a given
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launcher does is read off the launcher itself, never assumed from the
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distribution: only one that really names such a file takes this route.
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*Desktop entry*
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For applications that ship their own binary with no wrapper, and for
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everything inside a Flatpak or a snap, a copy of the desktop entry with the
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argument appended is written to _~/.local/share/applications_, where it
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shadows the system one. Entries that already live there - AppImages, web
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app shortcuts - are edited in place, with the original kept.
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This is the route everything takes on the distributions whose Chromium
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wrappers keep their equivalent file under _/etc_, where it is the system's
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to write and not the user's: Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE among
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them.
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A generated entry is marked *X-MCA-Generated* and an entry edited in place
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*X-MCA-Patched*. The two are never confused: the first is deleted when
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undoing, the second is restored from its backup. An entry with neither
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marker belongs to somebody else and is left alone.
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Programs that start themselves at login write their own entry into
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_~/.config/autostart_ pointing straight at their binary, bypassing the menu
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entry entirely. Those are patched in place as well.
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Shortcuts on the desktop itself are patched in place too. Nothing in the XDG
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search path looks at that folder, so a shortcut that lives only there would
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otherwise be invisible - and Steam puts one there for every game somebody asks
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for a shortcut to. The folder's name is translated, and the name in use is read
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from _~/.config/user-dirs.dirs_ rather than guessed; the watcher is told about
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it in a drop-in written when autoscroll is turned on.
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# STEAM
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Steam's interface is CEF and supports the feature, but Steam builds the command
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line for its web helper itself. The only way in is the script that starts the
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helper, inside Steam's own installation:
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~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper_sniper_wrap.sh
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Where that installation is depends on how Steam was installed:
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_~/.local/share/Steam_ for Valve's own package and Arch's,
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_~/.steam/debian-installation_ for Debian's, and the private tree of the
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sandbox for the Flatpak and the snap. All of them are looked at.
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Steam compares the installed files against its manifest at every start - by
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size and timestamp rather than by content - and restores whatever differs. So
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the patch is written to look untouched: the bytes the argument costs are taken
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back out of the script's own comments and the timestamp is put back afterwards,
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leaving a file exactly as long and exactly as old as Steam left it. A client
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that checks its files finds nothing to repair, and the argument survives
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however Steam was started - from the menu, from a game shortcut, from a
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launcher like Heroic or Lutris, from a terminal.
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That is what has to work, because there is no way to make every possible way of
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starting Steam carry an argument. *-noverifyfiles* is the second line rather
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than the first: it covers the case where the script has no comments left to pay
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for the argument and the patch has to grow the file. It goes on Steam's
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launcher entry, on its entry in _~/.config/autostart_, which Steam writes as
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soon as it is set to run at login, and on the shortcuts Steam writes for single
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games, on the desktop and in the menu alike. A game is not an application this
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program has anything to offer and none of them is listed under *Applications*,
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but starting one is a Steam start like any other. The trade-off of the switch
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is that Steam no longer repairs a damaged installation on its own; that is why
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Steam is a switch of its own in the settings.
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A patch that does change the size is still held back while the client is
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running: Steam puts its own copy back, the two would only undo each other, and
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the helper is started once, at the start, so patching again would not help that
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session anyway. It goes in at the next apply with Steam closed. A patch that
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keeps the size has nothing to wait for and goes in either way.
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A client update brings a new version of the script. The watcher notices and
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patches it again, and the copy kept for undoing is replaced with the new
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version at the same time, so undoing puts back the script Steam last shipped
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rather than the one from before the update.
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# SPOTIFY
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The official client is CEF rather than Electron. Installed through
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*spotify-launcher*, it is started by a program that builds its own command line
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and has a configuration file with a slot for extra arguments; that slot is
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where the flag goes. Installed as a plain package, a Flatpak or a snap, it is
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an ordinary desktop entry and needs nothing special.
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# WHAT CANNOT BE DETECTED
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An AppImage keeps its payload in a compressed filesystem, so there is no way to
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tell from the outside whether it contains Chromium. Those are listed as *cannot
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tell* and left alone until they are switched on from the applications screen.
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# FILES
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_~/.config/middleclick-autoscroll/config_
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Written by the program. Every option in it is reachable from the menu.
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_~/.local/state/middleclick-autoscroll/ledger_
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One line per change, so *disable* can undo exactly what was done and
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nothing else.
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_~/.local/state/middleclick-autoscroll/backup/_
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Copies of the files that are edited in place rather than shadowed.
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_~/.cache/middleclick-autoscroll/detect_
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Which programs were found to be Chromium, keyed by size and modification
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time. Safe to delete.
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# ENVIRONMENT
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*NO_COLOR*
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Disables colour.
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# REQUIREMENTS
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Bash 4.2 or newer and GNU coreutils. The watcher needs a systemd user session;
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without one everything else works and applications installed later are picked
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up at the next *apply* rather than on their own.
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# SEE ALSO
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*systemctl*(1), *flatpak*(1), *snap*(8)
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# AUTHORS
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Felitendo. Source and issue tracker at
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https://github.com/Felitendo/middleclick-autoscroll
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