Glohot.h Documentation

Glohot.h is a lightweight header-only library for creating global hotkeys on Windows.

How to use

Glohot.h is a stb-style library, which means that besides including glohot.h in your project, you first need to include the implementation of all the functions. This is done as follows:

#define GLOHOT_IMPLEMENTATION
#include "glohot.h"

After including the library, you can easily create custom global hotkeys like this:

Glohot glohot = Glohot_create(0, GLOHOT_FLAG_DEFAULT);   // initialize Glohot

GlohotKey key1;  // declare hotkey structs
GlohotKey key2;

Glohot_add(&glohot, &key1, GH_MOD_CTRL, GH_VK_P, &some_callback1);  // populate hotkeys and add them to Glohot
Glohot_add(&glohot, &key2, GH_MOD_CTRL | CH_MOD_ALT, GH_VK_O, &some_callback2);  // provide vk code and modifiers of the key and the callback function

Glohot_register(&glohot);  // register all hotkeys added to Glohot
Glohot_listen(&glohot);  // listen for key presses

As you can see, to initiate a glohot struct, use the Glohot_create(int, uint8_t) function: Parameters:

• id_base[int] : the id offset to start with
• flags[uint8_t] : behaviour flags
  • GLOHOT_FLAG_DEFAULT: the default behaviour
  • GLOHOT_FLAG_NO_UNREG: disable un-registering of all hotkeys after exiting

A callback function has to be of type GlohotCallback, as defined in

typedef void (*GlohotCallback) (Glohot*);

When the assoiciated hotkey is pressed, Glohot will call the respective callback function and provide the corresponding Glohot instance via the argument.

To gracefully exit Glohot_listen, call the Glohot_exit(Glohot *glohot) function. This can be done from a different thread or from a callback funtion of an assigned hotkey.

If you want to unregister hotkeys, use Glohot_unregister(Glohot *glohot, size_t count). The count field indicates the amount of hotkeys to unregister starting with index 0. If you want to unregister all present hotkeys, provided GLOHOT_ALL.

To disable non-error console output from Glohot, define GLOHOT_SILENT.

Glohot Utils

The additional header file glohot_utils.h contains further definitions and functions for working with global hotkeys.

Key Codes

To access vk code and mod definitions define GLOHOT_KEY_CODES.

Helper Functions

To access helper functions like emulate_key_press define GLOHOT_UTILS.

Further remarks

This very simplistic project is in a early state and relies on some quite naive assumptions. Therefore, please use this project with caution. You are invited to modify, rewrite and publish the source code and create push requests. For more detailed information about copyright see the LICENSE file.