API Specification

class lirc.Client(connection: type[AbstractConnection] | None = None)

Bases: object

Communicate with the lircd daemon.

__init__(connection: type[AbstractConnection] | None = None) → None

Initialize the client by connecting to the lircd socket.

Parameters:

  • connection – The connection to lircd. Created with defaults

  • provided. (depending on the operating system if one is not)

Raises:

  • TypeError – If connection is not an instance of AbstractConnection.

  • LircdConnectionError – If the socket cannot connect to the address.

close() → None

Close the connection to the socket.

driver_option(key: str, value: str) → None

Set driver-specific option named key to given value.

Parameters:

  • key – The key to set for the driver.

  • value – The value for the key to set.

Raises:

LircdCommandFailure – If the command fails.

list_remote_keys(remote: str) → list[str]

List all the keys for a specific remote.

Parameters:

remote – The remote to list the keys of.

Raises:

LircdCommandFailure – If the command fails.

Returns:

The list of keys from the remote.

list_remotes() → list[str]

List all the remotes that lirc has in its /etc/lirc/lircd.conf.d folder.

Raises:

LircdCommandFailure – If the command fails.

Returns:

The list of all remotes.

send_once(remote: str, key: str, repeat_count: int = 0) → None

Send an lircd SEND_ONCE command.

Parameters:

  • key – The name of the key to send.

  • remote – The remote to use keys from.

  • repeat_count – The number of times to repeat this key. If this is set to 1, that means this key will be sent twice (repeated once).

Changed in version 2.0.0: The repeat_count parameter has been changed to have a default value of 0 instead of 1. This ensures send_once only sends 1 IR signal instead of sending 1 and then repeating it (therefore, 2 signals).

Raises:

LircdCommandFailure – If the command fails.

send_start(remote: str, key: str) → None

Send an lircd SEND_START command.

This will repeat the given key until send_stop is called.

Parameters:

  • remote – The remote to use keys from.

  • key – The name of the key to start sending.

Raises:

LircdCommandFailure – If the command fails.

send_stop(remote: str = '', key: str = '') → None

Send an lircd SEND_STOP command.

The remote and key default to the remote and key last used with send_start if they are not specified, since the most likely use case is sending a send_start and then a send_stop.

Parameters:

  • remote – The remote to stop.

  • key – The key to stop sending.

Raises:

LircdCommandFailure – If the command fails.

set_transmitters(transmitters: int | list[int]) → None

Set the active transmitters.

Example

>>> import lirc
>>> client = lirc.Client()
>>> client.set_transmitters(1)
>>> client.set_transmitters([1,3,5])
Parameters:

transmitters – The transmitters to set active.

Raises:

LircdCommandFailure – If the command fails.

simulate(remote: str, key: str, repeat_count: int = 0, keycode: int = 0) → None

Simulate an IR event.

The --allow-simulate command line option to lircd must be active for this command not to fail.

Lircd Format:

<code> <repeat count> <button name> <remote control name>

Example

0000000000f40bf0 00 KEY_UP ANIMAX

Parameters:

  • remote – The remote to simulate key presses from.

  • key – The key on the remote to simulate.

  • repeat_count – The number of times to repeat the simulated key press.

  • keycode – lircd(8) describes this option as a 16 hexadecimal digit number encoding of the IR signal. However, it says it is depreciated and should be ignored.

Changed in version 3.0.0: The repeat_count parameter has been changed to have a default value of 0 instead of 1. The previous value was incorrect since it leads to the command being sent twice (1 and then repeated once).

Raises:

LircdCommandFailure – If the command fails.

start_logging(path: str | Path) → None

Send a lircd SET_INPUTLOG command which sets the path to log all lircd received data to.

Parameters:

path – The path to start logging lircd recieved data to.

Raises:

LircdCommandFailure – If the command fails.

stop_logging() → None

Stop logging to the inputlog path from start_logging.

Raises:

LircdCommandFailure – If the command fails.

version() → str

Retrieve the version of LIRC

Raises:

LircdCommandFailure – If the command fails.

Returns:

The version of LIRC being used.

class lirc.LircdConnection(address: str | tuple = None, socket: socket = None, timeout: float = 5.0)

Bases: AbstractConnection

__init__(address: str | tuple = None, socket: socket = None, timeout: float = 5.0)

Initialize the LircdConnection. This sets up state we’ll need, but it does not connect to that socket. To connect, we can call connect() after initialization.

Parameters:

  • address – The address to the socket. Defaults to different values depending on the host operating system. On Linux, it defaults to /var/run/lirc/lircd. On Windows, a tuple of ("localhost", 8765). And on Darwin (macOS), /opt/local/var/run/lirc/lircd.

  • socket – The socket to use to connect to lircd. The default socket is determined using the host operating system. For Linux and Darwin, a unix domain socket connection is used i.e. socket.socket(socket.AF_UNIX, socket.SOCK_STREAM). However on Windows, a TCP socket is used i.e. socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM).

  • timeout – The amount of time to wait for data from the socket before we timeout.

property address: str

Retrieve the address that this lircd connection is connected to.

Returns:

The current address being used.

close()

Closes the socket connection.

connect()

Connect to the socket at the address both specified on init.

Raises:

LircdConnectionError – If the address is invalid or lircd is not running.

readline() → str

Read a line of data from the lircd socket.

We read 4096 bytes at a time as the buffer size. Therefore after data is read from the socket, all the lines are stored in a buffer if there is more than 1 and subsequent calls grab a line that stored in that buffer until it is empty. Then, another call to the socket would be made.

Raises:

  • TimeoutError – If we are not able to grab data from the socket in a specified amount of time (the initial timeout time on initialization).

  • LircdSocketError – If some other error happened when trying to read from the socket.

Returns:

A line from the lircd socket.

send(data: str)

Send a commend to the lircd socket connection.

Parameters:

data – The data to send to the lircd socket.

Raises:

TypeError – if data is not a string.