fix: prevent fork loop and JSON hang in keybinds hint

[snakeice]

Problem

Two bugs in the keybinds hint system were causing system-wide performance degradation (fork storms with ~568 forks/s, load average spikes to 100+).

Bug 1: keybinds_hint.sh — infinite self-re-execution (exec $0)

The script uses exec $0 in two places as a fallback when rofi produces no output or when a dispatch fails. This causes the script to re-execute itself indefinitely, spawning hundreds of python3 processes per second.

Before:

RUN() {
    case ... in *"Not enough arguments"*) exec $0 ;; esac
}
...
else
    exec $0
fi

Fix: Replace exec $0 with exit 0. If the script reaches a dead end, it should exit, not loop.

Bug 2: hint-hyprland.py — infinite retry on broken JSON

get_hyprctl_binds() had a while True loop that retried hyprctl binds -j forever when JSON parsing failed. On Hyprland 0.56.0, hyprctl binds -j returns malformed JSON (fields shifted, non-numeric values in numeric fields), causing the script to hang indefinitely in the retry loop.

$ hyprctl binds -j | python3 -m json.tool
# JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 15 column 16 (char 303)

Fix:

• Try JSON first with a 5s timeout
• If JSON is invalid, fall back to parsing the text output of hyprctl binds (no -j flag)
• All subprocess calls have timeout=5 to prevent indefinite hangs

Impact

• Fork rate dropped from ~568/s to ~7/s
• System load returned to normal (was spiking to 100+ on a 14-thread CPU)
• Keybinds hint (Super+/) now works on Hyprland 0.56.0 where hyprctl binds -j is broken

Testing

Tested on:

• Hyprland 0.56.0 (commit 36b2e0c)
• Kernel 7.1.4-1-cachyos
• Python 3.11

# Before: hangs forever
$ python3 hint-hyprland.py --format rofi
# (no output, CPU spins)

# After: works correctly
$ python3 hint-hyprland.py --format rofi | head -3
 Window Management  ::: ::: Window Management
SUPER + Q > close focused window ::: exec ::: hyde-shell dontkillsteam
ALT + F4 > close focused window ::: exec ::: hyde-shell dontkillsteam

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Improved keybinding detection by falling back to text-based parsing when structured output isn’t available.
  • Added a bounded command execution for keybind retrieval to avoid indefinite waiting.
  • Prevented the keybind dispatch script from repeatedly restarting when dispatch arguments are missing or selection can’t be performed.
  • Enhanced normalization of keybinding details (e.g., modifier/repeat/lock states, mouse/release options, and description handling) during fallback parsing.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between fdf222a and c6e759c.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• Configs/.local/lib/hyde/keybinds/hint-hyprland.py

🚧 Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes (1)

• Configs/.local/lib/hyde/keybinds/hint-hyprland.py

---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The keybind helpers now use bounded hyprctl execution, parse non-JSON bind output as a fallback, normalize parsed fields, and terminate dispatch paths instead of restarting the script.

Changes

Hyprland keybind handling

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Bounded bind retrieval and fallback parsing Configs/.local/lib/hyde/keybinds/hint-hyprland.py	hyprctl binds -j uses a five-second timeout; failures fall back to normalized plain-text bind parsing with integer, boolean, and description fields.
Dispatch termination paths Configs/.local/lib/hyde/keybinds_hint.sh	Insufficient arguments and non-single-line dispatch selection now exit successfully instead of re-executing the script.

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant HintScript
  participant Hyprctl
  participant BindParser
  HintScript->>Hyprctl: Run binds -j with five-second timeout
  Hyprctl-->>HintScript: JSON output or command failure
  HintScript->>BindParser: Parse plain-text binds when JSON fails
  BindParser-->>HintScript: Return normalized bind dictionaries

Loading

Possibly related PRs

• HyDE-Project/HyDE#1827: Adjusts JSON sanitization and parsing in the same Hyprland keybind handling path.

Poem

I’m a rabbit with binds in my hat,
No endless retries—imagine that!
JSON may flee, text takes its place,
Dispatch hops out with elegant grace.
exit 0 says, “The loop is done!”

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the main fix: stopping fork loops and JSON hangs in the keybinds hint flow.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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---

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 2

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In `@Configs/.local/lib/hyde/keybinds/hint-hyprland.py`:
- Around line 45-67: Update the keycode parsing branch to accept signed numeric
values such as -1 instead of relying on value.isdigit(), preserving the parsed
integer for map_codeDisplay(). In the keybind parsing logic, replace the direct
value.lower() == "true" checks for repeat, locked, mouse, release,
non_consuming, and allow_input_capture with the existing parse_bool() helper so
numeric flags such as 1 remain valid.
- Around line 31-34: Update the bind-header detection in the parser so every
Hyprland bind variant, including flagged and combined forms such as bindl=,
bindm=, bindr=, bindl:m=, and bindr:Super=, starts a new record. Preserve the
existing current-record append and reset behavior in the surrounding parsing
logic.

🪄 Autofix (Beta)

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

---

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Configuration used: Organization UI

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Run ID: 9fdcfefa-65dc-4be5-940e-5f451330b517

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 1ca4d45 and fdf222a.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• Configs/.local/lib/hyde/keybinds/hint-hyprland.py
• Configs/.local/lib/hyde/keybinds_hint.sh

[juliogc]

Suggestion: this fallback is parsing a schema, rather than expressing distinct control flow. A field-to-parser mapping would make new Hyprland fields a one-line addition and, with explicit defaults, ensure partially parsed binds cannot later fail with missing keys in expand_meta_data.

BIND_DEFAULTS = {
    "modmask": 0,
    "submap": "",
    "key": "",
    "keycode": 0,
    "catch_all": False,
    "description": "",
    "has_description": False,
    "dispatcher": "",
    "arg": "",
    "repeat": False,
    "locked": False,
    "mouse": False,
    "release": False,
    "non_consuming": False,
    "allow_input_capture": False,
}

parse_bool = lambda value: value.lower() == "true"
parse_int = lambda value: int(value) if value.isdigit() else 0
FIELD_PARSERS = {
    "modmask": ("modmask", parse_int),
    "submap": ("submap", str),
    "key": ("key", str),
    "keycode": ("keycode", parse_int),
    "catchall": ("catch_all", parse_bool),
    "description": ("description", str),
    "dispatcher": ("dispatcher", str),
    "arg": ("arg", str),
    "repeat": ("repeat", parse_bool),
    "locked": ("locked", parse_bool),
    "mouse": ("mouse", parse_bool),
    "release": ("release", parse_bool),
    "non_consuming": ("non_consuming", parse_bool),
    "allow_input_capture": ("allow_input_capture", parse_bool),
}

# `startswith` also accommodates other Hyprland bind variants.
if line.startswith("bind"):
    if current:
        current["has_description"] = bool(current["description"])
        binds.append(current)
    current = BIND_DEFAULTS.copy()
elif ":" in line:
    key, _, value = line.partition(":")
    field = FIELD_PARSERS.get(key.strip())
    if field:
        destination, parser = field
        current[destination] = parser(value.strip())

[snakeice]

make sense, adjusted 😄

[kRHYME7]

#1824 (comment)

[kRHYME7]

Hi! I don't think adding a fix for a minor bug ( broken json) is needed. 0.56.1 fixes the json output already. Hyprland is fast changing, adding more guardrails for minor bug that was eventually fix doesn't make sense to me.

Thanks!