Files
screen_cast/docs/RUNBOOK.md
T
fegger 6e68300d05 build: add systemd autostart for the receiver
Ship systemd/screencast-receiver.service, a template the install
script substitutes (binary path, run user) and enables so the
receiver starts at boot after the network and avahi-daemon, with
restart-on-failure and a raised start limit for slow-booting boards.
SIGTERM gives the graceful shutdown that withdraws the mDNS
announcement — systemctl stop never triggers the stale-record trap
that kill -9 does. Headless consoles render via KMSDRM (the script
adds the run user to video/render/input); desktop autologin sessions
uncomment two documented Environment lines.

The install script gains SC_RECEIVER_SERVICE=0 to opt out.

Validated: systemd-analyze verify on the substituted unit (only the
expected missing /usr/local/bin path on this dev machine), and a live
lifecycle test as a user unit: the service-managed receiver announced
itself (--discover found it), systemctl stop produced a clean exit
(Result=success, no restart) and the mDNS announcement was withdrawn
immediately.
2026-09-07 12:30:26 +02:00

4.7 KiB

Runbook — build and validation commands

Reusable validation steps for this repository. Run the relevant ones before considering a change complete.

Build and test

meson setup build          # once
meson compile -C build
meson test -C build --print-errorlogs

Memory and correctness checks (codec changes)

Run the codec round-trip test under valgrind after touching the encoder or decoder:

valgrind --leak-check=full --errors-for-leak-kinds=definite \
    build/tests/test_codec_roundtrip

Expected: no "definitely lost" bytes and no "Invalid read/write" errors. FFmpeg may keep some "still reachable" allocations at exit; that is normal.

This check caught two real defects in the Phase 2 decoder: a per-packet payload leak and an unpadded extradata buffer over-read. Keep using it.

Capture smoke test (Phase 3, manual)

Requires a running desktop session with xdg-desktop-portal and a backend that implements the ScreenCast portal (e.g. Hyprland, GNOME, KDE). The portal shows an interactive source picker, so this cannot run unattended.

meson compile -C build                       # builds tools/capture_smoke
./build/tools/capture_smoke 10 out.h264      # captures 10 frames
ffprobe -v error -show_entries stream=codec_name,width,height out.h264

Expected: the tool prints the negotiated resolution/format/stride and writes a non-empty file; ffprobe reports codec_name=h264 and the correct width/height. The encoder prepends its Annex-B SPS/PPS extradata so the file is a self-contained elementary stream.

If you see impl_ext_end_proxy called from wrong context warnings, a PipeWire proxy operation ran without the thread-loop lock — all pw calls that send messages (connect, stream, core) must happen under pw_thread_loop_lock.

LAN discovery and signaling (Phase 6)

Two machines on the same LAN (mDNS via avahi-daemon, which must be running on both):

screencast --receive                # machine A: announce + window
screencast --send                   # machine B: discovers A, negotiates, streams
screencast --discover               # list receivers on the LAN

--send without --peer requires exactly one discovered receiver. Use --peer HOST[:PORT] to target a receiver directly (signaling port defaults to 5005), e.g. --peer 192.168.178.20.

Operational note: never kill -9 a running receiver — a SIGKILLed process cannot withdraw its mDNS registration, and avahi-daemon then keeps broken records for that service name until they expire (~75 min), making resolution time out for every peer. If that happens, systemctl restart avahi-daemon clears it. Always stop screencast with Ctrl-C (SIGTERM).

Receiver as a systemd service (autostart)

scripts/install-receiver.sh installs and enables screencast-receiver.service (see systemd/screencast-receiver.service). It starts at boot after the network and avahi-daemon, and restarts on failure. On a headless console SDL renders via KMSDRM; on a desktop autologin, edit /etc/systemd/system/screencast-receiver.service and uncomment the Environment lines for XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/WAYLAND_DISPLAY.

systemctl status  screencast-receiver          # is it running?
journalctl -u screencast-receiver -f           # follow logs
sudo systemctl stop screencast-receiver        # graceful; withdraws mDNS
sudo systemctl disable --now screencast-receiver  # turn autostart off

Verified behavior: systemctl stop results in a clean exit (success, no restart) and the mDNS announcement is withdrawn — senders stop finding the receiver immediately.

Sender / receiver loopback (Phase 5, manual)

Two terminals on the same desktop session:

./build/src/app/screencast --receive        # terminal 1: window appears
./build/src/app/screencast --send           # terminal 2: portal source picker

Expected: the receiver window shows the captured desktop in near real time. If the receiver starts after the sender, a few non-existing PPS decode errors are normal until the next keyframe arrives (the GOP is ~0.4s); video should appear within a second. Stop either side with Ctrl-C. Optional flags: --port, --peer HOST[:PORT], --bitrate KBPS, --target window.

Notes: the encoder runs a VBV that caps keyframe bursts to roughly two frame periods of bytes, and the receiver requests a 4MB UDP receive buffer (clamped by net.core.rmem_max). For very high --bitrate values, raise net.core.rmem_max on the receiver machine.

The headless equivalent runs as part of meson test (udp loopback test): synthetic frames → encode → packetize → localhost UDP → depacketize → decode, no portal or window involved.

Formatting

find include src tests -type f \( -name '*.cpp' -o -name '*.h' \) \
    -exec clang-format --dry-run --Werror {} +