klo2k/find-cursor repository overview

Simple XLib program to highlight the cursor position. This is similar to the feature found in Windows XP (and possibly later?)

⁠Installation

Compile it by typing make, install it with make install. There packages⁠ for some platforms as well.

You'll need to install some X11 header files on some systems; e.g. on Ubuntu/Debian: libx11-dev, libxcomposite-dev, libxdamage-dev, and libxrender-dev.

There is also a Docker container at klo2k/find-cursor⁠ if you want it. Note this is NOT maintained (or supported) by me. See #19.

⁠Usage

See find-cursor -h to see some options for controlling the appearance.

⁠Launching

You will want to map a key in your window manager to run find-cursor. You can also use xbindkeys⁠, which should work with $any window manager.

I run it with xcape⁠:

xcape -e 'Control_L=Escape;Shift_L=KP_Add'

When Left Shift is tapped a Keypad Add is sent; I configured my window manager to launch find-cursor with that.

I don't have a numpad on my keyboard; you can also use F13 or some other unused key.

You can use a little wrapper script if you want a "toggle" switch for when repeating forever:

#!/bin/sh
if pgrep find-cursor; then
    pkill find-cursor
else
    find-cursor -r0 &
fi

⁠Compton

You may want to disable shadows if you use compton or some other composite manager; for example for compton start it with:

compton --shadow-exclude "class_g = 'find-cursor'"

Or, perhaps even better, disable it for all shaped windows:

compton --shadow-exclude 'bounding_shaped'

You can also put that in the compton config file. Other managers might have different options/flags.

⁠Run in Docker

Build:

docker build --tag klo2k/find-cursor:latest --file ./Dockerfile .

Run with docker:

docker run --rm --detach --name=find-cursor \
    --user="${UID}" --env "DISPLAY=${DISPLAY}" \
    --volume /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix:ro \
    klo2k/find-cursor:latest \
    --repeat 0 --follow --distance 1 --wait 120 --line-width 16 --size 16 --color red

Run with docker-compose:

export UID DISPLAY
docker-compose up --detach