Long Delay before Action

[rubensf]

Hi guys, - sorry if I'm making noise - I can get skhd to work but weirdly it gives me a 1-2s delay before actually executing my action. I've tried a minimalistic ~/.skhdrc:

alt - f : echo -e "\a"

# change focus
alt - h : chunkc tiling::window --focus west
alt - j : chunkc tiling::window --focus south
alt - k : chunkc tiling::window --focus north
alt - l : chunkc tiling::window --focus east

I know the problem isn't on chunkc since the beep also takes about a second to come out - any ideas??

Using skhd 0.2.2 on Hish Sierra.

[koekeishiya]

You're most likely using a slow shell (fish?). Try to run skhd as follows: SHELL=/bin/bash skhd

[rubensf]

Yes I was using fish, and yes that made a huge difference -- thanks! (Maybe worth adding to a FAQ?)

Mind if I also ask how to set it to always start up with bash?

[dominiklohmann]

Mind if I also ask how to set it to always start up with bash?

Assuming you've installed with brew:

brew edit skhd

Scroll down to the Plist file relevant for you (either with or without logging) and change like this

 <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
 <dict>
   <key>PATH</key>
   <string>#{HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin</string>
+  <key>SHELL</key>
+  <string>/bin/bash</string>
 </dict>

[rubensf]

Somehow editing with brew edit skhd didn't change the plist opened by brew start - but changing it directly on /usr/local/Cellar/skhd/0.2.2/... did!

Anyway, thanks!

[dominiklohmann]

Eh, I forgot mentioning that you need to reinstall with the altered brew formula.

[rubensf]

Just an addendum, I figured I had a couple (brew --prefix package) on my config.fish, so fish itself was taking about 2s to startup... So it wasn't so much a fish problem as much as me making awful code problem 🤦‍♂️

[george43g]

Incredible - thank you - using fast yabai for the first time in years is a lifechanger - I chose dash as my shell for even better performance.

[pencilcheck]

The latest skhd changed how it store the launchagent, so you have to run skhd --install-service to get the path then go edit using your own editor of choice

[johannesCmayer]

Here is a summary of the current fix all in one message:

Setup SKHD

Set command executing shell

This setup is required when you use chsh to set the default shell to a shell that is prone to slow startup time (e.g. fish).

Use skhd --install-service to determine .plist file. Add the SHELL environment variable at at the right position setting it to the shell you want to use:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	...
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
	...
        <key>SHELL</key>
        <string>/bin/sh</string>
    </dict>
    ...
</dict>
</plist>

Reboot the system. Now your shortcuts should be executed quickly. You can check that it worked with something like:

cmd + ctrl + ralt + shift - b : terminal-notifier -message $SHELL -group system-wide-whisper -timeout 1

[pencilcheck]

If this can be updated in the README or wiki that would be awesome, I don't know if it is there already but I only got the fix in this thread

[xsova]

@koekeishiya I am running into this issue (and I'm using darwin-nix to manage/configure it).. I was able to update the nixos.org.skhd.plist file via:

launchd.user.agents = {
    yabai.serviceConfig.EnvironmentVariables.SHELL = "/bin/dash";
    skhd.serviceConfig.EnvironmentVariables.SHELL = "/bin/dash"; # Dash bc bash compatible but faster
};

my configuration includes:

services.skhd.skhdConfig = ''
    cmd - return : alacritty
'';

and when I would run that (i.e., press cmd + return), alacritty launches with /bin/dash as the interactive shell- I'm not entirely sure how that interaction works- but is there a way to make the launch-ing shell = /bin/dash and keep $SHELL as fish in the skhd program's env after launch?