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# scrcpy for developers | ||
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## Overview | ||
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This application is composed of two parts: | ||
- the server (`scrcpy-server.jar`), to be executed on the device, | ||
- the client (the `scrcpy` binary), executed on the host computer. | ||
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The client is responsible to push the server to the device and start its | ||
execution. | ||
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Once the client and the server are connected to each other, the server initially | ||
sends device information (name and initial screen dimensions), then starts to | ||
send a raw H.264 video stream of the device screen. The client decodes the video | ||
frames, and display them as soon as possible, without buffering, to minimize | ||
latency. The client is not aware of the device rotation (which is handled by the | ||
server), it just knows the dimensions of the video frames. | ||
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The client captures relevant keyboard and mouse events, that it transmits to the | ||
server, which injects them to the device. | ||
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## Server | ||
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### Privileges | ||
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Capturing the screen requires some privileges, which are granted to `shell`. | ||
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The server is a Java application (with a [`public static void main(String... | ||
args)`][main] method), compiled against the Android framework, and executed as | ||
`shell` on the Android device. | ||
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[main]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/server/src/main/java/com/genymobile/scrcpy/Server.java#L61 | ||
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To run such a Java application, the classes must be [_dexed_][dex] (typically, | ||
to `classes.dex`). If `my.package.MainClass` is the main class, compiled to | ||
`classes.dex`, pushed to the device in `/data/local/tmp`, then it can be run | ||
with: | ||
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adb shell CLASSPATH=/data/local/tmp/classes.dex \ | ||
app_process / my.package.MainClass | ||
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_The path `/data/local/tmp` is a good candidate to push the server, since it's | ||
readable and writable by `shell`, but not world-writable, so a malicious | ||
application may not replace the server just before the client executes it._ | ||
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Instead of a raw _dex_ file, `app_process` accepts a _jar_ containing | ||
`classes.dex` (e.g. an [APK]). For simplicity, and to benefit from the gradle | ||
build system, the server is built to an (unsigned) APK (renamed to | ||
`scrcpy-server.jar`). | ||
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[dex]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalvik_(software) | ||
[apk]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_application_package | ||
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### Hidden methods | ||
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Although compiled against the Android framework, [hidden] methods and classes are | ||
not directly accessible (and they may differ from one Android version to | ||
another). | ||
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They can be called using reflection though. The communication with hidden | ||
components is provided by [_wrappers_ classes][wrappers] and [aidl]. | ||
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[hidden]: https://stackoverflow.com/a/31908373/1987178 | ||
[wrappers]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/server/src/main/java/com/genymobile/scrcpy/wrappers | ||
[aidl]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/server/src/main/aidl/android/view | ||
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### Threading | ||
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The server uses 2 threads: | ||
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- the **main** thread, encoding and streaming the video to the client; | ||
- the **controller** thread, listening for _control events_ (typically, | ||
keyboard and mouse events) from the client. | ||
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Since the video encoding is typically hardware, there would be no benefit in | ||
encoding and streaming in two different threads. | ||
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### Screen video encoding | ||
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The encoding is managed by [`ScreenEncoder`]. | ||
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The video is encoded using the [`MediaCodec`] API. The codec takes its input | ||
from a [surface] associated to the display, and writes the resulting H.264 | ||
stream to the provided output stream (the socket connected to the client). | ||
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[`ScreenEncoder`]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/server/src/main/java/com/genymobile/scrcpy/ScreenEncoder.java | ||
[`MediaCodec`]: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaCodec.html | ||
[surface]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/server/src/main/java/com/genymobile/scrcpy/ScreenEncoder.java#L63-L64 | ||
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On device [rotation], the codec, surface and display are reinitialized, and a | ||
new video stream is produced. | ||
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New frames are produced only when changes occur on the surface. This is good | ||
because it avoids to send unnecessary frames, but there are drawbacks: | ||
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- it does not send any frame on start if the device screen does not change, | ||
- after fast motion changes, the last frame may have poor quality. | ||
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Both problems are [solved][repeat] by the flag | ||
[`KEY_REPEAT_PREVIOUS_FRAME_AFTER`][repeat-flag]. | ||
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[rotation]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/server/src/main/java/com/genymobile/scrcpy/ScreenEncoder.java#L89-L92 | ||
[repeat]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/server/src/main/java/com/genymobile/scrcpy/ScreenEncoder.java#L125-L126 | ||
[repeat-flag]: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaFormat.html#KEY_REPEAT_PREVIOUS_FRAME_AFTER | ||
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### Input events injection | ||
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_Control events_ are received from the client by the [`EventController`] (run in | ||
a separate thread). There are 5 types of input events: | ||
- keycode (cf [`KeyEvent`]), | ||
- text (special characters may not be handled by keycodes directly), | ||
- mouse motion/click, | ||
- mouse scroll, | ||
- custom command (e.g. to switch the screen on). | ||
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All of them may need to inject input events to the system. To do so, they use | ||
the _hidden_ method [`InputManager.injectInputEvent`] (exposed by our | ||
[`InputManager` wrapper][inject-wrapper]). | ||
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[`EventController`]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/server/src/main/java/com/genymobile/scrcpy/EventController.java#L70 | ||
[`KeyEvent`]: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/KeyEvent.html | ||
[`MotionEvent`]: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/MotionEvent.html | ||
[`InputManager.injectInputEvent`]: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/oreo-release/core/java/android/hardware/input/InputManager.java#857 | ||
[inject-wrapper]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/server/src/main/java/com/genymobile/scrcpy/wrappers/InputManager.java#L27 | ||
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## Client | ||
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The client relies on [SDL], which provides cross-platform API for UI, input | ||
events, threading, etc. | ||
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The video stream is decoded by [libav] (FFmpeg). | ||
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[SDL]: https://www.libsdl.org | ||
[libav]: https://www.libav.org/ | ||
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### Initialization | ||
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On startup, in addition to _libav_ and _SDL_ initialization, the client must | ||
push and start the server on the device, and open a socket so that they may | ||
communicate. | ||
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Note that the client-server roles are expressed at the application level: | ||
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- the server _serves_ video stream and handle requests from the client, | ||
- the client _controls_ the device through the server. | ||
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However, the roles are inverted at the network level: | ||
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- the client opens a server socket and listen on a port before starting the | ||
server, | ||
- the server connects to the client. | ||
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This role inversion guarantees that the connection will not fail due to race | ||
conditions, and avoids polling. | ||
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Once the server is connected, it sends the device information (name and initial | ||
screen dimensions). Thus, the client may init the window and renderer, before | ||
the first frame is available. | ||
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To minimize startup time, SDL initialization is performed while listening for | ||
the connection from the server (see commit [90a46b4]). | ||
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[90a46b4]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/commit/90a46b4c45637d083e877020d85ade52a9a5fa8e | ||
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### Threading | ||
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The client uses 3 threads: | ||
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- the **main** thread, executing the SDL event loop, | ||
- the **decoder** thread, decoding video frames, | ||
- the **controller** thread, sending _control events_ to the server. | ||
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### Decoder | ||
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The [decoder] runs in a separate thread. It uses _libav_ to decode the H.264 | ||
stream from the socket, and notifies the main thread when a new frame is | ||
available. | ||
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There are two [frames] simultaneously in memory: | ||
- the **decoding** frame, written by the decoder from the decoder thread, | ||
- the **rendering** frame, rendered in a texture from the main thread. | ||
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When a new decoded frame is available, the decoder _swaps_ the decoding and | ||
rendering frame (with proper synchronization). Thus, it immediatly starts | ||
to decode a new frame while the main thread renders the last one. | ||
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[decoder]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/app/src/decoder.c | ||
[frames]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/app/src/frames.h | ||
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### Controller | ||
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The [controller] is responsible to send _control events_ to the device. It runs | ||
in a separate thread, to avoid I/O on the main thread. | ||
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On SDL event, received on the main thread, the [input manager][inputmanager] | ||
creates appropriate [_control events_][controlevent]. It is responsible to | ||
convert SDL events to Android events (using [convert]). It pushes the _control | ||
events_ to a blocking queue hold by the controller. On its own thread, the | ||
controller takes events from the queue, that it serializes and sends to the | ||
client. | ||
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[controller]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/app/src/controller.h | ||
[controlevent]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/app/src/controlevent.h | ||
[inputmanager]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/app/src/inputmanager.h | ||
[convert]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/app/src/convert.h | ||
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### UI and event loop | ||
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Initialization, input events and rendering are all [managed][scrcpy] in the main | ||
thread. | ||
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Events are handled in the [event loop], which either updates the [screen] or | ||
delegates to the [input manager][inputmanager]. | ||
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[scrcpy]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/app/src/scrcpy.c | ||
[event loop]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/app/src/scrcpy.c#L38 | ||
[screen]: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/v1.0/app/src/screen.h | ||
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## Hack | ||
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For more details, go read the code! | ||
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If you find a bug, or have an awesome idea to implement, please discuss and | ||
contribute ;-) |
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