enricobuehlerandClaude Fable 5
64c0ff96bc
Two of the most-asked-for behaviors, and until now the host could only manage a
sliver of one of them: end the streaming session when the launched game exits,
and — when the operator asks — end the game when the session ends.
Ending the session on game exit already worked, but only for a Steam title under
a bare-spawn gamescope. Everywhere else the host spawned a launch and forgot it:
the pid was logged and dropped, so on KWin, Mutter, wlroots or gamescope-attach a
finished game left the client staring at a desktop. Ending a game was not
possible at all — there was no primitive for it.
The missing piece was never plumbing, it was knowledge: a launch says what to
run, not what the game looks like once a launcher has handed off. So each store
now also reports how to recognize its game (DetectSpec, previous commit's
subject matter, folded in here), procscan turns that into live pids on Linux, and
gamelease turns pids into a lifetime — with four kinds covering how the game got
started:
nested gamescope owns it; its display teardown ends the game
child the host spawned it, in its own process group
matched a launcher owns it; recognized by its store's signals
untracked nothing identifies it — both behaviors stay off, and the host
says so once rather than guessing
A child that exits successfully within 5s was a launcher handing off, not the
game: the lease re-resolves to matched (or to untracked) instead of reporting an
exit. That single rule is what keeps steam://, epic:// and playnite:// launches
from ending a session the moment they start.
Ending a game is destructive, so three rules bound it. It is opt-in
(game_on_session_end defaults to keep). A drop is not a decision — `always`
waits out a reconnect window (5 min) that a returning client cancels by
reclaiming its own game, matched on fingerprint and title. And only ever this
session's game: a pid is adopted only if it started after the launch, so a copy
the player already had open is never touched, and every pid is re-verified
against its start time immediately before being signalled, so a recycled pid
never is. Termination asks first (SIGTERM to the group, 10s) and only then
insists.
Also here, because they are the same decision seen from other angles:
- A management stop is now a deliberate stop. `DELETE /session` sets quit before
stop, so it behaves like a client pressing Stop — the display skips its
keep-alive linger instead of lingering for a session nobody is coming back to.
- `/status` reports what is running (games[]), including a game whose session has
gone and which is waiting out its window, so the console can show it and offer
`POST /game/end`.
- New game.running / game.exited events, filterable like every other kind, which
is the whole polling loop of the community plugin this replaces.
- session_status::register takes a named struct: eleven positional arguments,
half of them same-typed Arc<Atomic…>, is a transposition waiting to happen.
Gates on Linux (.21): check, clippy --all-targets, fmt, and 291 tests green.
Windows (Job Objects, Toolhelp matching) and the GameStream plane are phases 2
and 3; both are inert here, as is macOS, which has no launch path at all.
Design + plan: punktfunk-planning/design/session-game-lifetime{,-implementation-plan}.md
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
punktfunk-host
The streaming host — the program you run on the machine whose desktop or games you want to stream. For each client that connects, it spins up a virtual display sized to that device, captures it on the GPU, encodes with hardware NVENC/VAAPI/AMF/QSV, and sends it out over a low-latency transport — no physical monitor, no letterboxing, no rearranging your real screens.
It speaks two protocols from one process:
- GameStream — so any Moonlight / Artemis client works day one.
punktfunk/1— punktfunk's own faster protocol (QUIC control plane, GF(2¹⁶) FEC + AES-GCM data plane) that the native clients use.
Runs on Linux (the primary, most battle-tested path) and Windows (x64). The shared protocol,
FEC, and crypto live in punktfunk-core; this crate is everything
platform-facing around it.
What it does
- Per-client virtual displays at the exact WxH@Hz. Linux uses per-compositor backends — KWin, gamescope, Mutter, and Sway/wlroots; Windows uses its own all-Rust IddCx virtual display, even on the secure desktop (UAC / lock screen).
- GPU zero-copy capture → encode. dmabuf → CUDA/Vulkan → NVENC on Linux; on Windows the host pushes frames straight into its own IDD (sealed IDD-push, no screen-scraping) → GPU encode. Encoders auto-select by GPU vendor: NVENC (NVIDIA), VAAPI (Linux AMD/Intel), AMF/QSV (Windows AMD/Intel), or software H.264 as a floor. HDR/10-bit and HEVC 4:4:4 supported.
- Input injection. Mouse/keyboard (libei / gamescope EIS / wlr / Windows SendInput) and virtual gamepads — Xbox 360/One, DualSense, DualShock 4 — with rumble and HID feedback back-channels.
- Audio both ways. Opus audio host→client, plus a virtual microphone the client can talk into.
- Trust & discovery. A persistent host identity, SPAKE2 PIN pairing (default) or TOFU, and mDNS auto-advertisement so clients find the host without typing an IP.
- Management API + web console. A REST API (
mgmt.rs, OpenAPI atapi/openapi.json) drives status, paired devices, and on-demand pairing; the browser UI is inweb/.
Run it
punktfunk-host serve runs inside your desktop session. Bare serve is the secure native-only
default (punktfunk/1 + the management API); add --gamestream on a trusted LAN to also accept
stock Moonlight clients.
# Linux, from the repo root (see the repo README "Running on this box" for the headless recipe):
cargo run -rp punktfunk-host -- serve # native-only (secure default)
cargo run -rp punktfunk-host -- serve --gamestream # + Moonlight compatibility
Then pair from the web console (https://<host-ip>:47992) or the client app.
Most people should install a package rather than run from source — see
packaging/ (apt · rpm/COPR/bootc · Arch/sysext · Windows installer) and
the per-platform guides at docs.punktfunk.unom.io/docs/install.
Subcommands
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
serve |
The host (native punktfunk/1 + mgmt API; --gamestream adds Moonlight). |
punktfunk1-host |
Standalone native-protocol listener for testing/measurement (--source virtual, --max-sessions). |
openapi |
Print the management-API OpenAPI spec (regenerates api/openapi.json). |
library |
Inspect the multi-store game library. |
service · driver · web |
Windows: SCM service, driver install, bundled web console. |
*-test / *-selftest / *-probe |
Diagnostics (input, zero-copy, HDR, compositor, gamepads). |
--help lists them all.
Layout
src/
main.rs CLI + subcommand dispatch
config.rs · session_plan.rs · session_tuning.rs · pipeline.rs session setup + the frame pipeline
vdisplay/ per-compositor virtual outputs (kwin · gamescope · mutter · wlroots)
capture/ · capture.rs screen/dmabuf capture (+ Windows IDD-push)
encode/ · encode.rs per-GPU encoders (nvenc · vaapi · ffmpeg_win (AMF/QSV) · sw)
linux/zerocopy/ dmabuf → CUDA → NVENC bridges (EGL/GL tiled, Vulkan LINEAR)
inject/ · inject.rs input backends (libei · wlr · uinput gamepads · UHID DualSense/DS4)
audio/ · audio.rs Opus out + virtual mic (PipeWire / WASAPI)
gamestream/ Moonlight compat: nvhttp · pairing · rtsp · control · stream · gamepad · apps
native.rs the native punktfunk/1 host (QUIC control + native-thread UDP data plane)
mgmt.rs · native_pairing.rs · stats_recorder.rs management API, pairing, perf capture
hdr.rs · library.rs HDR metadata; multi-store game library
linux/ · windows/ platform-confined backends
Related
punktfunk-core— the shared protocol · FEC · crypto core- Clients — the apps that connect (Apple · Linux · Windows · Android · probe)
- Packaging & docs — install & operate
- punktfunk-planning (internal planning repo) — architecture rationale and deep-dive plans