python-manatools

Python ManaTools builds on the original Perl-based ManaTools idea, keeping the same goal of a shared toolkit and consistent UX while moving to Python to match systemd and D-Bus APIs. We are grateful to libyui for the foundation it provided, but this project now ships its own AUI layer and keeps evolving independently. Today it focuses on a backend-agnostic UI abstraction for GTK, Qt, ncurses, and the web, plus the services and helpers needed by ManaTools.

One application source tree runs unchanged on any of the four backends: a single MUI_BACKEND environment variable picks Qt, GTK 4, ncurses, or a browser UI served by a pure standard-library HTTP/WebSocket server — no extra dependency needed for the web backend.

See the AUI API documentation for details: manatools AUI API.

REQUIREMENTS

Python >= 3.9

Poetry >= 1.2.0

Core dependencies (always required)

• dbus-python — D-Bus bindings used by manatools.services
• PyYAML — YAML configuration file support (manatools.config)
• python-gettext — internationalisation helpers

UI backends (at least one required)

GTK 4 backend

• PyGObject >= 3.42 (gi) — Python GObject introspection bindings
• GTK 4 — the GTK 4 toolkit libraries (gtk4)
• GdkPixbuf 2 — image loading for icons (gdk-pixbuf2)
• pycairo — Cairo drawing context used by GTK widgets (python3-cairo)
• Optional: WebKitGTK 6.0 introspection data (gi namespace WebKit 6.0) — HTML engine for YHtmlView; without it the widget falls back to a text rendering in a Gtk.Label (Mageia: lib64webkitgtk-gir6.0). The WebKit2 4.x bindings target GTK 3 and are not used.

Qt backend

• PySide6 >= 6.5.0 — Qt 6 Python bindings
• Optional: QtWebEngine bindings (PySide6.QtWebEngineWidgets) — HTML engine for YHtmlView; without them the widget falls back to QTextBrowser. The PyPI PySide6 package already includes them; distributions often ship them separately (Mageia: python3-pyside6-webenginewidgets, which also needs python3-pyside6-network, python3-pyside6-webchannel and python3-pyside6-printsupport).

ncurses backend

• curses — included in the Python standard library (no extra install needed)
• YHtmlView renders HTML as navigable text; no extra dependency.

web backend

• No extra dependency — pure Python standard library (http.server + a hand-rolled WebSocket server). Runs in any modern browser; the server binds 127.0.0.1 only.
• YHtmlView is served into a sandboxed <iframe> by the same server; no extra dependency.

SELECTING A BACKEND

Set MUI_BACKEND before the first call to YUI.ui():

MUI_BACKEND=web python3 your_app.py

Accepted values: qt, gtk, ncurses, web (case-insensitive). Without it, Qt, GTK, and ncurses are auto-detected in that order — web is never auto-detected and must be requested explicitly.

INSTALLATION

pip install python-manatools

Or from sources:

poetry install