some hotkeys are not captured in macOS

[godbout]

Describe the issue

various apps on macOS use hotkeys (Alfred, Dash, iTerm, etc.). some hotkeys are captured by UTM while some aren't. while it's definitely because it depends how those apps implement their hotkeys, UTM should be able to catch almost all of them by setting an event tap at the head of the hid location (see https://developer.apple.com/documentation/coregraphics/cgevent/1454426-tapcreate#).

Configuration

• UTM Version: 4.4.5 (94) (Mac App Store one)
• macOS Version: 14.4 (23E214)
• Mac Chip (Intel, M1, ...): M2 Pro; M3

to test: Alfred is captured, iTerm is not, Dash is not. (but the hotkeys are capturable by other tools like RealVNC.)

[osy]

Can you provide more details on testing? Like what hotkey to press specifically?

[godbout]

it's not about a specific hotkey per se, it's about how other apps implemented their own event listeners for their own hotkeys.

for example, for whatever hotkey you set:

• Alfred is captured by UTM
• iTerm is NOT captured by UTM
• Dash is NOT captured by UTM
  etc.

so to test you could just try iTerm with any hotkey for the hotkey window.

i know that the part of how other apps implement their own event listeners is out of UTM's control, but there's still room to capture more hotkeys, as for example RealVNC Viewer does capture iTerm and Dash. there's some cases that UTM will never be able to capture and that's fine because it's most probably done on purpose by the other apps (for example Karabiner Element, and my own app kindaVim due to its nature. my other apps Wooshy and Scrolla DO get captured, again, because of the nature of the apps, so different event listeners implementations etc. etc.).

hope that makes sense! lemme know if you need more discussion.