Python Client¶

This client provides a Python API for interacting with a kRPC server.

Installing the Library¶

The library can be found on PyPI or downloaded from GitHub.

To install using pip on Linux:

pip install krpc

Or on Windows:

C:\Python310\Scripts\pip.exe install krpc

Connecting to the Server¶

The krpc.connect() function is used to open a connection to a server. It returns a connection object (of type krpc.client.Client) through which you can interact with the server. The following example connects to a server running on the local machine, queries its version and prints it out:

import krpc
conn = krpc.connect()
print(conn.krpc.get_status().version)

This function also accepts arguments that specify what address and port numbers to connect to, and an optional descriptive name for the connection which is displayed in the kRPC window in the game. For example:

import krpc
conn = krpc.connect(
    name='My Example Program',
    address='192.168.1.10',
    rpc_port=1000, stream_port=1001)
print(conn.krpc.get_status().version)

Calling Remote Procedures¶

The kRPC server provides procedures that a client can run. These procedures are arranged in groups called services to keep things organized. When connecting, the Python client interrogates the server to discover what procedures it provides, and dynamically creates class types, methods, properties etc. to call them.

The following example demonstrates how to invoke remote procedures using the Python client. It calls SpaceCenter.active_vessel to get an object representing the active vessel (of type SpaceCenter.Vessel). It sets the name of the vessel and then prints out its altitude:

import krpc
conn = krpc.connect()
vessel = conn.space_center.active_vessel

vessel.name = "My Vessel"

flight_info = vessel.flight()
print(flight_info.mean_altitude)

All of the functionality provided by the SpaceCenter service is accessible via conn.space_center. To explore the functionality provided by a service, you can use the help() function from an interactive terminal. For example, running help(conn.space_center) will list all of the classes, enumerations, procedures and properties provides by the SpaceCenter service. This works similarly for class types, for example: help(conn.space_center.Vessel).

Streaming Data from the Server¶

A common use case for kRPC is to continuously extract data from the game. The naive approach to do this would be to repeatedly call a remote procedure, such as in the following which repeatedly prints the position of the active vessel:

import krpc
conn = krpc.connect()
vessel = conn.space_center.active_vessel
refframe = vessel.orbit.body.reference_frame
while True:
    print(vessel.position(refframe))

This approach requires significant communication overhead as request/response messages are repeatedly sent between the client and server. kRPC provides a more efficient mechanism to achieve this, called streams.

A stream repeatedly executes a procedure on the server (with a fixed set of argument values) and sends the result to the client. It only requires a single message to be sent to the server to establish the stream, which will then continuously send data to the client until the stream is closed.

The following example does the same thing as above using streams:

import krpc
conn = krpc.connect()
vessel = conn.space_center.active_vessel
refframe = vessel.orbit.body.reference_frame
position = conn.add_stream(vessel.position, refframe)
while True:
    print(position())

It calls krpc.client.Client.add_stream() once at the start of the program to create the stream, and then repeatedly prints the position returned by the stream. The stream is automatically closed when the client disconnects.

Streams can also be created using the with statement, which ensures that the stream is closed after leaving the block:

import krpc
conn = krpc.connect()
vessel = conn.space_center.active_vessel
refframe = vessel.orbit.body.reference_frame
with conn.stream(vessel.position, refframe) as position:
    while True:
        print(position())

A stream can be created for any procedure that returns a value. This includes both method calls and attribute accesses. The examples above demonstrated how to stream method calls. Attributes can be streamed as follows:

import krpc
conn = krpc.connect()
vessel = conn.space_center.active_vessel
flight_info = vessel.flight()
altitude = conn.add_stream(getattr, flight_info, 'mean_altitude')
while True:
    print(altitude())

A stream can be created for any function call (except property setters). The most recent value of a stream can be obtained by calling krpc.stream.Stream.__call__(). A stream can be stopped and removed from the server by calling krpc.stream.Stream.remove() on the stream object. All of a clients streams are automatically stopped when it disconnects.

Synchronizing with Stream Updates¶

A common use case for kRPC is to wait until the value returned by a method or attribute changes, and then take some action. kRPC provides two mechanisms to do this efficiently: condition variables and callbacks.

Condition Variables¶

Each stream has a condition variable associated with it, that is notified whenever the value of the stream changes. The condition variables are instances of threading.Condition from the Python standard library. These can be used to block the current thread of execution until the value of the stream changes.

The following example waits until the abort button is pressed in game, by waiting for the value of vessel.control.abort to change to true:

import krpc
conn = krpc.connect()
vessel = conn.space_center.active_vessel
with conn.stream(getattr, vessel.control, 'abort') as abort:
    with abort.condition:
        while not abort():
            abort.wait()

This code creates a stream, acquires a lock on the streams condition variable (using a with statement) and then repeatedly checks the value of abort. It leaves the loop when it changes to true.

The body of the loop calls wait on the stream, which causes the program to block until the value changes. This prevents the loop from ‘spinning’ and so it does not consume processing resources whilst waiting.

Note

The stream does not start receiving updates until the first call to wait. This means that the example code will not miss any updates to the streams value, as it will have already locked the condition variable before the first stream update is received.

The example code above uses a with statement to acquire the lock on the condition variable. This can also be done explicitly using acquire and release:

import krpc
conn = krpc.connect()
vessel = conn.space_center.active_vessel
with conn.stream(getattr, vessel.control, 'abort') as abort:
    abort.condition.acquire()
    while not abort():
        abort.wait()
    abort.condition.release()

Callbacks¶

Streams allow you to register callback functions that are called whenever the value of the stream changes. Callback functions should take a single argument, which is the new value of the stream, and should return nothing.

For example the following program registers two callbacks that are invoked when the value of vessel.conrol.abort changes:

import krpc
conn = krpc.connect()
vessel = conn.space_center.active_vessel
abort = conn.add_stream(getattr, vessel.control, 'abort')


def check_abort1(x):
    print('Abort 1 called with a value of', x)


def check_abort2(x):
    print('Abort 2 called with a value of', x)

abort.add_callback(check_abort1)
abort.add_callback(check_abort2)
abort.start()

# Keep the program running...
while True:
    pass

Note

When a stream is created it does not start receiving updates until start is called. This is implicitly called when accessing the value of a stream, but as this example does not do this an explicit call to start is required.

Note

The callbacks are registered before the call to start so that stream updates are not missed.

Note

The callback function may be called from a different thread to that which created the stream. Any changes to shared state must therefore be protected with appropriate synchronization.

Custom Events¶

Some procedures return event objects of type krpc.event.Event. These allow you to wait until an event occurs, by calling krpc.event.Event.wait. Under the hood, these are implemented using streams and condition variables.

Custom events can also be created. An expression API allows you to create code that runs on the server and these can be used to build a custom event. For example, the following creates the expression mean_altitude > 1000 and then creates an event that will be triggered when the expression returns true:

import krpc
conn = krpc.connect()
vessel = conn.space_center.active_vessel
flight = vessel.flight()

# Convert a remote procedure call to a message,
# so it can be passed to the server
mean_altitude = conn.get_call(getattr, flight, 'mean_altitude')

# Create an expression on the server
expr = conn.krpc.Expression.greater_than(
    conn.krpc.Expression.call(mean_altitude),
    conn.krpc.Expression.constant_double(1000))

# Create an event from the expression
event = conn.krpc.add_event(expr)

# Wait on the event
with event.condition:
    event.wait()
    print('Altitude reached 1000m')

Client API Reference¶

krpc.connect([name=None][, address='127.0.0.1'][, rpc_port=50000][, stream_port=50001])¶

This function creates a connection to a kRPC server. It returns a krpc.client.Client object, through which the server can be communicated with.

Parameters:

name (str) – A descriptive name for the connection. This is passed to the server and appears in the in-game server window.
address (str) – The address of the server to connect to. Can either be a hostname or an IP address in dotted decimal notation. Defaults to ‘127.0.0.1’.
rpc_port (int) – The port number of the RPC Server. Defaults to 50000. This should match the RPC port number of the server you want to connect to.
stream_port (int) – The port number of the Stream Server. Defaults to 50001. This should match the stream port number of the server you want to connect to.

class krpc.client.Client¶

This class provides the interface for communicating with the server. It is dynamically populated with all the functionality provided by the server. Instances of this class should be obtained by calling krpc.connect().

add_stream(func, *args, **kwargs)¶: Create a stream for the function func called with arguments args and kwargs. Returns a krpc.stream.Stream object.

stream(func, *args, **kwargs)¶: Allows use of the with statement to create a stream and automatically remove it from the server when it goes out of scope. The function to be streamed should be passed as func, and its arguments as args and kwargs.

stream_update_condition¶: A condition variable (of type threading.Condition) that is notified whenever a stream update finishes processing.

wait_for_stream_update(timeout=None)¶

This method blocks until a stream update finishes processing or the operation times out.

The stream update condition variable must be locked before calling this method.

If timeout is specified and is not None, it should be a floating point number specifying the timeout in seconds for the operation.

add_stream_update_callback(callback)¶: Adds a callback function that is invoked whenever a stream update finishes processing.

Note

The callback function may be called from a different thread to that which created the stream. Any changes to shared state must therefore be protected with appropriate synchronization.

remove_callback(callback)¶: Removes a stream update callback function.

get_call(func, *args, **kwargs)¶: Converts a call to function func with arguments args and kwargs into a message object. This allows descriptions of procedure calls to be passed to the server, for example when constructing custom events. See Custom Events.

close()¶: Closes the connection to the server.

krpc¶

The basic KRPC service, providing interaction with basic functionality of the server.

Return type:: krpc.client.KRPC

class krpc.client.KRPC¶

This class provides access to the basic server functionality provided by the KRPC service. An instance can be obtained by calling krpc.client.Client.krpc.

See KRPC for full documentation of this class.

Some of this functionality is used internally by the python client (for example to create and remove streams) and therefore does not need to be used directly from application code.

class krpc.stream.Stream¶

This class represents a stream. See Streaming Data from the Server.

start(wait=True)¶

Starts the stream. When a stream is created by calling krpc.client.Client.add_stream() it does not start sending updates to the client until this method is called.

If wait is true, this method will block until at least one update has been received from the server.

If wait is false, the method starts the stream and returns immediately. Subsequent calls to __call__() may raise a StreamError exception if the stream does not yet contain a value.

rate¶: The update rate of the stream in Hertz. When set to zero, the rate is unlimited.

__call__()¶

Returns the most recent value for the stream. If executing the remote procedure for the stream throws an exception, calling this method will rethrow the exception. Raises a StreamError exception if no update has been received from the server.

If the stream has not been started this method calls start(True) to start the stream and wait until at least one update has been received.

condition¶: A condition variable (of type threading.Condition) that is notified whenever the value of the stream changes.

wait(timeout=None)¶

This method blocks until the value of the stream changes or the operation times out.

The streams condition variable must be locked before calling this method.

If timeout is specified and is not None, it should be a floating point number specifying the timeout in seconds for the operation.

If the stream has not been started this method calls start(False) to start the stream (without waiting for at least one update to be received).

add_callback(callback)¶: Adds a callback function that is invoked whenever the value of the stream changes. The callback function should take one argument, which is passed the new value of the stream.

Note

The callback function may be called from a different thread to that which created the stream. Any changes to shared state must therefore be protected with appropriate synchronization.

remove_callback(callback)¶: Removes a callback function from the stream.

remove()¶: Removes the stream from the server.

class krpc.event.Event¶

This class represents an event. See Custom Events. It is wrapper around a stream of type bool that indicates when the event occurs.

start()¶: Starts the event. When an event is created, it will not receive updates from the server until this method is called.

condition¶: The condition variable (of type threading.Condition) that is notified whenever the event occurs.

wait(timeout=None)¶

This method blocks until the event occurs or the operation times out.

The events condition variable must be locked before calling this method.

If timeout is specified and is not None, it should be a floating point number specifying the timeout in seconds for the operation.

If the event has not been started this method calls start() to start the underlying stream.

add_callback(callback)¶: Adds a callback function that is invoked whenever the event occurs. The callback function should be a function that takes zero arguments.

remove_callback(callback)¶: Removes a callback function from the event.

remove()¶: Removes the event from the server.

stream¶: Returns the underlying stream for the event.