Add support for runtime input device toggling

[frdiener]

It would be helpful to support enabling or disabling input devices at runtime using a command like:

niri msg input <device> <enable|disable>

While Niri doesn't require a restart to apply configuration changes, updating the configuration is still relatively cumbersome for users managing their setup declaratively, for example via Nix.

A typical use case is on laptops, where the touchpad can interfere with typing. Users often want to temporarily disable it without completely disabling it in the configuration.

Having a runtime toggle for input devices would make workflows much smoother on such setups.

[YaLTeR]

A typical use case is on laptops, where the touchpad can interfere with typing. Users often want to temporarily disable it without completely disabling it in the configuration.

We have disable while typing touchpad setting, dwt.

[frdiener]

Yes. I do have that enabled.
Its just that sometimes I seem to pause for too long.
In another compositor I had a shortcut to completely disable the touchpad and that helped a lot, so I thought niri might benefit from something similar.
But disable while typing and also hide mouse cursor while typing are really great features in this lane already.

[YaLTeR]

Guess I don't disagree with niri msg input <device> <enable|disable>. Though I must say that the inability to quickly edit the niri config is a bit self-inflicted in this case

[winkelnp]

Would it be possible to generally have the option to bind config changes to keys? or rather to have a niri msg function to temporarily interact with configuration?
That might be a lot of work though 😅

I do very much think the option for niri msg input <device> <enable|disable> would be quite useful too/though.

[Jakobuo]

DWT doesn't work for some use cases though, e.g. I use the keyboard to navigate in my pdf reader. Accidentally touching the touchpad makes the line marker go away, and since I only press a key once every few seconds, DWT doesn't help at all. Occasionally, I still need the touchpad to interact with certain things. Of course, editing the config to disable the touchpad is an option, and likely what I'll do for now, but having to do that every time I want to read a pdf is more friction than I'd like.