Simple cross-platform wakelock written in Python. Keeps your computer from going to sleep.

• Installing
• Usage
  • Start from command line
  • Set keepawake within a python script
• Details
• Changelog

Wakepy currently supports

• Windows
• Linux (with systemd)
• macOS

Feel free to submit pull request(s) for other platforms.

pip install wakepy

python -m wakepy

Starts the program. While running, computer will not go to sleep. If battery is running out, your OS might force laptop to sleep.

python -m wakepy [-h] [-s]

optional arguments:    
  -h, --help               show this help message and exit
  -s, --keep-screen-awake  Keep also the screen awake. On Linux, this flag is set on and cannot be disabled.

from wakepy import set_keepawake, unset_keepawake

set_keepawake(keep_screen_awake=False)
# do stuff that takes long time
unset_keepawake()

new in version 0.4.0

from wakepy import keepawake

with keepawake(keep_screen_awake=False):
  ... # do stuff that takes long time

• keep_screen_awake can be used to keep also the screen awake. The default is False. On Linux, this is set to True and cannot be changed.

The program simply calls the SetThreadExecutionState with the ES_SYSTEM_REQUIRED flag, when setting the keepawake, and removes flag when unsetting. The flag cannot prevent sleeping if

• User presses power button
• User selects Sleep from the Start menu.

The program uses the systemctl mask command to prevent all forms of sleep or hybernation when setting the keepawake, and unmasks the functions when unsetting keepawake. This command will remain active until keepawake is removed. The flag cannot prevent sleeping from user interaction. This action does require sudo privileges.

The program calls the caffeinate command when setting keepawake, and sends a break key-command when unsetting. The flag does not prevent the user from manually sleeping the system or terminating the caffeinate process.

• wakepy has zero (python) dependencies
• wakepy is simple and it has a little amount of code. You can read the whole source code quickly
• It has permissive MIT licence
• It is multiplatform
• You can use it directly from command line, or within your python scripts
• It runs without admin/sudo priviledges on Windows and Mac.

• Currently multiprocessing is not well supported; the first function calling unset_keepawake or releasing the keepawake context manager will allow the PC to sleep even if you have called set_keepawake multiple times. For these kind of cases, perhaps an implementation making mouse movement or pressing keyboard keys would work better.
• On Linux, the current solution using systemctl needs sudo priviledges

• See CHANGELOG.md