steam-acolyte 0.9.0

Lightweight user account switcher/login keeper for steam

Steam account switcher - lightweight program to switch between steam accounts without having to reenter password/2FA.

• works on windows and linux

• one click to login the corresponding user

• works on the first start using your existing login

• waits in the background while steam is running

• close steam and directly login another user via the tray menu

• automatically shows a list of users previously logged in on this machine by reading steam config files

• has buttons to delete saved logins and/or remove users from the list

• never comes in contact with any of your passwords

• includes a simple command line interface

Installation

Install the latest version from PyPI:

pip install --user steam-acolyte

Alternatively, if you want this application to live independently from other python packages, I recommend using pipx rather than pip:

pip install --user pipx
pipx install steam-acolyte

For windows, an all-inclusive .exe file can be created using PyInstaller from the development files as follows:

pip install -U pyinstaller
pyinstaller steam-acolyte.spec

This .exe can also be downloaded from the github releases page. Expect that on the first execution windows shows a warning dialog along the lines of “Windows Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk”. Click “More info” and then “Run anyway” to acknowledge the warning. This is normal because I didn’t buy a code signing certificate.

Usage

Simply run steam-acolyte instead of steam.

In order to switch users, exit steam via the “Exit” option, or use acolyte’s tray menu.

Optionally, modify your steam launchers to execute steam-acolyte.

How it works

acolyte does not inspect or store any password or login tokens at all. It only tells steam which user to login when starting. Steam uses its own mechanism to store login information. This has the following consequences:

• the login token can be used to login without having to re-enter 2FA (whereas for password-based login manager you would need to redo 2FA)

• you can mix using steam with or without acolyte

• active logins expire if unused for a several weeks

• selecting “Change Account” from the steam menu or “Log Out User” in Big Picture mode UI invalidates the login and you will have to reenter your password for the logged out user

CHANGES

0.9.0

Date: 25.05.2023

• no longer modify/replace config.vdf (see #28)

• remove obsolete “logout” button

• the files in steam/acolyte/*/config.vdf that were created by previous versions of the program no longer have any purposes

0.8.1

Date: 09.10.2022

• new build to trigger PyPI/AUR deployment… It turns out, using schedule: in a GitHub Actions seems to prevent it from being run on push (or at least that seems to be the case after it has been disabled due to inactivity…)

0.8.0

Date: 09.10.2022

• add command line option --prefix to better support flatpack steam

• try to autodetect whether to use the default, native, or the flatpack version of steam (unreliable)

0.7.9

Date: 31.05.2022

• new build to trigger deployment after fixing AUR deployment

0.7.8

Date: 31.05.2022

• fix UnicodeDecodeError on systems with a preferred encoding different from UTF-8 (#13)

0.7.7

Date: 27.04.2021

• fix exception due to case-sensitive handling of steam config files (#10)

0.7.6

Date: 30.01.2021

• add workaround for trayicon not showing in plasma (#8)

• AUR package: fix incorrect usage of Version entry in desktop file

• AUR package: install desktop icon to /usr/share/pixmaps

• AUR package: rename desktop app to “Steam Acolyte”

0.7.5

• package: fix unexpanded version in desktop file in AUR package

0.7.4

• package: fix bug in AUR package

0.7.3

• package: add .desktop entry to AUR package

0.7.2

• bugfix: another deadlock when stopping or restarting steam

0.7.1

• bugfix: exception when clicking “Exit Steam” menu item

• bugfix: possible crash at program exit when closing via menu

0.7.0

• bugfix: failing to restart steam, waiting indefinitely

• add --logfile option to redirect steam output

• add --verbose option to print debug messages

• require pyinstaller 3.6

• some internal code improvements

0.6.3

• maintenance release with no code changes: fixup AUR version format

0.6.2

• maintenance release with no code changes: automate AUR package update

0.6.1

• built windows exe against newest pyqt

• migrate builds to github actions

0.6.0

• add menu item for shutting down steam

• add menu items for direct user switching without showing the GUI

0.5.0

• add CLI option –exe for setting steam executable

0.4.5

• fix exception that occurs if loginusers doesn’t exist on startup or is empty

0.4.4

• fix tooltips being shown in unreadable colors

• fix exception if loginusers doesn’t exist on startup

0.4.3

• use python’s builtin importlib.resources if available

0.4.2

• fix FileNotFoundError from acolyte.lock

0.4.1

• align context menu with tray icon

0.4.0

• store current login on program start

• show a tray icon to inform users when acolyte is running

• fix an issue where the mouse hover effects stop working after hiding and showing the window

• trigger buttons when mouse is released, not already when pressed. This better emulates normal button behaviour

• highlight button being pressed in a different color

0.3.5

• fix deadlock on windows after running steam

• fix file descriptor leakage on linux after running steam

0.3.4

• fix AttributeError due to missing os.sched_yield on windows (actually merge the fix intended for the previous release this time;)

0.3.3

• fix AttributeError due to missing os.sched_yield on windows

0.3.2

• fix OSError on startup if a process with the given PID exists but the pipe is not currently writable (linux)

• address an unlikely race condition during program startup

• call activateWindow only a single time on the first acolyte window, when a second steam/acolyte is started

0.3.1

• fix broken usage of single-acolyte-instance-lock

0.3.0

• learned to wait in the background for steam to exit when started after steam

• add single instance for acolyte to lock to guard against multiple acolyte instances waiting in the background at the same time

• more user friendly program exit upon Ctrl+C without showing a traceback

• add limited safeguards against exceptions due to missing keys in steam config

• remove –theme command line argument

• remove steam (original) theme

• remove scanning for steam in so far unencountered locations on linux

0.2.0

• add remove button that removes user from list

• engage in steam’s single instance locking mechanism:

  • while running, block steam from being started

  • avoid actions while steam is running

  this prevents a common way of invalidating logins

0.1.1

• fix exception after closing steam

0.1.0

• fix incorrect steam path on ubuntu

• avoid storing config if obviously logged out

• refactor into package

• add version information to windows EXE

• add icon to windows EXE

• use our own acolyte icon theme

0.0.9

• fix broken EXE due to bug in pyinstaller with pyqt 5.12.3

• sort user list by user display name

0.0.8

• fix button appearing as standalone window for brief moment at startup

• fix the autodeployed .exe name to include the version tag

0.0.7

• fix backward incompatible syntax with py3.5

• automatic releases

• provide .exe

0.0.6

• support windows

• allow installing on python>=3.5

0.0.5

• hide “logout” button if action is not available

• update user list after steam exits

• fix mouseover highlighting not working after steam exits

0.0.4

• more modern dark theme

• show username along display name

• show tooltip with user ID

• steal some icons from steam application files

• add button for logging out

• add button to login with new account

• fix exception in except-handler ;)

0.0.3

• fix TypeError due to missing positional argument

• fix TypeError when started via the entry point

• read userinfo from loginusers.vdf

0.0.2

• fix not starting due to reassignment of __name__

• fix KeyError ‘SteamID’ when chosing user who was not logged in previously

• exit application on exception