edotool

• Simulate keystrokes.
• Like xdotool, with support for both X11 and Wayland.

edotool

Screengrab

Using edotool keystrokes can be sent remotely to the active window.

$ sleep 10; for i in `seq 1 5`; do  ./edotool -i /dev/input/event9 -e "$i: She sells seasells, at the seashore. ${RANDOM}";   ./edotool -i /dev/input/event9 -e "KEY_ENTER"; echo "Sent $i"; done

edotool.mp4

mp4 | gif

Setup

Either download the release, or clone this repo and build it yourself.

Usage

$ ./edotool -h
Usage: ./edotool
  -h  --help             print this usage and exit
  -v  --version          print version information and exit
  -d  --debug            show verbose output
  -k  --keys             show available keys
  -i  /dev/input/event1  inputDevice device to use
  -e  --events           events to relay
  -a  --available        show available devices
  -r  --record           record from inputDevice
  -p  --playback         play recorded events [root] 
  --mouseAbs 100x100     move mouse to absolute coordinates [root] 
  --mouseRel 100x100     move mouse to relative coordinates [root] 

Show available devices

Use the -a option to see available input devices:

$ ./edotool -a
Available: 21 devices
/dev/input/event0:	Power Button
/dev/input/event1:	Power Button
/dev/input/event2:	Video Bus
/dev/input/event3:	Logitech K850
/dev/input/event4:	Logitech M585/M590
/dev/input/event5:	Shenzhen LogoTech  2.4GHz receiver 
/dev/input/event6:	flirc.tv flirc Keyboard
/dev/input/event7:	flirc.tv flirc Consumer Control
/dev/input/event8:	flirc.tv flirc System Control
/dev/input/event9:	Shenzhen LogoTech  2.4GHz receiver  Mouse
/dev/input/event10:	Shenzhen LogoTech  2.4GHz receiver  Consumer Control
/dev/input/event11:	Shenzhen LogoTech  2.4GHz receiver  System Control
/dev/input/event12:	Sony Interactive Entertainment Controller
/dev/input/event13:	Dell WMI hotkeys
/dev/input/event14:	Microsoft® LifeCam Cinema(TM):
/dev/input/event15:	HDA Intel PCH Rear Mic
/dev/input/event16:	HDA Intel PCH Front Mic
/dev/input/event17:	HDA Intel PCH Line Out
/dev/input/event18:	HDA Intel PCH Front Headphone
/dev/input/event19:	HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=3
/dev/input/event20:	HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=7

Record, Replay events

Use the r option to record events as .skit files, -p with root access to replay your recorded skits:

$ ./edotool -i /dev/input/event3 -r
Recoding device: /dev/input/event3
Recording from /dev/input/event3 to file /tmp/edotool-Recorded-1632874726.skit, duration 10 seconds
Sakioa boalccacd

Done!
Harvested 111 events to /tmp/edotool-Recorded-1632874726.skit

Replaying:

$ sudo  ./edotool -p /tmp/edotool-Recorded-1632874726.skit
Replaying /tmp/edotool-Recorded-1632874726.skit
Sakioa boalccacd

Using /dev/input/eventXX

If you are a member of input group, edotool can be run without root permissions.

sudo gpasswd -a $USER input
newgrp input

In this mode, edotool will try to locate an appropriate input device it can use.

• If an appropriate kbd device cannot be found, edotool will ask you to specify a suitable device using the -i option.

$ ./edotool -i /dev/input/event9 -e "She sells seasells, at the seashore."
She sells seasells, at the seashore.

Using /dev/uinput

/dev/uinput requires root permission:

$ ./edotool -i /dev/uinput -e "She sells seasells, at the seashore."
Error opening /dev/uinput: Permission denied

Retrying, with sudo access:

$ sudo ./edotool -i /dev/uinput -e "She sells seasells, at the seashore." 
She sells seasells, at the seashore.

Sending key codes

Specific keystrokes can be sent, either chained together with a + or individually:

$ ./edotool -i /dev/input/event9 -e "KEY_SPACE + KEY_S + KEY_A + KEY_D + KEY_SPACE"
 sad

keys supported:

Use -k option to get a list of supported keys:

$ ./edotool -k | head -10
Available keys:
key -->  KEY_LEFT_UP
key -->  KEY_CHANNELUP
key -->  KEY_FN_1
key -->  KEY_BATTERY
key -->  KEY_UWB
key -->  KEY_WWAN
key -->  KEY_BOOKMARKS
key -->  KEY_F24
./snip/.

Debug mode

Send -d to turn on debugging. This would produce a lot of debug output:

$ ./edotool -d -e " Fun. "
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d Copyright © 2021 Evuraan <evuraan@gmail.com>. All rights reserved.
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d Howdy!
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d Incoming: | Fun. |
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d keyboard device: /dev/input/event3
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [getFd] fd opened: 3
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d translated: KEY_SPACE+KEY_CAPSLOCK + KEY_F + KEY_CAPSLOCK+KEY_U+KEY_N+KEY_DOT+KEY_SPACE
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d key: KEY_SPACE val: 57
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d key: KEY_CAPSLOCK val: 58
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d key: KEY_F val: 33
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d key: KEY_CAPSLOCK val: 58
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d key: KEY_U val: 22
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d key: KEY_N val: 49
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d key: KEY_DOT val: 52
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d key: KEY_SPACE val: 57
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d combo: true
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 57
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 57
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 58
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 58
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 33
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 33
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 58
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 58
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 22
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 22
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 49
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 49
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 52
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 52
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 57
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 1 code 57
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [emit] emitted 24 bytes type 0 code 0
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 [C] [handleComboEvents] Handled 8 events
Sat Aug 21 12:20:25 2021 edotool/1.03d Bye bye!
 Fun.

Optional: Build

If you prefer to build yourself, you will need the Go Programming Language installed on your Linux System.

Go into the src folder and build as:

go build

Related

• Swipe Gestures on Linux