johngebbie / ydotool

Generic command-line automation tool (no X!)

ydotool

Generic Linux command-line automation tool (no X!)

Releases

• Ubuntu 18.04
• Ubuntu 19.04
• Ubuntu 19.10
• Debian 9
• Arch AUR (Thanks @Depau)
• openSUSE Tumbleweed / Leap 15.1 (Thanks @cubesky)
• Fedora 30/31 (Thanks @bhepple)
• Static binary for Kernel 3.2+

Important Notes

Since Jun, 2019, I have little time to maintain this project because I'm striving to start an undertaking (instead of working 996).

If you would like to have features you want implemented quickly, you could consider donating to this project. This will allow me to allocate more time on this project.

Also, pull requests are always welcomed. Thanks in advance for your generous help.

Usage

In most times, replace x with y. :P

Currently implemented command(s):

• type - Type a string
• key - Press keys
• mousemove - Move mouse pointer to absolute position
• click - Click on mouse buttons
• recorder - Record/replay input events

Examples

Type some words:

ydotool type 'Hey guys. This is Austin.'

Switch to tty1:

ydotool key ctrl+alt+f1

Close a window in graphical environment:

ydotool key Alt+F4

Move mouse pointer to 100,100:

ydotool mousemove 100 100

Relatively move mouse pointer to -100,100:

ydotool mousemove_relative -- -100 100

Mouse right click:

ydotool click 2

Notes

About the project

As of May, 2019, searching wayland xdotool replacement online won't get much useful results.

If you find this project useful, please consider to spread it.

Runtime

This program requires access to /dev/uinput. This usually requires root permissions.

You can use it on anything as long as it accepts keyboard/mouse/whatever input. For example, wayland, text console, etc.

Available key names

See /usr/include/linux/input-event-codes.h

About the --delay option

ydotool works differently from xdotool. xdotool sends X events directly to X server, while ydotool uses the uinput framework of Linux kernel to emulate an input device.

When ydotool runs and creates an virtual input device, it will take some time for your graphical environment (X11/Wayland) to recognize and enable the virtual input device. (Usually done by udev)

So, if the delay was too short, the virtual input device may not got recognized & enabled by your graphical environment in time.

In order to solve this problem, I made a persistent background service, ydotoold, to hold a persistent virtual device, and accept input from ydotool. When ydotoold is unavailable, ydotool will work without it.

New modular design

Now everyone can write their own tool to use with ydotool. Have a look at the Tool folder.

I will write some documents for this when I have time.

Build

Dependencies

• uInputPlus
• libevdevPlus
• boost::program_options

Compile

Nearly all my projects use CMake. It's very simple:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make -j `nproc`

Packages

RPM packages are available at COPR. fedora-30 and fedora-31 are built. Contact [email protected] if you need other RPM builds.

Install with:

sudo dnf copr enable wef/ydotool 
sudo dnf copr enable wef/libuInputPlus
sudo dnf copr enable wef/libevdevPlus
sudo dnf install ydotool

Troubleshooting

Custom keyboard layouts

Currently, ydotool does not recognize if the user is using a custom keyboard layout. In order to comfortably use ydotool alongside a custom keyboard layout, the user could use one of the following fixes/workarounds:

Sway

In sway, the process is fairly easy. Following the instructions there, you would end up with something like:

input "16700:8197:DELL_DELL_USB_Keyboard" {
	xkb_layout "us,us"
	xkb_variant "dvorak,"
	xkb_options "grp:shifts_toggle, caps:swapescape"
}

The identifier for your keyboard can be obtained from the output of swaymsg -t get_inputs.

Use a hardware-configurable keyboard

As mentioned here, consider using a hardware-based configuration that supports using a custom layout without configuring it in software.