ydotool(1)

1YDOTOOL(1)                  General Commands Manual                 YDOTOOL(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       ydotool - command-line /dev/uinput automation tool
7

SYNOPSIS

9       ydotool cmd args
10
11       ydotool cmd --help
12

DESCRIPTION

14       ydotool lets you programmatically (or manually) simulate keyboard input
15       and mouse activity, etc. It does this by writing directly to /dev/uin‐
16       put so it generally needs to run as root.
17
18       Currently implemented command(s):
19
20       type
21           Type a string
22       key
23           Press keys
24       mousemove
25           Move mouse pointer to absolute position
26       click
27           Click on mouse buttons
28

KEYBOARD COMMANDS

30       key [-d,--key-delay <ms>] [<KEYCODE:PRESSED> ...]
31
32           Type a given keycode.
33
34           e.g. 28:1 28:0 means pressing on the Enter button on a standard US
35           keyboard.
36
37           42:1 38:1 38:0 24:1 24:0 38:1 38:0 42:0 - "LOL"
38
39           Non-interpretable values, such as 0, aaa, l0l, will only cause a
40           delay.
41
42           See `/usr/include/linux/input-event-codes.h' for available key
43           codes (KEY_*).
44
45           Options: -d,--key-delay <ms>
46               Delay time between keystrokes. Default 12ms.
47
48       type [-D,--next-delay <ms>] [-d,--key-delay <ms>] [-f,--file
49       <filepath>] "text"
50
51           Types text as if you had typed it on the keyboard.
52
53           Options:
54
55           -d,--key-delay <ms>
56               Delay time between key events (up/down each). Default 12ms.
57
58           -D,--next-delay <ms>
59               Delay between strings. Default 0ms.
60
61           -f,--file <filepath>
62               Specify a file, the contents of which will be typed as if
63               passed as an argument. The filepath may also be '-' to read
64               from stdin.
65
66           Example: to type 'Hello world!' you would do:
67               ydotool type 'Hello world!'
68

MOUSE COMMANDS

70       mousemove [-a,--absolute] <x> <y>
71           Move the mouse to the relative X and Y coordinates on the screen.
72
73           Options: --absolute
74               Use absolute position
75
76           Example: to move the cursor to absolute coordinates (100,100):
77               ydotool mousemove --absolute 100 100
78
79       click [-d,--next-delay <ms>] [-r,--repeat N ] [button ...]
80           Send a click.
81
82           Options: -d,--next-delay <ms>
83               Delay between input events (up/down, a compete click means dou‐
84               bled time). Default 25ms.
85
86           -r,--repeat N
87               Repeat entire sequence N times
88
89           all mouse buttons are represented using hexadecimal numeric values,
90           with an optional bit mask to specify if mouse up/down needs to be
91           omitted.
92
93           •   0x00 - LEFT
94           •   0x01 - RIGHT
95           •   0x02 - MIDDLE
96           •   0x03 - SIDE
97           •   0x04 - EXTR
98           •   0x05 - FORWARD
99           •   0x06 - BACK
100           •   0x07 - TASK
101           •   0x40 - Mouse down
102           •   0x80 - Mouse up
103
104
105       Examples:
106
107           •   0x00: chooses left button, but does nothing (you can use this
108               to implement extra sleeps)
109           •   0xC0: left button click (down then up)
110           •   0x41: right button down
111           •   0x82: middle button up
112
113
114           The '0x' prefix can be omitted if you want.
115

AUTHOR

117       ydotool was written by ReimuNotMoe.
118
119       This man page by bob.hepple@gmail.com
120

BUGS

122       When ydotool(1) runs and creates a virtual input device, it will take
123       some time for your graphical environment (eg X11/Wayland) to recognize
124       and enable the virtual input device. (Usually done by udev)
125
126       If the delay is too short, the virtual input device may not be recog‐
127       nized & enabled by the graphical environment in time.
128
129       In order to solve this problem, there is a persistent background ser‐
130       vice, ydotoold(1), to hold a persistent virtual device, and accept in‐
131       put from ydotool(1). When ydotoold(1) is unavailable, ydotool(1) will
132       work without it.
133

LICENCE

135       AGPLv3
136