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YDOTOOL(1) General Commands Manual YDOTOOL(1)

NAME

ydotool - command-line /dev/uinput automation tool

SYNOPSIS

ydotool cmd args

ydotool cmd --help

DESCRIPTION

ydotool lets you programmatically (or manually) simulate keyboard input and mouse activity, etc. The ydotoold(8) daemon must be running.

Currently implemented command(s):

type

Type a string
key
Press keys
mousemove
Move mouse pointer to absolute position
click
Click on mouse buttons

KEYBOARD COMMANDS

key [-d,--key-delay <ms>] [<KEYCODE:PRESSED> ...]

Type a given keycode.

e.g. 28:1 28:0 means pressing on the Enter button on a standard US keyboard. (where :1 for pressed means the key is down and then :0 means the key is released)

42:1 38:1 38:0 24:1 24:0 38:1 38:0 42:0 - "LOL"

Non-interpretable values, such as 0, aaa, l0l, will only cause a delay.

See `/usr/include/linux/input-event-codes.h' for available key codes (KEY_*).

You can find the key name/number your keyboard is sending to libinput by running `sudo libinput record` and then selecting your keyboard from the list it will show you the libinput proper key name and number for each key you press.

Options: -d,--key-delay <ms>

Delay time between keystrokes. Default 12ms.

type [-D,--next-delay <ms>] [-d,--key-delay <ms>] [-f,--file <filepath>] "text"

Types text as if you had typed it on the keyboard.

Options:

-d,--key-delay <ms>

Delay time between key events (up/down each). Default 12ms.

-D,--next-delay <ms>

Delay between strings. Default 0ms.

-f,--file <filepath>

Specify a file, the contents of which will be typed as if passed as an argument. The filepath may also be '-' to read from stdin.

Example: to type 'Hello world!' you would do:

ydotool type 'Hello world!'

MOUSE COMMANDS

mousemove [-a,--absolute] <x> <y>

Move the mouse to the relative X and Y coordinates on the screen.

Options: --absolute

Use absolute position

Example: to move the cursor to absolute coordinates (100,100):

ydotool mousemove --absolute 100 100

click [-d,--next-delay <ms>] [-r,--repeat N ] [button ...]

Send a click.

Options: -d,--next-delay <ms>

Delay between input events (up/down, a compete click means doubled time). Default 25ms.

-r,--repeat N

Repeat entire sequence N times

all mouse buttons are represented using hexadecimal numeric values, with an optional bit mask to specify if mouse up/down needs to be omitted.

  • 0x00 - LEFT
  • 0x01 - RIGHT
  • 0x02 - MIDDLE
  • 0x03 - SIDE
  • 0x04 - EXTR
  • 0x05 - FORWARD
  • 0x06 - BACK
  • 0x07 - TASK
  • 0x40 - Mouse down
  • 0x80 - Mouse up

Examples:

  • 0x00: chooses left button, but does nothing (you can use this to implement extra sleeps)
  • 0xC0: left button click (down then up)
  • 0x41: right button down
  • 0x82: middle button up

The '0x' prefix can be omitted if you want.

YDOTOOL SOCKET

The socket to write to for ydotoold(8) can be changed by the environment variable YDOTOOL_SOCKET.

AUTHOR

ydotool was written by ReimuNotMoe.

This manpage was written by bob.hepple@gmail.com but updated since.

LICENCE

AGPLv3

SEE ALSO

ydotoold(8)

Project site: <https://github.com/ReimuNotMoe/ydotool>

2023-08-08