blob: 9df25f134bcb0f110333374275f58a001aa99c69 (
plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
|
# xkbcat
X11 keylogger with a simple output format: One key event per line on `stdout`.
Great as a data source for keyboard heatmaps, layout comparisons or
screencasting applications.
<100 lines of modern C. Doesn't need `sudo`.
## Examples
Given no flags, `xkbcat` prints only keypresses, one per line. Here's the
output when I type "Hi":
Shift_L
h
i
With key-ups enabled (`xkbcat -up`), the format changes to show them:
+ Shift_L
+ h
- h
- Shift_L
+ i
- i
Lines starting `+` are key-downs; `-` are key-ups.
Left- and right-positioned modifier keys are recognised separately. The F-keys
work too, as do most media keys like `XF86AudioLowerVolume`.
## Compilation
Just `make`.
Don't have `clang`? Edit the `makefile` to use `gcc`.
## Usage
Flags you can pass (all optional):
- `-display <display>`: set target X display (default `:0`)
that's 100ms)
- `-up`: also prepend key-ups (default: don't)
- `-help`: print usage hints and exit
Then just type as you would usually. Interrupt signal (`C-c`) to end.
## Related programs
If you need to log keys across a whole Linux system (also in the
framebuffer—not just in X11), try [keysniffer][1]. It works via a kernel
module, and needs `sudo`.
If you want to see what characters the user actually typed (with modifier keys,
backspace, etc resolved into text), [`xspy`][2] or [`logkeys`][3] might be
better for you.
If you want to add timestamps to each line for logging purposes, I recommend
piping to the [moreutils package][4]'s `ts`. [These answers][5] feature
various other tools good for the purpose.
## Versioning
The git-tagged version numbers follow [semver][6].
## License
[ISC][7].
[1]: https://github.com/jarun/keysniffer
[2]: http://www.freshports.org/security/xspy/
[3]: http://code.google.com/p/logkeys/
[4]: http://joeyh.name/code/moreutils/
[5]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21564/is-there-a-unix-utility-to-prepend-timestamps-to-lines-of-text
[6]: http://semver.org/
[7]: http://opensource.org/licenses/ISC
|
