| 1 | =============
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| 2 | uinput module
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| 3 | =============
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| 4 |
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| 5 | Introduction
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| 6 | ============
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| 7 |
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| 8 | uinput is a kernel module that makes it possible to emulate input devices
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| 9 | from userspace. By writing to /dev/uinput (or /dev/input/uinput) device, a
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| 10 | process can create a virtual input device with specific capabilities. Once
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| 11 | this virtual device is created, the process can send events through it,
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| 12 | that will be delivered to userspace and in-kernel consumers.
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| 13 |
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| 14 | Interface
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| 15 | =========
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| 16 |
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| 17 | ::
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| 18 |
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| 19 | linux/uinput.h
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| 20 |
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| 21 | The uinput header defines ioctls to create, set up, and destroy virtual
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| 22 | devices.
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| 23 |
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| 24 | libevdev
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| 25 | ========
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| 26 |
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| 27 | libevdev is a wrapper library for evdev devices that provides interfaces to
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| 28 | create uinput devices and send events. libevdev is less error-prone than
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| 29 | accessing uinput directly, and should be considered for new software.
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| 30 |
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| 31 | For examples and more information about libevdev:
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| 32 | https://www.freedesktop.org/software/libevdev/doc/latest/
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| 33 |
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| 34 | Examples
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| 35 | ========
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| 36 |
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| 37 | Keyboard events
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| 38 | ---------------
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| 39 |
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| 40 | This first example shows how to create a new virtual device, and how to
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| 41 | send a key event. All default imports and error handlers were removed for
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| 42 | the sake of simplicity.
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| 43 |
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| 44 | .. code-block:: c
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| 45 |
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| 46 | #include <linux/uinput.h>
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| 47 |
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| 48 | void emit(int fd, int type, int code, int val)
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| 49 | {
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| 50 | struct input_event ie;
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| 51 |
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| 52 | ie.type = type;
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| 53 | ie.code = code;
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| 54 | ie.value = val;
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| 55 | /* timestamp values below are ignored */
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| 56 | ie.time.tv_sec = 0;
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| 57 | ie.time.tv_usec = 0;
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| 58 |
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| 59 | write(fd, &ie, sizeof(ie));
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| 60 | }
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| 61 |
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| 62 | int main(void)
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| 63 | {
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| 64 | struct uinput_setup usetup;
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| 65 |
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| 66 | int fd = open("/dev/uinput", O_WRONLY | O_NONBLOCK);
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| 67 |
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| 68 |
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| 69 | /*
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| 70 | * The ioctls below will enable the device that is about to be
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| 71 | * created, to pass key events, in this case the space key.
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| 72 | */
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| 73 | ioctl(fd, UI_SET_EVBIT, EV_KEY);
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| 74 | ioctl(fd, UI_SET_KEYBIT, KEY_SPACE);
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| 75 |
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| 76 | memset(&usetup, 0, sizeof(usetup));
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| 77 | usetup.id.bustype = BUS_USB;
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| 78 | usetup.id.vendor = 0x1234; /* sample vendor */
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| 79 | usetup.id.product = 0x5678; /* sample product */
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| 80 | strcpy(usetup.name, "Example device");
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| 81 |
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| 82 | ioctl(fd, UI_DEV_SETUP, &usetup);
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| 83 | ioctl(fd, UI_DEV_CREATE);
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| 84 |
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| 85 | /*
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| 86 | * On UI_DEV_CREATE the kernel will create the device node for this
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| 87 | * device. We are inserting a pause here so that userspace has time
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| 88 | * to detect, initialize the new device, and can start listening to
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| 89 | * the event, otherwise it will not notice the event we are about
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| 90 | * to send. This pause is only needed in our example code!
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| 91 | */
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| 92 | sleep(1);
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| 93 |
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| 94 | /* Key press, report the event, send key release, and report again */
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| 95 | emit(fd, EV_KEY, KEY_SPACE, 1);
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| 96 | emit(fd, EV_SYN, SYN_REPORT, 0);
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| 97 | emit(fd, EV_KEY, KEY_SPACE, 0);
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| 98 | emit(fd, EV_SYN, SYN_REPORT, 0);
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| 99 |
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| 100 | /*
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| 101 | * Give userspace some time to read the events before we destroy the
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| 102 | * device with UI_DEV_DESTROY.
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| 103 | */
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| 104 | sleep(1);
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| 105 |
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| 106 | ioctl(fd, UI_DEV_DESTROY);
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| 107 | close(fd);
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| 108 |
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| 109 | return 0;
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| 110 | }
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| 111 |
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| 112 | Mouse movements
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| 113 | ---------------
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| 114 |
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| 115 | This example shows how to create a virtual device that behaves like a physical
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| 116 | mouse.
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| 117 |
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| 118 | .. code-block:: c
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| 119 |
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| 120 | #include <linux/uinput.h>
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| 121 |
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| 122 | /* emit function is identical to of the first example */
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| 123 |
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| 124 | int main(void)
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| 125 | {
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| 126 | struct uinput_setup usetup;
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| 127 | int i = 50;
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| 128 |
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| 129 | int fd = open("/dev/uinput", O_WRONLY | O_NONBLOCK);
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| 130 |
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| 131 | /* enable mouse button left and relative events */
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| 132 | ioctl(fd, UI_SET_EVBIT, EV_KEY);
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| 133 | ioctl(fd, UI_SET_KEYBIT, BTN_LEFT);
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| 134 |
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| 135 | ioctl(fd, UI_SET_EVBIT, EV_REL);
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| 136 | ioctl(fd, UI_SET_RELBIT, REL_X);
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| 137 | ioctl(fd, UI_SET_RELBIT, REL_Y);
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| 138 |
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| 139 | memset(&usetup, 0, sizeof(usetup));
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| 140 | usetup.id.bustype = BUS_USB;
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| 141 | usetup.id.vendor = 0x1234; /* sample vendor */
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| 142 | usetup.id.product = 0x5678; /* sample product */
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| 143 | strcpy(usetup.name, "Example device");
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| 144 |
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| 145 | ioctl(fd, UI_DEV_SETUP, &usetup);
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| 146 | ioctl(fd, UI_DEV_CREATE);
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| 147 |
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| 148 | /*
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| 149 | * On UI_DEV_CREATE the kernel will create the device node for this
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| 150 | * device. We are inserting a pause here so that userspace has time
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| 151 | * to detect, initialize the new device, and can start listening to
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| 152 | * the event, otherwise it will not notice the event we are about
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| 153 | * to send. This pause is only needed in our example code!
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| 154 | */
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| 155 | sleep(1);
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| 156 |
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| 157 | /* Move the mouse diagonally, 5 units per axis */
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| 158 | while (i--) {
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| 159 | emit(fd, EV_REL, REL_X, 5);
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| 160 | emit(fd, EV_REL, REL_Y, 5);
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| 161 | emit(fd, EV_SYN, SYN_REPORT, 0);
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| 162 | usleep(15000);
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| 163 | }
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| 164 |
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| 165 | /*
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| 166 | * Give userspace some time to read the events before we destroy the
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| 167 | * device with UI_DEV_DESTROY.
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| 168 | */
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| 169 | sleep(1);
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| 170 |
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| 171 | ioctl(fd, UI_DEV_DESTROY);
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| 172 | close(fd);
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| 173 |
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| 174 | return 0;
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| 175 | }
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| 176 |
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| 177 |
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| 178 | uinput old interface
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| 179 | --------------------
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| 180 |
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| 181 | Before uinput version 5, there wasn't a dedicated ioctl to set up a virtual
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| 182 | device. Programs supporting older versions of uinput interface need to fill
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| 183 | a uinput_user_dev structure and write it to the uinput file descriptor to
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| 184 | configure the new uinput device. New code should not use the old interface
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| 185 | but interact with uinput via ioctl calls, or use libevdev.
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| 186 |
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| 187 | .. code-block:: c
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| 188 |
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| 189 | #include <linux/uinput.h>
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| 190 |
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| 191 | /* emit function is identical to of the first example */
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| 192 |
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| 193 | int main(void)
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| 194 | {
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| 195 | struct uinput_user_dev uud;
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| 196 | int version, rc, fd;
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| 197 |
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| 198 | fd = open("/dev/uinput", O_WRONLY | O_NONBLOCK);
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| 199 | rc = ioctl(fd, UI_GET_VERSION, &version);
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| 200 |
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| 201 | if (rc == 0 && version >= 5) {
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| 202 | /* use UI_DEV_SETUP */
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| 203 | return 0;
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| 204 | }
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| 205 |
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| 206 | /*
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| 207 | * The ioctls below will enable the device that is about to be
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| 208 | * created, to pass key events, in this case the space key.
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| 209 | */
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| 210 | ioctl(fd, UI_SET_EVBIT, EV_KEY);
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| 211 | ioctl(fd, UI_SET_KEYBIT, KEY_SPACE);
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| 212 |
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| 213 | memset(&uud, 0, sizeof(uud));
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| 214 | snprintf(uud.name, UINPUT_MAX_NAME_SIZE, "uinput old interface");
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| 215 | write(fd, &uud, sizeof(uud));
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| 216 |
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| 217 | ioctl(fd, UI_DEV_CREATE);
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| 218 |
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| 219 | /*
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| 220 | * On UI_DEV_CREATE the kernel will create the device node for this
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| 221 | * device. We are inserting a pause here so that userspace has time
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| 222 | * to detect, initialize the new device, and can start listening to
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| 223 | * the event, otherwise it will not notice the event we are about
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| 224 | * to send. This pause is only needed in our example code!
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| 225 | */
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| 226 | sleep(1);
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| 227 |
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| 228 | /* Key press, report the event, send key release, and report again */
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| 229 | emit(fd, EV_KEY, KEY_SPACE, 1);
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| 230 | emit(fd, EV_SYN, SYN_REPORT, 0);
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| 231 | emit(fd, EV_KEY, KEY_SPACE, 0);
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| 232 | emit(fd, EV_SYN, SYN_REPORT, 0);
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| 233 |
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| 234 | /*
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| 235 | * Give userspace some time to read the events before we destroy the
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| 236 | * device with UI_DEV_DESTROY.
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| 237 | */
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| 238 | sleep(1);
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| 239 |
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| 240 | ioctl(fd, UI_DEV_DESTROY);
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| 241 |
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| 242 | close(fd);
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| 243 | return 0;
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| 244 | }
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| 245 |
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