Format of /dev/input/event*
A simple and raw reader can be just done using:
#!/usr/bin/python
import struct
import time
import sys
infile_path = "/dev/input/event" + (sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else "0")
"""
FORMAT represents the format used by linux kernel input event struct
See https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/v5.5-rc5/include/uapi/linux/input.h#L28
Stands for: long int, long int, unsigned short, unsigned short, unsigned int
"""
FORMAT = 'llHHI'
EVENT_SIZE = struct.calcsize(FORMAT)
#open file in binary mode
in_file = open(infile_path, "rb")
event = in_file.read(EVENT_SIZE)
while event:
(tv_sec, tv_usec, type, code, value) = struct.unpack(FORMAT, event)
if type != 0 or code != 0 or value != 0:
print("Event type %u, code %u, value %u at %d.%d" % \
(type, code, value, tv_sec, tv_usec))
else:
# Events with code, type and value == 0 are "separator" events
print("===========================================")
event = in_file.read(EVENT_SIZE)
in_file.close()
The python-evdev package provides bindings to the event device interface. A short usage example would be:
from evdev import InputDevice
from select import select
dev = InputDevice('/dev/input/event1')
while True:
r,w,x = select([dev], [], [])
for event in dev.read():
print(event)
# event at 1337427573.061822, code 01, type 02, val 01
# event at 1337427573.061846, code 00, type 00, val 00
Keep in mind that, unlike the very convenient, purely Pythonic modules mentioned so far, evdev contains C extensions. Building them requires having your Python development and kernel headers installed.
Right here in the Input.py module. You'll also need the event.py module.
The format is described in the Documentation/input/input.txt
file in the Linux source. Basically, you read structs of the following form from the file:
struct input_event {
struct timeval time;
unsigned short type;
unsigned short code;
unsigned int value;
};
type
and code
are values defined in linux/input.h
. For example,
type might be EV_REL
for relative moment of a mouse, or EV_KEY
for
a keypress, and code
is the keycode, or REL_X
or ABS_X
for a
mouse.