Capture keyboard and mouse events on Linux

README.md

Instructions how to capture keyboard and mouse events and turn them into human readable output.

1. Run evtest without any argments and see which event device you need to use.
2. Run the following command for the keyboard events:

evtest /dev/input/event5 | grep --line-buffered 'EV_KEY' | sed -r -e 's/.*\(KEY_/Keyboard: /' -e 's/\), value 0/ - UP/' -e 's/\), value 1/ - DOWN/' -e 's/\), value 2/ - HOLD/'

Example of the output:

Keyboard: Z - DOWN
Keyboard: Z - UP
Keyboard: SPACE - DOWN
Keyboard: SPACE - HOLD
Keyboard: SPACE - HOLD
Keyboard: SPACE - HOLD
Keyboard: SPACE - UP
Keyboard: LEFTCTRL - DOWN
Keyboard: LEFTCTRL - HOLD
Keyboard: LEFTCTRL - HOLD
Keyboard: LEFTCTRL - HOLD
Keyboard: LEFTCTRL - UP

3. Run the following command for the mouse events:

evtest /dev/input/event7 | egrep --line-buffered '(EV_KEY|REL_WHEEL_HI_RES)' | sed -r -e 's/.*\((BTN_|REL_WHEEL_HI_RES)/Mouse: /' -e 's/\), value -120/WHEEL - DOWN/' -e 's/\), value 120/WHEEL - UP/' -e 's/\), value 0/ - UP/' -e 's/\), value 1/ - DOWN/' -e 's/\), value 2/ - HOLD/'  

Example of the output:

Mouse: WHEEL - UP
Mouse: WHEEL - UP
Mouse: WHEEL - UP
Mouse: LEFT - DOWN
Mouse: LEFT - UP
Mouse: MIDDLE - DOWN
Mouse: MIDDLE - UP
Mouse: RIGHT - DOWN
Mouse: RIGHT - UP
Mouse: WHEEL - DOWN
Mouse: WHEEL - DOWN
Mouse: WHEEL - DOWN