INPUT-EVENT-DAEMON(8)

NAME
input-event-daemon - input event handling daemon

SYNOPSIS

input-event-daemon [ [ --monitor | --list | --help | --version ] |
                     [--config=FILE] [--verbose] [--no-daemon] ]

DESCRIPTION

input-event-daemon(1) is a daemon which executes a user-defined command on input events, such as keys, mouse buttons and switches. This can be useful to handle special keys on laptops or multimedia keyboards without X11.

OPTIONS

-m, --monitor
    Start in monitoring mode. In this mode input-event-daemon does not detach to background, but shows every input event and the device file which triggered it. This option is to be specified exclusively.

-l, --list
    Lists all available input device files, including their name, supported features and physical path. This option is to be specified exclusively.

-c, --config=FILE
    Use configuration file FILE. This option will be ignored in monitoring mode. See below for syntax information. (default: /etc/input-event-daemon.conf)

-v, --verbose
    Verbosely print every event which is handled in the configuration file. This option may be combined with the option --no-daemon.

-D, --no-daemon
    Do not detach from console.

-h, --help
    Print help and quit.

-V, --version
    Print program version number and quit.

FILES

/etc/input-event-daemon.conf
    The default path of the configuration file.

EXAMPLES

A common configuration file may look like this:

    #
    # /etc/input-event-daemon.conf
    #
    [Global]
    listen = /dev/input/event0
    listen = /dev/input/event1
    [Keys]
    MUTE         = amixer -q set Master mute
    CTRL+ALT+ESC = shutdown -h now
    [Switches]
    RADIO:0 = ifconfig wlan0 down
    [Idle]
    1h 30m = vbetool dpms off
    reset  = vbetool dpms on

[Global]
    Specifies all devices files to listen to. This option may be used more than once.

[Keys]
    All commands in this section are executed when the specified shortcut occurred. Modifiers are separated by the plus sign. A shortcut may be defined only once.

[Switches]
    This section defines commands which are executed when a specified switch is set to the defined value. Switch name and value are separated by a colon.

[Idle]
    The commands defined in this section are executed after all input devices did not send any events in the specified amount of time. The special key RESET is triggered when returning from idle.

    Note

    The idle time applies to all events, even such not handled by input-event-daemon (e.g. mouse movement).

INSTALLATION

To build and install input-event-daemon from source use the following commands:

    $ make
    $ make install

KNOWN BUGS

Since the device file paths do change when devices are added or removed, you may want to use udev(7) to automatically create a symlink for the device.

A custom udev rule which creates /dev/input/usb-mouse may look like this:

    SUBSYSTEM=="input" ATTRS{name}=="USB Optical Mouse" SYMLINK+="input/usb-mouse"

AUTHOR

Written by Sebastian Wicki, <gandro@gmx.net>

Reviewed by Oliver Reissig.

RESOURCES

The latest version of this program can be found at:
    http://github.com/gandro/input-event-daemon