EKurtz99@aol.com wrote:
In Windows it is possible to control one application from another by
sending keystrokes to the buffer for that app. The technique is
limited, of course, by what you can do via the keyboard in the driven
app. Is there an equivalent in Linux?

Several.

is just to use an input file:

yourapp < yourfileofkeystrokes

Another is to use Expect (see )
which is usually the easiest way to do anything complicated.

Perl, Python etc. include the ability to open another program just as
you'd open a file and send keystrokes to it.

Tony Lawrence wrote:

EKurtz99@aol.com wrote:
>In Windows it is possible to control one application from
>another by sending keystrokes to the buffer for that app. The
>technique is limited, of course, by what you can do via the
>keyboard in the driven app. Is there an equivalent in Linux?
>>
>
Several.

is just to use an input file:

yourapp < yourfileofkeystrokes

That's limited to console programs. And if the program messes
around with the console settings I's getting challenging.

In X11 it's quite easy possible to send virtual keystrokes.
However I never did it so far and it's been quite a while since
I've browsed the Xlib reference. But the Xlib has definitely
functions you want.

Wolfgang Draxinger

Mon, 25 Jul 2005 02:10:07 +0200, Wolfgang Draxinger staggered into
the Black Sun and said:
Tony Lawrence wrote:
>EKurtz99@aol.com wrote:
In Windows it is possible to control one application from another by
sending keystrokes to the buffer for that app. The technique is
limited, of course, by what you can do via the keyboard in the
driven app. Is there an equivalent in Linux?
>Several. is just to use an input file: yourapp <
>yourfileofkeystrokes
That's limited to console programs.

Aye.

In X11 it's quite easy possible to send virtual keystrokes. However I
never did it so far and it's been quite a while since I've browsed the
Xlib reference. But the Xlib has definitely functions you want.

You don't need to mess around at that low of a level. There's a program
called "xmacroplay" that can send fake keystroke and mouse events to the
X server. http://xmacro.sourceforge.net/ , the syntax for sending stuff
is a little verbose but easily understandable.

The main problem with xmacroplay is that it sends key events to the
entire X server, not an arbitrary window. Events sent to the entire X
server are usually sent to the currently active window (if they're
normal keys, or mouse events in the currently active window) or the
window manager (if they're special key combinations or mouse events
outside the currently active window) or X itself (Ctrl-Alt-F?,
Ctrl-Alt-+/- , Ctrl-Alt-Bkspace).

It'd certainly be possible to use xmacroplay to send "Alt+Tab" to the
window manager until the proper window was active, but that'd require a
bit of communication that I don't know if X provides. So: Is it
possible to query X in some way and find the title of the currently
active window? Something with "xwininfo | grep $TITLE" , maybe?

Dances With Crows <danSPANceswitTRAPhcrows@gmail.comwrote:
It'd certainly be possible to use xmacroplay to send "Alt+Tab" to the
window manager until the proper window was active, but that'd require a
bit of communication that I don't know if X provides. So: Is it
possible to query X in some way and find the title of the currently
active window? Something with "xwininfo | grep $TITLE" , maybe?

wmctrl might be able to do this. See

There are links to a bunch of other utilities there, at least some of
which should help.

Mon, 25 Jul 2005 20:12:49 +0000 (UTC), Jeremiah DeWitt Weiner
staggered into the Black Sun and said:
Dances With Crows <danSPANceswitTRAPhcrows@gmail.comwrote:
>a bit of communication that I don't know if X provides. So: Is it
>possible to query X in some way and find the title of the currently
>active window? Something with "xwininfo | grep $TITLE" , maybe?
wmctrl might be able to do this. See

Ah yes. "wmctrl -l -p" lists all windows that the window manager is
managing, and the PIDs that are the PIDs of the windows' controlling
process. At least, it does this if the window manager is kwin and
you're running mostly KDE apps and Firefox. xterm doesn't have its PID
listed. YMMV on this. I haven't figured out how to get wmctrl to say
which window currently has the input focus. But wmctrl would certainly
be a good place to start looking.

There are links to a bunch of other utilities there, at least some of
which should help.

This is probably good advice. Thanks for reminding me about wmctrl; I
used it once to do something and promptly forgot about it