xdotool

Random Examples

Examples

List window names matching pattern

xdotool search --name "$search_string" getwindowname %@                  # or
xdotool search --name "$search_string" | xargs -n1 xdotool getwindowname

Send keys to named window (sends to):

xdotool search --name "$search_string" key key1 key2 ...

Keysyms

See XKeySyms for all. Snarfed using regex from here and /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h. Here is a selection. Note that these syms are case sensitive.

Scripts

Example python script using curses and subprocess to send keypresses to named window using xdotool. (Note also that there is an xdotool package python-libxdo, installable via package python3-xdo under Ubuntu 24.04, for python rather than using subprocess.run).

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import curses
import subprocess
import sys
args = sys.argv[1:]
try:
  name = args[0]
except Exception:
  print(f"{args[0]} <window search pattern>")
  exit(1)

def sendkey(x):
  subprocess.run(["xdotool","search","--name",name,"key",x])

def main(stdscr):
  curses.noecho()
  stdscr.addstr(f"Search for {name}\nPress left, right, up, down, or a character\n")
  stdscr.refresh()
  try:
    while True:
      c = stdscr.getch()
      k = chr(c)
      if k.upper() in "ABCDEFGHIJLKMNOPQRSTYVWXYZ0123456789":
        sendkey(k)
      elif k == " ":
        sendkey("space")
      elif c == curses.KEY_LEFT:
        sendkey("Left")
      elif c == curses.KEY_RIGHT:
        sendkey("Right")
      elif c == curses.KEY_UP:
        sendkey("Up")
      elif c == curses.KEY_DOWN:
        sendkey("Down")
  except KeyboardInterrupt:
    return

if __name__ == "__main__":
  curses.wrapper(main)