libinput-record(1)

NAME
libinput-record - record kernel events

SYNOPSIS
libinput record [options] [/dev/input/event0]

DESCRIPTION

The libinput record tool records kernel events from a device and prints them in a format that can later be replayed with the libinput replay(1) tool. This tool needs to run as root to read from the device.

The output of this tool is YAML, see FILE FORMAT for more details. By default it prints to stdout unless the -o option is given.

The events recorded are independent of libinput itself, updating or removing libinput will not change the event stream.

OPTIONS
If a device node is given, this tool opens that device node. Otherwise, a list of devices is presented and the user can select the device to record. If unsure, run without any arguments.

--help
    Print help

--all
    Record all /dev/input/event* devices available on the system. This option should be used in exceptional cases only, the output file is almost always too noisy and replaying the recording may not be possible. Use --multiple instead. This option requires that a --output-file is specified and may not be used together with --multiple.

--autorestart=s
    Terminate the current recording after s seconds of device inactivity. This option requires that a --output-file is specified. The output filename is used as prefix, suffixed with the date and time of the recording. The timeout must be greater than 0.

-o filename
--output-file=filename
    Specifies the output file to use. If --autorestart or --multiple is given, the filename is used as prefix only.

--multiple
    Record multiple devices at once, see section RECORDING MULTIPLE DEVICES This option requires that a --output-file is specified and that all devices to be recorded are given on the commandline.

--with-libinput
    Record libinput events alongside device events. THIS FEATURE IS EXPERIMENTAL. See section RECORDING LIBINPUT EVENTS for more details.

RECORDING MULTIPLE DEVICES
Sometimes it is necessary to record the events from multiple devices simultaneously, e.g. when an interaction between a touchpad and a keyboard causes a bug. The --multiple option records multiple devices with an identical time offset, allowing for correct replay of the interaction.

The --multiple option requires that an output filename is given. This filename is used as prefix, with the event node number appended.

All devices to be recorded must be provided on the commandline, an example invocation is: libinput record --multiple -o tap-bug /dev/input/event3 /dev/input/event7 Note that when recording multiple devices, only the first device is printed immediately, all other devices and their events are printed on exit.

RECORDING LIBINPUT EVENTS
When the --with-libinput switch is provided, libinput-record initializes a libinput context for the devices being recorded. Events from these contexts are printed alongside the evdev events. THIS FEATURE IS EXPERIMENTAL.

The primary purpose of this feature is debugging and event analysis, no caller may rely on any specific format of the events.

Note that while libinput and libinput-record see the same events from the device nodes, no guarantee can be given about the correct order of events. libinput events may come in earlier or later than the events from the device nodes and for some devices, libinput may internally alter the event stream before processing.

Note that the libinput context created by libinput-record does not affect the running desktop session and does not (can not!) copy any configuration options from that session.

FILE FORMAT
The output file format is in YAML and intended to be both human-readable and machine-parseable. Below is a short example YAML file, all keys are detailed further below.

Any parsers must ignore keys not specified in the file format description. The version number field is only used for backwards-incompatible changes.

version: 1
ndevices: 2
libinput:
  version: 1.10.0
system:
  kernel: "4.13.9-200.fc26.x86_64"
  dmi: "dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrGJET72WW(2.22):bd02/21/2014:svnLENOVO:..."
devices:
  - node: /dev/input/event9
    evdev:
      # Name: Synaptics TM2668-002
      # ID: bus 0x1d vendor 0x6cb product 00 version 00
      # Size in mm: 97x68
      # Supported Events:
      # Event type 0 (EV_SYN)
      #.. abbreviated for man page ...
      #
      name: Synaptics TM2668-002
      id: [29, 1739, 0, 0]
      codes:
        0: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15] # EV_SYN
        1: [272, 325, 328, 330, 333, 334, 335] # EV_KEY
        3: [0, 1, 24, 47, 48, 49, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58] # EV_ABS
      absinfo:
        0: [0, 4089, 0, 0, 42]
        1: [0, 2811, 0, 0, 41]
        24: [0, 255, 0, 0, 0]
        47: [0, 4, 0, 0, 0]
        48: [0, 15, 0, 0, 0]
        49: [0, 15, 0, 0, 0]
        52: [0, 1, 0, 0, 0]
        53: [0, 4089, 0, 0, 42]
        54: [0, 2811, 0, 0, 41]
        55: [0, 2, 0, 0, 0]
        57: [0, 65535, 0, 0, 0]
        58: [0, 255, 0, 0, 0]
      properties: [0, 2, 4]
    udev:
      properties:
      - ID_INPUT_MOUSE=1
      - ID_INPUT=1
    events:
      - evdev:
        - [  0,      0,   3,  57,  1420] # EV_ABS / ABS_MT_TRACKING_ID   1420
        - [  0,      0,   3,  53,  1218] # EV_ABS / ABS_MT_POSITION_X    1218
        - [  0,      0,   3,  54,  1922] # EV_ABS / ABS_MT_POSITION_Y    1922
        - [  0,      0,   3,  52,     0] # EV_ABS / ABS_MT_ORIENTATION      0
        - [  0,      0,   3,  58,    47] # EV_ABS / ABS_MT_PRESSURE        47
        - [  0,      0,   1, 330,     1] # EV_KEY / BTN_TOUCH               1
        - [  0,      0,   1, 325,     1] # EV_KEY / BTN_TOOL_FINGER         1
        - [  0,      0,   3,   0,  1218] # EV_ABS / ABS_X                1218
        - [  0,      0,   3,   1,  1922] # EV_ABS / ABS_Y                1922
        - [  0,      0,   3,  24,    47] # EV_ABS / ABS_PRESSURE           47
        - [  0,      0,   0,   0,     0] # ------------ SYN_REPORT (0) ------- +0ms
      - evdev:
        - [  0,  11879,   3,  53,  1330] # EV_ABS / ABS_MT_POSITION_X    1330
        - [  0,  11879,   3,  54,  1928] # EV_ABS / ABS_MT_POSITION_Y    1928
        - [  0,  11879,   3,  58,    46] # EV_ABS / ABS_MT_PRESSURE        46
        - [  0,  11879,   3,   0,  1330] # EV_ABS / ABS_X                1330
        - [  0,  11879,   3,   1,  1928] # EV_ABS / ABS_Y                1928
        - [  0,  11879,   3,  24,    46] # EV_ABS / ABS_PRESSURE           46
        - [  0,  11879,   0,   0,     0] # ------------ SYN_REPORT (0) ------- +0ms
  # second device (if any)
  - node: /dev/input/event9
    evdev: ...

Top-level keys are listed below, see the respective subsection for details on each key.

version: int
    The file format version. This version is only increased for backwards-incompatible changes. A parser must ignore unknown keys to be forwards-compatible.

ndevices: int
    The number of device recordings in this file. Always 1 unless recorded with --multiple

libinput: {...}
    A dictionary with libinput-specific information.

system: {...}
    A dictionary with system information.

devices: {...}
    A list of devices containing the description and and events of each device.

  libinput

version: string
    libinput version

  system
Information about the system

kernel: string
    Kernel version, see uname(1)

dmi: string
    DMI modalias, see /sys/class/dmi/id/modalias

  devices
Information about and events from the recorded device nodes

node: string
    the device node recorded

evdev
    A dictionary with the evdev device information.

udev
    A dictionary with the udev device information.

events
    A list of dictionaries with the recorded events

  evdev

name: string
    The device name

id: [bustype, vendor, product, version]
    The data from the struct input_id, bustype, vendor, product, version.

codes: {type: [a, b, c ], ...}
    All evdev types and codes as nested dictionary. The evdev type is the key, the codes are a list.

absinfo: {code: [min, max, fuzz, flat, resolution], ...}
    An array of arrays with 6 decimal elements each, denoting the contents of a struct input_absinfo. The first element is the code (e.g. ABS_X) in decimal format.

properties: [0, 1, ...]
    Array with all INPUT_PROP_FOO constants. May be an empty array.

  udev

properties: list of strings
    A list of udev properties in the key=value format. This is not the complete list of properties assigned to the device but a subset that is relevant to libinput. These properties may include properties set on a parent device.

  events
A list of the recorded events. The list contains dictionaries Information about the events. The content is a list of dictionaries, with the string identifying the type of event sequence.

{ evdev: [ {"data": [sec, usec, type, code, value]}, ...] }
    Each input_event dictionary contains the contents of a struct input_event in decimal format. The last item in the list is always the SYN_REPORT of this event frame. The next event frame starts a new evdev dictionary entry in the parent events list.

NOTES

This tool records events from the kernel and is independent of libinput. In other words, updating or otherwise changing libinput will not alter the output from this tool. libinput itself does not need to be in use to record events.

LIBINPUT

Part of the libinput(1) suite