bionic (8) lircd-uinput.8.gz

NAME

       lircd-uinput - Forward lirc button presses as uinput events

SYNOPSIS

       lircd-uinput [options]... [lircd output socket]
       lircd-uinput [options]... [file]

DESCRIPTION

       lircd-uinput  reads  decoded  button  press events from a lircd(8) output socket and injects these as key
       events to the kernel uinput device.  The kernel makes these events available to other applications  on  a
       /dev/input/event device, just as for regular input hardware.

       lircd-uinput is designed to run as a systemd service.

       The  lircd  output  socket  argument  is an optional path to the lircd output socket.  It defaults to the
       output value in the [lircd] section of the lirc_options config file, falling back to /var/run/lirc/lircd.

       If a plain file is given instead of a socket it is supposed to contain button press events  formatted  as
       documented in lircd(8) .  lircd-uinput will in this case send the codes in this file and exit.

       In order to work, release events must be sent to the uinput device.  See REPEAT HANDLING.

       lircd-uinput can only handle button events named using the official namespace i. e., buttons known to the
       kernel. See NOTES.

       Unless the /dev/uinput default permissions are changed lirc-uinput needs to run as root. See NOTES.

       The /dev/input/event device created by the kernel can be tricky to locate, and is not stable.  See NOTES.

OPTIONS

       -u --uinput <device>
              uinput kernel device, defaults to /dev/uinput.

       -r --release-suffix <suffix>
              lircd-uinput generates different events depending on if the button name  ends  with  the  release-
              suffix or not.  Defaults to _EVUP . See REPEAT HANDLING

       -R --repeat <delay[,period] | ,period>
              Set kernel autorepeat parameters of the created /dev/input/event device.  delay is the time before
              repeating a key event, period is the time  between  repeated  key  events.   Both  values  are  in
              milliseconds,  separated  by  a  comma.   Any   value can be omitted or set to 0 in which case the
              kernel/system defaults are used.  See REPEAT HANDLING.

       -a --add-release-events
              Generate synthetic release events.  This option is mandatory unless lircd is using the  deprecated
              --release  option.   The  timeout used can be modified using the release-timeout key in the lircd-
              uinput section of the lirc_options.conf file.  Useless if used with a text file as input.   .  See
              REPEAT HANDLING

       -d --disabled <disabled buttons file path>
              The  path  of  a  file  which  contains name of buttons to be disabled, one per line.  By default,
              lircd-uinput sends all buttons found in input.  See NOTES.

       -O --options-file <path>
              Options file holding default values. Defaults to /etc/lircd/lirc_options.conf

       -L, --logfile <logfile path>
              Select the log file, either the string 'syslog' indicating that syslog(1) should be used or a  log
              file path.  The default is to use syslog.

       -D, --loglevel [level]
              Determine   the   amount   of  logging  information.   level  can  be  a  symbolic  syslog  level:
              'error','warning, 'info', 'notice' or ´debug'.  lircd-uinput also defines three additional  levels
              'trace',  'trace1'  and  'trace2'  which  gives  even  more messages ('trace2' bringing the most).
              However, in the log these messages are marked as 'debug'.

       -h --help
              Display usage summary.

       -v --version
              Display version info.

REPEAT HANDLING

       After receiving a keypress event the kernel will start  emitting  repeat  events  to  applications  until
       lircd-uinput  emits a corresponding release event.  The release events could be created by lircd(8) using
       the deprecated --release option.  Such events typically has an _EVUP  suffix  appended  to  the  original
       keypress event.

       The  preferred  way  is  that  lircd-uinput creates release events using the --add-release-events option.
       Combining both of these options might give unexpected results.

       Note that the linux kernel uses the suffix _UP (which was used  py  lircd  prior  to  0.10.0)  for  other
       purposes since 4.7.

       In any case, the repeat events generated by the kernel can be tweaked using the --repeat option. This can
       set the time between the keypress event and the first repeat event  and  the  time  between  each  repeat
       event.  The --repeat option should only be used if no other program or udev rule is automatically setting
       up key repeat parameters.  By design the repeat parameters can't be set in an  atomic  way  during  input
       device registration so this option is prone to race conditions.

       Note  that  the  lircd-uinput  repeat-event  handling  differs from lircd(8) which  implements (emulates)
       hardware autorepeat in the events sent to uinput (event.value == 2).  lircd-uinput  only  sends  keypress
       and release events, trusting the kernel autorepeat support.

NOTES

       By  default,  the dev/uinput device is not writable for regular users.  Thus lircd-uinput needs to run as
       root unless these permissions are changed.

       One way to achieve this is an udev rule.  The lirc distribution contains an example rule which makes  the
       lircd-uinput device writable for users in the group lirc.  Another way is to use lircd-setup(8) to change
       the permissions.  As  distributed,  the  lirc_options.conf  file  contains  an  commented  example  using
       setfacl(1) .

       lircd-uinput  can  only  forward  lircd  button events with names from the legal namespace defined by the
       kernel.  A complete list of possible button names  is available in /usr/include/linux/input-event-codes.h
       and also using irrecord -l .  Other button names are silently dropped.

       The  event  keycode  depends  on  the  name that was given a button in the lircd config file e.g., if the
       button is named KEY_1 the keycode 1 will be generated.

       The  kernel  makes  the  events  generated  by  lircd-uinput  available  on  a  /dev/input  device   like
       /dev/input/event12.   This  device  name  is  not  stable  and typically varies after a reboot.  The lirc
       distribution contains a udev rule which if installed creates a device link named /dev/lircd-uinput  which
       always can be used.

       lircd-uinput  is  designed  to  replace  the  currently deprecated --uinput option to lircd(8).  However,
       lircd-uinput forwards all events unless blocked by the --disabled  option.   On  the  other  hand,  lircd
       --uinput does not forward all events - the heuristics used has been changed over versions.

BUGS

       Since the device name is fixed, only one instance of lircd-uinput can run on a system.

SEE ALSO

       lircd(8)
       irrecord(1)
       http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/input/event-codes.txt