Provided by: libinput-tools_1.21.0-1_amd64 
NAME
libinput-record - record kernel events
SYNOPSIS
libinput record [options] [/dev/input/event0 [/dev/input/event1 ...]]
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 an output file is provided. For example, these are valid invocations:
libinput record /dev/input/event3 touchpad.yml
libinput record recording.yml
libinput record --all all-devices.yml
libinput record /dev/input/event3 /dev/input/event4 tp-and-keyboard.yml
The events recorded are independent of libinput itself, updating or removing libinput will
not change the event stream.
OPTIONS
If one or more device nodes are given, this tool opens those device nodes. 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. This option requires --output-file
and no device nodes may be provided on the commandline.
--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.yml
--output-file=filename.yml
Specifies the output file to use. If --autorestart is given, the filename is used
as prefix only. Where --output-file is not given and the first or last argument
is not an input device, the first or last argument will be the output file.
--grab Exclusively grab all opened devices. This will prevent events from being delivered
to the host system.
--show-keycodes
Show keycodes as-is in the recording. By default, common keys are obfuscated and
printed as KEY_A to avoid information leaks.
--with-libinput
Record libinput events alongside device events. THIS FEATURE IS EXPERIMENTAL.
See section RECORDING LIBINPUT EVENTS for more details.
--with-hidraw
Record hidraw events alongside device events. DO NOT TYPE SENSITIVE DATA. See
RECORDING HID REPORTS 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. libinput record
records multiple devices with an identical time offset, allowing for correct replay of the
interaction.
If multiple devices are recorded, an output filename must be provided.
All devices to be recorded must be provided on the commandline, an example invocation is:
libinput record -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 commandline option is given, 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.
RECORDING HID REPORTS
When the --with-hidraw commandline option is given, libinput-record searches for the
hidraw node(s) of the given devices and prints any incoming HID reports from those
devices.
HID reports are not obfuscated and a sufficiently motivated person could recover the key
strokes from the logs. Do not type passwords while recording HID reports.
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:
os: "fedora:26"
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]
hid: [12, 23, 34, 45, ...]
udev:
properties:
- ID_INPUT_MOUSE=1
- ID_INPUT=1
quirks:
- ModelAppleTouchpad=1
- AttrSizeHint=32x32
events:
- hid:
time: [ 0, 0]
hidraw0: [1, 2, 3, 4]
- 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
os: string
Distribution ID and version, see os-release(5)
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.
hid A list of integers representing the HID report descriptor bytes.
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.
quirks: list of strings
A list of device quirks the key=value format.
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: [ [sec, usec, type, code, value], ...] }
Each evdev 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.
{ hid: hidrawX : [ 12, 34, 56 ], ...] }
The hid dictionary contains the hid reports in decimal format, with the hidraw
node as key. The special key time denotes the current time when the report was
read from the kernel.
Note that the kernel does not provide timestamps for hidraw events and the timestamps
provided are from clock_gettime(3). They may be greater than a subsequent evdev event's
timestamp.
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
libinput-record(1)