lua-input

Library for using the Linux input/uinput subsystem to read input events or create input devices and events.

This allows reading keyboard/mouse/touchscreen events, and emulating input devices for all other applications on the system.

Compatible with Lua5.1, LuaJIT, Lua5.2, Lua5.3, Lua5.4.

Installation

See doc/INSTALLATION.md

This library is packaged and build using Luarocks, which makes building and installing easy.

git clone https://github.com/max1220/lua-input
cd lua-input
# install locally, usually to ~/.luarocks
luarocks make --local

When installing locally you need to tell Lua where to look for modules installed using Luarocks, e.g.:

luarocks path >> ~/.bashrc

You can also install the library manually, see documentation.

Device permissions

Because this library might read/write access to the /dev/input/* or /dev/uinput special files, you need to make sure your user has the correct permissions. The /dev/input/event* files are typically owned by the input group, so adduser <your username> input should be enough to give you access. For security reasons, the /dev/uinput device is owned root:root, since it can add virtual input devices to the computer that are identified as regular system input devices. If your usecase requires access to this functionallity, I recommend creating a separate user or group for access to /dev/uinput. You never should chmod the files in /dev/.

Library usage

Full usage see doc/USAGE.md

Reading events from a device

local input = require("lua-input")

-- read events from a device
local input_dev = input.open_input("/dev/input/event0")
while true do
	local ev = input_dev:read_event()
	print("event",ev.type, ev.code, ev.value)
end