SendKeys in Linux

SendKeys is a useful function in the Windows API which enables a program to send keystrokes. I was looking for an equivalent in Linux, first in Ubuntu at home, and then in Fedora 13 at work.

For Ubuntu (Hardy Heron, 8.04), I found xautomation, which worked fine. For many (but not all) of the non alpha-numeric keystrokes, you need to use the name of the key – there is a helpful list here.

I tried xautomation with Fedora 13, but it was not happy. So I had a look around for an alternative. One possibility (I found them hard to find) was xdotool. Of course, the syntax for sending keystrokes is slightly different! It is slightly more consistent in that non-alphanumerics all need to be sent using the name of the key, so the helpful list (above) is still helpful!

I’ll try to post some examples at a later date.