dotool(1)

💖 dotool — the manual page, but make it slay 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're about to talk about dotool, from the dotool(1) manual. it's a uinput tool. it's iconic. let's go. ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

dotool — a uinput tool, aka the thing that types for you. no cap.

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

dotool < actions

that's it. that's the whole vibe. you feed it actions on stdin and it goes off. 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

dotool reads actions from stdin and simulates keyboard/mouse input using Linux's uinput module.

so basically it's a puppet master for your keyboard and mouse. it's giving main character energy, honestly. lowkey obsessed. 😭

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🔐 PERMISSION 🔐

dotool requires write permission to /dev/uinput, which is granted to users in group input by a udev rule.

you can test:

echo type hello | dotool

and if need be, you could add your user to group input with:

groupadd -f input
usermod -a -G input $USER

and then it's foolproof to reboot to make the group and rule effective.

okay so real talk: that reboot? not optional. do it, bestie. the group and the rule need it to actually kick in. 😤

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⌨️ KEYBOARD LAYOUTS ⌨️

dotool may type gobbledygook if it's simulating keycodes for a different keyboard layout than your environment is expecting.

(not the gobbledygook era 💀 we do not claim her.)

you can specify the layout with the environment variables DOTOOL_XKB_LAYOUT and DOTOOL_XKB_VARIANT. for example:

echo type azerty | DOTOOL_XKB_LAYOUT=fr dotool

you can also specify the name to give the virtual keyboard with the environment variable DOTOOL_KEYBOARD_NAME, which can be useful making rules for your environment.

currently the type action has only heuristic support for dead keys. (heuristic. as in vibes-based. she's trying her best 🫶)

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -h, --help — print help and exit. the classic.
• --list-keys — print the possible Linux keys and exit.
• --list-x-keys — print the possible XKB keys and exit.
• --version — print the version and exit.

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👑 ACTIONS 👑

💜 key / keydown / keyup

• key CHORD...
• keydown CHORD...
• keyup CHORD...

press and/or release each CHORD. a CHORD is a key or a key with modifiers, such as a, shift+a or ctrl+shift+a.

the supported modifiers are super, altgr, ctrl, alt and shift.

keys can be specified by Linux names, XKB names prefixed with x:, or Linux keycodes prefixed with k:. the Linux names are case-insensitive, except uppercase character keys also simulate shift. this example types !!! with the us layout:

echo key shift+1 x:exclam shift+k:2 | dotool

the way that one line flexes three different naming schemes?? we stan a polyglot. 🔥

💜 type

• type TEXT — type TEXT. yes, really. go off.

💜 click / buttondown / buttonup

• click left/middle/right
• buttondown left/middle/right
• buttonup left/middle/right

press and/or release a mouse button.

💜 wheel / hwheel

• wheel AMOUNT
• hwheel AMOUNT

scroll a vertical/horizontal mouse wheel by a positive or negative AMOUNT.

💜 mouseto

• mouseto X Y — jump the cursor to the position X Y, where X and Y are percentages between 0.0 and 1.0.

💜 mousemove

• mousemove X Y — move the cursor relative to its current position.

💜 keydelay / keyhold / typedelay / typehold

• keydelay MILLISECONDS
• keyhold MILLISECONDS
• typedelay MILLISECONDS
• typehold MILLISECONDS

set the delay between/holding each key with the key* actions/type action.

the default keydelay and typedelay is 2ms, and the default keyhold and typehold is 8ms.

girlies who tune their own timing? different breed. 🕐✨

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🌈 LONG-RUNNING INSTANCE 🌈

each instance of dotool has an initial delay registering the virtual devices, but you can keep writing actions to a long-running instance. the daemon and client, dotoold and dotoolc, let you do this with a pipe behind the scenes, for example:

dotoold &
echo type super | dotoolc
echo type speedy | dotoolc

so like. start her up once, then just keep whispering to her through dotoolc. no more startup delay. it's giving efficiency, it's giving connoisseur. 🧚

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💅 EXAMPLES 💅

this greets the world:

echo type hi | dotool

this screams for roughly three seconds:

{ echo keydown A; sleep 3; echo key H shift+1; } | dotool

three whole seconds of screaming. commitment. respect. 😌 (also note that shift+1 is !, iykyk.)

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🍓 AUTHOR 🍓

John Gebbie

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okay bestie that's the whole page, you're officially fluent in dotool 🫶 this was the dotool(1) page from the General Commands Manual, dated 2026-10-19, and yes she's still out here being the most useful little uinput girlie in the game. mwah. 💖

go type something iconic, bestie 💫