keytest(1)

📦 version 1.2.7, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute

💖 keytest(1) — Linux Manual 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the manual page for keytest, living in section 1 of the Linux Manual, and it's literally the cutest little tool: it reports names of pressed keys. that's it. that's the job. press key, get name. iconic behaviour honestly ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

keytest — reports names of pressed keys

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

keytest [input_device_name]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the tea 🍓: keytest comes from ESE Key Daemon, which is a multimedia keyboard driver for Linux. and with the 2.6 kernel series it can also handle remote controls, because those show up presented as keyboards. no kernel patch required, bestie — none, zero, nada. 🙅‍♀️

it's a userspace program, and it pools the /dev/input/event? interfaces for incoming keyboard key presses. (yes, that's the exact word in the original, i'm not fixing it, i'm just relaying it 💅)

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • input_device_name — the input (event) device. and listen: if you actually give this one, it turns off autodetection of the 1st keyboard device. so it's giving "i know exactly which device i want" main character energy 👑

🫶 FILES 🫶

  • /usr/sbin/esekeyd — main binary (daemon)
  • /usr/bin/keytest — program that reports names of pressed keys
  • /usr/bin/learnkeys — config file generator
  • /usr/share/man/man1/{esekeyd,keytest,learnkeys}.1(.gz) — manual pages

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

esekeyd(1), learnkeys(1)

like, go read those too, they're the friend group 🧚

💀 BUGS 💀

heads up bestie, this program is not perfect and it knows it.
  • See the file TODO in the distribution for information on what remains to be done. (yes, there's a whole list, no cap 📝)
  • If you want to report a problem with the program, please send mail to this address: <krzysztof@burghardt.pl>.

and when you do report it, please please please include all of this, or the dev will be so sad 😭:

  • a detailed description of the bug,
  • the version of the program you are running — and ooh, cute trick: run keytest without any parameters to display this information,
  • the operating system you are running the program on,
  • and if the program crashes, a stack trace would be very much appreciated. 🥺

👑 AUTHOR 👑

This program was written by Krzysztof Burghardt <krzysztof@burghardt.pl> and may be freely distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

and fr fr, there is ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY for this program. all caps, all seriousness, no vibes-based exceptions. 💅

okay that's the whole page, mwah 💖 go press some keys and let keytest tell you their names, it's literally so satisfying.

this manual page came from the Linux Utilities collection, dated 21 Feb 2006, and it's for keytest(1) — stay hydrated, read your man pages, and slay ✨🦋🎀

📦 where this page comes from