XEV(1)

💅 xev(1) — print contents of X events 💅

✨ NAME ✨

xev — print contents of X events. That's the whole mission, bestie. 🫶

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

       xev [-display displayname] [-geometry geom] [-bw pixels]
           [-bs NotUseful|WhenMapped|Always] [-id windowid] [-root] [-s]
           [-name string] [-rv] [-event event_mask [-event event_mask ...]]
           [-help|-version]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so xev creates a window and then asks the X server to send it events whenever anything happens to the window — like it being moved, resized, typed in, clicked in, etc. ✨ You can also attach it to an existing window. It's useful for seeing what causes events to occur and for displaying the information they contain; it is essentially a debugging and development tool, and should not be needed in normal usage. 💀

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -display display — tells xev which X server to contact. 📡
• -geometry geom — sets the size and/or location of the window, if a window is to be created. 📐
• -bw pixels — sets the border width for the window. 🖼️
• -bs NotUseful|WhenMapped|Always — picks what kind of backing store to give the window. The default is NotUseful. Backing store = the pixels saved off-screen when the X server maintains the contents of a window; NotUseful means the xev process will redraw its contents itself, as necessary. 🎨
• -id windowid — monitors the window with the given id instead of creating a new window. 🪟
• -root — monitors the root window instead of creating a new window. 👑
• -s — enables save-unders on the window. Save unders are similar to backing store, but they refer rather to the saving of pixels off-screen when the current window obscures other windows. They're only advisory, and are normally set for popup dialogs and other transient windows. 🫧
• -name string — assigns that name to the created window. 🏷️
• -rv — puts the window in reverse video. 🔄
• -event event_mask — selects which events to display. You can specify -event multiple times to select multiple types of events. When not specified, all events are selected. Available event masks: keyboard, mouse, expose, visibility, structure, substructure, focus, property, colormap, owner_grab_button, randr, button. 🎛️
• -help — prints the program usage and exits. 🆘
• -version — prints the program version and exits. 🏁

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

X(7), xwininfo(1), xdpyinfo(1), Xlib Programmers Manual, X Protocol Specification — go read these if you want the full lore, iykyk. 📚

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium. Respect the icon. 💅

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okay that's the whole page bestie — this was xev 1.2.7 (X Version 11 energy), dated 2025-03-24. Go cause some events and slay 💖✨🫶