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Accepted
Ali Razmdideh
Asked: 2017-05-26 01:50:17 +0800 CST

Type in gedit using xdotool in a script

  • 772

I want to type a character in a shell and have xdotool send that character's signal to gedit, so that character will be typed in gedit.

I have written this script:

#!/bin/bash
gedit -s &
GEDPID=$!
sleep 2s
GEDWINID=`xdotool search --pid $GEDPID | tail -1`
echo "press any keys"
read i
xdotool windowactivate --sync $GEDWINID key --clearmodifiers --delay 100 "$i" && wmctrl -a Terminal

Everything works well except that the script waits for enter to send a keyboard signal to gedit.

So I've changed read i to read -n1 i, to make the script do its job without enter.

#!/bin/bash
gedit -s &
GEDPID=$!
sleep 2s
GEDWINID=`xdotool search --pid $GEDPID | tail -1`
echo "press any keys"
read -n1 i
xdotool windowactivate --sync $GEDWINID key --clearmodifiers --delay 100 "$i" && wmctrl -a Terminal

But it doesn't type any characters in gedit!

And here is the question, what is the second script's issue? What's difference between read i and read -n1 i that causes this problem?

command-line

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I was able to recreate this issue. While I don't know why there's a difference between read and read -n1, adding a simple delay before the key made it work. My guess is that there isn't enough time after the window switches for it to register the keypress.

    #!/bin/bash
gedit -s &
GEDPID=$!
sleep 2s
GEDWINID=`xdotool search --pid $GEDPID | tail -1`
echo "press any keys"
read -n1 i
xdotool sleep 0.1 windowactivate --sync $GEDWINID key --clearmodifiers --delay 100 "$i" && wmctrl -a Terminal
    • 1

  2. I modified your original script so it properly gets window ID of your current terminal and switches focus between the Terminal and Gedit windows. This script uses infinite loop, so all keystrokes being print in Terminal window are transferred into Gedit. Cancel it with Ctrl+C.

    #!/bin/bash

WIDGTERM=$(xdotool getactivewindow)
gedit -s 2> /dev/null &
sleep 2s
WIDGEDIT=$(xdotool getactivewindow)
xdotool windowactivate $WIDGTERM
echo "Press any keys"
while true
do
  read -n1 i
  xdotool windowactivate --sync $WIDGEDIT key --clearmodifiers "$i"
  sleep .5
  xdotool windowactivate --sync $WIDGTERM
done
    • 0