How to listen for mouse events in Linux?

Question

I want to write a program that would run in the background and log pointer's position when a mouse click occured. I tried to search for it in Google, but results were for NCurses and some GUI libraries. Is there any way that I could write a program that listens to mouse events in the background? C and/or Python ways are prefered.

[Yes there is](http://www.gnu.org/software/xnee/). – n. m. could be an AI Jan 27 '13 at 23:43 — n. m. could be an AI, Jan 27 '13 at 23:43
@n.m. Seems promising. Trying it out. – yasar Jan 27 '13 at 23:54 — yasar, Jan 27 '13 at 23:54
http://stackoverflow.com/a/14556353/841108 – Basile Starynkevitch Jan 28 '13 at 06:20 — Basile Starynkevitch, Jan 28 '13 at 06:20

score 15 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 03 '21 at 18:15

Here is an example for logging mouse position, clicks and releases:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <X11/Xlib.h>

char *key_name[] = {
    "first",
    "second (or middle)",
    "third",
    "fourth",  // :D
    "fivth"    // :|
};

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    Display *display;
    XEvent xevent;
    Window window;

    if( (display = XOpenDisplay(NULL)) == NULL )
        return -1;


    window = DefaultRootWindow(display);
    XAllowEvents(display, AsyncBoth, CurrentTime);

    XGrabPointer(display, 
                 window,
                 1, 
                 PointerMotionMask | ButtonPressMask | ButtonReleaseMask , 
                 GrabModeAsync,
                 GrabModeAsync, 
                 None,
                 None,
                 CurrentTime);

    while(1) {
        XNextEvent(display, &xevent);

        switch (xevent.type) {
            case MotionNotify:
                printf("Mouse move      : [%d, %d]\n", xevent.xmotion.x_root, xevent.xmotion.y_root);
                break;
            case ButtonPress:
                printf("Button pressed  : %s\n", key_name[xevent.xbutton.button - 1]);
                break;
            case ButtonRelease:
                printf("Button released : %s\n", key_name[xevent.xbutton.button - 1]);
                break;
        }
    }

    return 0;
}

Compile it using:

$ gcc mouse.c -o mouse -lX11
$ ./mouse 
Mouse move      : [664, 395]
Mouse move      : [665, 393]
Mouse move      : [666, 393]
Mouse move      : [666, 392]
Mouse move      : [664, 392]
Mouse move      : [664, 393]
Mouse move      : [664, 395]
Button pressed  : first
Button released : first
Button pressed  : third
Button released : third
^C
$

Look also here Keyboard and Pointer Events and there are a lot of information in The Xlib Manual.

I know this is old but for persons coming here in the future. Now the order of parameters passed to `gcc` matters. `gcc -lX11 mouse.c -o mouse` won't work, you have to put `-lX11` at the end, so: `gcc mouse.c -o mouse -lX11` — Jhon Pedroza, Jun 24 '18 at 04:59
@JhonPedroza thanks - I've edited the answer with this new parameter ordering. — Alex Spurling, Feb 03 '21 at 18:16

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:28

0

similar question: How can I capture mouseevents and keyevents using python in background on linux

The above answer is using python binding for evdev. this binding is available for capturing mouse event.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:28

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answered Jan 29 '13 at 00:17

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How to listen for mouse events in Linux?

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