Reading device input directly from/to /dev/input/eventX in Ubuntu with C

In this code example we will be able to read a keyboard device input directly from/to /dev/input/eventX in Ubuntu with C++. You might want to change the default event device if that is not your keyboard. (Support for mouse etc. is not implemented)

You can find right device by:

# cat /proc/bus/input/devices

Find your keyboard and find a line like this  "H: Handlers=kbd event5 ". Event5 tells you that right value for EVENT_DEVICE variable is "/dev/input/event5".

Run in terminal with:

# sudo ./<compiled_file> "/dev/input/event5"

Code:

#include <linux/input.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    int fd; 
    if(argc < 2) {
        printf("usage: %s \n", argv[0]);
        return 1;
    }   
     if ((getuid ()) != 0)
        printf ("You are not root! This may not work...n");

    fd = open(argv[1], O_RDONLY);
    struct input_event ev; 
    char name[256] = "Unknown";
    ioctl (fd, EVIOCGNAME (sizeof (name)), name);
    printf ("Reading From : %s (%s)n", argv[1], name);

    while (1) 
    {   
        read(fd, &ev, sizeof(struct input_event));

        if(ev.type == 1)
        {
            printf("key %i state %i\n", ev.code, ev.value);
            if(ev.value == 0)
            {
                printf(" : [key %i]\n ", ev.code);
            }
        }
    }   

    return 0;
}

In my case, the output of  "cat /proc/bus/input/devices" looks like:

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0001 Version=0000
N: Name="Power Button"
P: Phys=LNXPWRBN/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXPWRBN:00/input/input2
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event2 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=3
B: KEY=100000 0 0 0

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0001 Product=0001 Version=ab54
N: Name="AT Translated Set 2 keyboard"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio0/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input3
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=sysrq kbd event3 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=120013
B: KEY=4 2000000 3803078 f800d001 feffffdf ffefffff ffffffff fffffffe
B: MSC=10
B: LED=7

So, the corresponding device is /dev/input/event3.

The output of this program is as follows:

$ sudo ./read_kbd /dev/input/event3
[sudo] password for charles: 
 : [key 28]
q  : [key 16]
w  : [key 17]
r  : [key 19]
t  : [key 20]
y  : [key 21]
u  : [key 22]

http://itech-planet.net/content/reading-device-input-directly-fromto-devinputeventx-ubuntu-c