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jordansissel
xdotool
C2021–2025
jordansissel / xdotool

xdotool

fake keyboard/mouse input, window management, and more

8Distinct people
8Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
3.9KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

fake keyboard/mouse input, window management, and more

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year8 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2021-02-03 12:19:10 UTC to 2025-10-12 16:45:45 UTC.

01232021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments20212022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments20232024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 1 submissions, 1 comments2025

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC211

What Hacker News says

8 sources
About AutoHotKey, you can do similar stuff as long as you are using X11 as there are various utilities for it, such as xdotool[0]. There is even an AutoHotKey-for-Linux project[1] (it also needs X11 - the author did try to port it to Wayland but gave up). For Wayland there are some alternatives like ydotool[2] (actually AFAIK since ydotool uses some daemon to inject events it works with anything, not just Wayland, but on the other hand it only provides a basic tiny subset of xdotool's commands) but the core protocol isn't particularly friendly to such automation. [0] https://github.com/jordansissel/xdotool [1] https://github.com/phil294/AHK_X11 [2] https://github.com/ReimuNotMoe/ydotool
In No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
In WinDirStat – Windows Directory Statistics
I often create screen recordings for my classes, but it's very boring and time consuming. I'm a perfectionist, and if I mistype a command I prefer to re-record everything. Moreover, every time one of the tools used in the videos gets a significant update, I feel compelled to redo the video. I have started using xdotool [1] to create bash scripts that send mouse clicks and keystrokes to apps. Interleaving calls to xdotool with the "sleep" command [2] produce a convincing effect. If I need to redo a video to fix typos or after a program update, I just fix the bash script and restart the recording. Alas, the only thing that is missing in my videos is the sound of keyboard clicks… But nothing is perfect! [1] https://github.com/jordansissel/xdotool [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_(command)
In Ask HN: What's your proudest hack?
> I shouldn't need to download an app to a smartphone for something that I exclusively intend to use on a desktop. I see where you're coming from here and mostly agree. However, I will say that as someone who already had the Cash App installed the process was pretty seamless. The only major item I would change is that it would be nice to have some way to import a CSV or XLS file (or even JSON) for the capital gains forms. They offer an online spreadsheet but you still have to fill out each cell individually. If you have a few dozen trades (or more) to report it gets rather tiresome and could even be a bit error-prone. I suppose I could have scripted the data entry with keyboard macros (via xdotool[0]), but for something I only do once per year it probably wouldn't be worthwhile… and the interface could be different next year. [0] https://
Read the rest
In TurboTax’s fight against free tax filing
Espanso currently supports X11-based linux systems through the X Record Extension [1] and libxdo [2] That said, I'm currently working on another engine based on evdev that could be able to support also Wayland systems. For the linux install see also: https://espanso.org/install/linux/ [1]: https://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.6/doc/libXtst/recordlib.htm... [2]: https://github.com/jordansissel/xdotool
In Show HN: Espanso: detect a typed keyword and replace it while you're typing

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