--- name: "lircd-uinput" section: "8" platform: "linux" package: "lirc" version: "1:0.10.2-6" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/lircd-uinput" --- # lircd-uinput(8) Forward lirc button presses as uinput events ## NAME lircd-uinput - Forward lirc button presses as uinput events ## SYNOPSIS lircd-uinput \[*options*\]... \[*lircd output socket*\]\ lircd-uinput \[*options*\]... \[*file*\] ## DESCRIPTION **lircd-uinput** reads decoded button press events from a **[lircd(8)](/lircd/8.md)** output socket and injects these as key events to the kernel uinput device. The kernel makes these events available to other applications on a */dev/input/event* device, just as for regular input hardware. **lircd-uinput** is designed to run as a systemd service. The *lircd output socket* argument is an optional path to the lircd output socket. It defaults to the *output* value in the \[lircd\] section of the lirc\_options config file, falling back to */var/run/lirc/lircd.* If a plain file is given instead of a socket it is supposed to contain button press events formatted as documented in **[lircd(8)](/lircd/8.md)** . **lircd-uinput** will in this case send the codes in this file and exit. In order to work, release events must be sent to the uinput device. See REPEAT HANDLING. **lircd-uinput** can only handle button events named using the official namespace i. e., buttons known to the kernel. See NOTES. Unless the */dev/uinput* default permissions are changed **lirc-uinput** needs to run as root. See NOTES. The */dev/input/event* device created by the kernel can be tricky to locate, and is not stable. See NOTES. ## OPTIONS - **-u** **--uinput** \<*device*\> uinput kernel device, defaults to /dev/uinput. - **-r** **--release-suffix** \<*suffix*\> **lircd-uinput** generates different events depending on if the button name ends with the *release-suffix* or not. Defaults to *\_EVUP* . See REPEAT HANDLING - **-R** **--repeat** \<*delay*\[,*period*\] \| *,period*\> Set kernel autorepeat parameters of the created */dev/input/event* device. *delay* is the time before repeating a key event, *period* is the time between repeated key events. Both values are in milliseconds, separated by a comma. Any value can be omitted or set to 0 in which case the kernel/system defaults are used. See REPEAT HANDLING. - **-a** **--add-release-events** Generate synthetic release events. This option is mandatory unless **lircd** is using the deprecated *--release* option. The timeout used can be modified using the *release-timeout* key in the *lircd-uinput* section of the **lirc\_options.conf** file. Useless if used with a text file as input. . See REPEAT HANDLING - **-d** **--disabled** \<*disabled buttons file path*\> The path of a file which contains name of buttons to be disabled, one per line. By default, **lircd-uinput** sends all buttons found in input. See NOTES. - **-O** **--options-file** \<*path*\> Options file holding default values. Defaults to */etc/lircd/lirc\_options.conf* - **-L, --logfile** \<*logfile path*\> Select the log file, either the string 'syslog' indicating that [syslog(1)](/syslog/1.md) should be used or a log file path. The default is to use syslog. - **-D, --loglevel** \[*level*\] Determine the amount of logging information. *level* can be a symbolic syslog level: 'error','warning, 'info', 'notice' or ´debug'. **lircd-uinput** also defines three additional levels 'trace', 'trace1' and 'trace2' which gives even more messages ('trace2' bringing the most). However, in the log these messages are marked as 'debug'. - **-h** **--help** Display usage summary. - **-v** **--version** Display version info. ## REPEAT HANDLING After receiving a keypress event the kernel will start emitting repeat events to applications until **lircd-uinput** emits a corresponding release event. The release events could be created by **[lircd(8)](/lircd/8.md)** using the deprecated *--release* option. Such events typically has an *\_EVUP* suffix appended to the original keypress event. The preferred way is that **lircd-uinput** creates release events using the *--add-release-events* option. Combining both of these options might give unexpected results. Note that the linux kernel uses the suffix \_UP (which was used py lircd prior to 0.10.0) for other purposes since 4.7. In any case, the repeat events generated by the kernel can be tweaked using the *--repeat* option. This can set the time between the keypress event and the first repeat event and the time between each repeat event. The *--repeat* option should only be used if no other program or udev rule is automatically setting up key repeat parameters. By design the repeat parameters can't be set in an atomic way during input device registration so this option is prone to race conditions. Note that the **lircd-uinput** repeat-event handling differs from **[lircd(8)](/lircd/8.md)** which implements (emulates) hardware autorepeat in the events sent to uinput (event.value == 2). **lircd-uinput** only sends keypress and release events, trusting the kernel autorepeat support. ## NOTES By default, the *dev/uinput* device is not writable for regular users. Thus **lircd-uinput** needs to run as root unless these permissions are changed. One way to achieve this is an udev rule. The lirc distribution contains an example rule which makes the **lircd-uinput** device writable for users in the group lirc. Another way is to use **[lircd-setup(8)](/lircd-setup/8.md)** to change the permissions. As distributed, the *lirc\_options.conf* file contains an commented example using **[setfacl(1)](/setfacl/1.md)** . **lircd-uinput** can only forward lircd button events with names from the legal namespace defined by the kernel. A complete list of possible button names is available in */usr/include/linux/input-event-codes.h* and also using *irrecord -l* . Other button names are silently dropped. The event keycode depends on the name that was given a button in the lircd config file e.g., if the button is named *KEY\_1* the keycode *1* will be generated. The kernel makes the events generated by **lircd-uinput** available on a */dev/input* device like */dev/input/event12.* This device name is not stable and typically varies after a reboot. The lirc distribution contains a udev rule which if installed creates a device link named */dev/lircd-uinput* which always can be used. **lircd-uinput** is designed to replace the currently deprecated *--uinput* option to **[lircd(8)](/lircd/8.md).** However, **lircd-uinput** forwards all events unless blocked by the *--disabled* option. On the other hand, **lircd** *--uinput* does not forward all events - the heuristics used has been changed over versions. ## BUGS Since the device name is fixed, only one instance of **lircd-uinput** can run on a system. ## SEE ALSO [**lircd**(8)](/lircd/8.md)\ **[irrecord(1)](/irrecord/1.md)**\ **http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/input/event-codes.txt**