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Typing the current date ( or any string ) via a shortcut as if the keys had been actually typed with the hardware keyboard in any application.

Terminal - Typing the current date ( or any string ) via a shortcut as if the keys had been actually typed with the hardware keyboard in any application.
xvkbd -xsendevent -text $(date +%Y%m%d)
2009-12-23 12:01:07
User: sputnick
Functions: date
11
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Typing the current date ( or any string ) via a shortcut as if the keys had been actually typed with the hardware keyboard in any application.

That works in all softs, CLI or GUI... I don't want to waste time to all the time typing the same stuff . So, I have that command in my window manager shortcuts ( meta+l ). All the window managers have editable shortcuts AFAIK. If not, or you don't want to use it that way, you can easily use the xbindkeys soft.

I you're using kde4, you can run :

systemsettings

then open "inputs actions" and create a new shortcut.

For Gnome take a look there : http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-create-keyboard-shortcuts-in-gnome/

A more advanced one, with strings and newlines :

xvkbd -xsendevent -text "---8<-----\nToday date is: $(date +%Y%m%d)\n---8<-----"

For complicated or long paste, you can feed xvkbd with a file :

xvkbd -xsendevent -file <file>

You can simulate ^C ( control+c ) too or others combinations of keys :

xvkbd -text "\C\Ac"

There's no man page nor help ( On my Archlinux distro ), but you can see online doc there : http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/

Show sample output | Add to favourites | Report as malicious

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What others think

This may very well be my favorite commandlinefu of all time.

Comment by matthewbauer 111 weeks and 1 day ago

Is there anything xvkbd can't do? The most amazing commandlinefus I've ever seen all involve this little slice of magic.

Comment by kaedenn 111 weeks and 1 day ago

@kaedenn : I don't know any kind of limitations.

@matthewbauer : thanks :)

@all folks : the tip was edited to change description to something more relevant and an advanced exemple is added to play with strings, date and newlines.

Comment by sputnick 111 weeks ago

For xfce4, you should use :

bash -c 'xvkbd -xsendevent -text $(date +%Y%m%d)'

in Xmenu/parameters/keyboard/

Comment by sputnick 104 weeks and 2 days ago

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