Looking for macro recording software

General system Newbie
2

I do this with shell scripting and xdotool. For example, I have bound Meta+V to a shell script which runs another my yt-dlp wrapper script by finding a terminal window and sending the following keystrokes to it:

  • Ctrl+A: move cursor to the beginning of the line
  • Ctrl+K: clear everything in front of the cursor
  •    Space   , Y, T, P: type the name of the script, ytp, after a space so that the command does not get saved in the shell history.
  • Return
         : to run the script.

This is what the script looks like:

#!/bin/bash

CLIPBOARD="$(xclip -o -sel c)"
[[ $CLIPBOARD = http* ]] || exit 1

TERMINAL_NAME="Konsole"
TERMINAL_EXEC="/usr/bin/konsole"

readarray -t WINDOW_LIST < <(xdotool search --all --class "$TERMINAL_NAME")
for WINDOW in "${WINDOW_LIST[@]}"; do
  OUTPUT=$(xdotool "windowactivate" "$WINDOW" 2>&1)
  if [ -z $OUTPUT ]; then
    if [[ $(xset -q) =~ (Caps Lock: *on) ]]; then
      CAPS=1
      xdotool key Caps_Lock
    fi

    xdotool key --clearmodifiers --window "$WINDOW" ctrl+a ctrl+k space y t p Return

    if (( CAPS )); then
      xdotool key Caps_Lock
    fi
    
    # unstick keys if stuck
    sleep 0.5 && xdotool keyup Meta_L Meta_R Alt_L Alt_R Super_L Super_R
    exit 0
  fi
done

#otherwise
$TERMINAL_EXEC -e "$HOME/bin/ytp"

The script also checks if the clipboard contains a URL (actually, a string starting with “http”), because if it doesn’t then running my ytp script is pointless.

This is how I watch all online videos, my browser does not play multimedia. :rofl:

I use the exact same approach to program keyboard macros for use in, say, a text editor, or wherever I need a sequence of keys typed exactly.

Here is another example, a video of an xdotool based shell script automatically playing Snek:

Of course, such UI automation is one of the wonderful things about using X11. If you use Wayland, you’re out of luck (there are some similar utilities, but they all suck), consider using X11.

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