| PYNPUT(3) | pynput | PYNPUT(3) |
pynput - pynput Documentation
This library allows you to control and monitor input devices.
It contains subpackages for each type of input device supported:
All modules mentioned above are automatically imported into the pynput package. To use any of them, import them from the main package:
from pynput import mouse, keyboard
pynput attempts to use the backend suitable for the current platform, but this automatic choice is possible to override.
If the environment variables $PYNPUT_BACKEND_KEYBOARD or $PYNPUT_BACKEND are set, their value will be used as backend name for the keyboard classes, and if $PYNPUT_BACKEND_MOUSE or $PYNPUT_BACKEND are set, their value will be used as backend name for the mouse classes.
Available backends are:
The package pynput.mouse contains classes for controlling and monitoring the mouse.
Use pynput.mouse.Controller like this:
from pynput.mouse import Button, Controller
mouse = Controller()
# Read pointer position
print('The current pointer position is {0}'.format(
mouse.position))
# Set pointer position
mouse.position = (10, 20)
print('Now we have moved it to {0}'.format(
mouse.position))
# Move pointer relative to current position
mouse.move(5, -5)
# Press and release
mouse.press(Button.left)
mouse.release(Button.left)
# Double click; this is different from pressing and releasing
# twice on macOS
mouse.click(Button.left, 2)
# Scroll two steps down
mouse.scroll(0, 2)
Use pynput.mouse.Listener like this:
from pynput import mouse
def on_move(x, y):
print('Pointer moved to {0}'.format(
(x, y)))
def on_click(x, y, button, pressed):
print('{0} at {1}'.format(
'Pressed' if pressed else 'Released',
(x, y)))
if not pressed:
# Stop listener
return False
def on_scroll(x, y, dx, dy):
print('Scrolled {0} at {1}'.format(
'down' if dy < 0 else 'up',
(x, y)))
# Collect events until released
with mouse.Listener(
on_move=on_move,
on_click=on_click,
on_scroll=on_scroll) as listener:
listener.join()
# ...or, in a non-blocking fashion:
listener = mouse.Listener(
on_move=on_move,
on_click=on_click,
on_scroll=on_scroll)
listener.start()
A mouse listener is a threading.Thread, and all callbacks will be invoked from the thread.
Call pynput.mouse.Listener.stop from anywhere, raise StopException or return False from a callback to stop the listener.
When using the non-blocking version above, the current thread will continue executing. This might be necessary when integrating with other GUI frameworks that incorporate a main-loop, but when run from a script, this will cause the program to terminate immediately.
The listener callbacks are invoked directly from an operating thread on some platforms, notably Windows.
This means that long running procedures and blocking operations should not be invoked from the callback, as this risks freezing input for all processes.
A possible workaround is to just dispatch incoming messages to a queue, and let a separate thread handle them.
If a callback handler raises an exception, the listener will be stopped. Since callbacks run in a dedicated thread, the exceptions will not automatically be reraised.
To be notified about callback errors, call Thread.join on the listener instance:
from pynput import mouse
class MyException(Exception): pass
def on_click(x, y, button, pressed):
if button == mouse.Button.left:
raise MyException(button)
# Collect events until released
with mouse.Listener(
on_click=on_click) as listener:
try:
listener.join()
except MyException as e:
print('{0} was clicked'.format(e.args[0]))
Once pynput.mouse.Listener.stop has been called, the listener cannot be restarted, since listeners are instances of threading.Thread.
If your application requires toggling listening events, you must either add an internal flag to ignore events when not required, or create a new listener when resuming listening.
To simplify scripting, synchronous event listening is supported through the utility class pynput.mouse.Events. This class supports reading single events in a non-blocking fashion, as well as iterating over all events.
To read a single event, use the following code:
from pynput import mouse
# The event listener will be running in this block
with mouse.Events() as events:
# Block at most one second
event = events.get(1.0)
if event is None:
print('You did not interact with the mouse within one second')
else:
print('Received event {}'.format(event))
To iterate over mouse events, use the following code:
from pynput import mouse
# The event listener will be running in this block
with mouse.Events() as events:
for event in events:
if event.button == mouse.Button.right:
break
else:
print('Received event {}'.format(event))
Please note that the iterator method does not support non-blocking operation, so it will wait for at least one mouse event.
The events will be instances of the inner classes found in pynput.mouse.Events.
Recent versions of _Windows_ support running legacy applications scaled when the system scaling has been increased beyond 100%. This allows old applications to scale, albeit with a blurry look, and avoids tiny, unusable user interfaces.
This scaling is unfortunately inconsistently applied to a mouse listener and a controller: the listener will receive physical coordinates, but the controller has to work with scaled coordinates.
This can be worked around by telling Windows that your application is DPI aware. This is a process global setting, so _pynput_ cannot do it automatically. Do enable DPI awareness, run the following code:
import ctypes PROCESS_PER_MONITOR_DPI_AWARE = 2 ctypes.windll.shcore.SetProcessDpiAwareness(PROCESS_PER_MONITOR_DPI_AWARE)
The default implementation sends a series of press and release events.
This is the tuple (x, y), and setting it will move the pointer.
Instances of this class can be used as context managers. This is equivalent to the following code:
listener.start()
try:
listener.wait()
with_statements()
finally:
listener.stop()
This class inherits from threading.Thread and supports all its methods. It will set daemon to True when created.
The callback to call when mouse move events occur.
It will be called with the arguments (x, y), which is the new pointer position. If this callback raises StopException or returns False, the listener is stopped.
The callback to call when a mouse button is clicked.
It will be called with the arguments (x, y, button, pressed), where (x, y) is the new pointer position, button is one of the Button values and pressed is whether the button was pressed.
If this callback raises StopException or returns False, the listener is stopped.
The callback to call when mouse scroll events occur.
It will be called with the arguments (x, y, dx, dy), where (x, y) is the new pointer position, and (dx, dy) is the scroll vector.
If this callback raises StopException or returns False, the listener is stopped.
Any non-standard platform dependent options. These should be prefixed with the platform name thus: darwin_, xorg_ or win32_.
Supported values are:
This callable can freely modify the event using functions like Quartz.CGEventSetIntegerValueField. If this callable does not return the event, the event is suppressed system wide.
If this callback returns False, the event will not be propagated to the listener callback.
If self.suppress_event() is called, the event is suppressed system wide.
group should be None; reserved for future extension when a ThreadGroup class is implemented.
target is the callable object to be invoked by the run() method. Defaults to None, meaning nothing is called.
name is the thread name. By default, a unique name is constructed of the form "Thread-N" where N is a small decimal number.
args is a list or tuple of arguments for the target invocation. Defaults to ().
kwargs is a dictionary of keyword arguments for the target invocation. Defaults to {}.
If a subclass overrides the constructor, it must make sure to invoke the base class constructor (Thread.__init__()) before doing anything else to the thread.
It must be called at most once per thread object. It arranges for the object's run() method to be invoked in a separate thread of control.
This method will raise a RuntimeError if called more than once on the same thread object.
When this method returns, no more events will be delivered. Once this method has been called, the listener instance cannot be used any more, since a listener is a threading.Thread, and once stopped it cannot be restarted.
To resume listening for event, a new listener must be created.
The package pynput.keyboard contains classes for controlling and monitoring the keyboard.
Use pynput.keyboard.Controller like this:
from pynput.keyboard import Key, Controller
keyboard = Controller()
# Press and release space
keyboard.press(Key.space)
keyboard.release(Key.space)
# Type a lower case A; this will work even if no key on the
# physical keyboard is labelled 'A'
keyboard.press('a')
keyboard.release('a')
# Type two upper case As
keyboard.press('A')
keyboard.release('A')
with keyboard.pressed(Key.shift):
keyboard.press('a')
keyboard.release('a')
# Type 'Hello World' using the shortcut type method
keyboard.type('Hello World')
Use pynput.keyboard.Listener like this:
from pynput import keyboard
def on_press(key):
try:
print('alphanumeric key {0} pressed'.format(
key.char))
except AttributeError:
print('special key {0} pressed'.format(
key))
def on_release(key):
print('{0} released'.format(
key))
if key == keyboard.Key.esc:
# Stop listener
return False
# Collect events until released
with keyboard.Listener(
on_press=on_press,
on_release=on_release) as listener:
listener.join()
# ...or, in a non-blocking fashion:
listener = keyboard.Listener(
on_press=on_press,
on_release=on_release)
listener.start()
A keyboard listener is a threading.Thread, and all callbacks will be invoked from the thread.
Call pynput.keyboard.Listener.stop from anywhere, raise StopException or return False from a callback to stop the listener.
The key parameter passed to callbacks is a pynput.keyboard.Key, for special keys, a pynput.keyboard.KeyCode for normal alphanumeric keys, or just None for unknown keys.
When using the non-blocking version above, the current thread will continue executing. This might be necessary when integrating with other GUI frameworks that incorporate a main-loop, but when run from a script, this will cause the program to terminate immediately.
The listener callbacks are invoked directly from an operating thread on some platforms, notably Windows.
This means that long running procedures and blocking operations should not be invoked from the callback, as this risks freezing input for all processes.
A possible workaround is to just dispatch incoming messages to a queue, and let a separate thread handle them.
If a callback handler raises an exception, the listener will be stopped. Since callbacks run in a dedicated thread, the exceptions will not automatically be reraised.
To be notified about callback errors, call Thread.join on the listener instance:
from pynput import keyboard
class MyException(Exception): pass
def on_press(key):
if key == keyboard.Key.esc:
raise MyException(key)
# Collect events until released
with keyboard.Listener(
on_press=on_press) as listener:
try:
listener.join()
except MyException as e:
print('{0} was pressed'.format(e.args[0]))
Once pynput.keyboard.Listener.stop has been called, the listener cannot be restarted, since listeners are instances of threading.Thread.
If your application requires toggling listening events, you must either add an internal flag to ignore events when not required, or create a new listener when resuming listening.
To simplify scripting, synchronous event listening is supported through the utility class pynput.keyboard.Events. This class supports reading single events in a non-blocking fashion, as well as iterating over all events.
To read a single event, use the following code:
from pynput import keyboard
# The event listener will be running in this block
with keyboard.Events() as events:
# Block at most one second
event = events.get(1.0)
if event is None:
print('You did not press a key within one second')
else:
print('Received event {}'.format(event))
To iterate over keyboard events, use the following code:
from pynput import keyboard
# The event listener will be running in this block
with keyboard.Events() as events:
for event in events:
if event.key == keyboard.Key.esc:
break
else:
print('Received event {}'.format(event))
Please note that the iterator method does not support non-blocking operation, so it will wait for at least one keyboard event.
The events will be instances of the inner classes found in pynput.keyboard.Events.
A common use case for keyboard monitors is reacting to global hotkeys. Since a listener does not maintain any state, hotkeys involving multiple keys must store this state somewhere.
pynput provides the class pynput.keyboard.HotKey for this purpose. It contains two methods to update the state, designed to be easily interoperable with a keyboard listener: pynput.keyboard.HotKey.press and pynput.keyboard.HotKey.release which can be directly passed as listener callbacks.
The intended usage is as follows:
from pynput import keyboard
def on_activate():
print('Global hotkey activated!')
def for_canonical(f):
return lambda k: f(l.canonical(k))
hotkey = keyboard.HotKey(
keyboard.HotKey.parse('<ctrl>+<alt>+h'),
on_activate)
with keyboard.Listener(
on_press=for_canonical(hotkey.press),
on_release=for_canonical(hotkey.release)) as l:
l.join()
This will create a hotkey, and then use a listener to update its state. Once all the specified keys are pressed simultaneously, on_activate will be invoked.
Note that keys are passed through pynput.keyboard.Listener.canonical before being passed to the HotKey instance. This is to remove any modifier state from the key events, and to normalise modifiers with more than one physical button.
The method pynput.keyboard.HotKey.parse is a convenience function to transform shortcut strings to key collections. Please see its documentation for more information.
To register a number of global hotkeys, use the convenience class pynput.keyboard.GlobalHotKeys:
from pynput import keyboard
def on_activate_h():
print('<ctrl>+<alt>+h pressed')
def on_activate_i():
print('<ctrl>+<alt>+i pressed')
with keyboard.GlobalHotKeys({
'<ctrl>+<alt>+h': on_activate_h,
'<ctrl>+<alt>+i': on_activate_i}) as h:
h.join()
Its first argument is the index of the character in the string, and the second the character.
Its first argument is the key parameter.
Please note that this reflects only the internal state of this controller. See modifiers for more information.
Please note that this reflects only the internal state of this controller. See modifiers for more information.
Please note that this reflects only the internal state of this controller. See modifiers for more information.
Please note that this reflects only the internal state of this controller, and not the state of the operating system keyboard buffer. This property cannot be used to determine whether a key is physically pressed.
Only the generic modifiers will be set; when pressing either Key.shift_l, Key.shift_r or Key.shift, only Key.shift will be present.
Use this property within a context block thus:
with controller.modifiers as modifiers:
with_block()
This ensures that the modifiers cannot be modified by another thread.
A key may be either a string of length 1, one of the Key members or a KeyCode.
Strings will be transformed to KeyCode using KeyCode.char(). Members of Key will be translated to their value().
A key may be either a string of length 1, one of the Key members or a KeyCode.
Strings will be transformed to KeyCode using KeyCode.char(). Members of Key will be translated to their value().
Please note that this reflects only the internal state of this controller. See modifiers for more information.
This is equivalent to the following code:
controller.press(key) controller.release(key)
This method will send all key presses and releases necessary to type all characters in the string.
Instances of this class can be used as context managers. This is equivalent to the following code:
listener.start()
try:
listener.wait()
with_statements()
finally:
listener.stop()
This class inherits from threading.Thread and supports all its methods. It will set daemon to True when created.
The callback to call when a button is pressed.
It will be called with the argument (key), where key is a KeyCode, a Key or None if the key is unknown.
The callback to call when a button is released.
It will be called with the argument (key), where key is a KeyCode, a Key or None if the key is unknown.
Any non-standard platform dependent options. These should be prefixed with the platform name thus: darwin_, uinput_, xorg_ or win32_.
Supported values are:
This callable can freely modify the event using functions like Quartz.CGEventSetIntegerValueField. If this callable does not return the event, the event is suppressed system wide.
If this is specified, pynput will limit the number of devices checked for the capabilities needed to those passed, otherwise all system devices will be used. Passing this might be required if an incorrect device is chosen.
If this callback returns False, the event will not be propagated to the listener callback.
If self.suppress_event() is called, the event is suppressed system wide.
group should be None; reserved for future extension when a ThreadGroup class is implemented.
target is the callable object to be invoked by the run() method. Defaults to None, meaning nothing is called.
name is the thread name. By default, a unique name is constructed of the form "Thread-N" where N is a small decimal number.
args is a list or tuple of arguments for the target invocation. Defaults to ().
kwargs is a dictionary of keyword arguments for the target invocation. Defaults to {}.
If a subclass overrides the constructor, it must make sure to invoke the base class constructor (Thread.__init__()) before doing anything else to the thread.
It must be called at most once per thread object. It arranges for the object's run() method to be invoked in a separate thread of control.
This method will raise a RuntimeError if called more than once on the same thread object.
When this method returns, no more events will be delivered. Once this method has been called, the listener instance cannot be used any more, since a listener is a threading.Thread, and once stopped it cannot be restarted.
To resume listening for event, a new listener must be created.
The actual values for these items differ between platforms. Some platforms may have additional buttons, but these are guaranteed to be present everywhere.
Joining a dead key with space (' ') or itself yields the non-dead version of this key, if one exists; for example, KeyCode.from_dead('~').join(KeyCode.from_char(' ')) equals KeyCode.from_char('~') and KeyCode.from_dead('~').join(KeyCode.from_dead('~')).
Passing the suppress=True flag to listeners will suppress all events system-wide. If this is not what you want, you will have to employ different solutions for different backends.
If your backend of choice is not listed below, it does not support suppression of specific events.
For macOS, pass the named argument darwin_intercept to the listener constructor. This argument should be a callable taking the arguments (event_type, event), where event_type is any mouse related event type constant, and event is a CGEventRef. The event argument can be manipulated by the functions found on the Apple documentation.
If the interceptor function determines that the event should be suppressed, return None, otherwise return the event, which you may modify.
Here is a keyboard example:
def darwin_intercept(event_type, event):
import Quartz
length, chars = Quartz.CGEventKeyboardGetUnicodeString(
event, 100, None, None)
if length > 0 and chars == 'x':
# Suppress x
return None
elif length > 0 and chars == 'a':
# Transform a to b
Quartz.CGEventKeyboardSetUnicodeString(event, 1, 'b')
else:
return event
For Windows, pass the argument named win32_event_filter to the listener constructor. This argument should be a callable taking the arguments (msg, data), where msg is the current message, and data associated data as a MSLLHOOKSTRUCT or a KBDLLHOOKSTRUCT, depending on whether you are creating a mouse or keyboard listener.
If the filter function determines that the event should be suppressed, call suppress_event on the listener. If you return False, the event will be hidden from other listener callbacks.
Here is a keyboard example:
# Values for MSLLHOOKSTRUCT.vkCode can be found here:
# https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/inputdev/virtual-key-codes
def win32_event_filter(msg, data):
if data.vkCode == 0x58:
# Suppress x
listener.suppress_event()
This happens when using a packager, such as PyInstaller, to package your application.
The reason for the error is that the packager attempts to build a dependency tree of the modules used by inspecting import statements, and pynput finds the platform dependent backend modules at runtime using importlib.
To solve this problem, please consult the documentation of your tool to find how to explicitly add modules.
Which modules to add depends on your distribution platform. The backend modules are those starting with an underscore ('_') in the pynput.keyboard and pynput.mouse packages. Additionally, you will need modules with corresponding names from the pynput._util package.
pynput aims at providing a unified API for all supported platforms. In some cases, however, that is not entirely possible.
On Linux, pynput uses X or uinput.
When running under X, the following must be true:
When running under uinput, the following must be true:
The latter requirement for X means that running pynput over SSH generally will not work. To work around that, make sure to set $DISPLAY:
$ DISPLAY=:0 python -c 'import pynput'
Please note that the value DISPLAY=:0 is just an example. To find the actual value, please launch a terminal application from your desktop environment and issue the command echo $DISPLAY.
When running under Wayland, the X server emulator Xwayland will usually run, providing limited functionality. Notably, you will only receive input events from applications running under this emulator.
Recent versions of macOS restrict monitoring of the keyboard for security reasons. For that reason, one of the following must be true:
Please note that this does not apply to monitoring of the mouse or trackpad.
All listener classes have the additional attribute IS_TRUSTED, which is True if no permissions are lacking.
On Windows, virtual events sent by other processes may not be received. This library takes precautions, however, to dispatch any virtual events generated to all currently running listeners of the current process.
Furthermore, sending key press events will properly propagate to the rest of the system, but the operating system does not consider the buttons to be truly pressed. This means that key press events will not be continuously emitted as when holding down a physical key, and certain key sequences, such as shift pressed while pressing arrow keys, do not work as expected.
Moses Palmér
2015-2024, Moses Palmér
| February 28, 2024 | 1.7.6 |