This is a library that lets you emulate linux evdev character devices completely in userspace, using FUSE.
Linux has good support for emulating input devices, with uinput. However, uinput suffers from a few drawbacks:
- It doesn't hew to any sort of namespacing, and the devices it emulates are global to the system. That makes it difficult to use with containers.
- Because of the above, it usually requires elevated privileges.
Because FUSE mounts can be used inside mount namespaces, southpaw lets you simulate input devices in rootless containers, without even needing root inside the container.
Basic publishing of events is supported, both for blocking and non-blocking readers. Force feedback is not supported yet.
The following ioctls are currently implemented:
| Ioctl | Support |
|---|---|
| EVIOCGVERSION | ✅ |
| EVIOCGID | ✅ |
| EVIOCGREP | ❌ |
| EVIOCSREP | ❌ |
| EVIOCGKEYCODE | ❌ |
| EVIOCGKEYCODE_V2 | ❌ |
| EVIOCSKEYCODE | ❌ |
| EVIOCSKEYCODE_V2 | ❌ |
| EVIOCGNAME | ✅ |
| EVIOCGPHYS | ✅ |
| EVIOCGUNIQ | ✅ |
| EVIOCGPROP | ✅ |
| EVIOCGMTSLOTS | ❌ |
| EVIOCGKEY | ❌ |
| EVIOCGLED | ❌ |
| EVIOCGSND | ❌ |
| EVIOCGSW | ❌ |
| EVIOCGBIT | ✅ |
| EVIOCGABS | ✅ |
| EVIOCSABS | ✅ |
| EVIOCSFF | ❌ |
| EVIOCGRMFF | ❌ |
| EVIOCGEFFECTS | ❌ |
| EVIOCGRAB | ✅ |
| EVIOCREVOKE | ❌ |
| EVIOCGMASK | ❌ |
| EVIOCSMASK | ❌ |
| EVIOCSCLOCKID | ❌ |