xdotool in Mac OS X

xdotool is a command line tool used to emulate mouse and keyboard. The version on macport is too old so it doesn’t compile on Mac OS Sierra (last update was 2011).

xkbcommon

1. Clone libxkbcommon. This is required to compile xdotool.

   #include <xkbcommon/xkbcommon.h>
   

2. To use autogen.sh, it requires xorg-macros 1.16.

   sudo port install xorg-util-macros
   

3. When I first try to run make, this error comes up.

   YACC     src/xkbcomp/parser.c
   /Users/fransiska/Git/libxkbcommon/src/xkbcomp/parser.y:220.5-9: syntax error, unexpected type, expecting string or identifier
   

   The cause is that bison version is too old. Mac comes with the version 2.3. So we need to replace it.

   sudo port install bison
   cd /usr/bin/
   sudo mv bison bison-2.3
   sudo ln -s /opt/local/bin/bison bison
   

4. Compile libxkbcommon.

   ./autogen.sh --enable-shared
   make
   

xdotool

1. Clone xdotool.
2. Fix Makefile to include the newly compiled libxkbcommon.

   DEFAULT_LIBS=-L/usr/X11R6/lib -L/usr/local/lib -lX11 -lXtst -lXinerama -lxkbcommon -L/Users/fransiska/Git/libxkbcommon/.libs
   DEFAULT_INC=-I/usr/X11R6/include -I/usr/local/include -I/Users/fransiska/Git/libxkbcommon
   

   I cloned the repository into /Users/fransiska/Git/libxkbcommon.

3. Compile it.

   make
   sudo make install
   

4. Link also the library for libxkbcommon (xdotool asks it).

   cd /usr/local/lib/
   sudo ln -s /Users/fransiska/Git/libxkbcommon/.libs/libxkbcommon*dylib .
   sudo ln -s /Users/fransiska/Git/libxkbcommon/.libs/libxkbcommon*a .
   

5. Now that it launches, when you try to send commands, this error shows up.

   Error: XTEST extension unavailable on '(null)'.
   

   You need to enable it.

   defaults write org.x.X11 enable_test_extensions -boolean true
   defaults write org.macosforge.xquartz.X11 enable_test_extensions -bool yes
   

6. Restart XQuarts. Unfortunately, this only works on X terminals, so you can only test it on the xterm. One alternative to this for Mac OS is cliclick.