Ubuntu Manpage: hal_input - control HAL pins with any Linux input device, including USB HID devices

Provided by: linuxcnc-uspace_2.9.4-2ubuntu1_amd64

NAME

       hal_input - control HAL pins with any Linux input device, including USB HID devices

SYNOPSIS

       loadusr hal_input [-KRAL] inputspec ...

DESCRIPTION

       hal_input  is  an  interface between HAL and any Linux input device, including USB HID devices.  For each
       device named, hal_input creates pins corresponding to its keys, absolute axes, and LEDs.  At a fixed rate
       of approximately 10ms, it synchronizes the device and the HAL pins.

INPUT SPECIFICATION

The inputspec may be in one of several forms:

A string S
A substring or shell-style pattern match will be tested against the "name" of the device, the
"phys" (which gives information about how it is connected), and the "id", which is a string of the
form "Bus=... Vendor=... Product=... Version=...". You can view the name, phys, and id of
attached devices by executing less /proc/bus/input/devices. Examples:
SpaceBall
"Vendor=001f Product=0001"
serio*/input0

A number N
This opens /dev/input/eventN. Except for devices that are always attached to the system, this
number may change over reboots or when the device is removed. For this reason, using an integer
is not recommended.

When several devices are identified by the same string, add ":N" where N is the index of the desired
device. For example, if Mouse matches input3 and input10, then Mouse and Mouse:0 select input3.
Specifying mouse:1 selects input10.

For devices that appear as multiple entries in /dev/input, these indices are likely to stay the same
every time. For multiple identical devices, these indices are likely to depend on the insertion order,
but stay the same across reboots as long as the devices are not moved to different ports or unplugged
while the machine is booted.

If the first character of the inputspec is a "+", then hal_input requests exclusive access to the device.
The first device matching an inputspec is used. Any number of inputspecs may be used.

A subset option may precede each inputspec. The subset option begins with a dash. Each letter in the
subset option specifies a device feature to include. Features that are not specified are excluded. For
instance, to export keyboard LEDs to HAL without exporting keys, use
hal_input -L keyboard ...

DEVICE FEATURES SUPPORTED

       •   EV_KEY (buttons and keys).  Subset -K

       •   EV_ABS (absolute analog inputs).  Subset -A

       •   EV_REL (relative analog inputs).  Subset -R

       •   EV_LED (LED outputs).  Subset -L

HAL PINS AND PARAMETERS

For buttons
input.N.btn-name bit out
input.N.btn-name-not bit out
Created for each button on the device.

For keys
input.N.key-name
input.N.key-name-not
Created for each key on the device.

For absolute axes
input.N.abs-name-counts s32 out
input.N.abs-name-position float out
input.N.abs-name-scale parameter float rw
input.N.abs-name-offset parameter float rw
input.N.abs-name-fuzz parameter s32 rw
input.N.abs-name-flat parameter s32 rw
input.N.abs-name-min parameter s32 r
input.N.abs-name-max parameter s32 r
Created for each absolute axis on the device. Device positions closer than flat to offset are
reported as offset in counts, and counts does not change until the device position changes by at
least fuzz. The position is computed as position = (counts - offset) / scale. The default value
of scale and offset map the range of the axis reported by the operating system to [-1,1]. The
default values of fuzz and flat are those reported by the operating system. The values of min and
max are those reported by the operating system.

For relative axes
input.N.rel-name-counts s32 out
input.N.rel-name-position float out
input.N.rel-name-reset bit in
input.N.rel-name-scale parameter float rw
input.N.rel-name-absolute parameter s32 rw
input.N.rel-name-precision parameter s32 rw
input.N.rel-name-last parameter s32 rw
Created for each relative axis on the device. As long as reset is true, counts is reset to zero
regardless of any past or current axis movement. Otherwise, counts increases or decreases
according to the motion of the axis. counts is divided by position-scale to give position. The
default value of position is 1. There are some devices, notably scroll wheels, which return
signed values with less resolution than 32 bits. The default value of precision is 32. precision
can be set to 8 for a device that returns signed 8 bit values, or any other value from 1 to 32.
absolute, when set true, ignores duplicate events with the same value. This allows for devices
that repeat events without any user action to work correctly. last shows the most recent count
value returned by the device, and is used in the implementation of absolute.

For LEDs
input.N.led-name bit out
input.N.led-name-invert parameter bit rw
Created for each LED on the device.

PERMISSIONS AND UDEV

       By default, the input devices may not be  accessible  to  regular  users--hal_input  requires  read-write
       access, even if the device has no outputs.

       Different  versions  of  udev have slightly different, incompatible syntaxes.  For this reason, it is not
       possible for this manual page to give an accurate example.  The udev(7) manual page documents the  syntax
       used on your Linux distribution.  To view it in a terminal, the command is man 7 udev.

BUGS

       The  initial  state  of  keys, buttons, and absolute axes are erroneously reported as FALSE or 0 until an
       event is received for that key, button, or axis.