This tutorial covers exclusive device access and auto-repeat settings.

Grabbing a device

When you grab() a device, your process gets exclusive access — input events are delivered only to you, not to other applications (like X11 or Wayland compositors).

local evdev = require "evdev"
local Device = evdev.device.open

local path = "/dev/input/event3"
local dev = assert(Device(path))

assert(dev:grab())

-- After grab, events are delivered here and blocked from other programs
for e in dev:events() do
  print("key pressed:", e.code)
end

TIP

Call dev:flush() before grabbing to discard stale buffered events.

Auto-repeat settings

Linux input devices have built-in key repeat with two parameters: delay (ms) and the repeat period (ms between repeats).

-- Read current kernel repeat settings
local delay, period = assert(dev:get_repeat())
print("repeat delay:",  delay)  -- ms before repeat starts
print("repeat period:", period) -- ms between repeats

-- Set both at once (200 ms delay, 20 ms between repeats)
assert(dev:set_repeat(200, 20))

delay, period = assert(dev:get_repeat())
print("new delay:", delay)
print("new period:", period)