Problem
You would like to obtain statistics about how often the mouse is used on a Linux machine.
Solution
Linux logs all activity of input devices (such as mouse and keyboard) into various device files under /dev/input/*.
Mouse activities, in particular, are logged in /dev/input/mice (this logs events for all mice attached). Hooking into this device file allows to be notified of all mouse events. The following C++ snippet reads the /dev/input/mice file and writes a simple log for the observed activity:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <linux/input.h>
#define MOUSEFILE "/dev/input/mice"
int main()
{
int fd;
struct input_event ie;
if((fd = open(MOUSEFILE, O_RDONLY)) == -1) {
perror("Cannot access mouse device");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
while(read(fd, &ie, sizeof(struct input_event))) {
time_t rawtime;
struct tm * timeinfo;
time ( &rawtime );
timeinfo = localtime ( &rawtime );
printf ( "Actvy: %s", asctime (timeinfo) );
}
return 0;
}
Safe the source code into a file mouse.c and compile this application using the following command:
gcc mouse.c -o LogMouse
You can run the compiled program as follows to log mouse events from your system in a text file:
./LogMouse > mouse.txt
Note: You will probably need root privileges to run this application, so use sodu or su.
Resources
StackOverflow – How to read low level mouse click position in linux
