Simulate reliable keystrokes with xdotool on X11 without leaving modifier keys stuck
domain: github.com · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Identify the target window with xdotool search --name "Window Title" or getactivewindow
Activate/focus it first with xdotool windowactivate <id>, since many apps ignore input sent to an unfocused window
Send text with xdotool type --window <id> "some text" or discrete keys with xdotool key ctrl+shift+t
Avoid --clearmodifiers by default — only add it when a held physical modifier is provably interfering, since it works by toggling modifier key-up/down around the event and can desync from real keyboard state
Add small delays between rapid xdotool key calls in scripts that also programmatically hold modifiers, to avoid races between the query-modifiers and clear-modifiers steps
Known gotchas
--clearmodifiers has known bugs where a modifier can be left stuck down (e.g. Alt) afterward, causing unrelated keys like Tab to trigger app-switching until the key is manually tapped
xdotool only works against X11/XWayland; under a native Wayland compositor it can't see or control windows at all, which surprises people used to it working on Linux desktops generally
xdotool type speed and reliability depend on the target app's event loop — very fast synthetic typing can drop characters in Electron/GTK apps that debounce input
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