Runs a command when a Linux input device sends an event, no matter if X runs. It works with any input event recognized by the evtest program.

By default, eventrun is located in /usr/bin/eventrun, and is executable only by the root user. The input device to listen to and events are configurable in /etc/eventrun. Each eventrun instance can react on several input events on the same input device, if the configuration file is modified accordingly. Additionally, a SystemV-style service is installed in /etc/init.d, which allows to run this program daemonized on system start if the administrator enables it manually.

This program is only composed of shell scripts, so no compilation is necessary. It should work in any GNU/Linux box that has a POSIX shell and the needed dependencies.

However, it is distributed as a .deb package that is generated with a Makefile. To create the eventrun .deb package, you only need to make changes to the installed files, and then run:

$ make

You can get the official .deb package from the releases page. Installing the package is pretty straightforward:

# dpkg -i eventrun_1.0-1.deb

If dpkg complains about missing dependencies, make sure you install them first.