Simple scripts to record/play keyboard macro (sawfish)

Today I was assigned a task, to give various access permissions for dozens of gerrit projects to a certain group. It's lots of repetitive mouse clicking and keyboard hitting.

keyboard-macro-1.png

Then it occured to me, I cound use AutoHotKey under Windows to automate this. But I don't want to switch to Windows, so I asked myself, can I do it under Linux + Sawfish?

Turns out I can, and it's better than AutoHotKey: I can both record and replay (just like under Emacs); and I can write the whole thing myself, crystal clear in my mind! (I think this is quicker for me to learn the Linux autokey tool, plus I believe it gives me more control).

Without further ado, here's the recording script: 

#!/bin/bash

exec > "${1:-$HOME/.key-macro}"
function synth-key() {
    echo "$1"
    sawfish-client -e '(synthesize-event '"$1"' (input-focus))' >/dev/null 2>&1
}

while true; do
    key=$(sawfish-client -e '(event-name (read-event))')
    if test "$key" = '"Super-h"'; then
        key=$(sawfish-client -e '(event-name (read-event))')
        if test "$key" = '")"'; then
            break
        else
            synth-key '"Super-h"'
            synth-key "$key"
        fi
    else
        synth-key "$key"
    fi
done

And here's the playing script: 

#!/bin/bash

function synth-key() {
    echo "$1"
    sawfish-client -e '(synthesize-event '"$1"' (input-focus))' >/dev/null 2>&1
    if test "$key" = '"RET"'; then
        sleep 1
    fi
}

cat "${1:-$HOME/.key-macro}" | while read key; do
    synth-key "$key"
done

Here's the macro I recorded for doing the above task: 

"C-s"
"C"
"a"
"t"
"e"
"g"
"o"
"r"
"y"
":"
"C-g"
"TAB"
"v"
"TAB"
"C-y"
"TAB"
"TAB"
"Down"
"Down"
"TAB"
"Up"
"Up"
"Up"
"TAB"
"RET"

"C-s"
"C"
"a"
"t"
"e"
"g"
"o"
"r"
"y"
":"
"C-g"
"TAB"
"c"
"TAB"
"C-y"
"TAB"
"TAB"
"Down"
"Down"
"Down"
"Down"
"Down"
"TAB"
"Up"
"Up"
"Up"
"Up"
"Up"
"TAB"
"RET"

"C-s"
"C"
"a"
"t"
"e"
"g"
"o"
"r"
"y"
":"
"C-g"
"TAB"
"s"
"TAB"
"C-y"
"TAB"
"TAB"
"TAB"
"RET"

Note that I'm using Firemacs, so C-s means search, C-g means cancel, and C-y means yank (paste).