xdotool type ? does not echo a question mark

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. $ xdotool type ?

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Expected: $ ?
Actual:   ^[$

It seems the ^[ is some sort of escape character, because I need to press enter 
twice to go back to the prompt; also, when typing an actual password, here's an 
example of what I get (notice "U" disappears and case is toggled in output):

$ xdotool type "8Bc9I?U1G"
8bC9i^[u1g$ 8bC9i1g

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
xdotool version 2.20100818.3004
Ubuntu 11.04
Swiss-French keyboard,

Please provide any additional information below.

I first noticed the problem while using the auto-type feature of KeePass2 with 
a randomly generated password containing a question mark. 

Investigation on the issue I raised on the keepass tracker [1] seem to indicate 
that it is caused by xdotool, but the person who answered me there was not able 
to replicate the problem.

The person who answered me there, asked me to run the following command too, so 
I'm adding it here in case it's useful to you:

$ xdotool key question
$ ?

[1] 
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3384806&group_id=95013&atid=6099
08

Original issue reported on code.google.com by dre...@gmail.com on 4 Aug 2011 at 12:28

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thanks for the report!

I have found there are bugs (either in xdotool or X11/Xorg) with some keymap 
configurations.

How do you set your key map? With 'setxkbmap'? Your xorg config? Something else?

If you don't set it with 'setxkbmap' can you try doing so? For example, 
something like running this: 'setxkbmap fr_CH'

After trying the above, does 'xdotool type "?"' still result in that funky 
escape character being typed?

Original comment by j...@semicomplete.com on 4 Aug 2011 at 1:23

• Changed state: Accepted

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi, 

Thanks for replying so quickly. I'm afraid you might have to take me to school 
here and tell me where to look and what to do, as I have near-zero knowledge of 
xdotool - I normally do not use it directly, Keepass calls it to perform 
auto-type.

I have not done anything special to set the key map. All I did is open a 
terminal window and type the commands mentioned in the bug report.

$ setxkbmap fr_CH
Error loading new keyboard description

After some trial and error I noticed that this seems to work better
$ setxkbmap ch fr
$ xdotool type "?"
^[$ 

No dice...

Original comment by dre...@gmail.com on 4 Aug 2011 at 1:47

[GoogleCodeExporter]

ok cool, thanks for trying the setxkbmap thing - No worries on being a xdotool 
newbie/non-user, your bug report was useful and detailed :)

I'll try and reproduce this soon and let you know when I have a fix!

Original comment by j...@semicomplete.com on 4 Aug 2011 at 8:25

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thanks, let me know if you need any additional info or help for testing.

Original comment by dre...@gmail.com on 5 Aug 2011 at 7:26

[GoogleCodeExporter]

For me, it types "<" instead of "?"
$ xdotool type "?"
$ <

Original comment by gade...@gmail.com on 9 Oct 2011 at 1:22

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I can fix this issue by typing setxkbmap, without arguments, once per boot. 

This is prior to running setxkbmap:

xdotool type ?
_

After running setxkbmap:
xdotool type ?
?

I will compliment this post with setxkbmap -print before and after. I however 
am not able to reboot my computer at this instance(http://xkcd.com/303/).

Original comment by mikael.l...@hagfors.se on 23 Jan 2014 at 6:46

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Well that did not help:

x@y:~/ci$ setxkbmap -print
xkb_keymap {
        xkb_keycodes  { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };
        xkb_types     { include "complete"      };
        xkb_compat    { include "complete"      };
        xkb_symbols   { include "pc+se+inet(evdev)"     };
        xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc105)"     };
};
x@y:~/ci$ setxkbmap 
x@y:~/ci$ setxkbmap -print
xkb_keymap {
        xkb_keycodes  { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };
        xkb_types     { include "complete"      };
        xkb_compat    { include "complete"      };
        xkb_symbols   { include "pc+se+inet(evdev)"     };
        xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc105)"     };
};

Original comment by mikael.l...@hagfors.se on 28 Jan 2014 at 9:49

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I got "˝" for "type :".

After explicitly doing "setxkbmap de" it works.

    % setxkbmap de
    % setxkbmap -print
    xkb_keymap {
      xkb_keycodes  { include "evdev+aliases(qwertz)"   };
      xkb_types     { include "complete"    };
      xkb_compat    { include "complete"    };
      xkb_symbols   { include "pc+de(nodeadkeys)+inet(evdev)+level3(ralt_switch_multikey)+capslock(ctrl_modifier)"  };
      xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc105)"   };
    };

Original comment by dhahler@gmail.com on 16 Dec 2014 at 3:15

[GoogleCodeExporter]

When it fails, `setxkmap -print` looks like this:

xkb_symbols appears to have an additional "+us:2" in this case.

    xkb_keymap {
      xkb_keycodes  { include "evdev+aliases(qwertz)"   };
      xkb_types     { include "complete"    };
      xkb_compat    { include "complete"    };
      xkb_symbols   { include "pc+de(nodeadkeys)+us:2+inet(evdev)+level3(ralt_switch_multikey)+capslock(ctrl_modifier)" };
      xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc105)"   };
    };

Original comment by dhahler@gmail.com on 16 Dec 2014 at 3:21

[GoogleCodeExporter]

A more recent report on Github's issues, with more information:
https://github.com/jordansissel/xdotool/issues/49

Original comment by dhahler@gmail.com on 16 Dec 2014 at 3:56