Python - How to get current keylock status?

Question

I'm attempting to write a simple programme that displays the current status of the different keylocks, but I'm unable to find a solution as to how to get the current status of them in Python. Thank you.

Answer 1

If you can wait a day or two, I'll add this functionality to python-evdev and update this answer. It's probably going to look something along the lines of:

from evdev import InputDevice, ecodes

dev = InputDevice('/dev/input/eventX') # your keyboard device
dev.ledstates(verbose=True)
{ (0, 'LED_NUML')    : True,
  (1, 'LED_CAPSL')   : True,
  (2, 'LED_SCROLLL') : False}

Using xset, as mentioned by @ronak, is a lot easier since you don't have to have read permissions on any input devices. Unfortunately, it works only under X (and X in turn uses the evdev interface (at least on linux)).

---

Well, It took me long enough, but it's in. The interface for getting 'ON' LEDs ended up being:

>>> dev.leds()
[0, 1, 8, 9]

>>> dev.leds(verbose=True)
[('LED_NUML', 0), ('LED_CAPSL', 1), ('LED_MISC', 8), ('LED_MAIL', 9)]

Getting all available LEDs on a device:

>>> dev.capabilities()[ecodes.EV_LED]
[0, 1, 2]

>>> dev.capabilities(verbose=True)[('EV_LED', ecodes.EV_LED)]
[('LED_NUML', 0), ('LED_CAPSL', 1), ('LED_SCROLLL', 2)]

Answer 2

Ok, after reading the source code for python-keyboardleds and the console_ioctl manpage, here's how to do it in plain Python:

import os
import struct
import fcntl

DEVICE = '/dev/tty'    

_KDGETLED = 0x4B31

scroll_lock = 0x01
num_lock = 0x02
caps_lock = 0x04

fd = os.open(DEVICE, os.O_WRONLY)

# ioctl to get state of leds
bytes = struct.pack('I', 0)
bytes = fcntl.ioctl(fd, _KDGETLED, bytes)
[leds_state] = struct.unpack('I', bytes)

# Use bitmask to check status caps_lock bit
status = leds_state & caps_lock != 0

print "Caps Lock is On: %s" % status

Note: This only works for real terminals and VTs (1-7, those accessible with ctrl+alt+Fx), not for pseudo-terminals in an X11 terminal emulator for example.

To check, run tty in your console:

$ tty
/dev/tty1    # will work

$ tty
/dev/pts/4   # won't work

Using /dev/console as the device to query will work in X11 as well, but requires root privileges.

For details on the concepts involved see the Wikipedia pages on ioctls and bitmasking, and the docs to the Python fcntl module.

Answer 3

└──> xset q | grep LED
  auto repeat:  off    key click percent:  0    LED mask:  00000000
└──> xset q | grep LED
  auto repeat:  off    key click percent:  0    LED mask:  00000001

When the caps lock is on, the LED mask should be 1 and if the LED mask is off, it should be 0.

Additionally since you mentioned that you wanted to use python, you could get the value in the following way

>>> import commands
>>> # Caps Lock is off.
>>> commands.getoutput('xset q | grep LED')[65]
'0'
>>> # Setting Caps Lock on now.
>>> commands.getoutput('xset q | grep LED')[65]
'1'

python 3 version:

import subprocess
if subprocess.check_output('xset q | grep LED', shell=True)[65] == 50 :
    capslock = False
if subprocess.check_output('xset q | grep LED', shell=True)[65] == 51 :
    capslock = True
print( "capslock ON is : ", capslock )

Answer 4

for checking caps lock you can use this:

import ctypes

def is_capslock_on():
    return True if ctypes.WinDLL("User32.dll").GetKeyState(0x14) else False

print(is_capslock_on())

Answer 5

Also see tkinter - that has events for Caps-Lock. I used xset to find the initial status of Caps-Lock when I open a panel, and then used the tkinter event to keep track whilst the panel is open. 1) I was not sure how to get the initial state in tkinter - there must be a way 2 xset did not seem reliable within the tkinter event proc - the proc did not always show the caps-lock change via xset...

Sample code:

def capsLock(event):
   caps = event.state & 0x0002

Also see: Python - How to get current keylock status?

Answer 6

To expand on the answer provided by ronak, the python3 version works the way it should but only when num lock is turned on.

subprocess.check_output('xset q | grep LED', shell=True)[65] returns the values 48 through 51, depending on the status of numlock and caps lock (capslock adds a value of 1, whereas numlock adds 2)

This should work taking numlock into consideration:

import subprocess
x=subprocess.check_output('xset q | grep LED', shell=True)[65]
if x==48 or x==50:
    print("caps off")
    if x == 48:
        print("num off")
    else:
        print("num on")
elif x==49 or x==51:
    print("caps on")
    if x == 49:
        print("num off")
    else:
        print("num on")```

Answer 7

if your OS is Windows, try:

import win32api,win32con
caps_status = win32api.GetKeyState(win32con.VK_CAPITAL)
if caps_status==0:
    print('CapsLock is off')
else:
    print('CapsLock is on')

Answer 8

Look at https://stackoverflow.com/a/21160382/10871895 for caps lock key under Windows without loading additional modules.