GNU Xnee 2.05.98 review

Xnee is a suite of programs that can record, replay and distribute user actions under the X11 environment

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 576K Developer: Henrik Sandklef

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Xnee is a suite of programs that can record, replay and distribute user actions under the X11 environment. Think of GNU Xnee as a robot that can imitate the job you just did.

Xnee can be used to:

- Automate tests e.g nightly automatic regression tests
- Demonstrate programs e.g record and replay a user interaction with your system
- Distribute actions e.g teacher's actions can be sent to all student's desktops
- Record and replay 'macro' e.g Tie a key modifier combination (e.g using xkeymouse) to replay a recorded session. The macro is WM- and program independent.
- Retype a file e.g When testing an editor, Xnee can type in the content of a file. This can be compared with the original and thereby

Xnee consists of a library and two applications:

- cnee's not an event amulator Command line program
- gnee's not an emulator either Graphical User Interface (GUI) program
- libxnee is basically xnee Library used by cnee and gnee

All Xnee applications (gnee and cnee) receives X11 protocol data (e g XEvents) from an X server using the libxnee and prints them to a file. This file is used later on when replaying.

Events directly generated by the user (e.g KeyPress) can be replayed or faked. Requests, replies, errors and events not directly generated by the user (e.g MapNotify) can be recorded as well. By using these data Xnee applications can replay with synchronisation. This is not only useful but essential.

In order to verify that a program does the job it's supposed to do, certain tests have to be made. These tests are, IMHO, perhaps the most boring things a programmer can do. To release the programmer from this burdon Xnee is made.

Xnee started out as a commad line program. During the development phase the main functionality was broken out to a library, called libxnee. The command line program changed its name to cnee. The thought behind making the library was to enable the writing of other clients than just a command line. Today there is a GUI program, gnee that uses the library.

With Xnee testcase(s) can be recorded and later on replayed. Xnee can also distribute events (both when recording and replaying) to other displays.

Xnee uses X Windows System.

What's New in This Release:
There is a man page for pnee and gnee.
The option --check-syntax has been added.