OS package

Python-evdev has been packaged for the following distributions:

Consult the documentation of your OS package manager for installation instructions.

From source

The latest stable version of python-evdev can be installed from PyPi, provided that you have a compiler, pip and the Python and Linux development headers installed on your system. The exact packages are distribution specific and typically falls into one of the following:

On a Debian compatible OS:

$ apt install python-dev python-pip gcc
$ apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

On a RedHat compatible OS:

$ dnf install python-devel python-pip gcc
$ dnf install kernel-headers-$(uname -r)

On Arch Linux and derivatives:

$ pacman -S core/linux-api-headers python-pip gcc

Once all OS dependencies are installed, you may use your preferred Python package manager to install python-evdev. For example:

# Using pip (user install).
$ python3 -m pip install --user evdev

# Using pip in a virtual environment.
$ python3 -m venv venv_path && venv_path/bin/python3 -m pip install evdev

# Using uv.
uv add evdev  # or uv pip install evdev

Specifying header locations

By default, the setup script will look for the input.h and input-event-codes.h header files in /usr/include/linux.

The --evdev-headers option of the setuptools build_ext command overrides the header search location. It accepts one or more colon-separated paths. For example:

$ python3 setup.py build_ext \
    --evdev-headers buildroot/input.h:buildroot/input-event-codes.h \
    --include-dirs  buildroot/ \
    install  # or any other command (e.g. develop, bdist, bdist_wheel)

Binary wheels

The evdev-binary package on PyPi provides binary wheels that have been compiled on manylinux_2_34 (AlmaLinux 9, glibc 2.34, kernel 5.14.0). Wheels for musl-based systems are built on the musllinux_1_2 image (Alpine Linux 3.22).

$ python3 -m pip install evdev-binary

While the evdev interface is stable, the precompiled version may not be fully compatible or expose all the features of your running kernel. For best results, it is recommended to use an OS package or to install from source.