osx-hid-inspector

osx-hid-inspector is a command line tool for macOS for inspecting human input devices (HID).

Supported systems

macOS 13 Ventura or later.

---

Using a pre-built binary

1. Download dist/hid-inspector.dmg.
2. Open hid-inspector.dmg.
3. Use /Volumes/hid-inspector/bin/hid-inspector.

Building from source code

Requirements

• XcodeGen

Steps

Execute make command on the terminal.

make

src/build/Release/hid-inspector is a built file.

---

Usage

• Show help

  hid-inspector --help

  • Result:

    Show details of human input devices.
    Usage:
    hid-inspector [OPTION...]
    
        --help  Print help.
    
    Output format options:
        --version                 Output version.
        --output-all-properties-json
                                    Output all properties in json format.
        --output-usages           Output usage pages and usages.
    
    Examples:
    hid-inspector --version
    hid-inspector --output-all-properties-json
    hid-inspector --output-usages
    

• Show usage pages, usages of all human input devices

  hid-inspector --output-usages

  • Result:

    registry_entry_id: 4294985173
        Manufacturer: "Contour Design"
        Product: "RollerMouse Mobile"
        Transport: "USB"
        VendorID: 2867
        ProductID: 12288
        DeviceUsagePairs: [{"DeviceUsage":2,"DeviceUsagePage":1},{"DeviceUsage":1,"DeviceUsagePage":1},{"DeviceUsage":6,"DeviceUsagePage":1},{"DeviceUsage":1,"DeviceUsagePage":12},{"DeviceUsage":48,"DeviceUsagePage":65280}]
        PrimaryUsagePage: 1
        PrimaryUsage: 2
        ==============================
        element_type: input_misc
            report_id: 1
                --------------------------
                usage_page: 1 (0x1)
                    usages: [
                        48 (0x30), 49 (0x31),
                        56 (0x38),
                    ] (3 entries)
                --------------------------
                usage_page: 12 (0xc)
                    usages: [
                        568 (0x238),
                    ] (1 entries)
                --------------------------
                usage_page: 65280 (0xff00)
                    usages: [
                        1 (0x1),
                    ] (1 entries)
            report_id: 2
                --------------------------
                usage_page: 65280 (0xff00)
                    usages: [
                        2 (0x2),
                    ] (1 entries)
            report_id: 3
                --------------------------
                usage_page: 65280 (0xff00)
                    usages: [
                        3 (0x3),
                    ] (1 entries)
            report_id: 5
                --------------------------
                usage_page: 65280 (0xff00)
                    usages: [
                        33 (0x21),
                    ] (1 entries)
        ==============================
        element_type: input_button
            report_id: 1
                --------------------------
                usage_page: 9 (0x9)
                    usages: [
                        1 (0x1), 2 (0x2), 3 (0x3), 4 (0x4), 5 (0x5), 6 (0x6), 7 (0x7), 8 (0x8),
                    ] (8 entries)
            ...
    

• Show human input device properties in json

  hid-inspector --output-all-properties-json

  Note: This command outputs too much data, thus takes about 10 seconds.

  • Result:

    [
        {
            "class_name": "AppleUserHIDDevice",
            "name_in_plane": "AppleUserUSBHostHIDDevice",
            "path": "IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/...",
            "properties": {
                "BootProtocol": 1,
                "CFBundleIdentifier": "com.apple.AppleUserHIDDrivers",
                "CFBundleIdentifierKernel": "com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily",
                "CountryCode": 0,
                "DebugState": {
                    "InputReportCount": 730767,
                    "InputReportTime": 4165427
                },
                "DeviceOpenedByEventSystem": true,
                "DeviceUsagePairs": [
                    {
                        "DeviceUsage": 6,
                        "DeviceUsagePage": 1
                    }
                ],
                "Elements": [
                    ...
                ],
                ...
            }
        }
        ...
    ]