vncdotool is a command line VNC client. It can be useful to automating interactions with virtual machines or hardware devices that are otherwise difficult to control.

It's under active development and seems to be working, but please report any problems you have.

To use vncdotool you will need a VNC server. Most virtualization products include one, or use RealVNC, TightVNC or clone your Desktop using x11vnc.

Once, you have a server running you can install vncdotool from pypi:

pip install vncdotool

and then send a message to the vncserver with:

vncdo -s vncserver type "hello world"

The vncserver argument needs to be in the format address[:display|::port]. For example:

# connect to 192.168.1.1 on default port 5900
vncdo -s 192.168.1.1 type "hello world"

# connect to localhost on display :3 (port 5903)
vncdo -s localhost:3 type "hello world"

# connect to myvncserver.com on port 5902 (two colons needed)
vncdo -s myvncserver.com::5902 type "hello world"

# connect via IPv6 to localhost on display :3 (port 5903)
vncdo -s '[::1]:3' type "hello IPv6"
#         ^   ^ mind those square brackets around the IPv6 address

You can also take a screen capture with:

vncdo -s vncserver capture screen.png

More documentation can be found on Read the Docs.

If you need help getting VNCDoTool working try the community at Stackoverflow.

Patches, and ideas for improvements are welcome and appreciated, via GitHub issues. If you are reporting a bug or issue please include the version of both vncdotool and the VNC server you are using it with.

Thanks to Chris Liechti, techtonik and Todd Whiteman for developing the RFB and DES implementations used by vncdotool. Also, to the TigerVNC project for creating a community focus RFB specification document