Hutterer: The difference between uinput and evdev

On his blog, Peter Hutterer answers an oft-asked question:"A recurring question I encounter is the question whether uinput or evdev should be the approach [to] implement some feature the user cares about. This question is unfortunately wrongly framed as uinput and evdev have no real overlap and work independent of each other. This post outlines what the differences are. Note that "evdev" here refers to the kernel API, not to the X.Org evdev driver.First, the easy flowchart: do you have to create a new virtual device that has a set of specific capabilities? Use uinput. Do you have to read and handle events from an existing device? Use evdev. Do you have to create a device and read events from that device? You (probably) need two processes, one doing the uinput bit, one doing the evdev bit."