26 January 2011

ascii2keyboardscancode

Here is a short/goofy/useful script that others might find to be useful: ascii2keyboardscancode .

This is a quick hack that I threw together for a specific and cool little project I have been working on. In very high level terms, it is possible to use this script to drive VirtualBox's "headless" interface, using this CLI interface:

    VBoxManage controlvm some-machine keyboardputscancode ...

Using all of this, it is possible to create a new VM after some nightly builds run, use Kickstart to create a new OS install, shutdown the VM, transmorgrify the VM into various VM formats (.ovf, etc.), and otherwise automatically deploy the shiny new VM into a test harness.

The very best part of all of this is that everything happens unattended in the wee hours of the morning, when CPU time is cheap. By the time everybody arrives at work in the morning, all of this tedious work is done.

I love it when a plan comes together!