curev.py is a curses event monitor/dumper. It is similar to xev for X11/Xwindows, except it runs in a terminal. I use curev.py to examine what escape sequences various keys generate across various terminals.

curev.py

import collections, curses, threading

event  =  threading.Event ()
keys   =  collections.deque ()
run    =  threading.Event ()

def reduce ( keys ):
  t = []
  for n in keys :
    if   n ==  0 :  t.append ( '^@' )
    elif n <= 26 :  t.append ( '^' + chr ( ord ( 'a' ) + n  - 1 ) )
    elif n == 27 :  t.append ( '\e' )
    elif n >= 33 and n <= 126 :  t.append ( chr ( n ) )
    else: t.append ( str ( n ) )
  return ''.join (t)

def flush ( stdscr ):
  while run.is_set ():
    event.clear ()
    if not event.wait ( 0.02 ) and keys :

      stdscr.addstr ( '%20s    ' % reduce ( keys ) )
      for n in keys :
        stdscr.addstr ( ' %3d' % n )

      stdscr.addstr ( '\n' )
      stdscr.refresh ()
      keys.clear ()

def main ():

  stdscr = curses.initscr ()
  curses.noecho ()
  curses.cbreak ()
  stdscr.keypad ( True )
  stdscr.scrollok ( True )
  stdscr.clear ()
  stdscr.refresh ()

  run.set ()
  thread = threading.Thread ( target = flush, args = (stdscr,) )
  thread.start ()

  try:
    f = open ('/dev/tty', 'rb')
    while True :
      c = f.read (1)
      if not c :  break
      keys.append (c[0])
      event.set ()
  except:  pass

  run.clear ()
  thread.join ()

  curses.nocbreak ()
  stdscr.keypad ( False )
  curses.echo ()
  curses.endwin ()
  print ('curev done')

main ()