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setxkbmap - set the keyboard using the X Keyboard Extension
setxkbmap
[ args ] [ layout [ variant [ option ... ] ] ]
The setxkbmap command
maps the keyboard to use the layout determined by the options specified
on the command line.
An XKB keymap is constructed from a number of components
which are compiled only as needed. The source for all of the components
can be found in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb.
- -help
- Prints a message describing
the valid input to setxkbmap.
- -compat name
- Specifies the name of the compatibility
map component used to construct a keyboard layout.
- -config file
- Specifies
the name of an XKB configuration file which describes the keyboard to be
used.
- -display display
- Specifies the display to be updated with the new keyboard
layout.
- -geometry name
- Specifies the name of the geometry component used
to construct a keyboard layout.
- -keymap name
- Specifies the name of the keymap
description used to construct a keyboard layout.
- -layout name
- Specifies the
name of the layout used to determine the components which make up the keyboard
description. Only one layout may be specified on the command line.
- -model
name
- Specifies the name of the keyboard model used to determine the components
which make up the keyboard description. Only one model may be specified
on the command line.
- -option name
- Specifies the name of an option to determine
the components which make up the keyboard description; multiple options
may be specified, one per -option flag. Note that setxkbmap summarize options
specified in the command line with options was set before (saved in root
window properties). If you want only specified options will be set use the
-option flag with an empty argument first.
- -print
- With this option the setxkbmap
just prints component names in a format acceptable by an xkbcomp (an XKB
keymap compiler) and exits. The option can be used for tests instead of
a verbose option and in case when one need to run both the setxkbmap and
the xkbcomp in chain (see below).
- -rules file
- Specifies the name of the rules
file used to resolve the request layout and model to a set of component
names.
- -symbols name
- Specifies the name of the symbols component used to
construct a keyboard layout.
- -synch
- Force synchronization for X requests.
- -types name
- Specifies the name of the types component used to construct
a keyboard layout.
- -variant name
- Specifies which variant of the keyboard
layout should be used to determine the components which make up the keyboard
description. Only one variant may be specified on the command line.
If you have an Xserver and a client shell running on differnt
computers and XKB configuration files sets on those machines are different
you can get problems specifying a keyboard map by model, layout, options
names. The thing is the setxkbcomp converts these names to names of XKB
configuration files according to files that are on the client side computer.
Then it sends the file names to the server where the xkbcomp has to compose
a complete keyboard map using files which the server has. Thus if the sets
of files differ significantly the names that the setxkbmap generates can
be unacceptable on the server side. You can solve this problem running
the xkbcomp on the client side too. With the -print option setxkbmap just
prints the files names in an appropriate format to its stdout and this
output can be piped directly to the xkbcomp input. For example, a command
setxkbmap us -print | xkbcomp - $DISPLAY
makes both step on the same (client)
machine and loads a keyboard map into the server.
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb
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