setxkbmap
(1)
Name
setxkbmap - set the keyboard using the X Keyboard Extension
Synopsis
/usr/bin/setxkbmap [ args ] [ layout [ variant [ option ...
] ] ]
Description
User Commands SETXKBMAP(1)
NAME
setxkbmap - set the keyboard using the X Keyboard Extension
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/setxkbmap [ args ] [ layout [ variant [ option ...
] ] ]
DESCRIPTION
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/share/X11/xkb.
OPTIONS
-help Prints a message describing the valid input to
setxkbmap.
-compat name
Specifies the name of the compatibility map compo-
nent used to construct a keyboard layout.
-config file
Specifies the name of an XKB configuration file
which describes the keyboard to be used.
-device device
Specifies the numeric device id of the input device
to be updated with the new keyboard layout. If not
specified, the core keyboard device of the X server
is updated.
-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.
-I directory
Adds a directory to the list of directories to be
used to search for specified layout or rules files.
-keycodes name
Specifies the name of the keycodes component used to
construct a keyboard layout.
-keymap name
Specifies the name of the keymap description used to
construct a keyboard layout.
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User Commands SETXKBMAP(1)
-layout name
Specifies the name of the layout used to determine
the components which make up the keyboard descrip-
tion. The -layout option may only be used once. Mul-
tiple layouts can be specified as a comma-separated
list.
-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 adds options specified in
the command line to the options that were set before
(as saved in root window properties). If you want to
replace all previously specified options, use the
-option flag with an empty argument first.
-print With this option setxkbmap just prints component
names in a format acceptable by xkbcomp (an XKB
keymap compiler) and exits. The option can be used
for tests instead of a verbose option and in cases
when one needs to run both the setxkbmap and the
xkbcomp in chain (see below).
-query With this option setxkbmap just prints the current
rules, model, layout, variant, and options, then
exits.
-rules file
Specifies the name of the rules file used to resolve
the requested 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
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User Commands SETXKBMAP(1)
make up the keyboard description. The -variant
option may only be used once. Multiple variants can
be specified as a comma-separated list and will be
matched with the layouts specified with -layout.
-verbose|-v [level]
Specifies level of verbosity in output messages.
Valid levels range from 0 (least verbose) to 10
(most verbose). The default verbosity level is 5.
If no level is specified, each -v or -verbose flag
raises the level by 1.
USING WITH xkbcomp
If you have an Xserver and a client shell running on differ-
ent computers and XKB configuration files on those machines
are different you can get problems specifying a keyboard map
by model, layout, options names. This is because 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 by running
the xkbcomp on the client side too. With the -print option
setxkbmap just prints the file names in an appropriate for-
mat to its stdout and this output can be piped directly to
the xkbcomp input. For example, the command
setxkbmap us -print | xkbcomp - $DISPLAY
makes both steps run on the same (client) machine and loads
a keyboard map into the server.
SEE ALSO
xkbcomp(1), xkeyboard-config(5)
FILES
/usr/share/X11/xkb
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Availability |x11/keyboard/xkb-utilities |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Interface Stability |Committed |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
X Version 11 Last change: setxkbmap 1.3.0 3
User Commands SETXKBMAP(1)
X Version 11 Last change: setxkbmap 1.3.0 4