setxkbmap - set the keyboard using the X Keyboard Extension
/usr/bin/setxkbmap [ args ] [ layout [ variant [ option ... ] ] ]
SETXKBMAP(1) General Commands Manual 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 com-
piled 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 component 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 lay-
out.
-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.
-layout name
Specifies the name of the layout used to determine the compo-
nents which make up the keyboard description. The -layout
option may only be used once. Multiple 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 make up the keyboard descrip-
tion. The -variant option may only be used once. Multiple vari-
ants 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 different comput-
ers 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 config-
uration 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 format 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 setxkbmap 1.3.0 SETXKBMAP(1)