1XMODMAP(1) General Commands Manual XMODMAP(1)
2
6 xmodmap - utility for modifying keymaps and pointer button mappings in
7 X
8
10 xmodmap [-options ...] [filename]
11
13 The xmodmap program is used to edit and display the keyboard modifier
14 map and keymap table that are used by client applications to convert
15 event keycodes into keysyms. It is usually run from the user's session
16 startup script to configure the keyboard according to personal tastes.
17
19 The following options may be used with xmodmap:
20 -display display
22 This option specifies the host and display to use.
23 -help This option indicates that a brief description of the command
25 line arguments should be printed on the standard error channel.
26 This will be done whenever an unhandled argument is given to
27 xmodmap.
28 -grammar
30 This option indicates that a help message describing the ex‐
31 pression grammar used in files and with -e expressions should
32 be printed on the standard error.
33 -version
35 This option indicates that xmodmap should print its version in‐
36 formation and exit.
37 -verbose
39 This option indicates that xmodmap should print logging infor‐
40 mation as it parses its input.
41 -quiet This option turns off the verbose logging. This is the de‐
43 fault.
44 -n This option indicates that xmodmap should not change the map‐
46 pings, but should display what it would do, like make(1) does
47 when given this option.
48 -e expression
50 This option specifies an expression to be executed. Any number
51 of expressions may be specified from the command line.
52 -pm This option indicates that the current modifier map should be
54 printed on the standard output. This is the default mode of
55 operation if no other mode options are specified.
56 -pk This option indicates that the current keymap table should be
58 printed on the standard output.
59 -pke This option indicates that the current keymap table should be
61 printed on the standard output in the form of expressions that
62 can be fed back to xmodmap.
63 -pp This option indicates that the current pointer map should be
65 printed on the standard output.
66 - A lone dash means that the standard input should be used as the
68 input file.
69 The filename specifies a file containing xmodmap expressions to be exe‐
71 cuted. This file is usually kept in the user's home directory with a
72 name like .xmodmaprc.
73
75 The xmodmap program reads a list of expressions and parses them all be‐
76 fore attempting to execute any of them. This makes it possible to re‐
77 fer to keysyms that are being redefined in a natural way without having
78 to worry as much about name conflicts.
79 The list of keysym names may be found in the header file
81 <X11/keysymdef.h> (without the XK_ prefix). Keysyms matching Unicode
82 characters may be specified as "U0020" to "U007E" and "U00A0" to
83 "U10FFFF" for all possible Unicode characters.
84 keycode NUMBER = KEYSYMNAME ...
86 The list of keysyms is assigned to the indicated keycode (which
87 may be specified in decimal, hex or octal and can be determined
88 by running the xev program). Up to eight keysyms may be at‐
89 tached to a key, however the last four are not used in any ma‐
90 jor X server implementation. The first keysym is used when no
91 modifier key is pressed in conjunction with this key, the sec‐
92 ond with Shift, the third when the Mode_switch key is used with
93 this key and the fourth when both the Mode_switch and Shift
94 keys are used.
95 keycode any = KEYSYMNAME ...
97 If no existing key has the specified list of keysyms assigned
98 to it, a spare key on the keyboard is selected and the keysyms
99 are assigned to it. The list of keysyms may be specified in
100 decimal, hex or octal.
101 keysym KEYSYMNAME = KEYSYMNAME ...
103 The KEYSYMNAME on the left hand side is translated into match‐
104 ing keycodes used to perform the corresponding set of keycode
105 expressions. Note that if the same keysym is bound to multiple
106 keys, the expression is executed for each matching keycode.
107 clear MODIFIERNAME
109 This removes all entries in the modifier map for the given mod‐
110 ifier, where valid name are: Shift, Lock, Control, Mod1, Mod2,
111 Mod3, Mod4, and Mod5 (case does not matter in modifier names,
112 although it does matter for all other names). For example,
113 ``clear Lock'' will remove all any keys that were bound to the
114 shift lock modifier.
115 add MODIFIERNAME = KEYSYMNAME ...
117 This adds all keys containing the given keysyms to the indi‐
118 cated modifier map. The keysym names are evaluated after all
119 input expressions are read to make it easy to write expressions
120 to swap keys (see the EXAMPLES section).
121 remove MODIFIERNAME = KEYSYMNAME ...
123 This removes all keys containing the given keysyms from the in‐
124 dicated modifier map. Unlike add, the keysym names are evalu‐
125 ated as the line is read in. This allows you to remove keys
126 from a modifier without having to worry about whether or not
127 they have been reassigned.
128 pointer = default
130 This sets the pointer map back to its default settings (button
131 1 generates a code of 1, button 2 generates a 2, etc.).
132 pointer = NUMBER ...
134 This sets the pointer map to contain the indicated button
135 codes. The list always starts with the first physical button.
136 Setting a button code to 0 disables events from that button.
137 Lines that begin with an exclamation point (!) are taken as comments.
139 If you want to change the binding of a modifier key, you must also re‐
141 move it from the appropriate modifier map.
142
144 Many pointers are designed such that the first button is pressed using
145 the index finger of the right hand. People who are left-handed fre‐
146 quently find that it is more comfortable to reverse the button codes
147 that get generated so that the primary button is pressed using the in‐
148 dex finger of the left hand. This could be done on a 3 button pointer
149 as follows:
150 % xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1"
151 Many applications support the notion of Meta keys (similar to Control
153 keys except that Meta is held down instead of Control). However, some
154 servers do not have a Meta keysym in the default keymap table, so one
155 needs to be added by hand. The following command will attach Meta to
156 the Multi-language key (sometimes labeled Compose Character). It also
157 takes advantage of the fact that applications that need a Meta key sim‐
158 ply need to get the keycode and don't require the keysym to be in the
159 first column of the keymap table. This means that applications that
160 are looking for a Multi_key (including the default modifier map) won't
161 notice any change.
162 % xmodmap -e "keysym Multi_key = Multi_key Meta_L"
163 Similarly, some keyboards have an Alt key but no Meta key. In that
165 case the following may be useful:
166 % xmodmap -e "keysym Alt_L = Meta_L Alt_L"
167 One of the more simple, yet convenient, uses of xmodmap is to set the
169 keyboard's "rubout" key to generate an alternate keysym. This fre‐
170 quently involves exchanging Backspace with Delete to be more comfort‐
171 able to the user. If the ttyModes resource in xterm is set as well,
172 all terminal emulator windows will use the same key for erasing charac‐
173 ters:
174 % xmodmap -e "keysym BackSpace = Delete"
175 % echo "XTerm*ttyModes: erase ^?" | xrdb -merge
176 Some keyboards do not automatically generate less than and greater than
178 characters when the comma and period keys are shifted. This can be
179 remedied with xmodmap by resetting the bindings for the comma and pe‐
180 riod with the following scripts:
181 !
182 ! make shift-, be < and shift-. be >
183 !
184 keysym comma = comma less
185 keysym period = period greater
186 One of the more irritating differences between keyboards is the loca‐
188 tion of the Control and CapsLock keys. A common use of xmodmap is to
189 swap these two keys as follows:
190 !
191 ! Swap Caps_Lock and Control_L
192 !
193 remove Lock = Caps_Lock
194 remove Control = Control_L
195 keysym Control_L = Caps_Lock
196 keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
197 add Lock = Caps_Lock
198 add Control = Control_L
199 This example can be run again to swap the keys back to their previous
201 assignments.
202 The keycode command is useful for assigning the same keysym to multiple
204 keycodes. Although unportable, it also makes it possible to write
205 scripts that can reset the keyboard to a known state. The following
206 script sets the backspace key to generate Delete (as shown above),
207 flushes all existing caps lock bindings, makes the CapsLock key be a
208 control key, make F5 generate Escape, and makes Break/Reset be a shift
209 lock.
210 !
211 ! On the HP, the following keycodes have key caps as listed:
212 !
213 ! 101 Backspace
214 ! 55 Caps
215 ! 14 Ctrl
216 ! 15 Break/Reset
217 ! 86 Stop
218 ! 89 F5
219 !
220 keycode 101 = Delete
221 keycode 55 = Control_R
222 clear Lock
223 add Control = Control_R
224 keycode 89 = Escape
225 keycode 15 = Caps_Lock
226 add Lock = Caps_Lock
227
229 DISPLAY to get default host and display number.
230
232 X(7), xev(1), setxkbmap(1), XStringToKeysym(3), Xlib documentation on
233 key and pointer events
234
236 Every time a keycode expression is evaluated, the server generates a
237 MappingNotify event on every client. This can cause some thrashing.
238 All of the changes should be batched together and done at once.
239 Clients that receive keyboard input and ignore MappingNotify events
240 will not notice any changes made to keyboard mappings.
241 Xmodmap should generate "add" and "remove" expressions automatically
243 whenever a keycode that is already bound to a modifier is changed.
244 There should be a way to have the remove expression accept keycodes as
246 well as keysyms for those times when you really mess up your mappings.
247
249 Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium, rewritten from an earlier version by
250 David Rosenthal of Sun Microsystems.
251X Version 11 xmodmap 1.0.11 XMODMAP(1)