1SETXKBMAP(1) General Commands Manual SETXKBMAP(1)
2
6 setxkbmap - set the keyboard using the X Keyboard Extension
7
9 setxkbmap [ args ] [ layout [ variant [ option ... ] ] ]
10
12 The setxkbmap command maps the keyboard to use the layout determined by
13 the options specified on the command line.
14 An XKB keymap is constructed from a number of components which are com‐
16 piled only as needed. The source for all of the components can be
17 found in /usr/lib/X11/xkb.
18
20 -help Prints a message describing the valid input to setxkbmap.
21 -compat name
23 Specifies the name of the compatibility map component used to
24 construct a keyboard layout.
25 -config file
27 Specifies the name of an XKB configuration file which describes
28 the keyboard to be used.
29 -display display
31 Specifies the display to be updated with the new keyboard lay‐
32 out.
33 -geometry name
35 Specifies the name of the geometry component used to construct
36 a keyboard layout.
37 -keymap name
39 Specifies the name of the keymap description used to construct
40 a keyboard layout.
41 -layout name
43 Specifies the name of the layout used to determine the compo‐
44 nents which make up the keyboard description. Only one layout
45 may be specified on the command line.
46 -model name
48 Specifies the name of the keyboard model used to determine the
49 components which make up the keyboard description. Only one
50 model may be specified on the command line.
51 -option name
53 Specifies the name of an option to determine the components
54 which make up the keyboard description; multiple options may
55 be specified, one per -option flag. Note that setxkbmap summa‐
56 rize options specified in the command line with options was set
57 before (saved in root window properties). If you want only
58 specified options will be set use the -option flag with an
59 empty argument first.
60 -print With this option the setxkbmap just prints component names in a
62 format acceptable by an xkbcomp (an XKB keymap compiler) and
63 exits. The option can be used for tests instead of a verbose
64 option and in case when one need to run both the setxkbmap and
65 the xkbcomp in chain (see below).
66 -rules file
68 Specifies the name of the rules file used to resolve the
69 request layout and model to a set of component names.
70 -symbols name
72 Specifies the name of the symbols component used to construct a
73 keyboard layout.
74 -synch Force synchronization for X requests.
76 -types name
78 Specifies the name of the types component used to construct a
79 keyboard layout.
80 -variant name
82 Specifies which variant of the keyboard layout should be used
83 to determine the components which make up the keyboard descrip‐
84 tion. Only one variant may be specified on the command line.
85
87 If you have an Xserver and a client shell running on different comput‐
88 ers and XKB configuration files sets on those machines are different
89 you can get problems specifying a keyboard map by model, layout,
90 options names. The thing is the setxkbcomp converts these names to
91 names of XKB configuration files according to files that are on the
92 client side computer. Then it sends the file names to the server where
93 the xkbcomp has to compose a complete keyboard map using files which
94 the server has. Thus if the sets of files differ significantly the
95 names that the setxkbmap generates can be unacceptable on the server
96 side. You can solve this problem running the xkbcomp on the client
97 side too. With the -print option setxkbmap just prints the files names
98 in an appropriate format to its stdout and this output can be piped
99 directly to the xkbcomp input. For example, a command
100 setxkbmap us -print | xkbcomp - $DISPLAY
102 makes both step on the same (client) machine and loads a keyboard map
104 into the server.
105
107 /usr/lib/X11/xkb
108X Version 11 setxkbmap 1.0.2 SETXKBMAP(1)