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
31 expression grammar used in files and with -e expressions should
32 be printed on the standard error.
33 -verbose
35 This option indicates that xmodmap should print logging infor‐
36 mation as it parses its input.
37 -quiet This option turns off the verbose logging. This is the
39 default.
40 -n This option indicates that xmodmap should not change the map‐
42 pings, but should display what it would do, like make(1) does
43 when given this option.
44 -e expression
46 This option specifies an expression to be executed. Any number
47 of expressions may be specified from the command line.
48 -pm This option indicates that the current modifier map should be
50 printed on the standard output. This is the default mode of
51 operation if no other mode options are specified.
52 -pk This option indicates that the current keymap table should be
54 printed on the standard output.
55 -pke This option indicates that the current keymap table should be
57 printed on the standard output in the form of expressions that
58 can be fed back to xmodmap.
59 -pp This option indicates that the current pointer map should be
61 printed on the standard output.
62 - A lone dash means that the standard input should be used as the
64 input file.
65 The filename specifies a file containing xmodmap expressions to be exe‐
67 cuted. This file is usually kept in the user's home directory with a
68 name like .xmodmaprc.
69
71 The xmodmap program reads a list of expressions and parses them all
72 before attempting to execute any of them. This makes it possible to
73 refer to keysyms that are being redefined in a natural way without hav‐
74 ing to worry as much about name conflicts.
75 The list of keysym names may be found in the header file
77 <X11/keysymdef.h> (without the XK_ prefix), supplemented by the keysym
78 database /usr/share/X11/XKeysymDB. Keysyms matching Unicode charac‐
79 ters may be specified as "U0020" to "U007E" and "U00A0" to "U10FFFF"
80 for all possible Unicode characters.
81 keycode NUMBER = KEYSYMNAME ...
83 The list of keysyms is assigned to the indicated keycode (which
84 may be specified in decimal, hex or octal and can be determined
85 by running the xev program). Up to eight keysyms may be
86 attached to a key, however the last four are not used in any
87 major X server implementation. The first keysym is used when
88 no modifier key is pressed in conjunction with this key, the
89 second with Shift, the third when the Mode_switch key is used
90 with this key and the fourth when both the Mode_switch and
91 Shift keys are used.
92 keycode any = KEYSYMNAME ...
94 If no existing key has the specified list of keysyms assigned
95 to it, a spare key on the keyboard is selected and the keysyms
96 are assigned to it. The list of keysyms may be specified in
97 decimal, hex or octal.
98 keysym KEYSYMNAME = KEYSYMNAME ...
100 The KEYSYMNAME on the left hand side is translated into match‐
101 ing keycodes used to perform the corresponding set of keycode
102 expressions. Note that if the same keysym is bound to multiple
103 keys, the expression is executed for each matching keycode.
104 clear MODIFIERNAME
106 This removes all entries in the modifier map for the given mod‐
107 ifier, where valid name are: Shift, Lock, Control, Mod1, Mod2,
108 Mod3, Mod4, and Mod5 (case does not matter in modifier names,
109 although it does matter for all other names). For example,
110 ``clear Lock'' will remove all any keys that were bound to the
111 shift lock modifier.
112 add MODIFIERNAME = KEYSYMNAME ...
114 This adds all keys containing the given keysyms to the indi‐
115 cated modifier map. The keysym names are evaluated after all
116 input expressions are read to make it easy to write expressions
117 to swap keys (see the EXAMPLES section).
118 remove MODIFIERNAME = KEYSYMNAME ...
120 This removes all keys containing the given keysyms from the
121 indicated modifier map. Unlike add, the keysym names are eval‐
122 uated as the line is read in. This allows you to remove keys
123 from a modifier without having to worry about whether or not
124 they have been reassigned.
125 pointer = default
127 This sets the pointer map back to its default settings (button
128 1 generates a code of 1, button 2 generates a 2, etc.).
129 pointer = NUMBER ...
131 This sets the pointer map to contain the indicated button
132 codes. The list always starts with the first physical button.
133 Setting a button code to 0 disables events from that button.
134 Lines that begin with an exclamation point (!) are taken as comments.
136 If you want to change the binding of a modifier key, you must also
138 remove it from the appropriate modifier map.
139
141 Many pointers are designed such that the first button is pressed using
142 the index finger of the right hand. People who are left-handed fre‐
143 quently find that it is more comfortable to reverse the button codes
144 that get generated so that the primary button is pressed using the
145 index finger of the left hand. This could be done on a 3 button
146 pointer as follows:
147 % xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1"
148 Many applications support the notion of Meta keys (similar to Control
150 keys except that Meta is held down instead of Control). However, some
151 servers do not have a Meta keysym in the default keymap table, so one
152 needs to be added by hand. The following command will attach Meta to
153 the Multi-language key (sometimes labeled Compose Character). It also
154 takes advantage of the fact that applications that need a Meta key sim‐
155 ply need to get the keycode and don't require the keysym to be in the
156 first column of the keymap table. This means that applications that
157 are looking for a Multi_key (including the default modifier map) won't
158 notice any change.
159 % xmodmap -e "keysym Multi_key = Multi_key Meta_L"
160 Similarly, some keyboards have an Alt key but no Meta key. In that
162 case the following may be useful:
163 % xmodmap -e "keysym Alt_L = Meta_L Alt_L"
164 One of the more simple, yet convenient, uses of xmodmap is to set the
166 keyboard's "rubout" key to generate an alternate keysym. This fre‐
167 quently involves exchanging Backspace with Delete to be more comfort‐
168 able to the user. If the ttyModes resource in xterm is set as well,
169 all terminal emulator windows will use the same key for erasing charac‐
170 ters:
171 % xmodmap -e "keysym BackSpace = Delete"
172 % echo "XTerm*ttyModes: erase ^?" | xrdb -merge
173 Some keyboards do not automatically generate less than and greater than
175 characters when the comma and period keys are shifted. This can be
176 remedied with xmodmap by resetting the bindings for the comma and
177 period with the following scripts:
178 !
179 ! make shift-, be < and shift-. be >
180 !
181 keysym comma = comma less
182 keysym period = period greater
183 One of the more irritating differences between keyboards is the loca‐
185 tion of the Control and CapsLock keys. A common use of xmodmap is to
186 swap these two keys as follows:
187 !
188 ! Swap Caps_Lock and Control_L
189 !
190 remove Lock = Caps_Lock
191 remove Control = Control_L
192 keysym Control_L = Caps_Lock
193 keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
194 add Lock = Caps_Lock
195 add Control = Control_L
196 This example can be run again to swap the keys back to their previous
198 assignments.
199 The keycode command is useful for assigning the same keysym to multiple
201 keycodes. Although unportable, it also makes it possible to write
202 scripts that can reset the keyboard to a known state. The following
203 script sets the backspace key to generate Delete (as shown above),
204 flushes all existing caps lock bindings, makes the CapsLock key be a
205 control key, make F5 generate Escape, and makes Break/Reset be a shift
206 lock.
207 !
208 ! On the HP, the following keycodes have key caps as listed:
209 !
210 ! 101 Backspace
211 ! 55 Caps
212 ! 14 Ctrl
213 ! 15 Break/Reset
214 ! 86 Stop
215 ! 89 F5
216 !
217 keycode 101 = Delete
218 keycode 55 = Control_R
219 clear Lock
220 add Control = Control_R
221 keycode 89 = Escape
222 keycode 15 = Caps_Lock
223 add Lock = Caps_Lock
224
226 DISPLAY to get default host and display number.
227
229 X(7), xev(1), setxkbmap(1), XStringToKeysym(3), Xlib documentation on
230 key and pointer events
231
233 Every time a keycode expression is evaluated, the server generates a
234 MappingNotify event on every client. This can cause some thrashing.
235 All of the changes should be batched together and done at once.
236 Clients that receive keyboard input and ignore MappingNotify events
237 will not notice any changes made to keyboard mappings.
238 Xmodmap should generate "add" and "remove" expressions automatically
240 whenever a keycode that is already bound to a modifier is changed.
241 There should be a way to have the remove expression accept keycodes as
243 well as keysyms for those times when you really mess up your mappings.
244
246 Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium, rewritten from an earlier version by
247 David Rosenthal of Sun Microsystems.
248X Version 11 xmodmap 1.0.8 XMODMAP(1)