{ "content": [ { "type": "text", "text": "# keymaps(5) (man)\n\n**Summary:** keymaps - keyboard table descriptions for loadkeys and dumpkeys\n\n## Examples\n\n- `(Be careful to use a keymaps line, like the first line of `dumpkeys`, or \"keymaps 0-15\" or`\n- `so.)`\n- `The following entry exchanges the left Control key and the Caps Lock key on the keyboard:`\n- `keycode 58 = Control`\n- `keycode 29 = CapsLock`\n- `Key number 58 is normally the Caps Lock key, and key number 29 is normally the Control key.`\n- `The following entry sets the Shift and Caps Lock keys to behave more nicely, like in older`\n- `typewriters. That is, pressing Caps Lock key once or more sets the keyboard in CapsLock state`\n- `and pressing either of the Shift keys releases it.`\n- `keycode 42 = UncapsShift`\n- `keycode 54 = UncapsShift`\n- `keycode 58 = CapsOn`\n- `The following entry sets the layout of the edit pad in the enhanced keyboard to be more like`\n- `that in the VT200 series terminals:`\n- `keycode 102 = Insert`\n- `keycode 104 = Remove`\n- `keycode 107 = Prior`\n- `shift keycode 107 = ScrollBackward`\n- `keycode 110 = Find`\n- `keycode 111 = Select`\n- `control alt keycode 111 = Boot`\n- `control altgr keycode 111 = Boot`\n- `Here's an example to bind the string \"du\\ndf\\n\" to the key AltGr-D. We use the \"spare\" action`\n- `code F100 not normally bound to any key.`\n- `altgr keycode 32 = F100`\n- `string F100 = \"du\\ndf\\n\"`\n\n## See Also\n\n- loadkeys(1)\n- dumpkeys(1)\n- showkey(1)\n- xmodmap(1)\n\n## Section Outline\n\n- **NAME** (2 lines)\n- **DESCRIPTION** (14 lines)\n- **INCLUDE FILES** (4 lines)\n- **CHARSET DEFINITIONS** (7 lines)\n- **COMPLETE KEYCODE DEFINITIONS** (132 lines)\n- **SINGLE MODIFIER DEFINITIONS** (18 lines)\n- **STRING DEFINITIONS** (10 lines)\n- **COMPOSE DEFINITIONS** (6 lines)\n- **ABBREVIATIONS** (2 lines) — 2 subsections\n - strings as usual (2 lines)\n - compose as usual for \"iso-8859-1\" (9 lines)\n- **EXAMPLES** (36 lines)\n- **SEE ALSO** (5 lines)\n\n## Full Content\n\n### NAME\n\nkeymaps - keyboard table descriptions for loadkeys and dumpkeys\n\n### DESCRIPTION\n\nThese files are used by loadkeys(1) to modify the translation tables used by the kernel key‐\nboard driver and generated by dumpkeys(1) from those translation tables.\n\nThe format of these files is vaguely similar to the one accepted by xmodmap(1). The file\nconsists of charset or key or string definition lines interspersed with comments.\n\nComments are introduced with ! or # characters and continue to the end of the line. Anything\nfollowing one of these characters on that line is ignored. Note that comments need not begin\nfrom column one as with xmodmap(1).\n\nThe syntax of keymap files is line oriented; a complete definition must fit on a single logi‐\ncal line. Logical lines can, however, be split into multiple physical lines by ending each\nsubline with the backslash character (\\).\n\n### INCLUDE FILES\n\nA keymap can include other keymaps using the syntax\n\ninclude \"pathname\"\n\n### CHARSET DEFINITIONS\n\nA character set definition line is of the form:\n\ncharset \"iso-8859-x\"\n\nIt defines how following keysyms are to be interpreted. For example, in iso-8859-1 the sym‐\nbol mu (or micro) has code 0265, while in iso-8859-7 the letter mu has code 0354.\n\n### COMPLETE KEYCODE DEFINITIONS\n\nEach complete key definition line is of the form:\n\nkeycode keynumber = keysym keysym keysym...\n\nkeynumber is the internal identification number of the key, roughly equivalent to the scan\ncode of it. keynumber can be given in decimal, octal or hexadecimal notation. Octal is de‐\nnoted by a leading zero and hexadecimal by the prefix 0x.\n\nEach of the keysyms represent keyboard actions, of which up to 256 can be bound to a single\nkey. The actions available include outputting character codes or character sequences, switch‐\ning consoles or keymaps, booting the machine etc. (The complete list can be obtained from\ndumpkeys(1) by saying dumpkeys -l .)\n\nEach keysym may be prefixed by a '+' (plus sign), in wich case this keysym is treated as a\n\"letter\" and therefore affected by the \"CapsLock\" the same way as by \"Shift\" (to be correct,\nthe CapsLock inverts the Shift state). The ASCII letters ('a'-'z' and 'A'-'Z') are made Cap‐\nsLock'able by default. If Shift+CapsLock should not produce a lower case symbol, put lines\nlike\n\nkeycode 30 = +a A\n\nin the map file.\n\nWhich of the actions bound to a given key is taken when it is pressed depends on what modi‐\nfiers are in effect at that moment. The keyboard driver supports 9 modifiers. These modi‐\nfiers are labeled (completely arbitrarily) Shift, AltGr, Control, Alt, ShiftL, ShiftR, CtrlL,\nCtrlR and CapsShift. Each of these modifiers has an associated weight of power of two ac‐\ncording to the following table:\n\n\nmodifier weight\n\nShift 1\nAltGr 2\nControl 4\nAlt 8\nShiftL 16\nShiftR 32\nCtrlL 64\nCtrlR 128\nCapsShift 256\n\nThe effective action of a key is found out by adding up the weights of all the modifiers in\neffect. By default, no modifiers are in effect, so action number zero, i.e. the one in the\nfirst column in a key definition line, is taken when the key is pressed or released. When\ne.g. Shift and Alt modifiers are in effect, action number nine (from the 10th column) is the\neffective one.\n\nChanging the state of what modifiers are in effect can be achieved by binding appropriate key\nactions to desired keys. For example, binding the symbol Shift to a key sets the Shift modi‐\nfier in effect when that key is pressed and cancels the effect of that modifier when the key\nis released. Binding AltGrLock to a key sets AltGr in effect when the key is pressed and\ncancels the effect when the key is pressed again. (By default Shift, AltGr, Control and Alt\nare bound to the keys that bear a similar label; AltGr may denote the right Alt key.)\n\nNote that you should be very careful when binding the modifier keys, otherwise you can end up\nwith an unusable keyboard mapping. If you for example define a key to have Control in its\nfirst column and leave the rest of the columns to be VoidSymbols, you're in trouble. This is\nbecause pressing the key puts Control modifier in effect and the following actions are looked\nup from the fifth column (see the table above). So, when you release the key, the action from\nthe fifth column is taken. It has VoidSymbol in it, so nothing happens. This means that the\nControl modifier is still in effect, although you have released the key. Re-pressing and re‐\nleasing the key has no effect. To avoid this, you should always define all the columns to\nhave the same modifier symbol. There is a handy short-hand notation for this, see below.\n\nkeysyms can be given in decimal, octal, hexadecimal, unicode or symbolic notation. The nu‐\nmeric notations use the same format as with keynumber. Unicode notation is \"U+\" followed by\nfour hexadecimal digits. The symbolic notation resembles that used by xmodmap(1). Notable\ndifferences are the number symbols. The numeric symbols '0', ..., '9' of xmodmap(1) are re‐\nplaced with the corresponding words 'zero', 'one', ... 'nine' to avoid confusion with the nu‐\nmeric notation.\n\nIt should be noted that using numeric notation for the keysyms is highly unportable as the\nkey action numbers may vary from one kernel version to another and the use of numeric nota‐\ntions is thus strongly discouraged. They are intended to be used only when you know there is\na supported keyboard action in your kernel for which your current version of loadkeys(1) has\nno symbolic name.\n\nThere is a number of short-hand notations to add readability and reduce typing work and the\nprobability of typing-errors.\n\nFirst of all, you can give a map specification line, of the form\n\nkeymaps 0-2,4-5,8,12\n\nto indicate that the lines of the keymap will not specify all 256 columns, but only the indi‐\ncated ones. (In the example: only the plain, Shift, AltGr, Control, Control+Shift, Alt and\nControl+Alt maps, that is, 7 columns instead of 256.) When no such line is given, the\nkeymaps 0-M will be defined, where M+1 is the maximum number of entries found in any defini‐\ntion line.\n\nNext, you can leave off any trailing VoidSymbol entries from a key definition line. VoidSym‐\nbol denotes a keyboard action which produces no output and has no other effects either. For\nexample, to define key number 30 to output 'a' unshifted, 'A' when pressed with Shift and do\nnothing when pressed with AltGr or other modifiers, you can write\n\nkeycode 30 = a A\n\ninstead of the more verbose\n\nkeycode 30 = a A VoidSymbol VoidSymbol \\\nVoidSymbol VoidSymbol VoidSymbol ...\n\nFor added convenience, you can usually get off with still more terse definitions. If you en‐\nter a key definition line with only and exactly one action code after the equals sign, it has\na special meaning. If the code (numeric or symbolic) is not an ASCII letter, it means the\ncode is implicitly replicated through all columns being defined. If, on the other hand, the\naction code is an ASCII character in the range 'a', ..., 'z' or 'A', ..., 'Z' in the ASCII\ncollating sequence, the following definitions are made for the different modifier combina‐\ntions, provided these are actually being defined. (The table lists the two possible cases:\neither the single action code is a lower case letter, denoted by 'x' or an upper case letter,\ndenoted by 'Y'.)\n\nmodifier symbol\n\nnone x Y\nShift X y\nAltGr x Y\nShift+AltGr X y\nControl Controlx Controly\nShift+Control Controlx Controly\nAltGr+Control Controlx Controly\nShift+AltGr+Control Controlx Controly\nAlt Metax MetaY\nShift+Alt MetaX Metay\nAltGr+Alt Metax MetaY\nShift+AltGr+Alt MetaX Metay\nControl+Alt MetaControlx MetaControly\nShift+Control+Alt MetaControlx MetaControly\nAltGr+Control+Alt MetaControlx MetaControly\nShift+AltGr+Control+Alt MetaControlx MetaControly\n\n### SINGLE MODIFIER DEFINITIONS\n\nAll the previous forms of key definition lines always define all the M+1 possible modifier\ncombinations being defined, whether the line actually contains that many action codes or not.\nThere is, however, a variation of the definition syntax for defining only single actions to a\nparticular modifier combination of a key. This is especially useful, if you load a keymap\nwhich doesn't match your needs in only some modifier combinations, like AltGr+function keys.\nYou can then make a small local file redefining only those modifier combinations and loading\nit after the main file. The syntax of this form is:\n\n{ plain | } keycode keynumber = keysym\n\n, e.g.,\nplain keycode 14 = BackSpace\ncontrol alt keycode 83 = Boot\nalt keycode 105 = DecrConsole\nalt keycode 106 = IncrConsole\nUsing \"plain\" will define only the base entry of a key (i.e. the one with no modifiers in ef‐\nfect) without affecting the bindings of other modifier combinations of that key.\n\n### STRING DEFINITIONS\n\nIn addition to comments and key definition lines, a keymap can contain string definitions.\nThese are used to define what each function key action code sends. The syntax of string defi‐\nnitions is:\n\nstring keysym = \"text\"\n\ntext can contain literal characters, octal character codes in the format of backslash fol‐\nlowed by up to three octal digits, and the three escape sequences \\n, \\\\, and \\\", for new‐\nline, backslash and quote, respectively.\n\n### COMPOSE DEFINITIONS\n\nThen there may also be compose definitions. They have syntax\n\ncompose 'char' 'char' to 'char'\nand describe how two bytes are combined to form a third one (when a dead accent or compose\nkey is used). This is used to get accented letters and the like on a standard keyboard.\n\n### ABBREVIATIONS\n\nVarious abbreviations can be used with kbd-0.96 and later.\n\n#### strings as usual\n\nDefines the usual values of the strings (but not the keys they are bound to).\n\n#### compose as usual for \"iso-8859-1\"\n\nDefines the usual compose combinations.\n\nTo find out what keysyms there are available for use in keymaps, use the command\n\ndumpkeys --long-info\n\nUnfortunately, there is currently no description of what each symbol does. It has to be\nguessed from the name or figured out from the kernel sources.\n\n### EXAMPLES\n\n(Be careful to use a keymaps line, like the first line of `dumpkeys`, or \"keymaps 0-15\" or\nso.)\n\nThe following entry exchanges the left Control key and the Caps Lock key on the keyboard:\n\nkeycode 58 = Control\nkeycode 29 = CapsLock\n\nKey number 58 is normally the Caps Lock key, and key number 29 is normally the Control key.\n\nThe following entry sets the Shift and Caps Lock keys to behave more nicely, like in older\ntypewriters. That is, pressing Caps Lock key once or more sets the keyboard in CapsLock state\nand pressing either of the Shift keys releases it.\n\nkeycode 42 = UncapsShift\nkeycode 54 = UncapsShift\nkeycode 58 = CapsOn\n\nThe following entry sets the layout of the edit pad in the enhanced keyboard to be more like\nthat in the VT200 series terminals:\n\nkeycode 102 = Insert\nkeycode 104 = Remove\nkeycode 107 = Prior\nshift keycode 107 = ScrollBackward\nkeycode 110 = Find\nkeycode 111 = Select\ncontrol alt keycode 111 = Boot\ncontrol altgr keycode 111 = Boot\n\nHere's an example to bind the string \"du\\ndf\\n\" to the key AltGr-D. We use the \"spare\" action\ncode F100 not normally bound to any key.\n\naltgr keycode 32 = F100\nstring F100 = \"du\\ndf\\n\"\n\n### SEE ALSO\n\nloadkeys(1), dumpkeys(1), showkey(1), xmodmap(1)\n\n\n\nkbd 24 April 1998 KEYMAPS(5)\n\n" } ], "structuredContent": { "command": "keymaps", "section": "5", "mode": "man", "summary": "keymaps - keyboard table descriptions for loadkeys and dumpkeys", "synopsis": null, "flags": [], "examples": [ "(Be careful to use a keymaps line, like the first line of `dumpkeys`, or \"keymaps 0-15\" or", "so.)", "The following entry exchanges the left Control key and the Caps Lock key on the keyboard:", "keycode 58 = Control", "keycode 29 = CapsLock", "Key number 58 is normally the Caps Lock key, and key number 29 is normally the Control key.", "The following entry sets the Shift and Caps Lock keys to behave more nicely, like in older", "typewriters. That is, pressing Caps Lock key once or more sets the keyboard in CapsLock state", "and pressing either of the Shift keys releases it.", "keycode 42 = UncapsShift", "keycode 54 = UncapsShift", "keycode 58 = CapsOn", "The following entry sets the layout of the edit pad in the enhanced keyboard to be more like", "that in the VT200 series terminals:", "keycode 102 = Insert", "keycode 104 = Remove", "keycode 107 = Prior", "shift keycode 107 = ScrollBackward", "keycode 110 = Find", "keycode 111 = Select", "control alt keycode 111 = Boot", "control altgr keycode 111 = Boot", "Here's an example to bind the string \"du\\ndf\\n\" to the key AltGr-D. We use the \"spare\" action", "code F100 not normally bound to any key.", "altgr keycode 32 = F100", "string F100 = \"du\\ndf\\n\"" ], "see_also": [ { "name": "loadkeys", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/loadkeys/1/json" }, { "name": "dumpkeys", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dumpkeys/1/json" }, { "name": "showkey", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/showkey/1/json" }, { "name": "xmodmap", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/xmodmap/1/json" } ], "section_outline": [ { "name": "NAME", "lines": 2, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "DESCRIPTION", "lines": 14, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "INCLUDE FILES", "lines": 4, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "CHARSET DEFINITIONS", "lines": 7, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "COMPLETE KEYCODE DEFINITIONS", "lines": 132, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SINGLE MODIFIER DEFINITIONS", "lines": 18, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "STRING DEFINITIONS", "lines": 10, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "COMPOSE DEFINITIONS", "lines": 6, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "ABBREVIATIONS", "lines": 2, "subsections": [ { "name": "strings as usual", "lines": 2 }, { "name": "compose as usual for \"iso-8859-1\"", "lines": 9 } ] }, { "name": "EXAMPLES", "lines": 36, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SEE ALSO", "lines": 5, "subsections": [] } ] } }