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XKBCOMP(1) General Commands Manual XKBCOMP(1)

NAME
xkbcomp - compile XKB keyboard description

SYNOPSIS
xkbcomp [option] source [ destination ]

DESCRIPTION
The xkbcomp keymap compiler converts a description of an XKB keymap into one of several out‐
put formats. The most common use for xkbcomp is to create a compiled keymap file (.xkm ex‐
tension) which can be read directly by XKB-capable X servers or utilities. The keymap com‐
piler can also produce C header files or XKB source files. The C header files produced by
xkbcomp can be included by X servers or utilities that need a built-in default keymap. The
XKB source files produced by xkbcomp are fully resolved and can be used to verify that the
files which typically make up an XKB keymap are merged correctly or to create a single file
which contains a complete description of the keymap.

The source may specify an X display, or an .xkb or .xkm file; unless explicitly specified,
the format of destination depends on the format of the source. Compiling a .xkb (keymap
source) file generates a .xkm (compiled keymap file) by default. If the source is a .xkm
file or an X display, xkbcomp generates a keymap source file by default.

If the destination is an X display, the keymap for the display is updated with the compiled
keymap.

The name of the destination is usually computed from the name of the source, with the exten‐
sion replaced as appropriate. When compiling a single map from a file which contains several
maps, xkbcomp constructs the destination file name by appending an appropriate extension to
the name of the map to be used.

OPTIONS
-a Show all keyboard information, reporting implicit or derived information as a com‐
ment. Only affects .xkb format output.

-C Produce a C header file as output (.h extension).

-dflts Compute defaults for any missing components, such as key names.

-em1 msg
Print msg before printing first error message.

-emp msg
Print msg at the start of each message line.

-eml msg
If there were any errors, print msg before exiting.

-help, -?
Show available options.

-Idir Specifies top-level directories to be searched for files included by the keymap de‐
scription. After all directories specified by -I options have been searched, the
current directory and finally, the default xkb directory /usr/share/X11/xkb will be
searched.

To prevent the current and default directories from being searched, use the -I option
alone (i.e. without a directory), before any -I options that specify the directories
you do want searched.

-i deviceid
If source or destination is a valid X display, load the keymap from/into the device
with the specified ID (not name).

-l List maps that specify the map pattern in any files listed on the command line (not
implemented yet).

-m name Specifies a map to be compiled from an file with multiple entries.

-merge Merge the compiled information with the map from the server (not implemented yet).

-o name Specifies a name for the generated output file. The default is the name of the
source file with an appropriate extension for the output format.

-opt parts
Specifies a list of optional parts. Compilation errors in any optional parts are not
fatal. Parts may consist of any combination of the letters c, g,k,s,t which specify
the compatibility map, geometry, keycodes, symbols and types, respectively.

-Rdir Specifies the root directory for relative path names.

-synch Force synchronization for X requests.

-version
Print version number.

-w lvl Controls the reporting of warnings during compilation. A warning level of 0 disables
all warnings; a warning level of 10 enables them all.

-xkb Generate a source description of the keyboard as output (.xkb extension).

-xkm Generate a compiled keymap file as output (.xkm extension).