User:Larivact/drafts/X keyboard extension

Comment: Unfinished draft for X keyboard extension.

The X keyboard extension, or XKB, defines the way keyboards codes are handled in Xorg.

Dump current configuration:

$ xkbcomp $DISPLAY -

Print current components in a format accepted by xkbcomp:

$ setxkbmap -print

Load a configuration file from the current directory:

$ xkbcomp $DISPLAY -I. config.xkb $DISPLAY

The system-wide files are in /usr/share/X11/xkb/.

There are five components:

keycodes: Defines symbolic names for keycodes.
types: Defines key types.
compat: Internal behavior of modifiers.
symbols: Maps symbols to keycodes (by symbolic name).
geometry: Used to depict keyboard layouts (e.g. with xkeycaps or xorg-xkbprint^AUR).

rules define how components are combined.

See also