Ubuntu Manpage: dumpkeys - dump keyboard translation tables

NAME

       dumpkeys - dump keyboard translation tables

SYNOPSIS

       dumpkeys  [  -h  --help  -i --short-info -l -s --long-info -n --numeric -f --full-table -1
       --separate-lines -Sshape --shape=shape -t --funcs-only -k  --keys-only  -d  --compose-only
       -ccharset --charset=charset -v --verbose -V --version ]

DESCRIPTION

       dumpkeys  writes,  to  the  standard output, the current contents of the keyboard driver's
       translation tables, in the format specified by keymaps(5).

       Using the various options, the format of the output  can  be  controlled  and  also  other
       information from the kernel and the programs dumpkeys(1) and loadkeys(1) can be obtained.

OPTIONS

-h --help
Prints the program's version number and a short usage message to the program's
standard error output and exits.

-i --short-info
Prints some characteristics of the kernel's keyboard driver. The items shown are:

Keycode range supported by the kernel

This tells what values can be used after the keycode keyword in keytable
files. See keymaps(5) for more information and the syntax of these files.

Number of actions bindable to a key

This tells how many different actions a single key can output using various
modifier keys. If the value is 16 for example, you can define up to 16
different actions to a key combined with modifiers. When the value is 16,
the kernel probably knows about four modifier keys, which you can press in
different combinations with the key to access all the bound actions.

Ranges of action codes supported by the kernel

This item contains a list of action code ranges in hexadecimal notation.
These are the values that can be used in the right hand side of a key
definition, ie. the vv's in a line

keycode xx = vv vv vv vv

(see keymaps(5) for more information about the format of key definition
lines). dumpkeys(1) and loadkeys(1) support a symbolic notation, which is
preferable to the numeric one, as the action codes may vary from kernel to
kernel while the symbolic names usually remain the same. However, the list
of action code ranges can be used to determine, if the kernel actually
supports all the symbols loadkeys(1) knows, or are there maybe some actions
supported by the kernel that have no symbolic name in your loadkeys(1)
program. To see this, you compare the range list with the action symbol
list, see option --long-info below.

Number of function keys supported by kernel

This tells the number of action codes that can be used to output strings of
characters. These action codes are traditionally bound to the various
function and editing keys of the keyboard and are defined to send standard
escape sequences. However, you can redefine these to send common command
lines, email addresses or whatever you like. Especially if the number of
this item is greater than the number of function and editing keys in your
keyboard, you may have some "spare" action codes that you can bind to AltGr-
letter combinations, for example, to send some useful strings. See
loadkeys(1) for more details.

Function strings

You can see you current function key definitions with the command

dumpkeys --funcs-only

-l -s --long-info
This option instructs dumpkeys to print a long information listing. The output is
the same as with the --short-info appended with the list of action symbols
supported by loadkeys(1) and dumpkeys(1), along with the symbols' numeric values.

-n --numeric
This option causes dumpkeys to by-pass the conversion of action code values to
symbolic notation and to print the in hexadecimal format instead.

-f --full-table
This makes dumpkeys skip all the short-hand heuristics (see keymaps(5)) and output
the key bindings in the canonical form. First a keymaps line describing the
currently defined modifier combinations is printed. Then for each key a row with a
column for each modifier combination is printed. For example, if the current keymap
in use uses seven modifiers, every row will have seven action code columns. This
format can be useful for example to programs that post-process the output of
dumpkeys.

-Sshape --shape=shape

-t --funcs-only
When this option is given, dumpkeys prints only the function key string
definitions. Normally dumpkeys prints both the key bindings and the string
definitions.

-k --keys-only
When this option is given, dumpkeys prints only the key bindings. Normally dumpkeys
prints both the key bindings and the string definitions.

-d --compose-only
When this option is given, dumpkeys prints only the compose key combinations. This
option is available only if your kernel has compose key support.

-ccharset --charset=charset
This instructs dumpkeys to interpret character code values according to the
specified character set. This affects only the translation of character code values
to symbolic names. Valid values for charset currently are iso-8859-X, Where X is a
digit in 1-9. If no charset is specified, iso-8859-1 is used as a default. This
option produces an output line `charset "iso-8859-X"', telling loadkeys how to
interpret the keymap. (For example, "division" is 0xf7 in iso-8859-1 but 0xba in
iso-8859-8.)

-v --verbose

-V --version
Prints version number and exits.

FILES

       /usr/share/keymaps
              The recommended directory for keytable files.

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

OPTIONS

FILES

SEE ALSO