dumpkeys

NAME

       dumpkeys - dump keyboard translation tables

SYNOPSIS

       dumpkeys    [   -hilfn   -ccharset   --help   --short-info
       --long-info    --numeric     --full-table     --funcs-only
       --keys-only --compose-only --charset=charset ]

DESCRIPTION

       dumpkeys  writes, to the standard output, the current con-
       tents of the keyboard driver's translation tables, in  the
       format specified by keytables(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 out-
              put and exits.

       -i --short-info
              Prints some characteristics of  the  kernel's  key-
              board 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
                     keytables(5)  for  more  information and the
                     syntax of these files.

              Number of actions bindable to a key

                     This tells how many different actions a sin-
                     gle  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  dif-
                     ferent  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 keytables(5) for more information about
                     the  format of key definition lines).  dump-
                     keys(1) and loadkeys(1) support  a  symbolic
                     notation, which is preferable to the numeric
                     one, as the action codes may vary from  ker-
                     nel  to kernel while the symbolic names usu-
                     ally remain the same. However, the  list  of
                     action code ranges can be used to determine,
                     if the kernel actually supports all the sym-
                     bols  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  stan-
                     dard  escape  sequences.  However,  you  can
                     redefine these to send common command lines,
                     email addresses or whatever you like.  Espe-
                     cially 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-let-
                     ter combinations, for example, to send  some
                     useful  strings.  See  loadkeys(1)  for more
                     details.

              Function strings

                     You can see you current function key defini-
                     tions with the command

                             dumpkeys --funcs-only



       -l --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 conver-
              sion of action code values to symbolic notation and
              to print the in hexadecimal format instead.


       -f --full-table
              This  makes  dumpkeys  to  skip  all the short-hand
              heuristics (see keytables(5)) and to output the key
              bindings  in the canonical form. For each key a row
              with a column  for  each  modifier  combination  is
              printed.  For  example, if the kernel supports four
              modifiers, there are 16 modifier  combinations,  so
              every  row  would have 16 action code columns. This
              format can be useful for example to  programs  that
              post-process the output of dumpkeys.


       --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 defini-
              tions.


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


       --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-8859-1,  iso-8859-2,  iso-8859-3,
              iso-8859-4 and iso-8859-8.  If no charset is speci-
              fied, 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.)

FILES

       /usr/lib/kbd/keytables/
                           recommended  directory  for   keytable
                           files

SEE ALSO

       dumpkeys(1), keytables(5)