Yolinux.com

dumpkeys manpage

Search topic Section


DUMPKEYS(1)		    General Commands Manual		   DUMPKEYS(1)



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 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 key-
		     word in keytable files. See keymaps(5) for more  informa-
		     tion 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 hexa-
		     decimal 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) sup-
		     port 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  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 tra-
		     ditionally 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 use-
		     ful strings. See loadkeys(1) for more details.

	      Function strings

		     You can see you current function key definitions with the
		     command

			    dumpkeys --funcs-only

       -l --long-info
	      This option instructs dumpkeys to print a long information list-
	      ing.  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.

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

       --keys-only
	      When this option is given, dumpkeys prints only  the  key	 bind-
	      ings.  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-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.)

FILES
       /lib/kbd/keymaps	   recommended directory for keytable files

SEE ALSO
       loadkeys(1), keymaps(5)




				  1 Sep 1993			   DUMPKEYS(1)