SETXKBMAP(1)						      General Commands Manual						      SETXKBMAP(1)

NAME

       setxkbmap - set the keyboard using the X Keyboard Extension

SYNOPSIS

       setxkbmap [ args ] [ layout [ variant [ option ...  ] ] ]

DESCRIPTION

       The setxkbmap command maps the keyboard to use the layout determined by the options specified on the command line.

       An  XKB	keymap	is constructed from a number of components which are compiled only as needed.  The source for all of the components can be
       found in /usr/share/X11/xkb.

OPTIONS

       -help   Prints a message describing the valid input to setxkbmap.

       -compat name
	       Specifies the name of the compatibility map component used to construct a keyboard layout.

       -config file
	       Specifies the name of an XKB configuration file which describes the keyboard to be used.

       -device device
	       Specifies the numeric device id of the input device to be updated with the new keyboard layout. If not specified, the core keyboard
	       device of the X server is updated.

       -display display
	       Specifies the display to be updated with the new keyboard layout.

       -geometry name
	       Specifies the name of the geometry component used to construct a keyboard layout.

       -I directory
	       Adds a directory to the list of directories to be used to search for specified layout or rules files.

       -keycodes name
	       Specifies the name of the keycodes component used to construct a keyboard layout.

       -keymap name
	       Specifies the name of the keymap description used to construct a keyboard layout.

       -layout name
	       Specifies  the  name of the layout used to determine the components which make up the keyboard description.  Only one layout may be
	       specified on the command line.

       -model name
	       Specifies the name of the keyboard model used to determine the components which make up the keyboard description.  Only	one  model
	       may be specified on the command line.

       -option name
	       Specifies the name of an option to determine the components which make up the keyboard description;  multiple options may be speci-
	       fied, one per -option flag. Note that setxkbmap adds options specified in the command line to the options that were set before  (as
	       saved in root window properties). If you want to replace all previously specified options, use the -option flag with an empty argu-
	       ment first.

       -print  With this option the setxkbmap just prints component names in a format acceptable by xkbcomp (an XKB keymap  compiler)  and  exits.
	       The  option can be used for tests instead of a verbose option and in cases when one needs to run both the setxkbmap and the xkbcomp
	       in chain (see below).

       -rules file
	       Specifies the name of the rules file used to resolve the requested layout and model to a set of component names.

       -symbols name
	       Specifies the name of the symbols component used to construct a keyboard layout.

       -synch  Force synchronization for X requests.

       -types name
	       Specifies the name of the types component used to construct a keyboard layout.

       -variant name
	       Specifies which variant of the keyboard layout should be used to determine the components which make up the  keyboard  description.
	       Only one variant may be specified on the command line.

       -verbose|-v [level]
	       Specifies level of verbosity in output messages.  Valid levels range from 0 (least verbose) to 10 (most verbose).  The default ver-
	       bosity level is 5.  If no level is specified, each -v or -verbose flag raises the level by 1.

USING WITH xkbcomp
       If you have an Xserver and a client shell running on different computers and XKB configuration files on those machines  are  different  you
       can  get  problems  specifying a keyboard map by model, layout, options names.  This is because setxkbcomp converts these names to names of
       XKB configuration files according to files that are on the client side computer, then it sends the file names to the server where the  xkb-
       comp  has  to  compose  a complete keyboard map using files which the server has.  Thus if the sets of files differ significantly the names
       that the setxkbmap generates can be unacceptable on the server side.  You can solve this problem by running the xkbcomp on the client  side
       too.   With  the  -print  option  setxkbmap  just prints the file names in an appropriate format to its stdout and this output can be piped
       directly to the xkbcomp input. For example, the command

       setxkbmap us -print | xkbcomp - $DISPLAY

       makes both steps run on the same (client) machine and loads a keyboard map into the server.

SEE ALSO

       xkbcomp(1)

FILES

       /usr/share/X11/xkb

X Version 11							  setxkbmap 1.1.0						      SETXKBMAP(1)