DUMPKEYS(1) General Commands Manual DUMPKEYS(1)
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 dump-
keys(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 sym-
bolic 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 sup-
ports 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 modi-
fier 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 def-
initions.
-d --compose-only
When this option is given, dumpkeys prints only the compose key combinations. This option is available only if your kernel has com-
pose key support.
-ccharset --charset=charset
This instructs dumpkeys to interpret character code values according to the specified character set. This affects only the transla-
tion 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 load-
keys 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 recommended directory for keytable files
SEE ALSO
loadkeys(1), keymaps(5)
1 Sep 1993 DUMPKEYS(1)