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DUMPKEYS(1) 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 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 hex-
adecimal 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
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 --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 load-
keys(1) and dumpkeys(1), along with the symbols' numeric val-
ues.
-n --numeric
This option causes dumpkeys to by-pass the conversion of action
code values to symbolic notation and to print the in hexadeci-
mal 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 exam-
ple 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 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)
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