LOADKEYS(1) General Commands Manual LOADKEYS(1)
loadkeys - load keyboard translation tables
loadkeys [ -a --ascii ] [ [ -b --bkeymap ] [ -c --clearcompose ] [ -C
'<FILE>' | --console=<FILE> ] [ -d --default ] [ -h --help ] [ -m
--mktable ] [ -p --parse ] [ -q --quiet ] [ -s --clearstrings ] [ -u
--unicode ] [ -v --verbose ] [ -V --version ] [ filename... ]
The program loadkeys reads the file or files specified by
filename.... Its main purpose is to load the kernel keymap for the
console. You can specify console device by the -C (or --console )
option.
If the -d (or --default ) option is given, loadkeys loads a default
keymap, probably the file defkeymap.map either in @DATADIR@/keymaps
or in /usr/src/linux/drivers/char. (Probably the former was user-
defined, while the latter is a qwerty keyboard map for PCs - maybe
not what was desired.) Sometimes, with a strange keymap loaded (with
the minus on some obscure unknown modifier combination) it is easier
to type `loadkeys defkeymap'.
The main function of loadkeys is to load or modify the keyboard
driver's translation tables. When specifying the file names,
standard input can be denoted by dash (-). If no file is specified,
the data is read from the standard input.
For many countries and keyboard types appropriate keymaps are
available already, and a command like `loadkeys uk' might do what you
want. On the other hand, it is easy to construct one's own keymap.
The user has to tell what symbols belong to each key. She can find
the keycode for a key by use of showkey(1), while the keymap format
is given in keymaps(5) and can also be seen from the output of
dumpkeys(1).
If the input file does not contain any compose key definitions, the
kernel accent table is left unchanged, unless the -c (or
--clearcompose ) option is given, in which case the kernel accent
table is emptied. If the input file does contain compose key
definitions, then all old definitions are removed, and replaced by
the specified new entries. The kernel accent table is a sequence of
(by default 68) entries describing how dead diacritical signs and
compose keys behave. For example, a line
compose ',' 'c' to ccedilla
means that <ComposeKey><,><c> must be combined to <ccedilla>. The
current content of this table can be see using `dumpkeys
--compose-only'.
The option -s (or --clearstrings ) clears the kernel string table. If
this option is not given, loadkeys will only add or replace strings,
not remove them. (Thus, the option -s is required to reach a well-
defined state.) The kernel string table is a sequence of strings
with names like F31. One can make function key F5 (on an ordinary PC
keyboard) produce the text `Hello!', and Shift+F5 `Goodbye!' using
lines
keycode 63 = F70 F71
string F70 = "Hello!"
string F71 = "Goodbye!"
in the keymap. The default bindings for the function keys are
certain escape sequences mostly inspired by the VT100 terminal.
If the -m (or --mktable ) option is given loadkeys prints to the
standard output a file that may be used as /usr/src/linux/drivers‐
/char/defkeymap.c, specifying the default key bindings for a kernel
(and does not modify the current keymap).
If the -b (or --bkeymap ) option is given loadkeys prints to the
standard output a file that may be used as a binary keymap as
expected by Busybox loadkmap command (and does not modify the current
keymap).
loadkeys automatically detects whether the console is in Unicode or
ASCII (XLATE) mode. When a keymap is loaded, literal keysyms (such
as section) are resolved accordingly; numerical keysyms are converted
to fit the current console mode, regardless of the way they are
specified (decimal, octal, hexadecimal or Unicode).
The -u (or --unicode) switch forces loadkeys to convert all keymaps
to Unicode. If the keyboard is in a non-Unicode mode, such as XLATE,
loadkeys will change it to Unicode for the time of its execution. A
warning message will be printed in this case.
It is recommended to run kbd_mode(1) before loadkeys instead of using
the -u option.
-a --ascii
Force conversion to ASCII.
-h --help
loadkeys prints its version number and a short usage message
to the programs standard error output and exits.
-p --parse
loadkeys searchs and parses keymap without action.
-q --quiet
loadkeys suppresses all normal output.
-V --version
loadkeys prints version number and exits.
Note that anyone having read access to /dev/console can run loadkeys
and thus change the keyboard layout, possibly making it unusable.
Note that the keyboard translation table is common for all the
virtual consoles, so any changes to the keyboard bindings affect all
the virtual consoles simultaneously.
Note that because the changes affect all the virtual consoles, they
also outlive your session. This means that even at the login prompt
the key bindings may not be what the user expects.
@DATADIR@/keymaps
default directory for keymaps
/usr/src/linux/drivers/char/defkeymap.map
default kernel keymap
dumpkeys(1), keymaps(5)
This page is part of the kbd (Linux keyboard tools) project.
Information about the project can be found at
⟨http://www.kbd-project.org/⟩. If you have a bug report for this man‐
ual page, send it to kbd@lists.altlinux.org. This page was obtained
from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/legion/kbd.git⟩ on
2017-07-05. If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML ver‐
sion of the page, or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date
source for the page, or you have corrections or improvements to the
information in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original man‐
ual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org
6 Feb 1994 LOADKEYS(1)
Pages that refer to this page: dumpkeys(1), kbd_mode(1), localectl(1), setleds(1), setmetamode(1), showkey(1), unicode_start(1), ioctl_console(2), reboot(2), keymaps(5), vconsole.conf(5), systemd-localed.service(8), systemd-vconsole-setup.service(8)