XKBCLI-HOW-TO-TYPE(1)

✨ xkbcli-how-to-type — the "how do i even TYPE this" oracle ✨

okay bestie, welcome to xkbcli-how-to-type, part of the General Commands Manual squad 🎀 she's literally the friend who tells you exactly which keys to smash to get a character. no cap.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

xkbcli-how-to-type — query how to type a given Unicode code point or keysym 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

xkbcli-how-to-type [options] character/code point/keysym

that's it, that's the vibe. one lil argument and a pile of options 🫶

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🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

xkbcli-how-to-type prints the key combinations (keycode + modifiers) in the keymap's layouts which would produce the given Unicode code point or keysym. she's showing you the recipe, not just the dish ✨

so, code point/keysym can be any of these three things:

• a single character (and heads up, this requires a terminal which uses UTF-8 character encoding — if your terminal is stuck in the past, this one ain't happening 😭)
• a Unicode code point, interpreted as hexadecimal if prefixed with 0x or U+, else as decimal
• a keysym, if either of the previous interpretations failed or if --keysym is used. the parameter is then either a keysym name or a numeric value (hexadecimal if prefixed with 0x, else decimal). and note that values 0 – 9 are special: they are both names and numeric values. the default interpretation is names; use the hexadecimal form 0x0 – 0x9 in order to interpret as numeric values. iykyk 🔥

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🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

xkbcli-how-to-type --layout us 97

xkbcli-how-to-type --layout us 0x61

xkbcli-how-to-type --layout us U+0061

xkbcli-how-to-type --layout us a

Print the key combinations that produce the letter “a” (decimal code point: 97, hexadecimal code point: 61) in the default us layout. 💖

xkbcli-how-to-type --layout us --keysym 97

xkbcli-how-to-type --layout us --keysym 0x61

xkbcli-how-to-type --layout us --keysym a

Print the key combinations that produce the keysym “a” (decimal code: 97, hexadecimal code: 61) in the default us layout. 🎀

like. she literally ate that. same letter, two totally different readings, depending on whether you meant a code point or a keysym 🧚

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• --keysym — Treat the argument as only as a keysym.
• --disable-compose — Disable Compose support. bye compose, we're going raw 😌
• --format keymap_format — Specify the keymap format (numeric or label, e.g. “v1”).
• --keymap [= PATH] — Load the XKB keymap from a file, ignore RMLVO options. If PATH is empty or “-”, read the stdin. yes bestie, she'll slurp it straight from stdin 🫶
• --rules rules — The XKB ruleset.
• --model model — The XKB model.
• --layout layout — The XKB layout.
• --variant variant — The XKB layout variant.
• --options options — The XKB options.
• --enable-environment-names — Allow to set the default RMLVO values via the following environment variables:
  • XKB_DEFAULT_RULES
  • XKB_DEFAULT_MODEL
  • XKB_DEFAULT_LAYOUT
  • XKB_DEFAULT_VARIANT
  • XKB_DEFAULT_OPTIONS

Note that this option may affect the default values of the previous options. ⚠️ like, she's not just reading the env, she's letting the env change her defaults. plot twist.

• --verbose — Enable verbose debugging output. she starts oversharing 💀
• --help — Print a help message and exit.

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• xkbcli(1)
• The libxkbcommon online documentation: https://xkbcommon.org

go read the docs bestie, they're iconic ⭐

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Debian · September 11, 2024 — that's the source, version and date, mwah 💋 stay slay, go type something weird 🌈✨🦋