LOADKEYS(1)
NAME
loadkeys - load keyboard translation tables
SYNOPSIS
loadkeys [ -c --clearcompose ] [ -d --default ] [ -h
--help ] [ -m --mktable ] [ -s --clearstrings ] [ -v
--verbose ] [ filename... ]
DESCRIPTION
loadkeys reads the file or files specified by filename....
If this file does not contain any compose key definitions,
the kernel accent table is left unchanged, unless the -c
(or --clearcompose ) option is given. 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. If the -d (or --default )
option is given, loadkeys loads a default keymap, probably
the file defkeymap.map either in /usr/lib/kbd/keytables or
in /usr/src/linux/drivers/char. If the -m (or --mktable )
option is given it 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. Otherwise, it modifies
the keyboard drivers's translation tables. The files are
in the format specified by keytables(5). When specifying
the file names, standard input can be denoted by dash (-).
The files are read in consecutively one by one to in
effect catenate all the input files together. If no file
is specified, the data is read from the standard input.
Thus, the following command lines are equivalent:
cat foo.map bar.map | loadkeys
cat foo.map bar.map | loadkeys -
cat foo.map | loadkeys - bar.map
cat bar.map | loadkeys foo.map -
loadkeys foo.map bar.map
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 con-
soles, they also outlive your session. This means that
even at the login prompt the key bindings may not be what
the user expects.
OPTIONS
-h --help
loadkeys prints its version number and a short
usage message to the programs standard error output
and exits.
FILES
/usr/lib/kbd/keytables/
default directory for keytable files
/usr/src/linux/drivers/char/defkeymap.map default keymap
SEE ALSO
dumpkeys(1) keytables(5)