libxkbcommon

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libxkbcommon is a keyboard keymap compiler and support library which processes a reduced subset of keymaps as defined by the XKB (X Keyboard Extension) specification. It also contains a module for handling Compose and dead keys, a separate registry library for listing available keyboard layouts and a fair set of <!--! @rawHtml --><abbr title="Command-Line Interface">CLI</abbr><!--! @endRawHtml --> tools.

Quick Guide

• Introduction to XKB: to learn the essentials of XKB.
• User-configuration: instructions to add a custom layout or option.
• Keymap format: keymap components and keymap text syntax documentation.
• Library quick Guide: introduction on how to use this library.
• Tools: introduction to the xkbcli application.
• Release notes.
• Frequently Asked Question (FAQ).

Building

libxkbcommon is built with Meson:

meson setup build
meson compile -C build
meson test -C build # Run the tests.

To build for use with Wayland, you can disable X11 support while still using the X11 keyboard configuration resource files thusly:

meson setup build \
      -Denable-x11=false \
      -Dxkb-config-root=/usr/share/X11/xkb \
      -Dx-locale-root=/usr/share/X11/locale
meson compile -C build

<details> <summary>Complete list of user options</summary> @include meson.options </details>

API

While libxkbcommon’s API is somewhat derived from the classic XKB API as found in X11/extensions/XKB.h and friends, it has been substantially reworked to expose fewer internal details to clients.

See the API Documentation.

Tools

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Libxkbcommon has a fair set of <abbr title="Command-Line Interface">CLI</abbr> <code>tools</code>, grouped under the <code>xkbcli</code> application:

<!--! @endRawHtml --> <dl> <dt><code>xkbcli compile-keymap</code></dt> <dd>Compile an XKB keymap</dd> <dt><code>xkbcli compile-compose</code></dt> <dd>Compile a compose file</dd> <dt><code>xkbcli how-to-type</code></dt> <dd>Show how to type a given Unicode codepoint</dd> <dt><code>xkbcli interactive-wayland</code></dt> <dd>Interactive debugger for XKB keymaps for Wayland</dd> <dt><code>xkbcli interactive-x11</code></dt> <dd>Interactive debugger for XKB keymaps for X11</dd> <dt><code>xkbcli interactive-evdev</code></dt> <dd>Interactive debugger for XKB keymaps for evdev</dd> <dt><code>xkbcli dump-keymap-wayland</code></dt> <dd>Dump a XKB keymap from a Wayland compositor</dd> <dt><code>xkbcli dump-keymap-x11</code></dt> <dd>Dump a XKB keymap from a X server</dd> <dt><code>xkbcli list</code></dt> <dd>List available layouts and more</dd> <dt><code>xkbcli info</code></dt> <dd>Print information about libxkbcommon configuration, for debugging purposes.</dd> </dl>

It may require the installation of the package libxkbcommon-tools or similar name.

Dataset

libxkbcommon does not distribute a keyboard layout dataset itself, other than for testing purposes. The most common dataset is xkeyboard-config, which is used by all current distributions for their X11 XKB data. Further information on xkeyboard-config is available at its homepage and at its repository.

The dataset for Compose is distributed in libX11, as part of the X locale data.

Relation to X11

See Compatibility notes.

Development

An project’s homepage can be found at https://xkbcommon.org.

xkbcommon is maintained in git at: https://github.com/xkbcommon/libxkbcommon

Patches are always welcome, and may be sent to either xorg-devel@lists.x.org or wayland-devel@lists.freedesktop.org or in a GitHub pull request.

Bug reports (and usage questions) are also welcome, and may be filed at GitHub.

The maintainers are:

• Daniel Stone
• Ran Benita
• Pierre Le Marre

License

See the LICENSE file.

Credits

Many thanks are due to Dan Nicholson for his heroic work in getting xkbcommon off the ground initially.