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 CLI tools.
- Introduction to XKB: to learn the essentials of XKB.
- User-configuration: instructions to add a custom layout or option.
- Quick Guide: introduction on how to use this library.
- Tools: introduction to the
xkbcliapplication. - Release notes.
- Frequently Asked Question (FAQ).
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 buildComplete list of user options
@include meson_options.txtWhile 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.
Libxkbcommon has a fair set of CLI
tools, grouped under the xkbcli application:
xkbcli compile-keymap- Compile an XKB keymap
xkbcli compile-compose- Compile a compose file
xkbcli how-to-type- Show how to type a given Unicode codepoint
xkbcli interactive-wayland- Interactive debugger for XKB keymaps for Wayland
xkbcli interactive-x11- Interactive debugger for XKB keymaps for X11
xkbcli interactive-evdev- Interactive debugger for XKB keymaps for evdev
xkbcli dump-keymap-wayland- Dump a XKB keymap from a Wayland compositor
xkbcli dump-keymap-x11- Dump a XKB keymap from a X server
xkbcli list- List available layouts and more
It may require the installation of the package libxkbcommon-tools or similar
name.
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.
See Compatibility notes.
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 [email protected] or [email protected] or in a GitHub pull request.
Bug reports (and usage questions) are also welcome, and may be filed at GitHub.
The maintainers are:
See the LICENSE file.
Many thanks are due to Dan Nicholson for his heroic work in getting xkbcommon off the ground initially.