xkbcli-how-to-type1
Query how to type a given unicode code point or keysym
Usage
xkbcli-how-to-type [options]
character/code
point/keysym
Overview
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.
code point/keysym is either:
-
a single character (requires a terminal which uses UTF-8 character encoding);
-
a Unicode code point, interpreted as hexadecimal if prefixed with 0x or U+ else as decimal;
-
a keysym if either the previous interpretations failed or if
--keysymis used. The parameter is then either a keysym name or a numeric value (hexadecimal if prefixed with 0x else decimal). 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.
Examples
xkbcli-how-to-type--layoutus 97xkbcli-how-to-type--layoutus 0x61xkbcli-how-to-type--layoutus U+0061xkbcli-how-to-type--layoutus 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--layoutus--keysym97xkbcli-how-to-type--layoutus--keysym0x61xkbcli-how-to-type--layoutus--keysyma-
Print the key combinations that produce the keysym “a”( decimal code: 97, hexadecimal code: 61) in the default us layout.
Options
-
--keysym -
Treat the argument as only as a keysym
-
--disable-compose -
Disable Compose support
-
--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.
-
--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.
-
-
--verbose -
Enable verbose debugging output
-
--help -
Print a help message and exit.
Releases
4 releases since Debian 11 (Bullseye); the text changed 3 times.
--disable-compose since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
--enable-environment-names since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
--format since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
--help since Debian 13 (Trixie);
--keysym since Debian 12 (Bookworm);
--verbose since Arch Linux 2026-11-01.