libxkbcommon: User-configuration

libxkbcommon 1.8.0

User-configuration

This page describes how to add a custom layout or option so that it will be parsed by libxkbcommon.

Note
  For an introduction to XKB and keymap components, please see “Introduction to XKB”.

Warning
  The below requires libxkbcommon as keymap compiler and does not work in X.

Important
  An erroneous XKB configuration may make your keyboard unusable. Therefore it is advised to try custom configurations safely using `xkbcli` tools; see debugging for further details.

# Data locations

libxkbcommon searches the following paths for XKB configuration files:

1. `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/`, or `$HOME/.config/xkb/` if the `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME` environment variable is not defined. See the XDG Base Directory Specification for further details.
2. Deprecated
     `$HOME/.xkb/` as a legacy alternative to the previous XDG option.
3. `$XKB_CONFIG_EXTRA_PATH` if set, otherwise `<sysconfdir>/xkb` (on most distributions this is `/etc/xkb`).
4. `$XKB_CONFIG_ROOT` if set, otherwise `<datadir>/X11/xkb/` (path defined by the `xkeyboard-config` package, on most distributions this is `/usr/share/X11/xkb`).

A keymap created with `xkb_keymap::xkb_keymap_new_from_names()` will look up those paths in order until the required data is found.

Note
  Where libxkbcommon runs in a privileged context, only the system (`<datadir>`) path is available.

Each directory should have one or more of the following subdirectories:

- `compat`
- `geometry` (libxkbcommon ignores this directory)
- `keycodes`
- `rules`
- `symbols`
- `types`

The majority of user-specific configurations involve modifying key symbols and this is what this document focuses on. For use-cases where a user may need to add new key types or compat entries the general approach remains the same. A detailed description for how to add those types or compat entries is out of scope for this document.

You should never need to add user-specific keycodes. Where a keycode is missing, the addition should be filed in the upstream xkeyboard-config project.

# RMLVO vs KcCGST

Due to how XKB is configured, there is no such thing as a "layout" in XKB itself, or, indeed, any of the rules, models, variant, options (RMLVO) described in `struct xkb_rule_names`. RMLVO names are merely lookup keys in the rules file provided by xkeyboard-config to map to the correct keycode, compat, geometry (ignored by libxkbcommon), symbols and types (KcCGST). The KcCGST data is the one used by XKB and libxkbcommon to map keys to actual symbols.

For example, a common RMLVO configuration is layout "us", variant "dvorak" and option "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp". Using the default rules file and model this maps into the following KcCGST components:

xkb_keymap {
xkb_keycodes { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };
xkb_types { include "complete" };
xkb_compat { include "complete" };
xkb_symbols { include "pc+us(dvorak)+inet(evdev)+terminate(ctrl_alt_bksp)" };
xkb_geometry { include "pc(pc105)" };
};

A detailed explanation of how rules files convert RMLVO to KcCGST is out of scope for this document. See the rules file page instead.

# Adding a layout

Adding a layout requires that the user adds symbols in the correct location.

The default rules files (usually `evdev`) have a catch-all to map a layout, say "foo", and a variant, say "bar", into the "bar" section in the file `$xkb_base_dir/symbols/foo`. This is sufficient to define a new keyboard layout. The example below defines the keyboard layout "banana" with an optional variant "orange":

$ cat $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/symbols/banana
// Like a US layout but swap the top row so numbers are on Shift
default partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "basic" {
include "us(basic)"
name[Group1]= "Banana (US)";
key <AE01> { [ exclam, 1] };
key <AE02> { [ at, 2] };
key <AE03> { [ numbersign, 3] };
key <AE04> { [ dollar, 4] };
key <AE05> { [ percent, 5] };
key <AE06> { [ asciicircum, 6] };
key <AE07> { [ ampersand, 7] };
key <AE08> { [ asterisk, 8] };
key <AE09> { [ parenleft, 9] };
key <AE10> { [ parenright, 0] };
key <AE11> { [ underscore, minus] };
key <AE12> { [ plus, equal] };
};
// Same as banana but map the euro sign to the 5 key
partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "orange" {
include "banana(basic)"
name[Group1] = "Banana (Eurosign on 5)";
include "eurosign(5)"
};

The `default` section is loaded when no variant is given. The first example sections uses `include` to populate with a symbols list defined elsewhere (here: section `basic` from the file `symbols/us`, aka. the default US keyboard layout) and overrides parts of these symbols. The effect of this section is to swap the numbers and symbols in the top-most row (compared to the US layout) but otherwise use the US layout.

The "orange" variant uses the "banana" symbols and includes a different section to define the eurosign. It does not specificially override any symbols.

The exact details of how `xkb_symbols` work is out of scope for this document.

# Adding an option

For technical reasons, options do not have a catch-all to map option names to files and sections and must be specifically mapped by the user. This requires a custom rules file. As the `evdev` ruleset is hardcoded in many clients, the custom rules file must usually be named `evdev`.

$ cat $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/rules/evdev
! option = symbols
custom:foo = +custom(bar)
custom:baz = +other(baz)
! include %S/evdev

This rules file maps the RMLVO option "custom:foo" to the "bar" section in the `symbols/custom` file and the "custom:baz" option to the "baz" section in the `symbols/other` file. Note how the RMLVO option name may be different to the file or section name.

The `include` statement includes the system-provided `evdev` ruleset. This allows users to only override those options they need.

The files themselves are similar to the layout examples in the previous section:

$ cat $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/symbols/custom
// map the Tilde key to nothing on the first shift level
partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "bar" {
key <TLDE> { [ VoidSymbol ] };
};
$ cat $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/symbols/other
// map first key in bottom row (Z in the US layout) to k/K
partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "baz" {
key <AB01> { [ k, K ] };
};

With these in place, a user may select any layout/variant together with the "custom:foo" and/or "custom:baz" options.

# Discoverable layouts

Warning
  The below requires `libxkbregistry` as XKB lookup tool and does not work where clients parse the XML file directly.

The above sections apply only to the data files and require that the user knows about the existence of the new entries. To make custom entries discoverable by the configuration tools (e.g. the GNOME Control Center), the new entries must also be added to the XML file that is parsed by `libxkbregistry`. In most cases, this is the `evdev.xml` file in the rules directory. The example below shows the XML file that would add the custom layout and custom options as outlined above to the XKB registry:

$ cat $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/rules/evdev.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE xkbConfigRegistry SYSTEM "xkb.dtd">
<xkbConfigRegistry version="1.1">
<layoutList>
<layout>
<configItem>
<name>banana</name>
<shortDescription>ban</shortDescription>
<description>Banana</description>
</configItem>
<variantList>
<variant>
<configItem>
<name>orange</name>
<shortDescription>or</shortDescription>
<description>Orange (Banana)</description>
</configItem>
</variant>
</variantList>
</layout>
</layoutList>
<optionList>
<group allowMultipleSelection="true">
<configItem>
<name>custom</name>
<description>Custom options</description>
</configItem>
<option>
<configItem>
<name>custom:foo</name>
<description>Map Tilde to nothing</description>
</configItem>
</option>
<option>
<configItem>
<name>custom:baz</name>
<description>Map Z to K</description>
</configItem>
</option>
</group>
</optionList>
</xkbConfigRegistry>

The default behavior of `libxkbregistry` ensures that the new layout and options are added to the system-provided layouts and options.

For details on the XML format, see the DTD in `<datadir>/X11/xkb/rules/xkb.dtd` and the system-provided XML files `<datadir>/X11/xkb/rules/*.xml`.

Note
  Depending on the desktop environment, it may require restarting the session in order to make the configuration changes effective.
  It is advised to try the custom configuration before restarting the session using the various `xkbcli` tools. See debugging for further details.