Where do I find a list of all X keysyms these days?

Question

They used to be in /usr/lib/X11/XKeysymDB or /usr/share/X11/XKeysymDB, but those have been missing from Ubuntu for a while. I've tried google, but all I get are more references to XKeysymDB or the outputs of different people's xmodmap -pke. Where is the concise list?

score 32 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 18 '15 at 00:10

32

Probably the best up-to-date values for key symbol definitions is to look at the source-code.

Basically its just a list of keysym names with their associated codes.

sudo apt-get install x11proto-core-dev

Two key keyfiles in /usr/include/X11:

The main definition file:

/usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h

Vendor specific (i.e. Debian/Ubuntu):

/usr/include/X11/XF86keysym.h

There are a number of other header files in the same folder you can also examine:

$ grep -l '#define.*XK_' /usr/include/X11/*.h

Example definition from /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h:

#define XK_BackSpace                     0xff08  /* Back space, back char */
#define XK_Tab                           0xff09
#define XK_Linefeed                      0xff0a  /* Linefeed, LF */
#define XK_Clear                         0xff0b
#define XK_Return                        0xff0d  /* Return, enter */
#define XK_Pause                         0xff13  /* Pause, hold */
#define XK_Scroll_Lock                   0xff14
#define XK_Sys_Req                       0xff15
#define XK_Escape                        0xff1b
#define XK_Delete                        0xffff  /* Delete, rubout */

edited Apr 18 '15 at 00:10

Volker Siegel

13,065
5
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answered Jan 08 '12 at 11:32

fossfreedom

172,746

1

Cheers, but I can't see XF86Bluetooth or XF86WLAN etc, so is there another header too? – Dave E Jan 08 '12 at 11:46
2

... updated - bluetooth/wlan is in XF86... – fossfreedom Jan 08 '12 at 12:04
Bingo! Thanks. Oops though, I didn't mean to vote that as a 'great comment'. – Dave E Jan 08 '12 at 12:20
3

For occasional Googlers: equivalent package for Fedora/Red Hat is called xorg-x11-proto-devel – Alois Mahdal May 12 '14 at 12:15
Update: these days, the interesting files in Fedora now live in libxkbcommon-devel – BRPocock Oct 27 '16 at 17:05
The package is x11proto-dev in Ubuntu 18.04 and later. – jarno Jan 30 '20 at 13:00

VasyaNovikov · Answer 2 · 2024-02-03T16:49:26.637

2

Note that if you want to learn the code for a specific key on your keyboard, you can use xev for X11 or wev for Wayland.

After starting xev/wev, you can press the key and see the X events printed to the terminal.

You can use xev | grep keysym/wev | grep keysym to filter the lines for the essential information. The keysym you need will be the second second argument in parenthesis.

edited Feb 03 '24 at 16:49

answered Jul 27 '21 at 10:09

VasyaNovikov

624

1

Not that xev is for X11. The corresponding software for Wayland is wev. – robertspierre May 26 '23 at 04:40
@robertspierre Thanks for the comment and for the edit! (Approved.) – VasyaNovikov May 26 '23 at 08:42

Where do I find a list of all X keysyms these days?

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