Important notes

Note: For an introduction to XKB and keymap components, please see “Introduction to XKB”.; For the complete XKB text format specification, see The XKB keymap text format, V1 and V2.; For distributing keyboard layouts, see Packaging keyboard layouts.; The following instructions focus on a user configuration; it can be extended to a system-wide configuration by replacing $XDG_CONFIG_HOME with the system configuration directory in the file locations. See XKB data locations for further details.; Applying layout changes depends on the setup: most desktop environments propose a dedicated GUI to configure it. Please consult the corresponding configuration.

Warning: The instructions of this page requires libxkbcommon as keymap compiler and does not work in X11 sessions, because X servers have hard-coded paths. Check your session type in the “information” or “about” screen of you desktop environment, or execute the following command: echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE.; In particular neither setxkbmap nor xkbcomp does work in Wayland sessions.

Important: An erroneous XKB configuration may make your keyboard unusable. Therefore it is advised to try custom configurations safely in user-space using xkbcli tools; see “Testing a custom configuration” for further details.

Quick start: your first custom layout

This example creates a minimal custom layout that swaps the number row (numbers require Shift).

This works by defining a new symbols file, which tells XKB how keys map to characters.

Step 1: Create directory for testing

Create a temporary XKB directory (used later via --include):

mkdir -p "/tmp/xkb/symbols"

Step 2: Define a symbols file

Create the file: /tmp/xkb/symbols/test with the following content:

default partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "basic" {
    include "us(basic)" // Use the US Qwerty layout as a base
    name[Group1]= "Test (Swapped numbers)";
 
    // Map keys <XXXX> to key symbols, ordered by their shift level
    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]     };
};

Step 3: Test the layout

Use the xkbcli tool provided by the libxkbcommon-tools package (or similar) to compile and inspect the new layout:

xkbcli compile-keymap --include /tmp/xkb \
                      --include-defaults \
                      --test \
                      --layout test \
&& echo "valid!" || echo "invalid!"

Compilation should succeed and print “valid!”.

Note: If something goes wrong, your system layout is unaffected as long as you only use the layout with xkbcli in the /tmp directory.

To preview how keys behave interactively, use the following command. It will open a window that needs to stay focused and log the keys in the terminal. Use Esc to quit.

xkbcli compile-keymap --include /tmp/xkb \
                      --include-defaults \
                      --layout test \
| xkbcli interactive

If everything worked, you now have a working custom keyboard layout named test!

Step 4: Use the layout

Important: This step does affect your system. Ensure that the layout compiles (see the previous step) before going further. An erroneous layout may make your keyboard unusable!

The layout needs to be moved to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/symbols/test – where $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is usually $HOME/.config – so it is in the default libxkbcommon include paths.
Enabling the keyboard layout depends on your environment. On desktop environments (e.g. GNOME, KDE), the GUI configuration tools require a further step: see Discoverable layouts. Other configuration methods depend on your environment and are not covered here.

Note
If the layout is not available, try restarting your session.

Step 5: Going further

This example defines a single simple layout. Read on to discover more advanced customizations:

XKB data locations: Explains how to alter system-wide configuration
How keyboard layout and options names map to keyboard data (RMLVO vs KcCGST): Explains the different XKB files types and more advanced features
Adding a layout: Explains custom layouts with greater details
Adding an option: Explains how to define layout-independent customization
Discoverable layouts: Explains how to make the customizations available in the keyboard configuration tools of your desktop environment

Note: It is advised to try configurations safely in user-space using a dedicated directory that is not in the libxkbcommon default paths (e.g. not $XDG_CONFIG_HOME); see “Testing a custom configuration” for further details.

XKB data locations

libxkbcommon searches the following paths for XKB configuration files:

XKB lookup paths
Scope	Rank	Name	Path
User	1	User configuration	$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.
User	2	Legacy user configuration	Deprecated $HOME/.xkb/ as a legacy alternative to the previous XDG option.
System	3	System-wide configuration	$XKB_CONFIG_EXTRA_PATH if set, otherwise <sysconfdir>/xkb – where <sysconfdir> is a placeholder for the system configuration directory (/etc on most distributions). Example: /etc/xkb.
	4	XKB extension packages data	See Packaging keyboard layouts.
	5	Canonical XKB root	$XKB_CONFIG_ROOT if set, otherwise the data directory of the xkeyboard-config (or xkb-data) package (denoted <xkb-config-root> in the rest of the page): <datadir>/xkeyboard-config-<VERSION> or <datadir>/X11/xkb on older setups. <datadir> is a placeholder for the package data; on most distributions this is /usr/share. Example: /usr/share/xkeyboard-config-2 and /usr/share/X11/xkb. Warning Do not modify the system XKB root files, because they will be overwritten by any update of the xkeyboard-config (also: xkb-data) package.

A keymap created with xkb_keymap::xkb_keymap_new_from_names2() will look up those paths in order until the required data is found.

Note: Where libxkbcommon runs in a privileged context (e.g. as root), only the system path is available (<xkb-config-root>).; The rest of the page assumes configuring a user configuration; it can be extended to a system-wide configuration by replacing $XDG_CONFIG_HOME with <sysconfdir> in the file locations (see in the table above).

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. See “The XKB keymap text format, V1 and V2” for detailed descriptions for how to add those types or compat entries.

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.

How keyboard layout and options names map to keyboard data (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:

Output of the command: xkbcli compile-keymap --kccgst --layout us --variant dvorak --options terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp

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.

See also

The “xkb_symbols” section for the full syntax

Keycode naming convention (e.g. <AE01>)

The default mappings of keycodes are:

<xkb-config-root>/symbols/pc for the basic system keys
<xkb-config-root>/symbols/inet (section evdev) for the special function keys
<xkb-config-root>/symbols/us for the US Qwerty layout

The list of [keysym] (key symbols) at xkbcommon-keysyms.h (remove the XKB_KEY_ prefix to get the name). The dead keys follow the pattern dead_<diacritic name>.

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-config-root>/symbols/foo. This is sufficient to define a new keyboard layout. The example below defines the keyboard layout banana with an optional variant orange:

Content of $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 section 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 specifically override any symbols.

The exact details of how xkb_symbols section works is detailed in “The XKB keymap text format, V1 and V2”.

Remarks: This example uses a file name banana that should not clash with the system files in <xkb-config-root>/symbols. Using the same file name than the system files is possible but may require special handling, see: Using system file names.

Adding an option

Options are sets of changes of any keymap components that affect the whole keyboard.

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.

Content of $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/rules/evdev

// Mandatory: include the system ruleset to *extend* it
! include %S/evdev
 
! option     = symbols
  custom:foo = +custom(bar)
  custom:baz = +other(baz)

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

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.

Important: The order of the options matters in the rule file! This is due to the sequential processing of the rules. In the example, custom:foo will always be applied before custom:baz and both options will always be applied after the system ones, even if the order is different in the RMLVO configuration passed to libxkbcommon (e.g. with xkbcli). See the related section in the rules documentation for further details.

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

Content of $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 ]       };
};

Content of $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.

Remarks: This example uses file names custom and other that should not clash with the system files in <xkb-config-root>/symbols. Using the same file name than the system files is possible but may require special handling, see: Using system file names.

Using system file names

The previous examples use custom keymap files with file name that do not clash with the files in the system directory, <xkb-config-root>. It is possible to add a custom variant/option using the same file name than the system file, e.g. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/symbols/us instead of $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/symbols/banana for the example in Adding a layout.

Compatibility

Attention: For libxkbcommon < 1.9, the custom file must contain an explicit default section if the system file has one, else it may break the keyboard setup by including a section of the custom file instead of the system one. The custom default section should enforce that the system default section is included.
The following example defines a broccoli layout variant:
Content of $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/symbols/us

// Explicit default section with no name required

default partial alphanumeric_keys

xkb_symbols { include "us(basic)" };

partial alphanumeric_keys

xkb_symbols "broccoli" {

include "us(basic)"

name[Group1] = "Broccoli";

key <AD05> { [ b, B, U1F966 ]}; // U1F966 = 🥦 (Unicode keysym)

include "level3(ralt_switch)"

};

For libxkbcommon ≥ 1.9 an explicit default section is not required anymore: libxkbcommon will look up for the proper default section in the XKB paths:

Content of $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/symbols/us

// No default section required
 
partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "broccoli" {
    include "us(basic)"
    name[Group1] = "Broccoli";
    key <AD05> { [ b, B, U1F966 ]}; // U1F966 = 🥦 (Unicode keysym)
    include "level3(ralt_switch)"
};

Overriding the system sections

One may override the system sections:

Simply use the same section name.
For the default section, additionally prepend the flag default before xkb_symbols in the custom file.

Warning: It will affect all layouts/variants that depend on the system section.; Including the system section can lead to a circular import.

Therefore is it highly recommended to not override the system sections and prefer creating proper independent variants.

Since: 1.11.0: It is possible to include the system section and avoid circular include by prepending %S to the included file. See the corresponding documentation.

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 following tags are required:

name

For layouts, this is the name of the corresponding file.
For variant, this is the name of the corresponding section in the file.
For options, this is the unique identifier used in the rules file (see Adding an option), usually following the pattern <group>:<option_name>.

shortDescription

For layout and variants, this is the ISO 639 language code.

description

This is the text that will be displayed to label the entry. For layouts and variants, this should be the same as name[Group1].

See the xkeyboard-config documentation for further information.

The example below shows the XML file that would add the custom layout and custom options as outlined above to the XKB registry:

Content of $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/rules/evdev.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE xkbConfigRegistry SYSTEM "xkb.dtd">
<xkbConfigRegistry version="1.1">
  <layoutList>
    <!-- Declare a new layout and its variants -->
    <layout>
      <!-- Default variant: `default … xkb_symbols "…"` -->
      <configItem>
        <!-- File name of $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/symbols/banana -->
        <name>banana</name>
        <shortDescription>ban</shortDescription>
        <!-- Label: use the value of `name[Group1]` -->
        <description>Banana (US)</description>
      </configItem>
      <!-- Other variants -->
      <variantList>
        <variant>
          <configItem>
            <!-- Section name in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/symbols/banana -->
            <name>orange</name>
            <shortDescription>or</shortDescription>
            <!-- Label: use the value of `name[Group1]` -->
            <description>Banana (Eurosign on 5)</description>
          </configItem>
        </variant>
      </variantList>
    </layout>
    <!-- Update a *system* layout and its variants -->
    <layout>
      <configItem>
        <!-- NOTE: Only minimal data is required here,
             since it will be merged with the system registry -->
        <name>us</name>
      </configItem>
      <variantList>
        <variant>
          <configItem>
            <!-- Section name in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/symbols/us -->
            <name>broccoli</name>
            <shortDescription>bro</shortDescription>
            <!-- Label: use the value of `name[Group1]` -->
            <description>Broccoli</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 <xkb-config-root>/rules/xkb.dtd and the system-provided XML files <xkb-config-root>/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 “Testing a custom configuration” for further details.

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