SHOWKEY(1)		      Linux Users Manual		   SHOWKEY(1)



NAME
       showkey - examine the scan codes and keycodes sent by the keyboard


SYNOPSIS
       showkey	[  -[hVskm]  | --help | --version | --scancodes | --keycodes |
       --keymap ] [ -t N | --timeout=N ]


DESCRIPTION
       showkey prints to standard output either the scan codes,  the  keycode,
       or  the	character of each key pressed/released. The program runs until
       10 seconds (or the amount of time specified  by	the  --timeout	or  -t
       option) has elapsed since the last key press or release event, or until
       it receives a suitable signal, like SIGTERM, from another process.

       showkey has three modes of operation, scancode dumping,	keycode  dump
       ing, and keymap testing, selected by a command line option (see below).


COMMANDS
       -h --help
	      showkey prints to the standard error output its version  number,
	      a short usage message, then exits.

       -V --version
	      showkey  prints to the standard error output its version number,
	      then exits.

       -s --scancodes
	      Starts showkey in scan code dump mode.

	      In this mode, showkey prints in  hexadecimal  format  each  byte
	      received from the keyboard to the standard output. A new line is
	      printed when an interval of about 0.1 seconds occurs between the
	      bytes  received,	or  when the internal receive buffer fills up.
	      This can be used to determine roughly, what byte	sequences  the
	      keyboard sends at once on a given key press. The scan code dump
	      ing mode is primarily intended for debugging the keyboard driver
	      or  other  low level interfaces. As such it shouldnt be of much
	      interest to the regular end-user.

       -k --keycodes
	      Starts showkey in keycode dump mode. This is the	default,  when
	      no command is specified is specified.

	      In  this mode, showkey prints to the standard output the keycode
	      number or each key pressed or released. The kind of  the	event,
	      press  or  release,  is  also  reported.	 Keycodes  are numbers
	      assigned by the kernel to each individual  physical  key.  Every
	      key  has	always only one associated keycode number, whether the
	      keyboard sends single or multiple scan codes when  pressing  it.
	      Using showkey in this mode, you can find out what numbers to use
	      in your personalized keymap files.

       -m --keymap
	      Starts showkey in keycode dump mode.

	      In this mode, showkey displays the characters as they are trans
	      lated  by  the kernel using the current keymap. It may be useful
	      to writers of install programs, to allow the user to test a  new
	      keyboard before really installing it.


OPTIONS
       -t N --timeout=N
	      This option changes the timeout (in seconds) from its default of
	      10s.


AUTHOR
       showkey was developed by Risto Kankkunen for kbd-0.81.

       It was later extended by Yann Dirson  to support the
       --keymap command and the --timeout option.


BUGS
       The  --keymap  mode should report action keys by displaying what action
       should be performed, instead of executing the action.


SEE ALSO
       loadkeys(1), dumpkeys(1), keymaps(5), setkeycodes(8).



Console tools			  09 Oct 1997			    SHOWKEY(1)