How to get current keyboard layout

keyboardxkbxorg

I'm wondering is there any command line tool, that returns current keyboard layout.

I have XkbLayout set to us, ru.

Update: setxkbmap returns layout settings, not selected layout. E.g.:

$ setxkbmap -print | grep xkb_symbols
xkb_symbols   { include "pc+us+ru:2+inet(evdev)+capslock(grouplock)+terminate(ctrl_alt_bksp)"   };

It will return same result no matter what current layout is.

Best Answer

Maybe this is version dependent, but on my machine that uses setxkbmap 1.3.0 the following command works:

setxkbmap -query | grep layout

Note that depending on your need it may be useless to know only the layout : for instance the Dvorak variant of the US layout is quite different than the default QWERTY. The -query option of setxkbmap gives both the layout and the variant, as different fields :

$ setxkbmap -query
rules:      evdev
model:      default
layout:     fr
variant:    bepo
options:    grp:alt_shift_toggle

Three useful commands:

1. Get the current keyboard layout, from this topic :

setxkbmap -print | grep xkb_symbols | awk -F"+" '{print $2}'

Returns layout(variant) where variant is optional

2. Know if the current keyboard layout is layout(variant):

 setxkbmap -print | grep "layout(variant)"

Or without "(variant)".

Returns nothing is not.

3. Set the keyboard layout to a specified value:

setxkbmap layout variant

Where variant is optional.

(see man setxkbmap for more informations)

What you can do:

1. Create a simple executable (chmod +x file) script that changes the keyboard layout on the fly, depending on the current one. For instance, if we deal with the first point:

#!/bin/bash

if setxkbmap -print | grep "us"
then
  setxkbmap ru
else
  setxkbmap us
fi

2. With your keyboard shortcuts manager, assign the Shift-CapsLock keys to this script.

Good luck!

Setxkbmap – List All Valid Keyboard Layouts, Variants, and Toggle Options

Try looking in /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols as described on the setxkbmap man page. The options can be found in various files, try doing a grep -rinH alts_toggle /usr/share/X11/xkb. /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/xorg.xml looks like a good choice.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

How to put some keyboard layout aside from layout switching ring

Three useful commands:

What you can do:

Setxkbmap – List All Valid Keyboard Layouts, Variants, and Toggle Options

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