Linux – How to change the keyboard layout for a single application in Awesome WM

From man awesome there doesn't seem to be a default key binding to close all windows of an application. It might be possible to manually add such a binding.

There is, however, a default key binding to close the one focused window*: Mod4-Shift-c. This will leave other windows (if any) of the application intact. It does not work for sub-windows ("logical" windows like tabs which are part of a single application window).

* Or "client" as it is known from the perspective of X as opposed to the user.

I often switch between English and Greek layouts and this has been a minor annoyance for a while. Your question pushed me to solve it, so thanks!

I found a program that can do this: xbindkeys. The proceedure I followed (adapted from here) was:

1. Install xbindkeys. On my Debian this is done with

    sudo apt-get install xbindkeys
   

You should also be able to install easily enough with the equivalent yum install or pacman -S or whatever commands.

2. Create the default settings file:

    xbindkeys --defaults > ~/.xbindkeysrc
   

3. Get the right keycodes for your keys. Run xbindkeys -k and press your desired shortcut. With my keyboard at least (though this should be standard), xbindkeys -k reports that CtrlT is

    m:0x14 + c:28
    Control+Mod2 + t
   

4. Create the relevant shortcut, add these lines to ~/.xbindkeysrc:

    "xterm"
     m:0x14 + c:28
   

5. Run xbindkeys. The shortcut now works even in the Greek layout. To make this permanent, add this to your ~/.Xsession:

    xbindkeys