xkbevd(1)

NAME

   xkbevd - XKB event daemon

SYNOPSIS

   xkbevd [ options ]

DESCRIPTION

   This  command  is very raw and is therefore only partially implemented;
   we present it here as a  rough  prototype  for  developers,  not  as  a
   general  purpose  tool for end users.  Something like this might make a
   suitable replacement for xev; I'm not signing up, mind you, but it's an
   interesting idea.

   The  xkbevd  event daemon listens for specified XKB events and executes
   requested commands if they occur.  The configuration file consists of a
   list of event specification/action pairs and/or variable definitions.

   An event specification consists of a short XKB event name followed by a
   string or identifier which serves as a qualifier in parentheses;  empty
   parenthesis  indicate no qualification and serve to specify the default
   command which is applied to events which do not match any of the  other
   specifications.   The  interpretation  of  the qualifier depends on the
   type of the event: Bell events  match  using  the  name  of  the  bell,
   message events match on the contents of the message string and slow key
   events accept any of press,  release,  accept,  or  reject.   No  other
   events are currently recognized.

   An  action  consists  of  an  optional  keyword followed by an optional
   string  argument.   Currently,  xkbev  recognizes  the  actions:  none,
   ignore,  echo,  printEvent,  sound,  and  shell.   If the action is not
   specified, the string is taken as the name of a sound file to be played
   unless  it  begins with an exclamation point, in which case it is taken
   as a shell command.

   Variable definitions in the argument string are  expanded  with  fields
   from  the event in question before the argument string is passed to the
   action processor.  The general syntax for a variable is  either  $c  or
   $(str),  where c is a single character and str is a string of arbitrary
   length.  All parameters have both single-character and long names.

   The list of recognized parameters varies from event to event and is too
   long  to  list  here right now.  This is a developer release anyway, so
   you can be expected  to  look  at  the  source  code  (evargs.c  is  of
   particular interest).

   The ignore, echo, printEvent, sound,and shell actions do what you would
   expect commands named ignore, echo, printEvent, sound, and shell to do,
   except  that the sound command has only been implemented and tested for
   SGI machines.  It launches an external program right now, so it  should
   be  pretty easy to adapt, especially if you like audio cues that arrive
   about a half-second after you expect them.

   The  only  currently  recognized  variables  are   soundDirectory   and
   soundCmd.  I'm sure you can figure out what they do.

OPTIONS

   -help   Prints  a  usage  message  that  is  far  more  up-to-date than
           anything in this man page.

   -cfg file
           Specifies the configuration file to read.  If no  configuration
           file  is  specified,  xkbevd  looks  for  ~/.xkb/xkbevd.cf  and
           $(LIBDIR)/xkb/xkbevd.cf in that order.

   -sc cmd Specifies the command used to play sounds.

   -sd directory
           Specifies a top-level directory for sound files.

   -display display
           Specifies the display to use.   If  not  present,  xkbevd  uses
           $DISPLAY.

   -bg     Tells xkbevd to fork itself (and run in the background).

   -synch  Forces synchronization of all X requests.  Slow.

   -v      Print more information, including debugging messages.  Multiple
           specifications of -v cause more output, to a point.

   -version
           Prints the program version and exits.

SEE ALSO

   xev(1), xkbwatch(1), X(7).

COPYRIGHT

   Copyright 1995, Silicon Graphics Computer Systems
   Copyright 1995, 1998  The Open Group
   See X(7) for a full statement of rights and permissions.

AUTHOR

   Erik Fortune, Silicon Graphics

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Free and Open Source Software