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  gen-
       eral  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, mes-
       sage 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 spec-
       ified,  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 $cP 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 particu-
       lar 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 sound-
       Cmd.  I'm sure you can figure out what they do.

OPTIONS

       -help   Prints a usage message that is far more  up-to-date  than  any-
               thing 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 $(LIB-
               DIR)/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.    Multi-
               ple specifications of -v cause more output, to a point.

SEE ALSO

       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

X Version 11                     xkbevd 1.0.2                        XKBEVD(1)