linux

Examine the codes sent by the keyboard

noraj (Alexandre ZANNI)
,
🇬🇧

A usefull command if are want to read keyboard input : showkey. Very useful to know keycodes when programming.

What is showkey ?#

showkey - examine the codes sent by the keyboard

How does it work ?#

showkey have only 3 options (4 with help) :

  • -s --scancodes : Starts showkey in scan code dump mode.
  • -k --keycodes : Starts showkey in keycode dump mode. This is the default, when no command line options are present.
  • -a --ascii : Starts showkey in `ascii' dump mode.

Note : Only -a will fully works on X mode (with a graphical terminal), -s and -k mode may work on X mode if you have root permissions else use a text console (TTY 1 to 6).

Example#

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showkey -a

Press any keys - Ctrl-D will terminate this program

a    97 0141 0x61
z   122 0172 0x7a
e   101 0145 0x65
r   114 0162 0x72
t   116 0164 0x74
y   121 0171 0x79
_    95 0137 0x5f
?    63 0077 0x3f
^?  127 0177 0x7f
^M   13 0015 0x0d
^C    3 0003 0x03
^D    4 0004 0x04
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