.\"
.TH XKBEVD 1 "xkbevd 1.1.5" "X Version 11"
.SH NAME
xkbevd \- XKB event daemon
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B xkbevd
[ options ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
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.
.PP
The
.I 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.
.PP
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 \fIpress\fP, \fIrelease\fP, \fIaccept\fP, or \fIreject\fP.  No
other events are currently recognized.
.PP
An action consists of an optional keyword followed by an optional string
argument.  Currently, \fIxkbev\fP recognizes the actions: \fInone\fP,
\fIignore\fP, \fIecho\fP, \fIprintEvent\fP, \fIsound\fP, and \fIshell\fP.
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.
.PP
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 $\fIc\fP or $(\fIstr\fP), where \fIc\fP is a single character and
\fIstr\fP is a string of arbitrary length.  All parameters have both
single-character and long names.
.PP
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).
.PP
The \fIignore\fP, \fIecho\fP, \fIprintEvent\fP, \fIsound\fP,and \fIshell\fP
actions do what you would expect commands named \fIignore\fP, \fIecho\fP,
\fIprintEvent\fP, \fIsound\fP, and \fIshell\fP 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.
.PP
The only currently recognized variables are \fIsoundDirectory\fP and
\fIsoundCmd\fP.  I'm sure you can figure out what they do.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP 8
.B \-help
Prints a usage message that is far more up-to-date than anything in this
man page.
.TP 8
.B \-cfg \fIfile\fP
Specifies the configuration file to read.  If no configuration file is
specified, \fIxkbevd\fP looks for ~/.xkb/xkbevd.cf and $(LIBDIR)/xkb/xkbevd.cf
in that order.
.TP 8
.B \-sc\ \fIcmd\fP
Specifies the command used to play sounds.
.TP 8
.B \-sd\ \fIdirectory\fP
Specifies a top-level directory for sound files.
.TP 8
.B \-display\ \fIdisplay\fP
Specifies the display to use.  If not present, \fIxkbevd\fP uses $DISPLAY.
.TP 8
.B \-bg
Tells \fIxkbevd\fP to fork itself (and run in the background).
.TP 8
.B \-synch
Forces synchronization of all X requests.  Slow.
.TP 8
.B \-v
Print more information, including debugging messages.  Multiple
specifications of \fI-v\fP cause more output, to a point.
.TP 8
.B \-version
Prints the program version and exits.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR xev (1),
.BR xkbwatch (1),
.BR X (7).
.SH AUTHOR
Erik Fortune, Silicon Graphics