# X Keyboard Configuration Database

The non-arch keyboard configuration database for X Window. The goal is to provide the consistent, well-structured, frequently released open source of X keyboard configuration data for X Window System implementations (free, open source and commercial). The project is targeted to XKB-based systems.


# What is it for?

There are many X Window implementations which have very poor support for non-standard keyboards, national layouts and options.

Open Source X Window System implementations (xfree86, x.org) currently have non-synchronized XKB configuration databases: the bugs fixed in one repository are not reflected in the other, new configuration elements are added (in best case) separately and independently to both CVS trees - but usually only one tree gets them. Also, these implementations contain unbalanced and unstructured layout trees (very often one country/language have several layouts, each with its own set of variants).

Commercial X Window System implementations cannot support large variety of national layouts - usually, because of lack of resources. So users from "exotic" countries feel offended and frustrated - their environments are not complete.

The solution which would guarantee quality support for the keyboard configuration data is to have single repository which would serve as meta-project for X servers and OS distributions. X Keyboard Configuration Database is trying to be the one.


# License

[[MIT License|http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php]]


# Development

For details on mailing lists, bug reporting, code repositories, and submission rules, see [[here|Software/XKeyboardConfig/Development]]


# Releases

* [[0.1|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/release/xkeyboard-config-0.1.tar.gz]] - 25 May 2004, first version.  Only single-group layouts are included (tested for compatibility with the multiple layouts feature). Each language/country has no more than one layout and any number of variants.
* [[0.2|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/release/xkeyboard-config-0.2.tar.gz]] - 12 Jun 2004, second version. HOWTO.transition is added, xkbcomp symlink is supported, Maori layout is added, small fix for Brasilian layout is applied.
* [[0.3|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/release/xkeyboard-config-0.3.tar.gz]] - 23 Jul 2004, HEAVILY restructured layout names, compatibility rules are introduced, intltool problem resolved (sorry, with warnings).
* [[0.4|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/release/xkeyboard-config-0.4.tar.gz]] - 28 Sep 2004, A lot of fixes. More univeral EURO handling. New urdu layout. Improved handling for indicators.
* [[0.5|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-0.5.tar.gz]] - 02 Mar 2005, New layouts/models/options. Updated translations. Group names synchronization.
* [[0.6|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-0.6.tar.gz]] - August 2005, Many improvements.
* [[0.7|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-0.7.tar.bz2]] - December 2005, New layouts/models/options. Reogranized symbols/inet.
* [[0.8|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-0.8.tar.bz2]] - March 2006, New layouts, fixes.
* [[0.9|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-0.9.tar.bz2]] - October 2006, New layouts, fixes.
* [[1.0|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.0.tar.bz2]] - July 2007, Around 70 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed.
* [[1.1|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.1.tar.bz2]] - September 2007, Around 30 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. First time-based release.
* [[1.2|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.2.tar.bz2]] - January 2008, Around 40 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. Updated translation schema.
* [[1.3|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.3.tar.bz2]] - May 2008, Around 40 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. Dropped old rulesets sgi and sun. Added a lot of metadata, related to countries and languages.
* [[1.4|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.4.tar.bz2]] - September 2008, Around 30 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. Added new ruleset evdev.
* [[1.5|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.5.tar.bz2]] - January 2009, More than 40 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. symbols/inet restructured.
* [[1.6|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.6.tar.bz2]] - May 2009, Around 30 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. Added terminate:* group. Dropped locale-specific models.
* [[1.7|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.7.tar.bz2]] - September 2009, Around 30 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. Restructured rules-generating scripts.
* [[1.8|http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.8.tar.bz2]] - January 2010, Around 10 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed.
* [[1.9|http://people.freedesktop.org/~svu/xkeyboard-config-1.9.tar.bz2]] - May 2010, Around 30 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. Evdev model dropped.
* [[2.0|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.0.tar.bz2]] - September 2010, 17 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed.
* [[2.1|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.1.tar.bz2]] - January 2011, 13 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed.
* [[2.2|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.2.tar.bz2]] - April 2011, New structure of descriptions, massive changes in user-visible strings. Special release for GNOME 3
* [[2.3|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.3.tar.bz2]] - May 2011, 18 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. Descriptions from 2.2 are polished
* [[2.4|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.4.tar.bz2]] - September 2011, 9 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed.
* [[2.5|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.5.tar.bz2]] - January 2012, 15 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed.
* [[2.5.1|http://xorg.freedesktop.org/archive/individual/data/xkeyboard-config-2.5.1.tar.bz2]] - January 2012, translations updated (after urgent release 2.5)
* [[2.6|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.6.tar.bz2]] - May 2012, translations, minor fixes
* [[2.7|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.7.tar.bz2]] - Sep 2012, translations, minor fixes. *.dir files are gone. CTL+ALT type fixed
* [[2.8|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.8.tar.bz2]] - Jan 2013, translations, minor fixes, massive updates from Oracle
* [[2.9|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.9.tar.bz2]] - May 2013, translations, minor fixes
* [[2.10.1|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.10.1.tar.bz2]] - Oct 2013, translations, minor fixes, massive code cleanup
* [[2.11|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.11.tar.bz2]] - Jan 2014, translations, minor fixes, more code cleanup
* [[2.12|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.12.tar.bz2]] - May 2014
* [[2.13|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.13.tar.bz2]] - Sep 2014
* [[2.14|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.14.tar.bz2]] - Jan 2015
* [[2.15|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.15.tar.bz2]] - May 2015
* [[2.16|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.16.tar.bz2]] - Sep 2015
* [[2.17|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.17.tar.bz2]] - Jan 2016
* [[2.18|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.18.tar.bz2]] - May 2016
* [[2.19|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.19.tar.bz2]] - Sep 2016
* [[2.20|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.20.tar.bz2]] - Jan 2017
* [[2.21|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.21.tar.bz2]] - May 2017
* [[2.22|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.22.tar.bz2]] - Sep 2017
* [[2.23|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.23.tar.bz2]] - Jan 2018
* [[2.24|http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.24.tar.bz2]] - Jun 2018

[[Release Schedule|Software/XKeyboardConfig/ReleaseSchedule]]


# Contributions to the project. Relations to X Window System implementations.

We kindly ask and encourage people contributing layouts to XFree86 and X.Org repositories to send patches to X Keyboard Configuration Database. We would highly appreciate X implementations using our codebase in their distributions (there was preliminary agreement with X.Org implementation maintainers).


# Links

* [[X Keyboard Extension|http://pascal.tsu.ru/en/xkb/]] (by Ivan U. Pascal)
* [[The XKB Configuration Guide|http://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.6/doc/xorg-docs/input/XKB-Config.html]] (by Kamil Toman, Ivan U. Pascal, XFree86 project)
* [[An Unreliable Guide to XKB Configuration|http://www.charvolant.org/~doug/xkb/]] (by Doug Palmer)
* [[X Window Keyboard-related forum|http://www.livejournal.com/community/xkbconfig/]] (in [[LiveJournal|http://www.livejournal.com]])
* [[Compatibility between keyboard models|Software/XKeyboardConfig/ModelsCompatibility]]
* [[Custom Keyboard in Linux/X11|http://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/Blog/custom-keyboard-in-linuxx11]]

# Dreaming of XKB2

For many years, there are rumours, discussions and speculations about XKB2 - the new improved version of XKB. I collected  [[some ideas|Software/XKeyboardConfig/XKB2Dreams]] that might one day be implemented within XKB2


# Maintainers

* [[Sergey V. Udaltsov|SergeyUdaltsov]]
* Ivan U. Pascal (comaintainer)