== Overview ==

This package contains files that can be used to alter your keyboard
layout in the system console, within X.org, or anywhere else that
uses xkb (for example, most Wayland compositors):

  * Your physical "Alt" keys act like "Ctrl" keys
  * Your physical "Ctrl" keys act like "Alt" keys
  * Your physical "Caps Lock" key acts like the "Alt" key

In other words, we put those keys where they lived on the space-cadet
keyboard <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-cadet_keyboard>. This
makes Emacs (and any readline-based application) easier to use, I
promise.

(The console map probably only works on i386 qwerty keyboards, because
that's all I have.)

The files:

1. src/console.map

   This affects the Linux system console and virtual terminals; that
   is, the things that you switch between with Ctrl-Alt-FN, and the
   thing that you're looking at before you start your graphical
   desktop environment. The console.map file is input for the
   "loadkeys" utility that is part of KBD project
   <http://kbd-project.org/> and is provided by sys-apps/kbd on
   Gentoo.

2. src/Xmodmap

   This affects the X.org system, and your graphical terminals. It
   should be fed into the "xmodmap" utility that is part of X.org
   and which is provided by x11-apps/xmodmap on Gentoo.

3. src/xkb/symbols/emacs-keys

   This is an xkb <https://xkbcommon.org/> keyboard layout file and it
   affects anything that uses libxkbcommon for keyboard support. That
   of course includes X11 itself, but the main reason this file exists
   is to support Wayland. Under X11, the Xmodmap file is easier.


== Installation ==

The build system installs each of these files to $(datadir)/emacs-keys.

The console.map and Xmodmap files can be loaded directly from that
location; for example,

  $ loadkeys /usr/share/emacs-keys/console.map
  $ xmodmap /usr/share/emacs-keys/Xmodmap

But you probably don't want to do that every time you log in.

=== Xmodmap ===

For the Xmodmap file, you would typically add something like the
following to your ~/.xinitrc,

  emacsmodmap=/usr/share/emacs-keys/Xmodmap
  if [ -f $emacsmodmap ]; then
    xmodmap $emacsmodmap
    xmodmap $emacsmodmap
  fi

The call to xmodmap doesn't work unless you do it twice, and don't ask
me why.

=== console.map ===

If you're lucky enough to use OpenRC, the console map can be loaded
automatically. OpenRC starts a "keymaps" service at boot time. The
configuration file for that service is usually located at
/etc/conf.d/keymaps, and if you set, for example,

  extended_keymaps="/usr/share/emacs-keys/console.map"

in there, then OpenRC will load the emacs keymap on top of your
default one when the system boots.

Systemd can probably do this too, but you're on your own there.

=== xkb ===

The xkb layout needs to be installed where libxkbcommon will look for
it. Rather than muck with system paths, we assume that you'll be
configuring the keyboard for only one user (i.e. you). The per-user
xkb configuration typically goes in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb, and the
variable $XDG_CONFIG_HOME defaults to ~/.config in your home
directory. Your ultimate goal is therefore to make the
xkb/symbol/emacs-keys file available under ~/.config.

The best way to do this is with a symlink:

  $ ln -s /usr/share/emacs-keys/xkb/ ~/.config/

Now, to use it, all you have to do is tell whatever program you're
using to use the "emacs-keys" xkb_layout. For example, the Sway window
manager can be configured with,

  input type:keyboard {
    xkb_layout "emacs-keys"
  }

Other programs are configured similarly.