NAME
    showkey - examine the codes sent by the keyboard

SYNOPSIS
    showkey [-h|--help] [-a|--ascii] [-s|--scancodes] [-k|--keycodes]

DESCRIPTION
    showkey prints to standard output either the scan codes or the keycode
    or the `ascii' code of each key pressed.  In the first two modes the
    program runs until 10 seconds have elapsed since the last key press or
    release event, or until it receives a suitable signal, like SIGTERM,
    from another process. In `ascii' mode the program terminates when the
    user types ^D.

    When in scancode dump mode, showkey prints in hexadecimal format each
    byte received from the keyboard to the standard output. A new line is
    printed when an interval of about 0.1 seconds occurs between the  bytes
    received, or when the  internal receive buffer fills up. This can be
    used to determine roughly, what byte sequences the keyboard sends at
    once on  a given key press. The scan code dumping mode is primarily
    intended for debugging the keyboard driver or other low  level inter-
    faces. As such  it shouldn't be of much interest to the regular end-
    user. However, some modern keyboards have keys or buttons that produce
    scancodes to which the kernel does not associate a keycode, and, after
    finding out what these are, the user can assign keycodes  with setkeycodes(8)
    .

    When in  the default keycode dump mode, showkey prints to the standard
    output the keycode number or each key pressed or released. The kind of
    the event, press or release, is also reported. Keycodes are numbers
    assigned by the kernel to each individual physical key. Every key has
    always only one associated keycode number, whether the keyboard sends
    single or multiple scan codes when pressing it. Using showkey in this
    mode, you can find out what numbers to use in your personalized keymap
    files.

    When in `ascii' dump mode, showkey prints to the  standard output the
    decimal,  octal, and hexadecimal value(s) of the key pressed, according
    to he present keymap.

OPTIONS
    -h --help
    showkey prints to the standard error output its version number,
    a compile option and a short usage message, then exits.

    -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.

SEE ALSO
   loadkeys(1),dumpkeys(1), keymaps(5), setkeycodes(8)