showkey

Display keyboard keycodes and scancodes

TLDR

View keycodes in decimal

$ sudo showkey

Display scancodes in hexadecimal

$ sudo showkey -s

Display keycodes in decimal

$ sudo showkey -k

Display keycodes in ASCII, decimal, and hexadecimal

$ sudo showkey -a

showkey prints to standard output either the scan codes, the keycode, or the ASCII code of each key pressed. This is useful for debugging keyboard-related issues, key remapping, and understanding keyboard input at a low level.In scancode and keycode modes, the program runs until 10 seconds have elapsed since the last key press or release event. In ASCII mode, the program terminates when the user types Ctrl+D.

PARAMETERS

-s, --scancodes

Display scancodes in hexadecimal.

-k, --keycodes

Display keycodes in decimal (default mode).

-a, --ascii

Display key values in ASCII, decimal, and hexadecimal.

-h, --help

Display help message.

-V, --version

Print version number and exit.

INSTALL

sudo apt install kbd

sudo dnf install kbd

sudo pacman -S kbd

sudo apk add kbd

sudo zypper install kbd

brew install showkey

nix profile install nixpkgs#kbd

CAVEATS

Must be run as root or with sudo. Only works on the Linux console, not in terminal emulators under X11 or Wayland. The keyboard becomes unusable for normal input while running.

HISTORY

showkey is part of the kbd (keyboard tools) package for Linux console utilities.