wkb — Wayland Keyboard

A lightweight, pure Rust keyboard handling library for Wayland. WKB is a drop-in alternative to xkbcommon that compiles XKB keymaps, tracks modifier and compose state, and maps evdev key codes to characters — all without C dependencies.

• XKB keymap import — parse keymap strings received from Wayland compositors via wl_keyboard.
• XKB keymap export — serialize keymaps back to XKB v1 text format via as_xkb_string().
• Full modifier support — Shift, Ctrl, Alt, AltGr, Caps Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock, and multi-level keys.
• Compose sequences — built-in compose key and automatic compose handling.
• Multi-layout keymaps — supports multiple layouts with group switching.
• LED state — query Caps/Num/Scroll Lock indicator state.
• Repeat info — query whether a key repeats.
• Lightweight — no C FFI, no unsafe beyond Send/Sync impls, minimal dependencies.

[dependencies]
wayland-keyboard = "0.1"

use wkb::WKB;

// Build from an XKB keymap string (e.g. received from a Wayland compositor)
let keymap_string = std::fs::read_to_string("/path/to/keymap").unwrap();
let mut wkb = WKB::new_from_string(&keymap_string).unwrap();

// Process a key press (evdev code 38 = 'a' on US layout)
let result = wkb.press_key(38);
println!("keysym: {:#x}, compose: {:?}", result.keysym, result.compose);

// Release the key
let result = wkb.release_key(38);

// Query current modifier state
let mods = wkb.modifiers_state();
println!("ctrl={} alt={} shift={}", mods.ctrl, mods.alt, mods.shift);

All three event methods return a KeyResult containing the keysym, compose state, and whether the key is a modifier.

use wkb::WKB;

// Build from RMLVO names (compositor side)
let wkb = WKB::new_from_names("evdev", "pc105", "us,de", "dvorak,", None).unwrap();

// Serialize to XKB string for wl_keyboard.keymap
let xkb_string = wkb.as_xkb_string().unwrap();

// Switch layouts via group index (no re-parsing needed)
// wkb.set_layout(1).unwrap(); // switch to German

Last updated: 2026-08-07 (automated via CI)

Sizes for xkbcommon and xkbcommon-dl include the dynamically-linked libxkbcommon.so.

WKB targets the subset of XKB used by Wayland clients and compositors. Geometry descriptions and other X11-only features are intentionally out of scope.

MIT