localectl does not respect libxkbcommon search paths

[cmeissner]

systemd version the issue has been seen with

253

Used distribution

Fedora 38

Linux kernel version used

6.4.14-200.fc38.x86_64

CPU architectures issue was seen on

None

Component

other

Expected behaviour you didn't see

localectl should always try to read all available config paths for xkb

Unexpected behaviour you saw

localctl only reads /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst:

$ strace -e trace=openat localectl list-x11-keymap-layouts 1>/dev/null                       
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/lib64/systemd/glibc-hwcaps/x86-64-v3/libsystemd-shared-253.9-1.fc38.so", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/lib64/systemd/glibc-hwcaps/x86-64-v2/libsystemd-shared-253.9-1.fc38.so", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/lib64/systemd/libsystemd-shared-253.9-1.fc38.so", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/lib64/systemd/libgcc_s.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libgcc_s.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/lib64/systemd/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libacl.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libblkid.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libcap.so.2", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libcrypt.so.2", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libkmod.so.2", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/liblz4.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libmount.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libcrypto.so.3", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libpam.so.0", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libseccomp.so.2", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libselinux.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/liblzma.so.5", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libzstd.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libm.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libattr.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libz.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libaudit.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libeconf.so.0", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libpcre2-8.so.0", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libcap-ng.so.0", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/sys/kernel/cap_last_cap", O_RDONLY) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 4

Steps to reproduce the problem

reproduce with custom config file

1. create a base.lst in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xkb/rules/, or $HOME/.config/xkb/rules/ with the following content:

   ! layout
     foobar     A description for the foobar layout
   
   !include %S/base.lst
   

2. run localectl list-x11-keymap-layouts | grep foobar
3. you can run the command with strace -e trace=openat to see that the user configuration is not opened.

reproduce with distributed config files

1. add the following line to /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst in layout section

      foobar     A description for the foobar layout
   

2. run localectl list-x11-keymap-layouts | grep foobar you should find your defined layout

Additional program output to the terminal or log subsystem illustrating the issue

No response

[poettering]

sorry, but this is not going to work, as localed/localectl manage the system keyboard mappins, and hence local settings are simply not available.

[cmeissner]

I do agree with per user keyboard layouts but what about custom layouts defined in /etc/xkb|? These are machine global and per your argument candidates for localectl