xcompose 0.1.0

Utility for managing X11 compose key sequences

xcompose

A simple utility to help configure X11 compose key sequences.

Installation

$ pip install xcompose

Requirements

Currently assumes that the system compose key configurations are in /usr/share/X11/locale/, while the keysym definitions are in /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h.

Only tested on Ubuntu 24, but should work more widely (though still very much beta quality).

Usage

$ xcompose -h
usage: xcompose [-h] [-f FILE | -S] [-i] [-k KEY] [-s SORT] {add,find,get,validate} ...

Xcompose sequence helper utility.

positional arguments:
  {add,find,get,validate}
    add                 print a new compose sequence
    find                find sequences matching given output
    get                 get sequences matching given key inputs
    validate            validate compose config file

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -f FILE, --file FILE  config file to analyze (instead of user config)
  -S, --system          analyze system config (instead of user config)
  -i, --ignore-include  don't follow any include declarations in the config
  -k KEY, --key KEY     modifier key keysym (default is Multi_key; use ANY for all)
  -s SORT, --sort SORT  sort resulting sequences (options: 'keys', 'value')

Examples

$ xcompose find é
<Multi_key> <acute> <e>			: "é"	eacute # LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE
<Multi_key> <e> <acute>			: "é"	eacute # LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE
<Multi_key> <apostrophe> <e>		: "é"	eacute # LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE
<Multi_key> <e> <apostrophe>		: "é"	eacute # LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE

$ xcompose find pound
<Multi_key> <L> <minus>			: "£"	sterling # POUND SIGN
<Multi_key> <minus> <L>			: "£"	sterling # POUND SIGN
<Multi_key> <l> <minus>			: "£"	sterling # POUND SIGN
<Multi_key> <minus> <l>			: "£"	sterling # POUND SIGN

$ xcompose find U+00B5
<Multi_key> <m> <u>			: "µ"	mu # MICRO SIGN
<Multi_key> <slash> <u>			: "µ"	mu # MICRO SIGN
<Multi_key> <u> <slash>			: "µ"	mu # MICRO SIGN

$ xcompose get / =
<Multi_key> <slash> <equal>		: "≠"	U2260 # NOT EQUAL TO

$ xcompose --sort keys get /
<Multi_key> <slash> <minus>		: "⌿"	U233f # / - APL FUNCTIONAL SYMBOL SLASH BAR
<Multi_key> <slash> <slash>		: "\\"	backslash # REVERSE SOLIDUS
<Multi_key> <slash> <less>		: "\\"	backslash # REVERSE SOLIDUS
<Multi_key> <slash> <equal>		: "≠"	U2260 # NOT EQUAL TO
<Multi_key> <slash> <B>				: "Ƀ"	U0243 # LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B WITH STROKE
<Multi_key> <slash> <C>			: "₡"	U20a1 # COLON SIGN
<Multi_key> <slash> <D>			: "Đ"	Dstroke # LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH STROKE
[...]
<Multi_key> <slash> <U2194>		: "↮"	U21AE # LEFT RIGHT ARROW WITH STROKE
<Multi_key> <slash> <U2395>		: "⍁"	U2341 # / ⎕ APL FUNCTIONAL SYMBOL QUAD SLASH

>>> xcompose add ć / c | tee -a ~/.XCompose   # NB tee -a appends to .XCompose
<Multi_key> <c> <slash> : "ć" U0107    # LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH ACUTE

>>> xcompose validate  # (assuming .XCompose contains an 'include "%L"' line)
[/home/Udzu/.XCompose#35] Compose sequence Multi_key + c + slash for 'ć' conflicts with Multi_key + c + slash for '¢'
    to ignore this, include the string 'conflict' or 'override' in the comment

>>> xcompose --ignore-include validate  # (no conflicts if we ignore the system file)

Sample .XCompose file

Link: https://github.com/Udzu/xcompose/blob/master/Compose

This repo currently also hosts my personal .XCompose file, which contains extensive additions to the default config focusing on mathematics, linguistics and general text entry. Note that this is not distributed with the xcompose utility: it might be in future, or I might move it elsewhere.

Amongst other characters, the configuration supports:

• Maths: ρ(∂v⃗/∂t + (v⃗·∇)v), ∫πeⁱᶿ dθ, ∃ A.A ⊊ B∖A, ⊨ P ⊃ ◇P, etc.
• IPA : ⫽ˈɹɛ.dɪt⫽, [aɪ̯ pʰiː eɪ̯], etc.
• Latin script: Spın̈al Tap, ʇᴉppǝɹ, Zǎ̺̣͆̚l⃪ğ̶̍ö̱̰̥̂̃, etc.
• Other scripts: Ρέντιτ, Ре́ддит, ⁧רֶדִיט⁩, ⁧رِيدِيت⁩, 「レヂィット」, 레딧, ⠗⠫⠙⠊⠞, etc.
• Emoji: 😉 👌🏾 🇳🇿 🫡 👉🏼 💔 🤣 🤦🏽‍♀️ 🏳️‍⚧️ ✨ (and many more)