is /usr/share/vt/keymaps a safe directory for custom keymaps?

R

Ralfie

I (currently) use Colemak Mod-DH with the angle-mod as my keyboard layout, which is not something that FreeBSD has (it does have Colemak Mod-DH, but without the angle-mod and the "m" and "k" keys are swaped for whatever reason).

I am more-than-willing to make my own keymap file to suit my admitably particular preferences, but I'm sure where best to store it.

/usr/share/vt/keymaps would theoretically be the best place, since, so far as I understand, that's the directory FreeBSD searches for keymaps on boot. However, I am worried about the posibility of a system update/upgrade deleting the file.

Is this something that can happen? If so, is it possible to have the keymap be read from a different location?
 
I’ve been using a customized *.kbd keymap located in /usr/local/share/vt/keymaps/, dating back to March 9, 2024. Despite multiple minor updates within the 14.x branch and a major upgrade to version 15, the file has remained untouched. This suggests that system upgrades do not overwrite or remove it.

That said, keeping the file in that specific directory isn’t required. You can store it anywhere you prefer, just make sure to set the keymap variable in rc.conf to the file’s full path.
E.g.:
Code: 
keymap="/path/to/vt/keymap/file.kbd"
 
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