---
name: "kbd"
section: "8"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/kbd"
---

# kbd(8)

set national keyboard translation

## NAME

**kbd** – set national keyboard translation

## SYNOPSIS

**kbd** **-l**

**kbd** \[**-q**\] *name*

## DESCRIPTION

**kbd** is used to change the keyboard encoding. The encoding is set to national keyboard layout *name*, and a short message is printed to stdout.

The execution of **kbd** normally occurs in the system multi-user initialization file */etc/rc* using the encoding defined in */etc/kbdtype*.

The options are as follows:

- **-l**

  List all available keyboard encodings.

- **-q**

  Quiet mode. No message is printed unless an error occurs.

The “.metaesc” option can be applied to any layout. If set, keys pressed together with the ALT modifier are prefixed by an ESC character. (Standard behaviour is to add 128 to the ASCII value.)

## FILES

- */etc/kbdtype*

  Default national encoding.

## SEE ALSO

[wskbd(4)](/wskbd/4.md), [wsconsctl(8)](/wsconsctl/8.md)