mapscrn - load screen output mapping table at Linux.org

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MAPSCRN(8) International Support MAPSCRN(8)

NAME
mapscrn - load screen output mapping table

SYNOPSIS
mapscrn [-v] [-o map.orig] mapfile

DESCRIPTION
The mapscrn command is obsolete - its function is now built-in into setfont. However, for backwards compati‐
bility it is still available as a separate command.

The mapscrn command loads a user defined output character mapping table into the console driver. The console
driver may be later put into use user-defined mapping table mode by outputting a special escape sequence to
the console device. This sequence is <esc>(K for the G0 character set and <esc>)K for the G1 character set.
When the -o option is given, the old map is saved in map.orig.

USE
There are two kinds of mapping tables: direct-to-font tables, that give a font position for each user byte
value, and user-to-unicode tables that give a unicode value for each user byte. The corresponding glyph is now
found using the unicode index of the font. The command
mapscrn trivial
sets up a one-to-one direct-to-font table where user bytes directly address the font. This is useful for fonts
that are in the same order as the character set one uses. A command like
mapscrn 8859-2
sets up a user-to-unicode table that assumes that the user uses ISO 8859-2.

INPUT FORMAT
The mapscrn command can read the map in either of two formats:
1. 256 or 512 bytes binary data
2. two-column text file
Format (1) is a direct image of the translation table. The 256-bytes tables are direct-to-font, the 512-bytes
tables are user-to-unicode tables. Format (2) is used to fill the table as follows: cell with offset men‐
tioned in the first column is filled with the value mentioned in the second column. When values larger than
255 occur, or values are written using the U+xxxx notation, the table is assumed to be a user-to-unicode ta‐
ble, otherwise it is a direct-to-font table.

Values in the file may be specified in one of several formats:
1. Decimal: String of decimal digits not starting with '0'
2. Octal: String of octal digits beginning with '0'.
3. Hexadecimal: String of hexadecimal digits preceded by "0x".
4. Unicode: String of four hexadecimal digits preceded by "U+".
5. Character: Single character enclosed in single quotes. (And the binary value is used.) Note that blank,
comma, tab character and '#' cannot be specified with this format.
6. UTF-8 Character: Single (possibly multi-byte) UTF-8 character, enclosed in single quotes.

Note that control characters (with codes < 32) cannot be re-mapped with mapscrn because they have special
meaning for the driver.

FILES
/lib/kbd/consoletrans is the default directory for screen mappings.