When another client modifies the compatibility map, you are notified if you have selected for XkbCompatMapNotify events. XkbGetCompatMap is particularly useful when you receive an event of this type, as it allows you to update your program's version of the compatibility map to match the modified version now in the server. If your program is dealing with multiple servers and needs to configure them all in a similar manner, the updated compatibility map may be used to reconfigure other servers.
XkbGetCompatMap fetches the components of the compatibility map specified in which from the server specified by display and places them in the compat structure of the keyboard description xkb. Valid values for which are an inclusive OR of the values shown in Table 1.
| Table 1 Compatibility Map Component Masks | ||
| Mask | Value | Affecting |
| XkbSymInterpMask | (1<<0) | Symbol interpretations |
| XkbGroupCompatMask | (1<<1) | Group maps |
| XkbAllCompatMask | (0x3) | All compatibility map components |
If no compatibility map structure is allocated in xkb upon entry, XkbGetCompatMap allocates one. If one already exists, its contents are overwritten with the returned results.
XkbGetCompatMap fetches compatibility map information for the device specified by the device_spec field of xkb. Unless you have specifically modified this field, it is the default keyboard device. XkbGetCompatMap returns Success if successful, BadAlloc if it is unable to obtain necessary storage for either the return values or work space, BadMatch if the dpy field of the xkb argument is non-NULL and does not match the display argument, and BadLength under certain conditions caused by server or Xkb implementation errors.