I have this for numlock but I'm not entirely sure of what it does:

xmodmap -e 'keycode 77 = NoSymbol Num_Lock'

I didn't try caps lock yet, does it not have a keycode, or would it just be confused about shift?

@pulkomandy aha, nice! Generally 'keycode K = a b c d' means that K generates symbol a unshifted, b shifted, and I think c with AltGr and d with both modifiers.

xmodmap -e 'keycode 66 = NoSymbol Caps_Lock' is the Caps Lock equivalent of your Num Lock line. So I was wrong (or perhaps '25% wrong' 😀. You _can_ do it with plain xmodmap.

I must admit that I also cling to an old-fashioned idea that computers are still multi-user. Even my personal ones: I have been known to give other people accounts on them, and when those people use their accounts, they _don't_ want the effects of bizarre things like this intended for just me.

So I still think it makes more sense to put my preferences in my account, not systemwide. This is also a reason I haven't taken the Caps Lock keycap off.

@Lalufu though admittedly one flaw in this concept is the login screen. If I have a preferred keyboard layout that's not the systemwide one, I'd like to use it to type my password – especially since I'll _also_ sometimes need to type my password after logging in, and it's doubly annoying to do it in two different finger shapes!

I don't know if any login-screen software temporarily enables each user's keyboard preferences for their password prompt. Or even if it _could_, securely.

@jackv I think two reasons:

1. It assumes the _only_ use for the 'xcapslock' tool is to use it interactively on the command line. As soon as you find a use for the same tool in a script, you'll wish the syntax was more logical.

2. When you add the companion tool 'xnumlock', which has no analogous spelling variation in the command itself, you'll want both tools to have the same command-line syntax.