setleds(1) set the keyboard leds

SYNOPSIS

setleds [-v] [-L] [-D] [-F] [{+|-}num] [{+|-}caps] [{+|-}scroll]

DESCRIPTION

setleds reports and changes the led flag settings of the current VT (namely NumLock, CapsLock and ScrollLock). Without arguments, setleds prints the current settings. With arguments, it sets or clears the indicated flags (and leaves the others unchanged). The settings before and after the change are reported if the -v flag is given.

OPTIONS

-F
This is the default. Only change the VT flags (and their setting may be reflected by the keyboard leds).
-D
Change both the VT flags and their default settings (so that a subsequent reset will not undo the change). This might be useful for people who always want to have numlock set.
-L
Do not touch the VT flags, but only change the leds. From this moment on, the leds will no longer reflect the VT flags (but display whatever is put into them). The command setleds -L (without further arguments) will restore the situation in which the leds reflect the VT flags.
-num +num
Clear or set NumLock. (At present, the NumLock setting influences the interpretation of keypad keys. Pressing the NumLock key complements the NumLock setting.)
-caps +caps
Clear or set CapsLock. (At present, the CapsLock setting complements the Shift key when applied to letters. Pressing the CapsLock key complements the CapsLock setting.)
-scroll +scroll
Clear or set ScrollLock. (At present, pressing the ScrollLock key (or ^S/^Q) stops/starts console output.)

EXAMPLE

One might use setleds in /etc/rc to define the initial and default state of NumLock, e.g. by

INITTY=/dev/tty[1-8]
for tty in $INITTY; do
setleds -D +num < $tty
done

BUGS

In keyboard application mode the NumLock key does not influence the NumLock flag setting.