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kmc command line reference

kmc is the command line compiler toolset for Keyman 17.0 and later versions. In Keyman Developer, it is located in %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Keyman\Keyman Developer. kmc is also available as an npm module for Windows, macOS and Linux developers:

npm install -g @keymanapp/kmc

kmc does more than just compile keyboards. It builds packages, lexical models, projects, keyboards, Windows installers, and more. It provides analysis tools for keyboard data.

kmc will be extended to generate new keyboard and lexical model projects, support renaming or cloning of existing projects, importing keyboard data from other formats, and running keyboard unit tests.

kmc replaces kmcomp from earlier versions of Keyman Developer.

The following parameters are available:

kmc commands

kmc build [infile...], kmc build file [infile...]

Compile one or more Keyman files. Takes Keyman keyboard source files, and compiles them into the binary formats used by the Keyman apps. Supports building:

  • Keyman projects (.kpj or folder)
  • Keyman keyboards (.kmn)
  • LDML keyboards (.xml)
  • Keyboard packages - bundles of keyboard files, fonts, documentation for distribution (.kps)
  • Lexical models (.model.ts)

The file subcommand is the default command for kmc build, so can be omitted.

File lists can be referenced with @filelist.txt. If no input file is supplied, kmc will attempt to build a project file in the current folder.

kmc build ldml-test-data

Converts LDML keyboard test .xml file to .json.

kmc build windows-package-installer

Builds a .exe installer for a keyboard, together with the Keyman installer, for Windows only.

kmc analyze osk-char-use [infile...]

Analyze on screen keyboard files for character usage

kmc analyze osk-rewrite-from-char-use -m mapping-file [infile...]

Rewrites On Screen Keyboard files from source mapping

kmc generate keyman-keyboard [options] <id>

Generate a .kmn keyboard project

kmc generate ldml-keyboard [options] <id>

Generate an LDML .xml keyboard project

kmc generate lexical-model [options] <id>

Generate a wordlist lexical model project

kmc copy origin -o target

Copy and rename a keyboard project

kmc message [message...]

Describes one or more compiler messages in greater detail

kmc global options

-h, --help

Display help on kmc; note that kmc --help can be used for further detail on subcommands, e.g. kmc build --help

-V, --version

Prints the version number of kmc

--color, --no-color

Controls colorization for log messages, using ANSI color controls. If both of these settings are omitted, kmc will attempt to detect from console, and will use colorization for interactive terminals, and no colorization when redirection is being used.

--error-reporting, --no-error-reporting

Enable or disable error reporting to keyman.com, overriding user settings. Error reporting is for fatal errors in the compiler, and not errors in compiled files. No user data is sent in error reports, although some filenames and paths may be present in the diagnostic data attached to the report.

--log-format <logFormat>

Output log format. The available options are:

  • formatted (default): emits log messages in a human-readable format
  • tsv: emits log messages in UTF-8 tab-separated format. This format will be stable across versions of kmc. The format has the following fields:
  • filename
  • line number
  • severity
  • code
  • message
-l <logLevel>, --log-level <logLevel>

Controls the level of logging to console for messages relating to the compilation process. The options are:

  • silent: suppresses all messages (except fatal internal errors)
  • error: only emits compilation errors
  • warn: only emits compilation errors and warnings
  • hint: emits compilation errors, warnings, and hints
  • info (default): emits compilation errors, warnings, hints, and informational messages
  • verbose: emits all compilation messages, including verbose informational messages
  • debug: emits all compilation messages, plus internal debug messages

Logging of specific messages can be controlled with --message, -m (build command only).

Note that when warnings are treated as errors (--compiler-warnings-as-errors, -w), they will still be logged as warnings, so suppressing warnings while using this flag may be confusing.

kmc build options

-d, --debug

Include debug information in output files. Debug information is used for interactive debugging of .kmx files within the Keyman Developer IDE. This flag also produces pretty printed .js files for web keyboards, making interactive debugging of web keyboards simpler.

-w, --compiler-warnings-as-errors vs -W, --no-compiler-warnings-as-errors

Controls whether or not warnings fail the build; overrides project-level warnings-as-errors option. Most compiler warnings are an indication that something is not right in the source code, even though the compiler can produce a result. This strict compilation mode helps to ensure that problems are caught early, and is recommended.

-m <number>, --message <number>

Adjusts the severity of info, hint or warning messages. Error and fatal error messages can not be adjusted. Message severity can be adjusted to:

  • disable (default): suppresses the message altogether
  • info: converts the message to an informational severity
  • hint: converts the message to a hint severity
  • warn: converts the message to a warning severity
  • error: raises the message to an error severity

This may be used to suppress a warning message that would otherwise fail the build, if used in conjunction with -w, --compiler-warnings-as-errors

This option may be repeated to adjust multiple messages. The -m option must be specified each time.

--no-compiler-version

Excludes compiler version metadata from output. This is helpful for producing files that will be identical regardless of the compiler version, for regression testing.

--no-warn-deprecated-code

Turns off warnings (CWARN_HeaderStatementIsDeprecated, CWARN_LanguageHeadersDeprecatedInKeyman10) for deprecated code styles

-o <filename>, --out-file <filename>

Overrides the default path and filename for the output file(s). Note that some compilers emit multiple files, in which case, the output filenames will vary by file extension.

kmc build file additional options

--for-publishing

Verifies that project meets @keymanapp repository requirements. This also causes a .keyboard-info or .model-info file to be emitted when compiling the project (which can also be controlled at a project level with the skipMetadataFiles option). This option is only valid for compiling projects.

Examples

kmc build project.kpj

Compile all components of a keyboard or model project named project.kpj. kmc will respect the path settings within the project file. This is the recommended way to build, as it will build keyboards, models and packages all in one step. You can also call kmc build <folder> to build the project in the referenced folder, e.g. kmc build ..

kmc build keyboard.kmn

Compile a keyboard file to a .kmx (desktop targets) and/or .js (web/touch targets). If an output file is not specified, writes to the same folder as the keyboard.

kmc build package.kps

Compile a package file to a .kmp (all targets). All included keyboards must already be compiled.

kmc build windows-package-installer additional options

--msi <msiFilename>

Full path of keymandesktop.msi to bundle into the installer. This file can be downloaded from https://downloads.keyman.com/windows/stable (/version).

--exe <exeFilename>

Location of setup.exe. This file can be downloaded from https://downloads.keyman.com/windows/stable (/version).

--license <licenseFilename>

Location of license.txt for Keyman for Windows.

--title-image [titleImageFilename]

Location of title image file. This should be a .png, .jpg, or .bmp file which replaces the standard 'Keyman for Windows' image in the bootstrap installer.

--app-name [applicationName]

Installer property: name of the application to be installed (default: "Keyman")

--start-disabled

Installer property: do not enable keyboards after installation completes

--start-with-configuration

Installer property: start Keyman Configuration after installation completes

Examples

Windows, command prompt (all one line)

kmc build windows-package-installer .\khmer_angkor.kps
  --msi "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Keyman\Cached Installer Files\keymandesktop.msi"
  --exe .\setup-redist.exe --license .\LICENSE.md --out-file .\khmer.exe

Bash (Linux, WSL, macOS, etc)

kmc build windows-package-installer \
  ./khmer_angkor/source/khmer_angkor.kps \
  --msi ./redist/keymandesktop.msi \
  --exe ./redist/setup-redist.exe \
  --license ./redist/LICENSE.md \
  --out-file ./khmer.exe

Note: paths shown above may vary.

kmc analyze osk-char-use options

-b, --base

First PUA codepoint to use, in hexadecimal (default F100)

--include-counts

Include number of times each character is referenced (default: false)

--strip-dotted-circle

Strip U+25CC (dotted circle base) from results (default: false)

-m, --mapping-file <filename>

Result file to write to (.json, .md, or .txt)

-i, --input-mapping-file <filename>

Merge result file with existing mapping file. If supplied, existing codepoint mappings will be kept, to ensure that updated fonts are backwardly compatible with deployed keyboards. The --include-counts flag will be set according to the format of the input mapping file.

For more information on the purpose of analyze osk-char-use and analyze rewrite-osk-from-char-use, see &displayMap.

kmc analyze osk-rewrite-from-char-use options

-m, --mapping-file <filename>

JSON mapping file to read from.

For more information on the purpose of analyze osk-char-use and analyze rewrite-osk-from-char-use, see &displayMap.

kmc generate keyman-keyboard options

Generates a new keyboard project with .kmn format keyboard. An ID must be specified for the output of the project, and an output folder (-o). A new folder with the keyboard ID as its name will be created under the output folder, and the files in that folder will follow the standard file layout.

-t, --target <target>

Target platforms for the project. Use the values from &targets. Multiple targets may be specified, each prefixed with -t, or space-separated, surrounded by quotation marks (e.g. -t windows -t linux or -t "windows linux") (default: any)

-o, --out-path <path>

Specifies the parent folder for the project; the folder may already exist. The project will be generated in a new folder named with the ID of the project under this path, and that project folder must not exist.

-n, --name <name>

Keyboard descriptive name, used in the &name store (default: the ID of the project)

-c, --copyright <copyright-name>

&copyright holder for the project. Do not include the '(C)' or '©' prefixes (default: the author of the keyboard)

-v, --version <version-string>

&version of the keyboard, (default: "1.0").

-L, --language-tag <bcp-47 tag>

A BCP-47 language tag with which the keyboard is associated. More than one tag may be specified, with each tag prefixed with -L (default: no languages). The tags are referenced in the package metadata.

-a, --author <author-name>

The name of keyboard author (default: blank)

-d, --description <description>

A short description of the project, in Markdown. (default: keyboard name)

kmc generate ldml-keyboard options

Generates a new keyboard project with LDML .xml format keyboard. An ID must be specified for the output of the project, and an output folder (-o). A new folder with the keyboard ID as its name will be created under the output folder, and the files in that folder will follow the standard file layout.

-t, --target <target>

Target platforms for the project. Use the values from &targets. Multiple targets may be specified, each prefixed with -t, or space-separated, surrounded by quotation marks (e.g. -t windows -t linux or -t "windows linux") (default: any)

-o, --out-path <path>

Specifies the parent folder for the project; the folder may already exist. The project will be generated in a new folder named with the ID of the project under this path, and that project folder must not exist.

-n, --name <name>

Keyboard descriptive name, referenced in the keyboard <info name attribute (default: the ID of the project). Do not include generic terms such as 'keyboard', 'unicode', or a version number in the name.

-c, --copyright <copyright-name>

Copyright holder for the project. Do not include the '(C)' or '©' prefixes (default: the author of the keyboard)

-v, --version <version-string>

Version of the keyboard, referenced in the keyboard <version number attribute, should be in major.minor.patch format (note: full semantic version is not currently supported in Keyman) (defaults to "1.0.0")

-L, --language-tag <bcp-47 tag>

A BCP-47 language tag with which the keyboard is associated. More than one tag may be specified, with each tag prefixed with -L (default: no languages). The first tag is referenced in the keyboard <keyboard3 locale attribute, with subsequent tags referenced in <locale id attributes. The tags are also referenced in the package metadata.

-a, --author <author-name>

The name of keyboard author, referenced in <info author attribute (default: blank)

-d, --description <description>

A short description of the project, in Markdown. (default: keyboard name)

kmc generate lexical-model options

Generates a new lexical model project with a TSV wordlist. An ID must be specified for the output of the project, and an output folder (-o). The ID must match the author.bcp47.uniq naming pattern. A new folder with the model ID as its name will be created under the output folder, and the files in that folder will follow the standard file layout.

-o, --out-path <path>

Specifies the parent folder for the project; the folder may already exist. The project will be generated in a new folder named with the ID of the project under this path, and that project folder must not exist.

-n, --name <name>

Lexical model descriptive name, referenced in the package metadata (default: the ID of the project)

-c, --copyright <copyright-name>

Copyright holder for the project. Do not include the '(C)' or '©' prefixes (default: the author of the model)

-v, --version <version-string>

Version of the lexical model, referenced in the package metadata (defaults to "1.0")

-L, --language-tag <bcp-47 tag>

A BCP-47 language tag with which the model is associated. More than one tag may be specified, with each tag prefixed with -L (default: no languages). The tags are referenced in the package metadata.

-a, --author <author-name>

The name of model author, referenced in package metadata (default: blank)

-d, --description <description>

A short description of the project, in Markdown. (default: lexical model name)

kmc copy options

Copies a keyboard or lexical model project, renaming files matching the original project ID according to the output filename. Can copy projects from the following sources:

  • A .kpj file, e.g. ./keyboards/khmer_angkor/khmer_angkor.kpj, or ./sil.km.cnd.kpj
  • A local folder containing a .kpj file with a matching base name, e.g. ./keyboards/khmer_angkor (which contains khmer_angkor.kpj), or ./models/sil.km.cnd/ (which contains sil.km.cnd.kpj)
  • A cloud keyboard, or cloud lexical model, e.g. cloud:khmer_angkor. This retrieves the current source from the Keyman Cloud, which is in the GitHub repository keymanapp/keyboards or keymanapp/lexical-models. The project type will be determined by the id pattern -- either a lexical model author.bcp47.uniq id pattern, or a keyboard id pattern (where period . is not permitted)
  • A GitHub repository or subfolder within a repository that matches the Keyman keyboard/model repository layout. For example, https://github.com/keyman-keyboards/khmer_angkor/tree/main/khmer_angkor.kpj
-o, --out-path <filename>

The target folder to write the copied project. The folder must not exist. The folder basename will become the ID of the new project, so the .kpj, .kps, .kmn and similar files will be renamed to match that ID.

-n, --dry-run

Show what would happen, without making changes

-r, --relocate-external

Copy referenced files that are outside the project folder into an 'external' folder within the new project, rather than just referencing them in their current location.

File copying, renaming, and structure rules

The origin project folder is the one that contains the .kpj file. When a project is copied, referenced files are reorganized into the recommended Keyman project folder structure. (Note the difference between origin and /source: /source is a normal subfolder in the recommended Keyman project folder structure).

The destination project is called the target.

  • The id of the project and files can be updated during the copy. The origin id is the basename of the origin project file. The target id is supplied as the -o parameter, and becomes both the name of the output folder, and its basename becomes the basename of the target project. If other files use the same basename, they will also be updated.
  • All source-type files explicitly referenced in origin .kpj will be copied to target /source, and references will be updated if the filename changes. These are the source-type files:
    • .kmn keyboard source
    • .xml LDML keyboard source
    • .kps package source
    • .model.ts model source
  • Files referenced by source-type files will be copied to target folder structure, if they are also in the origin project folder. If the files are outside the origin folder, then relative references will be updated.
  • File references in .html and other files are not tracked.
  • For version 1.0 projects, only files explicitly referenced in the project or the source-type files are copied.
  • For version 2.0 projects, all other files in the origin folder and subfolders will also be copied to target, in the same relative location as they were found in the origin. Files which have a origin id basename will also be renamed to use the target id basename (be aware that this could break untracked references).
  • If a referenced file does not exist, for example the compiled files referenced in a .kps file may not be present, the references will still be updated following the rules above.
  • Unreferenced files in the origin project's build/ folder will not be copied.
  • .kpj.user files will not be copied.
  • .kpj options will be updated to use fixed source/ and build/ folders.

kmc message options

One or more message identifiers can be specified for text or json formats.

Message identifiers are 5 hex digit codes, optonally preceded by KM, for example KM02001.

For Markdown format, all messages are always emitted, to out-path, and no messages can be specified on the command line, with one file per message, and index files also generated. The Markdown mode is used to generate the online documentation on help.keyman.com.

-f, --format <format>

Output format, one of:

  • text: plain text output to console or file, of specified messages
  • json: JSON formatted to console or file, of specified messages
  • markdown: Markdown formatted text output, to a folder, of all messages
-o, --out-path <out-path>

Output folder name for Markdown format (required for Markdown), or optional output filename for text and json formats.

-a, --all-messages

Emit descriptions for all messages (text, json formats)

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