keyboard-shortcuts

name	keyboard-shortcuts
description	Inspect and audit KGlobalAccel keyboard shortcuts (global hotkeys) on KDE Plasma. Use when the user wants to see what a Meta/Ctrl/Alt combination is bound to, find a free combination, or troubleshoot a shortcut that stopped firing. Reads are reliable; writes on Plasma 6 Wayland are not — see the warning below before offering to bind anything.

KGlobalAccel Shortcuts

Plasma global shortcuts live in ~/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc and are managed by the kglobalaccel daemon.

Reading is reliable. Writing is not. On Plasma 6 Wayland there is currently no verified way to bind a shortcut from the command line and have it take effect in the running session. Do not tell the user a binding is done after writing the config file — it very likely is not. See Writing below.

Inspect

# All shortcuts, grouped by component
grep -E '^\[|^[A-Za-z]' ~/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc

# Just one component
kreadconfig6 --file kglobalshortcutsrc --group "krunner.desktop" --key "_launch"

# Which components register shortcuts at all
qdbus6 org.kde.kglobalaccel /kglobalaccel org.kde.KGlobalAccel.allMainComponents

File format

ShortcutName=<active>,<default>,<friendly name>
# e.g.
_launch=Alt+Space,Alt+Space,KRunner

• <active> is what is bound now; <default> is what it ships as.
• <active>=none means explicitly unbound.
• Multiple combinations are tab-separated within the field: Meta+R\tAlt+F2.
• An empty <active> with a non-empty <default> means "never customised".

Finding a free combination

To check whether a combination is already taken, grep the whole file for it rather than reasoning about a single component — bindings are scattered across every [component.desktop] group, and Plasma itself reserves a lot of Meta+*.

grep -n "Meta+Shift+K" ~/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc

Remember that this file only holds global shortcuts. Per-application accelerators live in ~/.config/kdeglobals under [Shortcuts] and in per-app *shortcutsrc files, and will not show up here.

Writing

Verified not to work on Plasma 6 Wayland (ThinkPad E15 Gen 3, Plasma 6):

1. kwriteconfig6 + D-Bus reload. The value is written to the file correctly, but kglobalaccel does not reliably adopt it. In testing the binding only became active after a full logout and login. Corroborated by KDE Discuss #17995.

   # Writes the file. Does NOT reliably apply.
   kwriteconfig6 --file kglobalshortcutsrc --group "krunner.desktop" \
     --key "_launch" "Alt+Space,Alt+Space,KRunner"
   qdbus6 org.kde.kglobalaccel /kglobalaccel org.kde.KGlobalAccel.reloadConfiguration
   

2. The khotkeys route. The khotkeys KDED module does not exist in Plasma 6. qdbus org.kde.kded6 /modules/khotkeys reread_configuration has no target; ~/.config/khotkeysrc is a Plasma 5 artefact. Custom command shortcuts moved into the Shortcuts KCM.

3. .desktop file with X-KDE-Shortcuts=. Does not register.

What to do instead

For custom command shortcuts, walk the user through the GUI — currently the only reliable path:

1. System Settings → Shortcuts
2. + Add New → Command or Script
3. Name it, set the command (use an absolute path)
4. Add… next to "Custom shortcuts", press the key combination
5. Apply

Then, if the result should be reproducible, commit the resulting ~/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc to a dotfiles or config repo — capture the outcome rather than trying to script the input.

For rebinding an existing application shortcut, the same KCM has a per-app search; that also applies immediately.

If the user explicitly accepts a logout, kwriteconfig6 plus a logout does work, and is scriptable for machine setup where a logout is happening anyway. Say that the logout is required rather than presenting it as optional.

Full write-up of what was tried and rejected: custom-keybindings.

Troubleshooting a shortcut that stopped firing

1. Confirm it is still in the file — a Plasma upgrade can reset <active> to the default.
2. Check for a conflict: grep the combination across the whole file; the later registrant may have stolen it silently.
3. Confirm the daemon is alive: pgrep -a kglobalaccel.
4. On Wayland, Plasma owns the global keymap outright. X11-era tools (xbindkeys, xdotool bindings) do not work and are not a fallback.
5. If the target is a .desktop launcher, verify the launcher itself still resolves — a broken Exec= presents as a dead shortcut.