How to deal with several keyboard layouts when accessing a remote server?

Question

I am using two different keyboard layouts (depending on the computer I use) on the same server (one being AZERTY, the other QWERTY).

I would like to have "conditional" mapping options in my .vimrc file, depending on my layout, something like :

if (keyboard_layout == QWERTY)
    nnoremap : ;
    nnoremap ; :
elseif (keyboard_layout == AZERTY)
    inoremap :w <Esc>:w<Return>
endif

Is it possible ? Or is there a "workaround" not too heavy ?

(sorry for the syntax, I haven't coded much .vimrc files yet)

Edit

User @statox gave a very complete answer based on another question asked, I could not test it because I am not 'root' user on the server I'm working on.

I found another way through defining a function, that I posted as answer here.

Answer 1

What I would recommend is the following:

• First on your local machine set an environment variable manually containing your layout:

  export LAYOUT=AZERTY
  

• Then configure ssh to receive this environment variable (Thanks to this question ):

  To do so use the ~/.ssh/config file and the SendEnv command. A very basic example would be:

  Host server
      HostName dev.example.com
      SendEnc LAYOUT
  

  you can then ssh to your server with ssh server. (There a lot of documentation of ssh config, you can do a lot of stuff with that).

• You also have to configure the server to accept this new variable: In /etc/ssh/sshd_config add the following line (as root):

  AcceptEnv LAYOUT
  

• Finnaly on the server side you can use the answer to this question to read your variable and make your mappings accordingly:

  if $LAYOUT == 'AZERTY'
  …
  endif
  

Answer 2

I did not use any "environment" variable, but I coded a function that I call in the .vimrc file :

" The function in my .vimrc file :
function! Kbdmodes(lang)
   if a:lang=='en'
      imap <akey> <anotherkey>
   elseif a:lang=='fr'
      imap <yetanotherkey> <iamthefourthkey>
   endif
endfunction

let lang='en'
call Kbdmodes(lang)

So far it seems to work. By default, upon starting, vim loads my 'qwerty' (english) bindings ; then if I do :call Kbdmodes('fr') in normal mode, it switches the bindings to my 'azerty' (french) ones.

I hope this can be useful to anybody !