What is VC keymap?

Question

Here is what I get when executing localectl status:

$ localectl status
   System Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: us-acentos
      X11 Layout: us
       X11 Model: pc104
     X11 Variant: us-intl

What is the VC Keymap? What is the difference between that and the X11 Variant?

Solution

The VC is the virtual console which is also known as a virtual terminal VT. It is the full screen tty you might see before X11 launches (or switch to with Ctrl+Alt+2). It has its own keymap architecture but systemd has merged the setting of X11 and VT keymaps into one command "for convenience".

See commands like chvt, openvt, loadkeys and man 4 console.