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xkeysnail

xkeysnail is yet another keyboard remapping tool for X environment written in Python. It's like xmodmap but allows more flexible remappings.

screenshot

The key remapping mechanism of xkeysnail is based on pykeymacs (https://github.com/DreaminginCodeZH/pykeymacs).

Installation

Requires root privilege and Python 3.

Ubuntu

sudo apt install python3-pip
sudo pip3 install xkeysnail

# If you plan to compile from source
sudo apt install python3-dev

Fedora

sudo dnf install python3-pip
sudo pip3 install xkeysnail
# Add your user to input group if you don't want to run xkeysnail
# with sudo (log out and log in again to apply group change)
sudo usermod -a -G input $USER

# If you plan to compile from source
sudo dnf install python3-devel

Manjaro/Arch

# Some distros will need to compile evdev components 
# and may fail to do so if gcc is not installed.
sudo pacman -Syy
sudo pacman -S gcc

Solus

# Some distros will need to compile evdev components 
# and may fail to do so if gcc is not installed.
sudo eopkg install gcc
sudo eopkg install -c system.devel

From source

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mooz/xkeysnail.git
cd xkeysnail
sudo pip3 install --upgrade .

Usage

sudo xkeysnail config.py

When you encounter the errors like Xlib.error.DisplayConnectionError: Can't connect to display ":0.0": b'No protocol specified\n' , try

xhost +SI:localuser:root
sudo xkeysnail config.py

If you want to specify keyboard devices, use --devices option:

sudo xkeysnail config.py --devices /dev/input/event3 'Topre Corporation HHKB Professional'

If you have hot-plugging keyboards, use --watch option.

If you want to suppress output of key events, use -q / --quiet option especially when running as a daemon.

How to prepare config.py?

(If you just need Emacs-like keybindings, consider to use example/config.py, which contains Emacs-like keybindings).

Configuration file is a Python script that consists of several keymaps defined by define_keymap(condition, mappings, name)

define_keymap(condition, mappings, name)

Defines a keymap consists of mappings, which is activated when the condition is satisfied.

Argument condition specifies the condition of activating the mappings on an application and takes one of the following forms:

Argument mappings is a dictionary in the form of {key: command, key2: command2, ...} where key and command take following forms:

Argument name specifies the keymap name. This is an optional argument.

Key Specification

Key specification in a keymap is in a form of K("(<Modifier>-)*<Key>") where

<Modifier> is one of the followings

You can specify left/right modifiers by adding any one of prefixes L/R.

And <Key> is a key whose name is defined in key.py.

Here is a list of key specification examples:

Multiple stroke keys

When you needs multiple stroke keys, define nested keymap. For example, the following example remaps C-x C-c to C-q.

define_keymap(None, {
    K("C-x"): {
      K("C-c"): K("C-q"),
      K("C-f"): K("C-q"),
    }
})

Checking an application's WM_CLASS with xprop

To check WM_CLASS of the application you want to have custom keymap, use xprop command:

xprop WM_CLASS

and then click the application. xprop tells WM_CLASS of the application as follows.

WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"

Use the second value (in this case Firefox) as the WM_CLASS value in your config.py.

Example config.py

See example/config.py.

Here is an excerpt of example/config.py.

from xkeysnail.transform import *

define_keymap(re.compile("Firefox|Google-chrome"), {
    # Ctrl+Alt+j/k to switch next/previous tab
    K("C-M-j"): K("C-TAB"),
    K("C-M-k"): K("C-Shift-TAB"),
}, "Firefox and Chrome")

define_keymap(re.compile("Zeal"), {
    # Ctrl+s to focus search area
    K("C-s"): K("C-k"),
}, "Zeal")

define_keymap(lambda wm_class: wm_class not in ("Emacs", "URxvt"), {
    # Cancel
    K("C-g"): [K("esc"), set_mark(False)],
    # Escape
    K("C-q"): escape_next_key,
    # C-x YYY
    K("C-x"): {
        # C-x h (select all)
        K("h"): [K("C-home"), K("C-a"), set_mark(True)],
        # C-x C-f (open)
        K("C-f"): K("C-o"),
        # C-x C-s (save)
        K("C-s"): K("C-s"),
        # C-x k (kill tab)
        K("k"): K("C-f4"),
        # C-x C-c (exit)
        K("C-c"): K("M-f4"),
        # cancel
        K("C-g"): pass_through_key,
        # C-x u (undo)
        K("u"): [K("C-z"), set_mark(False)],
    }
}, "Emacs-like keys")

Example of Case Insensitivity Matching

terminals = ["gnome-terminal","konsole","io.elementary.terminal","sakura"]
terminals = [term.casefold() for term in terminals]
termStr = "|".join(str(x) for x in terminals)

# [Conditional modmap] Change modifier keys in certain applications
define_conditional_modmap(lambda wm_class: wm_class.casefold() not in terminals,{
    # Default Mac/Win
    Key.LEFT_ALT: Key.RIGHT_CTRL,   # WinMac
    Key.LEFT_META: Key.LEFT_ALT,    # WinMac
    Key.LEFT_CTRL: Key.LEFT_META,   # WinMac
    Key.RIGHT_ALT: Key.RIGHT_CTRL,  # WinMac
    Key.RIGHT_META: Key.RIGHT_ALT,  # WinMac
    Key.RIGHT_CTRL: Key.RIGHT_META, # WinMac
})

# [Conditional modmap] Change modifier keys in certain applications
define_conditional_modmap(re.compile(termStr, re.IGNORECASE), {

    # Default Mac/Win
    Key.LEFT_ALT: Key.RIGHT_CTRL,   # WinMac
    Key.LEFT_META: Key.LEFT_ALT,    # WinMac
    Key.LEFT_CTRL: Key.LEFT_CTRL,   # WinMac
    Key.RIGHT_ALT: Key.RIGHT_CTRL,  # WinMac
    Key.RIGHT_META: Key.RIGHT_ALT,  # WinMac
    Key.RIGHT_CTRL: Key.LEFT_CTRL,  # WinMac
})

FAQ

How do I fix Firefox capturing Alt before xkeysnail?

In the Firefox location bar, go to about:config, search for ui.key.menuAccessKeyFocuses, and set the Value to false.

License

xkeysnail is distributed under GPL.

xkeysnail
Copyright (C) 2018 Masafumi Oyamada

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

xkeysnail is based on pykeymacs (https://github.com/DreaminginCodeZH/pykeymacs), which is distributed under GPL.

pykeymacs
Copyright (C) 2015 Zhang Hai

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.