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mooz/ xkeysnail
Python Linux keyboard-shortcuts
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About the developer

mooz
705 Stars 93 Forks 151 Commits 76 Opened issues

Description

Yet another keyboard remapping tool for X environment

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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

  • Pros
    • Has high-level and flexible remapping mechanisms, such as
      • per-application keybindings can be defined
      • multiple stroke keybindings can be defined such as 
        Ctrl+x Ctrl+c
        to 
        Ctrl+q
      • not only key remapping but arbitrary commands defined by Python can be bound to a key
    • Runs in low-level layer (
      evdev
      and 
      uinput
      ), making remapping work in almost all the places
  • Cons
    • Runs in root-mode (requires 
      sudo
      )

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: - Regular expression (e.g., 
re.compile("YYY")
) - Activates the 
mappings
if the pattern 
YYY
matches the 
WM_CLASS
of the application. - Case Insensitivity matching against 
WM_CLASS
via 
re.IGNORECASE
(e.g. 
re.compile('Gnome-terminal', re.IGNORECASE)
) - 
lambda wm_class: some_condition(wm_class)
- Activates the 
mappings
if the 
WM_CLASS
of the application satisfies the condition specified by the 
lambda
function. - Case Insensitivity matching via 
casefold()
or 
lambda wm_class: wm_class.casefold()
(see example below to see how to compare to a list of names) - 
None
: Refers to no condition. 
None
-specified keymap will be a global keymap and is always enabled.

Argument 

mappings
is a dictionary in the form of 
{key: command, key2:
command2, ...}
where 
key
and 
command
take following forms: - 
key
: Key to override specified by 
K("YYY")
- For the syntax of key specification, please refer to the key specification section. - 
command
: one of the followings - 
K("YYY")
: Dispatch custom key to the application. - 
[command1, command2, ...]
: Execute commands sequentially. - 
{ ... }
: Sub-keymap. Used to define multiple stroke keybindings. See multiple stroke keys for details. - 
pass_through_key
: Pass through 
key
to the application. Useful to override the global mappings behavior on certain applications. - 
escape_next_key
: Escape next key. - Arbitrary function: The function is executed and the returned value is used as a command. - Can be used to invoke UNIX commands.

Argument 

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

Key Specification

Key specification in a keymap is in a form of 

K("(-)*")
where 

 is one of the followings
- 
C
 or 
Ctrl
 -> Control key
- 
M
 or 
Alt
 -> Alt key
- 
Shift
 -> Shift key
- 
Super
 or 
Win
 -> Super/Windows key


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


And 
 is a key whose name is defined
in 
key.py
.


Here is a list of key specification examples:



    

  • 

    K("C-M-j")
    : 
    Ctrl
     + 
    Alt
     + 
    j
    

    • 

  • 

    K("Ctrl-m")
    : 
    Ctrl
     + 
    m
    

    • 

  • 

    K("Win-o")
    : 
    Super/Windows
     + 
    o
    

    • 

  • 

    K("M-Shift-comma")
    : 
    Alt
     + 
    Shift
     + 
    comma
     (= 
    Alt
     + 
    >
    )
    • 




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:.



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:.


    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    



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