How to map CAPS LOCK key in VIM?

Question

I'm using GVIM under Windows. And want to map CAPSLOCK to Ctrl+^

Any way to do this?

Btw, I see tons of samples over the web how to swap CAPS and Esc using registry hack, but none of them use VIM map command, instead external tools and registry changes.

Accidentally hitting caps lock in command mode is the best part of my day. — David Sherret, Jan 21 '15 at 21:12
Several old answers to this question suggest using `xmodmap` to map Caps Lock on Linux. However, anyone trying to do this in 2016 should use the `setxkbmap` command, e.g. `setxkbmap -option caps:escape`. I have a little project called Uncap at https://github.com/susam/uncap that documents all this and also provides an unobtrusive little tool for Windows to map Caps Lock to Escape. See the [Alternatives](https://github.com/susam/uncap#alternatives) section of the README for details about using `setxkbmap` on Linux. — Susam Pal, Dec 09 '16 at 14:13
for mapping `CAPSLOCK` to `CTRL` (when pressed with other keys) **AND** `ESC` (when pressed alone) on Windows, there is a nice piece of SW (see [my answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/61892980/2074869) below). — Wolfson, May 19 '20 at 14:19
added a solution for Linux to map `CAPSLOCK` to `CTRL` **AND** `ESC` [below](https://stackoverflow.com/a/61892980/2074869) as well. — Wolfson, Sep 03 '20 at 09:54
a related question but for OS X: [Using Caps Lock as Esc in Mac OS X](https://stackoverflow.com/q/127591/8958173). — joeljpa, May 24 '23 at 05:47

score 65 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 01 '10 at 14:16

65

Linux? With X, use xmodmap to alter the key mapping, e.g.

xmodmap -e 'clear Lock' -e 'keycode 0x42 = Escape'

Will map Esc to the CapsLock key. Google for more examples.

answered Feb 01 '10 at 14:16

Dan Andreatta

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I would have given you a point except you said "Google for more examples" instead of providing a link. Whenever somebody does that they always end up at the top of the mentioned Google results: https://www.google.com/search?q=vim+remap+escape+capslock – Gerry Jul 07 '12 at 21:25
6

In the question was stated explicitly that this ("registry hack") is not acceptable. – Kokozaurus Oct 05 '13 at 14:39
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Love this hack. But it quite annoying when my eyes distracted by caps lock winking LED . – Brain90 May 13 '15 at 02:14

rsoren · Answer 2 · 2015-04-13T17:25:15.173

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If your intention is just to avoid working outside of Vim, you can put these lines in your .vimrc:

au VimEnter * !xmodmap -e 'clear Lock' -e 'keycode 0x42 = Escape'
au VimLeave * !xmodmap -e 'clear Lock' -e 'keycode 0x42 = Caps_Lock'

The first line maps escape to the caps lock key when you enter Vim, and the second line returns normal functionality to caps lock when you quit.

This requires Linux with the xorg-xmodmap package installed.

edited Apr 13 '15 at 17:25

answered Jan 15 '14 at 01:14

rsoren

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You can modify with `:silent` before the `!` to avoid the `press ENTER to continue` prompts. – npit Oct 11 '17 at 11:44
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To be clear, to avoid the prompt the code is `au VimEnter * silent! !xmodmap -e 'clear Lock' -e 'keycode 0x42 = Escape'` and `au VimLeave * silent! !xmodmap -e 'clear Lock' -e 'keycode 0x42 = Caps_Lock'` – KadeG Apr 20 '18 at 20:24
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Note that au is autocmd – barlop Jan 12 '20 at 23:11
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its good to be verbose in .vimrc – user12711 Jan 07 '22 at 13:30

score 22 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 20 '14 at 15:18

22

For Mac OS, you can remap the 'caps lock' key system wide in 'system preferences'.

Follow this path:

system preferences > keyboard > modifier keys

Then click the drop down box next to 'caps lock' and choose '^ Control'.

answered Nov 20 '14 at 15:18

Courtney Pattison

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it will only change to control. How to remap it to Esc – vincent mathew Nov 01 '16 at 08:39
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Just choose 'Escape' from the drop down :) – Courtney Pattison Nov 01 '16 at 13:54
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I think the option is available only from OS X 10.12 – vincent mathew Nov 01 '16 at 15:30

score 16 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 01 '10 at 12:30

16

Under windows? Use AutoHotkey. It's not a vim mapping, but as the others have stated you can't map it. I use AHK to map my CAPSLOCK to CTRL.

answered Feb 01 '10 at 12:30

hometoast

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See example AutoHotkey scripts in [Vim Tips wiki: Map caps lock to escape in Windows – AutoHotkey](http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Map_caps_lock_to_escape_in_Windows#AutoHotkey). – Rory O'Kane Jan 21 '13 at 01:17
Under Linux the Autokey app does the same thing. The app page is here https://code.google.com/p/autokey/ and it has a ppa for easy installation/updates on debian-based distributions. – monotasker Apr 11 '14 at 14:57

score 13 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 29 '16 at 06:28

13

In Linux systems this can be done with xmodmap.

Save this in a text file in the home folder

! Swap caps lock and escape
remove Lock = Caps_Lock
keysym Escape = Caps_Lock
keysym Caps_Lock = Escape
add Lock = Caps_Lock

Save this file with a name like .capstoescswitc

Then execute this file via the terminal.

xmodmap ~/.capstoescswitc

If want to reveres it simply switch the key variables in the script file.

For more info refer this page

answered Sep 29 '16 at 06:28

Nirojan Selvanathan

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Be careful, this script will swap `Caps_Lock` and `Escape` every time it is executed. See comments in the mentioned Vim wiki page. – carbolymer Dec 07 '17 at 09:35

score 10 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 01 '10 at 12:26

10

Capslock (and Control, and Shift etc.) is a modifier key, which means that it's used with another normal key to modify the meaning of that key. AFAIK the OS does not pass the modifier keys to the application unless a normal key has also been pressed, e.g. pressing CTRL will not be seen by the application, but CTRL-C will be.

answered Feb 01 '10 at 12:26

liwp

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Not quite. It is perfectly possible for an application to detect ctrl, shift, alt and windows key presses. The problem with keys like Caps Lock and Num Lock is that the OS insists on interpreting them as a toggling key. – Wim Coenen Feb 01 '10 at 15:00
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So can you use it to toggle between insert and command modes? Or is there something implied by your statement that I'm not aware of? – iconoclast Nov 02 '12 at 15:14
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Yes, you could do so in most OSes if you wrote a native app. Unfortunately, if you write an app that gets its input from another app (like vim running inside a terminal app or a JS app running in a browser), you only get the keyboard events that the native wrapper passes to you. Old terminals didn't have modern keyboard events. I'm not aware of any terminal app that will pass along a keypress event for a press of the capslock key or any other modifier key--only modifier+otherkey, and only *some* of them. So, in practice, you can't map the capslock key itself to any action in vim. – Glen Jan 10 '14 at 02:30

grabantot · Answer 7 · 2020-04-17T07:43:51.913

Solution that doesn't break `Caps Lock` outside of vim

Windows

Install autohotkey.
Run autohotkey script:

;caps_to_esc.ahk
#IfWinActive, ahk_class Vim ; vim window class
Capslock::Esc
#IfWinActive

Ubuntu

Run this command:

wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grabantot/scripts/master/install/install_caps_to_esc.sh | bash

Or perform these actions manually:

sudo apt-get install xdotool xbindkeys. We will also use xprop and xset (should be installed by default).
Create a ~/caps_to_esc.sh script:

debug_file=/dev/shm/caps_to_esc.debug
debug_msg () {
  echo $(date +%s%3N) "$@" >> $debug_file
}

caps_off () {
  is_caps_on="false"
  xset q | grep "Caps Lock:\s*on" && is_caps_on="true"
  debug_msg "is_caps_on ""$is_caps_on"

  [ "$is_caps_on" == "false" ] && return 3
  debug_msg "Sending Caps Lock"
  debug_msg "ignore_next"
  xdotool key Caps_Lock
}

should_ignore="false"
tail -n 1 $debug_file | grep "ignore_next" && should_ignore="true"

if [ "$should_ignore" == "true" ]; then
  debug_msg "ignored"
  exit 1
fi

echo -n "" > $debug_file

# get wm_class by 'xprop | grep WM_CLASS'
declare -a wm_classes=( \
  'WM_CLASS(STRING) = "gnome-terminal-server", "Gnome-terminal"' \
  'WM_CLASS(STRING) = "gvim", "Gvim"' \
  'WM_CLASS(STRING) = "code", "Code"' \
  'WM_CLASS(STRING) = "google-chrome", "Google-chrome"' \
)

active_window_id=$(xdotool getactivewindow)
active_window_wm_class=$(xprop -id $active_window_id WM_CLASS)
debug_msg "active_wm_class   ""$active_window_wm_class"

detected_wm_class=""
for wm_class in "${wm_classes[@]}"; do
  # debug_msg "$wm_class"
  if [ "$active_window_wm_class" == "$wm_class" ]; then
    detected_wm_class="$wm_class"
    debug_msg "detected_wm_class ""$detected_wm_class"
  fi
done

[ "$detected_wm_class" == "" ] && exit 2
xdotool keyup "Caps_Lock" # !!! very important
caps_off
debug_msg "Sending Escape"
xdotool key "Escape"
debug_msg "sent"

Add new bindnig to ~/.xbindkeysrc:

"bash $HOME/caps_to_esc.sh"
Caps_Lock

killall xbindkeys && xbindkeys

How it works:

xbindkeys will detetect when Caps_Lock is pressed and call caps_to_esc.sh script
in the script detect active window wm_class by xprop
check if wm_class is of interest for us (gnome-terminal, vscode, gvim, chrome), exit if it is not
send Escape key via xdotool
check if Caps Lock is on via xset and if it is then send Caps_Lock key via xdotool
xbindkeys will detect the Caps_Lock sent by us but we ignore it

This is awesome. I work on Windows at the office (and can't hack up the registry, but AHK is installed); Linux at home. Both of those places are really just a KVM apart, and now I have a lot better selection of keyboards to select from (not just uberpriced niche G60 types). Nicely done! — cschooley, Nov 08 '17 at 22:30

score 5 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 01 '10 at 12:23

I dont think you can. I believe CAPS-LOCK is probably translated by the OS before vim ever sees it. So you'd need to do a hack at the OS level, like the registry hacks you've already seen.

EDIT: autohotkey looks like it could be used to bridge the vim-OS gap. This way a thirdparty app is doing the hacks at the OS level, and you're just hooking that app.

score 4 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 29 '20 at 08:29

4

@rsoren's answer works. But the problem with that is if multiple buffers are opened, exiting from one, reverts the mapping for all of the others too. Replacing VimEnter and VimLeave with BufEnter and BufLeave, did the trick for me.

au BufEnter * silent! !xmodmap -e 'clear Lock' -e 'keycode 0x42 = Escape'
au BufLeave * silent! !xmodmap -e 'clear Lock' -e 'keycode 0x42 = Caps_Lock'

answered Apr 29 '20 at 08:29

akalankae99

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another way is to remap the escape key to `kj` By adding this line to .vimrc. `" esc in command mode cnoremap kj " esc in insert mode inoremap kj ` – EsmaeelE Feb 17 '22 at 03:27

score 3 · Answer 10 · edited Nov 14 '12 at 10:07

3

Since there is a solution for Linux and Windows(Autohotkey), I´d like to suggest to use pckeyboardhack for Mac to remap CapsLock everywhere.

edited Nov 14 '12 at 10:07

Stephan

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answered Nov 14 '12 at 09:46

Jakob

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You can use system preferences to remap caps lock on Mac OS. See my answer for more details. – Courtney Pattison Nov 20 '14 at 15:20

Wolfson · Answer 11 · 2020-09-03T09:09:22.237

Remap `CAPSLOCK` to `ESC` and `CTRL` on Windows

If you want to remap CAPSLOCK to both

to ESC (when pressed alone)
to CTRL (when pressed with other keys) you can use this little piece of open source software by ililim.

You do not need Admin privileges for this and ESC and CTRL are still working as expected.

I use it to enjoy convenient CTRL + anything presses without hurting my pinky and to toggle modes in Vim that I use via ssh in MobaXterm. For installation just follow this description.

Remap `CAPSLOCK` to `ESC` and `CTRL` on Linux

To do the same on Linux, you can use XCAPE. To install it on Ubuntu use:

sudo apt install xcape

For the actual mapping do:

setxkbmap -option ctrl:nocaps
xcape -e 'Control_L=Escape'

The 1st command is to map CAPSLOCK to ESC whereas the 2nd one takes care of CTRL pressed with other keys.

To have this permanently working in X sessions, you can add this to ~/.xprofile.

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Feb 01 '21 at 10:55

I went through the answers to this question to do it my own, but I was looking for something slightly different:

I'm using Linux
I'm happy to change CAPS even outside Vim (I press almost always by mistake, and I can keep it on the Esc button anyhow for the goals I'm using it)
I'd like to use the most common software as possible, not to require any further installation
I'd prefer to KISS, and then even avoid the need of further lengthy scripts
I'd like to have both CAPS -> Esc AND CAPS + <something> -> Ctrl + <something>, if possible

Then my current solution it is:

# ~/.xprofile
xmodmap $HOME/.xmodmap

and:

! ~/.xmodmap
clear lock
keycode 66 = Escape
keycode 9 = Caps_Lock
add lock = Caps_Lock

clear control
add control = Control_L Control_R Escape

Looks like it's working like a charm for the time being, but I'm looking for feedbacks :)

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Dec 15 '17 at 10:13

I guess one of the reasons for doing this is to create a soft capslock, like others have mentioned, possibly to avoid keeping capslock on while in normal mode. I've used the vimcaps plugin to turn off capslock when leaving insert mode, seems to work okay.

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Nov 10 '18 at 12:28

On mac, it is also possible to use Karabiner (https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/)

$ brew cask install karabiner-elements

Once installed, you can map capslock key to esc key in the simple modifications tab. Caveat is this is system wide, meaning that you lose capslock key everywhere. IMO who needs capslock.

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Jan 09 '20 at 18:25

0

A working example for a mere Mortal WINDOWS user like me as of 2020 is using AutoHotkey

Currently using this 1 line script:

Capslock::Esc

Run it and your problem is solved. Hope it helps. :)

answered Jan 09 '20 at 18:25

joshua-afk

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score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Feb 28 '21 at 17:02

With X (Linux), as @Dan Andreatta mentioned, use xmodmap to alter the key mapping, e.g.

xmodmap -e 'clear Lock' -e 'keycode 0x42 = Escape'

Will map Esc to the CapsLock key.

You could also set this in stone by adding it into an X initialization file, such as .xinitrc — which is run when using startx —:

clear lock
keycode 0x42 = Escape

Typically, this is put inside an .Xmodmap file and then it's run inside .xinitrc.

Vim's documentation has an entire page dedicated to this topic, and the comments section is especially helful.

Aside from the "comments section" link, this answer isn't too useful for OP's original question, which was how to do this in Windows. — amphetamachine, Mar 06 '22 at 16:03

How to map CAPS LOCK key in VIM?

16 Answers16

Solution that doesn't break `Caps Lock` outside of vim

Windows

Ubuntu

How it works:

Remap `CAPSLOCK` to `ESC` and `CTRL` on Windows

Remap `CAPSLOCK` to `ESC` and `CTRL` on Linux

Linked

Related

How to map CAPS LOCK key in VIM?

16 Answers16

Solution that doesn't break Caps Lock outside of vim

Windows

Ubuntu

How it works:

Remap CAPSLOCK to ESC and CTRL on Windows

Remap CAPSLOCK to ESC and CTRL on Linux

Linked

Related

Solution that doesn't break `Caps Lock` outside of vim

Remap `CAPSLOCK` to `ESC` and `CTRL` on Windows

Remap `CAPSLOCK` to `ESC` and `CTRL` on Linux