How to use CapsLock instead of Escape in Vim?

Question

I would like to map my CapsLock to Escape. How do I represent CapsLock in .vimrc?

I know to map space to a command I would do something like this:

:map <space> viw

How would I map CapsLock to Escape without doing a registry hack - I'm looking for a Vim command?

If that is not possible without a hack or additional software I would like to assign the shortcut jj to ESC in .vimrc . I'm currently doing this:

inoremap jj <esc>

However if I'm in visual mode this does not work. How could I make jj emulate the escape key?

Answer 1

I don't think you can map CapsLock from within Vim. You remap it within X using setxkbmap:

setxkbmap -option caps:swapescape

For remapping in the console, if your distro uses systemd, you can use a custom keyboard layout in /etc/vconsole.conf as described on the Arch Wiki, and for other init systems see this U&L answer.

Answer 2

If you want to map both Caps Lock and Escape to Escape, instead of swapping them, use

setxkbmap -option caps:escape

instead of ...:swapescape.

Use

setxkbmap -option

to clear any existing options, then the above should work.

Answer 3

You can use a call to xmodmap on Vim startup to map Capslock to Escape. The modification can be reverted once you leave Vim. Add the following lines to your .vimrc:

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

However, this will lead to problems if you have multiple Vim sessions. Once you close one of them, the modification is reverted for all of them, since xmodmap operates globally.

Answer 4

inoremap means insert mode non-recursive map. vnoremap is visual mode non-recursive map. So vnoremap jj <esc> is what you want.

Answer 5

Try this in your ~/.vimrc or ~/.vim/vimrc file :

:autocmd BufWinEnter * !setxkbmap -option caps:swapescape
:autocmd BufWinLeave * !setxkbmap -option

Instead of the first line, you can use an alias in ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile :

alias vim="setxkbmap -option caps:swapescape && vim"

The drawback in these approaches being that as long as you haven't closed the vim, your CapsLock will be your Escape and vice-versa, machine-wide.

Solution to that:

For this, I am using timeout with the key-binding swap only during the required mode (that is, InsertMode):

au CursorHoldI * stopinsert
au InsertEnter * silent! let updaterestore=&updatetime | set updatetime=15000 | execute "!setxkbmap -option caps:swapescape" | redraw!
au InsertLeave * silent! let &updatetime=updaterestore | execute "!setxkbmap -option" | redraw!

Now, during the InsertMode, the CapsLock and Escape will interchange machine-wide, but since I have set a time-out for the InsertMode to be 15000, I need not worry about it as it will automatically be reversed in 15 seconds of inactivity. ;-)

-Himanshu

Answer 6

For anyone coming from Ubuntu 22.04 and having issues with

setxkbmap -option caps:swapescape

An Ask Ubuntu answer provides an alternative method:

dconf write "/org/gnome/desktop/input-sources/xkb-options" "[ 'caps:swapescape']"

Answer 7

However if I'm in visual mode this does not work. How could I make jj emulate the escape key?

That's because you are only mapping jj in insert mode (defined by the i in inoremap)

For visual and normal mode, respectively, add this to your .vimrc file (or init.vim for Neovim):

vnoremap jj <ESC>
nnoremap jj <ESC>

Answer 8

For anyone requiring both esc and control as caps this guide is useful https://www.dannyguo.com/blog/remap-caps-lock-to-escape-and-control/ (not possible via vim config alone AFAIK)