Automate remapping Caps Lock to Escape

[geerlingguy]

Now that macOS 10.12.1 includes built-in remapping for Caps Lock-to-Escape, I've ditched Karabiner Elements (since that was the only thing I used it for). See: Remapping the Caps Lock key to Escape in macOS Sierra

But I'd still like to have that setting automated so I don't have to click through the Keyboard system preferences when setting up my Mac fresh.

See: Updating modifier key mappings through defaults command tool; the setting has to be set per keyboard (in my case, I have two, an 'Apple Keyboard', and an 'Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad', with unique IDs. I'd have to set it up (maybe in the .osx bash script in my dotfiles?) to add the mapping for each keyboard detected.

[oxyc]

If someone already uses khd as a hotkey daemon (it's brilliant), you can also use it to remap caps-lock.

- capslock : khd -p "- escape"

[geerlingguy]

Seems a lot more automate-able/configurable... but my only hesitation is the permissions required to make it work—you're giving it basically full control over keystrokes and all other parts of the accessibility layer.

[oxyc]

I hesitated too, but now there's no going back :D

https://twitter.com/geerlingguy/status/859526910229041154

# re-map/disable quit shortcut
cmd - q [ Firefox, iTerm2, Google Chrome ] : khd -p "cmd - w"

In case someone lands here you can disable Secure Keyboard entry for iTerm2/Terminal with:

defaults write com.apple.terminal SecureKeyboardEntry -bool false
defaults write com.googlecode.iterm2 "Secure Input" -bool false

[oxyc]

Quick update on khd for others reading. Seems it's been more or less abandoned in favor of skhd which doesnt support capslock and application specific mappings.

[tomtastic]

Hi @geerlingguy, maybe use the following for an automated key remapping solution ?

A short script remap_mac_keys to leverage MacOS native hidutil key remapping :

#!/bin/sh
# Credit to Brad Howes
FROM='"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc"'
TO='"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst"'

ARGS=""
function Map # FROM TO
{
    CMD="${CMD:+${CMD},}{${FROM}: ${1}, ${TO}: ${2}}"
}

# Referencing :
# https://opensource.apple.com/source/IOHIDFamily/IOHIDFamily-1035.41.2/IOHIDFamily/IOHIDUsageTables.h.auto.html
SECTION="0x700000064"
ESCAPE="0x700000029"
BACKQUOTE="0x700000035"
CAPS_LOCK="0x700000039"
L_SHIFT="0x7000000E1"
R_COMMAND="0x7000000E7"
L_CONTROL="0x7000000E0"

Map ${CAPS_LOCK} ${ESCAPE}
#Map ${SECTION} ${ESCAPE}
#Map ${R_COMMAND} ${SHIFT_LOCK}
#Map ${BACKQUOTE} ${L_CONTROL}

hidutil property --set "{\"UserKeyMapping\":[${CMD}]}"

A basic LaunchAgent com.user.loginscript.plist to perform the mapping at login :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
   <key>Label</key>
   <string>com.user.loginscript</string>
   <key>ProgramArguments</key>
   <array>
       <string>/usr/local/bin/remap_mac_keys</string>
   </array>
   <key>RunAtLoad</key>
   <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

And the following Ansible tasks to put them all in place :

- name: Copy remap_mac_keys to /usr/local/bin/
  copy:
    src: remap_mac_keys
    dest: /usr/local/bin/remap_mac_keys
    owner: root
    group: wheel
    mode: 0755
  become: yes

- name: Put LaunchAgent in place to remap keys on login
  copy:
    src: com.user.loginscript.plist
    dest: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.loginscript.plist
    mode: 0644

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