How to swap Ctrl and Alt in just the Terminal

keyboardterminal

I have a USB keyboard where I swapped my Cmd and Ctrl keys, because I come from the world of Linux and that's just what I'm used to.

However, this causes a problem in the Terminal because all of a sudden the Ctrl key (used for escapes and whatnot [^C, ^D, and so on]) is in the wrong place. As a result, I keep accidentally pressing the wrong key.

Is there a way to swap my Cmd and Ctrl keys again only in Terminal (so that the keys are all in the right place)?

Best Answer

iTerm2 will let you remap your modifier keys. This has the effect of just remapping them for terminals. Bonus: it's also a better terminal program for OS X than the built-in Terminal.app that ships with OS X.

You can alter the modifier keys on a per-profile basis as well. That lets you switch profiles for terminals depending on what you're doing with the terminal so you get the correct behaviour for local and remote sessions.

Related Solutions

MacOS – CTRL+4 and CTRL+5 not working in OSX

I think this is a bug in Mac OS X and has something to do with the way the keyboard shortcuts for Spaces are processed. Try this:

Make sure Spaces is turned on in the System Preferences with the standard 4 spaces layout, and standard key combination for switching to a space.
Open a folder in the Finder.
Press and hold CTRL, and press any of the number keys. If you press 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 0 first you will get a beep. Same if you press one of those keys again (still holding CTRL). If you then press 1, 2, 3 or 4, you will switch to that space number; or just stay in that space if you were already in it. If you then press any of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 0 again, it won't beep anymore.

If you simply turn off Spaces, the above won't happen and whatever order you press the keys in, they will continue to beep. If you change the number of spaces to only two, then 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0 will give you a beep until you've pressed either 1 or 2. I don't know of an application in which those keys have a non-Spaces functionality and would do something useful other than beep, so I haven't been able to try what happens in such an application. In any case, I don't think you need to worry there's something wrong with your keyboard or the way you've configured the keyboard bindings; it seems to be a bug in Mac OS X.

Edit: Try the above in a new folder in which you've created folders named "1", "2" and so on. I find the Finder's behavior in this case somewhat strange: if you press CTRL-8, it will beep yet also switch the selection to the folder named "8". But again, pressing 5 through 9 will neither beep, nor change the selected folder once you've pressed any of 1 through 4.

MacOS – Control not working in iTerm 2 when using Programmer Dvorak keyboard layout

Edit: There is now a new version of Programmer Dvorak that works with key combinations like ⌃A, so the instructions below are no longer needed.

◊ Option modifier is currently non-functional. Also, you cannot replace a default Roman layout with this one. Control keys should now be functional.

Option worked everywhere I tested, so non-functional could just mean that states under option don't output non-ASCII characters. If you want to disable all other input sources, you can edit the HIToolBox plist.

Instructions for older versions of Programmer Dvorak:

Open /Library/Keyboard Layouts/Programmer Dvorak.bundle/Contents/Resources/Programmer Dvorak.keylayout

And add this to modifierMap:

<keyMapSelect mapIndex="3">
  <modifier keys="control anyOption? anyShift?"/>
</keyMapSelect>

Add this to keyMapSet:

<keyMap index="3">
  <key code="0" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="1" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="2" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="3" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="4" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="5" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="6" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="7" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="8" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="9" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="10" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="11" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="12" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="13" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="14" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="15" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="16" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="17" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="18" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="19" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="20" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="21" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="22" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="23" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="24" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="25" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="26" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="27" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="28" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="29" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="30" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="31" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="32" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="33" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="34" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="35" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="36" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="37" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="38" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="39" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="40" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="41" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="42" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="43" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="44" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="45" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="46" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="47" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="48" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="49" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="50" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="51" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="52" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="53" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="64" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="65" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="66" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="67" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="69" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="70" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="71" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="72" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="75" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="76" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="77" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="78" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="79" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="80" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="81" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="82" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="83" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="84" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="85" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="86" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="87" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="88" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="89" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="91" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="92" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="96" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="97" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="98" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="99" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="100" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="101" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="102" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="103" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="104" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="105" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="106" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="107" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="108" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="109" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="110" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="111" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="112" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="113" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="114" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="115" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="116" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="117" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="118" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="119" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="120" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="121" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="122" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="123" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="124" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="125" output="&#x0000;"/>
  <key code="126" output="&#x0000;"/>
</keyMap>

Run sudo touch /Library/Keyboard\ Layouts/ and log out and back in

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MacOS – CTRL+4 and CTRL+5 not working in OSX

MacOS – Control not working in iTerm 2 when using Programmer Dvorak keyboard layout

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