[[https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-collection/actions][file:https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-collection/workflows/CI/badge.svg?branch=master]] [[https://melpa.org/#/evil-collection][file:https://melpa.org/packages/evil-collection-badge.svg]] [[https://stable.melpa.org/#/evil-collection][file:https://stable.melpa.org/packages/evil-collection-badge.svg]]
This is a collection of [[https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil][Evil]] bindings for /the parts of Emacs/ that Evil does not cover properly by default, such as ~help-mode~, ~M-x calendar~, Eshell and more.
Warning: Expect some default bindings to change in the future.
** Preliminaries
** Goals
Reduce context switching: As soon as "moving around" gets hardwired
to ~
Community work: setting up bindings is tremendous work and joining force can only save hours for all of Evil users out there. While not everyone may agree on the chosen bindings, it helps to have something to start with rather than nothing at all. In the end, users are free to override a subset of the proposed bindings to best fit their needs.
Consistency: Having all bindings defined in one place allows for enforcing consistency across special modes and coordinating the community work to define a reference implementation.
** Installation
Get the package, either from MELPA:
: M-x package-install RET evil-collection RET
Or clone / download this repository and modify your ~load-path~:
: (add-to-list 'load-path (expand-file-name "/path/to/evil-collection/" user-emacs-directory))
Register the bindings, either all at once with
: (evil-collection-init)
or mode-by-mode, for instance:
: (with-eval-after-load 'calendar (evil-collection-calendar-setup))
or by providing an argument to ~evil-collection-init~:
: (evil-collection-init 'calendar)
a list can also be provided to ~evil-collection-init~:
: (evil-collection-init '(calendar dired calc ediff))
The list of supported modes is configured by ~evil-collection-mode-list~.
~evil-collection~ assumes ~evil-want-keybinding~ is set to ~nil~ and ~evil-want-integration~ is set to ~t~ before loading ~evil~ and ~evil-collection~. Note some other packages may load evil (e.g. evil-leader) so bear that in mind when determining when to set the variables.
See https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-collection/issues/60 and https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil/pull/1087 for more details.
For example:
(setq evil-want-integration t) ;; This is optional since it's already set to t by default. (setq evil-want-keybinding nil) (require 'evil) (when (require 'evil-collection nil t) (evil-collection-init))
Here's another full TLDR ~use-package~ example.
(use-package evil :ensure t :init (setq evil-want-integration t) ;; This is optional since it's already set to t by default. (setq evil-want-keybinding nil) :config (evil-mode 1))
(use-package evil-collection :after evil :ensure t :config (evil-collection-init))
NOTE: If you don't like surprises but still want to use ~evil-collection-init~, setting ~evil-collection-mode-list~ to nil and adding each mode manually might be a better option.
** Configuration Modify ~evil-collection-mode-list~ to disable or add any modes that should be evilified by ~evil-collection~.
| Variable | Default | Description |
|--------------------------------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
| evil-collection-calendar-want-org-bindings | nil | Set up Org functions in calendar keymap. |
| evil-collection-outline-bind-tab-p | nil | Enable
For example, if you want to enable Evil in the minibuffer, you'll have to turn it on explicitly by customizing ~evil-collection-setup-minibuffer~ to ~t~. Some minibuffer-related packages such as Helm rely on this option.
~use-package~ example:
(use-package evil-collection :custom (evil-collection-setup-minibuffer t) :init (evil-collection-init))
~evil-collection-config~ can also be modified to configure specific modes. At the moment, it can be used to defer binding keys to those specific modes in order to improve startup time.
** Guidelines
The following rules serve as guiding principles to define the set of standard Evil bindings for various modes. Since special modes are by definition structurally incomparable, those rules cannot be expected to be applied universally.
The rules are more-or-less sorted by priority.
Don't bind anything to ~:~ nor ~
Keep the movement keys when possible and sensible.
Keep the yanking and register keys when possible and sensible.
Keep the search keys when possible and sensible.
Keep the mark keys when possible and sensible.
Keep the windowing keys when possible and sensible.
The following keys are free when insert state does not make sense in the current mode:
Any of those keys can be set to be a prefix key.
Prefix keys: ~g~ and ~z~ are the ubiquitous prefix keys.
Macro and action keys
Ensure terminal compatibility without sacrificing GUI key bindings.
** Rationale
Many special modes share the same set of similar actions. Those actions should share the same bindings across all modes whenever feasible.
*** Motion (~[~, ~]~, ~{~, ~}~, ~(~, ~)~, ~gj~, ~gk~, ~C-j~, ~C-k~)
~[~ and ~]~: Use ~[-~ and ~]-~ prefixed keys for navigation between sections.
If the mode makes no difference between the end of a section and the beginning of the next, use ~[~ and ~]~.
~gj~ and ~gk~: synonym for ~[~ and ~]~. That's what [[evilmagit][evil-magit]] does.
Question: Should ~gj~ / ~gk~ rather be synonyms for ~C-j~ / ~C-k~? They cannot emulate the behaviour of ~[]~ or ~][~.
~C-j~, ~C-k~: If there is granularity, i.e. subsections, use ~C-j~ and ~C-k~ to browse them. This reflects [[evilmagit][evil-magit]] and [[evilmu4e][evil-mu4e]] default bindings.
~{~, ~}~: If there is no paragraph structure, ~{~ and ~}~ can be used for sub-sectioning.
~(~, ~)~: If there is no sentence structure, ~(~ and ~)~ can be used for sub-sectioning.
~HJKL~: ~hjkl~ can be used for atomic movements, but ~HJKL~ can usually not be used because ~H~, ~K~ and ~L~ are all universal (~J~ is ~evil-join~ and usually does not make sense in special modes).
~C-h~ should not be remapped: Since we have ~C-j~ and ~C-k~ for vertical motion, it would make sense to use ~C-h~ and ~C-l~ for horizontal motion. There are some shortcomings though:
In Vim, ~C-h~ works as backspace, but Evil does not follow that behaviour.
In Emacs, it is a prefix key for all help-related commands, and so is ~
Most importantly, ~C-h~ is too widespread and ubiquitous to be replaced. So we don't.
~C-l~: As a consequence of the former point, ~C-l~ is available.
~M-
*** Quitting (~q~, ~ZQ~, ~ZZ~)
In Vim, ~q~ is for recording macros. Vim quits with ~ZZ~ or ~ZQ~. In most
Emacs special modes, it stands for quitting while macros are recorded/played
with ~
A good rule of thumb would be:
*** Refreshing / Reverting (~gr~)
~gr~ is used for refreshing in [[evilmagit][evil-magit]], [[evilmu4e][evil-mu4e]], and some Spacemacs configurations (org-agenda and neotree among others).
~C-l~ is traditionally used to refresh the terminal screen. Since there does not seem to be any existing use of it, we leave the binding free for other uses.
*** Marking
~m~ defaults to ~evil-set-marker~ which might not be very useful in special modes. ='= can still be used as it can jump to other buffers.
~m~: Mark or toggle mark, depending on what the mode offers. In visual mode, always mark. With a numeric argument, toggle mark on that many following lines.
~u~: Unmark current selection.
~U~: Unmark all.
=~=: Toggle all marks. This mirrors the "invert-char" Vim command bound to =~= by default.
~M~: Mark all, if available. Otherwise use =U~=.
~~: Mark-prefix or mark all if current mode has no prefix. ~~ is traditionally a wildcard.
~%~: Mark regexp.
~x~: Execute action on marks. This mirrors Dired's binding of ~x~.
If ~*~ is used for marking, then ~#~ is free.
Also note that Emacs inconsistently uses ~u~ and ~U~ to unmark.
*** Selecting / Filtering / Narrowing / Searching
~s~ and ~S~ seem to be used in some places like [[mu4e][mu4e]].
~=~ is usually free and its significance is obvious. It's taken for zooming though.
~|~ is not free but the pipe symbolic is very tantalizing.
*** Sorting
~O~: Sort in reverse order.
There is no real consensus around which key to bind to sorting. What others do by default:
~package-menu~ uses ~S~.
~M-x proced~ and Dired use ~s~.
~profiler~ uses ~A~ and ~D~.
[[mu4e][mu4e]] uses ~O~.
[[http://www.nongnu.org/ranger/][ranger]] uses ~o~, inspired from [[http://mutt.org][Mutt]].
*** Go to definition (~gd~, ~gD~)
*** Go to references, etc (~gr~, ~gA~) When ~evil-collection-want-find-usages-bindings~ is set to t:
~gr~: [g] to [r]eferences. This binding is also used for refresh/reverting modes in non programming modes but is usually empty for programming modes.
~gA~: [g]o to [A]ssignments.
Additional bindings: There may be additional binds under this category. Please file a Pull Request if so.
*** Go to current entity
*** Open thing at point (~RET~, ~S-RET~, ~M-RET~, ~go~, ~gO~)
~RET~, ~S-RET~, ~M-RET~: Open thing at point in current window, open in other window and display in other window respectively. The latter is like the former with the focus remaining on the current window.
~go~, ~gO~: When available, same as ~S-RET~ and ~M-RET~ respectively. This is useful in terminals where ~S-RET~ and ~M-RET~ might not work.
*** Emacs-style jumping (~J~)
~J~: [[mu4e][mu4e]] has ~j~ and [[evil-mu4e][evil-mu4e]] uses ~J~, so we use ~J~ too.
Some special modes like [[mu4e][mu4e]] and ibuffer offer to "jump" to a different buffer. This sometimes depends on the thing at point.
This is not related to Evil jumps like ~C-i~ and ~C-o~, nor to "go to definition".
*** Browse URL (~gx~)
~gx~: go to URL. This is a default Vim binding.
*** Help (~?~)
*** History browsing (~C-n~, ~C-p~)
~C-n~ and ~C-p~ are standard bindings to browse the history elements.
*** Bookmarking
?
*** REPL (~gz~)
If the mode has a Go To REPL-type command, set it to ~gz~.
*** Zooming (~+~, ~-~, ~=~, ~0~)
*** Debugging
When debugging is on, debugger keys takes the most precedence.
These keys will be set when there's an available command for them.
For debugging outside of debugger being on (e.g. setting initial breakpoints), we use similar keys to [[https://github.com/realgud/realgud][realgud]].
*** Editable Buffers
For buffers where insert-state doesn't make sense but buffer can be edited, (e.g. wdired or wgrep), pressing ~i~ will change into editable state.
When this editable state is turned on,
~ZQ~ will abort and clear any changes. ~ZZ~ will finish and save any changes. ~ESC~ will exit editable state.
*** :q/:wq/etc
Modes with commands that can be bound to :q/:wq/etc will have those keys remapped.
** Key Translation
~evil-collection-translate-key~ allows binding a key to the definition of another key in the same keymap (comparable to how Vim's keybindings work). Its arguments are the ~states~ and ~keymaps~ to bind/look up the key(s) in followed optionally by keyword arguments (currently only ~:destructive~) and key/replacement pairs. ~states~ should be nil for non-evil keymaps, and both ~states~ and ~keymaps~ can be a single symbol or a list of symbols.
This function can be useful for making key swaps/cycles en masse. For example, someone who uses an alternate keyboard layout may want to retain the ~hjkl~ positions for directional movement in dired, the calendar, etc.
Here's an example for Colemak of making swaps in a single keymap:
(evil-collection-translate-key nil 'evil-motion-state-map ;; colemak hnei is qwerty hjkl "n" "j" "e" "k" "i" "l" ;; add back nei "j" "e" "k" "n" "l" "i")
Here's an example of using ~evil-collection-setup-hook~ to cycle the keys for all modes in ~evil-collection-mode-list~:
(defun my-hjkl-rotation (_mode mode-keymaps &rest _rest) (evil-collection-translate-key 'normal mode-keymaps "n" "j" "e" "k" "i" "l" "j" "e" "k" "n" "l" "i"))
;; called after evil-collection makes its keybindings (add-hook 'evil-collection-setup-hook #'my-hjkl-rotation)
(evil-collection-init)
A more common use case of ~evil-collection-translate-key~ would be for keeping the functionality of some keys that users may bind globally. For example, ~SPC~, ~[~, and ~]~ are bound in some modes. If you use these keys as global prefix keys that you never want to be overridden, you'll want to give them higher priority than other evil keybindings (e.g. those made by ~(evil-define-key 'normal some-map ...)~). To do this, you can create an "intercept" map and bind your prefix keys in it instead of in ~evil-normal-state-map~:
(defvar my-intercept-mode-map (make-sparse-keymap) "High precedence keymap.")
(define-minor-mode my-intercept-mode "Global minor mode for higher precedence evil keybindings." :global t)
(my-intercept-mode)
(dolist (state '(normal visual insert)) (evil-make-intercept-map ;; NOTE: This requires an evil version from 2018-03-20 or later (evil-get-auxiliary-keymap my-intercept-mode-map state t t) state))
(evil-define-key 'normal my-intercept-mode-map (kbd "SPC f") 'find-file) ;; ...
You can then define replacement keys:
(defun my-prefix-translations (_mode mode-keymaps &rest _rest) (evil-collection-translate-key 'normal mode-keymaps "C-SPC" "SPC" ;; these need to be unbound first; this needs to be in same statement "[" nil "]" nil "[[" "[" "]]" "]"))
(add-hook 'evil-collection-setup-hook #'my-prefix-translations)
(evil-collection-init)
By default, the first invocation of ~evil-collection-translate-key~ will make a backup of the keymap. Each subsequent invocation will look up keys in the backup instead of the original. This means that a call to ~evil-collection-translate-key~ will always have the same behavior even if evaluated multiple times. When ~:destructive t~ is specified, keys are looked up in the keymap as it is currently. This means that a call to ~evil-collection-translate-key~ that swapped two keys would continue to swap/unswap them with each call. Therefore when ~:destructive t~ is used, all cycles/swaps must be done within a single call to ~evil-collection-translate-key~. To make a comparison to Vim keybindings, ~:destructive t~ is comparable to Vim's ~map~, and ~:destructive nil~ is comparable to Vim's ~noremap~ (where the "original" keybindings are those that existed in the keymap when ~evil-collection-translate-key~ was first called). You'll almost always want to use the default behavior (especially in your init file). The limitation of ~:destructive nil~ is that you can't translate a key to another key that was defined after the first ~evil-collection-translate-key~, so ~:destructive t~ may be useful for interactive experimentation.
~evil-collection-swap-key~ is also provided as a wrapper around ~evil-collection-translate-key~ that allows swapping keys:
(evil-collection-swap-key nil 'evil-motion-state-map ";" ":") ;; is equivalent to (evil-collection-translate-key nil 'evil-motion-state-map ";" ":" ":" ";")
In some cases, keys are bound through evil-define-minor-mode-key and may
need to be translated using ~evil-collection-translate-minor-mode-key~ and/or
~evil-collection-swap-minor-mode-key~.
(evil-collection-swap-minor-mode-key '(normal motion) '(evil-snipe-local-mode evil-snipe-override-local-mode) "k" "s" ;; Set this to t to make this swap the keys everytime ;; this expression is evaluated. :destructive nil)
(evil-collection-translate-minor-mode-key '(normal motion) '(evil-snipe-local-mode evil-snipe-override-local-mode) "k" "s" "s" "k" ;; Set this to t to make this swap the keys everytime ;; this expression is evaluated. :destructive nil)
** Third-party packages
Third-party packages are provided by several parties:
| Major mode | Evil bindings | |------------+--------------------------| | ledger | [[https://github.com/atheriel/evil-ledger][evil-ledger]] | | lispy | [[https://github.com/noctuid/lispyville][lispyville]] or [[https://github.com/sp3ctum/evil-lispy][evil-lispy]] | | org | [[https://github.com/GuiltyDolphin/org-evil][org-evil]] or [[https://github.com/Somelauw/evil-org-mode][evil-org]] | | markdown | [[https://github.com/Somelauw/evil-markdown][evil-markdown]] |
Also ~evil-collection~ has minimal support (~TAB~, ~S-TAB~ and sentence/paragraph forwarding) for ~markdown~ and ~org~ if you prefer less packages installed.
Should you know any suitable package not mentioned in this list, let us know and file an issue.
Other references:
** FAQ
*** Making SPC work similarly to [[https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs][spacemacs]].
~evil-collection~ binds over SPC in many packages. To use SPC as a leader key with the [[https://github.com/noctuid/general.el][general]] library:
(use-package general :ensure t :init (setq general-override-states '(insert emacs hybrid normal visual motion operator replace)) :config (general-define-key :states '(normal visual motion) :keymaps 'override "SPC" 'hydra-space/body)) ;; Replace 'hydra-space/body with your leader function.
See [[https://github.com/noctuid/evil-guide][noctuid's evil guide]] for other approaches.
(add-hook 'evil-collection-setup-hook (lambda (_mode keymaps) (add-hook 'ediff-mode-hook (lambda () (... keymaps ...)))))
View [[https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-collection/issues/196][196]] for more info. *** Don't allow Evil-Collection to bind some keys. Look into ~evil-collection-key-whitelist~ and ~evil-collection-key-blacklist~.
For example:
;; Don't allow Evil Collection to bind to gfu and gfp. (setq evil-collection-key-blacklist '("gfu" "gfp"))
*** Modes left behind
Some modes might still remain unsupported by this package. Should you be missing
your ~
*** Writing a new binding
This [[template][yasnippet template]] can be used to bootstrap a new binding.
For example, if we were to want to add ~evil-collection~ support to ~eldoc~. (e.g.) There is a package that contains:
(provide 'eldoc)
Create a directory named eldoc under [[modes-directory][modes/]]. Create a file named evil-collection-eldoc.el under the newly created eldoc directory. Then use the above template as an example or, using [[yasnippet][yasnippet]], ~yas-expand~ the above template which will result in something like below:
;;; evil-collection-eldoc.el --- Bindings for `eldoc' -- lexical-binding: t --
;; Copyright (C) 2022 James Nguyen
;; Author: James Nguyen james@jojojames.com ;; Maintainer: James Nguyen james@jojojames.com ;; URL: https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-collection ;; Version: 0.0.2 ;; Package-Requires: ((emacs "27.1")) ;; Keywords: evil, emacs, convenience, tools
;; 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://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
;;; Commentary: ;;; Bindings for eldoc.
;;; Code: (require 'evil-collection) (require 'eldoc nil t)
(defvar eldoc-mode-map) (defconst evil-collection-eldoc-maps '(eldoc-mode-map))
(defun evil-collection-eldoc-setup () "Set up `evil' bindings for eldoc." (evil-collection-define-key 'normal 'eldoc-mode-map ))
(provide 'evil-collection-eldoc) ;;; evil-collection-eldoc.el ends here
Finally, add ~eldoc~ to ~evil-collection--supported-modes~.
(defvar evil-collection--supported-modes
( ;; ... eldoc ;; ... ) "List of modes supported by evil-collection. Elements are either target mode symbols or lists whichcar' is the mode
symbol and `cdr' the packages to register.")
** Submitting Issues
When reproducing issues, you can use this emacs -Q recipe.
(setq user-emacs-directory "~/.emacs.1.d") (setq package-user-dir (format "%s/elpa/%s/" user-emacs-directory emacs-major-version))
(setq package-enable-at-startup nil package-archives '(("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/") ("gnu" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/")))
(require 'package) (package-initialize) (unless (package-installed-p 'use-package) (package-refresh-contents) (package-install 'use-package)) (require 'use-package) (setq use-package-always-ensure t)
(use-package evil :ensure t :init (setq evil-want-keybinding nil) :config (evil-mode 1))
(use-package evil-collection :after evil :ensure t :config (evil-collection-init))
** Contributing We welcome any additional modes that are not already supported.
All bindings in ~evil-collection~ are open to change so if there's a better or more consistent binding, please [[https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-collection/issues][open an issue]] or [[https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-collection/pulls][submit a pull request]].
Follow [[https://github.com/bbatsov/emacs-lisp-style-guide/][The Emacs Lisp Style Guide]] for coding conventions.
[[https://github.com/erlang/otp/wiki/writing-good-commit-messages][Erlang/OTP]] has a good read for helpful commit messages.