Keymap Presets

English | 日本語

XeFM has four complete keymaps, called presets. None is the default: the first time XeFM starts, it asks which one you want.

Tools → Advanced → Keymap… switches at any time. It opens the same dialog as the first launch, with the current preset marked and a Cancel. The change applies at once: the help dialog (F1), the menus and the status bar show the new keys, and XeFM remembers your choice for later sessions.

The first launch

When no preset has been chosen yet, XeFM starts with a Keymap dialog with one button per preset. That includes the first start after updating from a version without presets. The dialog has no Cancel, and Esc does not close it: choose one to go on. You can switch later from Tools → Advanced → Keymap….

If you are updating and want the keys you have been using, choose AFX style. Your config.py may hold a full copy of the old keymap. See A config.py from an earlier XeFM before choosing another preset.

AFX style

One letter runs one command, which is the style of the Japanese single-key filers: the X68000 file managers, then AFX (あふ) on Windows, then cfiler. XeFM follows that style rather than copying any one of them key for key, so details differ from AFX. Deleting, for example, is K.

Copying and moving to the other pane, deleting and creating an archive act only on marked items; with nothing marked, the same M makes a new folder instead. Every key is in the table below.

Orthodox

The layout shared by the classic two-pane file managers. No letter runs a command. Typing a letter or digit opens incremental search with that character, so r e p jumps to report.txt. It closes the way those file managers’ quick search does:

• ↑ / ↓ jump to the previous / next match, and Backspace removes a letter.
• Esc closes the search and leaves the cursor on the match.
• Any other key closes the search and does its usual job. Enter opens the match, F5 copies it, F3 views it, and so on, with no extra key press to leave the search first.
• There is no timeout. The search stays open until you press a key that closes it.

Matching is the same as for any incremental search. What you type can appear anywhere in the name, and romaji finds Japanese names. When you open the search with the I-Search key, it keeps its own keys under every preset: it lets you mark matches as you go, and stays open until Enter or Esc.

The keys follow Total Commander’s defaults, wherever XeFM has the same command.

F5, F6 and F8 act on the marked items, or on the item under the cursor when nothing is marked.

Every key is in the table below. A command Total Commander has no key for has none here either (a — in the Orthodox column). It is still in the command palette (Ctrl-Shift-P), and most are in the menus too. To put one on a key, bind it in KEY_BINDINGS.

Function keys and modified function keys have terminal sequences, so the layout works in a terminal as well as in the desktop app. A terminal may still keep some of them. On macOS, Terminal.app sends Alt-<key> only with Use Option as Meta key turned on, and a laptop keyboard may need fn for the function keys. If one does nothing, rebind it.

OS native

The keys Finder uses on macOS and Explorer uses on Windows. Use it if you come to XeFM from those rather than from another file manager. As in Orthodox, no letter runs a command: typing a letter searches, which is how both Finder and Explorer select a file by name.

Finder and Explorer have nothing for the two-pane operations, so they use the function keys every two-pane file manager uses: F3 view, F4 edit, F5 copy and F6 move to the other pane, F8 delete. On macOS, Enter opens, as in every other preset, rather than renaming as in Finder.

In a terminal. The preset you choose applies to both the desktop app and the terminal. A terminal cannot send Command, and cannot tell Ctrl-Shift-N from Ctrl-N, so there the preset uses stand-ins for those keys. In the table below, the first line of an OS native cell is the terminal’s keys, and a line headed macOS app or Windows app gives that desktop app’s keys where they differ. Everything else is the same.

Vim style

Vim-style keys, as Vim-like file managers use them: hjkl to move, two-key commands such as gg, yy and dd, and / to search. Letters run commands, as in AFX style, and typing a letter never searches.

Every key is in the table below.

F3–F8 follow the two-pane file managers’ function keys. The text viewer moves the same way: j / k / h / l, gg / G, Ctrl-F / Ctrl-B (and Ctrl-D / Ctrl-U, Space) by the page, / to search, and q or ZZ to close it.

The two-key commands are key sequences. While one is half typed, the status bar shows the first key (g …); Esc drops it. None of the first keys runs anything on its own, so nothing waits for KEY_SEQUENCE_TIMEOUT.

Where it differs from Vim and Vim-like file managers:

• v does not start a visual mode. It marks the range from the nearest marked item to the cursor, so mark the start with t, move, and press v.
• dd moves to the system Trash, and p pastes what yy copied or x cut. There is no P that moves what was yanked: cut with x, then p.
• q alone does nothing in the file list; ZZ quits. In the text viewer it closes the viewer.
• / is XeFM’s incremental search, not a regular expression, and it does not mark its matches.

Every key, side by side

Every key each preset binds, read from XeFM’s own keymap tables. The first column is the action’s name, as KEY_BINDINGS and the command palette use it. An action with no key in any preset — choosing the next theme, for one — is not listed: find it in the menus or the command palette, or give it a key in KEY_BINDINGS. In XeFM, F1 shows the keys you actually have, with your own KEY_BINDINGS applied.

• — means that preset has no key for the action.
• A line headed macOS app or Windows app gives the keys in that desktop app where they differ from a terminal’s.
• In the AFX style, Orthodox and OS native columns a letter is written as the help dialog writes it: C is the C key and Shift-C the shifted one. The Vim style column writes keys as Vim does: c is the C key, G is Shift-G, and gg is two presses.
• (only with items marked) and (only with nothing marked) are AFX style’s selection conditions: M moves marked items, or makes a new folder when nothing is marked.

The file list

Viewers and dialogs

These keys are the same under every preset unless a cell says otherwise. In every viewer Esc closes it, and quit, help, isearch and edit_file work there on their keys from the file list table. Vim style also closes the text viewer with q.

Text viewer

Image viewer

File diff viewer

Directory diff viewer

Incremental search bar

List dialogs (Favorites, Drives, History, External Programs, the filter prompt)

Search dialog (Search Files, Search Content)

Your own key bindings come on top

KEY_BINDINGS in config.py holds your changes to the preset. Every entry replaces that action’s keys, whichever preset is in force. An action you don’t list keeps the preset’s keys. That is why the KEY_BINDINGS XeFM writes into a new config.py holds only commented-out examples.

A key you bind is also taken off the action the preset had given it, so you don’t have to find that action and empty it as well. 'toggle_color_scheme': ['Shift-T'] is enough on its own; AFX’s Shift-T (open in a new tab) stops answering, and the help and the menus stop listing it there.

A key you bind for the file list only stays on a shared action elsewhere. 'view_file': ['Q'] opens the file with Q in the file list, and Q still closes a viewer. A key you bind with a selection requirement leaves the opposite one alone: {'keys': ['C'], 'selection': 'none'} keeps C copying marked files.

KEY_BINDINGS = {
    'reload_config': ['F12'],   # F12 reloads the config, under every preset
    'quit': [],                 # nothing quits by key
}

A config.py from an earlier XeFM

Before the presets, config.py held a copy of the whole AFX-style table. Under AFX style that copy changes nothing. Under another preset, every entry in it replaces the preset’s keys, so C still copies instead of searching. When you switch presets, the log says how many actions your config.py replaces, and names the first few.

To use another preset, delete the entries you did not mean to change. If you never changed a key, delete them all and leave KEY_BINDINGS = {}.

Choosing it in config.py

KEY_PRESET = 'orthodox'   # or 'afx', 'native', or 'vim'

'default', the name this preset had first, still works and means 'afx'.

A KEY_PRESET in config.py overrides the menu, and the menu says so if you try to change it there. It also skips the first-launch question. Leave it as None to let the dialog and the menu decide.

See also

• Key Bindings: changing individual keys
• Command Palette: finding any command and its key