OS X Sierra Keybindings Per Application Using Hammerspoon

README.md

OS X Sierra + VirtualBox + Hammerspoon

I prefer different modifier keybindings for my VM vs. native OS X, but VirtualBox (unlike VMWare/Parallels) passes the keyboard through to the VM natively without the ability to remap it on the way through.

Apparently one would normally use Karabiner to do all manner of trickery to remap keys per application etc. but support for this utility was broken in OS X Sierra. Instead, I use a pair of scripts:

• switch.sh uses the built-in hidutil on OS X to remap modifier keys immediately when invoked

• init.lua is a lua script run by Hammerspoon that subscribes to window switching events and calls switch.sh if it finds the VM window.

What does switch.sh remap specifically?

In OS X:

• Caps Lock -> Command

In the VM:

• Caps Lock -> Control
• Command -> Alt
• Alt -> Command

Why not use XYZ?

Because it doesn't work under this very specific set of conditions for this very specific set of problems.

init.lua

windowWatcher = hs.application.watcher.new(function(name, eventType, app)
  if eventType ~= hs.application.watcher.activated then return end
  if name == "VirtualBox VM" then
    os.execute("~/bin/switch.sh linux")
  else
    os.execute("~/bin/switch.sh")
   end
end)
windowWatcher:start()

switch.sh

#!/bin/bash                                                                      
if [ "$1" == "linux" ] ; then 
  hidutil property --set '{"UserKeyMapping":[{"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x700000039,"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x7000000E0},{"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x7000000E3,"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x7000000E2},{"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x7000000E2,"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x7000000E3}]}'
else
  hidutil property --set '{"UserKeyMapping":[{"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x700000039,"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x7000000E3}]}'
fi