macOS-like shortcuts in Hyprland

7 min read

I am used to shortcuts like ⌘C & ⌘V for copy & paste, and ⌘ key in general since I have been using a MacBook for a long time now. So using Hyprland on Linux has been a bit challenging as I always press the wrong keys due to muscle memory.

I still need to use MacBook for work, so I don't want to get used to different shortcuts. This is my attempt to make the shortcuts in Hyprland more familiar.

Keybindings

It's already quite straightforward to set up custom keybindings in Hyprland to do specific actions, like opening an app launcher, quitting an app etc. It can be done using the bind directive in the config file at $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/hypr/hyprland.conf (usually ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf).

If you are unsure about what a specific key should be called, you can run wev in your terminal, press the key in the wev window, and check the logs.

For the $mainMod key, I use Alt, since it's in the same location as the ⌘ key on a MacBook:

$mainMod = ALT

If you want to use the ⌘ key instead, you can set it to SUPER.

I use rofi-wayland to replicate functionality such as app launcher (like Spotlight) and inserting emojis with rofimoji (like Ctrl⌘Space):

bindr = $mainMod, SPACE, exec, pkill rofi || rofi -show drun
bindr = $mainMod CTRL, SPACE, exec, pkill rofi || rofimoji --use-icons

Here I use bindr instead of bind along with pkill, which will close rofi when pressing the combination again.

I have more customizations for rofi, but this is the basic setup to replicate this idea.

Also hyprlock for the lock screen using the same shortcut as macOS (Ctrl⌘Q):

bind = $mainMod CTRL, Q, exec, hyprlock

Then shortcuts such as fullscreen, and closing apps:

bind = $mainMod CTRL, F, fullscreen,
bind = $mainMod, Q, killactive,

The killactive binding is not quite the same as ⌘Q as killactive actually closes the window and not quit the app. But it's closer than how ⌘W works, since the ⌘W shortcut is used to close tabs in addition to closing windows.

Remapping

The next step is to remap shortcuts to be more in line with macOS. It's actually straightforward with the sendshortcut dispatcher. The main idea is to assign keybindings to the shortcuts I want to remap, then use the sendshortcut dispatcher to send a different key combination.

The sendshortcut dispatcher takes 3 params: mod, key, window (optional). So to remap $mainMod A to ⌘A, it'd be something like this:

binde = $mainMod, A, sendshortcut, CTRL, A,

I use binde instead of bind for these shortcuts because the e flag is for repeat, i.e. if you hold the key combination down, it will repeat the action, which is similar to how it works on macOS.

I basically remapped ⌘ + all characters in the alphabet so most shortcuts will be remapped:

binde = $mainMod, A, sendshortcut, CTRL, A,
binde = $mainMod, B, sendshortcut, CTRL, B,
binde = $mainMod, C, sendshortcut, CTRL, C,
binde = $mainMod, D, sendshortcut, CTRL, D,
binde = $mainMod, E, sendshortcut, CTRL, E,
binde = $mainMod, F, sendshortcut, CTRL, F,
binde = $mainMod, G, sendshortcut, CTRL, G,
binde = $mainMod, H, sendshortcut, CTRL, H,
binde = $mainMod, I, sendshortcut, CTRL, I,
binde = $mainMod, J, sendshortcut, CTRL, J,
binde = $mainMod, K, sendshortcut, CTRL, K,
binde = $mainMod, L, sendshortcut, CTRL, L,
binde = $mainMod, M, sendshortcut, CTRL, M,
binde = $mainMod, N, sendshortcut, CTRL, N,
binde = $mainMod, O, sendshortcut, CTRL, O,
binde = $mainMod, P, sendshortcut, CTRL, P,
binde = $mainMod, R, sendshortcut, CTRL, R,
binde = $mainMod, S, sendshortcut, CTRL, S,
binde = $mainMod, T, sendshortcut, CTRL, T,
binde = $mainMod, U, sendshortcut, CTRL, U,
binde = $mainMod, V, sendshortcut, CTRL, V,
binde = $mainMod, W, sendshortcut, CTRL, W,
binde = $mainMod, X, sendshortcut, CTRL, X,
binde = $mainMod, Y, sendshortcut, CTRL, Y,
binde = $mainMod, Z, sendshortcut, CTRL, Z,

Pretty straightforward!

For redo, it should actually be ⌘ShiftZ instead of ⌘Y, so something like this:

binde = $mainMod SHIFT, Z, sendshortcut, CTRL, Y,

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to consistently work for me. If you have any ideas, please let me know!

Copy & Paste in Terminal

It's great that copy & paste use the same shortcuts as in other applications on macOS. However, since Linux uses Ctrl + C for copy, Terminal apps need to use a different shortcut as Ctrl + C is already used for killing processes in terminals. So our remapping for copy & paste won't work.

Luckily, we can also add custom logic for our keybindings, where we can check whether the active window is a terminal or not using hyprctl. Then we can dispatch Ctrl + Shift + C and Ctrl + Shift + V instead.

I use Ghostty for my Terminal, so I wrote the binding by checking if the active window class matches Ghostty:

binde = $mainMod, C, exec, hyprctl activewindow | grep -q "class: com.mitchellh.ghostty" && hyprctl dispatch sendshortcut "CTRL SHIFT, C," || hyprctl dispatch sendshortcut "CTRL, C,"
binde = $mainMod, V, exec, hyprctl activewindow | grep -q "class: com.mitchellh.ghostty" && hyprctl dispatch sendshortcut "CTRL SHIFT, V," || hyprctl dispatch sendshortcut "CTRL, V,"

This way, I send Ctrl + Shift + C to Ghostty and Ctrl + C to other applications using the same shortcuts.

You can find the class of your terminal app by running hyprctl activewindow in the terminal, then look for the line that starts with class:.

Text-editing shortcuts

I also found myself using the same shortcuts for text navigation and editing as in macOS. So I remapped them as well.

binde = CTRL, A, sendshortcut, , home,
binde = CTRL, E, sendshortcut, , end,
binde = CTRL, F, sendshortcut, , right,
binde = CTRL, B, sendshortcut, , left,
binde = CTRL, P, sendshortcut, , up,
binde = CTRL, N, sendshortcut, , down,
binde = CTRL, D, sendshortcut, , delete,
binde = CTRL, H, sendshortcut, , backspace,

Wrapping up

Putting it altogether, the configuration with keybindings is as follows:

hyprland.conf
$mainMod = ALT
 
bindr = $mainMod, SPACE, exec, pkill rofi || rofi -show drun
bindr = $mainMod CTRL, SPACE, exec, pkill rofi || rofimoji --use-icons
 
bind = $mainMod CTRL, Q, exec, hyprlock
 
bind = $mainMod CTRL, F, fullscreen,
bind = $mainMod, Q, killactive,
 
binde = $mainMod, A, sendshortcut, CTRL, A,
binde = $mainMod, B, sendshortcut, CTRL, B,
binde = $mainMod, D, sendshortcut, CTRL, D,
binde = $mainMod, E, sendshortcut, CTRL, E,
binde = $mainMod, F, sendshortcut, CTRL, F,
binde = $mainMod, G, sendshortcut, CTRL, G,
binde = $mainMod, H, sendshortcut, CTRL, H,
binde = $mainMod, I, sendshortcut, CTRL, I,
binde = $mainMod, J, sendshortcut, CTRL, J,
binde = $mainMod, K, sendshortcut, CTRL, K,
binde = $mainMod, L, sendshortcut, CTRL, L,
binde = $mainMod, M, sendshortcut, CTRL, M,
binde = $mainMod, N, sendshortcut, CTRL, N,
binde = $mainMod, O, sendshortcut, CTRL, O,
binde = $mainMod, P, sendshortcut, CTRL, P,
binde = $mainMod, R, sendshortcut, CTRL, R,
binde = $mainMod, S, sendshortcut, CTRL, S,
binde = $mainMod, T, sendshortcut, CTRL, T,
binde = $mainMod, U, sendshortcut, CTRL, U,
binde = $mainMod, W, sendshortcut, CTRL, W,
binde = $mainMod, X, sendshortcut, CTRL, X,
binde = $mainMod, Y, sendshortcut, CTRL, Y,
 
binde = $mainMod, Z, sendshortcut, CTRL, Z,
binde = $mainMod SHIFT, Z, sendshortcut, CTRL, Y,
 
binde = $mainMod, C, exec, hyprctl activewindow | grep -q "class: com.mitchellh.ghostty" && hyprctl dispatch sendshortcut "CTRL SHIFT, C," || hyprctl dispatch sendshortcut "CTRL, C,"
binde = $mainMod, V, exec, hyprctl activewindow | grep -q "class: com.mitchellh.ghostty" && hyprctl dispatch sendshortcut "CTRL SHIFT, V," || hyprctl dispatch sendshortcut "CTRL, V,"
 
binde = CTRL, A, sendshortcut, , home,
binde = CTRL, E, sendshortcut, , end,
binde = CTRL, F, sendshortcut, , right,
binde = CTRL, B, sendshortcut, , left,
binde = CTRL, P, sendshortcut, , up,
binde = CTRL, N, sendshortcut, , down,
binde = CTRL, D, sendshortcut, , delete,
binde = CTRL, H, sendshortcut, , backspace,

Note that this is not my complete configuration, only the keybindings mentioned in the post. If you copy this to your own configuration file, make sure to keep your other keybindings intact.

This list is also nowhere near exhaustive, just the ones I use frequently. I may also have missed any other edge cases. So it's always a good idea to adjust your keybindings to fit your workflow and only use my setup as a starting point.