Keyboard shortcuts

rio's default chords, and the two ways to change any of them.

Every shortcut comes from one table, so remapping a key moves the key and the label the menus show beside it.

Changing a shortcut

In rio. Settings ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts… lists every command. The same editor opens from Preferences ▸ Keyboard ▸ Edit Keyboard Shortcuts….

1. Click a shortcut.
2. Press the keys you want. They are recorded as you press them.
3. Press Save.

Clear unbinds a command, Default restores one command's original chord, and Reset all to defaults starts over. Save applies at once — no restart — and writes the file below for you. A conflict, or a key that would be unusable (a lone letter, a bare modifier), is refused with a note rather than accepted.

By hand. Edit keys.json in your config directory, by default ~/.config/rio/keys.json, beside prefs.json. It holds overrides only: list the commands you want to change, and everything else keeps its default. No file means all defaults. It is plain JSON, parsed and never executed, and a hand edit takes effect at the next start.

{
  "close-tab": "Control-k",
  "save-as":   "Control-Shift-s",
  "quit":      ""
}

A value is a chord in Tk's spelling: the modifiers Control, Shift and Alt joined by -, then the key — a letter, or a key name such as Tab, F3, backslash, bracketright. On a Mac the modifiers are Command, Option, Control and Shift, so ⌘K is Command-k (Alt matches no key there). With Option, name the character Option types rather than the letter: ⌥F types ƒ, so ⌥⌘F is Option-Command-function. Recording the chord in the shortcut editor spells it for you. An empty string unbinds the command and leaves it on the menu only.

A capital letter implies Shift, so Control-Shift-s and Control-S are the same binding. The menu shows either as Ctrl+Shift+S.

If an entry names an unknown command, or a chord with a misspelled modifier, rio ignores just that line, applies the rest, and tells you once at startup. A bad keys.json never stops the editor.

The defaults

The left-hand column is the name to use in keys.json; the middle is what the menus show.

preferences ships with no chord. The command exists and sits on the Settings menu; give it one like any other.

On a Mac

rio uses Cmd wherever the table above says Ctrl: Cmd+S saves, Cmd+F finds, Shift+Cmd+F searches. Ctrl is left to macOS's own text keys, which work in rio as in any Mac text field. The menus show the Mac's symbols (⌘S, ⇧⌘F), and the shortcut editor records Cmd and Opt as you press them.

Four commands keep a different chord, because macOS already uses the Cmd one:

The application menu's Preferences… (Cmd+,) and About rio open rio's own windows.

find-next and find-prev stay on F3. A Mac keyboard may need fn for that; Return and Shift+Return in the find bar step through matches too.

Keys this table does not cover

The Edit menu shows no accelerator beside Cut, Copy and Paste for the same reason: the label would be wrong in vi mode. The menu commands work in every mode.

App shortcuts always win over the editing mode's keys. Ctrl+S saves whether or not you are in vi's insert mode, so a mode can never capture a key you need to save or quit with.

Further reading

• Editing modes — what the keys inside the text area do.
• Preferences — where keys.json sits among the other files.