OSX + Terminal.app + Emacs + make command key operate as meta

Question

I'm on OSX Lion

I running emacs inside of Terminal.app

I want command-x to result in Mx (and in general, command -> M)

I have tried the following solution and they're not what I want:

• mapping command to Meta globally in system preferences

• mapping option to Meta only in Terminal.app

• Command key to Meta in Emacs

What I want, is only inside of Terminal.app (or only inside of emacs), to bind the command key to meta. How do I achieve this?

Answer 1

fwiw - iterm2 requires a bit of additional attention to make cmd map to meta and play well with other applications. (cmd-tab behavior, cmd-space (quicksilver), etc.) here's my config which biases towards left-handed cmd-tab operation, etc.

within iterm2

• (preferences >> keys tab) left cmd needs to be remapped to left-option
• global shortcut keys set the following to "do not remap modifiers"
  • cmd-space (makes quicksilver work normally)
  • ctl-cmd-space (makes my omnifocus binding work)
  • cmd-` - cycle windows
  • cmd- -> (right arrow) makes tab cycling work correctly
• (preferences >> profiles tab >> keys subtab) i map left option-key to escape. this provides the expected behavior for most meta expecting shell applications

this results in using right-cmd for certain local iterm tasks but toggling between applications with different keybindings, etc, does the usual left-handed operational things and retraining my muscle memory was minimized.

Answer 2

First, in Terminal's preferences, on the Settings tab, on the Keyboard subtab, there's an checkbox "Use option as meta key". It's not exactly what you asked for, but it's built in.

I was thinking that Cocoa Key Bindings system might help here, but according to my searches, it deliberately doesn't permit remapping Command. This page has a lot of information about the customizability of Cocoa's key bindings and text defaults.

Answer 3

I use cmd-key-happy ( https://github.com/aim-stuff/cmd-key-happy ) which allows you to swap alt and commmand keys for specific applications.

So in Terminal.app you can use all the meta modifiers as expected, while the Mac-specific commands (copy, paste, close, new) work with alt instead.

Answer 4

FWIW: I found another way to accomplish this that's better for me (this is in iTerm2).

I wanted emacs to behave the same in the terminal as it does in a window. I have my emacs set to use the command key as the meta key via the following snippet:

;;osx keys
(setq mac-option-key-is-meta nil)
(setq mac-command-key-is-meta t)
(setq mac-command-modifier 'meta)
(setq mac-option-modifier 'alt)

So to get my command key behaving like a meta key in iTerm2, I went to preferences->profiles->->keys and added new keys. The only problem is you have to do it for each key separately, but you can say for example,

keyboard shortcut: <type command-p>
action: send escape sequence
Esc+: p

So I did that for my most frequently used meta+ keys. It would be nice if there was another set of radio buttons like there is for option/alt, where you could just say "command key acts like Esc+".

Answer 5

Why are you insistent on Terminal.app? Just install iterm2 and move on with life.