TextEdit key bindings modified in DefaultKeyBinding.dict stopped working

The problem was that I had moved the actual DefaultKeyBinding.dict file somewhere else for version-control purposes and symlinked to it.

Most apps were loading the file through the symlink, but TextEdit (and, it turns out, a couple other apps that I thought just didn't support key bindings) must do something different and didn't see it.

So, oops, lesson learned. Don't symlink your system configuration files.

I had the same problem myself with symlinking this file, but I didn't want to give in to this limitation, so I created a git pre-commit hook to update ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict whenever my version was committed.

Here is the code (for Git):

#!/bin/bash


if [[ $(git diff --cached --name-only | grep '.configurations/DefaultKeyBinding.dict' | wc -l) -eq 1 ]]; 

then
   FILE_PATH_IN_LIBRARY=~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict
   BASE_DIR=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
   FILE_PATH_IN_SCM=${BASE_DIR}/.configurations/DefaultKeyBinding.dict

   NORMAL=$(tput sgr0)
   BRIGHT=$(tput bold)
   GREEN=$(tput setaf 2)

   printf "${BRIGHT}${GREEN}The file <%s> was modified, updating %s${NORMAL}\n" $FILE_PATH_IN_SCM $FILE_PATH_IN_LIBRARY

   cp $FILE_PATH_IN_SCM $FILE_PATH_IN_LIBRARY
fi

To use it all you need to do is replace FILE_PATH_IN_SCM=${BASE_DIR}/.configurations/DefaultKeyBinding.dict with the location of the file in your Git Repository.

If you never created a git hook before (this was my first) - you need to place this code in:

<your-git-repo>/.git/hooks/pre-commit

Don't forget to run chmod +x <your-git-repo>/.git/hooks/pre-commit to make it executable.

Afterwards every commit involving this file will show something like:

The file </Users/myuser/.scripts/.configurations/DefaultKeyBinding.dict> was modified, updating /Users/myuser/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict