Emacs Helm: what actions can I do in a helm buffer?

Question

I have 2 questions:

• In a helm buffer like helm mini or helm ag, there are usually too much candidates. In evil mode I can use C-d or C-u to scroll down or up. Can I do such things in helm buffer?

• Sometimes when I enter a file path/name, there is only a default one in the buffer but not the one I entered. Whenever I hit enter the default path/file will be visit. What actions can I do in the input bar (where you input characters)?

Would you please provide the document describing these kind of keymaps? I can't find them because I don't what's my question :(

Kutchins

Answer 1

If you are using spacemacs, try M-x describe-keymap helm-map, it's bound to SPC h d K.

Sadly emacs itself doesn't have such a nice describe-keymap function. In this case you may either:

• copy describe-keymap from spacemacs
• use describe-bindings (it's not so smooth to read and misses some keymaps)
• C-h v helm-map to browse the keymap as a variable (hard to read because the keys are in the form of something like unicode code points, but if you config all your key bindings yourself without framework-defaults, this is fine for "what's my bindings?" and debugging)

Espionage

OMG thanks again lol. But would you please tell me how can I find out which bindings are for mini-buffer? – Kutchins

@Kutchins I'm a newbee myself but luckily: C-h v minibuffer-local-map(found this variable thanks to helm) shows a few bindings(probably added by spacemacs) and minibuffer-local-map is a variable defined in `keymap.c'. So common emacs shortcuts should apply here cause it's defined by emacs. Minibuffer itself has some special keys, doc. I tried (define-key minibuffer-local-map (kbd "C-w") #'backward-kill-word) and it works so you may remap keys in mini buffer like this. – Espionage

Answer 2

You can use describe-bindings or helm-descbinds to find the currently active bindings. The latter allows you to interactively search them through helm.

Upbear

Thanks for your reply! However when I try to execute the command it says that Error: Trying to run helm within a helm session. Am I doing this wrong? – Kutchins

This may be because spacemacs runs helm as default and includes helm-descbinds bound to SPC ? Try clicking in your main buffer, esc, and SPC ? – Ordzhonikidze