Xcode duplicate line

Question

1. Go to this folder which contains dark side of the force:

   • Xcode 4.2 or prior: /Developer/Library/PrivateFrameworks/IDEKit.framework/Resources
   • Xcode 4.3 or later: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Resources.

2. Open IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist.

3. Add a new dictionary and a new command item as the screenshot below (name them what you want):

   That's: selectLine:, copy:, moveToEndOfLine:, insertNewline:, paste:, deleteBackward:

4. Restart Xcode and go to Preferences - Key Bindings, search for your command.

5. Set a key combination for the command:

6. Finally unleashed the power of key bindings on Xcode... Enjoy it!

Update 2020

Works on Xcode versions: 11.3.1 too

Works in Xcode versions: 7.1, 7.3, 7.3.1, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2.1

Instruction

1. Give permissions to edit the following files. Most of the time OS will not allow you to edit the files.

for 11.3.1 version

sudo chmod 666 /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources//IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist

sudo chmod 777 /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/

below 11.3 versions

sudo chmod 666 /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Resources/IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist

sudo chmod 777 /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Resources/

2. Edit the the file, by writing the following command: (Open it in sublime or text editor if you can)

for 11.3.1

open /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist

for below versions

open /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist

3. Append the following xml snippets:

<key>custom</key>
<dict>
    <key>Duplicate Current Line</key>
    <string>moveToBeginningOfLine:, deleteToEndOfLine:, yank:, insertNewline:, moveToBeginningOfLine:, yank:</string>
    <key>Duplicate Lines</key>
    <string>selectLine:, copy:, moveToEndOfLine:, insertNewline:, paste:, deleteBackward:</string>
    <key>Delete Line</key>
    <string>selectLine:, deleteBackward:</string>
</dict>

---

Screenshots

and Restart Xcode and go to Preferences - Key Bindings, search for the command we typed (Duplicate Lines&Duplicate Current Line).

Thats it.

For unix people to note :-

sudo chmod 755 /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ 

Ok, I've came up with this:

Version for XCode 11:

selectParagraph:, delete:, undo:, moveRight:, yankAndSelect:

• doesn't touch clipboard
• works with multiple lines
• selects added lines, so can be used multiple times without reselecting
• fixed selection in XCode 11
• works better with undo

Since I'm applying this change after every XCode update, I've made a script for that. Possibly it can cause some damage, but I've tried to make it relatively safe. It makes a copy of the file, and then replaces line with its copy and additional command using perl. Requires XCode to be installed at /Applications/Xcode.app

cp /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Resources/IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist ~/Desktop/IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist; sudo perl -pi -e 's/\<string\>selectWord:\<\/string>/'$'\<string\>selectWord:\<\/string\>\n\t\t\<key\>Duplicate Selection\<\/key\>\n\t\t\<string\>selectParagraph:, delete:, undo:, moveRight:, yankAndSelect:\<\/string>/g' /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Resources/IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist

Older version (I'm not sure if the new one is compatible with older versions, so I'll keep it here):

selectParagraph:, delete:, yank:, moveToBeginningOfLine:, setMark:, yank:, moveToBeginningOfLine:, moveLeft:, selectToMark:

and script for older version to avoid manual file editing:

cp /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Resources/IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist ~/Desktop/IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist; sudo perl -pi -e 's/\<string\>selectWord:\<\/string>/'$'\<string\>selectWord:\<\/string\>\n\t\t\<key\>Duplicate Selection\<\/key\>\n\t\t\<string\>selectParagraph:, delete:, yank:, moveToBeginningOfLine:, setMark:, yank:, moveToBeginningOfLine:, moveLeft:, selectToMark:\<\/string>/g' /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Resources/IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist

edit: minor fix edit2: changed to paragraph selection edit3: added version for XCode 11

Today I wrote a very small plugin for Xcode 5 that delete and duplicate lines and selections.

You can download it from my GitHub repo: XcodeKit Plugin - https://github.com/ptfly/XcodeKit

EDIT: Jul 12, 2020 After update to Xcode 11.5 again my duplicate line key entry from the plist file was gone. I had to add it again. The key binding was still there though.

EDIT: Sep 17, 2019 After update to Xcode 10.3 again my duplicate line key entry from the plist file was gone. I had to add it again. The key binding was still there though.

EDIT: May 28, 2019 After update to Xcode 10.2 again my duplicate line key entry from the plist file was gone. I had to add it again. The key binding was still there though.

EDIT: Dec 23, 2018 After update to Xcode 10.1 all my shortcuts broke again. But something different was that after updating the plist file for line duplication, I didn't have to define my key bindings, they were already there. Strange.

EDIT: OCT 14, 2018 Xcode 10: Somebody high up at Apple really loves copy/paste, and makes sure that with every version of Xcode update, the line duplication is removed from everyone's install. We developers have been extremely frustrated by this nonsense going on in Xcode since forever, the only IDE with no line duplication option. I just updated to Xcode 10, and as you guessed it - all my shortcut keys are removed along with my line duplication functionality. However, it is fixable like in the original answer. A slight difference this time is that you will need the following line:

<key>Duplicate Current Line</key>
<string>selectLine:, copy:, moveToBeginningOfLine:, paste:, moveToEndOfLine:</string>

EDIT: Xcode 9: I had to redo my shortcuts and line duplication and deletion, but good thing is that now you can edit IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist again. This high up Apple guy must be on vacation when they released this version.

EDIT: Xcode 8: Buggy, you can't modify the IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist file at all. Xcode resets it on start. This high up guy at Apple is really determined to make us use copy/paste instead of simple line duplication like in all other IDEs out there.

EDIT: Xcode 7.1 and still there are no shortcuts for line duplication and deletion. This is the only IDE I have ever worked with with no such shortcuts. And I can't imagine life of a developer without these two critical shortcuts.

Here is how it can be done:

First we need to modify a plist file that lives inside the Xcode.app bundle (needs sudo to edit)

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Frameworks/IDEKit.framework/Resources/IDETextKeyBindingSet.plist

Then look for <key>Insertions and Indentations</key> and under the <dict> tag add the following:

<key>Insert New Line Below</key>
<string>moveToEndOfLine:, insertNewline:</string>
<key>Insert New Line Above</key>
<string>moveUp:, moveToEndOfLine:, insertNewline:</string>
<key>Duplicate Current Line</key>
<string>selectLine:, copy:, moveToEndOfLine:, insertNewline:, paste:, deleteBackward:</string>

Then find the and these inside the section <key>Deletions</key> under the <dict> tag:

<key>Delete Current Line</key>
<string>selectLine:, delete:</string>
<string>selectLine:, delete:</string>

Now Open/Restart Xcode, go to Preferences and go to the “Key Bindings” tab. Use the search bar to filter and look for the new shortcuts. Then click in front of the shortcut description to assign it a shortcut of your liking. Make sure your shortcut doesn't conflict with existing shortcuts.