Send command to terminal even if nothing is selected.

[lamyergeier]

• My keybindings.json

    {
        "key": "alt+l",
        "command": "workbench.action.terminal.sendSequence",
        "args": { "text": "\u000AMdLink \"${file}\" \"${selectedText}\" \u000A" },
        "when": "!editorReadonly"
        //"when": "!editorReadonly && editorLangId == 'markdown'"
    }

It executes a bash script called MdLink with arguments path of the file and the selected text.

This script should do something special when a text is selected. And when nothing is selected, then I want the script to do something general. I know that I can create another keybinding without selectedText variable but its not elegant.

But the shortcut fails if no text is selected. May be its useful to still run the command even if no text is selected.

[ArturoDent]

But the shortcut fails if no text is selected.

Are you saying the command doesn't run at all if there is no selectedText? The selectedText should just resolve to the empty string if there is no selectedText.

Do you want to run a different script if there is no selectedText?

---

You can also use these when clauses:

"when": "editorHasSelection"

and

"when": "!editorHasSelection" // note the negation

[lamyergeier]

Are you saying the command doesn't run at all if there is no selectedText?

Yes

Do you want to run a different script if there is no selectedText?

No. The script internally counts number of arguments and does work accordingly.

I want the command to be passed to terminal irrespective of a string being selected or not.

[meganrogge]

Currently, you need to have two separate keybindings for this as you suggested. We feel this is the right approach because it's not clear how selectedText would be handled when there is none.

[vscode-triage-bot]

The described behavior is how it is expected to work. If you disagree, please explain what is expected and what is not in more detail. See also our issue reporting guidelines.

Happy Coding!