Added new command for sending custom sequence to terminal #56962

njkevlani · 2018-08-22T03:44:00Z

Fixes #56024
We can set keybindings for sending custom key sequences to terminal. Sequence is sent to current active terminal. Terminal is not created if it does not exist.

Keybinding can be create as:

"key": "ctrl+shift+alt+p",
"command": "workbench.action.terminal.sendSequence",
"args": {"text": TEXT}

Some examples of args are:
"args": {"text": "ctrl+c ls ctrl+j"}
"args": {"text": "ctrl+c python -m http.server \n"}
"args": {"text": "ctrl+c up enter"}
"args": {"text": "ctrl+c up \\x0a"}
"args": {"text": "ctrl+c up \\X0A"}

Currently supported sequence type:

Hexcode
Key strokes with ctrl modifier
enter
Arrow keys
Escape chars like \n

Tyriar · 2018-08-23T18:29:18Z

src/vs/workbench/parts/terminal/electron-browser/terminalActions.ts

+	public static readonly ID = TERMINAL_COMMAND_ID.SEND_SEQUENCE;
+	public static readonly LABEL = nls.localize('workbench.action.terminal.sendSequence', "Send Custom Sequence To Terminal");
+
+	public runCommand(accessor: ServicesAccessor, args: any): void {


Can we type args?

Tyriar · 2018-08-23T18:29:26Z

src/vs/workbench/parts/terminal/electron-browser/terminalActions.ts

+		const text = args.text.split(' ');
+		var terminalText;
+		for (let i = 0; i < text.length; i++) {
+			terminalText = ' ' + prepareTerminaText(text[i]);


Why the extra space?

We need to add a space at the end or at the beginning (to separate text or any command).
If we keep a space at the end, it will have an extra space(near terminal prompt) in the new line after execution is over.

Tyriar · 2018-08-23T18:29:34Z

src/vs/workbench/parts/terminal/electron-browser/terminalActions.ts

+			return;
+		}
+		const text = args.text.split(' ');
+		var terminalText;


Prefer let to var

Tyriar · 2018-08-23T18:29:54Z

src/vs/workbench/parts/terminal/electron-browser/terminalActions.ts

+	}
+}
+
+function prepareTerminaText(text: string): string {


Termina typo, also let's make this a private member of SendSequenceTerminalCommand

src/vs/workbench/parts/terminal/electron-browser/terminalActions.ts

Tyriar · 2018-08-23T18:33:28Z

src/vs/workbench/parts/terminal/electron-browser/terminalActions.ts

+
+function prepareTerminaText(text: string): string {
+	// Hexcodes and excape char
+	if (text.substring(0, 2).toLowerCase() === '\\x') {


This needs to happen for every character, I suggest an algorithm like this:

for each char detect if it's hex. if so translate and "consume" the characters and move the loop to the following character

By each character, do you mean each space separated word? If so, this function is being called for each space separated word.

I think we have different ideas for the end solution, you want to pass in a space separated list of characters or words that translate to characters, I think the most flexible way would be to pass in a list of characters. So instead of this:

"args": {"text": "ctrl+c up enter"}

It would be:

"args": {"text": "\x03\x1b[A\x0d"}

I think we should start with this as it supports everything and then see if we need something better. In fact if we support my proposal an extension could provide the nicer interface if needed.

I could see something like this being nice:

"args": { "keys": [ "ctrl+c", "up", "enter" ] }

But I think it should live in an extension first to see if people find it useful.

On implementation side, implementing this is easy:
"args": {"text": "\x03\x1b[A\x0d"}
For each char, termnalInstance.sendText(String.fromChar(char))
But will it be easy enough for end user to use?
Final decision is yours. Let me know what way should we go :)
BTW, How should we handle [A if we go that way?

Sorry about the delay, had too many notifications 😱

Yes, I would also expect \a, \b, etc. to work as specified in this file: https://github.com/xtermjs/xterm.js/blob/f47f095b8928a6e50ce80f87d7fd11e50cf9a190/src/common/data/EscapeSequences.ts#L25, not sure if they will without special casing

text should allow spaces, using { "text": "hello world" } should send that, including the space

We probably need to use \\x03 in the keybindings.json

@Tyriar
I'm stuck on one last thing, that I need some help with,
If I use \\x03 for ctrl+c, it works but then terminalInstance.sendText ignores next single char.

That is, for args: {'text': '\\x03ls\n'}, the output on terminal is bash: s: command not found
It works as expected with args: {'text': '\\x03 ls\n'}

For upArrow key, if I use "args": {"text": "\\x03\\x1b[A\n"} or "args": {"text": "\\x03 \\x1b[A\n"} I'm getting bash: s: command not found on terminal. (last executed command is ls.)

I just tested sending directly to the process in the xterm.js demo (what VS Code's terminal is based on) and sending \x03 definitely doesn't eat the next character for me:

Can you please try term._core.handler("\x03ls\n")

I can repro this in Linux, I'm guessing this is expected behavior of bash. For this I would try workaround it by using something like \r to make sure the ^C goes though which apppears to work\x03\rls\n, it adds another line but that's not a big deal.

Tyriar · 2018-08-23T18:34:17Z

src/vs/workbench/parts/terminal/electron-browser/terminalActions.ts

+	}
+
+	// Arrow keys
+	if (text.toLowerCase() === 'down') {


I'm not sure these key strings should be handled specially, what if the user wants to send the text "down"?

Should I remove all except up ?

njkevlani · 2018-09-01T03:18:25Z

@Tyriar
One thing that I noticed is that, if we pass "args": {"text": "\u0003\u001b[A\n"}, it works without any preprocessing. That is in this case we can directly call terminalInstance.sendText(args.text, false)

This is because this code takes care of unicode chars and convert them to appropriate string.
If we add same type of rules for hex chars, we can make code much cleaner :)

Tyriar · 2018-09-04T13:28:07Z

@njkevlani oh you mean it works with \u formatting currently? That should be good enough.

njkevlani · 2018-09-04T14:20:35Z

Currently, this implementation works with args similar to following examples.

"args": {"text": "\u0003\r\u001b[A\n"}
"args": {"text": "\u0003\rpython -m http.server\n"}

Tyriar · 2018-09-08T19:37:52Z

FYI you can workaround the extra \r if you use mac with the new platform-specific keybindings:

[
	{
		"key": "ctrl+q",
		"command": "workbench.action.terminal.sendSequence",
		"args": { "text": "\u0003\u001b[A\n" },
		"when": "isMac"
	},
	{
		"key": "ctrl+q",
		"command": "workbench.action.terminal.sendSequence",
		"args": { "text": "\u0003\r\u001b[A\n" },
		"when": "isLinux"
	}
]

Tyriar · 2018-09-08T19:42:49Z

@njkevlani thanks for the contribution, this should land in Monday's Insiders build.

Tyriar · 2018-09-08T19:56:36Z

@njkevlani check out microsoft/vscode-docs@b532d2a for the documentation I added on this.

njkevlani · 2018-09-09T06:22:50Z

Thanks @Tyriar for accepting the PR :)

ArturoDent · 2019-03-25T18:58:03Z

I am a little confused about usage of sendSequence. I set up a simple cursor left snippet:

{
  "key": "alt+x",
  "command": "workbench.action.terminal.sendSequence",  // working code
  "args": { "text": "a987654321\u001b5\u001b[D" }    // moves cursor back 5 spaces non-destructively
}

Note the 5 had to be escaped and placed in front of the [D.

The above works but is not what I expected, I thought the below would work:

"args": { "text": "a987654321u001b[5D" } // doesn't work HAS TYPO

"args": { "text": "a987654321\u001b[5D" } // doesn't work TYPO FIXED

But this later form is what I have seen used consistently in my research.

Is the working code how it must be done in vscode + powershell + W10(fast ring)?

Tyriar · 2019-03-26T17:50:06Z

"args": { "text": "a987654321u001b[5D" } // doesn't work

That won't work because you don't have a \ in front of the u, so you're just printing a bunch of characters

Tyriar · 2019-03-26T17:50:43Z

Also on Windows things could be different, you're sending the text directly to the shell, so the shell needs to support whatever you're sending. Refer to their documentation for that.

ArturoDent · 2019-03-28T06:17:39Z

Of course "args": { "text": "a987654321u001b[5D" } // doesn't work was just a typo. Fixed above. Does not work. Literally prints: a987654321[5D

The documentation https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/integrated-terminal#_send-text-from-a-keybinding just gives two citations to exterm info that would lead one to believe "args": { "text": "a987654321\u001b[5D" } is the proper way to do it

And since the vscode documentation gives this example:

"args": { "text": "\u001b[1;5D\u007f" }

which works as is for me (in powershell on W10) I am still at a loss to explain why "args": { "text": "a987654321\u001b[5D" } doesn't?

Tyriar · 2019-03-28T16:21:57Z

The fact that it's powershell is the problem, you're sending sequences that bash expects to powershell and it doesn't know how to handle it. You would need to consult the powershell documentation on whether it's even possible to send a sequence to do this.

njkevlani added 2 commits August 22, 2018 08:57

Added new command for sending custom sequence to terminal

9a384a4

Added new command for sending custom sequence to terminal

6a6c809

rebornix assigned Tyriar Aug 22, 2018

Tyriar requested changes Aug 23, 2018

View reviewed changes

njkevlani added 3 commits August 24, 2018 00:32

Fixed Typo

a10e863

Changed Declearation

abde156

Changed scop of function

ea66a9f

Limiting args.text to unicode chars

6c20496

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/master' into pr/njkevlani/56962

b642b3f

Tyriar added this to the September 2018 milestone Sep 8, 2018

Tyriar approved these changes Sep 8, 2018

View reviewed changes

Tyriar merged commit 4bfc0a6 into microsoft:master Sep 8, 2018

njkevlani deleted the feature-56024 branch September 9, 2018 06:22

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Added new command for sending custom sequence to terminal #56962

Added new command for sending custom sequence to terminal #56962

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Added new command for sending custom sequence to terminal #56962

Added new command for sending custom sequence to terminal #56962

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