How do I bind <super>/<meta>/<windows key> in screenrc?

Noble · 2010-07-22 17:43:44

Beeing able to bind the super key in screen would be a very welcome thing. But I cant seem to find out how. I'm sick of it taking over and conflicting with other programs.

eirika · 2010-07-23 02:05:13

Programs like screen only see terminal character sequences, unfortunately things
like super can't be used because there's no corresponding ASCII code. So you need
a 2 phase setup:

1. Map your key into some code sequences in your terminal emulator.
2. In your screenrc, bind this code sequence to some function you want.

I don't know how to do part 1 in a real console, the arch wiki seems to have
the information http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ext … in_Console.
But I never read that. Here's my approach using urxvt + screen:

in .Xdefaults:

URxvt.keysym.Mod4-semicolon: \036p
URxvt.keysym.Mod4-apostrophe: \036n

This makes the key combination mod4 and semicolon generates the control sequence
\036 p, and similar for mod4 + apostrophe, and then in my .screenrc I do:

escape ^~~

By doing this I set the command character to control + ~, if you look at this table
http://vt100.net/docs/vt100-ug/table3-5.html, you will see that
pressing control and ~ together generates the octal code \036. So after all of these,
when I press mod4 + semicolon, screen gets <command character> + <p>, which means
"switching to previous window", and in the same way mod4 + apostrophe causes screen to
switch to next window.

Of course other terminal emulators have different key binding strategies and you have
to change what I have written for urxvt here.

http://www.vt100.net is very useful if you want to know more about terminals
or terminal emulators.

Noble · 2010-07-25 20:49:45

Thanks for very useful reply.

I have a couple of questions though

What does mod4 mean?

I the vc/tty pressing the ~ key generates the ~ without any modifier, in X you have to use Alt Gr to display it, is that not an issue in your setup, or does you .Xdefaults take care of that?

Cheers.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-07-22 17:43:44

How do I bind <super>/<meta>/<windows key> in screenrc?

#2 2010-07-23 02:05:13

Re: How do I bind <super>/<meta>/<windows key> in screenrc?

#3 2010-07-25 20:49:45

Re: How do I bind <super>/<meta>/<windows key> in screenrc?

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