Puzzle for OSX users: How do I map Shift+RightArrow in the OSX Terminal?

Can anyone crack this code? I need Terminal to send Shift+RightArrow. I have a dell keyboard plugged into my mac and I remapped the option key as the meta key. I used emacs to test the key sequences that are actually being sent when I push Shift+RightArrow, and it’s just Shift. If you go to Terminal > Window Settings > Keyboard, you can configure the octal representation to send when you push this sequence. But for the life of me, I cannot find the correct sequence to enter into this thing. I also don’t understand the codes that are already there. Here’s a sample:


control cursor left:   \033[5D
control cursor right:  \033[5C
del (forward delete):  \033[3~ 
F1:                    \033OP
F12:                   \033[24~
shift end:             \033[F
shift F5:              \033[26~
shift page up:         \033[5~

What?! Every single one of these starts with the escape key! Here is the table of `man ascii’ from my linux machine, since it’s better than the man page on osx:



      Oct   Dec   Hex   Char                        Oct   Dec   Hex   Char
       ------------------------------------------------------------------------
       000   0     00    NUL '\0'                    100   64    40    @
       001   1     01    SOH (start of heading)      101   65    41    A
       002   2     02    STX (start of text)         102   66    42    B
       003   3     03    ETX (end of text)           103   67    43    C
       004   4     04    EOT (end of transmission)   104   68    44    D
       005   5     05    ENQ (enquiry)               105   69    45    E
       006   6     06    ACK (acknowledge)           106   70    46    F
       007   7     07    BEL '\a' (bell)             107   71    47    G
       010   8     08    BS  '\b' (backspace)        110   72    48    H
       011   9     09    HT  '	' (horizontal tab)   111   73    49    I
       012   10    0A    LF  '
' (new line)         112   74    4A    J
       013   11    0B    VT  '\v' (vertical tab)     113   75    4B    K
       014   12    0C    FF  '\f' (form feed)        114   76    4C    L
       015   13    0D    CR  '\r' (carriage ret)     115   77    4D    M
       016   14    0E    SO  (shift out)             116   78    4E    N
       017   15    0F    SI  (shift in)              117   79    4F    O
       020   16    10    DLE (data link escape)      120   80    50    P
       021   17    11    DC1 (device control 1)      121   81    51    Q
       022   18    12    DC2 (device control 2)      122   82    52    R
       023   19    13    DC3 (device control 3)      123   83    53    S
       024   20    14    DC4 (device control 4)      124   84    54    T
       025   21    15    NAK (negative ack.)         125   85    55    U
       026   22    16    SYN (synchronous idle)      126   86    56    V
       027   23    17    ETB (end of trans. blk)     127   87    57    W
       030   24    18    CAN (cancel)                130   88    58    X
       031   25    19    EM  (end of medium)         131   89    59    Y
       032   26    1A    SUB (substitute)            132   90    5A    Z
       033   27    1B    ESC (escape)                133   91    5B    [
       034   28    1C    FS  (file separator)        134   92    5C    \  '\\'
       035   29    1D    GS  (group separator)       135   93    5D    ]
       036   30    1E    RS  (record separator)      136   94    5E    ^
       037   31    1F    US  (unit separator)        137   95    5F    _
       040   32    20    SPACE                       140   96    60    `
       041   33    21    !                           141   97    61    a
       042   34    22    "                           142   98    62    b
       043   35    23    #                           143   99    63    c
       044   36    24    $                           144   100   64    d
       045   37    25    %                           145   101   65    e
       046   38    26    &                           146   102   66    f
       047   39    27    '                           147   103   67    g
       050   40    28    (                           150   104   68    h
       051   41    29    )                           151   105   69    i
       052   42    2A    *                           152   106   6A    j
       053   43    2B    +                           153   107   6B    k
       054   44    2C    ,                           154   108   6C    l
       055   45    2D    -                           155   109   6D    m
       056   46    2E    .                           156   110   6E    n
       057   47    2F    /                           157   111   6F    o
       060   48    30    0                           160   112   70    p
       061   49    31    1                           161   113   71    q
       062   50    32    2                           162   114   72    r
       063   51    33    3                           163   115   73    s
       064   52    34    4                           164   116   74    t
       065   53    35    5                           165   117   75    u
       066   54    36    6                           166   118   76    v
       067   55    37    7                           167   119   77    w
       070   56    38    8                           170   120   78    x
       071   57    39    9                           171   121   79    y
       072   58    3A    :                           172   122   7A    z
       073   59    3B    ;                           173   123   7B    {
       074   60    3C    <                           174   124   7C    |
       075   61    3D    =                           175   125   7D    }
       076   62    3E    >                           176   126   7E    ~
       077   63    3F    ?                           177   127   7F    DEL


I don’t know if I can help with your specific question, but I can explain the escape codes.

Keyboard input, as you have just discovered, is complicated. The problem is that there are more possible keychords on a standard keyboard than 7-bit (or even 8-bit) ASCII characters. Because the terminal communications protocols (like Telnet) standardized around ASCII-like character sequences, many of these extra codes are emulated in terminals using escape sequences (multicharacter sequences beginning with ASCII ESC=0x21) like the ones you listed above. The idea is that the application at the remote end of the terminal would detect these sequences, when they appear sufficiently quickly, and then remap them to the appropriate actions. This is handled somewhat automatically over a wide variety of input terminals, by libraries like curses; the corresponding tables of escape sequences are in /etc/termcap. The most common terminal emulators around today are ANSI/VTxxx, and what you’ve listed above are ANSI escape codes for those keys.

It’s ugly and very limited; in particular, not all keychords give distinct sequences. In particular, I don’t believe that shift-arrow keys are typically recognized by terminal programs as distinct from unshifted arrow keys. Many applications will query the keyboard at a lower level than a simple ASCII stream, to get more information than these escape sequences allow.

Why do you need to send that specific chord, and why via Terminal? What application is expecting it? Can you give any more details? If this chord does something with a Mac keyboard, can you try it with a Mac keyboard to see what ASCII sequence (if any) is being sent?

Thanks for your comments. I use emacs in no-window mode, and usually have my screen split up into four quadrants. There are two ways to get from quadrant to quadrant. The hard way is to cycle through them by typing “Ctrl+x o”. The easy way is to use Shift+Up/Down/Left/Right-Arrow. So I want to enable shift plus my arrow pad. I tried iTerm and it has the exact same interface as Terminal - they both want me to enter some sequence. I don’t own a mac keyboard, but i’m not thinking that it would make a difference…

Would it be acceptable to use Alt/Meta+arrows instead? Those should make it through the terminal unmolested, and you could then remap them within Emacs (using an Emacs macro) to whatever Emacs function the shift-arrows performed.

I feel kind of sad that the rest of the Internet can’t benefit from our conversation, and that I am posting this in vain, but I turned i, j, k and l into my arrow pad per your advice:

This goes in ~/.emacs



(global-set-key "\M-j" 'windmove-left)
(global-set-key "\M-l" 'windmove-right)
(global-set-key "\M-i" 'windmove-up)
(global-set-key "\M-k" 'windmove-down)


Works a charm! Thanks, Omphaloskeptic :slight_smile: