# Puzzle for OSX users: How do I map Shift+RightArrow in the OSX Terminal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 30, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzle-for-osx-users-how-do-i-map-shift-rightarrow-in-the-osx-terminal/406093 "2007-05-30T17:34:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzle-for-osx-users-how-do-i-map-shift-rightarrow-in-the-osx-terminal/406093/1 "2007-05-30T17:34:39Z")
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: ```auto 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: ```auto 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 ``` ---
**Author:** ![Omphaloskeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bcef8e/32.png) [@Omphaloskeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omphaloskeptic)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzle-for-osx-users-how-do-i-map-shift-rightarrow-in-the-osx-terminal/406093/2 "2007-05-30T19:33:26Z")
[QUOTE=alterego] 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: ```auto 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! [/QUOTE] 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? ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzle-for-osx-users-how-do-i-map-shift-rightarrow-in-the-osx-terminal/406093/3 "2007-05-30T20:50:10Z")
[QUOTE=Omphaloskeptic] 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? [/QUOTE] 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.. ---
**Author:** ![Omphaloskeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bcef8e/32.png) [@Omphaloskeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omphaloskeptic)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzle-for-osx-users-how-do-i-map-shift-rightarrow-in-the-osx-terminal/406093/4 "2007-05-30T21:33:42Z")
[QUOTE=alterego] 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.. [/QUOTE] 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. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzle-for-osx-users-how-do-i-map-shift-rightarrow-in-the-osx-terminal/406093/5 "2007-05-30T23:06:05Z")
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 ```auto (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** 🙂