Shortcut for line continuation (escaped newline) action

Question

Does exist the way, binding line continuation action to specific key in the bash?

That is, instead pressing two keys \ and Enter, one after another, press two keys simultaneously, for example Alt + Enter.

Instead this:
$ echo one \Enter
> two \Enter

Do this:
$ echo one, then press Alt + Enter = get backslash and newline
> twoAlt + Enter - get backslash and newline, etc.

I have looked at readline binding and doesn't find such action.Would not say, that this functionality needed me so much :), just interesting.

Krzysztof Stasiak · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-09 13:57:51Z

1

You can do something like that using bind command

bind '"\e[24~":"\\\n"'

I use F12 because i don't know how to bind C-^M i think its impossible bcos enter is C-M but you can use:

bind '"\C-m":"\\\n"'

answered Jun 9 '17 at 13:57

Krzysztof Stasiak

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Thanks, though I found the same solution itself 10 minutes ago, your answer pointed me that binding to C-m broke Enter key :) But I added Alt key to my combination and now, it work how I was wanted. Either Alt + Enter or Ctrl + Alt + m doing the line continuation. – MiniMax Jun 9 '17 at 14:21

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MiniMax · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-09 14:14:34Z

I found answer in the Arch Linux wiki - it can be done by macros:

bind '"\e\C-m":" \\\C-j"'

It bind the needed functionality to the Alt+Enter or Alt+Ctrl+m combination.

Then it needed to add this line to the .bashrc file and this binding will work after reboot.

To look at your available macros, run bind -s:

$ bind -s
$ "\e\C-m": " \\\C-j"

2 Answers 2