I'd like to bind Ctrl+J to a command in BASH, specifically I'd like to do this:
bind '"\C-j":"clear; ls *\n"'
But it seems that because Ctrl+J is the linefeed key, the escape sequence \n calls whatever Ctrl+J is bound to, so the result of pressing Ctrl+J is:
clear; ls *clear; ls *clear; ls *clear; ls *clear; ls * ...
Is there any way to bind Ctrl+J and retain the meaning of \n? Or is there an alternative to \n?
bind -p | grep "not bound" | grep -v "self-insert" | cat >> keycodes-notbound.txt
bind -p | grep -v "not bound" | grep -v "self-insert" | cat >> keycodes-used.txt will give you a list of all keybindings.
That way you can see in the .txt file which keycodes are not bound/in use.
Could be, that you have to unbind the bound function (accept-line, IIRC) that is bound to C-j.
Somthing along in this How can I unbind and remap C-w in Bash? could help you, maybe.
I assume you want the \n to make the command execute immediately. In that case, yes, there is an alternative:
bind '"\C-j":"clear; ls *\r"'
... should do what you want. (The \r is carriage return, usually bound to Ctrl+M, which usually has the same effect.)
If you want a shell command to be executed, you have to use the -x option:
bind -x '"\C-j":"clear; ls *"'
From help bind:
bind: bind [-lpsvPSVX] [-m keymap] [-f filename] [-q name] [-u name] [-r keyseq]
[-x keyseq:shell-command] [keyseq:readline-function or readline-command]
Set Readline key bindings and variables.
Compare the parts:
[-x keyseq:shell-command]
and
[keyseq:readline-function or readline-command]
Without -x, bind controls readline functions or macros, and with -x bind will bind to a shell command to be executed.
