Can I make “less” execute arbitrary commands with a single key sequence?












3















Reading the less and lesskeys manpages, I have created a file containing:



^B shell touch ~/testfile


and run it through lesskey to generate .less-test, then executed less -k .less-test file. This all works fine and does what I hope, except that I need to hit enter twice to actually execute the shell command and return to the file. Changing the command to touch ~/testfilen removes the need for one of those enter presses, but touch ~/testfilenn doesn't work to get rid of them both. Is there a way to bypass hitting enter at all here?



As a follow-up question (and to explain why I'm asking in the first place)--I am doing this as a process of file tagging, where I inspect the file using less and want to use these hotkeys to write out to another file with one of two tags (which I plan to bind to two different key sequences). So in addition to not having to press enter twice as above, I'd also like to know if there's a way to immediately move to the next file (as with the next-file lesskey command) also (that is, press no other keys besides the tagging key sequence).










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    3















    Reading the less and lesskeys manpages, I have created a file containing:



    ^B shell touch ~/testfile


    and run it through lesskey to generate .less-test, then executed less -k .less-test file. This all works fine and does what I hope, except that I need to hit enter twice to actually execute the shell command and return to the file. Changing the command to touch ~/testfilen removes the need for one of those enter presses, but touch ~/testfilenn doesn't work to get rid of them both. Is there a way to bypass hitting enter at all here?



    As a follow-up question (and to explain why I'm asking in the first place)--I am doing this as a process of file tagging, where I inspect the file using less and want to use these hotkeys to write out to another file with one of two tags (which I plan to bind to two different key sequences). So in addition to not having to press enter twice as above, I'd also like to know if there's a way to immediately move to the next file (as with the next-file lesskey command) also (that is, press no other keys besides the tagging key sequence).










    share|improve this question



























      3












      3








      3








      Reading the less and lesskeys manpages, I have created a file containing:



      ^B shell touch ~/testfile


      and run it through lesskey to generate .less-test, then executed less -k .less-test file. This all works fine and does what I hope, except that I need to hit enter twice to actually execute the shell command and return to the file. Changing the command to touch ~/testfilen removes the need for one of those enter presses, but touch ~/testfilenn doesn't work to get rid of them both. Is there a way to bypass hitting enter at all here?



      As a follow-up question (and to explain why I'm asking in the first place)--I am doing this as a process of file tagging, where I inspect the file using less and want to use these hotkeys to write out to another file with one of two tags (which I plan to bind to two different key sequences). So in addition to not having to press enter twice as above, I'd also like to know if there's a way to immediately move to the next file (as with the next-file lesskey command) also (that is, press no other keys besides the tagging key sequence).










      share|improve this question
















      Reading the less and lesskeys manpages, I have created a file containing:



      ^B shell touch ~/testfile


      and run it through lesskey to generate .less-test, then executed less -k .less-test file. This all works fine and does what I hope, except that I need to hit enter twice to actually execute the shell command and return to the file. Changing the command to touch ~/testfilen removes the need for one of those enter presses, but touch ~/testfilenn doesn't work to get rid of them both. Is there a way to bypass hitting enter at all here?



      As a follow-up question (and to explain why I'm asking in the first place)--I am doing this as a process of file tagging, where I inspect the file using less and want to use these hotkeys to write out to another file with one of two tags (which I plan to bind to two different key sequences). So in addition to not having to press enter twice as above, I'd also like to know if there's a way to immediately move to the next file (as with the next-file lesskey command) also (that is, press no other keys besides the tagging key sequence).







      shell less






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      edited 15 mins ago









      Rui F Ribeiro

      40.1k1479135




      40.1k1479135










      asked Aug 7 '14 at 20:53









      Brandon HumpertBrandon Humpert

      1185




      1185






















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          It will always display the "!done" message.



          If you want, you could change "!done" to NULL in command.c (row 272 and 274) to get rid of this behavior.



          To get it to execute next-file after the touch command for instance, you could add the following binding:



          ^B shell touch ~/testfilen:nn


          (:n is the default binding for next-file)






          share|improve this answer























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            1 Answer
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            1 Answer
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            active

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            active

            oldest

            votes






            active

            oldest

            votes









            2














            It will always display the "!done" message.



            If you want, you could change "!done" to NULL in command.c (row 272 and 274) to get rid of this behavior.



            To get it to execute next-file after the touch command for instance, you could add the following binding:



            ^B shell touch ~/testfilen:nn


            (:n is the default binding for next-file)






            share|improve this answer




























              2














              It will always display the "!done" message.



              If you want, you could change "!done" to NULL in command.c (row 272 and 274) to get rid of this behavior.



              To get it to execute next-file after the touch command for instance, you could add the following binding:



              ^B shell touch ~/testfilen:nn


              (:n is the default binding for next-file)






              share|improve this answer


























                2












                2








                2







                It will always display the "!done" message.



                If you want, you could change "!done" to NULL in command.c (row 272 and 274) to get rid of this behavior.



                To get it to execute next-file after the touch command for instance, you could add the following binding:



                ^B shell touch ~/testfilen:nn


                (:n is the default binding for next-file)






                share|improve this answer













                It will always display the "!done" message.



                If you want, you could change "!done" to NULL in command.c (row 272 and 274) to get rid of this behavior.



                To get it to execute next-file after the touch command for instance, you could add the following binding:



                ^B shell touch ~/testfilen:nn


                (:n is the default binding for next-file)







                share|improve this answer












                share|improve this answer



                share|improve this answer










                answered Aug 7 '14 at 21:15









                Victor JerlinVictor Jerlin

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