UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi, I've got a bit of a ridiculous problem and wasn't sure where to post it.

I need to use the vertical bar for piping in Bash but, as per the title, am using a UK layout on a US (physical) keyboard which doesn't have a key for it in the place I'd expect. I've tried using xbindkeys and Unicode (and have changed the encoding in Konsole, as well as setting 'lang' and 'LC_CTYPE', to en_GB.UTF-8) but ctrl+shift+u still doesn't work.

Would really appreciate any help. I don't want to revert to the US layout because it really disrupts my typing as I'm not used to it. The vertical bar is pretty much the only key I need that I don't have, as well.

Thanks

Well, it's octal 0174, so:

Code:

echo x|tr 'x' '\174'
 
echo '\0174'
|

Would there be a way to use that in xbindkeys so that I could remap to a particular key? Aliasing won't work and I tried using a function.

You can make an x keyboard to anything, but I have been spared that education. I have some bits that make my pc numeric keypad work, but every time I sneeze, it flips back! Maybe a function key, or post process in a script to make the function key bytes into a pipe.

Put a 2x2 xterm with a big -fn 12x24 '|' on it in the corner of your desktop, and paste.

Someone should write an X keyboard wizard. Maybe it is out there. Google around! In this age, imagine and google is all you need!

Haha thanks yeah that's pretty much what I've been doing.

You could write, or hunt up, a "Character Map" like in start->programs->accessories->systemtools->. Mine has U-007C: Vertical Line. An x web browser on a wikipedia page for unicode would give you a bazillion glyphs. I get vi/vim has some octal/hex input feature somewhere. http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Entering_special_characters

I am a big fan of the "set -o vi" mode of ksh/bash command line editing, not the bash thing so like DOS. In fact, I never leave $HOME except insice () so my commands when recalled all work. With X and command recall and vi command editing, you do not need the path shortening keystoke savings of cd. I usually make $HISTSIZE big, something like 32767 seems to all it can handle, move the $HISTORYFILE somewhere permanent, save it periodically in an archive, and write scripts to search it and display it so I can recall keystrokes for years. For long lines, you have to go exc-v-enter into vi every time, as they recall truncated, but they recall. Now, if you have or install vim, you export EDITOR=vim and poof! vi is not hard wired. I use vix, a script that, before running vi, echos out linefeeds to save the screen in the scrool buffer, and after running vi, returns 0 always, as when command line editing, return not zero from vi (any beep for trivial error) and the vi file is discarded.

Code:

$ cat mysrc/vix
#!/usr/bin/ksh
(
 stty -a | sed '
        s/^/ /
        t a
        :a
        s/.* rows = \([1-9][0-9]*\).*/\1/
        t
        d
        ' | read zr
# echo $zr >&2
 if [ "$zr" = "" ]
 then
  zr=25
 fi
 while [ "$zr" != -1 ]
 do
  zr=$(( $zr - 1 ))
  echo >/dev/tty
  done
 vi "$@"
 exit 0
)

I think the parens are for one aix or hpux system where the ksh, upon detecting the call of a ksh script, ran scripts in the login ksh, as if sourced. My environment kept getting trashed. My vix did not seem to work well on later x and vim, but it helps. I keep my xterms with huge scroll buffers running for weeks under vnc, where you can disconnect and reconnect to your remote per-host X desktops. Keystrokes are so valuable.

They really did not map 0174 onto the keyboard anywhere? How anti-ascii ! Rule Britannia!

It's all just a bit too finicky. I'm managing; it's only temporary anyway as I'm not in the US for more than another month or so.