Fixed #3799: Introduce sendInput command #7249

lhecker · 2020-08-11T18:38:30Z

Summary of the Pull Request

This PR enables users to send arbitrary text input to the shell via a keybinding.

PR Checklist

Closes Enable sending input to the Terminal with a keybinding #3799
CLA signed. If not, go over here and sign the CLA
Tests added/passed
Documentation updated. If checked, please file a pull request on our docs repo and link it here: #xxx
Schema updated.
I've discussed this with core contributors already. If not checked, I'm ready to accept this work might be rejected in favor of a different grand plan. Issue number where discussion took place: Enable sending input to the Terminal with a keybinding #3799

Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments

Validation Steps Performed

Added the following keybindings:

{ "keys": "p", "command": { "action": "sendInput", "input": "foobar" } },
{ "keys": "q", "command": { "action": "sendInput", "input": "\u001b[A" } },

Ensured that when pressing P "foobar" is echoed to the shell and when pressing Q the shell history is being navigated backwards.

DHowett · 2020-08-11T18:43:22Z

It should be possible to replicate the clear command using a keybinding for \u001b[H\u001b[2J\u001b[3J.

This probably doesn't work because it's unusual to receive the sequence for clearing the screen on the input handle 😄

lhecker · 2020-08-11T18:51:22Z

This was my suspicion as well. I've removed the comment from the PR description. Thanks @DHowett!

src/cascadia/TerminalApp/ActionArgs.h

DHowett · 2020-08-11T18:51:34Z

src/cascadia/TerminalControl/TermControl.cpp

@@ -1769,7 +1781,7 @@ namespace winrt::Microsoft::Terminal::TerminalControl::implementation
    // - wstr: the string of characters to write to the terminal connection.
    // Return Value:
    // - <none>
-    void TermControl::_SendInputToConnection(const std::wstring& wstr)
+    void TermControl::_SendInputToConnection(const winrt::param::hstring& wstr)


unfortunately ☹️ we can't actually use the winrt::param namespace even though it is literally the best namespace for taking in anything that can convert to hstring

We might have to prefer std::wstring_view, which can be natively converted to an hstring (though it could also crash because hstring expects string_views to be null-terminated)

(I've discussed this with the cppwinrt folks before. param::hstring does everything we might possibly want with regards to automatic promotion to hstring, but it's not part of the public interface :/)

I'm not entirely sure I understand... Am I supposed to not use winrt::param because it's a private interface, or is there another technical reason?

Oh, just because it is a private namespace.

lhecker · 2020-08-11T18:52:08Z

doc/cascadia/SettingsSchema.md

@@ -142,6 +142,7 @@ For commands with arguments:
 | `scrollUp` | Move the screen up. | | | |
 | `scrollUpPage` | Move the screen up a whole page. | | | |
 | `scrollDownPage` | Move the screen down a whole page. | | | |
+| `sendInput` | Sends some text input to the shell. | `input` | string | The text input to feed into the shell.<br>ANSI escape sequences may be used. Escape codes like `\x1b` must be written as `\u001b`.<br>For instance the input `"text\n"` will write "text" followed by a newline. `"\u001b[D"` will behave as if the left arrow button had been pressed. |


Does this classify as "Documentation updated"? Do I need to submit a PR to the docs repo?

Unfortunately, you do!

DHowett · 2020-08-11T19:24:56Z

Ah, that might be inconvenient. It looks like we use std::bind to capture _SendInputToConnection... somewhere

zadjii-msft · 2020-08-11T19:28:12Z

Ah, that might be inconvenient. It looks like we use std::bind to capture _SendInputToConnection... somewhere

TermControl.cpp:107

        auto inputFn = std::bind(&TermControl::_SendInputToConnection, this, std::placeholders::_1);
        _terminal->SetWriteInputCallback(inputFn);

zadjii-msft

I feel like the resources thing is nitpicking, but hey, there are build breaks too so I don't feel so bad making you change them 😛

Otherwise everything else here looks good 👍

zadjii-msft · 2020-08-11T19:21:40Z

src/cascadia/TerminalApp/ActionAndArgs.cpp

@@ -284,6 +288,7 @@ namespace winrt::TerminalApp::implementation
                { ShortcutAction::ToggleFocusMode, RS_(L"ToggleFocusModeCommandKey") },
                { ShortcutAction::ToggleFullscreen, RS_(L"ToggleFullscreenCommandKey") },
                { ShortcutAction::ToggleAlwaysOnTop, RS_(L"ToggleAlwaysOnTopCommandKey") },
+                { ShortcutAction::SendInput, RS_(L"SendInputCommandKey") },


IMO this should be mapped to L"", so that we don't accidentally generate a name for a sendInput action that doesn't have a value for input

see for example: CloseOtherTabs

zadjii-msft · 2020-08-11T19:24:30Z

src/cascadia/TerminalApp/ActionArgs.cpp

+        // * "Send Input: ...input..."
+
+        return winrt::hstring{
+            fmt::format(L"{}: {}", RS_(L"SendInputCommandKey"), _Input)


Typically, it's best practice to have just two entirely different resources in Resources.resw for something like this.

In this case though, I don't think we need the version without the argument at all, we could probably get away with a single resource for the formatted version:

<data name="SendInputCommandKey" xml:space="preserve"> <value>Send Input: "{0}"</value> <comment>{0} will be replaced with a string of input as defined by the user.</comment> </data>

I'm suddenly worried about dropping the user's input right into a TextBlock. Should we transform the control characters <0x20 to their "control pictures" equivalents? It's as easy as adding 0x2400 to them!

This is what we do in the debug tap ... which I can't get a screenshot of because we broke it o_O

Or perhaps my right alt key no longer works. This would come as no big surprise.

Should we transform the control characters <0x20 to their "control pictures" equivalents? It's as easy as adding 0x2400 to them!

I'm hugely in favor of this actually. Raw control characters ~~might~~ definitely will break the text block

src/cascadia/TerminalApp/Resources/en-US/Resources.resw

"Otherwise everything else here looks good 👍"

ghost · 2020-08-12T13:46:34Z

Hello @zadjii-msft!

Because this pull request has the AutoMerge label, I will be glad to assist with helping to merge this pull request once all check-in policies pass.

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damnskippy · 2020-08-12T22:00:08Z

Thanks for doing this @lhecker! Thanks as well and as always to @zadjii-msft & @DHowett, of course!

ghost · 2020-08-26T17:04:00Z

🎉Windows Terminal Preview v1.3.2382.0 has been released which incorporates this pull request.:tada:

Handy links:

musm · 2020-09-22T16:42:47Z

How would I actually use this functionality to send input from an external program into an active terminal ?

lhecker · 2020-09-22T16:48:33Z

@musm This "command" is currently / at this point only for use with key bindings inside the Windows Terminal (WT) app.
You can send input to any Windows application, including WT (!), using the identically named, but unrelated SendInput API and its relatives. Tools like AutoHotkey make use of SendInput to do just that.

unphased · 2021-04-16T00:16:33Z

Hi, Windows Terminal sends <ESC>[21;2~ for Shift+F10, but I wanted to configure it to send <ESC>[34~ instead. This seems pretty reasonable, but upon setting the following configuration under actions

{
    "command": {
        "action": "sendInput", 
        "input": "\u001b[34~"
    },
    "keys": "shift+f10"
}

it now just eats the key and does nothing. This shows that the configuration had an effect, but it seems like it's not working properly for escape codes as the documentation suggests. Any ideas?

unphased · 2021-04-16T00:20:35Z

I did some tests, and I found that it seems like the key will send if the input matches some kind of whitelist of "known ANSI codes". Although I understand that motivations and justifications for this may exist, it makes the documentation misleading.

For example, \u001b[A thru \u001b[D work, but \u001b[E conspicuously does not work. \u001b[a (lowercase a) also does not work.

DHowett · 2021-04-16T00:22:33Z

We do not have an allowlist. The literal string in the sendInput action is sent through unfiltered. If the receiving application rejects it, that’s not our fault.

unphased · 2021-04-16T00:23:21Z

How can I prove that it's just eating the key? That's just what it's doing. I'm currently running

Windows Terminal Preview
Version: 1.7.572.0

I'm searching for an equivalent of cat that is a part of powershell or something similar.

So far the procedure has been

ssh into linux machine
run cat on zsh command line
type shift+f10, ^[[21;2~ is emitted
Add config as described above. save config json file.
type shift+f10, no response
adjust "input" to \u001b[A. save config json file.
type shift+f10, ^[A is emitted
etc.

unphased · 2021-04-16T00:28:21Z

I'm pretty sure then (similar to how i eventually found out that openssh is responsible for making mouse codes fail) that ssh is perhaps at fault here. I now have 2 reasons to do something about that.

unphased · 2021-04-16T00:36:25Z

Great, I've got MSYS2 installed, and with the OpenSSH obtained through there it behaves as you described. Mouse events still not working but that's ok for now.

DHowett · 2021-04-16T00:41:58Z

Oh yeah, so SSH 7.7 shipped with Windows actually tells us that it cannot handle VT input and needs us to translate it into Windows events ... so that it can translate them back into VT.

this has since been fixed, but the damage is done for two fairly popular windows versions (1904x and 1836x)

Fixed #3799: Introduce sendInput command

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ghost merged commit a2721c1 into microsoft:master Aug 12, 2020

lhecker deleted the issue-3799-send-input branch August 12, 2020 17:05

lhecker mentioned this pull request Aug 18, 2020

Add documentation for the sendInput command MicrosoftDocs/terminal#115

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cinnamon-msft mentioned this pull request Aug 20, 2020

Document 1.3 release features MicrosoftDocs/terminal#117

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ghost mentioned this pull request Aug 26, 2020

Enable sending input to the Terminal with a keybinding #3799

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musm mentioned this pull request Sep 22, 2020

SendCode with new Windows Terminal randy3k/SendCode#133

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j4james mentioned this pull request Dec 21, 2021

Keyboard bindings for terminal escape sequences. #12007

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Fixed #3799: Introduce sendInput command #7249

Fixed #3799: Introduce sendInput command #7249

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Fixed #3799: Introduce sendInput command #7249

Fixed #3799: Introduce sendInput command #7249

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Summary of the Pull Request

PR Checklist

Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments

Validation Steps Performed

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