Question: Toggle leader key binding

[ssoriche]

I've been migrating my tmux settings directly into wezterm, but I haven't been able to find if there is a solution to this.

I've set my leader key with:

leader = {key = "s", mods = "CTRL"},

This is the same leader key I use in tmux. Some times I need to open up tmux inside of wezterm and and have the leader key sent to it. Right now my solution is to edit the wezterm configuration and comment that line out, then uncomment it when I'm done. This does not seem ideal.

With tmux when I would connect to a remote session and open tmux again (nested), I have F12 bound to switching the leader key target between inner and outer tmux sessions. Is it possible to set up a binding like that?

[wez]

Take a look at window:set_config_overrides; that shows how you can override the configuration for a window by pressing a key assignment of your choice.

You could modify that example to change the leader configuration when you press F12, assuming I understand your request!

[ssoriche]

That's perfect! Thank you again.

[ssoriche]

I've been trying to implement this, and to me (naively) it doesn't appear that leader is exposed through window.

I tested with:

wezterm.on("toggle-leader", function(window, pane)
    wezterm.log_info("toggling the leader")
    local effective = window:effective_config()
    wezterm.log_info(effective.leader)
end)


return {
    debug_key_events = true,
    font_size = 12.0,
    leader = {key = "s", mods = "CTRL"},
    keys = {
        {
            key = "F12",
            mods = "NONE",
            action = wezterm.action {EmitEvent = "toggle-leader"},
        },
    },
}

And I get the following error:

 2021-04-07T19:55:46.613Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Function(12), modifiers: NONE, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: NONE, raw_code: Some(111), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-07T19:55:46.613Z INFO  config::lua                       > lua: toggling the leader
 2021-04-07T19:55:46.614Z ERROR wezterm_gui::termwindow           > while processing toggle-leader event: callback error: stack traceback:
        [C]: in function 'wezterm.log_info'
        [string "/Users/ssoriche/.config/wezterm/wezterm.lua"]:6: in function <[string "/Users/ssoriche/.config/wezterm/wezterm.lua"]:3>

If I change:

    wezterm.log_info(effective.leader)

to

    wezterm.log_info(effective.font_size)

I get 12.0 in the log message and no errors. The error might be because I'm trying to pass a table to the function as a string, however if I change to:

wezterm.on("toggle-leader", function(window, pane)
    wezterm.log_info("toggling the leader")
    local effective = window:effective_config()
    local leader_key = effective.leader
    wezterm.log_info(leader_key.key)
end)

I get:

 2021-04-07T20:07:22.739Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Function(12), modifiers: NONE, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: NONE, raw_code: Some(111), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-07T20:07:22.739Z INFO  config::lua                       > lua: toggling the leader
 2021-04-07T20:07:22.739Z ERROR wezterm_gui::termwindow           > while processing toggle-leader event: callback error: stack traceback:
        [C]: in function 'wezterm.log_info'
        [string "/Users/ssoriche/.config/wezterm/wezterm.lua"]:7: in function <[string "/Users/ssoriche/.config/wezterm/wezterm.lua"]:3>

[wez]

You can drill into the leader value: effective.leader.key.Char will return s for the config that you've included above. Internally, the key portion of what you wrote on the config is stored like this in lua:

   leader = {
       key={Char="s"},
   }

so you could test which value it is using:

   if effective.leader.key.Char == "s" then
      -- it's your baseline config
   else
       -- it's something else
   fi

alternatively, you can instead just look at the overrides:

  local overrides = window:get_config_overrides() or {}
  if not overrides.leader then
    -- no override set, so use alternative leader
    overrides.leader = {key="a", mods="CTRL"}
  else
    -- switch back to main leader config by clearing override
    overrides.leader = nil
  end
  window:set_config_overrides(overrides)

[ssoriche]

I think that lines up with what I have:

wezterm.on("toggle-leader", function(window, pane)
    wezterm.log_info("toggling the leader")
    local overrides = window:get_config_overrides() or {}
    if not overrides.leader then
        wezterm.log_info("leader wasn't set")
        overrides.leader = {key = "s", mods = "SUPER"};
    else
        wezterm.log_info("leader was set")
        overrides.leader = nil
    end

    window:set_config_overrides(overrides)
end)

The logs show the following

wezterm
 2021-04-07T23:43:36.728Z INFO  wezterm_mux_server_impl::local > setting up /Users/ssoriche/.local/share/wezterm/gui-sock-65625
 2021-04-07T23:43:36.835Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow        > OpenGL initialized! AMD Radeon Pro 580 OpenGL Engine 4.1 ATI-4.2.15 is_context_loss_possible=false wezterm version: 20210405-110924-a5bb5be8
 2021-04-07T23:43:38.683Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Char('t'), modifiers: SUPER, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: SUPER, raw_code: Some(17), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-07T23:43:41.504Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Function(12), modifiers: NONE, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: NONE, raw_code: Some(111), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-07T23:43:41.504Z INFO  config::lua                       > lua: toggling the leader
 2021-04-07T23:43:41.504Z INFO  config::lua                       > lua: leader wasn't set
 2021-04-07T23:43:47.248Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Char('s'), modifiers: CTRL, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: CTRL, raw_code: Some(1), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-07T23:43:48.015Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Char('n'), modifiers: NONE, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: NONE, raw_code: Some(45), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-07T23:43:57.408Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Function(12), modifiers: NONE, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: NONE, raw_code: Some(111), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-07T23:43:57.408Z INFO  config::lua                       > lua: toggling the leader
 2021-04-07T23:43:57.408Z INFO  config::lua                       > lua: leader was set
 2021-04-07T23:43:58.728Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Char('s'), modifiers: CTRL, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: CTRL, raw_code: Some(1), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-07T23:43:59.303Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Char('n'), modifiers: NONE, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: NONE, raw_code: Some(45), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }

The result of ctrl-s n is the same with the leader being set or not set.

[ssoriche]

This gets more interesting, I copied and pasted your code above, and used the comments as wezterm.log_info statements to make it clearer what is happening, and added logging of what the effective configuration leader is like this:

wezterm.on("toggle-leader", function(window, pane)
    local overrides = window:get_config_overrides() or {}
    if not overrides.leader then
        wezterm.log_info("no override set, so use alternative leader")
        overrides.leader = {key = "a", mods = "CTRL"}
    else
        wezterm.log_info(
            "switch back to main leader config by clearing override")
        overrides.leader = nil
    end
    window:set_config_overrides(overrides)
    local effective = window:effective_config()
    wezterm.log_info("The leader is: " .. effective.leader.key.Char)
end)

I have leader c bound like this:

        {
            key = "c",
            mods = "LEADER",
            action = wezterm.action {SpawnTab = "CurrentPaneDomain"},
        },

The following log output shows:

• toggling the leader from ctrl-s to ctrl-a
• using ctrl-s c which creates a new tab
• toggle the leader back using
• ctrl-s c which creates another new tab
• toggle the leader from ctrl-s to ctrl-a
• using ctrl-a c which doesn't create a new tab

 wezterm
 2021-04-08T13:32:22.385Z INFO  wezterm_mux_server_impl::local > setting up /Users/ssoriche/.local/share/wezterm/gui-sock-80196
 2021-04-08T13:32:22.492Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow        > OpenGL initialized! AMD Radeon Pro 580 OpenGL Engine 4.1 ATI-4.2.15 is_context_loss_possible=false wezterm version: 20210405-110924-a5bb5be8
 2021-04-08T13:32:27.253Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Function(12), modifiers: NONE, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: NONE, raw_code: Some(111), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-08T13:32:27.253Z INFO  config::lua                       > lua: no override set, so use alternative leader
 2021-04-08T13:32:27.273Z INFO  config::lua                       > lua: The leader is: a
 2021-04-08T13:32:30.258Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Char('s'), modifiers: CTRL, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: CTRL, raw_code: Some(1), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-08T13:32:31.017Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Char('c'), modifiers: NONE, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: NONE, raw_code: Some(8), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-08T13:32:34.514Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Function(12), modifiers: NONE, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: NONE, raw_code: Some(111), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-08T13:32:34.514Z INFO  config::lua                       > lua: switch back to main leader config by clearing override
 2021-04-08T13:32:34.535Z INFO  config::lua                       > lua: The leader is: s
 2021-04-08T13:32:36.049Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Char('s'), modifiers: CTRL, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: CTRL, raw_code: Some(1), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-08T13:32:36.617Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Char('c'), modifiers: NONE, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: NONE, raw_code: Some(8), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-08T13:36:40.710Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Function(12), modifiers: NONE, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: NONE, raw_code: Some(111), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-08T13:36:40.710Z INFO  config::lua                       > lua: no override set, so use alternative leader
 2021-04-08T13:36:40.733Z INFO  config::lua                       > lua: The leader is: a
 2021-04-08T13:36:42.615Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Char('a'), modifiers: CTRL, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: CTRL, raw_code: Some(0), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }
 2021-04-08T13:36:43.182Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow::keyevent > key_event KeyEvent { key: Char('c'), modifiers: NONE, raw_key: None, raw_modifiers: NONE, raw_code: Some(8), repeat_count: 1, key_is_down: true }

[wez]

This is fixed now in main; give it ~20 minutes or so to show up in the binaries built out by CI

[ssoriche]

Thank you. I just tested this out and it seems to be working as expected.

I think I can use a similar pattern to active copy mode and in doing so set y as CopyTo="ClipboardAndPrimarySelection".

[wez]

Alright, let's call this closed!

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