Way to execute shell commands

[IsotoxalDev]

There are times when one wants execute shell commands in a text editor. Vim achieves this by taking !commands as commands for executing in shell. example: :!pandoc '%' --pdf-engine=xelatex -o ~/Documents/out.pdf &<cr><cr>. This is extremely convinient as i don't have to open a separate terminal to do this command. the % in the command refers to the current file

[sudormrfbin]

Does https://docs.helix-editor.com/keymap.html#shell fit your needs ?

[IsotoxalDev]

Does https://docs.helix-editor.com/keymap.html#shell fit your needs ?

No. It executes the command and pastes the output. There are commands that needs to be run in background or it needs to run and the output needs to be shown on a separate buffer or window.

[dead10ck]

No. It executes the command and pastes the output. There are commands that needs to be run in background or it needs to run and the output needs to be shown on a separate buffer or window.

I'm curious what commands you're running where you need to see the output, but wouldn't be better served just by running it in another terminal window/pane/tab? Like if you have to switch buffers to see the output anyway, how is this better than the shell? If you have a pane with the output at the bottom of the editor, then how is this better than a split tmux pane?

[IsotoxalDev]

i want to run a pandoc command which converts the markdown file i am editing into a pdf. I don't have a need to see the output. But i want to execute commands in a keymap. In vim i have mapped space+p as a way to compile my markdown file to a pdf. i don't want to open an external terminal to run just the command to run this simple command. I have zathura on the side of my screen. I use a wm with master and stack layout so having an external terminal reduces my zathura's real estate. Having a output right there is just a convinience.
A way to run a command with | or alt-| or ! or alt-! to be configured using the toml files is not there.

[kirawi]

Should be easy to create such a command via

helix/helix-term/src/commands.rs

Lines 6015 to 6051 in 4044c70

	fn shell_impl(
	shell: &[String],
	cmd: &str,
	input: Option<&[u8]>,
	) -> anyhow::Result<(Tendril, bool)> {
	use std::io::Write;
	use std::process::{Command, Stdio};
	ensure!(!shell.is_empty(), "No shell set");
	let mut process = match Command::new(&shell[0])
	.args(&shell[1..])
	.arg(cmd)
	.stdin(Stdio::piped())
	.stdout(Stdio::piped())
	.stderr(Stdio::piped())
	.spawn()
	{
	Ok(process) => process,
	Err(e) => {
	log::error!("Failed to start shell: {}", e);
	return Err(e.into());
	}
	};
	if let Some(input) = input {
	let mut stdin = process.stdin.take().unwrap();
	stdin.write_all(input)?;
	}
	let output = process.wait_with_output()?;
	if !output.stderr.is_empty() {
	log::error!("Shell error: {}", String::from_utf8_lossy(&output.stderr));
	}
	let tendril = Tendril::try_from_byte_slice(&output.stdout)
	.map_err(|_| anyhow!("Process did not output valid UTF-8"))?;
	Ok((tendril, output.status.success()))
	}

[hayashikun]

Running with alt-| ignores output and $ also does not insert text so that what you want to do is possible, isn't it?
But it would be nice to have a keymap to just run shell command, ignoring output. (e.g. #, ^, ctrl-| ??)

[IsotoxalDev]

It is sure possible to run commands. but I want to bind a shell command to a keymap

[hayashikun]

By adding a command (e.g. :shell) like the commands used in command mode (https://docs.helix-editor.com/commands.html), we can define a keymap that runs a shell command in config.toml.
Is my understanding correct?

[kirawi]

I'm pretty sure.

[IsotoxalDev]

Ye!!!. That PR looks good

[IsotoxalDev]

As PR #1682 has been merged. This Issue can be closed.