WezTerm: quickly select a command and open it in a new pane

posts/2023/08/04/quick-select-wezterm.md

@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+---
+title: "WezTerm: quickly select a command and open it in a new pane"
+date: 2023-08-04
+description:
+categories:
+- Development Environment
+tags:
+- helix
+- wezterm
+---
+In my previous post, [jump to build errors with WezTerm](../../07/21/jump-to-build-error-helix), I demostrated how to navigate to build error using [hyperlinks](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/hyperlinks.html#implicit-hyperlinks).
+One limitation of that approach is that it requires a mouse click.
+
+In this post, I explore how to achieve the same functionality using a shortcut key in WezTerm, 
+thanks to [QuickSelectArgs](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/keyassignment/QuickSelectArgs.html) feature.
+
+WezTerm's `QuickSelectArgs` allows us to bind a shortcut key to select specific patterns and perform actions on the selected text.
+Let's say we have the following warning:
+
+```sh
+For more information about this error, try `rustc --explain E0382`.
+warning: `ownership` (bin "ownership") generated 1 warning
+error: could not compile `ownership` (bin "ownership") due to previous error; 1 warning emitted
+```
+
+Out goal is to quickly select `rustc --explain E0382` and open it in a new [pane](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/keyassignment/SplitPane.html).
+
+Here's what I've come up with to accomplish this:
+
+```lua
+  {
+    key = 's',
+    mods = 'CMD|SHIFT',
+    action = wezterm.action.QuickSelectArgs {
+      label = 'open url',
+      patterns = {
+        'rustc --explain E\\d+',
+      },
+      action = wezterm.action_callback(function(window, pane)
+        local selection = window:get_selection_text_for_pane(pane)
+        wezterm.log_info('opening: ' .. selection)
+        if startswith(selection, "http") then
+          wezterm.open_with(selection)
+        elseif startswith(selection, "rustc --explain") then
+          local action = wezterm.action{
+            SplitPane={
+              direction = 'Right',
+              command = {
+                args = {
+                  'rustc',
+                  '--explain',
+                  selection:match("(%S+)$"),
+                },
+              },
+            };
+          };
+          window:perform_action(action, pane);
+        else
+          selection = "$EDITOR:" .. selection
+          return open_with_hx(window, pane, selection)
+        end
+      end),
+    },
+  },
+```
+
+This script works perfectly.
+
+Now, let's take it up a notch and make the output even fancier by using [mdcat](https://github.com/swsnr/mdcat):
+
+```lua
+          local action = wezterm.action{
+            SplitPane={
+              direction = 'Right',
+              command = {
+                args = {
+                  'rustc',
+                  '--explain',
+                  selection:match("(%S+)$"),
+                  '|',
+                  'mdcat',
+                  '-p',
+                },
+              },
+            };
+          };
+```
+
+but the pipe operator is wrapped with single quotes, leading to an error:
+
+```sh
+error: Unrecognized option: 'p'
+
+⚠️  Process "rustc --explain E0382 '|' mdcat -p" in domain "local" didn't exit cleanly
+Exited with code 1
+This message is shown because exit_behavior="Hold"
+```
+
+The reason behind this error is [WezTerm doesn't use the shell to launch the programs](https://github.com/wez/wezterm/discussions/4089#discussioncomment-6629409),
+therefore, I need to run it as a sub-command using `sh -c`, like this:
+
+```lua
+          local action = wezterm.action{
+            SplitPane={
+              direction = 'Right',
+              command = {
+                args = {
+                  '/bin/sh',
+                  '-c',
+                  'rustc --explain ' .. selection:match("(%S+)$") .. ' | mdcat -p',
+                },
+              },
+            };
+          };
+```
+
+With this setup, whenever I want to explore an error further, I can quickly select the `rustc --explain Exxxx` command 
+and spawn it in a newly created pane or tab.