ZSH Bindkey Reverse Lookup

Tip: I've now published a more sophisticated version of thecode below as part of the zsh-editplugin.

You can use this function to do a reverse bindkey lookup:

reverse-bindkey-lookup() {  print ${(k)terminfo[(Re)$(print -b - $1)]}}

For example, when I run:

% reverse-bindkey-lookup '^[[Z'

I get as output:

cbt kcbt

These values you can then look up by doing

% man terminfo

and pressing / to search.

For the example above, I find:

back_tab                    cbt      bt     back tab (P)

and

key_btab                    kcbt     kB     back-tab key

Another example: If I run

% reverse-bindkey-lookup '^[[3~'

I get

kdch1

which man terminfo says is

key_dc                      kdch1    kD     delete-character key

Hopefully, you can then figure out from there what the actual key on your keyboard would be. 🙂

I have no idea how to do reverse look up in general, just to provide some information for my Terminal (which should mimic xterm). This is done by Ctrl V (quoted-insert); replacing ^[ with \e for clarity.

• \e[5~ / \e[6~ are PgUp PgDn
• \e[A to \e[D are arrow keys ↑ ↓ → ←
• ^? is ← Backspace
• \e[3~ is Delete