How do I bind .sh files to keyboard combination?

Question

Just wondering; how do I bind .sh files to run when I press a particular key combination? (like Alt+S)

Thanks,

Dante

Answer 1

You can use the keyboard shortcuts interface to do this. Remember to add the full path.

Answer 2

Goto System>>Preferences>>Keyboard Shortcuts

It will open a window click add

After clicking add it will show you a window with Name and Command.You can write any name there and in command you should give the full path of the file with bash in-front bash /path/to/the/file.sh

After adding the Name & Command.You can assign the shortcut key.

Answer 3

xbindkeys allows you to saves multiple configurations (if you want that flexibility).

Also xbindkeys gives you many more key-combinations, because it (optionally) allows you to make Numlock, ScrollLock, and CapsLock states significant...

Another feature which is not found in Keboard Shortcuts is that you can use ~/ and $HOME/ for your home directory, instead of having to hard-code it.

To install xbindkeys, and xbindkeys-config (the GUI for xbindkeys)

sudo apt-get install xbindkeys xbindkeys-config  

To create the default config file for xbindkeys

xbindkeys --defaults > $HOME/.xbindkeysrc  

Then run:

xbindkeys
xbindkeys-config

And for your first keybinding, you may find it useful to assign Ctrl+Shift+Alt+X, or whatever you prefer, to xbindkeys-config

To keep the xbindkeys hotkeys active ever time you start the computer...

Main Menu
  System  
    Preferences  
      Startup Applications  
        [ Add ]  
          Name:     xbindkeys  
          Command:  xbindkeys  
          Comment:  xbindkeys  

Answer 4

Just for completeness: If you are using Compiz you can set custom keyboard and mouse shortcuts using CCSM (Compiz Config Settings Manager) and the Commands plugin.

Just put in the name of your sh-script (for example "CustomScript" in the attached screenshot) and give it a custom key binding in the Key Bindings tab. Your script needs to be placed in a directory that is monitored by Ubuntu for this to work. I do place all of my scripts in the /usr/local/bin directory.

Make sure that your script is executable by applying chmod +x CustomScript in a terminal and note that all words are case sensitive.

Compiz allows to export all settings including shortcuts which is very useful for settings up similar machines.