Run Pasted Multiline Backslash-Escaped Shell Commands in Nushell

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 06:55:18 +0200

As a Nushell user, I often get frustrated when copy-pasting commands from a website into my terminal. The typical use-case I encounter is the Github CI spitting out the failing tests with a command I can run in my terminal, like this one:

bundle exec rspec \
  './spec/requests/api/v1/campaigns/show_spec.rb[1:1:1:1:1]' \
  './spec/requests/api/v1/campaigns/show_spec.rb[1:1:1:2]' \
  './spec/requests/api/v1/campaigns/show_spec.rb[1:1:1:3:1]' \
  './spec/requests/api/v1/campaigns/show_spec.rb[1:1:1:4:1]'

Running this in nushell will give you an error like:

Error: nu::parser::parse_mismatch

  × Parse mismatch during operation.
   ╭─[repl_entry #3:2:62]
 1 │ bundle exec rspec \
 2 │   './spec/requests/api/v1/campaigns/show_spec.rb[1:1:1:1:1]' \
   ·                                                              ┬
   ·                                                              ╰── expected operator
 3 │   './spec/requests/api/v1/campaigns/show_spec.rb[1:1:1:2]' \
   ╰────

This happens because \ is not recognized as an escape character in Nushell.

The temporary workaround I found was to drop to zsh and run the command. But it was not an acceptable, long-term solution.

So here is a little snippet I found on Github to solve that issue. I added this to my config.nu file, in the keybindings array:

{
  name: "replace_slash_line_break_and_run"
  modifier: "control"
  keycode: "enter"
  mode: [emacs, vi_normal, vi_insert]
  event: [
    {
      send: executehostcommand,
      cmd: '
        mut cmd = (commandline)
        let $line_break_regex = '\\\n'
        $cmd = $cmd | str replace --all --regex $line_break_regex ''
        commandline edit $"($cmd)" --accept
      '
    },
  ]
}

So now, I just paste the multiline snippet, hit control-enter and voilà!

All credits go to Rondimesquita

Shell on MoskitoHero

Run Pasted Multiline Backslash-Escaped Shell Commands in Nushell