How do I bind <Print Screen> to a macro in emacs?

Question

I would like to be able to hit <Print Screen> in emacs and trigger a commit in a git repository. My lisp is pretty rusty and know this is broken, but don't know where:

( defun tip-local-write nil "Write to store" ( interactive )
     ( save-buffer )
     ( change-directory "~/tip" )
     ( shell-command "git commit -m checkpoint ." )
     ( shell-command "git submodule foreach git commit -m checkpoint . \\\|\\\| true" ) ) )
( global-set-key [?\M-1] 'tip-local-write )

Currently it is binding to ^1 because I don't know how to represent the <Print Screen> button.

Answer 1

You need to run this first:

(w32-register-hot-key [snapshot])

After which, you can do this:

(global-set-key [snapshot] 'tip-local-write ) 

Answer 2

A general trick that works for binding keystrokes you don't know the Emacs names for:

• Hit M-x global-set-key RET <your keystroke> RET <name of function>

Then, hit C-x ESC ESC (which is repeat-complex-command). In the minibufer, you should see a global-set-key function invocation that you can copy into your .emacs file.

Answer 3

You can get the print-screen key with

(kbd "<print>")

As for the actual committing, it's probably much easier to use the version control functions emacs provides:

(vc-git-checkin "." nil "checkpoint")