Vim's <Plug> based mappings don't work with :normal command

Question

Say, I have the following

:nm <Plug>Ls :ls<CR>
:nm <Leader>L <Plug>Ls

When I do a ,L (, being the leader), I do get the output of :ls command. I also get the output when I do :normal ,L, but I don't when doing the following

:normal <Leader>L
:normal <Plug>Ls

I can understand why the first isn't working, I suppose I have to do something like execute 'normal ' . mapleader . 'L'. What I can't figure out is the second one. It doesn't give me any error, It just doesn't do anything, which is what driving me crazy. I couldn't find anything on this in the docs either.

What I want to do is run whatever is mapped to <Plug>Ls, from the command mode (in a function actually). Any dark hacks needed for this?

Answer 1

They do work with normal, you just are not supplying it <Plug>, you supply <, P, l, u, g, >. Correct syntax is

:execute "normal \<Plug>Ls"

Same applies to feedkeys(): call feedkeys("\<Plug>Ls"), not call feedkeys("<Plug>Ls").

Also note that execute "normal ".mapleader."L" should not really be ever used as if mapleader changes after you execute :nm <Leader>L <Plug>Ls, then this :execute … will try to call nonexistent mapping (mapleader changes do not affect already created mappings). And you there are no ways to know whether mapleader has changed.