Leopard Terminal (and iTerm) Ignores Control Key Combos

Question

I am very used to using Ctrl + A, Ctrl + E, Ctrl + L, etc. as shortcuts to operations (beginning of line, end of line, clear terminal, etc). I cannot for the life of me get this working with either Terminal.app or iTerm on OS 10.5.

I know for a fact that it works in Tiger and I even know some other Leopard users who don't have any problems, but when I try to use control key it just prints the literal results (eg - ^A) to the screen.

My related environment variables:

TERM=linux (have also tried xterm-color)
SHELL=/bin/bash
COMMAND_MODE=unix2003 (have also tried legacy)

Any ideas?

Answer 1

1. Make sure you have a file called ~/.inputrc ( if this file does not exist bash should use /etc/inputrc for system wide init, but I always prefer to be explicit )

2. In that file if you want the nauseating emacs voodoo bindings instead of sweet, clean vi:

   set -o emacs set editing-mode emacs

In the above, remember that emacs mode is the default, but you never get hurt by being explicit...

3. Again, you said you were using bash, so run:

   bind -p

at the shell prompt to ensure that you have the bindings you think you have

4. finally, since it's OSX, check to make sure you have the readline library ( which is how you get all this stuff.) Again, it should be there by default, but perhaps it is not.

5. Check the TERM setting in the Terminal.app program ( Preferences > Advanced > Emulation )

The fact that your rig works when you ssh somewhere else means implies a local problem.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Check for vi mode (set -o) or a vi editing-mode or keymap (bind -v). The default mode is emacs, but it might be set to vi e.g. in ~/.bashrc (with set -o vi) or ~/.inputrc.

Answer 3

My leopard works out of the box with ctrl+A etc...

I think you've somehow got the ctrl key mismapped. You're not using the command, or alt key, right?