Bugzilla – Bug 3090
Delete, Home, End and Insert keys don't work in default terminal
Last modified: 2010-01-15 20:47:16 UTC
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Open the default terminal in 2008.05, then type any text (e.g. "this is a test"). Move the caret after this using left arrow. Then press Delete key 5x on PC keyboard. The result is following: "this ~~~~~is a test" Now try to press the Home key and End key. There is no response. Insert key also generates tildas. I am submitting this bug because I've seen an attendee of a training struggling heavily with typing in the terminal. I know backspace key works but Delete is preferred by some users. Also Home and End keys are very useful for navigation on a long line. Many users are also used to using the Insert key.
Possibly related, but using: CTRL + (Left arrow/right arrow) should move one word to the left/right respectively. SHIFT + Insert should paste These are _HIGHLY_ annoying, especially since ctrl+v can't be used to paste in terminal. Once your in CLI mode, the mouse should be irrelevant...
In Edit-->Profile Preference dialog, this is a Compatibility tab. Change Del key to generate "ASCII DEL" could fix the Del key problem. For HOME and END key, I use "Ctrl+a" and "Ctrl+e" to go to the beginning and end of a long line. I am not sure whey you need the "Insert" key here, as you are already in Insert mode. For copy and paste, it is Shift+Ctrl+c and Shift+Ctrl+V from the menu.
Tried this out on snv_105 (2008.11) This is how gnome-terminal works on all platforms. Implementing these would be seen as enhancements. As to whether they get done I will leave up to the terminal maintainer.
(In reply to comment #2) > In Edit-->Profile Preference dialog, this is a Compatibility tab. Change Del > key to generate "ASCII DEL" could fix the Del key problem. > > For HOME and END key, I use "Ctrl+a" and "Ctrl+e" to go to the beginning and > end of a long line. > > I am not sure whey you need the "Insert" key here, as you are already in Insert > mode. > > For copy and paste, it is Shift+Ctrl+c and Shift+Ctrl+V from the menu. These work, yeah, but old habits are hard to break. (In reply to comment #3) > Tried this out on snv_105 (2008.11) > > This is how gnome-terminal works on all platforms. Implementing these > would be seen as enhancements. As to whether they get done I will leave up > to the terminal maintainer. Fair enough. It works in Ubuntu, and I believe I've seen it work elsewhere, but I can't recall where off hand. I believe Konsole supports SHIFT+INSERT, but I'd have to check.
Adding a decent /etc/inputrc from a random Linux distribution (I used the one in Suse) fixes the problem, not only for gnome-terminal, but for bash in all environments. I'd like to see such a file added to the default installation of OpenSolaris.
Part of the problem (home, end, page) can be fixed with an updated xterm terminfo entry, see bug 5574 Insert and Delete key do work in vim, but not in applications using gnu readline. That can be fixed with an /etc/inputrc ...
After upgrading to OpenSolaris snv_127 DEL stopped working as expected (deleting the next character), even with /etc/inputrc set up as follows: #---- sample /etc/inputrc ----- set meta-flag on set input-meta on set convert-meta off set output-meta on # Completed names which are symbolic links to # directories have a slash appended. set mark-symlinked-directories on $if mode=emacs # for linux console and RH/Debian xterm "\e[1~": beginning-of-line "\e[4~": end-of-line "\e[5~": beginning-of-history "\e[6~": end-of-history "\e[3~": delete-char "\e[2~": quoted-insert "\e[5C": forward-word "\e[5D": backward-word "\e[1;5C": forward-word "\e[1;5D": backward-word # for rxvt "\e[8~": end-of-line # for non RH/Debian xterm, can't hurt for RH/Debian xterm "\eOH": beginning-of-line "\eOF": end-of-line # for freebsd console "\e[H": beginning-of-line "\e[F": end-of-line $endif
(In reply to comment #5) > Adding a decent /etc/inputrc from a random Linux distribution (I used the one > in Suse) fixes the problem, not only for gnome-terminal, but for bash in all > environments. > > I'd like to see such a file added to the default installation of OpenSolaris. I concur with adding a default inputrc in future releases. This is a simple ease-of-use feature that is found in all major Linux distributions (Fedora, openSUSE, Arch, CentOS/RHEL, and Ubuntu) that would be great to include in the next os.
/etc/inputrc stopped working for DEL key in OpenSolaris snv_127, with setting "\e[3~": delete-char However ~/.inputrc with this setting solves the problem. Shouldn't /etc/inputrc alone normally work?