How do I jump to the next or previous word with CTRL + arrow keys in a console?

Question

In terminal emulation applications, pressing CTRL + Left / Right arrows jumps from one word to the previous or next one. Is it possible to have the same functionality in a Linux console, whether it is in text or in framebuffer modes?

In my configuration, the CTRL + arrow keys are transformed into escaped character sequences and not interpreted.

score 31 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 27 '19 at 15:37

31

Emacs-style shortcuts Alt + f, Alt + b work by default with all readline-powered command line programs, like shells.

edited Jun 27 '19 at 15:37

jesse_b

37,005

answered Jan 01 '11 at 16:23

alex

7,223

Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-20T12:01:18.133

12

This is possible if and only if the terminal sends different escape sequences for Ctrl+Left vs Left. This is not the case by default on the Linux console (at least on my machine). You can make it so by modifying the keymap. The exact file to modify may depend on your distribution; on Debian lenny, the file to modify is /etc/console/boottime.kmap.gz. You need lines like

control keycode 105 = F100
string F100 = "\033O5D"
control keycode 106 = F101
string F101 = "\033O5C"

You might as well choose the same escape sequences as your X terminal emulator. To find out what the control sequence is, type Ctrl+V Ctrl+Left in a shell; this inserts (on my machine) ^[O5D where ^[ is an escape character. In the keymap file, \033 represents an escape character.

Configuring the application in the terminal to decode the escape sequence is a separate problem, .

edited Apr 20 '16 at 12:01

answered Jan 01 '11 at 16:41

Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'

829,060

you are only explaining how you got the "\033O5D" code, but completely omitting where you got the keycode 105 and F100 codes from. Besides, I get ^[[1;5B and ^[[1;5A for ctrl+Down and Ctrl+Up. How should I handle the 1; part? – Martin Vegter Apr 20 '16 at 10:08
1

@MartinVegter Check the existing file for keycodes, or use the showkey program. The 1; part isn't different from the rest: "\033[1;5B" and so on. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Apr 20 '16 at 10:29
OK the keycode 105 can be found using showkey. But where did you get the F100 ? – Martin Vegter Apr 20 '16 at 10:44
@MartinVegter Pick one that isn't already in use. A different one per keychord (I just fixed a typo in my answer). – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Apr 20 '16 at 12:01

score 4 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 06 '20 at 23:15

4

This is not with control + arrows, but I can type Esc B to go back a word and Esc F to go forward a word in my Mac Terminal.

edited Oct 06 '20 at 23:15

Scott - Слава Україні

10,519

answered Oct 06 '20 at 22:31

Ian

141

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 27 '23 at 12:56

3

I use zsh, therefore I can enable this behaviour by editing the .zshrc file

The following lines have to be added:

# Enable Ctrl+arrow key bindings for word jumping
bindkey '^[[1;5C' forward-word     # Ctrl+right arrow
bindkey '^[[1;5D' backward-word    # Ctrl+left arrow

I hope this helps at least the zsh-users.

edited Mar 27 '23 at 12:56

AdminBee

22,803

answered Mar 22 '23 at 13:25

Thomas Rasser

31

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 01 '11 at 14:27

2

You can set vim as your command line editor and then hit ESC and jump around vim style (forward, back, end, $, 0, etc)

answered Jan 01 '11 at 14:27

Jgible · Answer 6 · 2023-04-27T09:05:58.580

0

On mac terminal option-left/right works for me, you can also edit it in the terminal preferences>Keyboard.

edited Apr 27 '23 at 09:05

answered Apr 27 '23 at 09:04

Jgible

1

score -1 · Answer 7 · edited Mar 01 '16 at 11:16

-1

I had this issue on Debian with an empty ~/.inputrc file. Fixed the problem by removing this file.

edited Mar 01 '16 at 11:16

dr_

29,602

answered Mar 01 '16 at 10:54

Talkerbox

101

How do I jump to the next or previous word with CTRL + arrow keys in a console?

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