emacs Ctrl-h does backspace instead of help [SOLVED]

[Seron]

I've read about people having the problem that backspace invokes emacs help, but not the other way arroud, like I have.

Any idea why this is happening?

fwiw, my /etc/inputrc includes this part

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$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[5~": history-search-backward
"\e[6~": history-search-forward
"\e[3~": delete-char
"\e[2~": quoted-insert
"\e[5C": forward-word
"\e[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

edit: C-h works if I start emacs without any parameters which makes it start using X or when using outside of X. It's when starting with --no-windows that it doesn't work.

[k9]

I just avoid the issue by putting this in my .emacs:

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;; make C-h work like backspace
(global-set-key "\C-h" 'delete-backward-char)

;; Change help command to [F1]  (it is usually C-h)
(global-set-key [f1] 'help-command)

Then you can use C+h to for backspace just like you can in almost any other program while still having quick access to help.

I know that this sidesteps your actual question, but I thought this might help.

EDIT: I just noticed that [f1] does not properly work to pull up help remotely (not surprising). M-x help always works for help.

[massimo]

You have to remap your keys in e.g. .emacs, so CTRL-h works in the terminal since it's defined in the ASCII table, that CTRL-h is 'short' for Backspace

[Seron]

Thanks to this excellent guide I found out how this can be fixed: http://www.squish.net/docs/delbs.html

Xterm

Xterm is a normal X application and will receive keycodes just like Netscape does. It will then look up the corresponding keysym and find BackSpace for your backspace key and Delete for your delete key. So, what does xterm send to the remote end? There is no provision in X for translating these codes into ASCII sequences. Xterm has to handle this itself...

Unfortunately xterm comes setup wrong (perhaps from only xfree86 4 onwards). There is a X resource called backarrowKey that specifies whether or not the BackSpace keysym generates a backspace or not. This is set to true by default but it should be false. To fix this add/create the following line in your .Xdefaults file: xterm.*.backarrowKey: false. This will make your backspace key generate the ^? code. The Delete keysym always generates the VT220 delete sequence, so that will be correct.

Emacs

Emacs receives your input via Xterm and expects ^? for delete left and the VT220 delete sequence for delete right. If you have followed the above you will find emacs will work correctly - both locally and remotely. There is no reason at all for altering emacs' configuration files. If you get the help file when you try and delete then xterm is sending the wrong character. If you find your backspace deletes right then this means you've got your keysyms the wrong way around, more than likely this is the cause of following some FAQ that tells you to swap them - don't. The backspace keycode should generate the BackSpace keysym. Do not alter emacs' configuration files to fix keyboard problems!

Other notes

Your stty erase character should be ^?. Type stty -a to see what erase is currently set to, if it is wrong, type stty erase '^?'.