readline: meta key problem

[_Max_]

I would like to have emacs-like keybindings in the console and other apps that use readline.

That used to work, but something must have changed recently with the meta-key, because it doesn't work any more.

ESC-f and ESC-b do forward-word and backward-word without problem as before.

Holding down the left alt key and pressing f and b produces funny symbols (in my unicode xterm), instead of doing a forward-word and a backward-word as before.

This happens regardless of whether or not I put a (blank) .inputrc into $HOME.

Here is some output from xmodmap which might be relevant:

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 $ xmodmap
xmodmap:  up to 4 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):

shift       Shift_L (0x32),  Shift_R (0x3e)
lock      
control     Control_L (0x25),  Control_L (0x42),  Control_R (0x6d)
mod1        Alt_L (0x40),  Alt_L (0x7d),  Meta_L (0x9c)
mod2        Num_Lock (0x4d)
mod3      
mod4        Super_L (0x73),  Super_R (0x74),  Super_L (0x7f),  Hyper_L (0x80)
mod5        Mode_switch (0x5d),  ISO_Level3_Shift (0x7c)

pressing the left alt key in xev produces:

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KeyPress event, serial 26, synthetic NO, window 0x3200001,
    root 0x3b, subw 0x0, time 5935246, (-194,74), root:(321,463),
    state 0x0, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 29, synthetic NO, window 0x3200001,
    root 0x3b, subw 0x0, time 5935342, (-194,74), root:(321,463),
    state 0x8, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:

I can't really see what could be the problem here.

Any ideas as to what might be wrong?

[d_m]

Hey, so the problem has to do with the way your Terminal emulator is set up.

If you're using an Xterm, try holding down Control and left-clicking on it. Look for options like "MetaSendsEscape" or anything else to do with 8bit input, meta, or escape, and mess around. You'll definitely get it working. Not sure how you would get other Terminal Emulators working, but it's possible.

Here's what I use to configure my Xterm (from .Xdefaults):

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XTerm*backarrowKeyIsErase: true
XTerm*deleteIsDEL: true
XTerm*ptyInitialErase: true
xterm*foreground: grey
xterm*background: black
XTerm*eightBitInput: false
XTerm*faceName: monaco
XTerm*faceSize: 14

[_Max_]

Thanks!