How to turn on all default binding keys of vi-editing-mode on bash?

Question

I am using vi-editing-mode on Bash. According to man readline, there are a couple of default binding keys working on vi-editing-mode. Some keys work well, but some other default keys do not work.

For example, man readline says,

VI Command Mode functions
...
         "C-E"  emacs-editing-mode
...

But bind -p on my linux box says that 'emacs-editing-mode` is not bound on any key.

$ bind -p | grep emacs-editing
# emacs-editing-mode (not bound)

Is this a normal situation? How to turn on all default binding keys of vi-editing-mode on bash? Do I have to bind keys manually on .inputrc?

Answer 1

Bash modifies a few default readline bindings including this one. The code is in the initialize_readline function in bashline.c.

/* In Bash, the user can switch editing modes with "set -o [vi emacs]",
   so it is not necessary to allow C-M-j for context switching.  Turn
   off this occasionally confusing behaviour. */

The mode-switching keys are the only ones that are unbound. Some additional keys are bound (e.g. for bash-specific completion like M-$ to complete variable names).