xinput - Ctrl+<Left> misbehaves if history-search-backward is mapped

Question

I am using these lines in my ~/.inputrc:

"\e[5~": history-search-backward
"\e[6~": history-search-forward

With these settings when I type c on the prompt and do a PageUp, bash only shows command starting with c from the history. PageDown does its inverse. I find this very much productive to me.

Without those lines in my inputrc file when I do Ctrl+Left, The cursor use to go to one word left and Ctrl+Left does its opposite. But with those setting mentioned above when I do Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right it prints ;5D and ;5C instead.

So how do I make Ctrl+Left & Ctrl+Right do the right stuff?

Answer 1

The two readline commands for these movements are forward-word and backward-word. You can access them, respectively, using (the default emacs binds): Altf and Altb.

To get then working using the Left and Right keys, you need to add a couple of lines to your ~/.inputrc.

First, confirm the correct escape sequences by getting the raw output from your terminal for those keypresses: enter Ctrlv CtrlLeft and Ctrlv CtrlRight and make note of the sequence (something like ^[Oc and ^[Od). Then append these lines to your .inputrc:

"\eOc": forward-word
"\eOd": backward-word

All of the readline commands can be rebound in your .inputrc.

Answer 2

note that those sequences may be different from one terminal to an other. From your text, it seems that you use gnome-terminal.

# on gnome-terminal
"\e[1;5D": backward-word
"\e[1;5C": forward-word