How do I quickly move the cursor to the end in bash in vi mode?

Question

When I'm in insert mode and I move left from the last cursor position (the empty spot to the right of the last character), then I can't go back to that position anymore. I have to type Esc$a (or replace $ with → a bunch of times) to get there. It seems like a lot of extra keystrokes just to, say, go delete the last character (and still be in insert mode).

Is there a better way or should I just use the default emacs mode (even though I don't know a single emacs command)?

Answer 1

In normal mode you start edit at end of line with Shift+A.

In insert mode you should be able to move to EOL.

In manual:

man readline
/VI Mode bindings<Enter>

---

As to real/other question, I have to fill in a bit:

$ le eds de x
      ^     ^^
      |     ||
      A     BC

In insert mode do you mean you are not able to move to C, only B from A?

Even with →, or End?

So that if you start typing the letters will enter before x?

Answer 2

You can just press the End key to get there.

Also, you can use Shift + A (capital A - for append) to put you into Insert Mode at the end of a line.

Answer 3

I know this is an old question, but I've been beating my head over this for a few days now and I've finally got it. It turns out the solution is simple: update bash to 4.3. The default bash on Macs (even Yosemite) is 3.2.

Install Homebrew with

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

then do

brew install bash

then change your default shell path (in Terminal Preferences) to

/usr/local/bin/bash

and that's it. Check your bash version with

bash --version

and as an added bonus, you can get mode indicators!

bind 'set show-mode-in-prompt on'

and it will show a + for Insert mode and : for Command mode.

Answer 4

You can use :10000 or more to get to the last line