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Asked: 2026-05-11T22:02:59+00:00

I am very used to using Ctrl + A , Ctrl + E ,

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I am very used to using Ctrl + A, Ctrl + E, Ctrl + L, etc. as shortcuts to operations (beginning of line, end of line, clear terminal, etc). I cannot for the life of me get this working with either Terminal.app or iTerm on OS 10.5.

I know for a fact that it works in Tiger and I even know some other Leopard users who don’t have any problems, but when I try to use control key it just prints the literal results (eg – ^A) to the screen.

My related environment variables:

TERM=linux (have also tried xterm-color)
SHELL=/bin/bash
COMMAND_MODE=unix2003 (have also tried legacy)

Any ideas?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team
    1. Make sure you have a file called ~/.inputrc ( if this file does not exist bash should use /etc/inputrc for system wide init, but I always prefer to be explicit )

    2. In that file if you want the nauseating emacs voodoo bindings instead of sweet, clean vi:

      set -o emacs
      set editing-mode emacs

    In the above, remember that emacs mode is the default, but you never get hurt by being explicit…

    1. Again, you said you were using bash, so run:

      bind -p

    at the shell prompt to ensure that you have the bindings you think you have

    1. finally, since it’s OSX, check to make sure you have the readline library ( which is how you get all this stuff.) Again, it should be there by default, but perhaps it is not.

    2. Check the TERM setting in the Terminal.app program ( Preferences > Advanced > Emulation )

    The fact that your rig works when you ssh somewhere else means implies a local problem.

    Good luck.

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