AnnoyingLinux: Post about ctrl-backspace

Author: SebastianGrans

content/posts/2025-03-22-ctrl-backspace-consistency.md

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+date = '2025-03-22T19:07:01+01:00'
+title = 'Annoying Linux: Ctrl-Backspace'
+summary = "Why doesn't it behave the same everywhere?!"
+tags = ["#annoyingLinux"]
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+
+In the majority of systems that I interact with, <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> - <kbd>←</kbd>/<kbd>→</kbd>, means
+*"move one word left or right"*. And naturally then, <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> - <kbd>⌫</kbd>/<kbd>Delete</kbd>,
+means *"delete previous word* or *"delete next word"*.
+
+
+On the graphical side of Linux systems, this seems to be the default behavior, but not when
+interacting with the terminal.
+
+In `bash` and `zsh`, <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> - <kbd>Delete</kbd> behaves as expected, but
+adding <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> to <kbd>⌫</kbd> doesn't change it's behavior at all. Instead, you'll notice
+that <kbd>Alt</kbd> - <kbd>⌫</kbd> does what you expect. This probably stems from the ancient
+history of emacs.
+
+And in vim, nothing works (surprised?).
+
+## How do we fix it?
+
+For `bash`, we can fix this by adding: `"\C-H":"\C-W"` to `~/.inputrc`.
+
+*What does that string even mean? And how does it work?*
+
+That's a tangent I don't want to get into right now. Checkout the
+[Further reading](#further-reading) section if you're interested.
+
+For `zsh`, we have to use `bindkey`. Add this line to your `~/.zshrc` file:
+
+```bash
+bindkey '^H' backward-kill-word
+```
+
+And finally, vim. To fix <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> - <kbd>Delete</kbd>, you can simply add this to `~/.vimrc`
+
+```text
+" Make Ctrl-Delete delete the next word in "normal mode"
+nnoremap <C-Del> dw
+" ditto "insert mode"
+inoremap <C-Del> <C-o>dw
+```
+
+But to fix <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> - <kbd>⌫</kbd>, I can't just ask you to copy paste some text, because
+the `^H` in the snippet below is just a visual representation of the actual value.
+
+**Open `~/.vimrc` with vim**. Then, instead of writing `^H` in the file, **in insert mode**, press
+<kbd>Ctrl</kbd> - <kbd>V</kbd> and then <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> - <kbd>⌫</kbd>. You should then see a `^H`
+appear.
+
+In the end, you should have this:
+
+```text
+" Equivalent for ctrl-backspace
+nnoremap ^H db
+inoremap ^H <C-o>db
+```
+
+See you in the next one!
+
+## Further reading
+
+* `man 1 stty`
+* `man 3 readline`
+* <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_character#In_ASCII>
+* <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caret_notation>