move forward and backward by one word

Question

In a GNOME terminal, the standard ways of moving forward or backward by one word do not work.

In spite of what the documentation says:

alt+b : Goes back one word at a time.

alt+f : Moves forward one word at a time.

If I do the above, I just open the drop-down menu for Tabs and Edit. How can I fix this?

Merlijn Sebrechts · Answer 1 · 2014-03-11T10:32:16.233

39

just press ctrl-→ and ctrl-←

edited Mar 11 '14 at 10:32

answered Mar 11 '14 at 10:25

Merlijn Sebrechts

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Uh! I totally prefer this! – Ricky Robinson Mar 11 '14 at 10:59
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And I'm so psyched that this command seems to work everywhere: on a terminal, on gedit, on this very text box too!! :-o – Ricky Robinson Mar 11 '14 at 12:58
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@RickyRobinson: This little feature is one of the top 5 reasons I prefer Linux over every other OS :) – Reeno Mar 11 '14 at 13:11
Doesn't it work on a mac? – Ricky Robinson Mar 11 '14 at 13:35
@RickyRobinson it does, just hold option instead of ctrl, it even works in windows with ctrl... this is by no means a hidden feature, it's LITERALLY used everywhere – Electric Coffee Mar 11 '14 at 14:12
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It's even available on Windows – Kroltan Mar 12 '14 at 02:21
This just deletes a word for me – Joseph Dec 17 '15 at 10:18
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NOTE: It will not work if you have an .inputrc on your home directory which does not include /etc/inputrc. The reason it works is because they are set such in /etc/inputrc. – Haggra Jun 05 '20 at 13:03

score 19 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 11 '14 at 10:32

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In the Terminal, go to Edit → Keyboard Shortcuts... and untick the Enable menu access keys box.

answered Mar 11 '14 at 10:32

Donarsson

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Steve · Answer 3 · 2014-03-11T19:45:48.507

From the readline manpage (readline is the library that implements these commands):

An emacs-style notation is used to denote keystrokes. Control keys denoted by C-key, e.g., C-n means Control-N. Similarly, meta keys are denoted by M-key, so M-x means Meta-X. (On keyboards without a meta key, M-x means ESC x, i.e., press the Escape key then the x key. This makes ESC the meta prefix. The combination M-C-x means ESC-Control-x, or press the Escape key then hold the Control key while pressing the x key.)

@Galgalesh is correct that you use the Ctrl+arrow keys to jump words in Ubuntu. In many (most?) other distributions the key combo is Alt+arrows.

In order to use Alt+f/Alt+b without interfering with the menus, use Esc, f (press Esc, THEN press f, not both at the same time).

The reason I mention this is that you can use the Esc then (key) trick for other commands, too. E.g., if you've started editing a previous command and decide you want to revert it, use Esc, r.

move forward and backward by one word

3 Answers3