How do I make ctrl-arrow keys move forward/backward a word at a time in Cygwin bash?

Question

In the default Cygwin installation, using CTRL-LEFTARROW or CTRL-RIGHTARROW simply prints 5C or 5D instead of skipping a word at a time as expected.

Home/End keys work properly, so remapping should be possible.

Answer 1

Found a solution, posting it here for posterity.

Add the following lines to ~/.inputrc (C:\cygwin\home\<username>\.inputrc):

"\e[1;5C": forward-word   # ctrl + right
"\e[1;5D": backward-word  # ctrl + left 

When done you can press C-x C-r to re-read the .inputrc file for the current session.

Things to note if you want other similar customisations: Use 5A and 5B for up and down arrows, and 2x for shifted versions.

The "official" key mappings are described in the Bash Reference Manual, but for a quick way to find a key mapping, in bash:

1. type Ctrl+V
2. type the key sequence you are interested in (e.g., Alt+→). This would print ^[[1;3C
3. remove the leading ^[ and replace it with \e to make \e[1;3C
4. place this value in your .inputrc file.

Answer 2

You can reload file .inputrc via:

bind -f ~/.inputrc

Source

Answer 3

In case you want something that'll work without custom environment settings, for instance when working on a shared account on a server or just to limit the amount of custom configuration being used, Bash has built-ins for this that work in Cygwin.

Namely Alt+f to move forward and Alt+b to move backward.

http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Commands-For-Moving.html

Answer 4

When using rxvt with cygwin I found the solution at this link worked for me: control_arrow_keys_in_rxvt.

Add the following lines to ~/.inputrc :

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

Answer 5

This solution also works in msys2 consoles:

"\e[1;5C": forward-word   # ctrl + right
"\e[1;5D": backward-word  # ctrl + left 

Just place these key combinations in the .inputrc file.