How to configure PuTTY so that Home/End/PgUp/PgDn work properly in bash?

Question

The keys Home, End, PageUp, PageDown all type a ~ in my bash session instead of moving the cursor / view around. Why does this happen and which settings do I need to change?

GNU bash, version 4.0.28(1)-release (x86_64--netbsd)
PuTTY v0.60

The question originally read:

In PuTTY, why does pressing the "Home" key on the shell (bash) type a "~"? Or rather, how do I make it move the cursor to the start of the command I've typed?

(I thought the reason was that ~ is the home directory, but the answers say this is not so.)

I can't post an answer here. But if you're trying to use those buttons from the numeric keyboard then it can be solved very easily: go to Settings > Terminal > Features and enable Disable application keypad mode — Stalinko, Aug 20 '22 at 10:23

score 186 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 23 '23 at 18:36

186

Under the Connection > Data tab, change the Terminal-type string from the default “xterm” to “linux”. It worked for me.

Screenshot of relevant setting

edited Mar 23 '23 at 18:36

Philippe Cloutier

138

answered Feb 02 '10 at 22:54

2

Thanks! I had this problem after I tred to make Ctrl Left/Right work using this method (http://superuser.com/a/103097/45410). – Edwin Yip Nov 04 '12 at 17:04
7

Emphasis: not Terminal -> Keyboard "The Function keys and keypad". – Elazar Dec 03 '14 at 13:43
6

It works but creates other problems like disabling mouse support. so, it is not acceptable solution for me – Anton Sep 22 '15 at 20:58
This solution also enables umlauts inside putty when connecting to OS X! – lorem monkey Mar 03 '16 at 17:30
2

found one major problem with this solution. When copy pasting a long bash script from windows to vi in putty, top section gets truncated. Recommend setting Terminal-type string to "putty" instead. – tinker Oct 07 '20 at 08:35
... or, to add to the comment by @tinker: set the terminal type string putty-256color or do it inside your shell altogether by exporting TERM=putty or TERM=putty-256color. – 0xC0000022L Jan 14 '22 at 16:00

score 54 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 03 '10 at 00:21

54

This is happening because you don't have PuTTY's terminal type set correctly, or because your server doesn't have the correct terminfo definitions installed.

On Debian-based systems, the ncurses-term package (version 5.7+20081213-1) includes terminfo definition files for putty, putty-256color and putty-vt100 terminal types. If you have this package installed, you can set the "Terminal-type string" to "putty" instead of the default "xterm" in Putty's session configuration (Connection -> Data).

Stephen Irons also mentions "linux" as another terminal type that works; I believe this is correct from prior experience, but haven't tested it recently.

On my systems, this allows Home and End to work correctly, though PageUp/PageDown do not scroll the console window. (They do work properly in ncurses applications like aptitude, and Shift-PgUp/Shift-PgDn scroll the console window.)

answered Feb 03 '10 at 00:21

quack quixote

42,640

3

Yes, using TERM=putty or TERM=putty-256color is wisest, though unfortunately at the moment the latter doesn't seem to work right for colors 8-15 (which are supposed to be the bright versions of 0-7). The other "solutions" are are very likely to flake out sometimes do to their flagrant disregard of the differences between the terminals involved. – SamB Oct 14 '10 at 21:05
yum install ncurses-term sorted it for me on CentOS 7 with putty on next login, thank you. – Wandering Zombie Dec 07 '14 at 14:21
1

setting terminal type to putty works but breaks xterm-like mouse support (e.g. for Midnight Commander) – Anton Sep 22 '15 at 21:02
installing 'ncurses-term' worked for me on Debian testing. – hochl Aug 08 '16 at 13:05
none of these work for me, I am on putty connecting to centos, and can't run yum install ncurses-term because I am not root. – Herman Toothrot Sep 10 '16 at 22:14

Damien Garrido · Answer 3 · 2015-03-22T02:43:12.087

If you want to verify which code is sent by PuTTY to your terminal when you press a key or a combination of keys, you just have to issue a Ctrl+V and then press on the desired key.

For example on my box, pressing the Home key will generate the following string on my terminal:

^[[1~

That means that PuTTY sends the escape character ^[ followed by the string [1~.

You can create an ~/.inputrc file in your $HOME folder, or alternatively an /etc/inputrc file depending on your system. Then fill this file with the PuTTY codes and the matching Bash actions you want to be triggered by Bash.

Note: Replace every ^[ character by the equivalent \e string

In my example, I'll add a line with my Home key code and the beginning-of-line action (which by default is bound to Ctrl+A in Bash):

"\e[1~": beginning-of-line

FYI, my inputrc file has the following content:

set meta-flag on
set input-meta on
set convert-meta off
set output-meta on
"\e[1~": beginning-of-line     # Home key
"\e[4~": end-of-line           # End key
"\e[5~": beginning-of-history  # PageUp key
"\e[6~": end-of-history        # PageDown key
"\e[3~": delete-char           # Delete key
"\e[2~": quoted-insert         # Insert key
"\eOD": backward-word          # Ctrl + Left Arrow key
"\eOC": forward-word           # Ctrl + Right Arrow key

From @Cimbali: More bindable commands (like previous-history: Move `up' through the history list) available on this reference page.

YES ! Finally ! Putty's terminal-type string didn't do anything for backward-word and forward-word. This is great ! — Cimbali, Jan 24 '15 at 17:39
This is the only acceptable solution because TERM=linux or TERM=putty break xterm-like mouse support. Thanks! — Anton, Sep 22 '15 at 21:06

score 14 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 11 '10 at 17:02

14

Crtl+A takes you to the start of the line

Here's a list of Bash keyboard shortcuts

answered Jan 11 '10 at 17:02

Iain

4,748

17

That's great and all, but Home/End are hard-wired in my brain, and since I only administer the server once in a blue moon the chances of unlearning the hard-wiring are slim. – RomanSt Jan 07 '11 at 12:27

score 10 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 11 '10 at 16:58

10

What it's actually sending is ^[[1~ which is a terminal escape sequence consisting of:

^[ - escape
[ - left square bracket
1 - one
~ - tilde

You can see that by pressing Ctrl+V then Home.

You might be able to fix your problem by changing the PuTTY keyboard setting for Home and End keys to rxvt (which makes the escape sequence ^[[H or by changing the $TERM you're using (or by editing ~/.inputrc).

By the way there's no relationship between the tilde you get when you press Home and the tilde that represents the home directory. For example, in my setup Page-Down produces ^[[6~ which would also print a tilde if it weren't being properly interpreted.

answered Jan 11 '10 at 16:58

Dennis Williamson

108,309

Thanks! rxvt fixed the Home key; the End key now produces a ding. PgUp/Down do indeed type ~, and none of the PuTTY Keyboard settings make them work. Is my bash messed up, or is this "normal"? – RomanSt Jan 11 '10 at 17:39
What do you get when you type echo $TERM? – Dennis Williamson Jan 11 '10 at 18:07
xterm (15 character limit argh) – RomanSt Jan 11 '10 at 18:08
3

You can try adding "\eOw": end-of-line (that's a capital letter O) to your ~/.inputrc file. – Dennis Williamson Jan 11 '10 at 18:21
End key fixed; I get the idea. Really wish hacks like this weren't necessary though... – RomanSt Jan 11 '10 at 18:27
Further documentation is in the man pages for terminfo(5) and readline. – Dennis Williamson Jan 11 '10 at 19:54

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 22 '15 at 22:22

3

Non of these options worked for me. I am running an old AIX system. I had to add the following alias's to my .profile

alias __A=$(print '\0020') # ^P = up = previous command
alias __B=$(print '\0016') # ^N = down = next command
alias __C=$(print '\0006') # ^F = right = forward a character
alias __D=$(print '\0002') # ^B = left = back a character

answered Jan 22 '15 at 22:22

TruCK

31

doesn't work for me, bummer – Herman Toothrot Sep 10 '16 at 22:29

Ciantic · Answer 7 · 2014-04-01T20:46:58.963

2

I couldn't get it working with other methods. I however created this AutoHotkey script that works, as long as your shell is Bash:

#IfWinActive ahk_class PuTTY
PgUp::Send +{PgUp}
PgDn::Send +{PgDn}
Home::Send ^a   ; beginning of line
End::Send ^e    ; end of line
+^Del::Send ^k  ; delete whole line after cursor
+End::Send ^k   ; delete whole line after cursor
+Home::Send ^u  ; delete whole line before cursor
^Del::Send !d   ; delete word after cursor
^BS::Send ^w    ; delete word before cursor
^Left::Send !b  ; jump word left
^Right::Send !f ; jump word right
#IfWinActive

Use with caution though, since not all of these bash hotkeys work in other programs.

edited Apr 01 '14 at 20:46

answered Apr 01 '14 at 20:41

Ciantic

281

This would mess with the main reason I'm looking at this: screen, which with the default settings breaks Ctrl-A because it uses it as an escape character.... – Gert van den Berg Apr 19 '16 at 08:50
@GertvandenBerg FWIW, if you bind it to send ^a followed by another a, screen will send a literal CTRL+A, which in bash takes you to the beginning of the line as described. Of course this AHK binding won't work outside of screen... – Doktor J Dec 28 '21 at 16:13
@DoktorJ True, but it would break doing anything else in screen that requires the escape sequence (its defaults suck) (The methods tuning the terminal type end up more practical mostly) (I might have been on Solaris servers often when I commented) – Gert van den Berg Dec 29 '21 at 11:15

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 28 '20 at 12:09

1

For MTPuTTY

Open any connection properties
Click Run PuTTY Config
Open Connection > Data tab and set Terminal-type string to linux
Come back to Session tab
Select Default Settings in the list and click Save
Close the window

answered Oct 28 '20 at 12:09

Nikita Bosik

111

How to configure PuTTY so that Home/End/PgUp/PgDn work properly in bash?

8 Answers8

For MTPuTTY

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