Home, End, Ctr+Arrow don't work (Arch/Linux 4.20)

Steps to reproduce

type something at the command prompt.
Try to use Home or End to navigate the text.
Try to use Ctrl+Arrow to navigate the text.
Repeat 1-3 with text editor, e.g. nano.
Observe.

Expected behavior

Home, End, and Ctrl+Arrow should behave as in bash - go to beginning of text, end of text, and skip words left and right.

Actual behavior

Home prints ~
End prints ~
Ctrl+Arrow does nothing

Environment data

I used yaourt on Arch to install.

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      6.2.0-preview.2
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    6.2.0-preview.2
OS                             Linux 4.20.0-arch1-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Dec 24 03:00:40 UTC 2018
Platform                       Unix
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

This is most likely not a PowerShell problem.

Try [Console]::ReadKey() then type Home. Output should look like:

KeyChar  Key Modifiers
-------  --- ---------
        Home         0

I'm guessing it won't, in which case the problem could be with:

The setting for $env:TERM
.Net Core
The terminfo database

Jason Shirk (@lzybkr)

Jason Shirk (@lzybkr) This is what I see on Ubuntu 18.04 (when I ssh in from Windows PS 7 and then start pwsh):

09-01 21:23:44 3> [Console]::ReadKey()

KeyChar    Key Modifiers
-------    --- ---------
       Escape         0

This is a real bummer as it makes moving around a command line painful. Here's the term info:

09-01 21:29:01 4> dir env:term*

Name                           Value
----                           -----
TERM                           xterm-256color

I'm pretty sure this is a PowerShell problem and probably not a PSReadLine problem. FWIW, I only see this when I SSH into our RedHat or Ubuntu build machines. I don't see this issue in Bash but I do see it when I then start up pwsh. I also see it when I start pwsh with pwsh -noprofile -noni which, I think, doesn't load PSReadLine. I see this when using both conhost and WindowsTerminal. And it is somewhat maddening TBH.

This shows the issue on 6.2.2 but I just tried PS7-preview.3 and it behaves the exact same way.

Is there any chance to fix this. I would even try to do it myself since bash is maddeningly hard to do even easiest thing but I cannot swap pwsh because it lacks that little things like arrow keys support :)

Dongbo Wang (@daxian-dbw)

/cc Dongbo Wang (@daxian-dbw) Steve Lee (@SteveL-MSFT) If the problem is in .Net Core we need to get a fix before .Net Core 3.1 LTS.

Keith Hill (@rkeithhill) Could you please make the test with simple C# app which only output Console.ReadKey()?

Ilya (@iSazonov)

This seems most likely an issue in .NET Core. Agree with Ilya (@iSazonov) that a simple C# console app to repro would be ideal.

I'm slightly preplexed by these comments. This is an issue that is stabely reproducible in powershell and it does not seem to be and obvious way to reporoduce it in a C# console app. Also it does not seem that there is any evidence is given that it is not a Powershell issue.

Could guys please clarify your line of thinking?

Andrew Savinykh (@AndrewSav)

Andrew Savinykh (@AndrewSav) when PSReadLine is not involved as shown in Keith Hill (@rkeithhill)'s example, pwsh has a simple ReadLine that doesn't do any translation of keys. It is whatever the .NET API returns.

Steve Lee (@SteveL-MSFT)

Steve Lee (@SteveL-MSFT) thank you for this. Will I be too far off if I conjecture, that these services (Home, End, Ctr+Arrow ) are not provided by ReadLine itself, but by something else, for example on windows by console host?

I tested the issue with pwsh 6.2.3 on Windows and Ubuntu Linux 18.04. I also tested it with a simple ReadLine console program. Here are the results.

pwsh 6.2.3

	Home/End	Ctrl-Arrows
Windows 10	Works	Works
Ssh	Does not work	Does not work
gnome-terminal	Works	Does not work
xfce4-terminal	Works	Does not work

.net core 3.0.100 program with Console.ReadLine

	Home/End	Ctrl-Arrows
Windows 10	Works	Works
Ssh	Does not work	Does not work
gnome-terminal	Does not work	Does not work
xfce4-terminal	Does not work	Does not work

Console program text

using System;

namespace readline
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
            string hello = Console.ReadLine();
            Console.WriteLine(hello);
        }
    }
}

In bash it works in any combination.

Paul Higinbotham (@PaulHigin)

PowerShell uses ReadConsole P/Invoke on Windows that is power method.
On Unix it emulates a line editor.
Possible fix for local host could be in

PowerShell/src/Microsoft.PowerShell.ConsoleHost/host/msh/ConsoleHostUserInterface.cs

Line 1517 in 70a74fb

    
           private string ReadLineFromConsole(bool endOnTab, string initialContent, bool calledFromPipeline, ref string restOfLine, ref ReadLineResult result)

Perhaps Paul Higinbotham (@PaulHigin) could add more about ssh scenario.

I already opened API request in CoreFX repo https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/issues/36175 long ago.

This seems to be an issue still, I am unable to get ctrl+rightArrow or ctrl+LeftArrow to work in tokenizing the advance of the cursor location.

Here is a quick pwsh function you can dump in your console to confirm the readkey value.

function Test-KeyInputOnLinux {
  $key = ""
  while ($key.Key -ne "Enter") {
    $key = [System.Console]::ReadKey()
    $key
  }
}

LeftArrow and RightArrow returned just fine. (Along with the Control Modifier)

Here is my version info, are we sure this is closed, or did I miss something?

Name Value

PSVersion 7.1.3
PSEdition Core
GitCommitId 7.1.3
OS Linux 4.4.0-19041-Microsoft #488-Microsoft Mon Sep 01 13:43:00 PST 20…
Platform Unix
PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.3
SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion 3.0

Steven Willard II (@steven-willard)

Steven Willard II (@steven-willard) yep, it's still broken. If you read the issue history, it seems pretty impossible to get stuff fixed here, and this is not just this issue, it's general attitude towards the community, e.g read this or this. I personally abandoned any hope of this being fixed and moved on.

Andrew Savinykh (@AndrewSav)

Andrew Savinykh (@AndrewSav) Steven Willard II (@steven-willard)
Yep. I've been watching this thread for 2 years, lately mainly for fun and kicks. There should be banner:

abandon hope all ye who enter here

PS on Linux is just broken and looks line maintainers want it to work this way. It would be nice to have the same CLI for both OSes but it looks line it won't be PS.
I think it would be easier to use bash via CygWin or something similar than PS on Linux.
They should be just honest and kill it instead of lie to people that is 'cross-platform'.

Andrew Savinykh (@AndrewSav)

Andrew Savinykh (@AndrewSav) Steven Willard II (@steven-willard) npodbielski

Yep. I've been watching this thread for 2 years, lately mainly for fun and kicks. There should be banner:

abandon hope all ye who enter here

Yes, it's a pity... In this case (as far as i can tell) Powershell team and .NET team are playing "pass the buck" on each other.

PS on Linux is just broken and looks line maintainers want it to work this way. It would be nice to have the same CLI for both OSes but it looks line it won't be PS.

Which is very sad, because PS is more powerful than bash in many ways.

I think it would be easier to use bash via CygWin or something similar than PS on Linux.

No need to use CygWin since WSL and WSL2. In fact i found myself using bash on Windows more and more, because using PS on Linux isn't that easy as promised...

Peter

There are too many comments in this thread... I cannot figure it out, why was the issue closed?
Home, Ctrl + Arrow are still not working in pwsh on linux.

I've found a workaround: for Home and End you can use Ctrl+A and Ctrl+E respectively.

https://twitter.com/artisticcheese/status/1485698470791028741 leave comments under tweet to tell Microsoft that we still care.

Twitter
Gregory Suvalian on Twitter
“@PowerShell_Team How come issue with broken Home, End keys not working on Linux is closed? (https://t.co/suSQ9qGTDw). Issue is still there and seems to be lying with Microsoft to fix and result of finger-pointing within MS who will do it”

yodasad

On Ubuntu, with PowerShell 7.2, I got the expected behavior by adding the following to my profile.ps1:

Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+LeftArrow -Function BackwardWord

Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+RightArrow -Function ForwardWord

Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord Home -Function BeginningOfLine

Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord End -Function EndOfLine

This requires the PSReadLine module to be installed, but I think it always should be by default. You can use Get-Module to check if you are unsure.

To find the profile.ps1 file, you can use the $PROFILE variable or check the docs here.

See also the docs on Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler and PSConsoleReadLine. The customization options seem extensive; it's pretty neat.

That PSReadLine doesn't offer this behavior by default appears to be intentional, see PowerShell/PSReadLine#668.
Instead (as yodasad noted) there are Ctrl+a and Ctrl+e for beginning / end of line, as well as alt-b and alt-f for backward word / forward word. Those are Emacs conventions, apparently, but that's where I'm out of my depth.

Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord End -Function EndOfLine

This did not work for me from command line, I'm on 7.2.1 and Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS (Focal Fossa) and I just executed those from command line instead of $PROFILE to test

PS /home/cloudadmin> import-module PSReadLine
PS /home/cloudadmin> Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord Home -Function BeginningOfLine
PS /home/cloudadmin> Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord End -Function EndOfLine

Hmm, I'm on 7.2.1 / 20.04 too, and it works directly on command line as well as in profile.ps1.

An alternative that works for me as well is:

Set-PSReadLineOption -EditMode Windows

The default EditMode on Linux appears to be Emacs, see also here for a (presumably) comprehensive list of things that should work in different edit modes. It's a nice reference.

If that also doesn't work, then the only idea I have left - and that's a wild guess - is that the keys are hijacked by something else. That sometimes happens to me with shortcuts on Linux, but it would be weird with Home and End.
You could try (if you haven't already) [Console]::ReadKey() followed by Home / End, and see what happens, and if it tells you anything.

Thomas Hepp (@hepptho)

Issue was seen only when using Remote Desktop Manager, not present at Windows command line, otherwise solution by Thomas Hepp (@hepptho) works as expected

Thomas Hepp (@hepptho)

Thomas Hepp (@hepptho) RE Set-PSReadLineOption -EditMode Windows - thanks for that!!! I can't believe what a dope I've been. I've been fighting the PSRL key bindings on Linux/macOS for a while now. But my main machine is Windows. For some reason, it never occurred to me to check/change the PSRL edit mode. 🤦‍♂️

If that also doesn't work, then the only idea I have left - and that's a wild guess - is that the keys are hijacked by something else. That sometimes happens to me with shortcuts on Linux, but it would be weird with Home and End. You could try (if you haven't already) [Console]::ReadKey() followed by Home / End, and see what happens, and if it tells you anything.

That was already done at the beginning of this thread on Sep, 2, 2019:
#8869 (comment)

PS /home/user> [System.Console]::ReadKey()

KeyChar    Key Modifiers
-------    --- ---------
       Escape         0

PS /home/user> H

It seems like pressing the Home button results in Escape following "H" and pressing the End button results in Escape following F, so I tried to do this:

Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord Escape,H -Function BeginningOfLine
Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord Escape,F -Function EndOfLine

And it works, Home and End buttons started to work as expected, but unfortunately after that I cannot type capital "H" and "F" pressing Shift+H and Shift+F, they started to act as if I press Home and End buttons moving the cursor to the Beginning and the End of line.

None of the above worked for me on Mac (PS 7.2.2) but this did - hope it helps someone else.

Create a new Terminal profile (or copy an existing) and add a Keyboard mapping for Home and End:
Home
Key: Home
Modifier: None
Send text: (using Mac keyboard, not external): CTRL+A
This should produce Send text of \001
End:
Key: End
Modifier: None
Send text: (again on Mac keyboard, assuming no other modifier key changes): CTRL+E
This should produce Send text of \005

Set-PSReadLineOption -EditMode Windows

OMG! Thank you. This has been driving me nuts for months!

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Home, End, Ctr+Arrow don't work (Arch/Linux 4.20) #8869

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Home, End, Ctr+Arrow don't work (Arch/Linux 4.20) #8869

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lzybkr commented on Feb 13, 2019

rkeithhill commented on Sep 2, 2019

rkeithhill commented on Sep 9, 2019

npodbielski commented on Sep 14, 2019

iSazonov commented on Sep 29, 2019

SteveL-MSFT commented on Oct 3, 2019

AndrewSav commented on Oct 3, 2019

SteveL-MSFT commented on Oct 3, 2019

AndrewSav commented on Oct 3, 2019

AndrewSav commented on Oct 4, 2019

iSazonov commented on Oct 4, 2019

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steven-willard commented on Jun 23, 2021

AndrewSav commented on Jun 25, 2021

npodbielski commented on Jun 25, 2021

pencoe commented on Jun 25, 2021

yodasad commented on Jan 24, 2022

yodasad commented on Jan 24, 2022

artisticcheese commented on Jan 24, 2022

hepptho commented on Feb 4, 2022

artisticcheese commented on Feb 4, 2022

hepptho commented on Feb 4, 2022

artisticcheese commented on Feb 4, 2022

rkeithhill commented on Feb 5, 2022

yodasad commented on Feb 11, 2022

DTW-DanWard commented on Apr 1, 2022

Clifra-Jones commented on May 13, 2022

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