Is it possible to configure ctrl-w (delete word)?

Question

Normally, Ctrl+W deletes back to the last whitespace.

Is it possible to configure it to use additional characters, such as /?

Edit: To be more clear: I don't want to configure the key for it, I want to have the deletion stop on / as well.

Example:

vim /foo/bar^W
vim /foo/

Solution 1

For this specific issue, you can also use:

Alt + Backspace

$ cd /home/me/test/a_dir/    # Alt + Backspace
$ cd /home/me/test/          # Alt + Backspace
$ cd /home/me/               # ...

Good reference: Adventures with bash's word erase

Solution 2

What worked for me was to add the following lines to my .bashrc

stty werase undef
bind '\C-w:unix-filename-rubout'

You need the undef line otherwise bash ignores your new binding for C-w

Solution 3

You should be able to use Esc, then backspace to delete words delimited by slashes.

You can change this by putting this in you .bashrc:

bind '\C-f:unix-filename-rubout'

Now use Ctrl+f to do what you want.

Solution 4

With bash you can get the desired effect, putting the following in your ~/.bashrc file:

bind '"\C-w":backward-kill-word'

Hit CTRL+V and the your key combination to see what it looks like for your terminal emulator. For instance CTRL+bksp can be interpreted different on different terminals e.g. ^H or ^?. The ^ character is the same as CTRL.

Solution 5

I'm not sure if this is specific to Mac OS, but I couldn't do a thing with C-w without also setting this readline option:

set bind-tty-special-chars Off

I added that to my ~/.inputrc, along with:

C-w: backward-kill-word

Now I'm able to delete backwards one word at a time.

Source: https://shallowsky.com/blog/linux/bash-word-erase.html

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Comments

[SkaveRat]

I think I wasn't specific enough with my question. I wanted to have / as an additional stop-character, not a way to bind the delete-word-command on an other key. I edited my question

[Admin]

Using backward-kill-word binded to \C-w, it will erase backwards to the last given forward slash if present in a word and it will erase words delimited by whitespace. This is not what you wanted?

[SkaveRat]

My system uses ^F - but using "\^F" in the script above doesn't work

[SkaveRat]

thanks, that's the command that works. is there a way to overwrite the command of C-w? If I change it to C-w:..., the default behaviour of deleting to the next space still kicks in. On a different key (like F) if works fine.

[Admin]

The Ctrl character is written \C in the script and not \^.

[eppesuig]

I don't think ctrl-w is managed by the shell alone. It may be managed by the tty also. What are your tty setting shown by stty -a? do you have control-w as default char for werase? If you remove that setting from tty, with comman stty werase undef, does then bash works as expected?

[0fnt]

It should be noted that stty werase undef will stop you from using C-w in any program (bind will allow you to use in readline)

[fedorqui]

@ethanjyx oh. I am working on GNU bash. Are you also in this flavour?