Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 19488
backspace key, incorrect control sequence
Last modified: 2007-04-18 12:29:25 EDT
It appears that there was some sort of change between RH 6.1 and 6.2 with the backspace key mapping and the xterm command. When I am on the console and I run an xterm my backspace key generates a "^?" but when I display the xterm onto my Windows NT system running Exceed, it generates a "^[[3~" sequence. This didn't behave this way in RH 6.1. Any ideas? Is there a way to control what sequence is sent? Thanks for any help.
Sorry but I am new to this process, is the fact that the bug was assigned mean someone has reproduced the problem and its just waiting to worked on? Also I just tried the 7.0 upgrade and it doesn't seem to resolve the problem. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
Just tested this in the current release of Red Hat Linux 7.1 and backspace works in xterm. Closing bug as fixed in CURRENTRELEASE.
This problem has reappeared in RH 7.3, I opened a support call with Redhat but they said I need to file a Bugzilla report. I don't have a RH 8.0 system to test with yet to see if the problem went away. Here is the information from the service request, 221828, I had opened. Some time ago I had a problem with the backspace key not working the same between RH 6.1 and RH 6.2, attached it the final email from RedHat support saying it was fixed in RH 7.1 which is was and it works in 7.2, but when I upgrade to 7.3 the old behaviour reappeared. Basically I have a Linux box and Windows box and I am using Exceed on Windows and I start an xterm on the Linux box and display it on my Windows desktop. The Backspace key in 7.2 send the "^?" sequence and in 7.3 it sends the "^[[3~" sequence. Is there a way for me to adjust the sequence that is being sent. It sounded like it was considered bug before and fixed is it really bug or is it just that the default behaviour needs to be modified. Below are three systems, one 6.2, one 7.2, and one 7.3, and the OS level and XFree86 level, any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. RedHat 6.2 $ uname -r 2.2.14-5.0 rpm -q -f /usr/bin/X11/xterm XFree86-3.3.6-20 Backspace Key in an xterm ^[[3~ RedHat 7.2 $ uname -r 2.4.9-34 rpm -q -f /usr/bin/X11/xterm XFree86-4.1.0-25 Backspace Key in an xterm ^? RedHat 7.3 $ uname -r 2.4.18-18.7.x $ rpm -q -f /usr/bin/X11/xterm XFree86-4.2.0-8 Backspace Key in an xterm ^[[3~ Thanks in advance!
This bug is a RHL 6.2 bug, is ancient, and is closed. There are endless debates about backspace / delete behaviour in Linux/UNIX systems, and they all end up with one resolution: What one person reports as a bug in one app, if modified to "fix" the theoretical bs/del bug for them, breaks 10 apps for 1000 other users. Endless bug reports come in, as the problem gets fixed for one user, then changed to fix it for the other user and break it for the original. It is a ping pong back and forth bs/del issue that was solved 3 or more years ago. The current default configuration of backspace and delete behaviour are considered the official standard way they are to work in Linux. Users requiring alternative configurations are free to tweak their Xresource files, or per application config files in order to change the system's default behaviour to something that works in a way they prefer. Also, "xterm" is included for end user convenience due to it's legacy, however it is officially not supported. Users are encouraged to use one of our supported terminal applications such as gnome-terminal or konsole.
I have tried to tweak its behavior using the HOWTO on backspaces but I have not had any luck. The issue doesn't seem to have been solved 3 years ago because it does not work the same from 7.2 to 7.3. I would more more than happy with a way to tweak it that works, I will try to go back through the HOWTO to see if I missed anything. xterm may be old but it is the only one consistantly on every box, Linux is a small part of the thousands of boxes we have.