starred/terminal
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/microsoft/terminal.git synced 2026-02-04 05:35:20 +00:00
Code Issues 19.0k Packages Projects Releases 20 Wiki Activity

Alt-Backspace followed by Enter does not behave properly #3861

New Issue
Open
opened 2026-01-30 23:32:02 +00:00 by claunia · 0 comments
claunia commented 2026-01-30 23:32:02 +00:00
Owner
Copy Link

Originally created by @kylewlacy on GitHub (Sep 13, 2019).

Originally assigned to: @zadjii-msft on GitHub.

Pressing Alt+Backspace, then some other characters, followed by Enter will not trigger the right inputs for a shell through WSL. This issue is pretty subtle and it can be tricky to observe in my experience, so I have 2 test cases below to demonstrate this issue.

Environment

Windows build number: 10.0.18362.0
Windows Terminal version (if applicable): 0.4.2382.0 (latest available on the Windows Store)

Any other software? Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS in WSL 1; Linux Mint with GNOME Terminal 3.28.1

Test case 1

Steps to reproduce

  1. Open a Bash terminal
  2. Type echo foo (don't press Enter)
  3. Press Alt+Backspace to delete the word (the command should now read echo)
  4. Type bar (the command should now read echo bar)
  5. Press Enter

Expected behavior

bar should be printed. This is the behavior when using WSL via vanilla Command Prompt, or using GNOME Terminal on a standalone Linux distro.

Actual behavior

Nothing happens. Pressing Alt+Backspace then pressing Enter inputs an escape sequence that would be expected from Alt+Enter, which Bash silently ignores by default.

To see this more visibly, run bind -x '"\e\r":"echo whoops"' then repeat the above steps. Now, whoops will be printed, since the above steps will input the escape sequence for Alt+Enter (\e\r).

Test case 2

Steps to reproduce

  1. Open a Bash terminal
  2. Run cat > sample.txt
  3. Type foo followed by Alt+Backspace followed by bar followed by Enter
  4. Press Ctrl+D to return to the prompt
  5. Run hexdump -C sample.txt

Expected behavior

hexdump should print the following output:

00000000  66 6f 6f 62 61 72 0a                              |foobar.|
00000007

This is the behavior when using WSL via vanilla Command Prompt, or using GNOME Terminal on a standalone Linux distro.

Actual behavior

hexdump prints the following output:

00000000  66 6f 6f 62 61 72 1b 0a                           |foobar..|
00000008

Just like before, we can see the sequence for Alt+Enter (\e\r, or 1b 0a in hex) is actually registered where we expected to see just \r (0a in hex).

Originally created by @kylewlacy on GitHub (Sep 13, 2019). Originally assigned to: @zadjii-msft on GitHub. Pressing Alt+Backspace, then some other characters, followed by Enter will not trigger the right inputs for a shell through WSL. This issue is pretty subtle and it can be tricky to observe in my experience, so I have 2 test cases below to demonstrate this issue. # Environment ```none Windows build number: 10.0.18362.0 Windows Terminal version (if applicable): 0.4.2382.0 (latest available on the Windows Store) Any other software? Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS in WSL 1; Linux Mint with GNOME Terminal 3.28.1 ``` # Test case 1 ## Steps to reproduce 1. Open a Bash terminal 2. Type `echo foo` (don't press Enter) 3. Press Alt+Backspace to delete the word (the command should now read `echo`) 4. Type `bar` (the command should now read `echo bar`) 5. Press Enter ## Expected behavior `bar` should be printed. This is the behavior when using WSL via vanilla Command Prompt, or using GNOME Terminal on a standalone Linux distro. ## Actual behavior Nothing happens. Pressing Alt+Backspace then pressing Enter inputs an escape sequence that would be expected from Alt+Enter, which Bash silently ignores by default. To see this more visibly, run `bind -x '"\e\r":"echo whoops"'` then repeat the above steps. Now, `whoops` will be printed, since the above steps will input the escape sequence for Alt+Enter (`\e\r`). # Test case 2 ## Steps to reproduce 1. Open a Bash terminal 2. Run `cat > sample.txt` 3. Type `foo` followed by Alt+Backspace followed by `bar` followed by Enter 4. Press Ctrl+D to return to the prompt 5. Run `hexdump -C sample.txt` ## Expected behavior `hexdump` should print the following output: ``` 00000000 66 6f 6f 62 61 72 0a |foobar.| 00000007 ``` This is the behavior when using WSL via vanilla Command Prompt, or using GNOME Terminal on a standalone Linux distro. ## Actual behavior `hexdump` prints the following output: ``` 00000000 66 6f 6f 62 61 72 1b 0a |foobar..| 00000008 ``` Just like before, we can see the sequence for Alt+Enter (`\e\r`, or `1b 0a` in hex) is actually registered where we expected to see just `\r` (`0a` in hex).
Sign in to join this conversation.
No Branch/Tag Specified
Branches Tags
Labels
Clear labels
⛺ Reserved
A11yCO
A11yMAS
A11ySev1
A11ySev2
A11ySev3
A11yTTValidated
A11yUsable
A11yVoiceAccess
A11yWCAG
Area-Accessibility
Area-AtlasEngine
Area-AzureShell
Area-Build
Area-Build
Area-Chat
Area-CmdPal
Area-CodeHealth
Area-Commandline
Area-CookedRead
Area-DefApp
Area-Extensibility
Area-Fonts
Area-GroupPolicy
Area-i18n
Area-Input
Area-Interaction
Area-Interop
Area-Localization
Area-Output
Area-Performance
Area-Portable
Area-Quality
Area-Remoting
Area-Rendering
Area-Schema
Area-Server
Area-Settings
Area-SettingsUI
Area-ShellExtension
Area-ShellExtension
Area-ShellExtension
Area-Suggestions
Area-Suggestions
Area-TerminalConnection
Area-TerminalControl
Area-Theming
Area-UserInterface
Area-VT
Area-Windowing
Area-WPFControl
AutoMerge
Blocking-Ingestion
Culprit-Centennial
Culprit-WinUI
Disability-All
Disability-Blind
Disability-LowVision
Disability-Mobility
External-Blocked-WinUI3
Fixed
Gathering-Data
good first issue
HCL-E+D
HCL-WindowsTerminal
Help Wanted
Impact-Compatibility
Impact-Compliance
Impact-Correctness
Impact-Visual
In-PR
InclusionBacklog
InclusionBacklog-Windows TerminalWin32
InclusionCommitted-202206
Issue-Bug
Issue-Docs
Issue-Feature
Issue-Feature
Issue-Question
Issue-Samples
Issue-Scenario
Issue-Task
Needs-Attention
Needs-Author-Feedback
Needs-Bisect
Needs-Discussion
Needs-Repro
Needs-Tag-Fix
Needs-Tag-Fix
Needs-Triage
No-Recent-Activity
Priority-0
Priority-1
Priority-2
Priority-3
Product-Cmd.exe
Product-Colortool
Product-Colortool
Product-Colortool
Product-Conhost
Product-Conpty
Product-Meta
Product-Powershell
Product-Terminal
Product-WSL
pull-request
Mirrored from GitHub Pull Request
 Resolution-Answered
Resolution-By-Design
Resolution-Duplicate
Resolution-External
Resolution-Fix-Available
Resolution-Fix-Committed
Resolution-No-Repro
Resolution-Won't-Fix
Severity-Blocking
Severity-Crash
Severity-DataLoss
spam
this-will-be-a-breaking-change
Tracking-External
WindowsTerminal_Win32
Work-Item
zAskModeBug
zInbox-Bug
No Label Area-Input Issue-Bug Priority-2 Product-Conpty Resolution-Fix-Committed
Milestone
No items
No Milestone
Projects
Clear projects
No project
Assignees
Clear assignees
claunia
No Assignees
1 Participants
Notifications
Due Date
No due date set.
Dependencies

No dependencies set.

Reference: starred/terminal#3861
Delete Branch "%!s()"

Deleting a branch is permanent. Although the deleted branch may continue to exist for a short time before it actually gets removed, it CANNOT be undone in most cases. Continue?