bash does not recognize alt+backspace command

Question

I use bash and alt+backspace key to delete a word at a time. This works nicely, but for some reason, it stops working after a while. It seems as though it does not recognize the alt key, and simply removes a character at a time.

Btw, I use screen to fork multiple bash instances.

I'd appreciate any solutions or diagnostic suggestions.

Thanks,

Answer 1

If you do:

bind -q backward-kill-word

it should respond with:

backward-kill-word can be invoked via "\e\C-h", "\e\C-?".

If not, you can do one or both of:

bind '"\e\C-h": backward-kill-word'
bind '"\e\C-?": backward-kill-word'

You only need one. You can tell which by pressing Ctrl-v Backspace which will output either ^H or ^?.

You should't need to, but you can add the following to your ~/.inputrc:

"\e\C-h": backward-kill-word
"\e\C-?": backward-kill-word