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In Linux I'm used to press Ctrl-Backspace to delete the last word but I don't know how to do it in Bash terminal.
In OS X I use Alt-Backspace to do the same thing.
Is there any way of making Bash recognize the Ctrl- or Alt-Backspace key combination to delete last word?
In Linux I use terminator as terminal emulator, in OSX I use iTerm2.
You can always use Ctrl-W. It deletes the word before the cursor and works in every Bash.
See here for a list of Bash keyboard shortcuts.
tcsh, it clears everything before the cursor, not just one word before cursor.
You just need to set Option as Meta key in iTerm's preferences (Profiles » Keys).
backward-kill-word is bound to Meta-Rubout (i.e. Opt-Backspace) by default.
The same option exists (albeit less flexible) in Apple's Terminal.app.
? being printed instead of the word getting deleted.
You can create a file .inputrc in your home directory and add this content inside:
"\C-h": backward-kill-word
C-w in the accepted answer differ by what is considered a "word". C-w will delete from the cursor position until it encounters non-space characters and then a space (i.e., "this is a/se=weird |test" where | marks the cursor position will yield "this is test"). In contrast, the C-h bind here (which can be bound using bind '"\C-h": backward-kill-word" in a .bashrc) would yield "this is a/se= test", as it basically delimits words on what a bash variable would, not just spaces.
Jul 16, 2018 at 19:07
In terminator you can use the following "plugin", along with
[keybindings]
kill_word = <Control>BackSpace
in your config file. This will map Ctrl-Backspace to ESC→DEL, another shorcut to delete last word.
As some have mentioned, this may also depend on your terminal emulator. For example in KDE's Konsole, you can define the behavior of Ctrl+Backspace in the key bindings settings of the profile:
Set Backspace+Ctrl to the output \E\x7f (default \b)
You can just use Alt-DEL instead of the normal Strg-DEL.
