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I want to access the help for a command by using ctrl+h in emacs, but it keeps deleting the previous character. I googled it, and apparently ctrl+h is backspace in a terminal. How do I remove this key mapping? I use regular backspace, and I want to access the emacs help using ctrl+h. I'm using cygwin and GNU Emacs 23.3.1

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Cygwin's default backspace keycode was changed from ^H to ^? a couple of years ago to stop this from happening. Are you using an old Cygwin version or the no-longer-maintained rxvt, which still does use ^H by default?

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  • Yea, I'm using rxvt (nice guess!). Will I have to switch to a different terminal or do you know how to change it for rxvt?
    – gsgx
    Jan 9, 2012 at 5:34
  • Give mintty a try, which has recently become Cygwin's default terminal. Like rxvt, it doesn't require an X server, but it provides xterm-compatible terminal emulation, Unicode support, and a more Windows-native UI with an options dialog. With rxvt, the command line option -backspacekey '^?' should do the trick.
    – ak2
    Jan 9, 2012 at 9:02
  • I think I tried this when you responded and it didn't work (not 100% sure that I did), but I've switched to mintty since then so I'll accept your answer.
    – gsgx
    Mar 14, 2012 at 1:46

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