Running Vim in GNU Screen: How to avoid Shift+left/right to delete characters

Question

I found that Shift+left and Shift+right delete characters,

when running Vim inside a GNU Screen session.

The same is true for Ctrl+Shift+left and Ctrl+Shift+right.

Usually, these combination are related to highlighting text and not to deleting text.

What is happening and how can it be repaired?

This sounds like a `TERM` or key-mapping issue to me - BTW, `` and `` don't highlight in vim, but work like `b` and `w` respectively (i.e. move the cursor one word to the left or right) but it shouldn't delete any characters. I get something similar when I try those key combos with `screen`, also. I _don't_ get the same behaviour in `tmux`, however, which I highly recommend over `screen` :). — Josh Bode, Apr 23 '21 at 02:40

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 23 '21 at 02:44

1

You may need to run screen with a different TERM, such as xterm, e.g.

$ screen -T xterm
...

answered Apr 23 '21 at 02:44

Josh Bode

By the way, Neovim does not appear to have this issue and works without modifying the `TERM` – Josh Bode Apr 26 '21 at 00:14

1 Answers1