53

I'm trying to map Alt key in the following way:

:map <A-j> j
:map <A-k> k

but it doesn't work (bell is rang on Alt + j/Alt + k).

What am I missing?

I'm using Terminal on OSX, the same happens on remote Linux.

On Ctrl + v, Alt + j, I've got: ?~H~F (∆ when encoding=utf-8).

On Ctrl + v, Alt + k, I've got: ?~Z (˚ when encoding=utf-8).

Running vim without plugins (-u NONE) doesn't make any difference.

Improve this question
  • 1
    Does Alt (press, not hold) and then j work? With xterm at least I need to set metaSendsEscape to true to get these sequences to work... I don't know if you have the same problem, and I don't use OSX so I can't test... – Martin Tournoij Mar 3 '15 at 23:16
  • @Carpetsmoker Pressing Alt, release, then j or any other key works as normal. I've checked and found the option 'Use option as meta key', enabled it and it works now. So setting metaSendsEscape did the trick, thanks. – kenorb Mar 3 '15 at 23:41
  • 3
    This question was previously answered (with a better response) here: stackoverflow.com/questions/6778961/… – user3751385 Oct 5 '16 at 7:55
57

That's how I do it on Linux or Cygwin:

First check what chars are send by your terminal when you press ALT+J:

In order to do this I go to console and run sed -n l (you can also use cat for it). Then I press ALT+J and see that the chars on the screen are ^[j .

I replace ^[ with \e (because that's what is sent by my terminal when I press esc) and the final string for me is \ej.

Then I write it to my .vimrc:

execute "set <M-j>=\ej"
nnoremap <M-j> j

And the mapping works.

Improve this answer
  • 5
    I can't find the documentation for the :set <M-j>=\ej part. What should I search for? – Evgeni Sergeev Jun 3 '15 at 1:05
  • 1
    Thanks for the answer, this was the only solution that has worked for me w/ Iterm + vim – newUserNameHere Jun 22 '15 at 14:33
  • 1
    Nah, this doesn't work. Sometimes ESC-J will act as ALT-J – user3751385 Oct 4 '16 at 5:15
  • 2
    @EvgeniSergeev See :help :set-termcap – Rich Feb 15 '18 at 22:10
15

With help of Carpetsmoker, it seems that Terminal wasn't configured to 'Use Alt/option as meta key' (this is especially common for GUI Terminals).

For Terminal on OSX, it's in Preferences -> Settings -> Keyboard tab -> 'Use option as meta key'. Check: How can I change Terminal to use option as meta key? (Mavericks).

For XTerm, check: Configuring XTerm to Default to Meta Sends Escape which says:

Add this line anywhere in your personal .Xdefaults file (~/.Xdefaults):

xterm*metaSendsEscape: true

Then reload the config with xrdb. Without this step the changes in .Xdefaults won't take effect until the next X restart:

xrdb -l ~/.Xdefaults

Then standard mappings with Alt key like:

:map <A-j> j
:map <A-k> k

works fine.

For help, see: :h :map-alt-keys.

Improve this answer
  • 4
    May also want to look at :h :map-alt-keys as another source of information – Peter Rincker Mar 4 '15 at 17:02
7

Similar to Kossak's answer but a bit simpler, by mapping literal key presses.

Either in normal mode after pressing :, or inserted into your .vimrc, map the input directly by starting the mapping:

nnoremap

then hitting Ctrl + V then the keystroke to record, e.g. Alt + ←. This will show as something like this:

nnoremap ^[[1;3D

but each ^[ is a single, literal escape character and syntax highlighting should show this. Replace the literal escape(s) with the text <Esc>, and append the command you wish to use:

nnoremap <Esc>[1;3D <C-w>h

I know OP was mapping Alt + letters, but I used arrows to show how do it for something that may not be mapped by default.

Improve this answer
  • Worked like a charm, thanks a lot! – aryndin Oct 24 '19 at 9:11
  • This is exactly what I was looking for. I didn't know exactly what vim was interpreting my desired key combo as, and this shows you. Thanks! – Jacob Evan Shreve Nov 25 '20 at 22:55
3

This works for me on Ubuntu 16.04 xfce terminal (and alacritty rust terminal)

Set ultisnip snippet trigger to Meta-/ (just like emacs snippet)

let g:UltiSnipsExpandTrigger="^[/"

Here's now I type ^[/ in vim

In insert mode Ctrl-V Alt-/

(Meta is the Alt key on my PC keyboard)

Improve this answer
2

If Control+V followed by ALT-x shows ^[x (type in terminal) you can fix it with this small script from vim.wikia.com:

for i in range(97,122)
  let c = nr2char(i)
  exec "map \e".c." <M-".c.">"
  exec "map! \e".c." <M-".c.">"
endfor

Add to .vimrc for all alt key mappings.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.