CODEWITHSUNDEEP
vim
Joe
Joe

Reputation: 4625

Vim backspace key only works on new text

For fun I decided to compile vim from source. Long story short the build seemed to go fine, but when I enter insert mode I cannot use the <BACKSPACE> key to delete existing characters or newlines created using the <ENTER> key in insert mode. The distro's pre-built package does this just fine. I also know there's no problem with the backspace key itself because I can backspace over characters I've just typed, just not existing characters.

It almost makes sense, as vim operates on a per-line basis most of the time. Is there a flag I need to set in order to support this behavior? Or is it faster by design to enter normal mode to delete existing characters/newlines?

Upvotes: 26

Views: 3317

Answers (1)

Joe
Joe

Reputation: 4625

Wow, second time I've figured out the answer minutes after posting the question.

set backspace=indent,eol,start

Must have been set automatically by the distro's package vimrc. Hope this answer helps someone else! For more info:

:help i_backspacing

Upvotes: 33

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