Reputation: 34917

Vi keybindings for R command line like in Bash

Context

I like editing and manipulating the bash command line using vi-style key bindings with the following setting:

set -o vi

However, when I start R on the command-line, these keybindings disappear. I know that the Vim-R plugin allows for Vim keybindings when you run R through the Conque Shell, but I'm not entirely happy with that experience, and, regardless, sometimes I just want to run R on the standard command-line.

Question

Is there any way of getting Vi style key bindings in R on the command line?

Upvotes: 17

Answers (3)

Jeromy Anglim

Reputation: 34917

Thank you to Joshua Ulrich and progo's answers, which helped to get me started.

Below I record my experience:

Initial setup

I tried set keymap vi and set editing-mode vi. When I started R in my Gnome Terminal, some shortcuts worked and others did not. In particular cc, and dd (i.e., delete lines) did not work at all, and cw and dw performed the action of deleting words but did not update the display until I pressed an additional key, which is not a functional experience.

Replacing missing functionality

I found this inputrc file that gave me a few ideas.
The help page was helpful, naturally.

I added the following to ~/.inputrc, which fixed the obvious problems mentioned above:

set completion-ignore-case on

set editing-mode vi

$if mode=vi
    set keymap vi-insert
    "\C-l": clear-screen
    "\C-p": history-search-backward
    "\C-n": history-search-forward
    # alt dot cycles through last argument
    "\e.":yank-last-arg

    set keymap vi-command
    "D":kill-line
    "dw": kill-word
    "dd": kill-whole-line
    "db": backward-kill-word
    "cc": "ddi"
    "cw": "dwi"
    "cb": "dbi"
    "diw": "lbdw"
    "yiw": "lbyw"
    "ciw": "lbcw"
    "diW": "lBdW"
    "yiW": "lByW"
    "ciW": "lBcW"
    "gg": beginning-of-history
    "G": end-of-history
$endif

Upvotes: 18