Solve Alt or Option Key Binding And Map Vim Command With It

27 August 2022 | 2 min read | vim

Let’s solve Alt/Option Meta (M) key binding and use it along with some other keys to execute vim commands. First of all, we need to find what characters the terminal is sending when Alt/Option key is pressed along with other key. To find that, execute the cat command and press Alt key with the key you want. In this example, Press Alt along with right arrow Alt + →

 ~ $ cat
 ^[f

Pressing Alt + → generated the character ^[f in the terminal. Here character ^[ is a iteral escape character and character f is a normal f key. Basically,Alt + → and Alt + f is the same, verify that running cat command again and press Alt + f the output will be the same and pressing escape key outputs ^[

Now, we know that character f is used for right arrow.

Open vim configuration file .vimrc and add the following.

 exec "set <M-f>=\ef"
 map <M-f> gt

The preceding code tells vim to recognize the escape-sequence as a Meta-character and maps the Meta-character with the vim command gt open next tab. We have fixed the meta key (Alt/Option) keybinding with the right arrow Alt + →. To fix all the character bindings along with Meta key Vim Tips Wiki has a very good article (Fix meta-key) , check it out.