Bug#305849: xterm: Xterm sends broken Ctrl-Left/Right/Up/Down sequences

[Paul Evans <pevans@zeus.com>]

Package: xterm
Version: 4.3.0.dfsg.1-12
Severity: normal


Since nearly a year ago now, Ctrl-arrow keys have not sent a control
sequence that vim / bash / etc... can properly recognise as such.

E.g. in bash/vim, Ctrl+Left/Right is supposed to move a whole word in
the indicated direction. Running this from a Linux VC works, as does
gnome-terminal. But running it in a real xterm causes bash(readline) to
print ;5D rather than move the cursor, and causes vim all variety of
bugs, depending on what sort of machine is running that vim. Linux's
vim simply returns to normal mode. Solaris' vim deletes the line above
the current one.

I've observed this bug both on AMD64 and i386-based systems, and it
seems only the xterm to be at fault.. it doesn't matter where the
bash/vim is running; either locally or via ssh to another machine.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.8-10-amd64-k8
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages xterm depends on:
ii  libc6                    2.3.2.ds1-21    GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libexpat1                1.95.8-1        XML parsing C library - runtime li
ii  libfontconfig1           2.3.1-2         generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6             2.1.7-2.3       FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libice6                  4.3.0.dfsg.1-12 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libncurses5              5.4-4           Shared libraries for terminal hand
ii  libsm6                   4.3.0.dfsg.1-12 X Window System Session Management
ii  libxaw7                  4.3.0.dfsg.1-12 X Athena widget set library
ii  libxext6                 4.3.0.dfsg.1-12 X Window System miscellaneous exte
ii  libxft2                  2.1.7-1         FreeType-based font drawing librar
ii  libxmu6                  4.3.0.dfsg.1-12 X Window System miscellaneous util
ii  libxpm4                  4.3.0.dfsg.1-12 X pixmap library
ii  libxrender1              0.8.3-7         X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  libxt6                   4.3.0.dfsg.1-12 X Toolkit Intrinsics
ii  xlibs                    4.3.0.dfsg.1-12 X Keyboard Extension (XKB) configu
ii  xlibs-data               4.3.0.dfsg.1-12 X Window System client data

-- no debconf information