forward_character

Synopsis

/bind <key> forward_character

Description

Move the input cursor right by one character. At the end of the input line, including on an empty line, nothing happens. When movement crosses into a later displayed section of a long input line, the input line scrolls to reveal that section.

This built-in action moves by the input editor's logical character positions, rather than by bytes or terminal columns. For example, moving past an ordinary multibyte UTF-8 character takes one invocation, including when that character occupies two columns. The action does not change or send the input text, and takes no arguments or options; any extra text supplied with the binding is ignored.

The default bindings are ^[OC and ^[[C, the common escape sequences sent by the Right arrow key. Here ^[ means Escape. Scripts can change these bindings, and your terminal must send a matching sequence for the key to invoke the action.

Example

/bind ^X^F forward_character

Press Control-X followed by Control-F to move right once. With hello in the input line and the cursor on its h, the cursor moves onto the e; the text stays hello.

See bind for key sequence syntax, backward_character to move left, and end_of_line to move directly to the end.

Source references

• source/keys.c: action registration and default Right arrow bindings.
• source/input.c: forward_character, input_move_cursor, retokenize_input, and redraw_input implement movement, logical character boundaries, and horizontal scrolling.