On Thu, Dec 18, 2025 at 03:50:39PM -0000, Stuart Henderson wrote:
> On 2025-12-18, Walter Alejandro Iglesias <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On Thu, Dec 18, 2025 at 02:16:26PM -0000, Stuart Henderson wrote:
> >> On 2025-12-18, Walter Alejandro Iglesias <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> > I found the following in sftp(1) source code:
> >> >
> >> > $ grep editline /usr/src/usr.bin/ssh/*
> >> > sftp.c: fatal("Couldn't initialise editline");
> >> > sftp.c: fatal("Couldn't initialise editline history");
> >> >
> >> > I use this line in ~/.editrc:
> >> >
> >> > bind -v
> >> >
> >> > That gives me vi-like keybindings in many applications. But it doesn't
> >> > work with sftp(1).
> >>
> >> sftp does use editline, and it does read .editrc.
> >>
> >> bind -v does do something in sftp (you'll see a behaviour change if you
> >> remove it) but it's not normal vi-like handling..
> >
> > What I see when I remove 'bind -v' from ~/.editrc is that emacs-like
> > bindings work. So, the only effect of 'bind -v' in sftp(1) is to
> > deactivate emacs-like bindings.
>
> editline(7) says:
>
> The program can switch the default to emacs mode by using the
> el_set(3) or el_parse(3) functions, and the user can switch to emacs
> mode either in the editrc(5) configuration file or interactively with
> the ed-command editor command, in all three cases executing the bind
> -e builtin command.
>
> sftp switches the default using 'el_set(el, EL_EDITOR, "emacs")', but
> I don't see anything in editline(7) that suggests you can get back from
> there to vi mode.
>
> you can at least automatically fix the key bindings like this:
>
> $ cat .editrc
> bind -v
> sftp:bind -e
>
>
I noticed that adding the following line to the bindings in
'src/usr.bin/ssh/sftp.c' to makes vi command mode work:
el_set(el, EL_BIND, "^[", "vi-command-mode", NULL);
But I couldn't figured out so far how to add a conditional to apply that
binding only in vi mode. The following does not work:
(src/usr.bin/ssh/sftp.c)
-----------------------------------------
const char editor[2];
if (!batchmode && isatty(STDIN_FILENO)) {
[...]
if (el_get(el, EL_EDITOR, editor) == '0')
printf("Editor: %s\n", editor);
if (strncmp(editor, "vi", 2) == 0)
el_set(el, EL_BIND, "^[", "vi-command-mode", NULL);
}
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Am I using el_get() in a wrong way?
--
Walter
