Take the 2-minute tour ×


tmux ignores some keystrokes:

  • Ctrl + Delete

  • Ctrl + F*


Something similar happens in virtual consoles (even without tmux) with the difference that Ctrl + Delete and Delete behaves the same.


Ctrl + Backspace pops up the help page in emacs -nw but this seems to be a known issue (that I can't solve).

I'm sorry to put so many questions in one but I guess it's all about the TERM variable (with values: linux, screen, rxvt-unicode). I'd like to setup the whole thing so that urxvt and the virtual consoles behaves the same with or without tmux. Could someone make some light on the whole issue?

Note: I use Ctrl + v followed by the keystroke to get some feedback.

share|improve this question
add comment

1 Answer

Within Emacs you can use C-h k to find out what Emacs thinks about a certain key, e.g. C-h k C-F1. If that doesn't work, e.g. because C-BACKSPACE is interpreted as C-h you could always fall back to C-h l which lists the last key strokes: Press the keys in question and fire C-h l to see what Emacs has received.

Once you've found out what your keys map to in Emacs you could bind them to the function you like, e.g.

 (global-set-key [(meta d)] 'kill-word)
share|improve this answer
Emacs receives C-h whenever I press C-BACKSPACE. –  cYrus Dec 6 '11 at 13:17
add comment

Your Answer


