Wednesday, August 18, 2010

How to Fix Backspace in SSH Session to Unix ksh Terminal

I've been annoyed for a while now by the fact that when I start an SSH session to a AIX server that uses KornShell (ksh), my backspace key no longer deletes the character immediately preceding the cursor.

Luckily, I came across a forum thread that gave a solution for this annoyance.

"KSH Terminal Settings"
http://www.unix.com/unix-dummies-questions-answers/25310-ksh-terminal-settings.html

What I found out was that I could start the SSH session and then type the command stty erase ^H, which would enable me to delete correctly both within the SSH session and in my native Mac OS X Terminal after I ended the session.

The only (possible) problem is: Now that I've changed the erase character on the server, it appears to have "stuck". So, I hope other people who are accessing the server don't suddenly find that their backspace keys have now stopped working...