How to delete a word in iTerm in mac os

Question

I am using iTerm as a terminal in my mac. I am not able to delete a word in command line for ex in command cd /path/to/dir, i want to delete just path word , then how can i do that in iTerm.

basically what is the shortcut to delete a word in iTerm.

I looked at https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/154292/iterm-going-one-word-backwards-and-forwards and fn+option+delete is just deleting a single character, not the whole word.

@jm666 it is deleting the previous word, i want to delete the word, where my cursor is present. btw this is also useful. — Rohit, Mar 11 '17 at 13:49

score 148 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 18 '23 at 23:29

148

Go to your iTerm preferences select "Profiles" then "Key" and change your presets in "Natural Text Editing"

It should work immediately after.

It works with iTerm version 3.3.12

Edit:

In version 3.4, there's a slight UI change. So you need to go specifically to your iTerm preferences select Profiles > Keys > Key Mappings > Presets > Natural Text Editing

edited Aug 18 '23 at 23:29

Benjamin Lee

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answered Aug 13 '20 at 21:33

KillianGDK

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Yes this answer worked for me as well as a normal user of mac the presets for natural text editing are the most natural ! – Xavier Bourret Sicotte Jan 11 '21 at 09:58
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This should be the correct answer – Luca Molteni Oct 27 '21 at 13:01
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This answer works on iTerm 2 build 3.4.13 and macOS 12.0.1 Monterey. It requires no fiddling with escape codes which was a big PITA in the past for me. But I don't know what key mappings it removes. – Olivier Lacan Nov 30 '21 at 16:01
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You just made my day :) – Adly Jun 15 '22 at 10:24

score 54 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

54

This helped me.

Delete a word - Send Hex Codes - 0x1b 0x08 or 0x17

Delete a line - Send Hex Codes - 0x15

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered Dec 17 '18 at 15:18

Vignesh Raja

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I have the same keybinding for `emacs` as well but when I set on `iTerm` it is not detected from `emacs`. Is it possible to use it only on terminal/bash usage and disable if `emacs` is on? – alper Mar 13 '20 at 11:47
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Perfect! Thank you. – Amit Yadav Sep 02 '21 at 07:21
In Monterey I had some trouble due to some common options not showing. This was what worked for me. Thanks! – mike dangelo Apr 11 '22 at 20:46

score 28 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 21 '18 at 08:27

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ctrl + w in iTerm,

BTW, in text editors
alt + delete to delete whole previous word
fn + delete to delete next word

answered Jun 21 '18 at 08:27

Kiryl Plyashkevich

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score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 11 '17 at 14:48

8

esc+d should work as a default.

Or you can add a Send Escape Sequence based keyboard mapping for esc-d:

answered Mar 11 '17 at 14:48

SushiHangover

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This solution didn't work on my end, `ctrl + w` is the keyboard maaping in iTerm, but i cound't find its `send escape sequence` – alper Mar 13 '20 at 13:40

How to delete a word in iTerm in mac os

4 Answers4