10.6 bash history-search-backwards

Question

This is a repost from http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10954384
10.6 broke my terminal history search
In 10.4 I added
bind '"M-[A": history-search-backward'
bind '"M-[B": history-search-forward'
to my .bash_profile allowing me to use the up/down arrows to search through the history in terminal, but as of 10.6 this no longer works.
I would like the up and down arrows to perform a search of the history for the string I have typed in the terminal. That is if I had issued the following sequence of commands in the terminal,
$cd ~/
$nano .bash_profile
$vi .bash_profile
so now these commands are sequentially listed in my bash history. Now if I press the up arrow, the first command to come up will be the last one that I entered, that is, $vi .bash_profile. Now if I had instead pressed up three times, the command, $cd ~/ would come up. Now what I want bash to do, and had working in OS X 10.4, is if I type a string into the terminal (and DO NOT press ENTER) such as, $cd , then I press up, bash will search through the terminal history for the instances of the command cd that I have previously entered. This is the same behavior as the MATLAB command prompt.
I know this is possible because it used to work. I would like to have this behavior again because it is very useful. I do know that I can use crl-R to search the history, but this is kind of a pain to use and it doesn't work very well.
I added the above code to ~/.inputrc and now if I type the letter 'b' in terminal I get the output
{quote}
"": history-search-forward
{quote}
It only does this for the the letter 'b'. I have tried all the other keys and there is no weird output. What is up with bash?
GNU bash, version 3.2.48(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin10.0)
Also see threads:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?p=569961#post569961 Mac OS X Hints 10.6 bash history-search-backwards
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031026174236860 Mac OS X Hints 10.3: Assign arrow keys to history search in bash

Answer 1

I have the following in my .bashrc file:
# Setup Command line editing using vi mode (default is Emacs).
# Map Ctrl-P and Up-arrow as command recall (previous),
# with Ctrl-N and Down-arrow as next (foreword) command.
# Viewing key binding:
# bind -p | more # key bindings
# bind -s | more # macros (like below)
# bind -m vi-command -p | more # key bindings
# bind -m vi-command -s | more # macros (like below)
shopt -s -o vi # set vi command line editing.
bind '"C-p": "ekA"' # Ctrl-P: when in insert mode
bind -m vi-command '"C-p": "kA"' # Ctrl-P: when in insert mode
bind '"C-n": "ejA"' # Ctrl-N: when in command mode
bind -m vi-command '"C-n": "jA"' # Ctrl-N: when in command mode
# I have had problems with a Linux version of Bash 2.05.8(1) that did not
# like it when I remapped the up and down arrow keys, so if I find myself
# with that version of bash, I do not try to remap them.
# "cat -v" can be very useful for determing what the escape sequence being
# issued by an keypad or function key. Keep in minde that the keypad has
# multiple modes the terminal emulator can be placed in, which alters the
# escape sequence, hence the multiple sets of mapping for up and down arrow
# in both vi-insert and vi-command mode.
if [[ "$BASH_VERSION" != 2.05.8(1) || $OSTYPE = darwin ]]; then #{
bind '"M-OA": "ekA"' # Up-arrow: when in insert mode
bind -m vi-command '"M-OA": "kA"' # Up-arrow: when in insert mode
bind '"M-OB": "ejA"' # Down-arrow: when in command mode
bind -m vi-command '"M-OB": "jA"' # Down-arrow: when in command mode
bind '"M-[A": "ekA"' # Up-arrow: when in insert mode
bind -m vi-command '"M-[A": "kA"' # Up-arrow: when in insert mode
bind '"M-[B": "ejA"' # Down-arrow: when in command mode
bind -m vi-command '"M-[B": "jA"' # Down-arrow: when in command mode
fi #}
The above does work for me on ALL my platforms (Mac OS X, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard), Linux, Solaris, AIX, and Windows-Cygwin.
I use vi command line editing, so if you prefer the emacs command line editing, then the above will not work for you, in some cases I map the up/down arrows and Control-P/Control-N to vi commands.