Fixing the arrow keys in Vim

Are your Vim / Vi arrow keys making A,C, B etc characters instead of moving around in insert (‘i’) mode ?

Try typing this … it fixes it for me:

:set nocompatible

Or, add the line:

set nocompatible

to your ~/.vimrc file.

Tags:

Mandy // Jul 15, 2008 at 10:03 pm

Thnks that solved my problem.
Fixing vim/vi arrow keys behavior | HB blog // Dec 12, 2008 at 10:58 am

[...] Found here. [...]
shikhanshu // Dec 23, 2008 at 4:14 pm

solved my problem too… perfect post, you know
prinzdezibel // Apr 17, 2009 at 11:14 am

Thank you. You saved my day!
Olivier S. Masse // Jun 30, 2009 at 8:23 am

Thanks!
threeRd // Aug 8, 2009 at 7:14 pm

That was driving me CRAZY! Much obliged
Jeroen // Aug 11, 2009 at 1:40 am

Thank you! This was really annoying me and it appears to be fixed now!
David // Aug 18, 2009 at 9:57 am

In my Ubuntu the setting in /etc/vim/vimrc.tiny had a “set compatible” line. I commented it out and everything is OK for all users…
80's Interactive // Sep 13, 2009 at 12:26 pm

thnz, made my day..
Shahram // Nov 2, 2009 at 1:56 am

Thx, great.
Trent // Dec 21, 2009 at 1:05 am

The default vim installed with Ubuntu is pretty weak. Fix all arrow movement, backspacing, etc problems with:

sudo apt-get install vim
ngan // Dec 30, 2009 at 12:22 pm

Thank you so much !!
Brian // Jun 14, 2010 at 5:33 am

For vi, you need to add the “set nocompatible” line to ~/.exrc
Sam // Aug 4, 2010 at 4:39 am

Now I got a decent VIM.
You’re the man !!
Toby // Aug 6, 2010 at 6:10 am

Thanks, I knew it was an easy fix but I couldn’t for the life of me remember the command!

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