Irssi: Binding meta-O causes arrow keys to stop working

[ahihi]

I am using /bind meta-O change_window 49. In irssi 0.8.17 and earlier this works fine, but in 0.8.18 my arrow keys stop functioning normally — they insert ABCD characters instead.

A fresh config plus this binding suffices to reproduce the issue.

[ailin-nemui]

that's a technical limitation on the one hand. Irssi 0.8.18 now enabled application keypad which makes your arrow keys send SS3-{A,B,C,D} (a change from the previous CSI) SS3 is one of the common control sequence initiators and translates to Esc, O (which is the same as your Alt+O) (CSI=Esc,[)

for now I would suggest the following work-around in your startup file and being aware that there are two different control sequence styles (of which one will occupy Alt+Shift+O):

script exec print STDERR `tput rmkx`

Another way to work around this issue is to disable application cursor key mode in your terminal emulator, if it offers that setting.
Finally, you can easily edit your terminfo file (infocmp -x >my.ti; $EDITOR my.ti; tic -x my.ti) to revert this behaviour, by deleting the smkx and rmkx codes. I suggest modifying any k... entry by changing \EO to \E[ in that case, to make other full screen applications using smkx aware of the now different key codes the terminal will produce after that change.

also note that meta-O is bound to meta2 in the default config for this reason, and has always been even before

Further reading:

• http://git.suckless.org/st/tree/FAQ#n32
• http://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html#h2-PC-Style-Function-Keys
• http://invisible-island.net/xterm/manpage/xterm.html#h3-Special-Keys
• http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.faq.html#xterm_arrows
• http://tartarus.org/~simon/putty-snapshots/htmldoc/Chapter4.html#config-appcursor
• https://ttssh2.osdn.jp/manual/en/usage/tips/appkeypad.html

@LemonBoy b5b73cb471e5dff6f8c872071c7cb8678e4142ea is causing this regression, what are the pros and cons of KX? maybe it's better to stick to non-kx?

[stintel]

Running into this issue as well. In fact, everybody using https://github.com/irssi/scripts.irssi.org/blob/gh-pages/scripts/keybinds.pl has "BIND meta-O change_window 39". Thanks for the workarounds, but as this is a regression (and quite the annoying one), I would like to see this fixed.

[LemonBoy]

I am able to bind whatever command I want to meta-o, I think the problem lies in your terminals (or fingers)

[dequis]

@LemonBoy uppercase O, not lowercase

[LemonBoy]

Both meta-o and meta-O work just well in urxvt and xterm

[ailin-nemui]

but it conflicts with up-arrow (now) because that also starts with meta-O

[trou]

Chiming in : I'm bitten by the bug and I'd like it to be fixed.

[ailin-nemui]

since there were very vocal people about meta-O I expect that @stintel @rhonda @trou and @ahf test #459 otherwise I don't see the point of adding that into 0.8.18a

[stintel]

After "/set term_appkey_mode off" with changes from #459 I no longer have this issue. Thanks!