There are a number of configuration files that are common to all linux system. Inputrc deals with the mapping of the keybord in ceratin situations. This file is the start-up file used by readline - the input related library used by bash and most other shells. By changing this file you can change how certain keys act in different situations. The following is a simple inputrc along with comments to explain what the various options do. The following file can be used as /etc/inputrc or ~/.inputrc as appropriate. See below for more details on which to use. Please note that comments can not be on the same line as commands in inputrc. # Make sure we dont output everything on the 1 line set horizontal-scroll-mode Off # Enable 8bit input set meta-flag On set input-meta On # Turns off 8th bit stripping set convert-meta Off # Keep the 8th bit for display set output-meta On # none, visible or audible set bell-style none # All of the following map the escape sequence of the # value contained inside the 1st argument to the # readline specific functions "\eOd": backward-word "\eOc": forward-word # for linux console "\e[1~": beginning-of-line "\e[4~": end-of-line "\e[5~": beginning-of-history "\e[6~": end-of-history "\e[3~": delete-char "\e[2~": quoted-insert # for xterm "\eOH": beginning-of-line "\eOF": end-of-line Please see man 3 readline for more infomation. There is a lot that can be done with this single rc file. Note that the readline library checks ~/.inputrc, by default. If you want to use /etc/inputrc as your global inputrc (i.e. for all users), you will need to add the line export INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc to your .bash_profile, .bashrc or .profile file as appropriate. If you want to use per-user .inputrc files, you can create one and drop it into /etc/skel for use when creating new users.