forward-kill-word(2)

NAME

forward-kill-word - Delete next word at the cursor position
backward-kill-word - Delete previous word at the cursor position

SYNOPSIS

n forward-kill-word (esc d) 
n backward-kill-word (esc backspace) 

DESCRIPTION

forward-kill-word deletes the next n words starting at the current cursor position, the deleted text is added to the kill buffer. See forward-word(2) for a description of word boundaries. If no argument n is given and the current character is a non-word character then only the characters from the current position to the start of the next word are removed. If the argument n is 0 the command has no effect. If a negative argument is specified, n words are deleted backwards (i.e. this is the same as -n backward-kill-word).

backward-kill-word deletes the previous n words before the cursor, the deleted text is added to the kill buffer. The numeric argument has the same effect as with forward-kill-word.

NOTES

backward-kill-word is also bound to esc backspace.

The negative argument is typically used by macro scripts where the kill buffer is more precisely controlled.

HISTORY

The interpretation of the numeric argument was changed in the 2005 release to kill n words in a forwards or backwards direction. In previous releases then the negative argument controlled the kill buffer behavior. If kill buffer control is required then kill-region(2) should be used instead.

SEE ALSO

backward-delete-char(2), forward-delete-char(2), forward-word(2), kill-region(2), yank(2).

Ref: forward-kill-word(2) File: m2cmd035.2 Date: 2022/06/12

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