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If Backspace behaves incorrectly only after you connect over SSH, check whether the remote host has a terminfo entry matching your terminal’s TERM value. A missing or unsuitable entry is one possible cause—not the only one. The key’s emitted character, the terminal’s tty erase setting and an individual application’s key handling are separate parts of the problem.
First identify where Backspace fails
Ask two questions before changing settings: Does Backspace also fail in your local terminal, or only after SSH? And does it fail in the shell command line, a full-screen program, or both? If it works locally but fails remotely, the remote session’s terminal type and tty settings are useful places to start. If only one application is affected, that application may handle keys differently.
A reported symptom is Backspace acting like Space after connecting; arrow keys or Home/End may behave unexpectedly too. Such symptoms can point toward a terminal compatibility issue, but they do not establish its cause by themselves. Ghostty’s terminfo documentation describes one concrete case involving an unavailable terminal entry.
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1. Read the remote TERM value
In the SSH session, run:
echo "$TERM"TERM names the terminal type. Applications use its terminal description to determine available capabilities. SSH passes terminal information as part of setting up a session; the protocol’s terminal modes also include VERASE, the erase-character setting. See RFC 4254.
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2. Ask whether the remote host has that entry
Use infocmp with the reported value, for example:
infocmp "$TERM"If the matching entry is missing or unsuitable, a terminal-aware program may not be able to use the expected capabilities; an error such as “Error opening terminal” is one possible clue. The terminfo manual explains terminal capability descriptions, and the infocmp manual describes displaying entries. An entry existing does not rule out a separate erase-character or application-specific problem.
Check the tty erase character separately
The terminal’s tty settings determine which character erases the last character typed. Inspect them in the remote session with:
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stty -aLook for the erase setting in the output. The stty manual defines erase CHAR as the character used to erase the last character typed. If the key sends a different character than the tty expects, line editing can misbehave even when terminfo is installed.
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If you use Ghostty, install its remote terminal entry
Ghostty documents xterm-ghostty as its TERM value. Its recommended approach is to export the local terminal description and compile it on the remote host:
infocmp -x xterm-ghostty | ssh YOUR-SERVER -- tic -x -Replace YOUR-SERVER with the SSH host alias or destination you use. The command sends the local xterm-ghostty entry through SSH to the remote tic compiler. Check the Ghostty terminfo instructions for the documented procedure.
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The entry may be saved in the system terminfo database or in your user’s ~/.terminfo directory. If tic cannot write to the system database, it may use the user-local database instead. If installation fails, check that tic is available remotely and that the resulting entry is usable in the session.
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| Approach | What it gives you | Trade-off or requirement |
|---|---|---|
Install the matching xterm-ghostty entry |
The remote host can use Ghostty’s terminal-specific capabilities. | Requires the remote tic compiler and a writable system or user terminfo location. |
Set TERM=xterm-256color for the SSH host |
A compatibility fallback using a more commonly available terminal type. | It is not equivalent to the Ghostty entry; some Ghostty-specific capabilities, including colored and styled underlines, may not work. |
Ghostty documents an SSH configuration example using SetEnv to set TERM=xterm-256color for a host without xterm-ghostty. That method requires OpenSSH 8.7 or newer. Follow Ghostty’s current terminfo guidance for the configuration example and host-specific setup.
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Know what Ghostty’s SSH wrapper can and cannot do
Ghostty’s +ssh wrapper can attempt to install the terminal entry automatically. Its feature documentation says installation is enabled by default for that wrapper and that it falls back to TERM=xterm-256color if installation fails, such as when remote tic is unavailable. See Ghostty’s SSH feature documentation.
Availability depends on the installed Ghostty version, so confirm that your version includes +ssh before relying on it. A shell function that wraps SSH in an interactive shell does not automatically affect scripts or tools that invoke SSH independently.
If only one program has the problem
When shell command-line editing works but a full-screen application mishandles Backspace, focus on that application’s terminal handling and the capabilities it reads from terminfo. Changing shell-wide tty settings may not fix an application-specific issue. Also check whether the failing key is Backspace or Delete: some terminal and application configurations treat them differently.
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