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zshwindows-subsystem-for-linuxconemucmder

Cursor keys dont work in vim when running zsh on wsl through cmder or conemu

I'm running ubuntu 1804 on windows using the WSL. Everything is set up fine and works correctly. I've also installed ZSH and oh-my-zsh, again this is all good and everything looks like its working fine. Everything except the arrow keys whilst using vim or man pages or some other command line tools.

The up and down keys work on the command line when scrolling through history and also for select commands like nano. Also if I boot into bash rather than zsh the arrow keys do work in vim and man pages, in fact they work everywhere.

If i boot into bash, then switch to zsh on the command line manually the arrow keys then work everywhere.

So my cmder config for zsh

c:/_distros/ubuntu1804/ubuntu1804.exe -c zsh -cur_console:pm

and for bash

set "PATH=%ConEmuBaseDirShort%\wsl;%PATH%" & %ConEmuBaseDirShort%\conemu-cyg-64.exe --wsl -cur_console:pm:/mnt

The one for bash uses the conemu-cyg-64.exe program that comes from conemu which is a symbiont of POSIX enabled pty and WinAPI full-featured terminal.

Apparently you can use this tool with zsh but i cant manage to make it work i get the error 

{PID:10592} failed to run shell (2): No such file or directory
{PID:10592} shell: `/usr/bin/zsh` `-l` `-i`
{PID:10592}   dir: `/cygdrive/c/Program Files/cmder`
ConEmuC: Root process was alive less than 10 sec, ExitCode=0.
Press Enter or Esc to close console...

and this is the task in cmder

set "PATH=%ConEmuBaseDirShort%\wsl;%PATH%" & %ConEmuBaseDirShort%\conemu-cyg-64.exe /usr/bin/zsh -l -i -cur_console:pm:/mnt

So I think that if i can boot into zsh using conemu-cyg-64 that the cursor keys will probably work in commands like vim and the man pages. Any help or advice getting that working would be brilliant.

EDIT: On my ubuntu install zsh is installed at /usr/bin/zsh, but there is no file or folder /cygdrive/c/Program Files/cmder

Solution

  • Many thanks to @Maximus for pointing me in the right direction. The answer was right under my nose at the bash on windows page of conemu. A small change to the command i was using before. the zsh needs to go on the end rather than before the --wsl.

    The correct task to ensure that cursor keys work on all apps in the terminal is:

    set "PATH=%ConEmuBaseDirShort%\wsl;%PATH%" & %ConEmuBaseDirShort%\conemu-cyg-64.exe --wsl -cur_console:pnm:/mnt -t zsh -l