Mutt, rxvt-unicode and the problem with backspace key

Mutt is a very nice email client. In fact, I think it is currently one of the best client to use with Gmail through IMAP.

However, I have run into a problem with Mutt on rxvt-unicode (also known as urxvt): the backspace key doesn’t seem to work in the pager and thus I cannot scroll backward through mails when reading them.

Today, I’ve found the solution. It turns out that rxvt-unicode uses some none standard value for backspace key. rxvt-unicode uses “^?”, while Mutt seems to expect… something else.

Anyway, the solution is to simply bind Mutt’s previous-line action to “^?” (that’s Ctrl + ?, so we must use “\c?” in .muttrc) and voila! The backspace key is now working.

More information about rxvt-unicode’s backspace key value can be found in its man page.