>Among all the unix servers I can log on, most of them I can use alt-b /
>alt-f to jump between words in bash. But one of them which I must work
>on with shows  \342\346 or just plain bf when I hit alt-b, alt-f.

Okay, so it looks like the remote machine is seeing either Meta-b/Meta-f or a high-order-bit stripped b/f.

> I want to know where the problem is and how I can fix it.

Well if you're seeing \342 and \346 the problem must be with the software which you're attempting to send this character to, not with the client, the connection, nor the telet/rlogin/ssh/whatever server that you're connecting to.

>I think it is a system level problem rather that a bash
>problem.

I think that it is more likely a bash configuration problem, because a system level problem would not pass a \342 or \346 along far enough to be displayed that way.

> Because:
>
>- The problem only occurs in 1 workstation that I log in, for rest of
>workstations, alt-b works fine. My local setting is the same for all of
>them.

This does tend to absolve your local client of responsibility, but otherwise doesn't narrow it down too much.

>- The problem is not related only with bash, but tcsh also. The alt-b is
>not working in tcsh either.

Hmm. That is suspicious. Perhaps it is a termcap/terminfo issue, which is sorta half-way between what I was thinking of when I was discounting the likelyhood of a "system" problem and an application problem.

>- The <ESC> b works as expected.

Okay, so the applications themselves allow editing in the expected manner.

>So, maybe it is a term setting problem? Can I fix it locally?

Sounds like it could be a bogus termcap/terminfo entry on the remote host.

>I.e., how can I know wether the problem comes from the mis-configuration
>of the bash, of xterm or termcap... or something that I don't know. How
>can I seperate?

Try this in bash:

cat >tmp.$$ <<=
  set input-meta on
=
bind -f tmp.$$
rm tmp.$$

and then see if the meta key works for you. If so, this means that the termcap/terminfo entry for your $TERM on that system is failing to set the "km"/"has_meta_key" flag.

Ken Pizzini