ssh backspace deletes one character instead of two (utf-8 symbols)

Question

Im accessing a remote computer using ssh and running a bash command to input symbols using standard input stream:

read test;echo $test

It's ok to input english letters and use backspace to delete them, then input other characters and iterate this steps any amount of times. But it becomes a disaster when I use other utf-8 symbols, like russian ones, which require 2 bytes instead of 1, as english ones do. E.g., I input:

абвгдежз

After that, I use backspace for 8 times, and input other symbols:

привет

And press Enter key. But instead of the result which would equal my last input, I get the following:

абвгпривет

Which means that 8 backspace deleted only 4 symbols.

I do use linux ubuntu 12.04. Tried different consoles: standard one, terminator; different types of backspace options (as ASCII-del or Ctrl+H); setting $LC_TYPE to ru_RU.UTF-8, but nothing works. There is no such a problem using local console. Thank you in advance.

update: I've also got a video of this issue, please watch it at youtube

Answer 1

You can work around this by running

stty iutf8

on the server each time you ssh there. Unfortunately this bug exists since 2005 year, watch though the debian forums for details. You may also want to add this line at the end of your .bashrc file.

Answer 2

You need to set LC_CTYPE to a UTF-8 locale, e.g. ru_RU.UTF-8 or en_US.UTF-8. You can list available locales using locale -a.