I can’t type the ‘%’ (percentage) character in the mac terminal

terminal

Just recently, I notice that while using my mac terminal I can't type in the '%' character.

I can use any other character using the same key, for example '5' and '∞' (option+5), but when I want to use '%' (shift+5) I get the error terminal sound.

If I try to copy and paste text with a '%' included, it will copy all the text except for the '%'. If I connect to a server using ssh, ‘%’ works perfectly.

Any suggestions to fix this?

Best Answer

The problem was in the .inputrc file in my home directory. The first line of this file was like this:

% Cnd down arrows cycle through commands that match the start of a line

I had to changed the '%' at the beginning for a '#'. Still I don't know why that line had the percentage instead.