I identified the cause of this bug.

It happens when PS1 environment variable contains certain \e escape code
like '\[\e[01;32m\][\h:\w]\$\[\e[00m\] '.

In such a case, term.el gets messed up somehow and becomes
no longer able to handle meta (alt) keyboard input properly.


On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 6:09 AM, Ken Hori <fplemma@gmail.com> wrote:

> It happens on Linux as well
> (For example, Emacs 23.1.91 bzr revision 99310)
>
> So M-d (delete-next-word) on term-mode does not work, even though term-mode
> is supposed to be emulating a terminal as it is.
>
> I can confirm this bug has existed for at least 1 month.
> Perhaps reporting it again with a more noticeable title might get more
> attention that it deserves. This is a major bug that keeps me from using M-x
> term.
>
> On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 3:35 PM, Scott Bell <sctb@me.com> wrote:
>
>> Under Mac OS X 10.6.2, Emacs 23.1.90.1, in an M-x term buffer
>> running /bin/bash, I get the following undesired behavior in
>> Cocoa emacs (Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs -q) when typing
>> `one two M-DEL' where meta is typed as the alt/option key:
>>
>> $ one two˙
>>
>> This occurs even when ns-alternate-modifier is set to 'meta.
>> Running Emacs in a terminal window (Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/
>> Emacs -q -nw) works as I expect:
>>
>> $ one
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>