Fish Shell 4.5 Fixes Vi Mode Regressions and Improves History Search

Fish, the widely used and user-friendly command-line shell, has released version 4.5. This maintenance update continues refining the 4.x series with bug fixes and internal improvements.

The most noticeable changes resolve several Vi mode regressions introduced after version 4.4. The d,f key binding, which had stopped functioning, has been restored. An issue where the c,w binding mistakenly removed trailing spaces has also been fixed. Additionally, a crash triggered by c,i,w after accepting an autosuggestion has been addressed, and calling fish_vi_key_bindings with a mode argument no longer produces an error.

Workflow improvements are included as well. Pressing Ctrl+L will no longer interrupt history search, returning expected behavior. Cursor positioning during history search has also been corrected to properly handle characters of any width, enhancing usability in terminals that use wide glyphs.

Beyond bug fixes, Fish 4.5 completes a significant architectural transition started in earlier releases. The shell no longer reads the terminfo database to adjust behavior based on the TERM environment variable and has dropped its dependency on ncurses and terminfo altogether.

The ignore-terminfo feature flag—introduced and enabled by default in version 4.1—is now permanently active. While this means Fish may not operate correctly on legacy terminals such as the Data General Dasher D220 and Wyse WY-350, it is expected to function normally on modern terminal emulators.

Lastly, the update restores build support for Illumos, resolving an issue that had persisted since the 4.0 series.

For full details, consult the official changelog.