Influences the working of <BS>, <Del>, CTRL-W and CTRL-U in Insert mode. This is a list of items, separated by commas. Each item allows a way to backspace over something: value effect indent allow backspacing over autoindent eol allow backspacing over line breaks (join lines) start allow backspacing over the start of insert; CTRL-W and CTRL-U stop once at the start of insert. nostop like start, except CTRL-W and CTRL-U do not stop at the start of insert.

When the value is empty, Vi compatible backspacing is used, none of the ways mentioned for the items above are possible.

For backwards compatibility with version 5.4 and earlier: value effect 0 same as ":set backspace=" (Vi compatible) 1 same as ":set backspace=indent,eol" 2 same as ":set backspace=indent,eol,start" 3 same as ":set backspace=indent,eol,nostop"

See :fixdel if your <BS> or <Del> key does not do what you want. NOTE: This option is set to "" when 'compatible' is set.

(default "", set to "indent,eol,start" in defaults.vim)