can't type lower cased e in amazon ec2 (Amazon Linux)

Question

After a few days of operation on my new ec2 build, the following happens:

1. I log into SSH, everything is fine, I do my coding
2. I return the next day, and log into SSH
3. I cannot type a lower cased e anymore--I get the error ding when I type it
4. I try to ssh from a different computer, same problem
5. I reboot the server, same problem
6. I open nano or vi and e works fine, just not in bash or sh
7. I terminate the server, create a new one, install from scratch, a few days later it happens again

This is baffling! Where do I even start to troubleshoot?

My Local Machine Setup(s):

• windows XP or 7
• putty (latest) or cygwin/openssh

The EC2 setup

• Amazon Linux (default options)
• node.js
• iptables forwarding port 80 to node on port 8003
• emacs, npm, and openssl-devel

• no other mods

• Here is my /etc/profile

• Here is my /etc/inputrc
• Here is my ~/.bashrc and ~/.bash_profile
• output of env

Output of stty -a while I can't type an e

sh-4.1$ stty -a
speed 38400 baud; rows 30; columns 95; line = 0;
intr = ^C; quit = ^\; erase = ^?; kill = ^U; eof = ^D; eol = <undef>; eol2 = <undef>;
swtch = <undef>; start = ^Q; stop = ^S; susp = ^Z; rprnt = ^R; werase = ^W; lnext = ^V;
flush = ^O; min = 1; time = 0;
-parenb -parodd cs8 -hupcl -cstopb cread -clocal -crtscts -cdtrdsr
-ignbrk -brkint -ignpar -parmrk -inpck -istrip -inlcr -igncr icrnl ixon -ixoff -iuclc -ixany
-imaxbel -iutf8
opost -olcuc -ocrnl onlcr -onocr -onlret -ofill -ofdel nl0 cr0 tab0 bs0 vt0 ff0
isig icanon iexten echo echoe echok -echonl -noflsh -xcase -tostop -echoprt echoctl echoke

In case it helps someone else with a similar issue, I created a script (called sub) to convert upper-cased E to lower-cased, then echo the command back. Then I run it in backticks to get an e on the command line::

#!/bin/sh
echo ${@//E/e}

> `sub Emacs /Etc/profilE`

UPDATES

1. This breaks for all users
2. In bash only (csh works fine)
3. In emacs edit mode only

I've created a chat room to discuss this issue and hone in the solution.

Answer 1

You've mistakenly put:

export EDITOR=/usr/bin/emacs

into your /etc/inputrc. This will map the letter 'e' to nothing at all.

Remove that and you should be fine.