mjhjmtu

In an effort to vim-theme Readline, I see there are two

set editing-mode vi
set keymap vi

I believe I understand what editing-mode vi does providing different VIM keymaps to edit, and insert text and such.

What does the set keymap vi do juxtaposed to set editing-mode vi? What extra do I get out of it?

There are a lot of really bad overly complex answers. Things I don't care about emacs (in any fashion), commands that are undocumented but otherwise the same as documented commands, what my defaults are (I'm obviously trying to change them).

It is equivalent to, and alias for, set keymap vi-command and is used to begin defining custom keybinds when in vi-command mode.

So, in your ~/.inputrc you could use it like so:

set keymap vi-command
# or set keymap vi (or, for that matter: set keymap vi-move)
# these are for vi-command mode
"e[A": history-search-backward
"e[B": history-search-forward

The other valid option (after setting editing-mode to vi) is keymap vi-insert for the remaining modal offering.

What does “set keymap vi” actually do?

Mark the point that start a list of key definitions that apply only to the keymap named.

The keymap names can be

The set of legal keymap names is emacs, emacs-standard, emacs-meta, emacs-ctlx, vi, vi-move, vi-command, and vi-insert. vi is equivalent to vi-command; emacs is equivalent to emacs-standard.

The modes vi, vi-move and vi-command seem to be equivalent names for the same.

So, from the point in .inputrc file that a keymap appear until a different keymap gets activated (or the mode is changed (vi and emacs)) the key settings apply the the keymap named in the starting keymap command.