Ctrl-w and ctrl-u in a default emacs do not even do the same things as in readline. C-w is (usually) kill-region (similar to what most editors call "cut"). C-

Ctrl-w and ctrl-u in a default emacs do not even do the same things as in readline. C-w is (usually) kill-region (similar to what most editors call "cut"). C-u is universal-argument, that is used as a prefix for other commands to add arguments.