vim loses left/right cursor keys in insert mode when editing SQL

I can't reproduce this bug.

Can you try with "vim -u NONE foo.sql" to make sure it's not one of your settings in your ~/.vimrc which is causing the problem?

Yes, the current version of ftplugin/sql.vim imaps <Left>, <Right>, and uses <C-c> as a sort of mapleader for insert mode. There are variables you can set to customize the maps. You'll probably want to read the documentation in :h sql-completion.

This should not be invalid. It was fixed in debian bug 560083 (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=560083). Debian vim 2:7.2.436+hg~e12b9d992389-1, but Ubuntu Lucid is only at 2:7.2.330-1ubuntu3. Can anyone suggest a workaround?

To answer my own question, I have a workaround that should work until Ubuntu is brought up to vim 2:7.2.436.

1) Download sql.diff from debbugs #560083.
2) Make a copy of the system-wide vim runtime: cp -a /usr/share/vim/vim72 /tmp/vim-runtime
3) Apply sql.diff to the copy of vim runtime: cd /tmp/vim-runtime; patch -p2 < /tmp/sql.diff
4) patch will report that autoload/sqlcomplete.vim and ftplugin/sql.vim were updated. Copy these to ~/.vim:
   mkdir -p ~/.vim/autoload && cp /tmp/vim-runtime/autoload/sqlcomplete.vim ~/.vim/autoload;
   mkdir -p ~/.vim/ftplugin && cp /tmp/vim-runtime/ftplugin/sql.vim

Now arrows should work when editing a sql file.

diff / patch file that fixes two sql vim-runtime files

vim-runtime file after applying patch. Goes in ~/.vim/autoload

vim-runtime file after applying patch. Goes in ~/.vim/ftplugin

This has been fixed in debian vim 2:7.2.436+hg~e12b9d992389-1

This bug was fixed in the package vim - 2:7.3.035+hg~8fdc12103333-1ubuntu1

---------------
vim (2:7.3.035+hg~8fdc12103333-1ubuntu1) natty; urgency=low

  * Merge with Debian unstable (lp: #662276):
    - Use case-insensitive matching for month and day of week names in
      crontab's syntax file (lp: #517019 aka Debian bug #568378).
    - Fix sqlcomplete's <Left>/<Right> maps so they don't interfere with
      normal usage (lp: #584797 aka Debian bug #560083).
    - [7.2.386] KDE 3.1 focus hack causes problems for other window managers
      (lp: #535341).
  * Remaining changes:
    - debian/control:
      + Drop vim-lesstif package and lesstif2-dev build-dependency.
      + Rename Vcs-* to XS-Debian-Vcs-*.
    - debian/rules:
      + Don't build the vim-lesstif variant in Ubuntu.
    - debian/runtime/debian.vim.in:
      + Add Launchpad integration to the Help menu if launchpad-integration is
        installed.
    - debian/runtime/vimrc:
      + "syntax on" is a sane default for non-tiny vim
    - debian/patches/debian/ubuntu-grub-syntax.patch:
      + Add Ubuntu-specific "quiet" keyword.

vim (2:7.3.035+hg~8fdc12103333-1) unstable; urgency=low

  * Pull patches 001 - 035.
    + More robust YAML highlighting. (Closes: #535682)
  * debian/rules:
    + Stop overriding CFLAGS on the command-line when invoking make. Upstream
      enforces an upper-limit of 1 for _FORTIFY_SOURCE due to the use of
      flexible arrays in nested structs, which improperly cause Vim to crash
      with _FORTIFY_SOURCE=2.
    + Use DEB_HOST_ARCH_OS instead of DEB_HOST_GNU_SYSTEM to determine whether
      Linux-specific functionality is enabled.
    + Use dpkg-vendor to change build configuration when building on Ubuntu.
      Thanks to Michael Bienia for the patch.
  * Make helpztags capable of generating tags files for non-English help
    files. (Closes: #600248)
  * Debian runtime:
    + Add natty as a recognized distribution. (Closes: #600560)
    + Add metapackages as a recognized section. (Closes: #600562)
    + Remove etch as a recognized distribution.
  * debian/control: Add dpkg-dev (>= 1.15.1) Build-Depends for dpkg-vendor.

vim (2:7.3.000+hg~ee53a39d5896-1) unstable; urgency=low

  * New upstream release.
  * debian/rules:
    + Explicitly use the dynamic loading Python interfaces.
    + Remove cleanup from clean target which are now properly handled by
      upstream's Makefile.
  * Update version information in documentation.

vim (2:7.3f.20100812+hg~20e83abf88b1-1) experimental; urgency=low

  * Merge latest 7.3f pre-release.
    + Correctly restore multi-byte terminal titles when exiting Vim. (Closes:
      #558153)
    + Highlight text inside math zones correctly for tex files. (Closes:
      #509908)
    + Recognize nested cite regions in tex files. (Closes: #444288)
    + Support syntax highlighting of bash's $"". (Closes: #473736)
  * Patches merged upstream:
    + perl-indent-block.patch
    + logcheck-ftplugin.patch
    + tex-syntax-verbatim-spell.patch
  * Enable Lua scripting.
    + Add liblua5.1-0-dev and lua5.1 to Build-Depends.
    + Enable lua interface via dynamic loading.
  * Switch Perl interface to dynamic loading.
  * debi...