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Terminal Shortcuts

Bash Keyboard Shortcuts

Mon Dec 29 19:53:08 PST 2014 Link

Moving the cursor:

Keys Description
Ctrl + a Go to the beginning of the line (Home)
Ctrl + e Go to the End of the line (End)
Ctrl + p Previous command (Up arrow)
Ctrl + n Next command (Down arrow)
Alt + b Back (left) one word
Alt + f Forward (right) one word
Ctrl + f Forward one character
Ctrl + b Backward one character
Ctrl + x Toggle between the start of line and current cursor position

Editing:

Keys Description
Ctrl + L Clear the Screen, similar to the clear command
Alt + Del Delete the Word before the cursor.
Alt + d Delete the Word after the cursor.
Ctrl + d Delete character under the cursor
Ctrl + h Delete character before the cursor (Backspace)
Ctrl + w Cut the Word before the cursor to the clipboard.
Ctrl + k Cut the Line after the cursor to the clipboard.
Ctrl + u Cut/delete the Line before the cursor to the clipboard.
Alt + t Swap current word with previous
Ctrl + t Swap the last two characters before the cursor (typo).
Esc + t Swap the last two words before the cursor.
ctrl + y Paste the last thing to be cut (yank)
Alt + u UPPER capitalize every character from the cursor to the end of the current word.
Alt + l Lower the case of every character from the cursor to the end of the current word.
Alt + c Capitalize the character under the cursor and move to the end of the word.
Alt + r Cancel the changes and put back the line as it was in the history (revert).
ctrl + _ Undo
TAB Tab completion for file/directory names

History:

Keys Description
Ctrl + r Recall the last command including the specified character(s) searches the command history as you type.
Ctrl + p Previous command in history (i.e. walk back through the command history)
Ctrl + n Next command in history (i.e. walk forward through the command history)
Ctrl + s Go back to the next most recent command. (WARNING) toggles XOFF in terminal.
Ctrl + o Execute the command found via Ctrl+r or Ctrl+s
Ctrl + g Escape from history searching mode
!! Repeat last command
!abc Run last command starting with abc
!abc:p Print last command starting with abc
!$ Last argument of previous command
ALT + . Last argument of previous command
!* All arguments of previous command
^abc­^­def Run previous command, replacing abc with def

Process control:

Keys Description
Ctrl + C Interrupt/Kill whatever you are running (SIGINT)
Ctrl + l Clear the screen
Ctrl + s Stop output to the screen (for long running verbose commands)
Ctrl + q Allow output to the screen (if previously stopped using command above)
Ctrl + D Send an EOF marker, unless disabled by an option, this will close the current shell (EXIT)
Ctrl + Z Send the signal SIGTSTP to the current task, which suspends it.

Emacs mode vs Vi Mode

All the above assume that bash is running in the default Emacs setting, if you prefer this can be switched to Vi shortcuts instead.

Set Vi Mode in bash:

$ set -o vi

Set Emacs Mode in bash:

$ set -o emacs

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