Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@simonsmith
Created May 16, 2014 11:05
Show Gist options
  • Star 11 You must be signed in to star a gist
  • Fork 5 You must be signed in to fork a gist
  • Save simonsmith/c725d03d5bc5c3898e6a to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save simonsmith/c725d03d5bc5c3898e6a to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
List of Bash hotkeys for Mac

Bash Keyboard Shortcuts - Mac

Enable Option Key as Meta in iTerm. Set as Esc+ - http://stackoverflow.com/a/438892

Moving the cursor

  • 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 + xx Toggle between the start of line and current cursor position

Editing

  • Ctrl + L Clear the Screen, similar to the clear command
  • Ctrl + u Cut/delete the line before the cursor position.
  • 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.
  • 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 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

  • Ctrl + r Recall the last command including the specified character(s) (equivalent to : vim ~/.bash_history).
  • 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)
  • Alt + . Use the last word of the previous command
  • Ctrl + s Go back to the next most recent command. (beware to not execute it from a terminal because this will also launch its XOFF).
  • Ctrl + o Execute the command found via Ctrl+r or Ctrl+s
  • Ctrl + g Escape from history searching mode

Process control

  • 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. To return to it later enter fg 'process name' (foreground).
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment