The default shell on most Linux operating systems is Bash. And as with every other application (which I use extensively) the first thing I do is to search/use Keyboard shortcuts.
First I checked the Bash Reference Manual, however there was no mention of any keyboard shortcut in that manual.
A search in Google lead me to this post (via Digg). For those who are lazy to click on that link, here is the list 🙂
Ctrl + A Go to the beginning of the line you are currently typing on Ctrl + E Go to the end of the line you are currently typing on Ctrl + L Clears the Screen, similar to the clear command Ctrl + U Clears the line before the cursor position. If you are at the end of the line, clears the entire line. Ctrl + H Same as backspace Ctrl + R Let’s you search through previously used commands Ctrl + C Kill whatever you are running Ctrl + D Exit the current shell Ctrl + Z Puts whatever you are running into a suspended background process. fg restores it. Ctrl + W Delete the word before the cursor Ctrl + K Clear the line after the cursor Ctrl + T Swap the last two characters before the cursor Esc + T Swap the last two words before the cursor Alt + F Move cursor forward one word on the current line Alt + B Move cursor backward one word on the current line Tab Auto-complete files and folder names
To be honest I didn’t know half of these shortcuts.
I am definitely going to use Ctrl + L extensively and will try to avoid Ctrl +C (Many a times rather than copying a line of text, I terminate a program by using Ctrl + C !! )
Comments on this entry are closed.
In case you’re interested, I’ve published a more extensive cheatsheet with Bash keyboard shortcuts at http://www.bigsmoke.us/readline/shortcuts
I’d also like to mention that they’re actually Readline shortcuts and therefore available in many more command-line applications than just Bash.
Rowan , thanks for the heads up.