Table of Contents

Shortcuts

  • ^D logout/exit (only if current command line is empty)
  • ^K cut
  • ^Y paste
  • ^E go the the end of the line (end key)
  • ^A go the the beginning of the line (home key)
  • ^R bck-i-search find pattern in shell history
  • ^T swap two letters
  • ^W clear word
  • ^U clear line
  • ^L clear screen
  • ^Z stop a process, which can be restarted either in the foreground by typing “fg” (foreground), or in the background with “bg”

Notez qu'apres un ^U et un ^W il est possible de le recoller avec un ^Y Sous X, vous pouvez toujours utiliser shift + insert pour coller du texte surligné a la souris Enfin, c'est deja pas mal, mais la touche alt (meta) peut elle aussi servir :

  • M-f go forward word-by-word
  • M-b go backward word-by-word
  • M-. insert last command argument, just like $!

N.B. xterm users, you must activate “meta send escape”.

Emacs/VI mode

Bash can use Emacs or VI shortcuts, using the “set” command.

Like all GNU tools, “Emacs” is the default mode.

Emacs

set -o emacs

ctrl-a	Move cursor to beginning of line
ctrl-e	Move cursor to end of line
meta-b	Move cursor back one word
meta-f	Move cursor forward one word
ctrl-w	Cut the last word
ctrl-u	Cut everything before the cursor 
ctrl-k	Cut everything after the cursor
ctrl-y	Paste the last thing to be cut
ctrl-_	Undo

VI

set -o vi 

h	Move cursor left
l	Move cursor right
A	Move cursor to end of line and put in insert mode
0	(zero) Move cursor to beginning of line (doesn't put in insert mode) 
i	Put into insert mode at current position
a	Put into insert mode after current position
dd	Delete line (saved for pasting)
D	Delete text after current cursor position (saved for pasting)
p	Paste text that was deleted
j	Move up through history commands
k	Move down through history commands
u	Undo

inputrc usage

History

Shortcuts can be customized using /etc/inputrc or ~/.inputrc; here are the lines to add to have a csh-style history: 

"\e[A": history-search-backward
"\e[B": history-search-forward



Completion

set show-all-if-ambiguous on
set visible-stats on

The first command allows completion by pressing just [Tab], the second command adds a sign for each filetype (* for executable file)

Misc. tweaks

Activate timestamping in 'history': 

export HISTTIMEFORMAT='%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S '

Useful links