Which bash shortcuts/tips are available?

Question

Depending on his type of usage, an Ubuntu user may spend a lot of time in front of a terminal. Knowing some keyboard shortcuts can make you save a lot of time (ex: copy/paste text, move between the prompt text, etc).

So which bash tips/shortcuts do you guys know?

Are we really talking about "terminals" here or shells? There's a big difference. — Nathan Osman, Mar 17 '13 at 23:00
I was asking for tips to help improve usage on gnome terminal or tty's ("black screens with a blinking cursor" :)). Would "bash shortcuts/tips" be more accurate? I have only used bash so I really don't know if those tips apply to other shells. — Salem, Mar 17 '13 at 23:32
I'm really on edge about whether this should be closed or not... But I'll leave it open for now. — Seth, Mar 18 '13 at 01:01
See this popular question for all manner of shortcuts, just like the ones mentioned here. — , Mar 18 '13 at 01:38
Most of the shortcuts listed in the first answer below apply to Bash and not the terminal. — Nathan Osman, Mar 18 '13 at 02:26
And of course now I'm on the fence about whether this should be reopened or not... — Seth, Mar 19 '13 at 19:01

Salem · Answer 1 · 2013-03-16T21:00:54.607

Output management

Shift+PageUp/Shift+PageDown - Scrolling the terminal output. This is very handy when using an tty: in Gnome Terminal works the same way as dragging the scroolbar.
Ctrl+s - Pauses the output: the command keeps running, only their output stops.
Ctrl+q - Resume the output: when output is paused, this will make the command show their output again.
Ctrl+l - Clear terminal output.

Prompt text manipulation

Ctrl+u - Deletes all the text currently typed in the prompt.
Ctrl+k - Deletes all the text from the right of the cursor
Ctrl+w - Deletes a word, from right to left.
Ctrl+a - Move to the beginning of the text.
Ctrl+e - Move to the end of the typed text.
Ctrl+Left/Right arrow - Move to the beginning/end of the previous/next word.

Command execution

Tab - Lists available commands from the typed text.
Up/Down arows - Shows previous/next command executed.
Ctrl+r - Searches the last command executed from the given text.
Ctrl+c - Stops the current command.
Ctrl+z - Sends the program to the background. Can then be managed using fg/jobs.
Ctrl+d - Logs out from the current terminal. Similar to typing exit.

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 16 '13 at 20:34

There are many more, but ones I use a lot:

Repeat/insert the previous command: !!

$ which rename
/usr/bin/rename
$ file $(!!)
file $(which rename)
/usr/bin/rename: symbolic link to `/etc/alternatives/rename'

Select words from the previous command: !:1, !:2, etc.

$ ls /var/lib/logrotate/*
/var/lib/logrotate/status
$ cat !:1
cat /var/lib/logrotate/*
... contents ...

Fix typo in previous command: ^x^y and ^x

$ lls
lls: command not found
$ ^l 
ls 
... listing ...
$ ^s^l
ll
... long listing ...

Which bash shortcuts/tips are available?

2 Answers2

Output management

Prompt text manipulation

Command execution