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Linux Commands

This document lists many keyboard shortcuts for navigating and editing text in the bash shell using either emacs or vi mode. Some key shortcuts include using Ctrl+a and Ctrl+e to go to the start or end of a line, Ctrl+f and Ctrl+b to move forward or backward a character, and Ctrl+k and Ctrl+u to cut text. History can be navigated with Ctrl+p, Ctrl+n, and commands repeated with !. Process control involves Ctrl+c to interrupt and Ctrl+z to suspend.

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Vishwas Beede
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77 views

Linux Commands

This document lists many keyboard shortcuts for navigating and editing text in the bash shell using either emacs or vi mode. Some key shortcuts include using Ctrl+a and Ctrl+e to go to the start or end of a line, Ctrl+f and Ctrl+b to move forward or backward a character, and Ctrl+k and Ctrl+u to cut text. History can be navigated with Ctrl+p, Ctrl+n, and commands repeated with !. Process control involves Ctrl+c to interrupt and Ctrl+z to suspend.

Uploaded by

Vishwas Beede
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Bash Keyboard Shortcuts

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

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


For example, to move to a directory 'sample1'; Type cd sam ; then press TAB and
ENTER.
type just enough characters to uniquely identify the directory you wish to open.

Special keys: Tab, Backspace, Enter, Esc


Text Terminals send characters (bytes), not key strokes.
Special keys such as Tab, Backspace, Enter and Esc are encoded as control
characters.
Control characters are not printable, they display in the terminal as ^ and are
intended to have an effect on applications.

Ctrl+I = Tab
Ctrl+J = Newline
Ctrl+M = Enter
Ctrl+[ = Escape

Many terminals will also send control characters for keys in the digit row:
Ctrl+2 ? ^@
Ctrl+3 ? ^[ Escape
Ctrl+4 ? ^\
Ctrl+5 ? ^]
Ctrl+6 ? ^^
Ctrl+7 ? ^_ Undo
Ctrl+8 ? ^? Backward-delete-char

Ctrl+v tells the terminal to not interpret the following character, so Ctrl+v Ctrl-
I will display a tab character,
similarly Ctrl+v ENTER will display the escape sequence for the Enter key: ^M

History:
Ctrl + r Recall the last command including the specified character(s)
searches the command history as you type.
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)

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
!! Repeat last command
!n Repeat from the last command: args n e.g. !:2 for the second argumant.
!n:m Repeat from the last command: args from n to m. e.g. !:2-3 for the
second and third.
!n:$ Repeat from the last command: args n to the last argument.
!n:p Print last command starting with n
!$ 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:
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)
Then use PgUp/PgDn for navigation
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).
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

grep "mystring" /tmp/myfile

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