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Minimum List of Useful Bash Shortcuts

This document provides a concise list of useful bash shortcuts organized into categories like navigation, editing, processes, and history. Some examples include Ctrl+a to go to the beginning of the line, Alt+b to move back one word, Ctrl+l to clear the screen, and Ctrl+r for reverse searching the bash history. The shortcuts are accompanied by simple methods for memorizing them, like relating Ctrl+a to the first letter of the alphabet or Ctrl+z to "zzzz" for sleep.

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Ariel Armijo
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32 views2 pages

Minimum List of Useful Bash Shortcuts

This document provides a concise list of useful bash shortcuts organized into categories like navigation, editing, processes, and history. Some examples include Ctrl+a to go to the beginning of the line, Alt+b to move back one word, Ctrl+l to clear the screen, and Ctrl+r for reverse searching the bash history. The shortcuts are accompanied by simple methods for memorizing them, like relating Ctrl+a to the first letter of the alphabet or Ctrl+z to "zzzz" for sleep.

Uploaded by

Ariel Armijo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Minimum list of useful bash

shortcuts
December 08, 2019 · 3 mins to read

I often end up googling “bash shortcuts” and every result lists a huge list of shortcuts available in bash,
some of them are overridden by other utils, like fzf or by your terminal itself, some of them are not that
helpful. I compiled the minimal list of shortcuts and commands which can increase your productivity in
bash.

Note: MacOS iTerm 2 users must turn on meta key - https://coderwall.com/p/_lmivq

A good visual cheatsheat of shortucts taken from Clement Chastagnol’s article:

Also, in the description I’ll say how I memorize the shortcuts.

Shortcut Description Memorization

Navigation

a is the 1st letter of


Ctrl + a Go to the beginning of the line. alphabet, hence the
beginning of the line.

Ctrl + e Go to the end of the line. e nd.

Move cursor back one word, will jump to the current word’s
Alt + b rst character or if already there to the previous word’s rst b ack.
character.

Move cursor forward one word, will jump to the next word’s
Alt + f f orward.
rst character.
Shortcut Description Memorization

Toggle between the current cursor position and the


Ctrl + x  
beginning of the line. Very handy when you want x typo in
x
the program name and come back.

Edit

just remember it’s Ctrl


Ctrl + _ Undo.
+ Shift + -

Ctrl + u Delete the line before the cursor.

Ctrl + k Delete the line after the cursor.

Ctrl + w Delete the word before the cursor. w ord.

Ctrl + y Paste the last deleted item. y ank.

Ctrl + x ,
Edit the current command in your $EDITOR .
Ctrl + e

Processes

Ctrl + l Clear screen c l s (hello BASIC)

Ctrl + z Move current process to background. Use fg to bring back. z Zzzz (sleep)

Ctrl + c Send SIGINT to the current process.

Exit the current shell (also works in SSH, so need to type


Ctrl + d d own
exit ).

Enter , ~ ,
Exit stalled SSH session
.

History

Ctrl + r Reverse search of bash history. r everse

All other shortcuts can be found in man bash . To understand the syntax read Readline Notation section
rst and then move on to Commands for Moving .

Another helpful cheatsheat with Bash shortcuts and features can be found at iptheweb/bash-shortcuts-
cheat-sheet.

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