Bash Keyboard Shortcuts | ReadLine Tips

Read Line is a editor every body uses but no one knows about. If you have used Linux for anything before, you have used ReadLine. Doesn't ring any bells? Well, that is because, not a lot of people call it that. It is more frequently termed as the "Bash Prompt" or something along those lines.

dsp@freblogg:$ |

So, this prompt you see every time you open a terminal, has got a name. Its called ReadLine. A really lax name, isn't it?  No wonder it didn't catch on.

So anyway, here are a few keyboard shortcuts to help you type efficiently in ReadLine and become a Con-fu master!

Ctrl + w              :  Kill the Previous typed word

Ctrl + a               :  Go to the beginning of the line

Ctrl + u               :  Delete everything from the cursor till the Beginning of the command

Ctrl + k               :  Delete everything from the Cursor to the End of the command

Ctrl + Shift + -  :  Undo the last action

Alt + t                   :  Swaps the last two typed words 

[Especially useful when you want to swap the  last two arguments]

Alt + u                   :  Converts the current character to uppercase

Alt + l                     :  Converts the current character to lowercase

Alt +  .                 :  Paste the last argument of the previous command at the cursor

[Can be very useful when, you type "cd dir_name" only to realize that the directory doesn't exist and you have to create it with "mkdir dir_name".  You can also use "mkdir !$" for the same  ]

Alt +1  |  Alt + .     :  Pulls the first argument from the last command

[Hold Alt and press the number and '.']

Alt +2  |  Alt + .      :  Pulls the second argument from the last command and so on ...

And finally one more useful shortcut

Alt + ⇾ / ⇽            :  To move the cursor to the next/previous word. Very useful if you keep pressing the arrow keys to move around

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So, Try out all these commands and improve your Terminal typing efficiency. And, remember the wise words of Brews Lee,

The only way to achieve Con-fu mastery is by Practice            ||  Brews Lee

Since, we are on the topic of editors, Vim is another powerful editor that does a lot of stuff. So, look at our recent article on Vim plugins , NERDTree
So, Keep Practicing and Keep Learning!

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Image Credits : Terminal Icon  - Icon Archive