4. Keyboard tricks
In the previous section we saw that we can search the command history and recall one of the previous commands by pressing "Ctrl-r". We can also use the up-arrow and down-arrow to select one of the previous commands, and left-arrow and right-arrow to move the cursor while editing a command.
Some other key combinations that can be useful while editing commands are:
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"Ctrl-a" -- Move cursor to the beginning of the line.
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"Ctrl-e" -- Move cursor to the end of the line.
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"Alt-f" -- Move cursor forward one word.
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"Alt-b" -- Move cursor backward one word.
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"Ctrl-l" -- Clear the screen and move the cursor to the top. Same as the
clearcommand. -
"Ctrl-k" -- Kill (cut) text from the cursor location to the end of the line.
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"Ctrl-u" -- Cut text from the cursor location to the beginning of the line.
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"Ctrl-d" -- Delete the character at the cursor location.
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"Alt-d" -- Cut text from the cursor location to the end of the current word.
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"Ctrl-y" -- Yank (paste) text from the kill-ring and insert it at the cursor location.
Write a command and try to use some of these key combinations.
The shell can also help us with completion, if we press the TAB key while typing a command. For example try:
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echo /etc/n* -
Now type
cat /etc/n(without pressing Enter) and press TAB. Press TAB a second time. The shell shows us possible completions of the command that we are typing. -
Continue to add additional letters, and pressing TAB (maybe twice or more) after each letter. When the completion is unique, press Enter.