Linux Bash – Shortcuts To Boost Your Productivity

Let’s face it… in most of the cases (in the end of the day or night) you will be on a linux shell trying to hack some last minute changes to ‘production’. Ya… you know it’s something you should not do, but life is stronger than anything, no?
Here are few shortcuts to help you finish your day:

Command Editing Shortcuts

• Ctrl + a – go to the start of the command line.
• Ctrl + e – go to the end of the command line.
• Ctrl + k – delete from cursor to the end of the command line – save you lots of time.
• Ctrl + u – delete from cursor to the start of the command line, I’m not using it, but still a good one.
• Ctrl + w – delete from cursor to start of word (i.e. delete backward one word)
• Ctrl + y – paste word or text that was cut using one of the deletion shortcuts (such as the one above) after the cursor
• Ctrl + xx – move between start of command line and current cursor position (and back again)
• Alt + b – move backward one word (or go to start of word the cursor is currently on)
• Alt + f – move forward one word (or go to end of word the cursor is currently on)
• Alt + d – delete to end of word starting at cursor (whole word if cursor is at the beginning of word)
• Alt + c – capitalize to end of word starting at cursor (whole word if cursor is at the beginning of word)
• Alt + u – make uppercase from cursor to end of word
• Alt + l – make lowercase from cursor to end of word
• Alt + t – swap current word with previous
• Ctrl + f – move forward one character
• Ctrl + b – move backward one character
• Ctrl + d – delete character under the cursor
• Ctrl + h – delete character before the cursor
• Ctrl + t – swap character under cursor with the previous one

Command Recall Shortcuts

• Ctrl + r – search the history backwards
• Ctrl + g – escape from history searching mode
• 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)
• Alt + . – use the last word of the previous command

Command Control Shortcuts

• Ctrl + l – clear the screen
• Ctrl + s – stops the output to the screen (for long running verbose command)
• Ctrl + q – allow output to the screen (if previously stopped using command above)
• Ctrl + c – terminate the command
• Ctrl + z – suspend/stop the command

Bash Bang (!) Commands

Bash also has some handy features that use the ! (bang) to allow you to do some cool stuff.

• !! – run last command
• !blah – run the most recent command that starts with ‘blah’ (e.g. !ls)
• !blah:p – print out the command that !blah would run (also adds it as the latest command in the command history)
• !$ – the last word of the previous command (same as Alt + .)
• !$:p – print out the word that !$ would substitute
• !* – the previous command except for the last word (e.g. if you type ‘find some_file.txt /‘, then !*would give you ‘find some_file.txt‘)
• !*:p – print out what !* would substitute

Btw, if you are Eclipse power user and with to have bash inside it:

• Go to Menu Run/ External Tools / external  Tools
• Click on Config (or on Mac – Add external tools) then on ‘Program’ (inside the right sidebar) and select ‘new’
• in the Name field, type Bash
• In location type /bin/bash
• In argument type -s -i
• In the common tab check ‘Allocate Console’ if it’s not
• Click on Apply
• Then you just have to click on the External tools icon and select ‘Bash’ – Done.