knowledge/bash-zsh_TerminalShorcuts.md

# Terminal Shortcuts

## Default shortcuts

For Ubuntu's default keybinding settings (i.e Emacs keybindings)

### Insert previous arguments

- <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>.</kbd>: insert last argument from last command.
- <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>number</kbd>+<kbd>.</kbd>: insert #nth last argument from last command.
- <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>-</kbd> , <kbd>number</kbd> , <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>.</kbd>, **zsh:** <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>-</kbd>+<kbd>number</kbd>+<kbd>.</kbd>: insert #nth first argument from last command.

In Linux you can repeat commands to go back in history

#### Example

Last command is:

    mv foo bar

- <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>0</kbd>+<kbd>.</kbd>: insert first argument of last command = `mv`
- <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>2</kbd>+<kbd>.</kbd>: insert last 2nd argument of last command = `foo`
- <kbd>up</kbd> , <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>w</kbd>: last command without the last word = `mv foo`

### Cut/Paste commands

(relative to cursor's position)

- <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>w</kbd>: cuts last word
- <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>d</kbd>: cuts next word
- <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>k</kbd>: cuts everything after
- <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>u</kbd>, **zsh:** <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>w</kbd>: cuts everything before
- **zsh:** <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>u</kbd>: cuts the entire command *(In bash you can combine <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>u</kbd> , <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>k</kbd>)*
- <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>y</kbd>: paste characters previously cut with any **Cut command**. *In bash you can chain **cut commands**, and <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>y</kbd> will paste them all.*

### Move cursor

- <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>left</kbd>: move to last word
- <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>right</kbd>: move to next word
- <kbd>home</kbd> or <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>a</kbd>: move to start of command
- <kbd>end</kbd> or <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>e</kbd>: move to end of command

### Other

- <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>_</kbd>: undo last edit *(very useful when exceeding <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>w</kbd>)*

### To see all shortcuts available

- **bash:** `bind -lp`
- **zsh:** `bindkey -L`

## Custom shortcuts

### Iterate through arguments

only works in zsh, and probably only Linux

#### Description

Insert any argument of a previous command by iterating one by one until selection

#### Setup Instructions

run this:

    autoload -Uz copy-earlier-word
    zle -N copy-earlier-word
    bindkey "^[:" copy-earlier-word

*(to make this permanent, add it to your `~/.zshrc` and restart shell)*

Now use <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>.</kbd> to go as back as you want, then use <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd> to iterate through the arguments

#### Example

Last command is

    echo 1 2 3 4 5

- <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>.</kbd>: `5`
- <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>.</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>: `4`
- <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>.</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>: `3`
- <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>.</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>: `2`
- <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>.</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>: `1`
- <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>.</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>+<kbd>:</kbd>: `echo`

source: <https://stackoverflow.com/a/34861762/3163120>

## Other examples

### Common usecases

Let's consider the last command to be:

    mv foo bar

<kbd>up</kbd> , <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>w</kbd>: last command without the last word = `mv foo`

<kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>0</kbd>+<kbd>.</kbd>: first argument of last command = `mv`

## Limitations

 "words" only includes `a-zA-Z` characters, so any symbol character will stop word-shortcuts.

So if last argument was a url and you want to erase it with <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>w</kbd> it will be a pain.

E.g: `curl -I --header "Connection: Keep-Alive" https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38176514/re-run-previous-command-with-different-arguments`

To erase that **url** using <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>w</kbd>, you'd have to repeat it 12 times.

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It would be great to have similar shortcuts that only stops at the **space character**