--- tags: cheatsheet, terminal, bash, zsh, shortcuts, english --- # Terminal Shortcuts ## Default shortcuts For Ubuntu's default keybinding settings (i.e Emacs keybindings) ### Insert previous arguments - Alt+.: insert last argument from last command. - Alt+number+.: insert #nth last argument from last command. - Alt+- , number , Alt+., **zsh:** Alt+-+number+.: 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 - Alt+0+.: insert first argument of last command = `mv` - Alt+2+.: insert last 2nd argument of last command = `foo` - up , Ctrl+w: last command without the last word = `mv foo` ### Cut/Paste commands (relative to cursor's position) - Ctrl+w: cuts last word - Alt+d: cuts next word - Ctrl+k: cuts everything after - Ctrl+u, **zsh:** Alt+w: cuts everything before - **zsh:** Ctrl+u: cuts the entire command *(In bash you can combine Ctrl+u , Ctrl+k)* - Ctrl+y: paste characters previously cut with any **Cut command**. *In bash you can chain **cut commands**, and Ctrl+y will paste them all.* ### Move cursor - Ctrl+left: move to last word - Ctrl+right: move to next word - home or Ctrl+a: move to start of command - end or Ctrl+e: move to end of command ### Other - Ctrl+_: undo last edit *(very useful when exceeding Ctrl+w)* ### 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 Alt+. to go as back as you want, then use Alt+: to iterate through the arguments #### Example Last command is echo 1 2 3 4 5 - Alt+.: `5` - Alt+.+:: `4` - Alt+.+:+:: `3` - Alt+.+:+:+:: `2` - Alt+.+:+:+:+:: `1` - Alt+.+:+:+:+:+:: `echo` source: ## Other examples ### Common usecases Let's consider the last command to be: mv foo bar up , Ctrl+w: last command without the last word = `mv foo` Alt+0+.: 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 Ctrl+w 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 Ctrl+w, you'd have to repeat it 12 times. --- It would be great to have similar shortcuts that only stops at the **space character**