Handy Bash Keystrokes
Handy Bash command line editing keystrokes
(using default Emacs mode):
Moving around:
Ctrl-a go to beginning of line
Ctrl-e go to the end of the line
Alt-f move one word forward
Alt-b move one word backward
Ctrl-f move cursor one character forward
Ctrl-b move cursor one character backward
Ctrl-c break/cancel command
Ctrl-l clear the terminal
History manipulation:
Ctrl-p go to previous command
Ctrl-n go to next command
Ctrl-r search command history (great for recalling
long commands)
Text manipulation:
Ctrl-d delete character highlighted by cursor
Ctrl-k delete characters from cursor to the end of
line
Ctrl-w delete characters from cursor to the
beginning of the word
Ctrl-u delete all text left of cursor
Ctrl-y undo last deletion
Ctrl-t swap last 2 characters
List all of Bash's builtin commands:
help [alias]