Bash Shortcuts

August 31, 2005
Bash, which is the default shell in Linux contains a whole lot of key bindings which makes it really easy to use . The most commonly used shortcuts are listed below :

CTRL Key Bound


Ctrl + a - Jump to the start of the line

Ctrl + b - Move back a char

Ctrl + c - Terminate the command

Ctrl + d - Delete from under the cursor

Ctrl + e - Jump to the end of the line

Ctrl + f - Move forward a char

Ctrl + k - Delete to EOL

Ctrl + l - Clear the screen

Ctrl + r - Search the history backwards

Ctrl + R - Search the history backwards with multi occurrence

Ctrl + u - Delete backward from cursor

Ctrl + xx - Move between EOL and current cursor position

Ctrl + x @ - Show possible hostname completions

Ctrl + z - Suspend/ Stop the command

ALT Key Bound


Alt + < - Move to the first line in the history

Alt + > - Move to the last line in the history

Alt + ? - Show current completion list

Alt + * - Insert all possible completions

Alt + / - Attempt to complete filename

Alt + . - Yank last argument to previous command

Alt + b - Move backward

Alt + c - Capitalize the word

Alt + d - Delete word

Alt + f - Move forward

Alt + l - Make word lowercase

Alt + n - Search the history forwards non-incremental

Alt + p - Search the history backwards non-incremental

Alt + r - Recall command

Alt + t - Move words around

Alt + u - Make word uppercase

Alt + backspace - Delete backward from cursor

More Special Key bindings


Here 2T means Press TAB twice. And $ is the bash prompt.

$ 2T - Display all available commands(common)

$ string 2T - Display all available commands starting with string.

$ /2T - Show entire directory structure including hidden ones.

$ 2T - Show only sub-directories inside including hidden ones.

$ *2T - Show only sub-directories inside excluding hidden ones.

$ ~2T - Show all present users on system from "/etc/passwd"

$ $2T - Show all sys variables

$ @2T - Show all entries from "/etc/hosts"

$ =2T - List output like ls or dir