Linux Terminal Shortcuts - GNU Readline

Description	Shortcut
Autocomplete	TAB
Clear terminal screen	C-l
CUA: Cut word backward (behind cursor)	C-w
CUA: Cut word forward	M-d
CUA: Cycle undo list	C-_ , C-x, C-u, C-/
CUA: Kill (to clipboard) to end of line/beginning of line	C-k, C-u
CUA: Paste, yank from kill ring	C-y
Cursor: delete everything to beginning of line	C-u
Cursor: delete everything to end of line	C-k
Cursor: line - move to beginning	C-a, Home
Cursor: line - move to end	C-e, End
Cursor: move to beginning of word	M-b / C-left arrow
Cursor: move to end of word	M-f / C-right arrow
Search command history reverse isearch	C-r
Transpose character / word	C-t / M-t

Macros

Description	Shortcut
Start/stop macro records	C-x (, C-x )
Play last macro	C-x e
Print out macro	C-x p (bound in .inputrc, default is unbound

Completion

Description	Shortcut
Complete at point	TAB
List completions	M-?
Insert all completions	M-*
Complete tilde	M-~

Other uses

Use numeric arguments like Emacs
- M-2 M-d to kill two words forward

Less useful shortcuts

Description	Shortcut
Insert comment	M-#
Clear screen	C-c C-l

Commands

Description	Command
Empty file without deleting it	cat /dev/null > file_name
Go to home directory	cd or cd ~
List files in current directory	ll (ls -l
Open Ubuntu files in folder (e.g. nautilus ~/)	nautilus
Reuse entire last command (e.g. useful for sudo !!)	!!
Reuse the last argument from the previous command (bash)	!$
Reuse the last argument… example:	ls tool && cd !$
Run multiple commands if previous command was successful	command₁ && command₂
Run multiple commands in one line	command₁; command₂; command₃
Stop a running command	C-c
Switch back to last working directory	cd -
View a file in a paged fashion	less file_name
Watch log file for change	tail -f log_file

About

GNU Readline and Emacs share many shortcuts

GNU Readline is reused by: bash, python, GDB, psql, sqlite, and more, allowing shortcuts to be used in those CLIs.

Features

Keyboard macros
History search and navigation
Faster editing

Keyboard Macros

You can record, play back, and print out keyboard macros. Can be written, no recording needed. Can be written on the fly.

Example use cases

apt-cache search emacs with keyboard macro transformed into $(apt-cache search emacs | ezf -f 1)
Wrap prompt to simple python commands like dir(…), help(…)

Limitations

Readline’s kill ring (clipboard) is not shared with the system clipboard
It is not universally used, like Zsh and fish use their own line editing
- Many commands are shared with fish; however macros may not function the same
Prompt undo history is reset on each new prompt

Configuration

Global settings in /etc/inputrc
User settings in ~/.inputrc
Uses Emacs notation like C-x for ctrl + x and M-x for alt + x and chords like C-x p
- Except in .inputrc , use \e for alt (meta) and \C for control.
Examples:

# Correct - binds to C-x q
"\C-xq": "Hello, World"
# Correct - binds to C-M-p
"\e\C-p": "Good Bye!"

# Set variables with set keyword
set expand-tilde on

# Limit settings to certain programs
$if Bash
   # ...
$else
   # ...
$endif

# By default the keyseq-timeout value is a rather ambitious 500 ms. I find that far too quick, so I change it 1200 ms:
set keyseq-timeout 1200

# Colored completion of partial matches in bash
# by default color highlighting for completition is disabled
set colored-stats on
set colored-completion-prefix on