Bash Shell Keyboard Shortcuts ( Default Command Shell for Ubuntu)

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The default shell on most Linux operating systems is called Bash. There are a couple of important hotkeys that you should get familiar with if you plan to spend a lot of time at the command line. These shortcuts will save you a ton of time if you learn them.

  • Ctrl + A Go to the beginning of the line you are currently typing on
  • Ctrl + E Go to the end of the line you are currently typing on
  • Ctrl + L Clears the Screen, similar to the clear command
  • Ctrl + U Clears the line before the cursor position. If you are at the end of the line, clears the entire line.
  • Ctrl + H Same as backspace
  • Ctrl + R Let’s you search through previously used commands
  • Ctrl + C Kill whatever you are running
  • Ctrl + D Exit the current shell
  • Ctrl + Z Puts whatever you are running into a suspended background process. fg restores it.
  • Ctrl + W Delete the word before the cursor
  • Ctrl + K Clear the line after the cursor
  • Ctrl + T Swap the last two characters before the cursor
  • Esc + T Swap the last two words before the cursor
  • Alt + F Move cursor forward one word on the current line
  • Alt + B Move cursor backward one word on the current line
  • Tab Auto-complete files and folder names
  • Ctrl + W erase word before cursor
  • Ctrl + Y to paste it (as in delete and copy) all text in front of the cursor

Useful Note that some of these commands may not work if you are accessing bash through a telnet ,ssh session, or depending on how you have your keys mapped.

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4 Responses

  1. Michael Birk says:

    Esc + . (or Esc + Underscore) Insert Last Argument

  2. I’ve also published a table of Bash keyboard shortcuts, although they’re actually Readline keyboard shortcuts. Take a peak, it’s a nice table. 🙂

  3. Rizme Uva Province says:

    thanks a lot . its a nice table

  4. CableCat says:

    Ctrl + V, tab/enter (or any char you wich to enter at the line.

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