Command-line Editing


On Mon, 30 Apr 2001, Gareth Jones wrote:

> Would appreciate any thips on command line type stuff.   I know there's 
> a ^ type thingy too but can't remember how to use it.  I'm sure there's 
> others too.

Uh. right.

Big topic

First point: RTFM.

Print out the bash man page, and then leave it in your toilet.
Seriously. Read bits of it whenever you're taking a busying yourself
in the littlest room, and I can assure you you'll learn more than you
could possibly imagine. I have been there, done that.

Anyway.
For a start,

$ command param1

runs command with param1, yes? [I know, I know...]

$ ^param1^nipples

runs the previous command with "param1" replaced with "nipples"
Only the first instance of the command, though...
so, for example,

$ command param param
then
$ ^param^nipples

will run

$ command nipples param

You've got a command !! which just runs the last command again.
!-n runs the nth last command. Will be a mindfuck. You can find out
old commands with "history", and grep will come in useful.
ctrl+r is your friend.

Also, there's a !command which is where it runs the last instance of
"command" that you typed, eg:
$ ls /something
$ !ls
ls /something

Hmmm.

And that's about it.

Wait.
Actually, it's not even close.

When you're looking for a command you /know/ you've typed, you can try:
"history | grep whatever-I'm-looking-for "

And use screen's copy'n'paste functions to copy'n'paste it.

If you know to look for a command you've typed reasonably recently, just
hit ctrl+r, then start typing in any part of the command you're looking
for. It'll search for the most recent match for whatever you are typing
in - keep going until it's unique. Usually, this won't take more than
a few letters...