Bash Shortcuts
The Bash key combos are also used in Emacs.
Note that the Ctrl-KEY combo operate on basic units that are independepent of what you are editing (characters, lines etc). Meta chracters (Alt-KEY combos) are used for operations related to the units defined by language (words, sentences, paragraphs).
In the Following illustration, C-Key stands for Ctrl-Key, M-Key stands for Alt-Key
C-f Forward one char
C-b Back one char
M-f Forward one word
M-b Back one word
C-p Previous line
C-n Next line
M-p Beginning of sentence
M-n End of sentence
C-a Beginning of line
C-e End of line
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
Joel G Mathew, known in tech circles by the pseudonym Droidzone, is an opensource and programming enthusiast.
He is a full stack developer, whose favorite languages are currently Python and Vue.js. He is also fluent in Javascript, Flutter/Dart, Perl, PHP, SQL, C and bash shell scripting. He loves Linux, and can often be found tinkering with linux kernel code, and source code for GNU applications. He used to be an active developer on XDA forums, and his tinkered ROMS used to be very popular in the early 2000s.
His favorite pastime is grappling with GNU compilers, discovering newer Linux secrets, writing scripts, hacking roms, and programs (nothing illegal), reading, blogging. and testing out the latest gadgets.
When away from the tech world, Dr Joel G. Mathew is a practising ENT Surgeon, busy with surgeries and clinical practise.