Useful Bash Commands

There are many useful Bash readline shortcuts that can speed up your command-line workflow. Here are some of the most useful ones I use, grouped by category:

Editing Commands

• Ctrl + w → Delete the word before the cursor
• Ctrl + u → Delete everything before the cursor
• Ctrl + k → Delete everything after the cursor
• Ctrl + y → Paste (yank) the last deleted text
• Alt + d → Delete the word after the cursor
• Alt + Backspace → Delete the word before the cursor (like Ctrl + w, but stops at punctuation)
• Ctrl + l → Clear the terminal screen (like clear)

Cursor Movement

• Ctrl + a → Move cursor to the beginning of the line
• Ctrl + e → Move cursor to the end of the line
• Alt + f → Move forward one word
• Alt + b → Move backward one word
• Ctrl + f → Move forward one character
• Ctrl + b → Move backward one character

History & Navigation

• Ctrl + r → Search command history (type to search, press Ctrl + r again for next match)
• Ctrl + g → Cancel history search
• Up/Down Arrow → Browse command history
• Ctrl + p → Previous command (same as Up Arrow)
• Ctrl + n → Next command (same as Down Arrow)
• !! → Re-run the last command
• !<n> → Run command number <n> from history (history command lists them)
• !<prefix> → Run the most recent command that starts with <prefix>

Process Management

• Ctrl + c → Cancel the current command
• Ctrl + z → Suspend (pause) the current process (can be resumed with fg)
• fg → Resume a suspended process in the foreground
• bg → Resume a suspended process in the background

Miscellaneous

• Ctrl + x Ctrl + e → Open the current command in your default editor ($EDITOR)
• Ctrl + s → Freeze terminal output (resume with Ctrl + q)
• Ctrl + d → Send EOF (End-of-File) signal, often used to exit a terminal session