WARPZONE

Bash History Cheat Sheet
Emacs and Vi history editing keyboard shortcuts:
Shortcut                   Description
Emacs Mode Shortcuts:
CTRL-p                     Fetch the previous command from the history list.
CTRL-n                     Fetch the next command from the history list.
CTRL-r                     Search history backward (incremental search).
CTRL-s                     Search history forward (incremental search).
Meta-p                     Search backward using non-incremental search.
Meta-n                     Search forward using non-incremental search.
Meta-<                     Move to the first line in the history.
Meta->                     Move to the end of the history list.
Vi Mode Shortcuts:
k                          Fetch the previous command from the history list.
j                          Fetch the next command from the history list.
/string or CTRL-r          Search history backward for a command matching string.
?string or CTRL-s          Search history forward for a command matching string.
n                          Repeat search in the same direction as previous.
N                          Repeat search in the opposite direction as previous.
G                          Move to the N-th history line (for example, 15G).
History behavior modification via shell variables:
Shell Variable             Description
HISTFILE                   Controls where the history file gets saved. Set to /dev/null not to keep history.
Default: ∼/.bash history.
HISTFILESIZE               Controls how many history commands to keep in HISTFILE.
Default: 500.
HISTSIZE                   Controls how many history commands to keep in the history list of current session.
Default: 500.
HISTIGNORE                 Controls which commands to ignore and not save to the history list. The variable takes a
list of colon separated patterns. Pattern & matches the previous history command.
History behavior modification via shopt command:
shopt option               Description
histappend                 Setting the variable appends current session history to HISTFILE. Unsetting overwrites
the file each time.
histreedit                 If set, puts a failed history substitution back on the command line for re-editing.
histverify                 If set, puts the command to be executed after a substitution on command line as if you had
typed it.
shopt options can be set by a shopt -s option and can be unset by a shopt -u option shell command.
A cheat sheet by Peteris Krumins (peter@catonmat.net), 2008.
http://www.catonmat.net - good coders code, great reuse
Released under GNU Free Document License.
History expansion:
Shortcut                  Description
Event Designators:
!                         Starts a history substitution.
!!                        Refers to the last command.
!n                        Refers to the n-th command line.
!-n                       Refers to the current command line minus n.
!string                   Refers to the most recent command starting with string.
!?string?                 Refers to the most recent command containing string (the ending ? is optional).
ˆstring1ˆstring2ˆ         Quick substitution. Repeats the last command, replacing string1 with string2.
!#                        Refers to the entire command line typed so far.
Word Designators (word designators follow the event designators, separated by a colon):
0                         The zeroth (first) word in a line (usually command name).
n                         The n-th word in a line.
ˆ                         The first argument (the second word) in a line.
$                         The last argument in a line.
%                         The word matched by the most recent ?string? search.
x-y                       A range of words from x to y (-y is synonymous with 0-y).
*                         All word but the zeroth.
x*                        Synonymous with x-$.
x-                        The words from x to the second to last word.
Modifiers (modifiers follow word designators, separated by a colon):
h                         Removes a trailing pathname component, leaving the head.
t                         Removes all leading pathname components, leaving the tail.
r                         Removes a trailing suffix of the form .xxx, leaving the basename.
e                         Removes all but the trailing suffix.
p                         Prints the resulting command but does not execute it.
q                         Quotes the substituted words, escaping further substitutions.
x                         Quotes the substituted words, breaking them into words at blanks and newlines.
s/old/new/                Substitutes new for old.
&                         Repeats the previous substitution.
g                         Causes s/old/new/ or & to be applied over the entire event line.
History expansion examples:
$ echo a b c d e         (executes ‘echo ab c d e‘)                     $ tar -xzf package-x.y.z.tgz
a b c d e                                                               …
$ echo !!:3-$            (executes ‘echo c d e‘)                        $ cd !-1:$:r (exec’s ‘cd package-x.y.z‘)
c d e                                                                   package-x.y.z $
$ echo !-2:*:q           (executes ‘echo ’a b c d e’‘)
a b c d e                                                               $ ls -a /tmp
$ echo !-3:1:2:4:x (executes ‘echo ’a’ ’b’ ’d’‘)                        file1 file2 file3 …
$ ^-a^-l^       (exec’s ‘ls -l /tmp‘)
a b d
$ echo !-4:1-3:s/a/foo/:s/b/bar/:s/c/baz/                               -rw——- 1 user user file1
(executes ‘echo foo bar baz‘)                                           …
foo bar baz
A cheat sheet by Peteris Krumins (peter@catonmat.net), 2008.
http://www.catonmat.net - good coders code, great reuse
Released under GNU Free Document License.