bash-cheat-sheet.md

Bash Cheat Sheet

Bourne Again Shell Cheat Sheet

Table of Contents

• Bash Keyboard Shortcuts
  • Line Movement Shortcuts
  • Line Editing Shortcuts
  • Command History Shortcuts
  • Job Control and Standard Signal Shortcuts
  • Macro Shortcuts
  • Miscellaneous Shortcuts
  • Numeric Argument Shortcuts

Bash Keyboard Shortcuts

Herein shortcuts are using Alt as the Meta key. Shortcuts may be given numeric arguments.

Line Movement Shortcuts

Ctrl+A : Aft –– cursor back to start of line
Ctrl+E : End –– cursor to end of line
Ctrl+L : Less –– clear screen, only show current line at top
Ctrl+F : Forward –– to next character right of cursor
Ctrl+B : Back –– to next character left of cursor
Alt+F : Forward –– to next word right of cursor
Alt+B : Back –– to next word left of cursor
Ctrl+@ : At –– set mark at cursor
Ctrl+X Ctrl+X : Jump –– swap mark and cursor
Ctrl+] : Search –– search for character right of cursor
Alt+Ctrl+] : Search –– search for character left of cursor
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Line Editing Shortcuts

Tab : Tab –– auto-complete file and directory names
Ctrl+D : Delete –– delete character under cursor
Ctrl+H : Hack –– delete character left of cursor
Ctrl+_ : Undo –– undo last line edit command
Ctrl+K : Kill –– cut from cursor to end of line
Ctrl+U : Unset –– cut from cursor to start of line
Ctrl+Y : Yank –– paste last cut text at cursor
Ctrl+W : Word –– cut from cursor to start of next word on left
Alt+D : Delete –– cut from cursor to end of next word on right
Alt+Delete : Delete –– cut from cursor to start of next word on left
Alt+& : Expand –– expand tilde to directory name
Ctrl+T : Transpose –– drag 2nd character left of the cursor to the right
Alt+T : Transpose –– drag word left of the cursor to the right
Alt+U : Uppercase –– change current or following word to uppercase
Alt+L : Lowercase –– change current or following word to lowercase
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Command History Shortcuts

Ctrl+R : Reverse –– search command history, replace current line
Ctrl+P : Previous –– move back through command history
Ctrl+N : Next –– move forward through command history
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Job Control and Standard Signal Shortcuts

Bash works closely with the underlying system to provide Job Control. Strictly speaking, these shortcuts are that of the terminal input/output system and not Bash.

Ctrl+C : Cancel –– SIGINT interrupt program, terminate process
Ctrl+\ : Quit –– SIGQUIT dump core and quit program
Ctrl+Z : Zombie –– SIGTSTP suspend execution, put process in background
Ctrl+T : Tip –– SIGINFO show status information of process
Ctrl+S : Stop –– suspend output of process
Ctrl+Q : Queue –– resume output suspended by Stop
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Macro Shortcuts

Ctrl+X ( : Start –– start recording macro
Ctrl+X ) : Stop –– stop recording macro
Ctrl+X E : Execute –– execute macro
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Miscellaneous Shortcuts

Ctrl+X Ctrl+V : Version –– show Bash version
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Numeric Argument Shortcuts

Alt+2 Ctrl+D : Delete –– delete two characters
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