GNU Readline Cheat Sheet
a collection of most useful readline keybindings
Shells like bash use GNU Readline for providing line editing capability. It's important to know the basic keybindings to be effective in the command shell.
Notation
C-ymeans Control + yM-xmeans Meta + x, Meta is usually bound to the Alt key.
Must know keybindings
| Key Sequence | Command Name | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| C-a | beginning-of-line | move the cursor to the beginning of the line |
| C-e | end-of-line | move the cursor to the end of the line |
| C-f | forward-char | move the cursor one character to the right |
| C-b | backward-char | move the cursor one character to the left |
| C-d | delete-char | delete character under the cursor |
| M-f | forward-word | move the cursor one word to the right |
| M-b | backward-word | move the cursor one word to the right |
| M-d | kill-word | kill word to the right |
| C-w | unix-word-rubout | kill word to the left |
| C-k | kill-line | kill line from the cursor to the end of line |
| C-u | unix-line-discard | kill line from the cursor to the beginning |
| C-y | yank | paste the top of the kill-ring |
| M-y | yank-pop | roatate and yank the top of kill-ring (after yank) |
| M-u | upcase-word | upcase word |
| M-l | downcase-word | downcase word |
| M-c | capitalize-word | capitalize word |
| M-. | yank-last-arg | yank last argument of previous command (repeatedly) |
| C-r | reverse-search-history | search for a command in history anti-chronologically |
Other useful keybindings
M-C-y yank-nth-arg
This command yanks the first argument of the previous command(s). You can pass an argument, let's say 3, with the key-sequence M-3 M-C-y, to extract the 3rd argument of the previous command.
C-x C-e edit-and-execute-command
Edit current command in EDITOR and execute it.
C-x C-u undo
Undo you line edits.
M-r revert-line
Discard any edits made and restore the history line.