MacOS Terminal Command Editing Shortcuts

Posted Nov 4th, 2024 by author

Command Editing Shortcuts

Ctrl + A – go to the start of the command line

Ctrl + E – go to the end of the command line

Ctrl + K – delete from cursor to the end of the command line

Ctrl + U – delete from cursor to the start of the command line

Ctrl + W – delete from cursor to start of word (i.e. delete backwards one word)

Ctrl + Y – paste word or text that was cut using one of the deletion shortcuts (such as the one above) after the cursor

Ctrl + XX – move between start of command line and current cursor position (and back again)

Alt + B – move backward one word (or go to start of word the cursor is currently on)

Alt + F – move forward one word (or go to end of word the cursor is currently on)

Alt + D – delete to end of word starting at cursor (whole word if cursor is at the beginning of word)

Alt + C – capitalize to end of word starting at cursor (whole word if cursor is at the beginning of word)

Alt + U – make uppercase from cursor to end of word

Alt + L – make lowercase from cursor to end of word

Alt + T – swap current word with previous

Ctrl + F – move forward one character

Ctrl + B – move backward one character

Ctrl + D – delete character under the cursor

Ctrl + H – delete character before the cursor

Ctrl + T – swap character under cursor with the previous one

Command Recall Shortcuts

Ctrl + R – search the history backwards

Ctrl + G – escape from history searching mode

Ctrl + P – previous command in history (i.e. walk back through the command history)

Ctrl + N – next command in history (i.e. walk forward through the command history)

Alt + . – use the last word of the previous command

Command Control Shortcuts

Ctrl + L – clear the screen

Ctrl + S – stops the output to the screen (for long running verbose command)

Ctrl + Q – allow output to the screen (if previously stopped using command above)

Ctrl + C – terminate the command

Ctrl + Z – suspend/stop the command

Bash Bang (!) Commands

Bash also has some handy features that use the ! (bang) to allow you to do some funky stuff with bash commands.

!! – run last command !blah – run the most recent command that starts with ‘blah’ (e.g. !ls)

!blah:p – print out the command that !blah would run (also adds it as the latest command in the command history)

!$ – the last word of the previous command (same as Alt + .)

!$:p – print out the word that !$ would substitute

!* – the previous command except for the last word (e.g. if you type _find somefile.txt /, then !* would give you _find somefile.txt)

!*:p – print out what !* would substitute