The Command-Line Editor
Before looking at the command-line instructions, I’d like to explore the various ways you can enter and edit text on the command line, because numerous options are available to make your life a lot easier.
For example, once you have entered one or more commands, you can scroll back and forth through the command history to reselect or edit previous commands by using the Up and Down cursor keys, or Ctrl-N for Next and Ctrl-P for Previous, as you can see from Table 7-1.
Table 7-1. Bash keyboard shortcuts
Shortcut | Equivalent to | Action |
|---|---|---|
Ctrl-A | Home | Move the cursor to the start of the line. |
Ctrl-E | End | Move the cursor to the end of the line. |
Ctrl-D | Delete | Delete the character under the cursor. On a blank line, Ctrl-D (but not Delete) will cause the Terminal window to close. |
Ctrl-H | Backspace | Delete the character to the left of the cursor. |
Ctrl-J | Enter | Enter the current line. |
Ctrl-B | Left arrow | Move the cursor back a character. |
Ctrl-F | Right arrow | Move the cursor forward a character. |
Ctrl-P | Up arrow | Recall the previous command (if any). See also Ctrl-N. |
Ctrl-N | Down arrow | Recall the next command (if any). Using this and Ctrl-P, you can scroll back and forth through all the commands entered in a session. |
Alt-B | Ctrl-left arrow | Move the cursor to the previous start of a word. |
Shift-Alt-F | Ctrl-right arrow | Move the cursor to the first character following the end of the current word. |
Shift-Ctrl-C | Copy the highlighted contents to the Ubuntu (not the Bash) clipboard. | |
Shift-Ctrl-V | Paste the contents of the Ubuntu (not ... |