5 ms·

There's a lot of unexpected gems in the readline defaults. I recommend people try paging through "bind -p" in bash some time to see what's there. Personal favo

by Pete_D 10y ago

There's a lot of unexpected gems in the readline defaults. I recommend people try paging through "bind -p" in bash some time to see what's there. Personal favorites are C-r to search back in history and C-x C-e to edit the current command line in an external editor.

wruza 10y ago
It is also very convenient to remap up/down keys to not just list history, but to do completion based on already typed characters: if [[ $- == *i* ]] then bind '"\e[A": history-search-backward' bind '"\e[B": history-search-forward' fi (fix: grammar)
- nitrogen 10y ago
  Debian and Ubuntu typically have a commented-out mapping for this in /etc/inputrc as pgup/pgdn that I always enable in my ~/.inputrc. Editline supports something similar in .editrc IIRC.
  - wruza 10y ago
    Funny, I became FreeBSD user because default .cshrc contained it (iirc). I didn't know about shells, readline, etc. back then. Wonder why they do not enable it on up-down by default, cause I see too many linuxoids around bored with up-up-up-enter up-up-up-enter to replay history, not even knowing that completion exists (along with at least ^K ^U ^C). What's the point to type a half-command and then replace input line with one from history if I press up? That somewhat resembles ugly cmd.exe, which every windows user imagines when someone says 'cli'.
Symbiote 10y ago
Emacs users will recognize many of the readline defaults -- unsurprisingly, given both are GNU software. I use "yank-last-arg" most often, which is M-. by default. $ mkdir abcd $ cd <M-.> On Zsh, I have M-, bound to "copy-earlier-word", which makes M-. M-, M-, cycle through the arguments to the previous command. In reading the manpage for Bash, which doesn't have this function, I've just found "history-search-backward", which searches through history to find commands based on what you've already typed. That will come in useful! $ bind '"\er":history-search-backward' $ bind <M-r> (Note that M-r is bound to "revert-line" by default, but I doubt I'll use that.) These functions are all listed, with explanations, in the Bash and Zsh manpages. Edit: As I see from another comment, a binding for "history-search-backward" to the Page Up key is in /etc/inputrc on Debian and derivatives.
Sharlin 10y ago
Weird, I'd have thought C-r is the one readline command everybody knows even if they know nothing else abour readline. Almost cannot imagine using command line without it. (Though there's also the "like tab-complete but from history" that I never really learned to use.)
grive 10y ago
Ah! yes, at this point C-r is so entrenched in my habit, I didnt even realize it might be new to some. This is the shortcut to first learn when starting living in the command line.
pixelbeat 10y ago
Yes some of these useful functions should be bound by default IMHO. Here are my settings to bind ctrl-{left,right} and {up,down} to more useful defaults. I.E. jump as the shell tokenizes the line, and search history for what's already typed respectively

by Pete_D 10y ago

wruza 10y ago

It is also very convenient to remap up/down keys to not just list history, but to do completion based on already typed characters: if [[ $- == *i* ]] then bind '"\e[A": history-search-backward' bind '"\e[B": history-search-forward' fi (fix: grammar)

nitrogen 10y ago
Debian and Ubuntu typically have a commented-out mapping for this in /etc/inputrc as pgup/pgdn that I always enable in my ~/.inputrc. Editline supports something similar in .editrc IIRC.
- wruza 10y ago
  Funny, I became FreeBSD user because default .cshrc contained it (iirc). I didn't know about shells, readline, etc. back then. Wonder why they do not enable it on up-down by default, cause I see too many linuxoids around bored with up-up-up-enter up-up-up-enter to replay history, not even knowing that completion exists (along with at least ^K ^U ^C). What's the point to type a half-command and then replace input line with one from history if I press up? That somewhat resembles ugly cmd.exe, which every windows user imagines when someone says 'cli'.

Symbiote 10y ago

Emacs users will recognize many of the readline defaults -- unsurprisingly, given both are GNU software. I use "yank-last-arg" most often, which is M-. by default. $ mkdir abcd $ cd <M-.> On Zsh, I have M-, bound to "copy-earlier-word", which makes M-. M-, M-, cycle through the arguments to the previous command. In reading the manpage for Bash, which doesn't have this function, I've just found "history-search-backward", which searches through history to find commands based on what you've already typed. That will come in useful! $ bind '"\er":history-search-backward' $ bind <M-r> (Note that M-r is bound to "revert-line" by default, but I doubt I'll use that.) These functions are all listed, with explanations, in the Bash and Zsh manpages. Edit: As I see from another comment, a binding for "history-search-backward" to the Page Up key is in /etc/inputrc on Debian and derivatives.

Sharlin 10y ago

Weird, I'd have thought C-r is the one readline command everybody knows even if they know nothing else abour readline. Almost cannot imagine using command line without it. (Though there's also the "like tab-complete but from history" that I never really learned to use.)

grive 10y ago

Ah! yes, at this point C-r is so entrenched in my habit, I didnt even realize it might be new to some. This is the shortcut to first learn when starting living in the command line.

pixelbeat 10y ago

Yes some of these useful functions should be bound by default IMHO. Here are my settings to bind ctrl-{left,right} and {up,down} to more useful defaults. I.E. jump as the shell tokenizes the line, and search history for what's already typed respectively