Even better is to create a .inputrc configuration file. This is used by readline so it will affect your shell and some other utilities. You can do even more in

Even better is to create a .inputrc configuration file. This is used by readline so it will affect your shell and some other utilities. You can do even more in there too. For example I use this: set editing-mode vi # Up and down arrows keys search history based on what is already typed. "\e[A": history-search-backward "\e[B": history-search-forward