Yup, readline's yank-last-arg command Alt-. or Alt-_ (see https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Commands-For-History.html#Commands-For-History http

Yup, readline's yank-last-arg command Alt-. or Alt-_ (see https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Commands-For-History.html#Commands-For-History https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Commands-...) is the best off-the-shelf solution that still gives the ability to interactively edit the filename. To minimize the total number of key strokes I would suggest: mv foo.txt ↑ Alt-. That is: intentionally run mv with only one argument (the command fails but is recorded in the history), Up arrow to recall the last command, and Alt-dot (pastes the last argument). This is literally replacing an entire shell script with two key strokes (Up, Alt-.)