4 ms·

I'm using bash (and thus GNU readline) all day every day at work, and by far the most useful shortcut for me is Ctrl-r (reverse history search). I also sometim

by senko 4y ago

I'm using bash (and thus GNU readline) all day every day at work, and by far the most useful shortcut for me is Ctrl-r (reverse history search). I also sometimes use Ctrl-a (start of line, if the keyboard doesn't have a convenient Home key) and Ctrl-e (end of line, in lieu of End key). Btw the post disses Ctrl-s / Ctrl-q for pausing/resuming terminal output, but it can be useful when you're outputting a lot of text (for example tailing a logfile).

asicsp 4y ago
>by far the most useful shortcut for me is Ctrl-r I rarely ever use Ctrl-r since I usually know the starting part of the command I want. So, I type those starting characters and use up/down arrow keys, courtesy these lines in `~/.inputrc` "\e[A": history-search-backward "\e[B": history-search-forward
- kleiba 4y ago
  That's useful, but C-r has its merits too, as you can search for any string in the history. So, even if you run, say, python programs all day, here's a way to find that one time you used a different command line parameter... etc.
  - pxeger1 4y ago
    You can set bindings for substring search too: "\e[A":history-substring-search-backward "\e[B":history-substring-search-forward
    - kleiba 4y ago
      Cool!
- heleninboodler 4y ago
  a really cool hack I found in an HN thread long ago was to stick "hashtags" (aka bash end-of-line comments) at the ends of commands you want to find in your history quickly: sudo systemctl restart myservice #bounce and then ctrl-r and type your hashtag to get right to it
  - mrzool 4y ago
    That’s a good one.
  - jbaber 4y ago
    This is now the HN thread in which I found this really cool hack. Thank you.
    - heleninboodler 4y ago
      I'm officially naming these "bashtags".
- rcoveson 4y ago
  I don't want to discount how valuable this may be to you. However, for the average sysadmin, or developer who spends time in shells on many different machines, I would gently suggest that this is not a good idea. It's not a significant enough improvement over the way it works out-of-the-box to merit both (1) not getting used to Ctrl-r and (2) getting used to a different behavior for the arrow keys. Just my opinion, of course.
  - JelteF 4y ago
    If you're the sysadmin, then chances are high you can add this to the base image of all the systems you regularly touch.
- nine_k 4y ago
  Many of my commands start identically but continue and end differently. Here C-r (or ^R if you prefer) is the most convenient. Sending a looong command to your editor for modification via C-x C-e is also convenient sometimes.
  - asicsp 4y ago
    >Many of my commands start identically but continue and end differently. Here C-r (or ^R if you prefer) is the most convenient. Not sure if I understood this correctly. You can use up/down arrow multiple times, just like Ctrl-r/s - so it is a huge improvement for me.
patrickdavey 4y ago
If you don't already know about it: combining fzf with Ctrl-r is _amazingly good_ https://github.com/junegunn/fzf https://github.com/junegunn/fzf it's a fuzzy finder combined with reverse history search..
danuker 4y ago
I agree with you. What I have also done is increase the history size: https://eshlox.net/2017/08/01/bash-increase-command-history-size https://eshlox.net/2017/08/01/bash-increase-command-history-...
chungy 4y ago
> but it can be useful when you're outputting a lot of text (for example tailing a logfile). Use "tail +F" and press ^C when you need to pause at some line. Press F to resume tailing.
- bennyp101 4y ago
  WAT I always use -f then cancel out when I think I see what I want, I really need to read man pages for things I use
- bch 4y ago
  less(1) provides similar follow/stop-following functionality.
  - chungy 4y ago
    I think I was thinking of less, haha.
Oxidation 4y ago
A hacked up version of ci"/ca" is my favourite thing, something like this; set keymap vi-command "ci\"": "T\"ct\"" I don't think you can do bracket matching/counting, but, even so, ci( is also pretty handy.
tcoff91 4y ago
Ctrl-r history search is made 1000x better with fzf fuzzy history search. https://github.com/junegunn/fzf https://github.com/junegunn/fzf

by senko 4y ago

asicsp 4y ago

>by far the most useful shortcut for me is Ctrl-r I rarely ever use Ctrl-r since I usually know the starting part of the command I want. So, I type those starting characters and use up/down arrow keys, courtesy these lines in `~/.inputrc` "\e[A": history-search-backward "\e[B": history-search-forward

kleiba 4y ago
That's useful, but C-r has its merits too, as you can search for any string in the history. So, even if you run, say, python programs all day, here's a way to find that one time you used a different command line parameter... etc.
- pxeger1 4y ago
  You can set bindings for substring search too: "\e[A":history-substring-search-backward "\e[B":history-substring-search-forward
  - kleiba 4y ago
    Cool!
heleninboodler 4y ago
a really cool hack I found in an HN thread long ago was to stick "hashtags" (aka bash end-of-line comments) at the ends of commands you want to find in your history quickly: sudo systemctl restart myservice #bounce and then ctrl-r and type your hashtag to get right to it
- mrzool 4y ago
  That’s a good one.
- jbaber 4y ago
  This is now the HN thread in which I found this really cool hack. Thank you.
  - heleninboodler 4y ago
    I'm officially naming these "bashtags".
rcoveson 4y ago
I don't want to discount how valuable this may be to you. However, for the average sysadmin, or developer who spends time in shells on many different machines, I would gently suggest that this is not a good idea. It's not a significant enough improvement over the way it works out-of-the-box to merit both (1) not getting used to Ctrl-r and (2) getting used to a different behavior for the arrow keys. Just my opinion, of course.
- JelteF 4y ago
  If you're the sysadmin, then chances are high you can add this to the base image of all the systems you regularly touch.
nine_k 4y ago
Many of my commands start identically but continue and end differently. Here C-r (or ^R if you prefer) is the most convenient. Sending a looong command to your editor for modification via C-x C-e is also convenient sometimes.
- asicsp 4y ago
  >Many of my commands start identically but continue and end differently. Here C-r (or ^R if you prefer) is the most convenient. Not sure if I understood this correctly. You can use up/down arrow multiple times, just like Ctrl-r/s - so it is a huge improvement for me.

patrickdavey 4y ago

If you don't already know about it: combining fzf with Ctrl-r is _amazingly good_ https://github.com/junegunn/fzf https://github.com/junegunn/fzf it's a fuzzy finder combined with reverse history search..

danuker 4y ago

I agree with you. What I have also done is increase the history size: https://eshlox.net/2017/08/01/bash-increase-command-history-size https://eshlox.net/2017/08/01/bash-increase-command-history-...

chungy 4y ago

> but it can be useful when you're outputting a lot of text (for example tailing a logfile). Use "tail +F" and press ^C when you need to pause at some line. Press F to resume tailing.

bennyp101 4y ago
WAT I always use -f then cancel out when I think I see what I want, I really need to read man pages for things I use
bch 4y ago
less(1) provides similar follow/stop-following functionality.
- chungy 4y ago
  I think I was thinking of less, haha.

Oxidation 4y ago

A hacked up version of ci"/ca" is my favourite thing, something like this; set keymap vi-command "ci\"": "T\"ct\"" I don't think you can do bracket matching/counting, but, even so, ci( is also pretty handy.

tcoff91 4y ago

Ctrl-r history search is made 1000x better with fzf fuzzy history search. https://github.com/junegunn/fzf https://github.com/junegunn/fzf