Bash Shell Shortcuts

The default shell on most Linux operating systems is called Bash. There are a couple of important hotkeys that you should get familiar with if you plan to spend a lot of time at the command line. These shortcuts will save you a ton of time if you learn them.

• Ctrl + A Go to the beginning of the line you are currently typing on

• Ctrl + E Go to the end of the line you are currently typing on

• Ctrl + L Clears the Screen, similar to the clear command

• Ctrl + U Clears the line before the cursor position. If you are at the end of the line, clears the entire line.

• Ctrl + H Same as backspace

• Ctrl + R Let’s you search through previously used commands

• Ctrl + C Kill whatever you are running

• Ctrl + D Exit the current shell

• Ctrl + Z Puts whatever you are running into a suspended background process. fg restores it.

• Ctrl + W Delete the word before the cursor

• Ctrl + K Clear the line after the cursor

• Ctrl + T Swap the last two characters before the cursor

• Esc + T Swap the last two words before the cursor

• Alt + F Move cursor forward one word on the current line

• Alt + B Move cursor backward one word on the current line

• Tab Auto-complete files and folder names

• Ctrl + W erase word before cursor

• Ctrl + Y to paste it (as in delete and copy) all text in front of the cursor

Useful Note that some of these commands may not work if you are accessing bash through a telnet ,ssh session, or depending on how you have your keys mapped.