12 Command Line Keyboard Shortcuts for Mac OS X Terminal
The command line in Mac OS X can be a very powerful and fun tool, so it’s good to know how to maneuver around if you find yourself in it. By default, the Mac OS X Terminal uses the Bash shell, which is what these keyboard shortcuts are intended for.
So if you’re ready to get your feet wet, open up the Terminal and try these shortcuts out, they’re sure to make your command line life easier.
While the keystrokes will perform some incredibly useful tasks, the complexity isn’t too deep or crazy so you should be able to try all these out within a minute or two. Take a moment to do that, learn a bit more about the command line, and have fun.
12 Command Line Keyboard Shortcuts for Mac OS X
These will work in the Mac Terminal for any version of Mac OS X, that includes the default Terminal app and third party terminal applications like iTerm as well. Technically, these should work in Linux and other Bash shells too, but obviously we’re focusing on the Mac here.
| 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 |
If you have any other handy keyboard shortcuts or tricks for the command line, share them with us!
Wonder Article Great piece of Article !!
See also `stty -a’.
You’ll find some of those listed above there too. stty is a very useful command though perhaps it’s obscure to most and usually it’s not useful but when it is it’s very useful.
See stty(1) for more info (that means: section 1 of the man page so man stty).
Thanks :)
A minor correction..
Ctrl + T swaps the two characters on either side of the cursor.
It only swaps the last two characters before the cursor when at the end of the line.
ctrl + arrow keys for fast navigation in text
nice one frens
hey! how to delete (clear) the whole line? not after or before the cursor. but the whole
$ bind -P | grep not -v
abort can be found on “\C-g”, “\C-x\C-g”, “\e\C-g”.
accept-line can be found on “\C-j”, “\C-m”.
backward-char can be found on “\C-b”, “\eOD”, “\e[D”.
backward-delete-char can be found on “\C-h”, “\C-?”.
backward-kill-line can be found on “\C-x\C-?”.
backward-kill-word can be found on “\e\C-h”, “\e\C-?”.
backward-word can be found on “\e[1;5D”, “\e[5D”, “\eb”.
beginning-of-history can be found on “\e”, “\e[6~”.
end-of-line can be found on “\C-e”, “\eOF”, “\e[4~”, “\e[8~”, “\e[F”.
exchange-point-and-mark can be found on “\C-x\C-x”.
forward-char can be found on “\C-f”, “\eOC”, “\e[C”.
forward-search-history can be found on “\C-s”.
forward-word can be found on “\e[1;5C”, “\e[5C”, “\ef”.
glob-complete-word can be found on “\eg”.
glob-expand-word can be found on “\C-x*”.
glob-list-expansions can be found on “\C-xg”.
history-expand-line can be found on “\e^”.
insert-comment can be found on “\e#”.
insert-completions can be found on “\e*”.
insert-last-argument can be found on “\e.”, “\e_”.
kill-line can be found on “\C-k”.
kill-word can be found on “\ed”.
next-history can be found on “\C-n”, “\eOB”, “\e[B”.
non-incremental-forward-search-history can be found on “\en”.
non-incremental-reverse-search-history can be found on “\ep”.
operate-and-get-next can be found on “\C-o”.
possible-command-completions can be found on “\C-x!”.
possible-completions can be found on “\e=”, “\e?”.
possible-filename-completions can be found on “\C-x/”.
possible-hostname-completions can be found on “\C-x@”.
possible-username-completions can be found on “\C-x~”.
possible-variable-completions can be found on “\C-x$”.
previous-history can be found on “\C-p”, “\eOA”, “\e[A”.
quoted-insert can be found on “\C-q”, “\C-v”, “\e[2~”.
re-read-init-file can be found on “\C-x\C-r”.
reverse-search-history can be found on “\C-r”.
revert-line can be found on “\e\C-r”, “\er”.
self-insert can be found on ” “, “!”, “\””, “#”, “$”, …
set-mark can be found on “\C-@”, “\e “.
shell-expand-line can be found on “\e\C-e”.
start-kbd-macro can be found on “\C-x(“.
tilde-expand can be found on “\e&”.
transpose-chars can be found on “\C-t”.
transpose-words can be found on “\et”.
undo can be found on “\C-x\C-u”, “\C-_”.
unix-line-discard can be found on “\C-u”.
unix-word-rubout can be found on “\C-w”.
upcase-word can be found on “\eu”.
yank can be found on “\C-y”.
yank-last-arg can be found on “\e.”, “\e_”.
yank-nth-arg can be found on “\e\C-y”.
yank-pop can be found on “\ey”.
A useful tip to see all keyboard shortcuts is:
%> bind -P
so to delete the word after the curso, use esc-d ( \ed )
Holy cow – been looking for this one for such a long time. Thanks a lot!!
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Is there any key to delete the word after the cursor, like CTRL + W before the cursor?
Is there any key to delete the word after the cursor, like CTRL + W before the cursor?
Is there any way to change the binding to the delete previous word? I find ctrl-w a difficult reach, and I prefer the apple-backspace.
Thanks!
For those who find this site, you can set the behavior of bash by using:
set -o vi
for vi command editing mode. It defaults in emacs mode (the keybindings above).
vi mode starts in editing mode, but pressing esc and you’re back into the glorious world of vi.
if you want to retain ctrl+L clear screen behavior in vi mode, try adding this to your .bashrc (or equivalent) file:
bind -m vi-insert “\C-l”:clear-screen
(thanks to http://www.jukie.net/~bart/blog/20040326082602)
Cool — I love the Ctrl + L thing as a substitute for clear — because now I can clear the screen, arrow-up for history of my last commands — without having to skip the clear command itself. Sounds trivial, but that was annoying me! Thanks!
Aaweosmeom!!!
Love the list, watch out for spammers!
Very nice – thanks alot for this list
Are you kidding me – I’ve been using Bash for 5 freaking years and I never knew any of this. Thanks!