Command Line Keyboard Shortcuts for Mac OS X
Command Line, Mac OS X - December 19th, 2006 - 12 Comments
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. The list isn’t too crazy so you should be able to try all these out within a minute or two, have fun:
| 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 |
Are you kidding me – I’ve been using Bash for 5 freaking years and I never knew any of this. Thanks!
Very nice – thanks alot for this list
Love the list, watch out for spammers!
Aaweosmeom!!!
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!
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)
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!
[...] Visto en OSXDaily [...]
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?
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