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Stop pressing the up (arrow) to find a previous command

David on July 11, 2020

Ever wonder if there are ways to be more efficient in our terminal and shell? Feeling a little clunky? Here are a few good-to-knows for those of us...
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jgarr16 profile image
jgarr16

Thanks for the post, David. I found some useful tid-bits here; like using "cd -" in bash to bounce back & forth between directories; who knew? Also, the readline shortcuts - I've used them on the command line for a while, but didn't know that they worked elsewhere - hate to think how many times I could have used "control-k" for URLs.

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wulymammoth profile image
David

Yah! It's great! I also like to remove segments of the path in the URL up the previous forward-slash using option/alt-backspace. I'm a little more inclined because I'm big on keyboard shortcuts so I always search for ways to do things in an application without the mouse

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rodrigograca31 profile image
Rodrigo Graça 👨🏻‍💻🐛 • Edited

I can see you still use Bash.....
poor kid... I feel for you 😢 😂

  1. You can use !! to get the last command really quick. or !cat to run the last command that started with cat
  2. You can press the up arrow and move your right hand up and press Home to go to the beginning of the line way faster than pressing "command-f" not to mention that its Mac specific 🤮.
  3. You can use CTRL + LEFT/RIGHT (maybe its Option for you Mac users) to skip one entire word. 😍 It works for all programs and OSs. Not only your terminal. And I mean ALL!!!! Same goes CTRL + HOME/END
  4. If you used ZSH (instead of Bash) you don't even need to know a given command was your last, you can get anything from your history really quick by starting to type it and then accepting the autocomplete with a RIGHT arrow click. I use this so often! I know I have used scp in the past so I just start writing scp hit RIGHT and it literally types 102 characters for me instantly. (note: this is a plugin called "zsh-autosuggestions") (btw, if you are on a Mac🤮😂 why are you on bash? didn't they switch? you didn't update your Mac? 😮😱)
  5. If you are using VS Code install Cameron.rerun-last-command and then You can just press CTRL + 7 again and again, to do !!. Thank me later 😂
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wulymammoth profile image
David • Edited

You do realize that zsh is not installed on remote machines. Right? Are you familiar with the differences between zsh and bash and the subtle idiosyncrasies? Probably not, but they matter. I work on remote machines that don't have zsh, silly.

I'm a little insulted by your assumptions. I actually do use zsh on a different machine (it's the default on new Macs), but I've also used it in the past along with oh-my-zsh, Prezto (for a long time ~5 years), and fish (short time).

  1. Sure. How is that different from up or ctrl-p and the requirement on two keys? Can, but do you? The ! commands, by default, don't provide a visual indication of that last command, so you're running it blindly, so it's utility is diminished

  2. I can't help but laugh. Do you know why? You completely misread. None of these commands are Mac-specific. And where is the "command" key mentioned? I just mention option/alt (alt for non-Mac). But anyway, carry on. Not everyone uses a 100% or 150% keyboard like yourself and packs a mouse when traveling. But, go ahead, bring your desk, too. While you're at it, maybe a floppy disk with all your dependencies in case there isn't wifi. I have a 60% keyboard that is portable for travel. It doesn't have home, end, or arrow keys. Wait. Did I mention readline shortcuts? Oh, I did! Did you read? No. They are not Mac-specific. I still have a PC with both Windows and a Linux distro on it. While you're over there moving your hand off the keyboard searching for your home, end, and arrow keys, and greeting your home row again, I'm pressing ctrl-a (beginning of line) and ctrl-e (end of line). LOL! Silly silly, you. Again, I would advise you to read before you make remarks like this. Your lack of reading shows -- didn't I say that readline shortcuts are not terminal and bash-specific? Nor are they Mac-specific. Go ahead, I'm waiting... for you to give yourself a face palm...

  3. Again. Read my post in its entirety -- same as point 2 that I'm making... readline shortcuts.

  4. If you use Windows instead of a terminal, you don't even need a keyboard! Why type text when there's a GUI? See the hilarity in how you make assertions? Well, damn. I didn't know this. I've never used zsh 🤷‍♂️. You must have many friends. I can see the dependencies bleeding into your life -- plugin this; plug in that; plug a floppy disk with zsh into the remote connection... Are you familiar with the Unix philosophy? It's worth a read. I avoid having more plugins than I need. I'm not telling people what to use (despite the title/clickbait). I'm just providing options that are nearly universal across platforms. zsh is not the default shell on every Linux distro. zsh is DEFINITELY more convenient. And the way that you use zsh is slower compared to me. ctrl-r, type command, and enter as you dance between sets of keys. Bless you, child! (see what I did here? I inverted our relationship). The visual auto-completion is nice. I miss that when I'm not on my machine with zsh.

  5. Yeah, you should really read before you comment. LOL. I don't use VSCode. I use Vim. You're bleeding, "I'm way cooler than you" attitude which I'm sure makes you many friends.

Lastly, I'm already certain that I'm slower in my shell than you are and I only type one word per minute, because why be in such a rush when enjoying life on a beach? Speed kills. I'd rather slow down and experience it :)

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rodrigograca31 profile image
Rodrigo Graça 👨🏻‍💻🐛 • Edited

Seems someone didn't catch my jokes.
(Even with my heavy emoji usage 😅)

I guess I have to work on that. 🤭😂

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wulymammoth profile image
David

Oh, I caught them... but they're not jokes. They're what is called, "back-handed" comments. If you had acknowledged or were aware of the alternatives as I've mentioned, then you likely would have mentioned them... but anyway, I'm sure that you learned a thing or two, even if you fail to acknowledge them or should I say, "my jokes"? ;)

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ingles98 profile image
Filipe Reis

Or just use the UP key

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wulymammoth profile image
David

When you’ve reached rock bottom, there’s no place to go but up 🙃

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osaid_m1 profile image
Osaid

Well, that's still an option.😂

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scottstern06 profile image
Scott

Thanks for sharing! Just used ctrl-p!

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rayluo profile image
Ray Luo

Great article! Learning the ctrl-p brings so much joy to me!

One more thing. If you are already a vim user (and the OP is), and if you already spend most of your time in vim writing code, you may just type all (non-daemon) commands inside vim by using :! prefix, such as :!echo hello world. Later you can type q: in vim to open a history of all shell commands that you used inside vim, and use all the native vim ways to navigate (h, j, k, l, w, b, etc.), and edit inline, then hit enter to run it.

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freesoftwareservers profile image
FreeSoftwareServers

I recently found out about using ! (exclamation) and them previous beginning of command. Eg: "!ssh" will run last command in your history that started with ssh. And I love the tip below about "cd -".

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wulymammoth profile image
David

I've certainly forgotten about this one! Thanks!!

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prodigit80 profile image
ProDigit

Why make it more difficult, to search back and forward?
Ctrl p and ctrl n, is more difficult than up/down.

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wulymammoth profile image
David • Edited

You're not wrong, ProDigit. On most keyboards, it's a bit of a stretch to reach for the left ctrl with one's pinky. You'll have to decide for yourself whether this is more difficult than moving your entire right hand off the home row of your keyboard to the arrow keys unless you've remapped. What if you need to edit the previous command? Your hand is now oscillating between your jkl; keys and the arrow keys. I'm often modifying the argument to my previous command either because I made a typo or I when I need to edit it

$ gt commit -am WIP
-bash: gt: command not found

Many will perform the following sequence of actions:

  1. move hand off onto arrow keys
  2. press the up arrow
  3. hold the left arrow until arriving at the letter t, maybe miss it because key-repeat was cranked all the way up to adapt to these slow scenarios (especially for typos in long commands)
  4. type the letter i
  5. hit enter

Alternatively...

  1. ctrl-p
  2. ctrl-a
  3. option-f
  4. ctrl-w
  5. type git
  6. hit enter

One additional step, but I can almost guarantee that this is faster and more precise than less keys and trying to eyeball and correct for inaccuracy

Lastly, this is actually far easier for a subset of us that are touch typists, but we typically also have some or all of the following configurations:

  • caps-lock is mapped to ctrl (to reduce the pinky reach) as it's a fairly useless key (like really used less frequently than almost any other key on the keyboard)
  • I have a 60% keyboard which does not have arrow keys at all, but this is a trade-off I've made for portability

If you've read beyond the first tip, everything that I've mentioned is about efficiency in one's terminal and shell, but use your own discretion.

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prodigit80 profile image
ProDigit • Edited

I don't know. Click 3 times up, and then enter,
Or click multiple times ctrl + p and then enter.
Arrow keys also are faster when you need to modify the command. You can immediately go to the end, middle or beginning with left/right arrows right next to it.
I prefer the arrows, and for anything else ctrl + R.
The only way I would consider something else than the arrows, is if I'm running a pet or c64, without direct arrow keys (there you still have to press shift + arrow).

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wulymammoth profile image
David

Just another tool in the box. I'm not opposed to arrow keys at all. my hjkl keys are are my arrow keys, but requires me to depress the function key to activate and do, at times, rely on it, particularly in applications where these readline key combos don't work.

Did you just name drop C64 as in Commodore64? Are we diggin' 'round the attic for antiques?

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gotson profile image
Gauthier

Or use a more powerful shell like fish 🐟😉

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wulymammoth profile image
David

Sorry, I'm a Prezto user (on my other machines) ;)

However, this obviously discounts the availability of zsh on remote machines... where I sometimes do work

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soumyaparida profile image
Soumya Prakash Parida

Unless you are writing a new OS every month, what's the hurry?
Enjoy the scroll 😄

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wulymammoth profile image
David

No hurry...as I ask Alexa to scroll for me while I have my feet up on the table and sip on my coffee and watch the birds sing ;)