Bash History Cheat Sheet

Emacs and Vi history editing keyboard shortcuts:

Shortcut Description
Emacs Mode Shortcuts:
CTRL-p Fetch the previous command from the history list.
CTRL-n Fetch the next command from the history list.
CTRL-r Search history backward (incremental search).
CTRL-s Search history forward (incremental search).
Meta-p Search backward using non-incremental search.
Meta-n Search forward using non-incremental search.
Meta-< Move to the first line in the history.
Meta-> Move to the end of the history list.
Vi Mode Shortcuts:
k Fetch the previous command from the history list.
j Fetch the next command from the history list.
/string or CTRL-r Search history backward for a command matching string.
?string or CTRL-s Search history forward for a command matching string.
n Repeat search in the same direction as previous.
N Repeat search in the opposite direction as previous.
G Move to the N-th history line (for example, 15G).

History behavior modification via shell variables:

Shell Variable Description
HISTFILE Controls where the history file gets saved. Set to /dev/null not to keep history.
Default: ∼/.bash history.
HISTFILESIZE Controls how many history commands to keep in HISTFILE.
Default: 500.
HISTSIZE Controls how many history commands to keep in the history list of current session.
Default: 500.
HISTIGNORE Controls which commands to ignore and not save to the history list. The variable takes a
list of colon separated patterns. Pattern & matches the previous history command.

History behavior modification via shopt command:

shopt option Description
histappend Setting the variable appends current session history to HISTFILE. Unsetting overwrites
the file each time.
histreedit If set, puts a failed history substitution back on the command line for re-editing.
histverify If set, puts the command to be executed after a substitution on command line as if you had
typed it.

shopt options can be set by a shopt -s option and can be unset by a shopt -u option shell command.

A cheat sheet by Peteris Krumins ([email protected]), 2008.

http://www.catonmat.net - good coders code, great reuse
Released under GNU Free Document License.
History expansion:
Shortcut Description
Event Designators:
! Starts a history substitution.
!! Refers to the last command.
!n Refers to the n-th command line.
!-n Refers to the current command line minus n.
!string Refers to the most recent command starting with string.
!?string? Refers to the most recent command containing string (the ending ? is optional).
ˆstring1ˆstring2ˆ Quick substitution. Repeats the last command, replacing string1 with string2.
!# Refers to the entire command line typed so far.
Word Designators (word designators follow the event designators, separated by a colon):
0 The zeroth (first) word in a line (usually command name).
n The n-th word in a line.
ˆ The first argument (the second word) in a line.
$ The last argument in a line.
% The word matched by the most recent ?string? search.
x-y A range of words from x to y (-y is synonymous with 0-y).
* All word but the zeroth.
x* Synonymous with x-$.
x- The words from x to the second to last word.
Modifiers (modifiers follow word designators, separated by a colon):
h Removes a trailing pathname component, leaving the head.
t Removes all leading pathname components, leaving the tail.
r Removes a trailing suffix of the form .xxx, leaving the basename.
e Removes all but the trailing suffix.
p Prints the resulting command but does not execute it.
q Quotes the substituted words, escaping further substitutions.
x Quotes the substituted words, breaking them into words at blanks and newlines.
s/old/new/ Substitutes new for old.
& Repeats the previous substitution.
g Causes s/old/new/ or & to be applied over the entire event line.

History expansion examples:

$ echo a b c d e (executes ‘echo ab c d e‘) $ tar -xzf package-x.y.z.tgz

a b c d e ...
$ echo !!:3-$ (executes ‘echo c d e‘) $ cd !-1:$:r (exec’s ‘cd package-x.y.z‘)
c d e package-x.y.z $
$ echo !-2:*:q (executes ‘echo ’a b c d e’‘)
a b c d e $ ls -a /tmp
$ echo !-3:1:2:4:x (executes ‘echo ’a’ ’b’ ’d’‘) file1 file2 file3 ...
a b d $ ^-a^-l^ (exec’s ‘ls -l /tmp‘)
$ echo !-4:1-3:s/a/foo/:s/b/bar/:s/c/baz/ -rw------- 1 user user file1
(executes ‘echo foo bar baz‘) ...
foo bar baz

A cheat sheet by Peteris Krumins ([email protected]), 2008.

http://www.catonmat.net - good coders code, great reuse
Released under GNU Free Document License.