GNU KeyBoard Shortcuts

29 May, 2013 - 2 min read

GNU readline is a commonly used library for line-editing, it is used for example by bash, ftp and many more (see Arch Package details under "Required By" for more examples). readline is also customizable (see manpage for details).

Keyboard Shortcut	Description
`Ctrl`+`L`	Clear the screen
Cursor Movement
`Ctrl`+`B`	Move cursor one character to the left
`Ctrl`+`F`	Move cursor one character to the right
`Alt`+`B`	Move cursor one word to the left
`Alt`+`F`	Move cursor one word to the right
`Ctrl`+`A`	Move cursor to start of the line
`Ctrl`+`E`	Move cursor to end of the line
Copy & Paste
`Ctrl`+`U`	Cut everything from line start to cursor
`Ctrl`+`K`	Cut everything from the cursor to end of the line
`Alt`+`D`	Cut the current word after the cursor
`Ctrl`+`W`	Cut the current word before the cursor
`Ctrl`+`Y`	Paste the previous cut text
`Alt`+`Y`	Paste the second latest cut text
`Alt`+`Ctrl`+`Y`	Paste the first argument of the previous command
`Alt`+`.`or`_`	Paste the last argument of the previous command
History
`Ctrl`+`P`	Move to the previous line
`Altl`+`N`	Move to the next line
`Ctrl`+`S`	Search
`Ctrl`+`R`	Reverse search
`Ctrl`+`J`	End search
`Ctrl`+`G`	Abort search (restores original line)
`Alt`+`R`	Restores all changes made to line
Completion
`Tab`	Auto-complete a name
`Altl`+`?`	List all possible completions
`Alt`+`*`	Insert all possible completions