23h ago

Just installed mint yesterday, I get it now

I thought it'd be a pain but installing programs through the terminal is actually so nice, I never would have expected it

123 comments

tab completion works in more places than you might expect
ctrl-a/ctrl-e for start/end of line
ctrl-u to clear the command you’ve typed so far but store it into a temporary pastebuffer
ctrl-y to paste the ctrl-u’d command
ctrl-w to delete by word (I prefer binding to alt-backspace though)
ctrl-r to search your command history
alt-b/alt-f to move cursor back/forwards by word
!! is shorthand for the previous run command; handy for sudo !!
!$ is the last argument of the previous command; useful more often than you’d think
which foo tells you where the foo program is located
ls -la
cd without any args takes you to your home dir
cd - takes you to your previous dir
~ is a shorthand for your home dir
- If you’re looking for a full list of these kind of navigation shortcuts, they all come from readline so read the man page for that. Or just look up the basic navigation of emacs which is what readline is mimicking.
- I've been using the commandline for so long but was always too lazy to look up the rest of these commands after ctrl+a/e and ctrl+r THANK YOU!!!
  post this commend again and again! There's always lazy idiots like me who will be helped that way!
- alt-. also pastes the last argument of the previous command (useful if you need to modify it a bit)
  instead of any shortcuts starting with "alt" you can also press "esc" followed by the second key, e.g. pressing "esc", releasing it and then "a" is the same as pressing "alt-a" (useful if you have only one hand available, or if alt is not availalble)
  if you put a space before a command, it will not be saved in history (useful sometimes, e.g. if you pass a password directly as an argument)
- Nice list, TIL about Ctrl+U and Ctrl+Y.
  If I may add, Ctrl+X into Ctrl+E opens $EDITOR to edit the current line.
- Makes me realize just how illogical and bad these shortcuts are
  
  I believe, these are Emacs shortcuts. There's also set -o vi in bash, but I've never used it, so can't vouch for it.
  
  That’s good to know. It’s interesting that the other commenter thinks emacs shortcuts are illogical. I’ll make my best guesses at the logic
  ctrl-a/ctrl-e for start/end of line
  a is the beginning of the alphabet; e for end (of line)
  ctrl-u to clear the command you’ve typed so far but store it into a temporary pastebuffer
  ctrl-y to paste the ctrl-u’d command
  No idea here. Seems similar to nano with k-“cut” and u-”uncut”.
  ctrl-w to delete by word
  w for word obviously.
  ctrl-r to search your command history
  alt-b/alt-f to move cursor back/forwards by word
  r reverse, b back, f forward. Not sure why alt vs control though; presumably ctrl+b and ctrl+f do different things although I know emacs likes to use Alt (“Meta”) a lot.
  
  In the 1980s, Digital Equipment Corporation had a word processor, WPS. Ctrl-u cleared the line you were typing and put it into the paste buffer. Maybe legacy usage?
  
  Explains why they are so illogical! Unfortunately i think its better to just learn the defaults since i remote into lots of servers where i dont carry my config

123 comments