Some of my fav unix/bash commands.

Awesome Bash shortcut I recently discovered allows you to quickly clear stuff from a bash command.

Ctrl + w #

Clears the last block of text in a command.

Say you’ve got something like:

git commit -m "Added some things here and changed some other things over there."

That’s a terrible commit message, you should rewrite that. Issue Ctrl+w to get rid of the block of text to the left of the cursor.

Ctrl + r #

Allows you to search through your recent commands. Issue Ctrl+r to open the query prompt, then simply enter your search.

Ctrl + l #

Clears all the shit in the bash window, leaving you a fresh screen. Also works in some interpreter prompts too, in Python for example.

Ctrl + z #

Ever started a long process without appending the ampersand &? For example,

$ mysql.server start

Well instead of killing the process with Ctrl + c, do Ctrl + z. It will throw that process into the background and return you to the bash prompt, just as it would if you used & in the first place. To fetch back the process, do

$ bg

Note, all output is still directed to the terminal stdout.

Lastly,

!! #

Is a link to the last command. Useful for if something requires super user privs, you can re-run the command by doing,

$ sudo !!