Terminal Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet
Terminal shortcuts (mostly based on Emacs mode, the default for most Shells) can significantly increase command-line efficiency.
Cursor Movement
| Shortcut | Description |
|---|---|
Ctrl + A |
Move cursor to beginning of line |
Ctrl + E |
Move cursor to end of line |
Alt + F |
Move cursor forward one word |
Alt + B |
Move cursor backward one word |
Ctrl + F |
Move cursor forward one character |
Ctrl + B |
Move cursor backward one character |
Ctrl + XX |
Quickly jump between beginning of line and current cursor position |
Text Editing
| Shortcut | Description |
|---|---|
Ctrl + U |
Cut/Delete from cursor to beginning of line |
Ctrl + K |
Cut/Delete from cursor to end of line |
Ctrl + W |
Cut/Delete one word before cursor |
Alt + D |
Cut/Delete one word after cursor |
Ctrl + Y |
Paste last cut content (Yank) |
Ctrl + H |
Delete character before cursor (Backspace) |
Ctrl + D |
Delete character after cursor (Exit terminal if no text) |
Ctrl + _ |
Undo last edit |
Ctrl + T |
Transpose two characters before and after cursor |
Process Control
| Shortcut | Description |
|---|---|
Ctrl + C |
Terminate currently running process (SIGINT) |
Ctrl + Z |
Suspend current process to background (SIGTSTP) |
Ctrl + D |
Send EOF, usually exits current Shell or ends input |
Ctrl + S |
Stop output to screen (Screen lock) |
Ctrl + Q |
Resume screen output |
Ctrl + \ |
Exit current process and core dump (SIGQUIT) |
History and Search
| Shortcut | Description |
|---|---|
Ctrl + R |
Search history commands (Incremental search) |
Ctrl + G |
Exit search mode |
Ctrl + P |
Previous command (Up arrow) |
Ctrl + N |
Next command (Down arrow) |
!! |
Execute last command |
!string |
Execute last command starting with string |
!* |
Reference all arguments of last command |
!$ |
Reference last argument of last command |
Screen Control
| Shortcut | Description |
|---|---|
Ctrl + L |
Clear screen (Same as ‘clear’) |
Ctrl + S |
Freeze terminal (Stop accepting input) |
Ctrl + Q |
Unfreeze terminal |