Miscellaneous bash tips

A few useful configuration bits:

# Don't put duplicate lines in the history
export HISTCONTROL=ignoredups

# When you use history expansion (the !something), allows to edit the
# expanded line before executing it
shopt -s histverify

# Correct spelling mistakes when using 'cd'
shopt -s cdspell

# Do not attempt completion on an empty line
shopt -s no_empty_cmd_completion

A few useful keystrokes:

• Alt + dot: insert the last argument of the previous command. Equivalent to inserting the expansion of !$ at the cursor position.
• Alt + >: go to the end of the history. Sometimes it happens, when using Ctrl + r, that I mistakenly land before the command that I was looking for, and I need to hold arrow-down for a while to go back at the end. This does the trick. Of course, Alt + < goes at the beginning. Also, Ctrl
  • s does forward search.
• If you need to execute a bunch of consecutive lines from the history, try Ctrl + o: it runs the current line and then takes you to the next one in the history.
• Unsure of expansion, or you would like to act on *.jpg exept maybe a few of them? Ctrl + Alt + e does full expansion on the current line, and Alt + ^ does history expansion only. If the expansion is too big, use Ctrl+x then Ctrl+e, which loads the current command in an editor and runs when you exit the editor.
• If you want to postpone the current command, Alt + # will comment it out and and enter it into the history, so that you can look it up later. (via Ben Hutchings)

For more useful keystrokes, run man bash, look for "Commands for Manipulating the History" and read down from there.