Keyboard Shortcuts: Readline & Zsh

Why bother with shortcuts?

The shell isn't just a command runner — it's a text editor for your current line. Bash and zsh both use the Readline library (or zsh's own ZLE, which copies the same key bindings). Once you learn six or seven shortcuts, you stop reaching for the arrow keys and your hands stay on the home row.

Movement

Ctrl+A — start of line
Ctrl+E — end of line
Alt+B / Alt+F — back / forward one word
Ctrl+B / Ctrl+F — back / forward one char

Editing

Ctrl+W — delete previous word (most-used shortcut on the shell, full stop)
Ctrl+U — delete from cursor to start of line
Ctrl+K — delete from cursor to end of line
Ctrl+Y — paste the last killed text (the kill ring)
Ctrl+T — swap two adjacent characters

History

Ctrl+R — incremental reverse search; type characters, press Enter to run, Ctrl+R again for next match
Ctrl+P / Ctrl+N — previous / next history (same as up/down arrow)
!! — last command. sudo !! reruns the last command with sudo.
!$ — last argument of last command. Great for cat /long/path/to/log; vim !$.

Process control

Ctrl+C — interrupt the running command
Ctrl+Z — suspend it (restore later with fg)
Ctrl+D — EOF; exits the shell when the line is empty
Ctrl+L — clear screen (same as the clear command)

vi mode for ex-vim users

Run set -o vi (bash) or bindkey -v (zsh) to flip the prompt into modal editing. Esc to leave insert, then standard vim motion: w, b, 0, $, dd, cc. Pair with the next track's fzf integration and your prompt becomes a tiny vim.

Code

Practice the killers·bash

# Type a long command, then practice these:
echo 'this is a long sample command for practice'
# Press Ctrl+A (start), Ctrl+E (end)
# Ctrl+W to nuke the last word, Ctrl+U to nuke to start
# !! to rerun, sudo !! to rerun with sudo

Search history fast·bash

# Press Ctrl+R, type any substring of a previous command
# Press Ctrl+R again to walk earlier matches
# Press Enter to run, Esc/Ctrl+G to abort
# Or grep history directly
history | grep ssh