by Oliver; 2014
52. bind
As discussed in detail in
An Introduction to the Command-Line (on Unix-like systems) - Working Faster with Readline Functions and Key Bindings,
ReadLine Functions (
GNU Documentation) allow you to take all sorts of shortcuts in the terminal.
You can see all the Readline Functions by entering:
$ bind -P # show all Readline Functions and their key bindings
$ bind -l # show all Readline Functions
Four of the most excellent Readline Functions are:
- forward-word - jump cursor forward a word
- backward-word - jump cursor backward a word
- history-search-backward - scroll through your bash history backward
- history-search-forward - scroll through your bash history forward
For the first two, you can use the default Emacs way:
- Meta-f - jump forward one word
- Meta-b - jump backward one word
However, reaching for the
Esc key is a royal pain in the ass—you have to re-position your hands on the keyboard.
This is where
key-binding comes into play.
Using the command
bind, you can map a Readline Function to any key combination you like.
Of course, you should be careful not to overwrite pre-existing key bindings that you want to use.
I like to map the following keys to these Readline Functions:
- Cntrl-forward-arrow - forward-word
- Cntrl-backward-arrow - backward-word
- up-arrow - history-search-backward
- down-arrow - history-search-forward
In my
.bash_profile (or, more accurately, in my global bash settings file) I use:
# make cursor jump over words
bind '"\e[5C": forward-word' # control+arrow_right
bind '"\e[5D": backward-word' # control+arrow_left
# make history searchable by entering the beginning of command
# and using up and down keys
bind '"\e[A": history-search-backward' # arrow_up
bind '"\e[B": history-search-forward' # arrow_down
(Although these may not work universally.)
How does this cryptic symbology translate into these particular keybindings?
Again, refer to
An Introduction to the Command-Line (on Unix-like systems).
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