Essential Keybindings For Bash, Fish and Zsh

One of the most useful features of the Bash shell (Fish and Zsh too!) is the built-in keybindings that can greatly speed up your terminal workflow.

By default, your shell uses Emacs-style keybindings, but you can change to Vim-like bindings if you prefer. The following are the commands to change to Vi-bindings (and back to Emacs-bindings).

BASH: set -o vi (set -o emacs)
ZSH : bindkey -v (bindkey -e)
FISH : fish_vi_key_bindings (fish_default_key_bindings)

The following commands were shown in this video. Listed are the Emacs-bindings followed by the Vim-bindings in parentheses:

CTRL-a (0 or ^) jump to beginning of line
CTRL-e ($) jump to end of line

CTRL-f (h) move forward one char
CTRL-b (l) move backward one char

ALT-f (w) move forward one word
ALT-b (b) move backward one word
2w, 2b...in Vi-mode

CTRL-k (d$) delete from this point to the end of the line
CTRL-u (d0) delete from beginning of the line to this point
CTRL-y (u) undo

CTRL-w (db) delete a word backwards
ALT-d (dw) delete a word forwards

Alt-. to past last command argument
Or just type !!, !$ in the command line

CTRL-p (k) move to prev command in history
CTRL-n (j) move to next command in history

CTRL-l to clear terminal
CTRL-d to exit the shell

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[pizzapizza]

I was a Windows user 2 weeks ago; now an Arch user & if it wasn't for your vidz & the wiki... I'd probably still be using Windows. Merci 😌

[gardenapple]

Instead of configuring vi mode in Bash you could configure for many programs at once using .inputrc, it's a configuration file for the GNU readline library which is used for text prompts in many CLI tools, not just Bash but also Python interactive shell, etc. There are a bunch of config options but the basic one is "set editing-mode vi" in .inputrc which applies it to all programs at once! (Zsh does not use .inputrc and I don't think Fish does either, but Bash definitely does)

[marot]

I know and use some of these key bindings for many years. I still learnt new and useful ones from your short video.

[Yimyim]

CTRL-y is not really an undo. It's more like a paste command (which it is in Emacs).
And CTRL-w, ALT-d, CTRL-k, and CTRL-u are more like cut commands.
So you can actually move an argument or word around using these commands.
For example, if you have
$ echo word1 word2
and you press "CTRL-w ALT-b CTRL-y <Space> " you will get
$ echo word2 word1

[ProCoder]

O-M-F-G. Thanks, just thanks! I never questioned if there were keybindings...

[PhyFlame]

I've been using a lot of emacs bindings without knowing their origin. It is very nice to know such things and also be aware of options (like `set -o vi`) in order to change them. This will permanently influence how I work with the shell, thank you very much.

Also I'm checking out the emacs video right now^^

[RodrigoPolo]

1. In macOS Terminal, in the options->Profile tab, enable the checkbox "Use Option as Meta key" to have this keybindings.
2. I just want to thank you for this content and channel, I though I knew how to use the terminal until I saw your content, which is like a glass of water in a desert.

[michakozio]

In vi mode use '_' character in normal mode to get the last parameter of the last command. You can also use the numbers before to get the argument of the specific number.

[dragonsage]

Great episode, I'm trying to use these more lately, great time savers.
Ty

[Chalisque]

A long time ago (though still in this galaxy), I used emacs. These days I'm a vim addict. But I tried vim keybindings for bash and ended up going back to the standard emacs ones.

[PoeLemic]

Thank you for covering this. I learned that stuff in school, but I had forgotten so much of it. And, being a Windows user mainly, kindof dumbs me down. I just use arrow keys & only few extras.

[marioschroers]

Good one, as always 🙂

Hey, DT! Recently, I find myself using a lot of regex in my nvim workflow (%s/...). Would you consider making a video on the topic?

[muddyexport]

Thank you. Good info. Relearned a forgotten.

[vanshajdhar]

"set -o vi" was the solution to all my miseries and it's been so many years I didn't know that.

[anon_y_mousse]

For my keybindings, I've got home and end to go to the start and end of a line, Ctrl+{LArrow, RArrow} to navigate by words, Ctrl+Del to delete forward and Alt+Backspace to delete backwards. Though, I really don't do much line editing. I tend to just add to my .bashrc anything I keep typing repeatedly and occasionally if I need something temporarily I'll just create a function at the terminal. Sometimes I'll make a .sh file if I don't want it polluting the .bashrc but I need it multiple times, like starting up qemu instances.

[stefosters]

Great channel. Thanks so much for sharing all the valuable information and experience 👍👍👍

[cathalogrady]

just a note ^ brings you to the start of text, 0 brings you to the actual start of the line regardless of leading whitespace or tabs

[syrefaen]

Oh no I am used to emacs standards, very useful to know!

[LordHonkInc]

Well hot damn, I've been working in the shell for more than a decade and didn't know that I could change to vi bindings, what an oversight.

Also, just to take advantage of shells and fish in particular being discussed: don't be surprised if you change to fish and "!!" or "!$" don't work, that's apparently by design – a design I very much disagree with and why "plugin-bang-bang" is the first thing I install alongside fish. Call me oldskool, but "sudo !!" will probably forever be more ingrained in my mind rather than "[UP]->Ctrl+A->sudo "

[burning_KFC]

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