Bash keeps a record of your previous commands - try using the up and down arrow keys (or Ctrl-p / Ctrl-n) to cycle through history.
If you want to see a bunch of history at once, try the history command. This can get long, so try piping it to tail:
[email protected] ~ $ history | tail 92 help history 93 help history|less 94 cowthink what? 95 cowthink 'what?' 96 history 97 man history 98 help history 99 history | head -1 100 history | head 101 history | tail
Suppose you remember part of a command, and want to reuse it?
Try typing Ctrl-r, followed by the part of the command you remember. Bash will search the history for matches. You can then press Enter to execute the command over again, or Esc to edit it.
Often, you know the name of a command or file, but it would be nice not to have to type the whole thing. Try typing the first few letters of a command and hit Tab. Bash will attempt to find a matching command and fill it in for you. If there's more than one command that matches, you may need to hit Tab again, and you'll be presented with a list of possible commands.
Similarly, typing part of a file name and pressing Tab will often complete the name. If more than one file matches what you've already typed, hit Tab a couple of times and you'll get a list of files.
If you need to fix a typo or revise an earlier command you've retrieved from history, Bash provides a set of editing commands.
Ctrl-b or left arrow key |
Move back one character |
Ctrl-f or right arrow |
Move forward one character |
Ctrl-a or Home |
Move to beginning of line |
Ctrl-e or End |
Move to end of line |
Ctrl-k |
Kill (delete/cut) text from cursor position to end of line |
Ctrl-y |
Yank (paste) previously killed text |
There's more - check out the manual on Readline Interaction.
