This & That

Refer to 'that last thing', and 'the first thing':

1fortune -l > file1
2cat !$  | tr -d u
3diff !^ !$

NB: this can go wrong:

1ls -l file1 file2
2cat !^

Done

<C-d>

• If you have a command, Control + d will execute the command.
• If you have nothing, exit.

Input Run-Commands (~/.inputrc)

Alias Expansion

1echo '"\C- ": shell-expand-line' >> ~/.inputrc
2exec bash

Now you can expand all aliases with 'Control + Space'. Try just ls, then 'Control + Space'.

Glob Expansion (*)

1echo '"\C-x": glob-expand-word' >> ~/.inputrc
2exec bash
3ls *<C-x>

• Are you sure you want to delete that?
  • rm -r *<C-x>
• Clean up the Downloads folder:
  • rm Downloads/*pdf<C-x>

Arbitrary Commands

Use \n as a 'newline' character to automatically press <Return>.

1echo 'Control-y: "| lolcat\n"' >> ~/.inputrc
2exec bash
3ls<C-y>

1Control-l: "\C-u clear -x && ls\n"
2exec bash
3cd /etc/<C-l>

Readline as Vi

1echo 'set editing-mode vi' >> ~/.inputrc
2echo 'set keymap vi-insert' >> ~/.inputrc
3exec bash

The prompt now works according to vi-motions. This goes much further than the bash-option, set -o vi ('set option: vi'). It changes the cursor in the terminal, not just bash.

Try:

• ls <C-n>
• ls <C-p>
• Type some words.
• <Esc>0dw$p
• to normal-mode, and go back with 'b', and forward with 'e'.
• 4b to step back four times.
• cE
• <Esc>kcw
• ls -axxxx

Works with python too:

1im<C-n>os<Return>
2os.li<C-n><Return>
3<Esc>kfn
4<C-d>

Fix Globs!

If you tried the previous commands then they will not work any more, because the vi-commands overwrite the other commands. Remove them.

1sed '/ vi/d' ~/.inputrc
2sed -i '/ vi/d' ~/.inputrc
3
4sed '1 i set editing-mode vi' .inputrc 
5sed -i '1 i set editing-mode vi' ~/.inputrc 
6sed -i '2 i set keymap vi-insert' ~/.inputrc 

Vi-sibility

The readline prompt becomes confusing if you don't remember if you're in insert or normal mode. But you can show the current mode in the prompt:

1echo 'set show-mode-in-prompt on' >> ~/.inputrc
2exec bash

Set new symbols for normal and insert mode:

1echo 'set vi-ins-mode-string "  "' >> ~/.inputrc
2echo 'set vi-cmd-mode-string " "' >> ~/.inputrc

Fuzzy Sort

Check your repos for sk-im, and install. The program is called sk.

1FUZZY=sk

If you don't have it, fzy or fzf should work the same way.

1FUZZY=fzy

Find some 'read-config' files to check out:

1find . -maxdepth 2 -name "*rc"
2find . -maxdepth 2 -name "*rc" | $FUZZY

And read some:

1PAGER='less -R'
2$PAGER "$(find . -maxdepth 2 -name "*rc" | $FUZZY)"

Make the change long-term:

1alias rrc='$PAGER "$(find . -maxdepth 2 -name "*rc" | sk)"'
2alias | grep rrc= >> ~/.bash_aliases