Bash – Search for a previous command with the same prefix when I press Up at a shell prompt

bashcommand historyshelltcshzsh

Coming from a FreeBSD world I wish to make the Linux terminal behave like FreeBSD one, especially the 9.1 version, basically when you type cd in the terminal and push the "up" arrow you can browse all the commands in the history starting with cd which makes you gain a lot time.

I don't know how to enable this feature in Linux Debian or CentOS which force me to type the whole, could someone please help.

Best Answer

Add to the following to ~/.inputrc:

# Press up-arrow for previous matching command
"\e[A":history-search-backward
# Press down-arrow for next matching command
"\e[B":history-search-forward

Explanation

~/.inputrc is the configuration file for GNU readline. Many shells, including bash and tcsh use readline for command line editing. The two lines above will tell readline to invoke its history search functionality when the escape sequences for the up-arrow key (\e[A) and down-arrow key (\e[B) are encountered.

Related Solutions

Zsh History – How to Search History with Text Already Entered at the Prompt

You can use zle's history-search functionality:

bindkey "^[[A" history-beginning-search-backward
bindkey "^[[B" history-beginning-search-forward

This binds Up and Down (adjust for your own escape sequences) to a history search, backwards and forwards, based upon what has already been entered at the prompt.

So, if you were to enter "vim" and hit Up, zsh will traverse backwards through your history for only those commands commencing with "vim".

You can additionally have the cursor placed at the end of the line once you have selected your desired command from zsh's history by using the history-search-end function (typically located in /usr/share/zsh/functions/Zle/) and appending -end to the end of each line, like so:

autoload -U history-search-end
zle -N history-beginning-search-backward-end history-search-end
zle -N history-beginning-search-forward-end history-search-end
bindkey "^[[A" history-beginning-search-backward-end
bindkey "^[[B" history-beginning-search-forward-end

Bash – Search for a Previous Command with the Prefix Typed

What you are looking for is CtrlR.

Type CtrlR and then type part of the command you want. Bash will display the first matching command. Keep typing CtrlR and bash will cycle through previous matching commands.

To search backwards in the history, type CtrlS instead. (If CtrlS doesn't work that way for you, that likely means that you need to disable XON/XOFF flow control: to do that, run stty -ixon.)

This is documented under "Searching" in man bash.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Zsh History – How to Search History with Text Already Entered at the Prompt

Bash – Search for a Previous Command with the Prefix Typed

Related Question