Bash – Windows shell Escape key (delete whole line) equivalent in Bash

bashcommand line

In Windows command line (powershell and cmd), when you press Esc key while on a line, whatever you have typed at the prompt is removed.

I found that pressing Esc key at bash prompt does nothing. Pressing Esc and then backspace deletes a word, but this has to be done for each word.

I am learning Bash incrementally and sometimes type something stupid in the middle of the line and feel that it is better to type from scratch again. To do this, pressing backspace is the only way I found until now.

What do you do?

I am aware of the clear command and Ctrl-L shortcut, but I am not talking about clearing the entire terminal. Just the line.

Best Answer

You want kill-whole-line, but this is not bound by default in bash. backward-kill-line (CtrlX Backspace) and unix-line-discard (CtrlU) both erase from the current point to the beginning of the line, so just go to the end of the line and use either.

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Bash readline: Key binding that executes an external command

Not all bash line editing is controlled from ~/.inputrc; much of it is configured via the bind builtin. In this case, you want something like

bind -x '"\C-gu":uptime'

in your ~/.bashrc.

Bash and Zsh – How to Delete a Word Backward at the Command Line

Ctrl+W is the standard "kill word" (aka werase). Ctrl+U kills the whole line (kill).

You can change them with stty.

-bash-4.2$ stty -a
speed 38400 baud; 24 rows; 80 columns;
lflags: icanon isig iexten echo echoe -echok echoke -echonl echoctl
        -echoprt -altwerase -noflsh -tostop -flusho pendin -nokerninfo
        -extproc -xcase
iflags: -istrip icrnl -inlcr -igncr -iuclc ixon -ixoff ixany imaxbel
        -ignbrk brkint -inpck -ignpar -parmrk
oflags: opost onlcr -ocrnl -onocr -onlret -olcuc oxtabs -onoeot
cflags: cread cs8 -parenb -parodd hupcl -clocal -cstopb -crtscts -mdmbuf
cchars: discard = ^O; dsusp = ^Y; eof = ^D; eol = <undef>;
        eol2 = <undef>; erase = ^?; intr = ^C; kill = ^U; lnext = ^V;
        min = 1; quit = ^\; reprint = ^R; start = ^Q; status = <undef>;
        stop = ^S; susp = ^Z; time = 0; werase = ^W;
-bash-4.2$ stty werase ^p
-bash-4.2$ stty kill ^a
-bash-4.2$

Note that one does not have to put the actual control character on the line, stty understands putting ^ and then the character you would hit with control.

After doing this, if I hit Ctrl+P it will erase a word from the line. And if I hit Ctrl+A, it will erase the whole line.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Bash readline: Key binding that executes an external command

Bash and Zsh – How to Delete a Word Backward at the Command Line

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