Shell Shortcuts – How to Repeat the Last Command Without Using Arrow Keys

command historykeyboard shortcutsshell

I know I can use Up to iterate through previous commands. Running the last command simply involves Up + Enter. However, I was thinking of buying the Happy Hacking Keyboard as I spend a lot of time in vim.

This keyboard has no arrow keys, and the only way I know how to get this kind of behaviour is by pressing Ctrl + R and beginning to repeat my previous command.

Is there an easy way to emulate Up + Enter in an UNIX terminal without the arrow keys?

Best Answer

With csh or any shell implementing csh-like history substitution (tcsh, bash, zsh):

!!

Then Enter.

Or alternatively:

!-1

Then Enter.

Or Ctrl+P, Enter

Magic space

Also, note that !! and !-1 will not auto-expand for you, until you execute them (when it might be too late).

If using bash, you can put bind Space:magic-space into ~/.bashrc, then pressing Space after the command will auto-expand them inline, allowing you to inspect them before execution. This is particularly useful for history expansion from a command run a while ago, e.g. !echo will pull the last command run starting with echo. With magic space, you get to preview the command before it's run.

That's the equivalent of doing bindkey ' ' magic-space in tcsh or zsh.

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