Useful Keystrokes

Tab
Uses tab completion, as described in Tab Completion.

Up and down arrows
These go through the commands you have previously executed. If you press up once, it tells you what the last command you sent to the shell was, etc.

CTRL+A
Goes to the beginning of the line. Useful if you've made a mistake (similar to the Home key).

CTRL+E
Goes to the end of the line (similar to the End key).

CTRL+W
Deletes the previous word on the line.

CTRL+U
Deletes everything before the cursor. Useful for clearing the current prompt.

Note that bash has many, many, many more features that power users can take advantage of, but these will do for now. If you're interested, search for "bash tips" or something along those lines and you'll find lots of useful information.

In this section

• What the shell is
• Tab Completion
• Scrolling
• Useful Keystrokes