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By Joran Martijn
These are known as the GNU Readline key bindings. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Readline for a more exhaustive list. The following are ones that I use commonly
The Hot Keys
Ctrl-a Jump to START of line Ctrl-e Jump to END of line Meta-f Jump FORWARD one word or until special character. For example ‘ /\_.,-‘ Meta-b Jump BACK one word or until special character Ctrl-k Remove (KILL) everything after the cursor Ctrl-u Remove everything before the cursor Ctrl-w Remove the (previous) word Ctrl-y Paste (YANK) the last thing you removed with Ctrl-k, Ctrl-u or Ctrl-w Ctrl-l Clear the screen (same as clear) Ctrl-d Exit terminal session (same as exit) Meta-Bcksp Remove everything before the cursor until a special character Ctrl-r Search for commands in the commands history (also see history)
Theys hotkeys can save you a lot of time when editing a previous command to create a new command, especially if these are very long commands. I find in particular Ctrl-r extremely useful.
The Meta Key
The Meta key is a special key that is commonly used in command line work. It used to be an actual physical key on keyboards from the 1970s, when computer standard protocols were being developed. Nowadays its more like a virtual key which is activated by different physical keys depending on the system you are using
Meta = Alt on standard keyboards
Meta = Esc on Mac keyboards
If you use iTerm2 on a Mac, you can make the Option key act as the Meta key: Preferences → Profiles → Keys → Esc+