Essential Bash Keyboard Shortcuts

BASH has a ton of shortcuts, but you don’t need to know them all right away. Start with these — they’ll save you a ton of keystrokes and make life at the command line way smoother.

Shortcut	What it Does
TAB	Autocompletes a partially typed command. If there’s more than one match, Bash shows you the options.
↑ / ↓	Scroll back/forward through your command history.
Ctrl+e	Jump to the end of the current line. (e = end)
Ctrl+a	Jump to the start of the current line. (a = alphabet’s start)
Ctrl+u	Delete everything from the cursor back to the start of the line.
Ctrl+k	Delete everything from the cursor to the end of the line.
Ctrl+w	Delete the word just before the cursor.
Ctrl+y	Paste back (yank) the last thing you deleted with Ctrl+u, Ctrl+k, or Ctrl+w.
Ctrl+l	Clear the screen (like the clear command).
Ctrl+c	Cancel/kill the currently running command or process.
Ctrl+z	Pause the current job (suspends it in the background).
fg	Resume the most recent job that was paused with Ctrl+z.
bg	Resume the paused job, but keep it running in the background.
Ctrl+d	Log out of the current shell (or send an EOF if in a prompt).
Ctrl+r	Reverse search through your command history. Type part of a command and Bash will find it. (Game-changer!)
!!	Run the last command again. (sudo !! is a classic trick.)

👉 Pro tip: Start with TAB, Ctrl+r, and Ctrl+c. Those three alone will change your Bash life.