Readline Interaction (Bash Reference Manual)

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8.2 Readline Interaction

Often during an interactive session you type in a long line of text, only to notice that the first word on the line is misspelled. The Readline library gives you a set of commands for manipulating the text as you type it in, allowing you to just fix your typo, and not forcing you to retype the majority of the line. Using these editing commands, you move the cursor to the place that needs correction, and delete or insert the text of the corrections. Then, when you are satisfied with the line, you simply press RET. You do not have to be at the end of the line to press RET; the entire line is accepted regardless of the location of the cursor within the line.

• Readline Bare Essentials		The least you need to know about Readline.
• Readline Movement Commands		Moving about the input line.
• Readline Killing Commands		How to delete text, and how to get it back!
• Readline Arguments		Giving numeric arguments to commands.
• Searching		Searching through previous lines.