You and I are probably very different; my choice of editor is likely to make you cringe just thinking about it, and your favorite programming language is statistically — definitely — not mine.
There is however one thing (and maybe that's the only thing) we all have in common; we are a bunch of lazy bastards.
Note: This article is primarily targeting
bash,csh,tcsh, andzsh. If these shells are not your daily driver, see POSIX and the power offc— worth a read no matter which POSIX-compatible shell you use.
Command-line repetition we socially accept
$ ssh [email protected]
$ echo "done with [email protected]" >> ~/work/superfun-client/worklog
$ cd ~/work/superfun-client && cat TODO
$ ssh [email protected]
I am sure we have all ended up in arrow-up-mashing hell when repeating commands in our shell history, but what if we instead could save ourselves the trouble and refer to previous commands and their arguments directly?
$ ssh [email protected]
$ echo "done with !:1" >> ~/work/superfun-client/worklog
$ cd !$:h && cat TODO
$ !ssh
No yelling — just exclamation marks.
Note: The magic described in this article applies to interactive shells unless configured otherwise, it is not meant to be used in your new
amazing.shshell script.
Don't Repeat Yourself.
I bet you've heard it before, "do not repeat yourself", either from that
annoying colleague with all the obscure magic (who might smell a little funny) —
or perhaps you said it yourself during the last refactor session that somehow
lasted longer than the federation delay on matrix.org.
$ apt install awesome-package
$ sudo !!
$ mkdir /var/mnt/cache
$ cd !$
Most of us have heard DRY repeated since we were ki–, I mean junior. But is it not funny that we've religiously been taught to apply DRY everywhere… except on the command‑line?
$ touch ~/projects/work/awesome.sh
$ cd !$:h
$ ssh 10.240.33.109 -p2222 -i ~/.ssh/prod/ed25519
$ ssh 10.240.33.110 !:2*
$ ffmpeg -i /recordings/a-sunny-day.mov !#:2:r.mkv
ffmpeg -i /recordings/a-sunny-day.mov /recordings/a-sunny-day.mkv
$ scp !$:r.* example.com:/media
scp /recordings/a-sunny-day.* example.com:/media
What is this magic an event designator?
Even though they might look mighty daunting at first glance, event designators always follow the same rather simple pattern:
![event][:word][:modifier]
| | |
| | '--> modifier [ :h :t :r :e ... ]
| '-----------> which part [ :0 :$ :* :2-3 ... ]
'------------------> which line [ !! !-2 !ssh !?needle? ... ]
Note: Want to know the bare necessities? Check out yell responsibly for the essential designators I consider most useful.
Note: Already fluent? Skip to posix and the power of
fcfor one of the most useful albeit niche commands I have ever had the pleasure of running — who haven't wished they could edit their long commands in an editor rather than in the shell?
Event Designator
The first part immediately following the exclamation mark denotes which lines we are interested in — here are a few examples which will effectively rerun the referred to command:
$ !!
$ !-2
$ !1337
$ !ssh
$ !?dandelion?
$ !#
$ ^ssh^scp^
Note: If the
!is immediately followed by:, no explicit event is specified and the expression will refer to the immediately previous line.
Word Designator
After the event designator (if any) you may specify which part of the line you are interested in. All examples below are written as if they follow the command in the first code block.
$ /path/to/script.sh "hello world" --enable 1337
$ !:0
$ !:1
$ !:$
$ !:1-2
$ !:*
$ !:1-
$ !:2*
Note: There are several short-form expressions that work without even specifying a colon, like
!$being equivalent to!:$,!*being equivalent to!:*, and so forth.
Modifier
Modifiers are perhaps where we enter "oh-daaaaaaaym"-territory — they allow you to extract/modify only certain parts of what would otherwise be an entire argument.
$ !:$:h
$ !:1:t
$ !:1:r
$ !:1:e
$ !:s/hello/bye/
$ !:gs/foo/bar/
$ !ssh:p
POSIX and the power of fc
Whether or not your shell speaks !, fc belongs in your imaginary tool belt.
It can be used to repeat the previous command, but the true power lies in the
fact that you can edit your command-line not in your shell — but in your editor
of choice.
Every shell adventurer should run fc at least once a year, if only to marvel
at its usability:
$ fc
$ fc -2
$ fc grep
$ fc -3 -1
$ fc ssh -1
$ fc -s ssh
$ fc -s hello=world ssh
fc will invoke whatever program is specified in $FCEDIT to do the editing,
if no such specification exists POSIX falls back to ed — though many shells
will default to $EDITOR.
You may also specify which editor to invoke using -e:
$ scp api.tar.gz prod-01:/tmp
$ ssh prod-01 systemctl restart api
$ curl -sf https://prod-01/health
$ fc -e 'sed -i s/prod-01/test-01/g' -3 -1
The above will rerun all three commands, replacing prod-01 with test-01 in
each; a contrived example perhaps but man is it useful when you find yourself in
such trouble.
Note
Yell responsibly
Event designators, or fc in the case of POSIX, are not going to change your
life and turn you into an über-10x-developer-always-wearing-a-hoodie; they might
however save you anywhere between four and forty-two keystrokes at a time, a few
hundred times a week, over the many years spanning your career.
See below for what I consider the essentials, memorize a few of these and you are already miles ahead compared to your former self.
The rule of three
!!which expands to the previous command!needlewhich expands to the most recent command starting with "needle"!?needle?matches the most recent command containing "needle"
The powerful four
!$the last argument of the previous command!:0when you need to rerun that annoyingly located script!$:hfor an easy extraction of the directory part!$:tfor when you want the filename and nothing else
I don't trust my exclamation-mark-fu just yet, any advice?
There is shopt -s histverify for bash, and setopt HIST_VERIFY in zsh.
Rather than YOLO-running the command directly, either configuration will expand commands in-place when you press enter — allowing you to edit (or discard) the result if it is not what you aimed for.
You may also use the :p-modifier to print what would run without running it —
the expansion lands in your history so a plain !! (or arrow-up + enter) runs
it once you are ready.
So, what now?
I guess there is nothing left to do but practice.
Please refrain from yelling at your colleagues, spend the saved keystrokes on watercooler chitchat, and forever remember that exclamation marks are not for shouting — at least not in your shell.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you have a question or feedback of your own, please feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected].
Why not use
ctrl-rinstead of memorizing a bunch of things?ctrl-r, a.k.a. command-line history search, is extremely powerful, but it will at best give you a template to modify; event designators allow you to extract partial contents.Also, why search if you already know what you want to run?
!sshvsctrl-r+ssh— the former is also kinda cooler™.Why not use
alt-.instead of!$?alt-.is great for what it is designed to do, iterating over the previous "last arguments" of your shell history. It's great at doing that, but it is also limited to doing just that one thing.Are you not disregarding other useful features?
I am not aiming for some sort of "either or" situation when I publish my articles — whatever gets the work done is what you should use.
And for what it's worth… never do what a stranger tells you online; personal preference and workflows are worth more than any article (no matter the amount of obscure sometimes forgotten magic).
!just gets in the way, how do I turn this off?I bet many have been bitten by the "usability" of event designators without realizing what they are for, such as in the example below:
$ echo "!dlrow olleh" bash: !dlrow: event not foundIf you would like to turn things off so that you can use
!anywhere, you may useset +Hin bash andsetopt nobanghistin zsh; for other shells I recommend consulting your manual.You may also go full smelly-colleague-with-magic (please wear deodorant in public), and instead use any character of your liking:
$ histchars='%^#' $ echo "hello world" hello world $ echo %$:s/world/the internet/ hello the internetRemember to put your configuration in the relevant dot-rc file to make the changes persistent.
Further Reading
Other articles in this series:
Documentation relevant to event designators: