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Unix - how to get to start of a line in a command

veryangryman · 2008-11-03 12:30:11

Hi all, Cant find teh shortcut to do this anywhere on google - all i find is vi Is there any way to goto beginning of line when your typing a very long command without deleting or scrolling back?

03-11-2008 12:30pm

#1

veryangryman

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Hi all,

Cant find teh shortcut to do this anywhere on google - all i find is vi

Is there any way to goto beginning of line when your typing a very long command without deleting or scrolling back?

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#2 03-11-2008 12:44pm

Eoin

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If you are using ksh, you may be able to use vi commands to do this - found this on the web:

When you make a mistake typing a Unix command you usually use backspace and then retype a part of the line; if the line is quite long and you made a mistake near the beginning, then this involves a lot of retyping. There is a short cut: when you notice that you have made a mistake, hit the ESC key; ksh now allows you to edit the command using vi-style commands and will only try to carry out the command when you hit the RETURN key (no matter where the cursor is in the line). You use h and l to move the cursor left and right, x to delete characters, i to insert characters (use ESC to finish the insertion), and so on. Try it, it's wonderful! Note: the arrow keys cannot be used during command line editing.

There's also a UNIX forum here, which may be of more use.

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#3 03-11-2008 12:48pm

Nothingcompares

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home key?

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#4 03-11-2008 12:57pm

niallb

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Try CTRl-A .
If you've not changed anything much, that will do it for the bash shell.
CTRL-E will get you to the end.

If you're using a recent ubuntu, your shell might be something crippled.
Try typing the word 'bash' in to get a more complete shell.

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#5 03-11-2008 1:20pm

Tobias Greeshman

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If CTRL+A and CTRL+E do not work try running the command: "set -o emacs".

For a full list of emacs bindings on the command line: here

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#6 03-11-2008 3:06pm

AARRRGH

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I use "AbsoluteTelnet" to SSH into my server, and it allows me to press the home key to get to the start of a line.

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#7 04-11-2008 12:53pm

pickarooney

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Home key will work on konsole, but if you have a long prompt it becomes impossible to locate where you are in the line as the characters all pile on top of one another (hard to explain, easy to reproduce.
It can be easier to Ctrl-C then restart the line and paste the bit from the aborted command that's still relevant.

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