Using the Korn Shell

Setting the Command Line Editor

In the Korn shell, use one of the following commands to set the option to be used for command line editing:

set -o emacs
set -o gmacs
set -o vi

The keys for specific commands will depend on which editor option is specified.

Command Line Editor Keys

Begin command line editing by entering the key sequence to recall a previous command from history. In vi mode, the initial command must be preceded by Esc, so command line editing is initiated with Esc k or Esc -. In emacs or gmacs mode, enter Ctrl-P to recall the previous command or Esc < to recall the first command from the history.

  emacs / gmacs vi
Automatic file name completion Esc Esc Esc \
Begin command line editing Ctrl-P
Esc <
Esc k
Esc -
Previous line/command Ctrl-P k
-
Next line/command Ctrl-N j
+
First line/command in history Esc <  
Last line/command in history Esc >  
Search backward in history   /string
Search forward in history   ?string
Repeat search in same direction   n
Repeat search in reverse direction   N
Execute and advance to next command in history Ctrl-O  
Clear entire line Ctrl-U  
Backwards one character Ctrl-B h
Backspace
Forward one character Ctrl-F l
Backwards to first character of word Esc b b
Forward to first character of word   w
Forward to last character of word   e
Forward to end of word Esc f  
Beginning of line Ctrl-A 0 (zero)
First non-blank character in line   ^
End of line Ctrl-E $
Column n   n| ("or" bar)
Find next character in line   fchar
Repeat find in same direction   ;
Repeat find in reverse direction   ,
Delete character at cursor Ctrl-D x
Delete character before cursor Backspace X
Delete n characters   nx
Delete n characters before cursor   nX
Delete word before cursor Esc Backspace Ctrl-W
Delete from cursor to end of line Ctrl-K D
Delete to end of word Esc d  
Replace current character   r
Replace multiple character   R
Insert before current character   i
Insert after current character   a
Insert at beginning of line   I
Insert at end of line   A
Repeat most recent command   .
Undo last change   u
Undo all changes   U
Cancel emacs command (cancels Esc) Ctrl-G  
Cancel UNIX command; new prompt Ctrl-C  
Display version temporarily Ctrl-V  
Transpose two characters
emacs: transpose current character with following character
gmacs: transpose previous two characters
Ctrl-T  

Last updated Tuesday July 15, 2008


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Using the Korn Shell

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