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>4.2. The command-line history</H1
><P
></P
><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><DL
><DT
>Using the command history</DT
><DD
><P
>Use the up and down key's to scroll through previously typed commands. Press [Enter] to execute them or use the left and right arrow keys to edit the command first. Also see <EM
>history</EM
> (below).</P
></DD
><DT
>The history command</DT
><DD
><P
>The<EM
> history </EM
> command can be used to list Bash's log of the commands you have typed:</P
><P
>This log is called the &#8220;history&#8221;. To access it type:</P
><TABLE
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><TR
><TD
><FONT
COLOR="#000000"
><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
>history n</PRE
></FONT
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><P
>This will only list the last <EM
>n</EM
> commands. Type &#8220;history&#8221; (without options) to see the the entire history list.</P
><P
>You can also type <EM
>!n</EM
> to execute command number n. Use <EM
>!!</EM
> to execute the last command you typed.</P
><P
><EM
>!-n </EM
>will execute the command n times before (in other words <EM
>!-1</EM
> is equivalent to <EM
>!!</EM
>). </P
><P
><EM
>!string </EM
>will execute the last command starting with that &#8220;string&#8221; and <EM
>!?string?</EM
> will execute the last command containing the word &#8220;string&#8221;. For example:</P
><TABLE
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><FONT
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>!cd</PRE
></FONT
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><P
>Will re-run the command that you last typed starting with &#8220;cd&#8221;.</P
><P
></P
><P
><EM
>&#8220; commandName !*&#8221;</EM
> will execute the &#8220;commandName&#8221; with any arguments you used on your last command. This maybe useful if you make a spelling mistake, for example. If you typed:</P
><TABLE
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><TD
><FONT
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><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
>emasc /home/fred/mywork.java /tmp/testme.java</PRE
></FONT
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><P
>In an attempt to execute emacs on the above two files this will obviously fail. So what you can do is type:</P
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><TR
><TD
><FONT
COLOR="#000000"
><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
>emacs !*</PRE
></FONT
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><P
>This will execute emacs with the arguments that you last typed on the command-line. In other words this is equivalent to typing:</P
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><PRE
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>emacs /home/fred/mywork.java /tmp/testme.java</PRE
></FONT
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
></DD
><DT
>Searching through the Command History (
<B
CLASS="KEYCAP"
>CTRL</B
>-<B
CLASS="KEYCAP"
>R</B
>
)</DT
><DD
><P
>Use the CTRL-R key to perform a &#8220;reverse-i-search&#8221;. For example, if you wanted to use the command you used the last time you used <EM
>snort</EM
>, you would type:</P
><P
><B
CLASS="KEYCAP"
>CTRL</B
>-<B
CLASS="KEYCAP"
>R</B
> then type &#8220;snort&#8221;.</P
><P
>What you will see in the console window is:</P
><TABLE
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><TD
><FONT
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><PRE
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>(reverse-i-search)`':</PRE
></FONT
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><P
>After you have typed what you are looking for, use the
<B
CLASS="KEYCAP"
>CTRL</B
>-<B
CLASS="KEYCAP"
>R</B
>
key combination to scroll backward through the history. </P
><P
>Use
<B
CLASS="KEYCAP"
>CTRL</B
>-<B
CLASS="KEYCAP"
>R</B
>
repeatedly to find every reference to the string you've entered. Once you've found the command you're looking for, use [Enter] to execute it. </P
><P
>Alternatively, using the right or left arrow keys will place the command on an actual command-line so you can edit it.</P
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