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This is a page from an upcoming zine called "The Secret Rules of the Terminal".

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editing text ([almost] always works)

  • backspace
  • Ctrl + W: delete previous word
  • Ctrl + U: delete line

(except in text editors)

quitting

  • Ctrl + C: quit (SIGINT)
  • Ctrl + Z: stop process (SIGTSTP) (resume with fg or bg or kill (with kill)
  • Ctrl + D: quit (in a REPL) (more on page 20)
  • q: quit (in some full screen programs)
  • Enter: exit frozen SSH session

or the nuclear option:

$ ps aux | grep THING
bork 7213 ... THING
$ kill -9 7213

editing text

(these often work in a readline-like situation)

  • arrow keys

  • Ctrl + A or Home: beginning of line

  • Ctrl + E or End: end of line

  • Ctrl + arrow keys: left/right a word
    or sometimes Alt + arrow keys
    or Option + arrow keys
    or Alt+b / Alt+f

  • Ctrl + K: delete line forward

  • Ctrl + Y: paste (from Ctrl+K or Ctrl+U)

  • Ctrl + H: might work if Backspace doesn’t

also many shells have a “vi mode” if that’s your jam

other useful stuff

  • Ctrl + L: clear screen
  • Ctrl + R: search history
  • Ctrl + Q: unfreeze screen (that you froze with Ctrl+S, more on page 25)

copy and paste

in your terminal emulator, it’s usually:
Ctrl + Shift + C/V
or Cmd + C/V

mouse stuff that might work

  • Option + click
  • or Alt + click: place cursor
  • scroll wheel: scroll

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