Bash Bash history substitutions Quick Reference
Example
Interaction with the history
# List all previous commands
history
# Clear the history, useful if you entered a password by accident
history -c
Event designators
# Expands to line n of bash history
!n
# Expands to last command
!!
# Expands to last command starting with "text"
!text
# Expands to last command containing "text"
!?text
# Expands to command n lines ago
!-n
# Expands to last command with first occurrence of "foo" replaced by "bar"
^foo^bar^
# Expands to the current command
!#
Word designators
These are separated by : from the event designator they refer to. The colon can be omitted if the word designator doesn't start with a number: !^ is the same as !:^.
# Expands to the first argument of the most recent command
!^
# Expands to the last argument of the most recent command (short for !!:$)
!$
# Expands to the third argument of the most recent command
!:3
# Expands to arguments x through y (inclusive) of the last command
# x and y can be numbers or the anchor characters ^ $
!:x-y
# Expands to all words of the last command except the 0th
# Equivalent to :^-$
!*
Modifiers
These modify the preceding event or word designator.
# Replacement in the expansion using sed syntax
# Allows flags before the s and alternate separators
:s/foo/bar/ #substitutes bar for first occurrence of foo
:gs|foo|bar| #substitutes bar for all foo
# Remove leading path from last argument ("tail")
:t
# Remove trailing path from last argument ("head")
:h
# Remove file extension from last argument
:r
If the Bash variable HISTCONTROL contains either ignorespace or ignoreboth (or, alternatively, HISTIGNORE contains the pattern [ ]*), you can prevent your commands from being stored in Bash history by prepending them with a space:
# This command won't be saved in the history
foo
# This command will be saved
bar
