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Keyboard shortcuts for editing CLI commands

Contributors netapp-barbe

The command at the current command prompt is the active command. Using keyboard shortcuts enables you to edit the active command quickly. These keyboard shortcuts are similar to those of the UNIX tcsh shell and the Emacs editor.

The following table lists the keyboard shortcuts for editing CLI commands. “Ctrl-” indicates that you press and hold the Ctrl key while typing the character specified after it. “Esc-” indicates that you press and release the Esc key and then type the character specified after it.

If you want to…​ Use the following keyboard shortcut…​

Move the cursor back by one character

Ctrl-B

Back arrow

Move the cursor forward by one character

Ctrl-F

Forward arrow

Move the cursor back by one word

Esc-B

Move the cursor forward by one word

Esc-F

Move the cursor to the beginning of the line

Ctrl-A

Move the cursor to the end of the line

Ctrl-E

Remove the content of the command line from the beginning of the line to the cursor, and save it in the cut buffer. The cut buffer acts like temporary memory, similar to what is called a clipboard in some programs.

Ctrl-U

Remove the content of the command line from the cursor to the end of the line, and save it in the cut buffer

Ctrl-K

Remove the content of the command line from the cursor to the end of the following word, and save it in the cut buffer

Esc-D

Remove the word before the cursor, and save it in the cut buffer

Ctrl-W

Yank the content of the cut buffer, and push it into the command line at the cursor

Ctrl-Y

Delete the character before the cursor

Ctrl-H

Backspace

Delete the character where the cursor is

Ctrl-D

Clear the line

Ctrl-C

Clear the screen

Ctrl-L

Replace the current content of the command line with the previous entry on the history list.

With each repetition of the keyboard shortcut, the history cursor moves to the previous entry.

Ctrl-P

Esc-P

Up arrow

Replace the current content of the command line with the next entry on the history list. With each repetition of the keyboard shortcut, the history cursor moves to the next entry.

Ctrl-N

Esc-N

Down arrow

Expand a partially entered command or list valid input from the current editing position

Tab

Ctrl-I

Display context-sensitive help

?

Escape the special mapping for the question mark (“?”) character. For instance, to enter a question mark into a command's argument, press Esc and then the “?” character.

Esc-?

Start TTY output

Ctrl-Q

Stop TTY output

Ctrl-S