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Accepted
Adam Matan
Asked: 2013-03-18 00:28:14 +0800 CST

Bash: delete from cursor till end of line with a keyboard shortcut

  • 772

Consider the following bash prompt, where ^ denotes the prompt location:

$ git commit -am "[bug 123456] Do this and that with the bug"
                               ^

Suppose that I want to commit again to the same bug, with a different commit message. Is there a way to delete the text from the cursor position till the end of line?

command-line

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Use Ctrl+K to delete from the cursor to the end of the line.

    Use Ctrl+U to delete from the cursor to the beginning of the line.

    • 188

  2. It depends on whether you are using vi(set -o vi) or emacs(set -o emacs) editing mode within your shell.

    By default, your shell generally defaults to emacs editing mode.

    • In emacs mode, deleting to the end of the line can be accomplished by using the command ctrl-k.

    • If, however, you happen to be using vi editing mode in your command shell, the same result can be accomplished by typing Esc(which will place you in command mode) followed by d-$(if you want to delete the entire line, enter dd).

    If you are uncertain as to which editing mode that you are currently using in your shell, enter the command set -o from the command line and you will be able to determine which editing mode that you are currently using:

    set -o
...snip...
emacs           on
...snip...
vi              off

    To switch your command-line editing mode, simply type either:

    set -o vi

    or

    set -o emacs
    • 55

  3. In case you're only familiar with one of Zsh and Bash, here are the equivalent key bindings you (may) need:

    bash

    bind '"\C-k"':kill-line

    zsh

    bindkey "\C-k"      vi-kill-eol

    Other relevant information

    To get a list of key bindings:

    # bash
bind -p

# zsh
bindkey
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