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Accepted
Adam Matan
Asked: 2013-04-09 07:12:29 +0800 CST

Bash: delete word ahead of cursor

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Consider the following bash command line, where ^ denotes the cursor location:

svn commit -m very/long/path/to/some/file "[bug 123456] Fix the pixel issue"
              ^

I'd like to commit a different file with the same message. How can I delete the current word, from cursor location to the next space? Is there also a shortcut for backward deletion, form the cursor to the first space backwards?

Update: ctrl+w erases backwards, but which shortcut erases one word forward?

command-line

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I answered similar question on unix.stackexchange.com:

    Bash has readline commands that aren't bound by default. You can find them at reference: http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Bindable-Readline-Commands.html#Bindable-Readline-Commands

    Command you are looking for is called "shell-backward-kill-word". You have to select shortcut first. Let's use Crtl+p, since it's "previous command" - same as up arrow. 

    bind '"\C-p": shell-backward-kill-word'

    The only difference is you have to use "shell-kill-word" command instead, since you want to delete forward.

    There is also a "kill-word" command with Meta+d shortcut (try Esc+d if you don't have Meta key). It will delete only one part of path at once.

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  2. Tested both the esc+d and alt/opt+d on OSX Mavericks and they work there as well.

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