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Accepted
Radu Rădeanu
Asked: 2013-06-07 06:07:09 +0800 CST

Run a command with the argument from the last command

  • 772

When running commands, sometimes maybe you need to run a command with the argument from the last command. How can you do this?

Of course, excepting the use of the arrow keys and Del keys: ↑←←←...←→→DelDelDel...Del<new_command>.

command-line

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    For example, if you run this command:

    mkdir long_path_here/new_dir

    most likely you'd want to go in the recently created directory. You can do this using next "shortcuts":

    • cd Esc. - type cd and after press Esc followed by . (not in the same time). If the previous command has no arguments, you will get the previous command itself.
    • cd !* - in this case you will get all arguments from the previuos command. If the previous command has no arguments, you will get nothing.
    • cd Alt+. - type cd and after press Alt and . (in the same time). In fact, using this way and continuing to press . (without to release Alt), you will get the last argument for every command from history. If a command has no arguments, you will get the command itself.

    In general: <command> Esc. or <command> !* or <command> Alt+..

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  2. There are a few shortcuts if you want all of the arguments from the previous command, or just the last argument.

    • For all of the arguments: <command> !*
    • For just the last argument: <command> !$

    Examples:

    ls foo/ bar/
ls !* # Gives the results of ls foo/ bar/

ls foo/ bar/
ls !$ # Gives the results of ls bar/

    If you want a single argument from a list of arguments from the previous command, you can use <command> !!:<argNumber>

    Example:

    ls foo/ bar/ baz/
ls !!:2 # Gives the results of ls bar/
ls foo/ bar/ baz/
ls !!:1 # Gives the results of ls foo/
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  3. Mentioned !* and !$ is a good thing, but when you need to do a little editing readline shortcuts come to help!

    For instance, instead of the countless ↑←←←...←→→DelDelDel...Del you can just press ↑ Ctrl-a(jump to the start of the line) Alt+d(delete to the end of the word)

    For more info man readline and search for Default key bindings.

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  4. To take the nth argument from your previous command, type Alt+n+Alt_. For example, after:

    $ echo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

    typing echo followed by Alt2Alt_ will give you this at the next prompt:

    $ echo 2

    The "screenshot" after you've hit Alt2 is:

    (arg: 2) echo

    You can repeat Alt_ multiple times to get the nth argument of previous commands in succession.

    Another useful idea is to define alias r="fc -s". Then, you can do command substitutions:

    $ echo 1
1
$ r echo=history
history 1
27755  history 1
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