Other Useful Things

Pasting in commands

Often, you will be referred to instructions that require commands to be pasted into the terminal. You might be wondering why the text you've copied from a web page using Ctrl+C won't paste in with Ctrl+V. Surely you don't have to type in all those nasty commands and filenames? Relax. Middle Button Click on your mouse (both buttons simultaneously on a two-button mouse) or Right Click and select Paste from the menu. You can also insert text by hitting Ctrl+Insert

Save on typing

Up Arrow or Ctrl+p

Scrolls through the commands you've entered previously.

Down Arrow or Ctrl+n

Takes you back to a more recent command.

Enter

When you have the command you want.

Tab

A very useful feature. It auto-completes any commands or filenames, if there's only one option, or else gives you a list of options.

Change the text

When working in the command line, your mouse will not interface with the terminal. Use the Left/Right arrow keys to move around the line.

When the cursor is where you want it in the line, typing inserts text, it doesn't overtype what's already there.

Ctrl+a Home

Moves the cursor to the start of a line.

Ctrl+e End

Moves the cursor to the end of a line.

Ctrl+b

Moves to the beginning of the previous or current word.

Ctrl+k

Deletes from the current cursor position to the end of the line.

Ctrl+u

Deletes the whole of the current line.

Ctrl+w

Deletes the word before the cursor.