Mastering these terminal shortcuts will dramatically increase your productivity as a developer. These commands work in most Unix-based shells (Bash, Zsh) and are essential for efficient command-line work. Think of them as power moves that separate novice terminal users from true command-line ninjas. 🥷
Instantly moves your cursor to the beginning of the line. This is incredibly useful when you've typed a long command and realize you need to edit something at the start. Instead of holding down the left arrow key, just hit Ctrl+A.
Use Case
You've typed npm install react-router-dom --save but forgot to add sudo at the beginning. Press Ctrl+A, type sudo , and you're done!
Moves your cursor to the end of the line. Perfect complement to Ctrl+A. This becomes muscle memory once you start using it - you'll find yourself jumping back and forth between the beginning and end of commands constantly.
Use Case
You're at the beginning of a command reviewing it, and need to quickly add flags at the end. Press Ctrl+E to jump there instantly instead of arrow-keying through the entire line.
Ctrl+U
Clear to Beginning
Deletes everything from the cursor position back to the beginning of the line. This is your "emergency erase" button. The deleted text goes into a clipboard buffer, so you can paste it back with Ctrl+Y if needed.
Use Case
You're halfway through typing a command when you realize you need to run something else first. Instead of holding backspace or selecting and deleting, just Ctrl+U to clear it instantly. The command is saved, so you can paste it back later.
Deletes everything from the cursor position to the end of the line. The opposite of Ctrl+U. Together, these two commands give you surgical precision in editing command lines - clear before the cursor (Ctrl+U) or after it (Ctrl+K).
Use Case
You have git commit -m "initial commit" --amend --no-edit but you only want git commit -m "initial commit". Position cursor after "commit" and press Ctrl+K to delete everything after.
Ctrl+W
Delete Word Backward
Deletes the word before the cursor. In terminal terms, a "word" is usually delimited by spaces, slashes, or special characters. This is your precision delete tool - instead of clearing entire sections with Ctrl+U, you can delete one word at a time.
Use Case
You typed docker-compose up --build --force-recreate but want to remove --force-recreate. Position cursor at the end and press Ctrl+W twice (once for recreate, once for --force).
Alt+Backspace
Smart Delete Word
Similar to Ctrl+W but often behaves slightly differently depending on your terminal. In many terminals, Alt+Backspace deletes the word before the cursor but uses different word boundaries (might stop at special characters like dashes or underscores).
Use Case
When working with paths like /home/user/projects/my-awesome-app, Alt+Backspace might delete one component at a time (removing "my-awesome-app", then "projects", etc.), making path editing more intuitive.