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Is it possible to use emacs bindings in bash shell with numeric arguments, for example in emacs C-u 5 C-d deletes five characters. Is there an equivalent way of doing the same in bash prompt?
Thanks
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The manual way is to use C-h k KEY to describe what KEY is bound to; the other way is to describe a function, FUNCTION , with C-h f FUNCTION . Because Emacs is a self-documenting editor all functions, variables, keys, etc. known to Emacs are accessible through the describe-xxx commands. Type C-h C-h to see them all.
The prefix argument is a pseudo-argument that is automatically available for each Emacs command. When you use a command, its behavior might differ, depending on the value of the prefix argument. You can use 'C-u' to set the prefix argument value to use, and thus affect the command's behavior.
A command prefix is a prefix of a command (in the sense of rule 2 of the dodekalogue, i.e., a sequence of words) that is constructed with the expectation that zero or more arguments will be appended to it and that the resulting command will be evaluated.
argue + ment = argument.
Emacs is usually the default editing mode (set -o emacs).
From Introduction to Line Editing and Readine Arguments:
The text C-k is read as 'Control-K' and describes the character produced when the Control key is depressed and the k key is struck.
The text M-k is read as 'Meta-K' and describes the character produced when the meta key (if you have one) is depressed, and the k key is struck. If you do not have a meta key, the identical keystroke can be generated by typing ESC first, and then typing k. Either process is known as metafying the k key.
The general way to pass numeric arguments to a command is to type meta digits before the command. For example, to give the C-d command an argument of 10, you could type M-1 0 C-d.
Bash Emacs Editing Mode (readline) Cheat Sheet
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