How can I recall the argument of the previous bash command?

Question

Is there a way in Bash to recall the argument of the previous command?

I usually do vi file.c followed by gcc file.c.

Is there a way in Bash to recall the argument of the previous command?

Answer 1

You can use $_ or !$ to recall the last argument of the previous command.

Also Alt + . can be used to recall the last argument of any of the previous commands.

Answer 2

If the previous command had two arguments, like this

ls a.txt b.txt 

and you wanted the first one, you could type

!:1 

giving

a.txt 

Or if you wanted both, you could type

!:1-2 

giving

a.txt b.txt 

You can extend this to any number of arguments, eg:

!:10-12