---

8.4.8 Some Miscellaneous Commands

re-read-init-file (C-x C-r) ¶

Read in the contents of the inputrc file, and incorporate any bindings or variable assignments found there.

abort (C-g) ¶

Abort the current editing command and ring the terminal’s bell (subject to the setting of bell-style).

do-lowercase-version (M-A, M-B, M-x, …) ¶

If the metafied character x is upper case, run the command that is bound to the corresponding metafied lower case character. The behavior is undefined if x is already lower case.

prefix-meta (ESC) ¶

Metafy the next character typed. This is for keyboards without a meta key. Typing ‘ESC f’ is equivalent to typing M-f.

undo (C-_ or C-x C-u) ¶

Incremental undo, separately remembered for each line.

revert-line (M-r) ¶

Undo all changes made to this line. This is like executing the undo command enough times to get back to the beginning.

tilde-expand (M-&) ¶

Perform tilde expansion on the current word.

set-mark (C-@) ¶

Set the mark to the point. If a numeric argument is supplied, the mark is set to that position.

exchange-point-and-mark (C-x C-x) ¶

Swap the point with the mark. The current cursor position is set to the saved position, and the old cursor position is saved as the mark.

character-search (C-]) ¶

A character is read and point is moved to the next occurrence of that character. A negative argument searches for previous occurrences.

character-search-backward (M-C-]) ¶

A character is read and point is moved to the previous occurrence of that character. A negative argument searches for subsequent occurrences.

skip-csi-sequence () ¶

Read enough characters to consume a multi-key sequence such as those defined for keys like Home and End. Such sequences begin with a Control Sequence Indicator (CSI), usually ESC-[. If this sequence is bound to "\e[", keys producing such sequences will have no effect unless explicitly bound to a Readline command, instead of inserting stray characters into the editing buffer. This is unbound by default, but usually bound to ESC-[.

insert-comment (M-#) ¶

Without a numeric argument, the value of the comment-begin variable is inserted at the beginning of the current line. If a numeric argument is supplied, this command acts as a toggle: if the characters at the beginning of the line do not match the value of comment-begin, the value is inserted, otherwise the characters in comment-begin are deleted from the beginning of the line. In either case, the line is accepted as if a newline had been typed. The default value of comment-begin causes this command to make the current line a shell comment. If a numeric argument causes the comment character to be removed, the line will be executed by the shell.

dump-functions () ¶

Print all of the functions and their key bindings to the Readline output stream. If a numeric argument is supplied, the output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an inputrc file. This command is unbound by default.

dump-variables () ¶

Print all of the settable variables and their values to the Readline output stream. If a numeric argument is supplied, the output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an inputrc file. This command is unbound by default.

dump-macros () ¶

Print all of the Readline key sequences bound to macros and the strings they output. If a numeric argument is supplied, the output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an inputrc file. This command is unbound by default.

spell-correct-word (C-x s) ¶

Perform spelling correction on the current word, treating it as a directory or filename, in the same way as the cdspell shell option. Word boundaries are the same as those used by shell-forward-word.

glob-complete-word (M-g) ¶

The word before point is treated as a pattern for pathname expansion, with an asterisk implicitly appended. This pattern is used to generate a list of matching file names for possible completions.

glob-expand-word (C-x *) ¶

The word before point is treated as a pattern for pathname expansion, and the list of matching file names is inserted, replacing the word. If a numeric argument is supplied, a ‘*’ is appended before pathname expansion.

glob-list-expansions (C-x g) ¶

The list of expansions that would have been generated by glob-expand-word is displayed, and the line is redrawn. If a numeric argument is supplied, a ‘*’ is appended before pathname expansion.

display-shell-version (C-x C-v) ¶

Display version information about the current instance of Bash.

shell-expand-line (M-C-e) ¶

Expand the line as the shell does. This performs alias and history expansion as well as all of the shell word expansions (see Shell Expansions).

history-expand-line (M-^) ¶

Perform history expansion on the current line.

magic-space () ¶

Perform history expansion on the current line and insert a space (see History Expansion).

alias-expand-line () ¶

Perform alias expansion on the current line (see Aliases).

history-and-alias-expand-line () ¶

Perform history and alias expansion on the current line.

insert-last-argument (M-. or M-_) ¶

A synonym for yank-last-arg.

edit-and-execute-command (C-x C-e) ¶

Invoke an editor on the current command line, and execute the result as shell commands. Bash attempts to invoke $VISUAL, $EDITOR, and emacs as the editor, in that order.