Chapter 22: Keyboard and Shell Prompt Shortcuts | The Red Hat Documentation Team

Overview

Red Hat Linux includes various shortcuts to help you more smoothly navigate your interface, be it text or graphical, as well shortcuts to kill applications, switch virtual consoles, and more.

The tables in this chapter describe some of the more useful keyboard shortcuts (Table 22-1) and shell prompt shortcut characters (Table 22-2) that are available in Red Hat Linux.

Many more are available in addition to those listed in this chapter. For more command line and keyboard shortcuts, visit:

 http://sunsite.dk/linux-newbie/lnag_commands.html#shortcuts

Table 22-1: Red Hat Linux Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut

What It Does

Alt-Tab

If you have more than one application open at a time, you can use Alt-Tab to switch among open tasks and applications.

Ctrl-Alt-+

Switches to the next X-server resolution (this works only when X is running and if you have configured more than one resolution for your system).

Ctrl-Alt--

Switches to the previous X-server resolution (this works only when X is running and if you have configured more than one resolution for your system).

Ctrl-Alt-Backspace

Kills your current X session and returns you to the login screen. Use this if the normal exit procedure does not work.

Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Shut down and reboot. Shuts down your current session and reboots the OS. Use only when the normal shutdown procedure does not work.

Ctrl-Alt-Fn

Switches virtual consoles. Ctrl-Alt - one of the function keys displays a new screen. F1 through F6 are text (console) screens and F7 is a graphical screen. When at a text terminal, Alt-Fn works instead (Ctrl is not needed).

Ctrl-a

Moves the cursor to the beginning of a line. This works in most text editors and in the URL field in Mozilla.

Ctrl-c

Kills the current process (works with some text-mode applications).

Ctrl-d

Log out of a terminal or console instead of having to type exit or logout.

Ctrl-e

Move the cursor to end of a line. This works in most text editors and in the URL field in Mozilla.

Ctrl-l

Clears the terminal. This shortcut does the same thing as typing clear at a command line.

Ctrl-u

Clears the current line. If you are working in a terminal, use this shortcut to clear the current line from the cursor all the way to the end of the line.

Middle Mouse Button

Pastes highlighted text. Use the left mouse button to highlight the text. Point the cursor to the spot where you want it pasted. Click the middle mouse button to paste it. If you do not have a middle mouse button, but selected the Emulate 3 buttons option during the installation, you can emulate a middle mouse button by holding down both mouse buttons at the same time.

Shift-PgUp

Note

Scrolls the terminal output up. Note that you can also use this shortcut to scroll up through your boot messages even if there is not currently any output at the terminal.

Shift-PgDwn

Scrolls the terminal output down (see Shift-PgUp).

Tab

While working in a terminal, type the first few characters of a command and then press Tab. Linux will automatically complete the command or show all the commands that match the characters you typed.

Up and Down arrow

While working in a terminal, press the up or down arrow to scroll through a history of commands you have typed from the current directory. When you see the command you want to use, press Enter.

Table 22-2: System Prompt Shortcut Characters
Character	What It Represents
~ (tilde character)	Stands for the home directory for the currently logged in user. For example, if root is logged in, typing cd ~ will take you to the /root directory (which is root’s home directory).
. (dot)	Stands for the current working directory. For example, typing ./program attempts to execute the program file in the current working directory.
.. (two dots)	Stands for the parent directory of the current working directory. For example, if you’re in the /home/user directory, typing cd .. will take you up one directory to the /home directory.
* (asterisk)	Also called a wildcard character, the asterisk allows you to shorten file names in commands. To use the wildcard, you can simply type as much of the file or directory’s name needed to distinguish it from the other file and directory names in the current working directory and then type * to represent the rest of the file. For example, if you have two files in a directory named file1111 and file2222, you can simply type file1* and Linux will know that you mean file1111.