My Bash Profile - Part VI: Inputrc

inputrc is the name of the readline startup file. You can set key bindings and certain variables in this file. One of my favourite key bindings is Alt+L to ls -ltrF. I also have bindings which allow you to go back and forth across words using the Ctrl+Left/Right Arrow keys.

To take a look at all your current key bindings execute the command bind -P or bind -p. Check out the man pages for more information.

Update: My dotfiles are now in Git. For the latest version, please visit my GitHub dotfiles repository.

Here is my INPUTRC:

set bell-style none
set completion-ignore-case On
set echo-control-characters Off
set enable-keypad On
set mark-symlinked-directories On
set show-all-if-ambiguous On
set show-all-if-unmodified On
set skip-completed-text On
set visible-stats On

"\M-l": "ls -ltrF\r"
"\M-h": "dirs -v\r"

# If you type any text and press Up/Down,
# you can search your history for commands starting
# with that text
"\e[B": history-search-forward
"\e[A": history-search-backward

# Use Ctrl or Alt Arrow keys to move along words
"\C-[OD" backward-word
"\C-[OC" forward-word
"\e\e[C": forward-word
"\e\e[D": backward-word

"\M-r": forward-search-history

If you have any useful bindings, please share them in the comments section below.

More posts on my Bash profile:

• My Bash Profile - Part I
• My Bash Profile - Part II: Aliases
• My Bash Profile - Part III: Completions
• My Bash Profile - Part IV: Functions
• My Bash Profile - Part V: Prompt
• My Bash Profile - Part VI: Inputrc