Command Line Tips and Tricks

macOS terminal

To get the most of this workshop, it’s worth briefly reviewing some command line shortcuts that will help you make more art more quickly.

control + A : moves cursor to the beginning of the line
control + E : moves cursor to the end of the line
control + C : kills a running process
command + N : opens a new terminal window
command + T : opens a new terminal tab
command + Delete : erases character to the right of the cursor
Delete : erases character to the left of the cursor
control + U : clears current line
command + K : clears terminal to start
command + L : clears terminal to previous mark
Holding the Option key + moving the pointer : repositions the insertion point (super handy for switching a -p flag to a -s flag)
command + Plus (+) : makes terminal font bigger
command + Minus (-) : makes terminal font smaller
Arrow Up : scrolls through previously entered commands
Arrow Down : goes in the opposite direction
Tab : autocompletes a command after typing a few letters

Home : moves cursor to the beginning of the line
End : moves cursor to the end of the line
control + C : kills a running process
alt + X then i : opens a new powershell window
Del : erases character to the right of the cursor
Backspace : erases character to the left of the cursor
Esc : deletes entire current line
control + Home : deletes all characters at the current position up to the beginning of the line
control + End : deletes everything from the current cursor position up to the end of the line
Arrow Up : scrolls through previously entered commands
Arrow Down : goes in the opposite direction
Tab : autocompletes a command after typing a few letters
Tab : autocompletes a command after typing a few letters