Linux Journal tip

[Shawn Badger]

I don't know how many of you receive this weekly newsletter from Linux
Journal. They have a section called The Brain Trust which had a tip that
I never heard of for searching the history in a Bash shell. Here is the
excerpt from the newsletter:

 THE BRAIN TRUST: READERS SHARE THEIR EXPERTISE

   This week we have a contribution from Jim C.:

   "In the technical tips section of your newsletter on 9/5/06, you
referred to
   Bret's alias for searching bash history.  Why create an alias when
bash
   gives the user the 'reverse-i-search' and 'forward-i-search'
features?

   At the command line, press Ctrl-R and see this appear on the screen:

                (reverse-i-search)`':

   "Then press the characters of the search pattern desired, and bash
will display the nearest line from the current history position matching
the pattern.  Press Ctrl-R again to search the next nearest line; press
Ctrl-S to search forward.  Press enter to accept and immediately execute
the line displayed.  Press a left or right cursor key to accept and edit
the line. Press Ctrl-C to abandon the search.

   "Much simpler than searching through a possibly long list from a grep
   search."

   Do you have a useful technical tip to share with our community of
readers? Send your tips to jgray at ssc.com.  We'll send you a free t-shirt
for your efforts! Thanks!