Keyboard shortcuts
This article provides a list of (not commonly known) default keyboard shortcuts and provides information about user customization.
Contents
Standard shortcuts
Kernel
There are several low level shortcuts that are implemented in the kernel which can be used for debugging and recovering from an unresponsive system. Whenever possible, it is recommended that you use these shortcuts instead of doing a hard shutdown (holding down the power button to completely power off the system).
To use these, they must first be activated with either sysctl kernel.sysrq=1
or echo "1" > /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq
. If you wish to have it enabled during boot, edit /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf
and insert the text kernel.sysrq = 1
. If you want to make sure it will be enabled even before the partitions are mounted and in the initrd, then add sysrq_always_enabled=1
to your kernel boot command line options.
A common idiom to remember this is "Reboot Even If System Utterly Broken" (also referred to as "REISUB"). Alternatively, think of it as "BUSIER" backwards.
Keyboard Shortcut | Description |
---|---|
Alt+SysRq+r Unraw
|
Take control of keyboard back from X. |
Alt+SysRq+e Terminate
|
Send SIGTERM to all processes, allowing them to terminate gracefully. |
Alt+SysRq+i Kill
|
Send SIGKILL to all processes, forcing them to terminate immediately. |
Alt+SysRq+s Sync
|
Flush data to disk. |
Alt+SysRq+u Unmount
|
Unmount and remount all filesystems read-only. |
Alt+SysRq+b Reboot
|
Reboot |
See Magic SysRq key - Wikipedia for more details.
Terminal
Virtual console
Keyboard Shortcut | Description |
---|---|
Ctrl+Alt+Del
|
Reboots Computer (specified by the symlink /usr/lib/systemd/system/ctrl-alt-del.target )
|
Alt+F1 , F2 , F3 , ...
|
Switch to n-th virtual console |
Alt+ ←
|
Switch to previous virtual console |
Alt+ →
|
Switch to next virtual console |
Scroll Lock
|
When Scroll Lock is activated, input/output is locked |
Shift+PgUp /PgDown
|
Scrolls console buffer up/down |
Ctrl+c
|
Kills current task |
Ctrl+d
|
Inserts an EOF |
Ctrl+z
|
Pauses current Task |
Readline
GNU readline is a commonly used library for line-editing; it is used for example by Bash, FTP, and many more (see the details of readline package under "Required By" for more examples). readline is also customizable (see man page for details).
Keyboard Shortcut | Description |
---|---|
Ctrl+l
|
Clear the screen |
Cursor Movement | |
Ctrl+b
|
Move cursor one character to the left |
Ctrl+f
|
Move cursor one character to the right |
Alt+b
|
Move cursor one word to the left |
Alt+f
|
Move cursor one word to the right |
Ctrl+a
|
Move cursor to start of the line |
Ctrl+e
|
Move cursor to end of the line |
Copy & Paste | |
Ctrl+u
|
Cut everything from line start to cursor |
Ctrl+k
|
Cut everything from the cursor to end of the line |
Alt+d
|
Cut the current word after the cursor |
Ctrl+w
|
Cut the current word before the cursor |
Ctrl+y
|
Paste the previous cut text |
Alt+y
|
Paste the second latest cut text |
Alt+Ctrl+y
|
Paste the first argument of the previous command |
Alt+. /_
|
Paste the last argument of the previous command |
History | |
Ctrl+p
|
Move to the previous line |
Ctrl+n
|
Move to the next line |
Ctrl+s
|
Search |
Ctrl+r
|
Reverse search |
Ctrl+j
|
End search |
Ctrl+g
|
Abort search (restores original line) |
Alt+r
|
Restores all changes made to line |
Completion | |
Tab
|
Auto-complete a name |
Alt+?
|
List all possible completions |
Alt+*
|
Insert all possible completions |
X11 & Wayland
Keyboard Shortcut | Description | Notes |
---|---|---|
Ctrl+Alt+F1 , F2 , F3 , ...
|
Switch to n-th virtual console | If it does not work, try Ctrl+Fn+Alt+F… .
|
Shift+Insert Mouse Button 2
|
Paste text from the PRIMARY buffer | By default, Qt maps Shift+Insert to CLIPBOARD instead of the PRIMARY buffer (see e.g. [1]) and Ctrl+Shift+Insert is mapped to the PRIMARY buffer.
|
User customization
Readline
This example adds keys that allow (in vi-mode) to search backward through the history for the string of characters between the start of the current line and the point. This is a non-incremental search.
.inputrc
set editing-mode vi set keymap vi-insert "\C-r": history-search-backward "\C-e": history-search-forward
X11
See Keyboard configuration in Xorg#Frequently used XKB options for some common shortcuts, that are disabled by default.
Firefox
Use the customizable-shortcuts add-on.
Key binding for X-selection-paste
Users who prefer to work rather with the keyboard than the mouse may benefit from a key binding to the paste operation of the middle mouse button. This is especially useful in a keyboard-centered environment. A workflow example is:
- In Firefox, select a string you want to google for (with the mouse).
- Hit
Ctrl+k
to enter the "Google search" field. - Hit
F12
to paste the buffer, instead of moving the mouse pointer to the field and center-click to paste.
The method suggested here uses three packages available in the official repositories:
- xsel to give access to the x-selection-buffer content.
- Xbindkeys to bind a key-stroke to an action.
- xvkbd to pass the buffer string to the application by emulating keyboard input.
This example binds the x-selection-paste operation to the F12
key:
.xbindkeysrc
"xvkbd -no-jump-pointer -xsendevent -text "\D1`xsel`" 2>/dev/null" F12
The "\D1"
code prefixes a 100 ms pause to inserting the selection buffer (see the xvkbd home page).
The key codes for keys other than F12
can be determined using xbindkeys -k
.
References:
XMonad Window Manager
In the xmonad window manager there is a built-in function to paste the x-selection-buffer content. In order to bind that function to a key-stroke (here Insert
key) the following configuration can be used:
xmonad.hs
import XMonad.Util.Paste ... -- X-selection-paste buffer , ((0, xK_Insert), pasteSelection) ]
Using xdotool - command-line X11 automation tool
With the xdotool it is possible to create a short cut which actually pastes the content of the X-Selection buffer via triggering the middle mouse button. Instead of hit the text as separate key strokes. The command for the short cut is:
xdotool getwindowfocus key --window %1 click 2
The command get the window which has focus from the xserver and triggers a click of button 2 which is the middle mouse button.
Tips and tricks
- If you like a keyboard-centered workflow, you might also appreciate a tiling window manager.