Zsh

The Z shell. Zsh ships its own line editor (ZLE) instead of GNU readline, but the default emacs keymap is binding-compatible with bash so the muscle memory carries over. bindkey -v switches to vi mode; bindkey -e returns to emacs. bindkey with no arguments lists every active binding in the current keymap; bindkey -l lists the keymaps themselves (emacs, vicmd, viins, main, isearch, command, menuselect).

For shell startup files, completion configuration, and history options, see Zsh.

Cursor Movement

Key	Action
Ctrl-a	move to start of line (beginning-of-line)
Ctrl-e	move to end of line (end-of-line)
Ctrl-b	move back one character
Ctrl-f	move forward one character
Alt-b	move back one word
Alt-f	move forward one word
Ctrl-x Ctrl-x	jump between current position and mark

Editing

Key	Action
Ctrl-d	delete character under cursor (EOF on empty line)
Ctrl-h	delete character before cursor
Backspace	delete character before cursor
Alt-d	delete word forward
Ctrl-w	delete word backward
Alt-Backspace	delete word backward (alphanumeric-aware)
Ctrl-k	kill to end of line
Ctrl-u	kill whole line (zsh default; bash kills to start)
Ctrl-y	yank (paste) last killed text
Alt-y	cycle through previous yanks after Ctrl-y
Ctrl-t	transpose character with previous
Alt-t	transpose word with previous
Alt-u	uppercase word from cursor
Alt-l	lowercase word from cursor
Alt-c	capitalize word from cursor
Ctrl-Space	set mark
Ctrl-x Ctrl-u	undo
Alt-_	undo (alternative)

History

Key	Action
Ctrl-p	previous command (up-line-or-history)
Ctrl-n	next command (down-line-or-history)
Ctrl-r	incremental reverse search
Ctrl-s	incremental forward search (requires stty -ixon)
Ctrl-g	abort current search, restore line
Alt-p	history search backward on current prefix
Alt-n	history search forward on current prefix
Alt-.	insert last argument of previous command
Alt-,	cycle through previous-command last-args after Alt-.
!!	run previous command
!$	last argument of previous command
!^	first argument of previous command
!*	all arguments of previous command
!<n>	run history entry N
!<string>	run most recent command starting with <string>
^old^new	rerun previous command, substituting old for new
fc -l	list recent history entries
fc <n>	re-edit history entry N in $EDITOR

Process Control

Key	Action
Ctrl-c	send SIGINT to foreground process
Ctrl-z	suspend foreground process (SIGTSTP)
Ctrl-d	send EOF (close stdin); exit shell on empty line
Ctrl-l	clear screen
Ctrl-s	pause terminal output (XOFF)
Ctrl-q	resume terminal output (XON)
Ctrl-\	send SIGQUIT to foreground process (core dump)

Completion

Zsh completion (loaded by autoload -Uz compinit && compinit) is the headline feature. Tab cycles through matches in menu mode; Shift-Tab reverses.

Key	Action
Tab	complete / cycle next match
Shift-Tab	cycle previous match
Tab Tab	list all completions
Alt-?	show possible completions without inserting
Alt-*	insert all completions
Alt-/	try filename completion explicitly
Alt-~	username completion
Alt-$	variable completion
Alt-@	hostname completion
Ctrl-x t	complete command-line argument (positional)
Ctrl-x i	complete environment variable inline
Ctrl-x g	list expansions of a glob pattern
Ctrl-x ~	expand a tilde at cursor
Ctrl-x ?	show what completion would do (debug)

ZLE Specials

Zsh-only Line Editor widgets and bindings that bash does not ship.

Key	Action
Esc q / Alt-q	push current line onto stack, get fresh prompt; auto-restored after next command
Esc h / Alt-h	run run-help on the command word at cursor
Ctrl-x Ctrl-e	edit current line in $EDITOR
Ctrl-x e	same as Ctrl-x Ctrl-e
Ctrl-x Ctrl-v	swap to vi-command keymap for one keystroke
Ctrl-x *	expand a glob in place
Ctrl-x =	expand parameter / command substitution in place
Ctrl-x a	expand alias at cursor
Ctrl-x s	history-incremental-search-backward (alt binding)
Ctrl-x u	undo
Esc !	history-expand-line; preview !! style expansion
Esc /	history-incremental-pattern-search-backward (with PCRE-style globs)

Vi Mode

Enable with bindkey -v or set -o vi. Two keymaps: viins (insert) and vicmd (command). Esc switches from insert to command; in command mode the standard Vim motions apply.

Key	Action
Esc	enter command mode (viins -> vicmd)
i	insert at cursor
a	append after cursor
A	append at end of line
I	insert at start of line
0 / ^	move to start of line / first non-blank
$	move to end of line
w / b	word forward / backward
e	end of word forward
f<c> / F<c>	find next / previous occurrence of char c
x	delete character under cursor
dw / d$ / dd	delete word / to end of line / whole line
cw / c$ / cc	change word / to end of line / whole line
yw / y$ / yy	yank word / to end of line / whole line
p / P	paste after / before cursor
u	undo
Ctrl-r	redo (in vicmd mode)
v	open current line in $EDITOR
k / j	previous / next history line (vicmd mode)
/<pat> / ?<pat>	history search backward / forward

Misc

Key / Command	Action
Ctrl-_ / Ctrl-/	undo last edit
Ctrl-j / Ctrl-m	newline / accept line
Ctrl-v <key>	insert next key literally (raw escape sequence)
set -o vi / set -o emacs	switch editing mode for this session
bindkey	list every active binding
bindkey -l	list keymaps
bindkey -M <map> <key> <widget>	bind a key to a widget in a specific keymap
zle -la	list every widget name
where-is <widget>	find the key bound to a widget
stty -a	list terminal-driver shortcuts (intr, susp, erase)