Unable to forward search Bash history similarly as with CTRL-r

bash search
Léo Léopold Hertz 준영 picture Léo Léopold Hertz 준영 · Apr 27, 2009 · Viewed 59.5k times · Source

I am trying to search my bash history similarly as with CTRL-r, but to forward direction.

It has been a pain for me, when I just hit once too often CTRL-r, to find the previous command again.

How can you forward search your Bash history similarly as in reverse searching?

Answer

hlovdal picture hlovdal · Apr 27, 2009

You can search forward as well. From the bash info manual, "8.2.5 Searching for Commands in the History":

To search backward in the history for a particular string, type C-r. Typing C-s searches forward through the history.

The problem with Ctrl-S however is that sometimes collides with XON/XOFF flow control (in Konsole for instance). The searching is a readline feature however, and you should be able to bind it to some other key. Update: Simpler and better is just to disable XON/XOFF by running

stty -ixon

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