Pro tip, just do:
alias ls="ls -lah"
this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
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Let me teach you about reverse-i-search in bash....
Also 'cd -' and aliases... ๐
Yep, thats a good one. Another one, ALT + . inputs the last argument from your last command, pressing it multiple times cycles thorough your past arguments.
Nice, 30 years and I didn't know this one. I always use the $! for the last argument.
I've never heard of $! but we use Macs at work. Alt+. doesn't work so I've been using $_.
โฅ+. does the trick for me on MacOS.
Just as a matter of interest, I just tried this and it simply printed โค on the console. I'm using Terminal and Tahoe 26.2.
I think for Terminal.app you have to enable "Use Option as Meta key"
I'll try to remember to check it out in the morning, thank you.
edit: This worked. This is amazing. Thank you so much.
Wow, that's a new Unicode symbol
Sorry, I should have been more clear ... When ssh'd into a remote Unix machine from a Mac, it doesn't me. I don't think I've tried locally.
I don't even want to think about how much effort this has saved me.
Yeesh, I just learned something new. Thanks!
I was just about to ask how the hell anyone remembers or knows all these commands, thanks for the info! I am trying to learn Linux and get used to using the Terminal more often.
You can also just grep through your .bash_history
Neat
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People talking about history without mentioning the laziest answer is to use an alias, which bash usually has ll = la -la or my personal preference is ll = ls -lAh (list + Everything except . and .. + human readable file size)
This thread is full of great solutions that I know I will ignore...
history | grep 'ls -la' | sed 's/^[[:space:]]*[0-9]\+[[:space:]]*//' | sh
I also recommend Atuin, the better shell history that works with most shells and can replace both up arrow and ctrl-r
Thanks for that, thats much more comfortable!
$ sudo apt install sl
Try sl instead of ls, you'll thank me later
In addition to ctrl-r, there is also fish! Fish does something similar to Ctrl-R, but in an easier to use way. Start typing a command, and then press the up arrow. It will cycle through your history, but only the history that includes the text you've started typing.
This can be enabled in bash by putting these two lines in ~/.inputrc
"\e[A": history-search-backward
"\e[B": history-search-forward
My Nobara installation has those commands mapped to pageup/down by default, so it's probably a default in other distros too if anyone wants to try it out without editing first
To be even more efficient while being lazy, try oh-my-bash. You can start typing the beginning of a command and use arrow up to cycle through only those, instead of the whole history. So if you had a very long mount command and don't want to type it again, type mount and up arrow until it can be found. Not very useful for ls -al but very appreciated on longer commands.
I personally use fzf to do basically the same thing, I just have to press ctrl-r before I start to type, and it does fuzzy matching to your history and shows more than one alternative at a time
Very useful tip: i have ls aliased to eza which is ls with eyecandy, I have la aliased to eza -a and I have cd aliased to cd && eza which makes navigating folders very easy. I also aliased .. to cd .. for convenience. I know a lot of people are purists about the terminal but i think this is a good ballance between convenience and simplicity. Doesnt do a lot of the cursed stuff ricers like to do.
cd is a zoxide alias for me. If I need to navigate by folder content, I have yazi on y
Yazi is nice but when im navigating shorter directory structures i prefer cd. Question of personal preference as all of this is.
ooooh that's nice! i love this threads, my shell gets soo much nicer! thank you all, you are great!
Love convenient aliases. Would aliasing .. cause "../previous/file" to become " cd ../previous/file" and ruin some commands? I guess not. I also use eza :D
Only if it's a global alias, I think (those are useful for stuff like alias -g DN=/dev/null)
How do you have cd && eza setup? With an alias the arguments only get appended to the final command so how is it cding to the correct folder?
I think i defined cd as a function for interactive shells or something. I dont remember and i dont have my computer so yeah. It should look something like this: cd() {builtin cd "$@" && eza}
yoink <3
cd - will bring you to the last directory you were in.
๐ฎ
ls, ctrl+R
Significantly less up arrows
I like the retro text adventure charm of running a verbose ls -la after every cd. It's like entering a new room and reading its description for possible exits and items!
I aliased cd | ls -la to cd so it lists the folder contents eveytime
this is the sort of cozy thought I love to encounter on the internet
ls -alh try that. -h means human-readable file sizes
I just alias ls -lah to lsl.
Yeah lk = ls -larth for me because lk is right next to each other.
I leave ls alone and instead do
alias l='ls -latrF'
I do sometimes just want to use the plain version, especially if I'm in a small terminal window for some reason. But I think my brain likes scanning 1D lists more than 2D grids, no matter whether I'm in a terminal or using a graphical file manager.
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is yazi allowed?
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