Keyboard shortcuts

Standard Shortcuts

Kernel

These are low level shortcuts that are considered to be used for debugging. Whenever possible, it is recommended to use these instead of doing a hard shutdown (holding power button to shutdown the motherboard).

Must be activated first with echo "1" > /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq or if you wish to have it enabled during boot, edit /etc/sysctl.conf and set kernel.sysrq = 1

A common idiom to remember this is "Reboot Even If System Utterly Broken" (also referred to as "REISUB").

Keyboard Shortcut	Description
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+ Unraw	Take control of keyboard back from X.
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+ Terminate	Send SIGTERM to all processes, allowing them to terminate gracefully.
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+ Kill	Send SIGKILL to all processes, forcing them to terminate immediately.
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+ Sync	Flush data to disk.
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+ Unmount	Unmount and remount all filesystems read-only.
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+ Reboot	Reboot

See Magic SysRq key - Wikipedia for more details.

Terminal

Virtual console

Keyboard Shortcut	Description
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Reboots Computer (specified in /etc/inittab)
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress, Template:Keypress, Template:Keypress, ...	Switch to n-th virtual console
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Switch to previous virtual console
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Switch to next virtual console
Template:Keypress	When Scroll Lock is activated, input/output is locked
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress/Template:Keypress	Scrolls console buffer up/down
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Kills current task
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Inserts an EOF
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	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 Arch Package details under "Required By" for more examples). readline is also customizable (see manpage for details).

Keyboard Shortcut	Description
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Clear the screen
Cursor Movement
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Move cursor one character to the left
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Move cursor one character to the right
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Move cursor one word to the left
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Move cursor one word to the right
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Move cursor to start of the line
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Move cursor to end of the line
Copy & Paste
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Cut everything from line start to cursor
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Cut everything from the cursor to end of the line
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Cut the current word after the cursor
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Cut the current word before the cursor
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Paste the previous cut text
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Paste the second latest cut text
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Paste the first argument of the previous command
Template:Keypress+Template:KeypressorTemplate:Keypress	Paste the last argument of the previous command
History
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Move to the previous line
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Move to the next line
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Search
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Reverse search
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	End search
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Abort search (restores original line)
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Restores all changes made to line
Completion
Template:Keypress	Auto-complete a name
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	List all possible completions
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Insert all possible completions

X11

Keyboard Shortcut	Description
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress, Template:Keypress, Template:Keypress, ...	Switch to n-th virtual console
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress/Template:Keypress	Switch to higher/lower available resolutions
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Kills X-server (This may not work for recent updates.)
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress	Toggles keyboard mouse; uses numpad, mouse click is done by Template:Keypress, use Template:Keypress, Template:Keypress, and Template:Keypressto switch the click to left, middle, and right click
Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress Template:Keypress	Copy selected text to clipboard, or paste from clipboard

xkeyboard-config disable keyboard mouse by default after the version 2.0.1.To enable it, changing the following line in /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc:

key <NMLK> { [ Num_Lock ] }; 

back to as it was in version 2.0.1:

key <NMLK> { [ Num_Lock, Pointer_EnableKeys ] }; 

Links

• Linux Newbie Administrator Guide - Shortcuts and Commands
• The Linux keyboard and console HOWTO

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

Modifying the Keyboard Layout

This example changes the CapsLock key to only activate caps lock when the Shift key is also pressed

.xinitrc

xmodmap -e 'keycode  66 = NoSymbol Caps_Lock Caps_Lock'

The keycode of the CapsLock key can be found in the output of xmodmap -pk

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:

1. In Firefox, select a string you want to google for (with the mouse).
2. Hit Template:Keypress to enter the "Google search" field.
3. Hit Template:Keypress 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 Template:Keypress 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).

Note: Depending on your X configuration, you may need to drop the -xsendevent argument to xvkbd.

The key codes for keys other than Template:Keypress can be determined using xbindkeys -k.

See Also:

• Pasting X selection (not clipboard) contents with keyboard
• xvkbd home page

Firefox

Use the customizable-shortcuts add-on.

Tips

• If you like a keyboard-centered workflow, you might also appreciate a tiling window manager, like Xmonad.