11.7 History Substitutions

[Although most of the examples here use echo to demonstrate clearly just what is going on, you'll normally use history with other UNIX commands. -JP]

The exclamation point ( ! ) is the C shell's default ( 11.15 ) history substitution character. (It's used in bash , too.) This allows you to recall previously entered commands and re-execute them without retyping. The number of commands saved is up to you. To set this number, put a line in your shell setup file ( 2.2 ) like this:

set history=40   
...C shell


HISTSIZE=40   
...bash, ksh

This means that the C shell will save the last 40 commands. To list out these 40 commands use:

% 

history

To see just the last ten commands in csh or bash , use history 10 . In the C shell, you can also list out the commands in reverse with history -r .

To use the ! in a command line, you have several choices. Some of the following examples are more of a headache than they may be worth. But they are used mostly to select arguments from the command line in aliases ( 10.3 ) . Here they are:

• !! repeats the last command.

• !: repeats the last command. This form is used if you want to add a modifier ( 9.6 ) like:

  % 
  
  echo xy
  
  
  xy
  % 
  
  !:s/xy/yx
  
  
  echo yx
  yx

  The second ! was left out.

• !so repeats the last command that starts with so .

• !?fn? repeats the last command that has fn anywhere in it. The string could be found in an argument or in the command name. This is opposed to !fn , in which !fn must be in a command name. (The last ? need not be there. Thus !?fn means the same thing.)

• !34 executes command number 34. You can find the appropriate history number when you list your history using the history command, or by putting the history number in your prompt . ( 7.2 )

• !! & adds an ampersand ( & ) to the end of the last command, which executes it and places it into the background. You can add anything to the end of a previous command. For example:

  % 
  
  cat -v foo
  
  
         ...
  % 
  
  !! | more
  
  
  cat -v foo | more
         ...

  In this case the shell will repeat the command to be executed and run it, adding the pipe through the more ( 25.3 ) pager. Another common usage is:

  % 
  
  cat -v foo
  
  
         ...
  % 
  
  !! > out
  
  
  cat -v foo > out

  which returns the command but redirects the output into a file.

• !:0 selects only the command name; rather than the entire command line.

  % 
  
  /usr/bin/grep Ah fn1
  
  
         ...
  % 
  
  !:0 Bh fn2
  
  
  /usr/bin/grep Bh fn2

  Note that as an operator ( 9.6 ) :0 can be appended to these history substitutions as well. For example, !!:0 will give the last command name, and a colon followed by any number will give the corresponding argument. For example:

  % 
  
  cat fn fn1 fn2
  
  
         ...
  % 
  
  more !:3
  
  
  more fn2
         ...

  gives the third argument.

• !:2-4 gives the second through the fourth argument, or any numbers you choose:

  % 
  
  echo 1 2 3 4 5
  
  
  1 2 3 4 5
  % 
  
  echo !:2-4
  
  
  echo 2 3 4
  2 3 4

• !:-3 gives zero through the third argument, or any number you wish:

  % 
  
  echo 1 2 3 4
  
  
  1 2 3 4
  % 
  
  echo !:-3
  
  
  echo echo 1 2 3
  echo 1 2 3

• !^ gives the first argument of the previous command. This is the same as !:1 . Remember that, just as the ^ (caret) is the beginning-of-line anchor in regular expressions ( 26.4 ) , !^ gives the beginning history argument.

  % 
  
  cat fn fn1 fn2
  
  
         ...
  % 
  
  more !^
  
  
  more fn
         ...

• !$ gives the last argument of the last command. In the same way that $ (dollar sign) is the end-of-line anchor in regular expressions, !$ gives the ending history argument. Thus:

  % 
  
  cat fn
  
  
         ...
  % 
  
  more !$
  
  
  more fn
         ...

  The new command ( more ) is given the last argument of the previous command.

• !* is shorthand for the first through the last argument. This is used a lot in aliases:

  % 
  
  echo 1 2 3 4 5
  
  
  1 2 3 4 5
  % 
  
  echo !*
  
  
  echo 1 2 3 4 5
  1 2 3 4 5

  In an alias:

  alias vcat 'cat -v \!* | more'

  will pipe the output of cat -v ( 25.7 ) command through more . The backslash ( \ ) has to be there to hide the history character, ! , until the alias is used-see article 10.3 for more information.

• !:2* gives the second through the last arguments:

  % 
  
  echo 1 2 3 4 5
  
  
  1 2 3 4 5
  % 
  
  echo !:2*
  
  
  echo 2 3 4 5
  2 3 4 5

• !:2- like 2* but the last argument is dropped:

  % 
  
  echo 1 2 3 4 5
  
  
  1 2 3 4 5
  % 
  
  echo !:2-
  
  
  echo 2 3 4
  2 3 4

• !?fn?% gives the first word found that has fn in it:

  % 
  
  sort fn1 fn2 fn3
  
  
         ...
  % 
  
  echo !?fn?%
  
  
  echo fn1
  fn1

  That found the fn in fn1 . You can get wilder with:

  % 
  
  echo 1 2 3 4 5
  
  
  1 2 3 4 5
  % 
  
  echo !?ec?^
  
  
  echo 1
  1

  That selected the command that had ec in it, and the caret ( ^ ) said to give the first argument of that command. You can also do something like:

  % 
  
  echo fn fn1 fn2
  
  
  fn fn1 fn2
  
  % 
  
  echo !?fn1?^ !$
  
  
  echo fn fn2
  fn fn2

  That cryptic command told the shell to look for a command that had fn1 in it ( !?fn1? ), and gave the first argument of that command ( ^ ). Then it gave the last argument ( !$ ).

• ^xy^yx is the shorthand substitution ( 11.3 , 11.5 ) command. In the case of:

  % 
  
  echo xxyyzzxx
  
  
  xxyyzzxx
  % 
  
  ^xx^ab
  
  
  echo abyyzzxx
  abyyzzxx

  it replaced the characters xx with ab . This makes editing the previous command much easier.

• !!:s/xx/ab/ is doing the same thing as the previous example, but it is using the substitute command instead of the ^ . This works for any previous command, as in:

  % 
  
  more afile bfile
  
  
         ...
  % 
  
  echo xy
  
  
  xy
  % 
  
  !m:s/b/c/
  
  
  more afile cfile

  You do not have to use the slashes ( / ); any character can act as a delimiter.

  % 
  
  !!:s:xy:yx
  
  

  There we used the colons ( : ) [good when the word you're trying to edit contains a slash- JP ]. If you want to add more to the replacement, use & to "replay it" and then add on whatever you like:

  % 
  
  echo xy
  
  
  xy
  % 
  
  !!:s/xy/&yx
  
  
  echo xyyx
  xyyx

  The & in the replacement part said to give what the search part found, which was the xy characters.

  The search part, or left side, cannot include metacharacters ( 26.3 ) . You must type the actual string you are looking for.

  Also, the example above only replaces the first occurrence of xy . To replace them all, use g :

  % 
  
  echo xy xy xy xy
  
  
  xy xy xy xy
  % 
  
  !!:s/xy/yx/
  
  
  echo yx xy xy xy
  yx xy xy xy
  % 
  
  !!:gs/xy/yx/
  
  
  echo yx yx yx yx
  yx yx yx yx

  The g command in this case meant do all the xy s. And oddly enough, the g has to come before the s command.

  Or you could have done:

  % 
  
  echo xy xy xy xy
  
  
  xy xy xy xy
  % 
  
  !!:s/xy/yx/
  
  
  echo yx xy xy xy
  yx xy xy xy
  % 
  
  !!:g&
  
  
  echo yx yx yx yx
  yx yx yx yx

  In that case, we told the shell to globally ( :g ) replace every matched string from the last command with the last substitution ( & ). Without the g command, the shells would have replaced just one more xy with yx .

  [A "global" substitution works just once per word:

  % 
  
  echo xyzzy
  
  
  xyzzy
  % 
  
  !!:gs/y/p/
  
  
  echo xpzzy
  xpzzy

  The substitution above changed only the first y . -TC ]