My Favorite Is ^^ (Unix Power Tools, 3rd Edition)

30.5. My Favorite Is ^^

Well, maybe it's not my favorite, but it's probably the history substitution I use most often. It's especially handy if you have fumble-fingers on a strange keyboard:

% cat myflie
cat: myflie: No such file or directory
% ^li^il
cat myfile

Obviously, this doesn't save much typing for a short command, but it can sure be handy with a long one. I also use ^^ with :p (Section 30.11) to recall an earlier command so I can change it. For example:

% !m:p
more gobbledygook.c
% ^k^k2
more gobbledygook2.c

The point is sometimes not to save typing, but to save the effort of remembering, such as, I want to print the file I looked at earlier, but don't remember the exact name.

[My keyboard can repeat characters when I'm not expecting it. I use a single ^ to delete extra characters. For example:

% lpr sources/aproggg.c
lpr: sources/aproggg.c: no such file or directory
% ^gg
lpr sources/aprog.c

You could type ^gg^, but the second caret isn't required. With a single caret, you don't type a replacement string -- just the string to delete. -- JP]

-- TOR