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Terminal/shell tricks

Posted on 2 mins read
rtags: linux, shell, terminal, config

Useful terminal shortcuts

Shortcut What it does?
C-x C-e Edits the current line in the $EDITOR program, or vi if undefined.
C-x C-r Read in the contents of the inputrc file, and incorporate any bindings or variable assignments found there.
C-x C-u Incremental undo, separately remembered for each line.
C-x C-v Display version information about the current instance of bash.
In zsh switch to line vi mode (equivalent to bindkey -v)? Exit with Ctrl-c
C-x C-x Alternates the cursor with its old position. (C-x, because x has a crossing shape).
C-x * Inline shell expansion

Alacritty

Alacritty is a modern terminal emulator. See additional config info in ArchLinux Wiki.

Install from packages:

sudo pacman -S alacritty
Shortcut What it does?
Ctl-Shift-SPC Enter vi mode. Press again to leave.
Ctl-Shift-C Copy selection
Ctl-Shift-V Paste clipboard content

Color schemes with dynamic change

Nice color schemes can be found in alacritty/alacritty-theme repo.

git clone https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty-theme.git ~/.alacritty-colorscheme

Color scheme can be applied inside alacritty config:

import = [
  "~/.alacritty-colorscheme/themes/alabaster_dark.toml"
]

To change theme dynamically:

alacritty msg config "$(cat ~/path/to/theme.toml)"

Enable URL lookups (regex hints)

Triggered by Ctrl-Shift-U, then use highlighted letters to choose:

[[hints.enabled]]
command = "xdg-open"
post_processing = true
regex = "(ipfs:|ipns:|magnet:|mailto:|gemini:|gopher:|https:|http:|news:|file:|git:|ssh:|ftp:)[^\u0000-\u001F\u007F-Ÿ<>\"\\s{-}\\^⟨⟩`]+"

[hints.enabled.binding]
key = "U"
mods = "Control|Shift"

[hints.enabled.mouse]
enabled = true
mods = "None"

Now you can press Ctrl-Shift-U to get hints overlay (a letter for each recognized URL on the terminal). Press the letter to execute xdg-open over the matched content (URL).

Additional keybindings

Spawn a new instance in the same directory

[[keyboard.bindings]]
action = "SpawnNewInstance"
key = "Return"
mods = "Control|Shift"

Toggle white/dark theme temporarily - e.g. during presentations

Make a script ~/bin/alacritty-toggle.sh for toggling white/dark theme:

if [ -f ~/.alacritty-white ]; then
        alacritty msg config "$(cat ~/.alacritty-colorscheme/themes/alabaster_dark.toml)"
        rm ~/.alacritty-white
else
        alacritty msg config "$(cat ~/.alacritty-colorscheme/themes/alabaster.toml)"
        touch ~/.alacritty-white
fi

Make a keyboard shortcut for the command.

[[keyboard.bindings]]
key = "F12"

[keyboard.bindings.command]
#args = ["msg", "config", "cat"]
program = "alacritty-toggle.sh"

Tricks with zsh and oh-my-zsh

Go up to the root of Git repo :oh-my-zsh:

Put this in .zshrc:

plugins+=(git)

This adds alias grc that cd to the root of the repo. For other aliases see here.

Source.