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What are some of your most useful or favorite terminal commands?
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this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2025
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I use $_ a lot, it allows you to use the last parameter of the previous command in your current command
mkdir something && cd $_
nano file
chmod +x $_
As a simple example.
If you want to create nested folders, you can do it in one go by adding -p to mkdir
mkdir -p bunch/of/nested/folders
Good explanation here:
https://koenwoortman.com/bash-mkdir-multiple-subdirectories/q
Sometimes starting a service takes a while and you're sitting there waiting for the terminal to be available again. Just add --no-block to systemctl and it will do it on the background without keeping the terminal occupied.
systemctl start --no-block myservice
For interactive editing, the keybind
alt+.inserts the last argument from the previous command. Using this instead of $_ has the potential to make your shell history a little more explicit. (vim $_isn't as likely to work a few commands later, butvim actual_file.shmight)You can also press
alt+.multiple times to cycle through all recent argumentsYes, definitely and I do run into that when I search my history
I just press M-.
I'm not sure what you mean. I gave 3 different commands..
You can use M-. instead of $_ to insert last param of last command. You can also access older commands' param by repeated M-. just like you would do for inserting past commands with up arrow or C-p
I really hope I remember this one long enough to make it a habit
I have my .bashrc print useful commands with a short explanation. This way I see them regularly when I start a new session. Once I use a command enough that I have it as part of my toolkit I remove it from the print.
That is really useful! Thanks for the tip!