Oct 13 2009

Command History with Arrow Keys in ksh

Published by at 11:48 am under Aix,Linux,Misc,Solaris

Arrows aren’t used in ksh as a default. To enable command history like in Bash, add the following lines in the .profile or .kshrc file:

# Switch to Emacs mode
# Only Emacs mode lets you make use of arrow keys
set -o emacs

# Go back in command history (up arrow)
alias __A='^P'

# Go back in command history (down arrow)
alias __B='^N'

# Move right on the command line (right arrow)
alias __C='^F'

# Move left on the command line (left arrow)
alias __D='^B'

 
^P, ^N, etc aren’t one single character. Enter Ctrl-V and Ctrl-P to display them in vi.
 
Auto-completion is only available for files, not commands. Press either twice on the escape key, or the tab key on newer systems.
 


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One Response to “Command History with Arrow Keys in ksh”

  1. # Anacreoon 05 Jun 2012 at 6:27 pm

    Thank you very much! I am new to AIX and was hating life, now I\’m happy.

    Here is a UUENCODED version of the file for those that can\’t figure out the control characters…

    Copy and paste the below text into a file and then uudecode…

    $ cat | uudecode

    ctrl-d

    begin 644 .kshrc
    M(R!3=VET8V@@=&\@16UA8W,@;6]D90HC($]N;’D@16UA8W,@;6]D92!L971S
    M(‘EO=2!M86ME(‘5S92!O9B!A<G)O=R!K97ES"G-E="`M;R!E;6%C2`H=7`@87)R;W<I"F%L:6%S(%]?
    M03TG$"2`H9&]W;B!A<G)O
    M=RD*86QI87,@7U]"/2<.)PHC($UO=F4@<FEG:'0@;VX@=&AE(&-O;6UA;F0@
    M;&EN92`H<FEG:'0@87)R;W<I"F%L:6%S(%]?0STG!B<*(R!-;W9E(&QE9G0@
    M;VX@=&AE(&-O;6UA;F0@;&EN92`H;&5F="!A<G)O=RD*86QI87,@7U]$/2<"
    ")PH@
    `
    end

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