How can I recall the argument of the previous bash command?

Question

Is there a way in Bash to recall the argument of the previous command?

I usually do vi file.c followed by gcc file.c.

Is there a way in Bash to recall the argument of the previous command?

Solution 1

You can use $_ or !$ to recall the last argument of the previous command.

Also Alt + . can be used to recall the last argument of any of the previous commands.

Solution 2

If the previous command had two arguments, like this

ls a.txt b.txt

and you wanted the first one, you could type

!:1

giving

a.txt

Or if you wanted both, you could type

!:1-2

giving

a.txt b.txt

You can extend this to any number of arguments, eg:

!:10-12

Solution 3

!!:n where n is the 0-based position of the argument you want.

For example:

echo 'one' 'two'
# "one two"

echo !!:2
# "two"

The ! prefix is used to access previous commands.

Other useful commands:

• !$ - last argument from previous command
• !^ - first argument (after the program/built-in/script) from previous command
• !* - all arguments from previous command
• !! - previous command (often pronounced "bang bang")
• !n - command number n from history
• !pattern - most recent command matching pattern
• !!:s/find/replace - last command, substitute find with replace

More info on command history

Solution 4

In the command-line, you can press alt+. or esc-.

It cycles through the last argument of your previous commands.

Solution 5

If you know the number given in the history for a particular command, you can pretty much take any argument in that command using following terms.

Use following to take the second argument from the third command in the history,

!3:2

Use following to take the third argument from the fifth last command in the history,

!-5:3

Using a minus sign, you ask it to traverse from the last command of the history.

View more solutions

Comments

[janmoesen]

Also, if you want an arbitrary argument, you can use !!:1, !!:2, etc. (!!:0 is the previous command itself.) See gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bashref.html#History-Interactio‌​n

[Robert Gowland]

@RNA, I just tried it again to make sure I didn't include a typo, could you provide a little more detail (eg. ubuntu command line, cygwin for windows? error message? previous line?)

[RNA]

I am using GNU bash, version 3.2.51(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin13) Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. The error message is -bash: :1-2: bad word specifier

[Robert Gowland]

I get the same thing if there weren't two arguments in the previous line. Eg. line 1 ls a.txt line 2 ll !:1-2

[RNA]

you're right. That is a stupid mistake I made. thanks!

[Will]

Similar to !$, you use !^ for the first argument.

[Big McLargeHuge]

Instead of !!:s/find/replace, you can also ^find^replace.

[jx12345]

ahh... *nix... you are a thing of beauty... everyday I love you more

[816-8055]

Also to get all of the arguments, !:^-$ can be used or of course similar code in combination with numbers.

[Chan Kim]

How can we refer to the second to last argument of the previous command? for example, If I gave echo tiger rabbit, how can I refer tiger at the following command?

[Brian McCutchon]

Alt + . doesn't work in vi mode. Just FYI, for others who were confused here.

[Bucket]

Be aware of the key word "last," especially if your command contained multiple arguments.

[Bucket]

I've always found the ↑ and ↓ keys to work as well.

[everyonesdesign]

@Bucket keys go though previous commands, while the solution provided by Antonio allows to go through previous arguments (last argument of each previous command only)

[user115014]

[sighs]... what a wonderful way to be distracted at work - just love this

[林果皞]

Note that !$ print the full command in the first line when run, while $_ doesn't.

[Aphoid]

Also: !* - all arguments from the previous command (after the program/built-in/script). e.g.: ls *.tmp *.cache rm !*

[young_souvlaki]

This is truly incredible. I love the M-. feature. Where is this documented?

[Chris]

@young_souvlaki see man bash, quite literally everything is in that, you just have to actually read it (which is the hard part, but look under 'HISTORY EXPANSION' and 'Commands for Manipulating the History' in particular. For GNU readline related stuff (which is most key binding related stuff outside of bash): tiswww.cwru.edu/php/chet/readline/rltop.html#TOCDocumentatio‌​n

[hundredrab]

Is there a way I can make <alt> + . work in vi mode? is there a similar workaround for zsh?

[Chen]

how does it work on mac? I use mac + iterm2, press Alt + . only shows "≥"

[Jonas Eberle]

!:-3 or !:3- works also (for all arguments until/from the 3rd argument)

[Felix]

@Chen have to use osx at the moment, have not yet found a shortcut solution

[Motti Shneor]

For some reason, on MacOS 11.6.1 Terminal, zsh 5.8 (x86_64-apple-darwin20.0) This doesn't work. It looks like zsh ignores the '-' sign - and takes n simply from the start of list. What to do? which 'man' page to consult?

[cilix]

@Chen Try using ESC . See the bash man page, under "Readline Notation": "[...] Similarly, meta keys are denoted by M-key, so M-x means Meta-X. (On keyboards without a meta key, M-x means ESC x, i.e., press the Escape key then the x key. This makes ESC the meta prefix."