Jude Robinson :: The single most useful thing in bash

Create ~/.inputrc and fill it with this:

"\e[A": history-search-backward
"\e[B": history-search-forward
set show-all-if-ambiguous on
set completion-ignore-case on

This allows you to search through your history using the up and down arrows … i.e. type cd / and press the up arrow and you'll search through everything in your history that starts with cd /.

Wow. That is not an exaggeration at all: the most useful thing. I am so thrilled to finally be able to search my shell history the same way I can my Matlab history. I've been able to do this there for ages and my mind still hasn't caught up with not being able to do it in the shell.

If it's not clear to you why this is useful or why it pleases me, I don't think there's anything I can do to explain it. Sorry.

PS Anyone have first-hand experience with the fish shell? The autocompletions and inline, automatic syntax highlighting seem clever. I need to get around to giving it a try on one of my boxes.