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?

Answer 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.

Answer 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

Answer 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
• !! - 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

Answer 4

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

It cycles through the last argument of your previous commands.

Answer 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.

Answer 6

!* runs a new command with all previous arguments.

ls /tmp
cd !*
#you are now in /tmp

Answer 7

Yes, you can use !$ to recall the last argument of the preceding command.