History backward/forward search
Bind the up and down arrows to prefix search in Bash with a small .inputrc fragment.
1 min read
Updated
By default Bash searches the whole history for the current line. This .inputrc fragment rebinds the up and down arrows to prefix search, so typing the beginning of a command is enough to cycle through matching entries. Add the lines to ~/.inputrc and start a new shell.
Enable backward/forward search history
.inputrc
text
# Enable backward/forward search history
"\e[A": history-search-backward
"\e[B": history-search-forward