Keyboard Shortcuts

The full readline-style shortcut table built into TinyCLI

TinyCLI implements a subset of the standard GNU readline shortcuts for line editing, history, and tab-completion. The bindings are fixed and not configurable.

Cursor Movement

Shortcut	Action
`Left`	Move cursor back one character.
`Right`	Move cursor forward one character.
`Home`	Move cursor to start of line.
`End`	Move cursor to end of line.
`Ctrl`+`b`	Move cursor back one character. (Same as `Left`.)
`Ctrl`+`f`	Move cursor forward one character. (Same as `Right`.)
`Ctrl`+`a`	Move cursor to start of line. (Same as `Home`.)
`Ctrl`+`e`	Move cursor to end of line. (Same as `End`.)
`Alt`+`b`	Move cursor back one word.
`Alt`+`f`	Move cursor forward one word.

Deletion

Shortcut	Action
`Delete`	Delete the character under the cursor.
`Backspace`	Delete the character before the cursor.
`Ctrl`+`d`	Delete the character under the cursor. (Same as `Delete`.)
`Ctrl`+`h`	Delete the character before the cursor. (Same as `Backspace`.)
`Ctrl`+`k`	Clear from cursor to end of line.
`Ctrl`+`u`	Clear from cursor to start of line.
`Ctrl`+`w`	Clear the word before the cursor.
`Alt`+`d`	Delete the word after the cursor.

History

Available when TCLI_HISTORY_BUF_LEN > 0 (the default).

Shortcut	Action
`Up`	Recall the previous command.
`Down`	Recall the next command.
`Ctrl`+`p`	Recall the previous command. (Same as `Up`.)
`Ctrl`+`n`	Recall the next command. (Same as `Down`.)
`Ctrl`+`r`	Enter reverse-search mode.
`Ctrl`+`g`	Exit reverse-search mode (without selecting).
`Alt`+`r`	Cancel any edits to a recalled history line.

Tab-Completion

Available when TCLI_COMPLETE = 1 (the default).

Shortcut	Action
`Tab`	Complete at cursor; on subsequent presses, cycle through matches.
`Esc`	Exit tab-completion mode (without choosing a match).

Esc needs to be pressed twice in some terminal contexts, since the byte sequence is otherwise indistinguishable from the start of an ANSI escape sequence the library is reading.

Other

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl`+`c`	Send SIGINT to the registered handler (if any); otherwise abort the line.
`Ctrl`+`l`	Clear the screen.
`Ctrl`+`i`	Equivalent to `Tab`.
`Ctrl`+`j`	Equivalent to `Enter`.

Key Name Notation

Alt+x denotes what most terminals transmit as Esc x, i.e. a literal Escape byte followed by x. On a typical terminal this is produced by holding Option or Alt while pressing the corresponding key.