Damn Useful: When You Forget to type Sudo

You can also get at the arguments of the previous command line with !!:n, where n is the position of the argument.<p>i.e.<p><pre><code> host:test user$ touch one two three four five host:test user$ ls five four one three two host:test user$ cat four host:test user$ echo !!:1 echo four four </code></pre> Also, "Esc, dot" is an awesome bash shortcut. (Press them consecutively, not concurrently). It inserts the last argument of the previous command in place. So if you're doing something to the same file, Esc, . will usually bring up the file name.<p>i.e.<p><pre><code> host:test user$ cat five host:test user$ touch [Esc, .]</code></pre>

Sounds like some kid discovering a bash feature, nothing more. May I post a link to a page with a whole lotta nifty bash tricks instead? <a href="http://www.ukuug.org/events/linux2003/papers/bash_tips/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ukuug.org/events/linux2003/papers/bash_tips/</a>

That's not something you want to optimize.<p>When working on a production box, I've trained myself to type the command without sudo, then actually take my hands off the keyboard and sit on my hands while I ponder what might go wrong with the command. Then I hit ^A sudo space return.

Lots of bash tips, organized like bash.org: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=142045" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=142045</a>

<i>Imagine an angry father yelling for his son. “Sudo!!” Sudo runs down from his room, sees the command he was supposed to be in front of, and executes it immediately.</i><p>No, no, he's got it all wrong. The son then says "Okay, I'll do it in a minute" and proceeds to go back to playing WoW or whatever he does for fun.

If anyone is interested in more of these tricks, this document was on HN a while back: <a href="http://www.scribd.com/full/2933314?access_key=key-2lwqsfr2e5s00wi1ztjf" rel="nofollow">http://www.scribd.com/full/2933314?access_key=key-2lwqsfr2e5...</a>

The way mentioned in the article, might be slightly easier but as I am a vim user and have the vi mode enabled in bash,my command chain for this action is:<p>^[ k I sudo<p>Esc (^[ = Esc) exits to command mode, k goes to the previous command, shift-i moves the cursor to the beginning of the line and sudo is well sudo.<p>Slightly more complex but it is reflex from all of the other programs I use.

Big fan of this: <a href="http://developer.apple.com/documentation/OpenSource/Conceptual/ShellScripting/ShellScripting.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://developer.apple.com/documentation/OpenSource/Conceptu...</a>

Also:<p><a href="http://www.catonmat.net/blog/the-definitive-guide-to-bash-command-line-history/" rel="nofollow">http://www.catonmat.net/blog/the-definitive-guide-to-bash-co...</a>

If this is new to anyone here, I strongly recommend reading the BASH man page. There's a whole lot of time saving features there.

Stop reminding me that I'm on Windows