Getting previous line in Bash after new command?

Question

In a Bash terminal, I often type a command and realize that I needed to sudo that command. I hit the up arrow to get the previous command and then backtrack to the beginning type sudo and enter.

Is there any way to type sudo, then press a key to pull down the previous command after sudo?

Thanks!

ruakh · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-08 03:33:05Z

4

Yes: you can use "history expansion", and write !!:

$ foo
bash: foo: command not found
$ sudo !!
sudo foo                             <-- it prints out the expanded command
bash: sudo: command not found        <-- and then runs it

answered Mar 8, 2012 at 3:33

ruakh

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2 Comments

Kaz Over a year ago

great! now please run apt-get install foo and apt-get install sudo. :)

ruakh Over a year ago

@Kaz: I ran this on a Windows box, which has no need for sudo, and certainly no need for foo. I considered SSHing into a handy Linux box and running a command that actually requires root access, like touch /etc/shadow or something, but then I decided this way was more fun. :-)

0xC0000022L · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-08 03:38:13Z

2

sudo !!

!! denotes the previous command

I strongly recommend to visit CommandlineFu which offers a lot of tips and tricks similar to this answer.

One word of caution: if you have HISTIGNORE set like I do, only those commands not ignored can be invoked again this way.

edited Mar 8, 2012 at 3:38

answered Mar 8, 2012 at 3:32

0xC0000022L

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