Whether you’re on macOS or Linux, your shell is hiding some surprisingly powerful shortcuts. Here are five tricks — spanning both zsh and bash — that are easy to learn and genuinely useful.
1. !$ and $_ — Reuse the Last Argument
How often do you run a command and immediately need to use the same argument again?
mkdir -p /some/deeply/nested/directory cd !$
!$ expands to the last argument of the previous command, so you don’t have to type that long path twice. In interactive shells you can also use $_, which does the same thing but works more reliably inside scripts.
Note:
!$is a history expansion — it’s evaluated before the command runs and will be visible if you pressTabto expand it first.$_is a special shell variable set after each command completes.
2. ^old^new — Quick Command Substitution
Made a typo in the last command? Instead of pressing ↑ and hunting for the mistake, use caret substitution:
git comit -m "fix typo" ^comit^commit # Runs: git commit -m "fix typo"
This replaces the first occurrence of old with new in the previous command and re-runs it. It’s a bash and zsh history expansion, so it works in both.
3. cd - — Jump Back to the Previous Directory
cd - switches you to whichever directory you were in before the current one. It’s like a back button for your filesystem.
cd /var/log cd /etc/nginx cd - # Back to /var/log cd - # Back to /etc/nginx
zsh takes this a step further with a built-in directory stack. Running cd - followed by Tab in zsh gives you a numbered list of recent directories to jump to directly — handy when you’re hopping between more than two locations.
4. pbcopy / pbpaste (macOS) and xclip / xsel (Linux)
These commands pipe data into and out of your system clipboard, which is incredibly useful for moving output between the terminal and other apps.
macOS:
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | pbcopy # Copy your public key to clipboard pbpaste > notes.txt # Paste clipboard content into a file
Linux (install xclip first):
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | xclip -selection clipboard xclip -selection clipboard -o > notes.txt
A convenient alias to make Linux feel like macOS:
alias pbcopy='xclip -selection clipboard' alias pbpaste='xclip -selection clipboard -o'
5. Background Jobs — Don’t Let Long Tasks Hold Your Terminal Hostage
Running a long process? You don’t have to open a new terminal tab. The shell has built-in job control for exactly this.
Send a running process to the background:
- Press
Ctrl+Zto suspend it. - Run
bgto resume it in the background.
Start a process directly in the background:
npm run build &
Manage your jobs:
jobs # List all background jobs fg # Bring the most recent job back to the foreground fg %2 # Bring job number 2 to the foreground
Heads up: A backgrounded job is still tied to your terminal session. If you close it, the process gets killed. To truly detach a process so it survives after you log out, use
nohup:nohup ./my-script.sh &Or reach for
tmuxorscreenfor a more complete session management experience.
These shortcuts take only minutes to learn but add up to real time savings over a day of terminal work. Try adding the pbcopy/pbpaste aliases to your .zshrc or .bashrc today — your future self will thank you.
