The Korn shell supports emacs-style commands that let you edit the command line.
| If you want to: | Press: |
|---|---|
| Move to the beginning of the line | Ctrl–A |
| Move to the end of the line | Ctrl–E |
| Move to the end of the current word | EscF |
| Move to the beginning of the current word | EscB |
| Delete the character at the cursor | Ctrl–D |
| Delete the character before the cursor | Ctrl–H |
| Delete from the cursor to the end of the current word | EscD |
| Delete from the cursor to the end of the line | Ctrl–K |
| Paste text | Ctrl–Y |
As in emacs, commands that involve the Ctrl key are keychords; for commands that involve Esc, press and release each key in sequence. For more information, see “emacs interactive input-line editing” in the documentation for ksh.
In order to process these commands, ksh uses the character device in raw mode, but emulates all of the driver's processing of the keys. Other shells, such as esh, use the character device in canonical (edited input) mode.