How can I easily access my Linux command history? Is there a hot key?

One of the fastest ways to search your previous commands is to use CTRL+R and start typing, once you’ve entered enough text you can use CTRL+R again and again to search your history for matches.

Let’s assume we execute the following commands:

$ echo dog
dog
$ echo cat
cat
$ echo hotdog
hotdog

Now press CTRL+R and you will see a new “bck:” prompt at the bottom:

$
bck:

Now if you type “dog” you will see the last command that had that string anywhere in it, populated on the previous command prompt:

$ echo hotdog
bck:dog

Pressing CTRL+R again will cycle through the history:

$ echo dog
bck:dog

You can press ENTER to execute the command, or CTRL+E to go to the end of the command without executing it.

I also hear you can use CTRL+S to go backwords through the search results, but that never works for me – I believe my terminal or window manager is swallowing the CTRL+S.