Enable option key as meta key

1. Go to Terminal > Preferences > Profiles > Keyboard
2. Check Use option key as meta key.

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On macOS High Sierra 10.13.6, captured on October 23, 2018.

Notes

Many applications (including bash and tcsh) treat Meta-Delete as "backward delete word."

Command Editing Shortcuts

Ctrl + a – go to the start of the command line

Ctrl + e – go to the end of the command line

Ctrl + k – delete from cursor to the end of the command line

Ctrl + u – delete from cursor to the start of the command line

Ctrl + w – delete from cursor to start of word (i.e. delete backwards one word)

Ctrl + y – paste word or text that was cut using one of the deletion shortcuts (such as the one above) after the cursor

Ctrl + xx – move between start of command line and current cursor position (and back again)

Alt + b – move backward one word (or go to start of word the cursor is currently on)

Alt + f – move forward one word (or go to end of word the cursor is currently on)

Alt + d – delete to end of word starting at cursor (whole word if cursor is at the beginning of word)

Alt + c – capitalize to end of word starting at cursor (whole word if cursor is at the beginning of word)

Alt + u – make uppercase from cursor to end of word

Alt + l – make lowercase from cursor to end of word

Alt + t – swap current word with previous

Ctrl + f – move forward one character

Ctrl + b – move backward one character

Ctrl + d – delete character under the cursor

Ctrl + h – delete character before the cursor

Ctrl + t – swap character under cursor with the previous one

Command Recall Shortcuts

Ctrl + r – search the history backwards

Ctrl + g – escape from history searching mode

Ctrl + p – previous command in history (i.e. walk back through the command history)

Ctrl + n – next command in history (i.e. walk forward through the command history)

Alt + . – use the last word of the previous command

Command Control Shortcuts

Ctrl + l – clear the screen

Ctrl + s – stops the output to the screen (for long running verbose command)

Ctrl + q – allow output to the screen (if previously stopped using command above)

Ctrl + c – terminate the command

Ctrl + z – suspend/stop the command

Bash Bang (!) Commands

Bash also has some handy features that use the ! (bang) to allow you to do some funky stuff with bash commands.

!! – run last command !blah – run the most recent command that starts with ‘blah’ (e.g. !ls)

!blah:p – print out the command that !blah would run (also adds it as the latest command in the command history)

!$ – the last word of the previous command (same as Alt + .)

!$:p – print out the word that !$ would substitute

!* – the previous command except for the last word (e.g. if you type _find somefile.txt /, then !* would give you _find somefile.txt)

!*:p – print out what !* would substitute

By default meta backspace does a backwards word yank in most shells. If you press escape and then press backspace, that pretty much works everywhere.

With Natural Text Editing preset enabled in Profile -> Keys. You can simply remove the word

• Backward with alt + delete
• Forward with fn + alt + delete

If you are using Iterm2 (which is like the regular terminal of OSX just better :) you can use this like to change this behavior:

You need to set your left ⌥ key to act as an escape character. This can be done going to iTerm2 > Preferences > Profiles > Keys.