Keyboard shortcuts can be very useful in reducing the your time in carrying out day to day activities in Linux. linux-logo-fullAlthough it is not possible to learn each and every keyboard shortcut but if you make it a practise to use some of the very common ones it would create a lot of difference in you Linux experience.

Here are a few useful Linux Keyboard shortcuts :

1. Arrow up or Arrow down : The up pr down key when used in a terminal windows allows to cycle through history the commands used in the terminal windows. Using this shortcut you don’t have to retype the commands and also you don’t need to remember what commands you issued earlier in the session.

2. Alt + Arrow Key : In Linux pager allows you to have multiple desktops at one time. Instead of moving the mouse to the window to switch between different desktops , you can use Alt + Arrow keys to switch between the different desktops.This works in all desktop environments and window managers.

3. Alt + Tab : This shortcut allows you to cycle through different windows and stop on the window which you want to open. Instead of using mouse to click on the window you want to open , you can use this shortcut to good effect. This works in most dektop environments.

4. Ctrl + Alt + Del : If you are stuck and everything else fails to work , you can use this  shortcut to immediately restart your computer . Though you will loose all your unsaved data , so you must use this command carefully.

5. Ctrl + Alt + Backspace : You can use this shortcut when X isn’t responding or some program has held up your desktop and nothing is responding. This shortcut logs you out of X and takes you back to login screen. It works with all desktop environments and window managers.

6. Ctrl + Alt + F* : This is a useful shortcut which switches between various virtual terminals. You can use this shortcut to switch to terminals 1,2,3 etc with shortcut Ctrl + Alt + F1, Ctrl + Alt + F2, Ctrl + Alt + F3 etc. This will open a text based terminal window which can be used for debugging  and terminating applications.

7. Ctrl + C : When you are working in a terminal window , you can kill a process which you are following with Ctrl + C command.

8. Ctrl + R : This is a useful command research option. When you use this shortcut , you are prompted to enter a character or a string of characters. You’ll get all the command you may have used earlier with the search character in it or the combination of search characters. Once the search result appears on the screen, you can press enter to execute the command.

9. Ctrl + Z : This will zombie an application. If you want to put the application in the background but not kill the process and get back to the terminal , use this command to put the process back in the background.

10.  Ctrl + a and Ctrl + e : When working in a text editor , you can get to the end of the line using Ctrl + a and beginning of the line  using  Ctrl + e. These sh0rtcuts do not work in GUI environment.