move back to the end of bash history when using reverse search?

Question

I keep fairly long bash history and sometimes when I search for something with bash reverse search function(Ctrl+r) I end up at the beginning of search history and I still did not find what I needed and then I would like to move back to the end of the history file. One option is to use forward search function(Ctrl+s) which moves closer to the end of the history or execute #, but is there also a keyboard shortcut to move directly to the end of bash history?

Answer 1

There is the readline function end-of-history, by default mapped to M->, but if used during reverse searching it exits the reverse search prompt.

A possible workaround / trick

Start string search

Instead, to use reverse search, you could use history-search-backward and history-search-forward (default unmapped), mapping them to up/down (very useful) in your .inputrc:

# up-down arrow to search in history
"\e[A":history-search-backward
"\e[B":history-search-forward

So, after you have typed you could reverse search pressing up (instead of Ctrl+R), and when you want to return to the end of the history you can use the end-of-history function by pressing (M->)

This way "The search string must match at the beginning of a history line," so, if you search for ls -ltr, you have to type ls and then press the up key.

Substring search

if you want "The search string may match anywhere in a history line," you have to use history-substring-search-forward and history-substring-search-backward:

# up-down arrow to search in history
"\e[A":history-substring-search-backward
"\e[B":history-substring-search-forward

This way, if you search for ls -ltr, you can type ls, but also ltr, before you press up.

Reference: Bash Reference Manual – Commands For History.