How can I recall the argument of the previous Bash command?

Question

Is there a way in Bash to recall the argument of the previous command?

I usually do vi file.c followed by gcc file.c. Is there a way in Bash to recall the argument of the previous command?

Answer 1

You can use $_ or !$ to recall the last argument of the previous command.

Also Alt + . can be used to recall the last argument of any of the previous commands.

Answer 2

Yes, you can use !$ to recall the last argument of the preceding command.

Answer 3

If the previous command had two arguments, like this

ls a.txt b.txt

and you wanted the first one, you could type

!:1

giving

a.txt

Or if you wanted both, you could type

!:1-2

giving

a.txt b.txt

You can extend this to any number of arguments, eg:

!:10-12

Answer 4

In the command line you can press "esc-dot". It cicles the previous arguments you used.