How to use arguments from previous command?

Question

I know that Esc + . gives you the last argument of the last command.

But I'm interested in first argument of the last command. Is there a key binding to do so?

On the same lines, is there a generic way of getting the nth argument from the last command? I know that in a bash script, you can use $0, $1 etc., but these don't work on the commandline.

Also, what about iterating through the 0th argument of previous commands, like we can do with the last argument by continuously pressing Esc + .?

Answer 1

!^ may be the command for the first argument. i'm not sure if there is a way to get the nth.

Answer 2

To use the first argument, you can use !^ or !:1

Example:

$ echo a b c d e 
a b c d e
$ echo !^
echo a
a

$ echo a b c d e 
a b c d e
$ echo !:1
echo a
a

Since your question is about using any other arguments, here are some useful ones:

!^      first argument
!$      last argument
!*      all arguments
!:2     second argument

!:2-3   second to third arguments
!:2-$   second to last arguments
!:2*    second to last arguments
!:2-    second to next to last arguments

!:0     the command
!!      repeat the previous line

The first four forms are more often used. The form !:2- is somewhat counter-intuitive, as it doesn't include the last argument.

Answer 3

I liked @larsmans answer so much I had to learn more. Adding this answer to help others find the man page section and know what to google for:

$ man  -P 'less -p ^HISTORY\ EXPANSION' bash
<...>
Word Designators

Word designators are used to select desired words from the event.
A : separates the event specification from the word designator.
It may be omitted if the word designator begins with a ^, $, *, -,
or %.  Words are numbered from the beginning of the line, with the
first word being denoted by 0 (zero).  Words are inserted into the
current line separated by single spaces.

   0 (zero)
          The zeroth word.  For the shell, this is the command word.
   n      The nth word.
   ^      The first argument.  That is, word 1.
   $      The last argument.
   %      The word matched by the most recent ‘?string?’ search.
   x-y    A range of words; ‘-y’ abbreviates ‘0-y’.
   *      All of the words but the zeroth.
          This is a synonym for ‘1-$’.  
          It is not an error to use * if there is just one word in
          the event; the empty string is returned in that case.
   x*     Abbreviates x-$.
   x-     Abbreviates x-$ like x*, but omits the last word.

   If a word designator is supplied without an event
   specification, the previous command is used as the event.