Did you know that you can recall the last argument to the last command you typed by using the special variable !$. This can be handy when you are working with host names, long file names, all sorts of things. A few examples:
See if a host is up and log in:
usr-3@srv-3 usr-3]$ ping e2500.prod.bigfatdomain.com (output of ping snipped -- you've seen it before!) [usr-3@srv-3 usr-3]$ ssh !$ ssh e2500.prod.bigfatdomain.com usr-3@e2500.prod.bigfatdomain.com's password:
User Names:
[root@srv-3 usr-3]# useradd -u 666 -g 100 udergahad [root@srv-3 usr-3]# passwd !$ passwd udergahad Changing password for user udergahad. New UNIX password:
File Operations:
[root@srv-3 usr-3]# ls -l /var/log/messages -rw------- 1 root root 5490 Jun 24 09:20 /var/log/messages [root@srv-3 usr-3]# cp !$ !$.020624 cp /var/log/messages /var/log/messages.020624 [root@srv-3 usr-3]# scp !$ atom:/share/usr-3/ scp /var/log/messages.020624 atom:/share/usr-3/ root@atom's password: messages.020624 100% |*********************| 5490 00:00 [root@srv-3 usr-3]#
Those are just some dumb examples, but you’ll get a lot of bang from your buck with this trick.