history: Word Designators

1 
1 1.1.2 Word Designators
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1 
1 Word designators are used to select desired words from the event.  A ':'
1 separates the event specification from the word designator.  It may be
1 omitted if the word designator begins with a '^', '$', '*', '-', or '%'.
1 Words are numbered from the beginning of the line, with the first word
1 being denoted by 0 (zero).  Words are inserted into the current line
1 separated by single spaces.
1 
1    For example,
1 
1 '!!'
1      designates the preceding command.  When you type this, the
1      preceding command is repeated in toto.
1 
1 '!!:$'
1      designates the last argument of the preceding command.  This may be
1      shortened to '!$'.
1 
1 '!fi:2'
1      designates the second argument of the most recent command starting
1      with the letters 'fi'.
1 
1    Here are the word designators:
1 
1 '0 (zero)'
1      The '0'th word.  For many applications, this is the command word.
1 
1 'N'
1      The Nth word.
1 
1 '^'
1      The first argument; that is, word 1.
1 
1 '$'
1      The last argument.
1 
1 '%'
1      The word matched by the most recent '?STRING?' search.
1 
1 'X-Y'
1      A range of words; '-Y' abbreviates '0-Y'.
1 
1 '*'
1      All of the words, except the '0'th.  This is a synonym for '1-$'.
1      It is not an error to use '*' if there is just one word in the
1      event; the empty string is returned in that case.
1 
1 'X*'
1      Abbreviates 'X-$'
1 
1 'X-'
1      Abbreviates 'X-$' like 'X*', but omits the last word.
1 
1    If a word designator is supplied without an event specification, the
1 previous command is used as the event.
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