OS X Terminal shortcut: Jump to beginning/end of line

Macos Problem Overview

I know that I can jump to the beginning and end of a line inside the OS X terminal with Ctrl+A and Ctrl + E. But I'm so used to jumping with Cmd+Right arrow and Cmd+Left arrow from my editor, that I would love to use these shortcuts for the terminal too.

I haven't found a solution with Google, so maybe here someone can help.

Update

As in the comments, I tried the solution from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/81272/is-there-any-way-in-the-os-x-terminal-to-move-the-cursor-word-by-word/81299#81299

Unfortunately, the Terminal settings seems to not include Cmd as a Modifier Key, as you can see here:

Modifier Keys of Terminal

Macos Solutions

Solution 1 - Macos

fn + shift + leftArrow = goto beginning of line
fn + shift + rightArrow = goto end of line

these work for me

Solution 2 - Macos

In the latest Mac OS You can use shift + home or shift + end

Solution 3 - Macos

I use a handy app called Karabiner to do this, and many other things. It's free and open source.

It's a keyboard remapper, with a lot of handy presets for many common remaps that people may want to do.

As you can see from the screenshot, this remap is included as a preset in Karabiner.

Hope this helps. Happy remapping!

Solution 4 - Macos

As setup in the terminal using vi:

The Home button on a Macbook Pro keyboard: Fn + Left Arrow.

The End button on a Macbook Pro keyboard: Fn + Right Arrow.

Solution 5 - Macos

Here I found a tweak for this, without any third party tool. This will make the following shortcut to work:

 fn + right: to go to the end of the line.
 fn + left: to go to the beginning of the line.

Open terminal preferences.(cmd + ,).
Go to your selected theme and then to the keyboard tab.

And add a new entry as following.
That's all. Now close and check.

Hope it helps.

EDIT: Refer to the comment by @Maurice Gilden below for more insights.

Solution 6 - Macos

For iterm2:

Go to Profiles / Open Profiles / Keys

Set Cmd + left_arrow_key to Send Hex Code 001

Set Cmd + right_arrow_key to Send Hex Code 005

This allows you to use Cmd + arrow_keys to move from beginning to end of the line.

Solution 7 - Macos

Control + A for goto the beginning and Control + E to goto the end

Solution 8 - Macos

I am not sure if this will work for you (I still use OS 10.8), but these work for my terminal:

home = move cursor to the start of the line
shift+end = move cursor to the end of the line

alt+leftArrow = move one "word" to the left
alt+rightArrow = move one "word" to the right

Hope this helps!

Solution 9 - Macos

For latest mac os, Below shortcuts works for me.

Jump to beginning of the line == shift + fn + RightArrow

Jump to ending of the line == shift + fn + LeftArrow

Solution 10 - Macos

fn + leftArraw or fn + rightArrow worked for me!

Solution 11 - Macos

Text Navigation Shortcuts

Jump to beginning of a line – Command+Left Arrow
Jump to end of a line – Command+Right Arrow
Jump to beginning of current word – Option+Left Arrow
Jump to end of current word – Option+Right Arrow
Jump to beginning of all text – Command+Up Arrow
Jump to end of all text – Command+Down Arrow

Text Selection Shortcuts

Select text to beginning of a line – Shift+Command+Left Arrow
Select text to end of a line – Shift+Command+Right Arrow
Select text to beginning of current word – Shift+Option+Left Arrow
Select text to end of current word – Shift+Option+Right Arrow
Select text to beginning of all text – Shift+Command+Up Arrow
Select text to end of all text – Shift+Command+Down Arrow

Solution 12 - Macos

You could download Better Touch Tools. It's an app that allows you to make custom key-bindings and shortcuts over your entire system or individual apps. Using it, you could make a shortcut in the terminal that emulates ctrl-a/ctrl-e whenever you press cmd-left/cmd-right, respectively. I definitely recommend it! I've been using it for years and I have over 50 shortcuts spread across several different apps.

Solution 13 - Macos

in iterm2

> fn + leftArraw or fn + rightArrow

this worked for me

Solution 14 - Macos

This worked for me Option + left-arrow or Option + right-arrow for moving the cursor to the start or end of the line.

Mac Os Version: Catalina

Solution 15 - Macos

i have the same issue on MacOS 12 (Monterey) - want to go to beginning and end of the line with fn + arrow keys. When you are trying to write '\' in that text field, it becomes '\\' (with escape). You need to paste this text (copy from some text editor, o from terminal) \001 (home) and \005 (end) in field.

Solution 16 - Macos

As per the official website of Apple

control + A - Move to the beginning of the line

control + E - move to the end of the line

terminal shortcuts by Apple's official site

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	23tux	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Macos	hygoh2k	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Macos	elad silver	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Macos	Aaron Wallentine	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Macos	Thinkhear	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Macos	Abhishek saharn	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Macos	Timmy Von Heiss	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Macos	Edwin Feliz	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Macos	Boncrete	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - Macos	Tejas Niturkar	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 10 - Macos	Thanmayi Rapolu	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 11 - Macos	Abdur Rahman	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 12 - Macos	Jacob Marshall	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 13 - Macos	Ajith	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 14 - Macos	Prakash P	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 15 - Macos	cnstntn.kndrtv	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 16 - Macos	Koushik Das	View Answer on Stackoverflow