Is there any shortcut to reference the path of the first argument in a MV command?

Question

I often find myself using mv to rename a file. E.g.

mv app/models/keywords_builder.rb app/models/keywords_generator.rb

Doing so I need to w

Answer 1

You can use history expansion like this:

mv app/modules/keywords_builder.rb !#^:h/keywords_generator.rb

1. ! introduces history expansion.
2. # refers to the command currently being typed
3. ^ means the first argument
4. :h is a modifier to get the "head", i.e. the directory without the file part

It's supported in bash and zsh.

Docs:

• bash history expansion
• zsh history expansion