Insert control characters inside a text terminal to enhance your personal notes or improve shell one-liners.
Press CTRL
+v
to insert next character into terminal.
$ bind -q quoted-insert
quoted-insert can be invoked via "\C-q", "\C-v", "\e[2~".
For example press CTRL
+v
TAB
or CTRL
+v
CTRL
+i
to insert horizontal tab (see additional notes for reference).
Other useful example is to insert a newline character using CTRL
+v
CTRL
+j
or CTRL
+v
CTRL
+l
and CTRL
+v
CTRL
+m
.
It can be also used to control text formatting.
Key presses used to write the following text:CTRL
+v
ESC
[
3
1
m
W
a
r
n
i
n
g
CTRL
+v
ESC
[
`` m
$ echo "^[[31mWarning^[[0m"
Warning
You can use these characters inside text files.
$ cat --show-all readme.txt
^[[34mReadme^[[0m$ $ "Be curious, not judgmental." Walt Whitman^MThere is a hidden message here. Can you read it?$
$ less --quit-if-one-screen readme.txt
ESC[34mReadmeESC[0m "Be curious, not judgmental." Walt Whitman^MThere is a hidden message here. Can you read it?
As you can see I have used carriage return character to overwrite part of the text.
$ cat readme.txt
Readme
There is a hidden message here. Can you read it?
Do not copy these examples, you need to use mentioned control codes.
Additional notes
Bash tips: Colors and formatting (ANSI/VT100 Control sequences)