On Fri, 27 Mar 1998, Steve Revilak wrote:

> Having worked in VMS environments, there is one VMS convention (also exists
> in DOS) regarding command line history whose Unix equivalent I'd love to
> know.
> 
> The 'up' arrow-- on VMS systems would cycle backwards through the command
> history, *without* executing the line.  (ie--as if you had re-typed the
> line without pressing <return>.  Useful for dealing with typos, etc.  I'm
> familiar with 'history' and !!, !*, and ![command-number], but these all
> re-execute the command, not allowing changes. (ie--type the command line,
> followed by <return>).
> 
> On a related note, quick question regarding terminal types--arrow keys in
> general.  I have my terminal type set to vt100, which allows the arrow keys
> to work properly in vi, but on command lines, pressing them yeilds a
> control-character combination.  Is this the norm?

You're using the wrong shell. You want to use tcsh or bash (csh and (I
think) sh replacements). They both support that history ability.

Take care,

Bill