I have been using Ctrl-L to clear the screen in BASH, but for some reason it stopped working. Now when I hit Ctrl-L, a new line is created instead of clearing the screen. May be the issue is due to my recent update of BASH (from version 3.1 to version 4.3, to fix the Shellshock vulnerability). But you know what, I find it really difficult to work in a clumsy shell, so I need to get back Ctrl-L to clear the screen. I just googled around and found the below solution.
Ctrl-L should be bound to clear the screen and it can be achieved using ‘bind‘ command in Linux. Check if Ctrl-L is bound to clear the screen using the below command.
$ bind -P
The above command will display all the keys that bound with various functionalities. The sample output is below:
abort can be found on "\C-g", "\C-x\C-g", "\e\C-g".
accept-line can be found on "\C-j", "\C-m".
alias-expand-line is not bound to any keys
arrow-key-prefix is not bound to any keys
backward-byte is not bound to any keys
backward-char can be found on "\C-b", "\eOD", "\e[D".
backward-delete-char can be found on "\C-h", "\C-?".
backward-kill-line can be found on "\C-x\C-?".
backward-kill-word can be found on "\e\C-h", "\e\C-?".
backward-word can be found on "\e[1;5D", "\e[5D", "\eb".
beginning-of-history can be found on "\e<", "\e[5~".
beginning-of-line can be found on "\C-a", "\eOH", "\e[1~", "\e[H".
call-last-kbd-macro can be found on "\C-xe".
capitalize-word can be found on "\ec".
character-search can be found on "\C-]".
character-search-backward can be found on "\e\C-]".
clear-screen can be found on "\C-l".
complete can be found on "\C-i", "\e\e".
complete-command can be found on "\e!".
complete-filename can be found on "\e/".
complete-hostname can be found on "\e@".
complete-into-braces can be found on "\e{".
complete-username can be found on "\e~".
complete-variable can be found on "\e$".
copy-backward-word is not bound to any keys
copy-forward-word is not bound to any keys
copy-region-as-kill is not bound to any keys
dabbrev-expand is not bound to any keys
delete-char can be found on "\C-d", "\e[3~".
delete-char-or-list is not bound to any keys
delete-horizontal-space can be found on "\e\\".
digit-argument can be found on "\e-", "\e0", "\e1", "\e2", "\e3", ...
display-shell-version can be found on "\C-x\C-v".
do-lowercase-version can be found on "\C-xA", "\C-xB", "\C-xC", "\C-xD", "\C-xE", ..
downcase-word can be found on "\el".
dump-functions is not bound to any keys
dump-macros is not bound to any keys
dump-variables is not bound to any keys
dynamic-complete-history can be found on "\e\C-i".
edit-and-execute-command can be found on "\C-x\C-e".
emacs-editing-mode is not bound to any keys
end-kbd-macro can be found on "\C-x)".
end-of-history can be found on "\e>", "\e[6~".
end-of-line can be found on "\C-e", "\eOF", "\e[4~", "\e[8~", "\e[F".
exchange-point-and-mark can be found on "\C-x\C-x".
forward-backward-delete-char is not bound to any keys
forward-byte is not bound to any keys
forward-char can be found on "\C-f", "\eOC", "\e[C".
forward-search-history can be found on "\C-s".
forward-word can be found on "\e[1;5C", "\e[5C", "\ef".
glob-complete-word can be found on "\eg".
glob-expand-word can be found on "\C-x*".
glob-list-expansions can be found on "\C-xg".
history-and-alias-expand-line is not bound to any keys
history-expand-line can be found on "\e^".
history-search-backward is not bound to any keys
history-search-forward is not bound to any keys
history-substring-search-backward is not bound to any keys
history-substring-search-forward is not bound to any keys
insert-comment can be found on "\e#".
insert-completions can be found on "\e*".
insert-last-argument can be found on "\e.", "\e_".
kill-line can be found on "\C-k".
kill-region is not bound to any keys
kill-whole-line is not bound to any keys
kill-word can be found on "\ed".
magic-space is not bound to any keys
menu-complete is not bound to any keys
menu-complete-backward is not bound to any keys
next-history can be found on "\C-n", "\eOB", "\e[B".
non-incremental-forward-search-history can be found on "\en".
non-incremental-forward-search-history-again is not bound to any keys
non-incremental-reverse-search-history can be found on "\ep".
non-incremental-reverse-search-history-again is not bound to any keys
old-menu-complete is not bound to any keys
operate-and-get-next can be found on "\C-o".
overwrite-mode is not bound to any keys
possible-command-completions can be found on "\C-x!".
possible-completions can be found on "\e=", "\e?".
possible-filename-completions can be found on "\C-x/".
possible-hostname-completions can be found on "\C-x@".
possible-username-completions can be found on "\C-x~".
possible-variable-completions can be found on "\C-x$".
previous-history can be found on "\C-p", "\eOA", "\e[A".
print-last-kbd-macro is not bound to any keys
quoted-insert can be found on "\C-q", "\C-v", "\e[2~".
redraw-current-line is not bound to any keys
re-read-init-file can be found on "\C-x\C-r".
reverse-search-history can be found on "\C-r".
revert-line can be found on "\e\C-r", "\er".
self-insert can be found on " ", "!", "\"", "#", "$", ...
set-mark can be found on "\C-@", "\e ".
shell-backward-kill-word is not bound to any keys
shell-backward-word is not bound to any keys
shell-expand-line can be found on "\e\C-e".
shell-forward-word is not bound to any keys
shell-kill-word is not bound to any keys
skip-csi-sequence is not bound to any keys
start-kbd-macro can be found on "\C-x(".
tab-insert is not bound to any keys
tilde-expand can be found on "\e&".
transpose-chars can be found on "\C-t".
transpose-words can be found on "\et".
tty-status is not bound to any keys
undo can be found on "\C-x\C-u", "\C-_".
universal-argument is not bound to any keys
unix-filename-rubout is not bound to any keys
unix-line-discard can be found on "\C-u".
unix-word-rubout can be found on "\C-w".
upcase-word can be found on "\eu".
vi-append-eol is not bound to any keys
vi-append-mode is not bound to any keys
vi-arg-digit is not bound to any keys
vi-back-to-indent is not bound to any keys
vi-backward-bigword is not bound to any keys
vi-backward-word is not bound to any keys
vi-bword is not bound to any keys
vi-bWord is not bound to any keys
vi-change-case is not bound to any keys
vi-change-char is not bound to any keys
vi-change-to is not bound to any keys
vi-char-search is not bound to any keys
vi-column is not bound to any keys
vi-complete is not bound to any keys
vi-delete is not bound to any keys
vi-delete-to is not bound to any keys
vi-editing-mode is not bound to any keys
vi-end-bigword is not bound to any keys
vi-end-word is not bound to any keys
vi-eof-maybe is not bound to any keys
vi-eword is not bound to any keys
vi-eWord is not bound to any keys
vi-fetch-history is not bound to any keys
vi-first-print is not bound to any keys
vi-forward-bigword is not bound to any keys
vi-forward-word is not bound to any keys
vi-fword is not bound to any keys
vi-fWord is not bound to any keys
vi-goto-mark is not bound to any keys
vi-insert-beg is not bound to any keys
vi-insertion-mode is not bound to any keys
vi-match is not bound to any keys
vi-movement-mode is not bound to any keys
vi-next-word is not bound to any keys
vi-overstrike is not bound to any keys
vi-overstrike-delete is not bound to any keys
vi-prev-word is not bound to any keys
vi-put is not bound to any keys
vi-redo is not bound to any keys
vi-replace is not bound to any keys
vi-rubout is not bound to any keys
vi-search is not bound to any keys
vi-search-again is not bound to any keys
vi-set-mark is not bound to any keys
vi-subst is not bound to any keys
vi-tilde-expand is not bound to any keys
vi-yank-arg is not bound to any keys
vi-yank-to is not bound to any keys
yank can be found on "\C-y".
yank-last-arg can be found on "\e.", "\e_".
yank-nth-arg can be found on "\e\C-y".
yank-pop can be found on "\ey".Well, our aim is to check bound key for clear-screen isn’t? So just grep the output of “bind -p”
$ bind -P | grep clear clear-screen is not bound to any keys
The above output clearly says that there are no keys bound to clear the screen. So let’s create one using the below command.
$ bind -x '"\C-l": clear;'
Note: Lookout for the syntax. We have double quoted “\C-l“ and single quoted ‘“\C-l”: clear;‘
After executing the above command, hit Ctrl-L to see the blank screen.
Bound keys globally
Wait, you just executed the bind command in shell and it stays alive until you exit. To make it available for every new session, you need to add a line in /etc/inputrc
$ vi /etc/inputrc
Add below line at the end of the file.
"\C-l": clear-screen
That’s it. Now hitting Ctrl-L will clear the screen and it will work for every new session.
What if you want Ctrl-L to do more than just clear? Say list files.
bind -x '"\C-l": clear; ls'
After the above command is executed, hitting Ctrl-L will clear the screen and list files in the current directory.
Checkout ‘man bind‘ for more information.
this made my day