how to delete all characters after cursor in shell

Hit Ctrl k. Here are some commonly used shortcuts

CTRL Key Bound

  • Ctrl + a - Jump to the start of the line
  • Ctrl + b - Move back a char
  • Ctrl + c - Terminate the command
  • Ctrl + d - Delete from under the cursor
  • Ctrl + e - Jump to the end of the line
  • Ctrl + f - Move forward a char
  • Ctrl + k - Delete to EOL
  • Ctrl + l - Clear the screen
  • Ctrl + r - Search the history backwards
  • Ctrl + R - Search the history backwards with multi occurrence
  • Ctrl + u - Delete backward from cursor
  • Ctrl + x x - Move between EOL and current cursor position
  • Ctrl + x @ - Show possible hostname completions
  • Ctrl + z - Suspend/ Stop the command

ALT Key Bound

  • Alt + < - Move to the first line in the history
  • Alt + > - Move to the last line in the history
  • Alt + ? - Show current completion list
  • Alt + * - Insert all possible completions
  • Alt + / - Attempt to complete filename
  • Alt + . - Yank last argument to previous command
  • Alt + b - Move backward
  • Alt + c - Capitalize the word
  • Alt + d - Delete word
  • Alt + f - Move forward
  • Alt + l - Make word lowercase
  • Alt + n - Search the history forwards non-incremental
  • Alt + p - Search the history backwards non-incremental
  • Alt + r - Recall command
  • Alt + t - Move words around
  • Alt + u - Make word uppercase
  • Alt + back-space - Delete backward from cursor

I know it's an old question, but if you like/work with vi editor, you can use:

$ set -o vi

That allows you treat the input as inside the vim editor (insert mode):

  • Delete to the end of line <ESC>D,
  • Edit entire command line inside a vim session <ESC>v (exiting vim executes command)
  • Search in last commands <ESC>/regexp_to_find,
  • Go to start of line <ESC>0,
  • Insert at start of line <ESC>I,
  • Change next word <ESC>cw
  • Etc.

This is one of many vim tutorials.

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Shell